After leaving Dorchester (The better part of Boston) Massachusetts to join the Navy in October 1964 my first month in the service we celebrated Thanksgiving Day on base in Boot Camp in San Diego CA. I’ll admit it was good, but not near my grandmother’s cooking but good just the same. For the rest of my life I had industrial Thanksgiving meals prepared by The Navy, Restaurants or on board Merchant Marine ships. After moving to the Philippines I found that my family held no close bond to the Thanksgiving Holiday, because I was usually at sea when it rolled along.
The fact was the family did enjoy the turkey and fixings as much as me so after I retired we would go to Tom Dryden’s Hotel Restaurant in the Barrio every year for our Thanksgiving Meal. Tom has since retired and sold out but Texas Joe’s and Sit-N-Bull’s have taken over the tradition. Both providing a wonderful meal, The big decision this year is which one do we attend as reservations are required at both places?
Out of the clear blue of the western sky Mrs. Thompson decides we should cook a turkey at home this year and have our family sit around our dining room table for the first time on this the most American of American holidays. Damn that TV!!!
I had no idea that Mayang knew how to cook a turkey, and boy was I surprised when I found out I was the one to be the one to cook the turkey. Why on our mountain would she assume that I’ve ever cooked a turkey, didn’t she read the beginning to this article explaining how Thanksgiving’s went in my life? I guess not, but the interwebby thingy has vast information on the subject and the Butterball Turkey label states that it is easy, yes easy for Martha Stewart or Betty Crocker but my name is Paul. I did like the U-Tube about the guy trying to deep fry his turkey and sending flames 25 feet into the air.
Off to the store where I found Stove Top turkey Stuffing, not a word, don’t even comment on this section. But I will add my home made sausage to it to make it my own. Mashed potatoes, hey I’m Irish, this I can do and the little red russets are in stock, Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce in the can fresh shipped from New Jersey. Which I never knew that New Jersey grew them as I spent my summers on Cape Cod which was teeming with Cranberry bogs and as a kid I’d help harvest them in the fall. Add in some Turkey gravy, Green beans and frozen Byrd’s Eye corn on the cob, and a frozen apple pie. I never liked pumpkin or minced. That is my menu and I’m sticking with it. The rice cooker will be sitting there with the perpetual little red light on for those who want it. But it was very nice to have the Family gathered for a meal, and not one electronic device was at the table, I’m old school that way.
I am still wondering why we are not going to one of the two places that is already cooking the complete meal, and will do the clean-up afterwards. I’m still scratching my head with great vigor. No answer has been provided; Mayang’s (My wife) mind is made up, and I’m stuck with the cooking. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Al Gore for inventing this Internet thing,
I will make it through this ordeal as those British Pilgrims also did in 1621.Here is a little known fact; The pilgrims on the Mayflower were originally on their way to settle in Virginia, but ran out of beer and dropped the hook (Anchor) in Plymouth Massachusetts. Skeptics, feel free to Google that.
But to those readers, who do celebrate this holiday, remember to invite your neighbors, feed them well, and don’t forget to steal their land when you are done.
Here’s wishing you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving Day last week, and I’m also hoping you didn’t have to cook the meal.
An interesting note on why the pilgrims did not go to Virginia but rather Massachusetts instead, Paul. As a Seasoned sailor myself I know as well as you, the old adage of”Any port in a storm”. When the beer kegs are empty you can bet there is a storm brewing and the nearest place to drop anchor and get ashore must have been on the captains priority list. History also details that Boston had a tea party and the locals dumped all of the tea into the bay. But I don’t think the reason they did is really Historically correct. I don’t believe it had anything at all to do with the King’s taxation of the tea. More likely the Irish in Boston needed more storage space for their beer! hey, who needs tea when you got Beer? anyway I am sure your turkey came out well and the Menu you had in place was just what I would have had but I would have also included a pumpkin pie!
Joe;
I can’t stand pumpkin pie and I have no idea if any member of my family ever ate it here, now apple pie they all like. The Irish were not really that many in Boston at that time we all came 100 years later during the “Great Potato Famine” Which I never understood as they lived on an Island and could have eaten fish..
But the day turned out well, and then Sunday we all went out again for breakfast at Vasco’s on the Bay, sitting on the water with a refreshing breeze blowing in and great food.
Life here is good!
Good luck with that Paul, though it’s not really that hard *if* you can find the various needed items.
Then there’s the issue of the turkey itself. I did purchase several at 700pesos each and tried raising them in the backyard last year, but they were just way to thin for my purposes. Enjoyable pet birds to have around, if you don’t mind turkey-poopoo everywhere, they adamantly only dropped their offerings on our cemented transit and sitting areas. They quickly devoured my garden veggies, but fertilize it, noooo1 As they were about to acquire names, my in-laws converted them all into an ‘adobo’ meal, which wasn’t exactly my original intention. However, surprise, I saw imported turkeys at the new Guisano the other day. No prices on the stickers, which typically indicates that if you need to ask then you can’t afford it. Ok fine, I can spend the rent money on a frozen turkey, but … what do I roast it *in*?
I did manage to purchase a nice little chicken-sized covered enamel roasting pan a few years ago back in Cavite before we moved way south, but no way can I fit a *turkey* into it. There’s absolutely no such thing in *any* store around here (I repeatedly checked every last possibility). That’s my show-stopper and I’m not keen on risking the significant cost of a turkey et al to a “caldero” that won’t fit into my oven. Would be very problematic trying to slow-roast a turkey outside.
Paul, what are *you* roasting your turkey in?
Ed;
In a disposable turkey roasting pan I picked up at the Royal store, and cooked it in our oven in our stateside sized stove. It was a Butter Ball Turkey available in most stores in our neck of the woods. I picked this area f Luzon to live as it provides what I want and need to live a comfortable life. The only part of country living I like is the cheap eggs. (lol)
Thanks Paul, however no such thing as a ‘royal” store hereabouts or anywhere else they have disposable turkey-sized roasting pans – I looked long before this thread came up here.
I do imagine I might locate some in Davao, or better yet maybe even a proper permanent roasting pan with lid. If anyone knows where in Davao, please *do* tell !
OK not a comment about the Stove Top, oh gosh this is tough, oh darn, oh gosh, nope not gonna say it.
Tony;
Than I thank you for that! (lol)
Read a story a few years back about cooking a turkey in oil. It seems a crew that was building a house was nearing the end of the job and it was a tradition to roast a turkey and have a few brews on the final build day. They decided to have this celebration in the garage since it was cold and raining outside. Maybe they had too many brews prior to cooking the turkey because they put too much oil in the cook pot. When they dropped in the bird, the oil overflowed, and caught fire from the burner. The entire new house was destroyed before the fire truck could get there. Maybe the moral of the story is “Friends don’t let friends drink and cook turkey in hot oil?”
Mike;
I’s say deep fried Turkey is really not the way to go, It must have taken a brain trust to cook the turkey in the garage. But I do wish they had the video on U-tube. Inquiring minds…
Paul,
I know it’s not fun cooking Thanksgiving Dinner, but it sure is fun eating it. We just cooked turkey burgers on the grill with potato salad and macaroni and cheese and finish it with pumpkin pie as Anne does like it. We have no oven at this time so thats the closest thing to a whole turkey lol. I miss the turkey dinner, so i would have been more than willing to do the cooking.
Randy;
Turkey Burgers I never heard of them, I guess my question is; “Why would someone even make them?” (lol) You can have a Bubba Burger on the 13, that should make up for last Thursday. (Again LOL)
You shared your sausage recipe awhile back I use it and I love it…SO>>here’s a stuffing recipe for here;
Buy the hard butter bread sticks I think they call them Bisuto or something like that,,,Break them up in a larger bowl…Add what you like of Parmesian cheese to it…Then cut up and wilt in Olive Oil Xtra Virgin…some Tomatoes…celery …. onions and Garlic….add to this McCormicks…Italian seasoning chili pepper…oregano (little)….Basil….a touch of sugar 1 teaspoon….add to bread crumbs…Then take 2 cubes of Knors Beef cubes and 3 cups of water in same pan and dissolve and pour most of it into bread crumbs I like mine on the wetter side you can taste and tell…I then package it in tin foil and use it with my meals as desired…You can also add some of your sausage to it cook it first then add the onions garlic etc
Lenny;
I got the sausage recipe off the internet years ago as I was desperate for stateside sausage, it has served me well for many a tear. I just did a cut and paste of yours to my recipe file. Thanks for that.
Oh ho! I am one of the most fortunate of men! My goodwyfe is a gourmet cook and doesn’t hesitate to banish me from the kitchen. That is until there’s something heavy to be lifted or something to be hauled out. Our last holiday in country, (it was Christmas rather than Thanksgiving, but the menu is often similar) She substituted ube pie for pumpkin. It was a big hit.
Now there has to be more to the story. You mentioned your menu, and that everyone gathered ’round the table sans electronic gadgets. But no word of how the culinary experiment turned out?????
Take care,
Pete
Notice that I did not mention Stove Top Stuffing?
Pete;
They seemed to like it and especially our grandson, but by all that’s holy I will be at a restaurant next Thanksgiving, that’s been my 50 tradition and I’ll stick with it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family Paul. I used your ” Plan A ” and had my thanksgiving Dinner at a local Diner I have frequented for many years. They have a special Thanksgiving Dinner for the holiday. No fuss, No muss, leave the cooking and clean up to them. Pumpkin Pie is my favorite but Apple is a good substitute.
Bob (NY);
I would have gladly gone with you instead of cooking, I didn’t clean anything. As I said to Pete above that was my first and last time. But it was good.
Well Paul, I enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving at my son’s home with my grand kids and their Girl Friends. I must admit that I am inclined to view Thanksgivings as a date when it is traditional and acceptable to find a turkey, cut it head and feet off, rip all its feathers and innards out and then shove a loaf of highly seasoned bread up its rear end and cooking it until it is mostly dry… Cynical, yes, but in 2014, sadly Thanksgiving has morphed itself into a ritual where most Americans stuff their face with a cooked bird they will not eat at any other time, and then settle back to decide how deep they will go into debt “shopping” on the following Black Friday. Some folks like myself have discovered that this mandatory shopping binge can be accomplished on-line, thanks to places like Amazon-Prime, thereby avoiding the possibility of getting trampled trying to get that perceived bargain at the Mall. BTW, Amazon even manages to deliver packages on Sunday in my neighborhood by using the US Postal Service.
Interesting set of comments Richard. “Shopping”, other than for prescriptions and some minimally basic food for the family and household, was furthest from my mind.
Ok, you got me to look up exactly what day the US Thanksgiving falls on. It’s different in other countries, depending on climate, so the US date wasn’t exactly intuitive to me. The US date found me between the way-overdue birth of our 5th baby and dealing with the birthing “complications” my wife unexpectedly had this time around. I see it fell the day before I was able to make bail with a promissory note for the large excess in the hospital billing. (Phil Health doesn’t cover much towards unavoidable cesarian nor thereafter, so that rather blew my cash and credit-limits away before even sneezing.). Hopefully I can earn enough to pay that off by the Christmas due date while still keeping the electricity on and stalling the landlord, all at the worst possible time of the year when income will drop to almost zero for a solid month. Maybe I buy a turkey a few months after recovering from all that. To me, _that_ would be “thanksgiving”.
Ed, Sorry for not clarifying the date of thanksgiving… It varies: It is always the last
Thursday of November for Americans. And yes, Paul, I enjoyed this year’s Thanksgiving since it involved quality time with Family and since they live 52 miles away, I do not see them a lot. Weather here in Central Florida was perfect but a lot of folks further north has to deal with a lot of snow and cold.
Actually, Thanksgiving is not the last Thursday of November. By law, Thanksgiving in the USA is always the 4th Thursday in November. The 4th Thursday is usually the last Thursday, but sometimes there are 5 Thursdays in November, in which case the last Thursday is not Thanksgiving! 🙂
Bob;
You sure cleared that up for me! (lol) Now if they could just do away with that ridicules “Black Friday” the world would be a kinder place.
“Black Friday”, aha! Now I got my calendar stright!
Black Friday is the day you bail your wife and latest baby out of the hospital with a promissory note to be paid in lieu of dinner come Christmas. Indeed. Makes perfect sense now.
ED;
If your wife and new baby are home and both are healthy, the rest really doesn’t matter does it. There is always the positive side to all situations, just look for it and it will appear.
Paul, I’m inclined to agree with you, but the “rest” absolutely *does* matter. Little details like food, baby milk (to supplement the newborn, and the 1 and 2 year-olds), medicine for the wife, medical checkups (one today, another tomorrow, which surely will NOT be “libre”), the rent, the water, the electricity and DSL so that i can work to pay for all, and it goes on and on. Not to mention the LARGE promissory note to the hospital and a lot of earlier obligations my wife incurred that are coming or overdue. Meanwhile, there’s the weekly needed sack of rice for the household, and surprise that people want to eat more than just rice rice rice. My wife wasn’t particularly happy last night when when she wanted a pizza with the money I spent for her prescriptions. Critical medicine for her but no special pizza *right*now*. Mea Culpa!
Of course I’m happy our newborn seems to be fine and that my wife seems to be slowly recovering and that I must look to the ostensible ‘bright side’ but reality requires constant attention hour-by-hour day-by-day. If I don’t, who will? The “rest” very much DOES matter and any lesser perception would quickly be fatally delusional for everyone relying on me to do all necessary as best possible.
Ed;
If one is standing in a deep hole and a shovel is in their hand, why would they wonder how they got there? There should come a time when they should stop digging and find away to climb out.
“Myself”, and only myself would go back home (To my country) work my ass off until I could fix the problems in my life, because if I just moan about it nothing will get better. Please remember I am talking about “ME” and me alone, we all must find our own solutions to the problems that are put before us. But believe me “I” would find away. But that’s just me.
Paul, comments appreciated, and that’s exactly what I am doing. Geographic location doesn’t change legalities or customers as of the effective commercial advent of the Internet (plus the decade prior and during transition). I can do everything just the same from here, less the additional $100k absolute loss it would cost me to go back _there_ for absolutely no good reason.
Abandoning my wife and young kids is in no way an option. bury me first here.
That will surely happen anyway, but I need until I’m at least 85 to put the kids through college, and _then_ “retirement” can be considered’.
Paul, following my immediately prior reply, my 2-year-old at 7:45 am came to sit on my lap. The others are respectively still sleeping or outside in our compound. Newborn baby is of course with Mommy and Mommy is still recovering from her surgery.
Another “interruption”, 8 am, my wife handed our newborn to me for a few minutes. Wonderful baby, so happy to have him, even if unexpected, even with all the difficulties in getting him born and so very much alive. He’s surely happy to have me hold him and talk to him as we look at each other. He’s ‘officially’ born a week ago now, though he’s already a month old, there was just no way out of the womb short of surgery on Mommy. The marks on his head from him futility trying so hard and so long to be born are still slowly fading.
I first held him shortly after he was extricated by complicated cesarian as they transferred my wife to the ICU, long before my wife could hold him. He opened his eyes right then and there and that was it. He’s my son, 5th child with Mommy, and we instantly both *knew* that. Never underestimate your newborn son. I wasn’t running away before and sure as bejeebers there’s absolutely no way I’m going anywhere away from my family now.
Will I run away from my family? No.
Would I blow away any chance of catching up on all that’s befallen us by running away to the other side of the planet to no benefit? No!
My place is here in the Philippines with my wife and kids and as you put it I “work my ass off” – from here.
You may mean well, but to suggest throwing away unaffordable mega-money to be somewhere else especially at this crucial time, for absolutely no benefit when I need to be right here while (yes) working “back there” (night and day with naps as may be possible) through the Internet? I’ll stay right here with my family and do what needs doing as best I can, absolutely knowing they certainly couldn’t find any better.
If in the meantime my wife magically gets her mega-harvests and returns my 20 million pesos then there will be no more worries. Otherwise I’m not going anywhere I can’t be home from within 5 minutes, 15 minutes if I must walk. Only exception being annual BI reporting requirement in Davao next month with maybe a one hour micro-budget annual stop at SM there for stuff absolutely unavailable here, then on to the SM terminal to wait 2 hours for the van to actually move. Sure bet I won’t be bringing home any real cheese or sausage from SM Davao let alone anywhere else there this Jan. Maybe I can delay the mandatory Davao BI trip until Feb when income marginally starts to happen again. We do have until the end of Feb to report at BI.
Then again, maybe I can manage to make yet more miracles happen between now and then. Certainly I’ll continue to try – from HERE with my family.
ED;
Please read what I wrote one more time I said it twice I, me or myself not you or anyone else. I still hold my merchant marine licenses, and (One more time) if “I” found myself in a bind I would go there and make enough money to fix any situation here that came up. You may without any ones permission live anyway you desire. But I have a different drummer I march to.
For sure, Paul! Thankfully we don’t have Black Friday here in the Philippines. Another reason why it’s more fun in the Philippines!
Bob;
The more I read the comments I really am starting to believe there is a black Friday in the Philippines.
Thanks Bob, I learned something again today through your and Richard’s postings.
Now I further understand why the official Canadian “Thanksgiving Holiday” is the second Monday of October, to avoid all that confusion south of the border. Here all along I thought it was just because anything you didn’t harvest by then is compost for next year’s crop. Not counting cabbages which of course you can scrape out of the snow from under the ice almost into January barring a series of way sub-zero frosts.
Meanwhile, in the here-and-now reality, our effective “Thanksgiving” is whenever we have more to be thankful for than the immediate disasters keep us from realizing. Someday hopefully soon I can even roast my first turkey after 14 years in the Philippines. I’ll need to put it all together here at home even if I have to roast it in ‘saging’ leaves in a caldero high about some uling with constant attention (hey, that might just work! “Browning” it might be difficult though.) I’ll find a way someday, since there’s absolutely nowhere around here you can go out to for a ‘traditional’ turkey dinner for love nor money, dream on.
I’m hoping to catch up on the most recent disasters and pray no more for a while so that perhaps we can have “Thanksgiving” come Easter, though I don’t expect there to be any imported frozen turkeys hereabouts by then. Sill, it’s the thought that counts, and most importantly that our family is alive and together.
“Thanksgiving” can’t be just some set date based on historical and geographic harvests that have zero relation to reality here and now today, when least possible for an ostentatious (though missed) meal which normal Filipinos have no conception of. Perhaps when the “harvest” finally comes in *here* with some small “profit”, if that ever happens – THEN it will be time for “Thanksgiving” in reality. if we can keep everything and family together, alive, and healthy and still have a nice home to celebrate it in.
My Bad, Bob. I looked that “Black Friday Thang” in the wrong database (i.e., back of my mind!) Any way, thanks for Al Gore’s Internet, I even learned a couple if thing I would have lost a bet on: namely that the 22nd is the earliest Thanksgiving can be observed on and, yes, it is officially the 4th Thursday, not the last Thursday of November. For the record, President Roosevelt changed the holiday from last-Thursday to 4th-Thursday during his administration.
Darn, got that last sentence (above) wrong too… Roosevelt was trying to set Thanksgiving to the 3rd Thursday so everyone could have a longer Christmas Season!!! Congress straightened things out and made Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday officially.
Not a problem, Rich! 🙂
Richard;
I’m so old I remember when they changed Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November, my parents wedding anniversary was on the Original date. I’ve lived in Central Florida (Orlando before the Mouse Factory) and loved it; as you were never more than forty miles from a beach either on the left or right coast. I’ve also lived in Largo, Clearwater, Atlantic Beach Titusville and Coco Beach and other locations. I liked Florida, but then I am from Boston.
I’m pleased to hear that you had a good thanks giving and I hope that Christmas is even better. Palm trees look good with Christmas lights.
Richard;
So now I’m trying to figure if you had a good Thanksgiving or not? Lets hope it was good. As for the shopping I honest to God thought the footage on CNN of the “Black Friday” shopping mess was a continuation of the Ferguson riots. But both were Christmas shopping started a bit early.
I wish you a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Yes, Paul, I had an excellent Thanksgiving … my stool softener is working just fine and everything is temporarily OK with the universe.
Bubba Burger, Onion rings, French Fries, SMBs, = great living.
Loren;
Hmmmmm Bubba burgers and SMB’s
A very fine “Homer Simpson” immation. :o)
Mike;
We strive for perfection on LiP. (LOL)
Paul could you please reply to this post, I am unsure if my messages are getting through
Chris;
I was going to joke around and tell you I didn’t receive it, but Whoops there it is! All seems to be fine in the land of LiP.
Paul –
Now, let me joke around to kick off the many rounds of joking around I anticipate we’ re going to be having at Texas Joe’s in a few more days with Randy and Anne. How come, Paul, that after many years of living in the Philippines, you are still using the fork in your right hand to eat with? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Turkey tastes better eaten with a fork in the right hand, rather than with a spoon as most Pinoys are wont to do, right? 🙂
John;
Looking forward to it
Chop sticks spoons or fingers, to each their own. I been too many places on earth to judge another, but I’ll stick with my folk, unless it’s a Bubba Burger. (lol).
Psul wrote “but I’ll stick with my folk, unless it’s a Bubba Burger”
Yes, I’ll stick with my “folk” too. 🙂 Have obligations, and too old to start all over, again. I even use a fork in front of my folk. I know how to ask for a “tinador” and even a “cutsilyo”, but honestly I still don’t know the Tagalog word for ‘spoon’, I’ll have to look up that latter some day when excruciatingly bored.
If I’m making my version of whatever a “Bubba Burger” is, then I know to first make what they actually prefer to eat, for them, and then it’s time for my burger. Guaranteed I’ve never eaten a burger with a spoon, though one time in the early 80’s I did have a “double whopper (TM)” dissected at a BK drive-through, to make it easier to eat without losing any of my double-pickles while plowing through one-meter snow drifts over sheet-ice in a white-out at night. Schedule met, got paid, still alive; burger was great breakfast-lunch-supper. Decades later, people here have no concept, zero point-of-reference on any of such.
Which reminds me, add to my “can’t get this here gripe-list” – Polish Ogorky or anything remotely resembling proper sour dill or garlic pickles. Everyone here is obsessed substituting mega-sugar in everything that should have zero sugar content.
ED;
Spelling police are not welcome in my world (LOL), I could nip-pick most comments to death for spelling or grammar, but I fell that is rude as most are caused by a typo, poor editing or just fat fingers
As for pickles I buy the North American brands and they are good.
A Bubba Burger is a huge pure imported beef burger served with all the trimmings and Ranch Dressing smeared on top for good measure..
ED;
See I wrote fell instead of feel, that was poor editing on my part.
Maybe you did Paul, but if you did I missed it since it didn’t provide any trigger for contextual comments about the here and now. Please don’t take this wrong either.
Paul, you provided an opportunity for a bit of humor, then leading me into a few more situational comments. You’re welcome to do the same anytime you notice that I really need to replace my keyboard and/or that I should be groping for a nap instead of still being at my ailing keyboard. No intent to “police” on my part, and I surely would accept and chuckle as intended if the situation were reversed.
Life is way to serious already, I’m trying to lighten up just a little bit.
As for imported pickles and bubba burgers, I’d greatly prefer to be able to buy some instead of noting that impossibility. I haven’t seen imported pickles since moving to Mindanao from Cavite, and I presume that a “bubba burger” is something you whip up at home *if* you can find imported beef. I manage to produce a reasonable substitute using local beef hereabouts, in fact that was my dinner tonight. 🙂 No matter how hungry, i can only eat one of these and if the kids are awake I’m more than happy to share bites.
I really *do* miss the good pickles. None for love nor money around here.
ED;
A Bubba Burger is sold at Texas Joe’s Rib House in Subic Freeport, but imported beef is very available in the Olongapo area, along with so many other Australian North American and European products. Because of the very high percentage of Kano’s scatted around here and Angeles City we pretty much eat what we want.
We even have hot dogs with no red dye number five in them. (lol) Last month I picked up a Virginia Cured Smoked ham at the S&R store.
As I always say, camping is a hotel with no room service. (Now that’s funny!!!)
Paul, our family situations are so radically different. Whereas you are in an area where a ‘Kano or a ‘Canuck could easily get everything accustomed, my current family obligations and needs are almost the opposite, so all I can do is sacrifice for them and grumble somewhat so that others considering the same will know the tradeoffs before they do the same.
Hotdogs and various processed meats without offensive red dye, no problem, several varieties hereabouts now, just buy when they stock or wait interminably for whatever they get in next that might be edible. Good ham, bacon, no problem as of about a year ago, various varieties now and some very good new ones at excellent prices.
Beyond that it gets increasingly problematic. I know where to find just about anything I want in Manila/LasPinas/Cavite, but in the boondocks of Mindanao? Not much incentive for them to stock for us since my Kano friend sadly passed away overseas 4 months ago on his way home to around the corner from my house and now there’s just one of us hereabouts (me).
Can I buy “liquid smoke” for home-made summer-sausage, etc? Yes. In Las Pinas, a few days and planeflights required. Good I bought a supply before moving. Unrelated, yesterday I was lucky enough to locally score a container of powdered sage at a ridiculous high price so _now_ I can proceed with my sausage project. Surely there must be some growing wild for the picking!
Speaking of growing/going wild, hint, avoid buying an old steer (yes literally for beef) for 20k pesos. If you thought you would get a wonderful 50kilo roast haunch of beef out of it to feed you, family and 3 Baranguays, it’s not going to happen. It will totally pissed off by the time it’s done walking all the way to where it will die, kick your wife (yes!), and you won’t even get a bubba-burger for your 20,000 as people just scarf away chunks of meat and boil up what’s left into something … well, something.
That commented, I do plan on buying a couple of young caribaw once budget permits, and then if we have a lot of them years later, some feast when I retire come maybe 90.
Hi Ed – I live only an hour and a half from you, and I can get any of the things you mention on any day that I wish to go buy it. Liquid Smoke? No problem. Hot Dogs, meats of any kind I wish, it’s all there. No plane rides would be needed to get any of the stuff you mention, just a quick bus ride to Davao once a month or even less. Sage? You could buy a truck load of it at any supermarket in Davao City. The price is not high.
ED;
We each choose where we live as to how it suits our life. I live in a very country area of Bataan, but only 15 minutes from the city by car on the toll road. For me it’s the best of both worlds, quiet when I want it, and action when I need it. Plus being up on a mountain the temperature is ten degrees cooler than the city, and without the crowds and the noise.
Yes Paul, you somewhat summed it up well, except that one’s overall life-choices tend to influence all the rest.
Without excessive details, I left all I had, to be with my (now) wife and our (now) 5 kids and to be sensibly close to her parents and “kapatid” and our (her) “areas” (plantations). With normal consideration of surroundings, Kidapawan is actually a nice place to live and raise a crop of young kids and tons of bananas within commuting distance (as the “highway” up there is being built). 3 years here, 3 new babies, many Pinoy friends at all levels. There are NO foreigners hereabouts since my American friend died. We’re part of the community, and generally new people here don’t even consider me a “foreigner” after any initial 1 minute meeting though I automatically speak Tagalog and not Bisayan and can explain that in Tagalog long before the first minute elapses.
Yes there’s a lot of ‘convenience’ and ‘availability’ I gave up for this, but that’s life. Forgive me for pointing that out for the benefit of anyone else contemplating similar. That noted, just as where I was in Cavite developed from the middle of nowhere to the hub of everywhere in the decade I was there, I see exactly the same happening here starting yesterday. My own resources are committed, but anyone with a chunk of cash should come cash in while the going is good on the cheap, and then later we can all share some real salami come 2025 or (gasp!) call for McDo delivery, it’s only a matter of time.
Ed –
Spoon = kutsara (cuchara)
John;
They can also be used as musical instruments in certain parts of the world.
Holding the tinidor with your left hand, you push the food onto the kutsara held by your right hand, then transit the kutsara filled with food into your waiting mouth. Kutsilyo is optional, hardly ever seen on many Pinoy dining tables as a part of a table setting.
I also use a spoon when I’m having a double whopper at Burger King, to pick up onions, tomato, and lettuce that falls off when I bite into the larger-than-your-mouth sandwich.
John, you wrote; “I also use a spoon when I’m having a double whopper at Burger King, to pick up onions, tomato, and lettuce that falls off when I bite into the larger-than-your-mouth sandwich.” …
… which is all fine and good,but you missed telling us how you grabbed a double-whopper at drive-through and ate it (with your spoon) while driving 100km/hr through the next 35km of 3 meter snowdrifts over sheet ice in ‘white-out’ conditions in the middle of the night, _and_ met your schedule, alive. It was damn hard between Brantford and Woodstock *without* playing with a spoon, but I was ok having had dinner on the road. It got way worse after passing Woodstock and I made it through all the too. Burgers and spoons and road-conditions just don’t mix, maybe you tried but I’d suggest that’s too much pushing ones luck.
Under those realistic conditions, spoon, really? You’ve actually done and survived *that* with a spoon?
Not while driving, Ed. Around here you can get a ticket for driving while distracted, as in texting and maybe eating a double whopper with a spoon as well. LOL
Thanks John. Now that you completed the connection for me, yes I’ve heard “kutsara” so many times way fast in passing.
In context of the thread, I’m still inclined to concur with Paul’s comment about generally preferring a fork for purposes intended. 🙂 If I magically had roast turkey in front of me, I’d prefer a knife and fork, and I learned how to scoop up gravy with those and without a spoon sometime around kindergarten.
Ed –
You just jogged my memory with your comment about the use of fork for “purposes intended”. In the West, yes. Pinoys, however, are not used to using the fork as the primary utensil for placing food into the mouth.
There was an incident in Canada, yes, your Canada LOL that made the rounds in the internet a few years ago. The story was about a Canadian teacher reprimanding Filipino students who were eating in the school cafeteria using spoons, instead of forks.. If I remember correctly, the teacher was reported to have said the Filipinos were “uncivilized”. LOL The incident caused a big stir among Filipinos world-wide, the Philippine Congress declared the teacher “persona non grata” and banned from entering the Philippines (joke only), but you get the point.
My personal impression was that, the teacher must have been stuck in time, way back to the late 1890s, in Mark Twain’s time to give you a perspective, when most Americans in their quest for their manifest destiny for the first time heard about a country called the Philippines They rushed to the nearest world atlas and, finding the Philippines on the world map, concluded that Filipinos lived on trees.
John, I hadn’t heard of that historical event, but then again my father’s ancestors in the 1890’s wouldn’t have had much ability to forecast beyond a few weeks or their immediate village, let alone two world wars with the communists wiping out most everyone there in-between, my parents surviving and migrating to the ‘west’ with me eventually being born, the “cold war”, expecting to be vaporized at any moment walking home from school; decades later the collapse of the USSR, building the Internet and then having what we built cause me to locate the Philippines on a globe (that funny round thing on a stand) and unexpectedly migrating there (my “here” now), meeting and eventually marrying a young wife and having (as of last week) 5 kids here. And now, the ruler of Russia is pushing hard for any excuse to start WW3 and kill us all, including my newborn.
Good morning perspective. Magandang umaga.
During the 3 years I was in the U.S. Army in Germany, I noticed that one of the many ways Europeans can spot an American is the way he eats with the knife and fork. An American cuts the meat on his plate while holding the meat steady with the fork in the left hand and uses the knife held by the right hand to cut the meat. After cutting the meat, he then transfers the fork from his left hand to the right, and proceeds to eat with the fork. Europeans always keeps the fork in their left hand.
John, you beat me to mentioning that. My mother once told me that in Germany during the war, that’s exactly how American infiltrators gave themselves away to a horrible death, and surely it was true. Cultural habits betray one’s origin.
Interesting… I do hold my fork in my left hand and knife in the right hand… but I don’t switch hands after cutting, I use my left hand to put the meat in my mouth. It must not be universal.
Bob;
That is pretty much the European way of eating, it does make sense, but my old habits die hard. I left hand fork for cutting, but I cut it all at once and switch back to the right and finish the meal. If we were all the same here on Earth it would be a boring place to live I prefer corn spears when eating corn-on-the-cob vice bare hands, but then I am odd. (lol)