Smell of Some Dew Drops...

10:41 PM 6/12/2014

Something in the midnight air tonight makes me feel so melancholic or maybe just sentimental... Maybe because of the evening breeze that brings the smell of rain or the after rain aroma. maybe the thunder... Maybe... then the "balut" vendor riding his bike shouting around bout his merchandise. The first memory I have of balut is really of Manila. I was probably about two years old and my then only sibling was one, our parents took us to live here in Mandaluyong somewhere around Domingo M Guevarra street which was then called Libertad. On some evenings when my father and other fellow Bicolnons would gather on few bottles of beer, they would buy balut from pedlars passing by. Those were happy times I remember to this day, not the streets or the buzzing metro but the balut! The next of course is when we've produced balut ourselves. Hard trying times but I missed those days... maybe the smell of the ducks or the evening breeze in the farm... smell of the province! guess am missing home... It's been over six months since I went "home"... yeah maybe am just getting homesick... it's ironic that when i go home I'd miss the metro too! the human heart really hardly gets satisfied... or these are just one of the days that i just wanted to lay down and do nothing, think of nothing - just feel...

Food Photography Today...

I was told its way cold down south... yeah I remember, this is the start of the coldest months in the country particularly the way I remember it in Cam. Sur...

I somewhat miss the coldness of the sweeping breeze and the nice scent of wet grass...now if not because of my dearest, I'd be packing up home-bound.

To make things more nostalgic, while scavenging thru the stuff in the fridge... I found the cylinder of "dinailan" way down the vegetable compartment. I think it's already at least six months down there... people here in the metro call it bagoong but it is made up of ground fish and salt (instead of the traditional shrimp in the Tagalogs) clumped and packed in cylinders.

To satiate my hunger and ease my home-sickness, I made Arozcaldo out of the left-over rice in the cooker and separately fried the dianilan with two cloves of garlic. Deep fried in oil, the cylinder packed Dinailan loosens and when perfectly loose, I added the circular sliced garlic till crisp and light brown.

Arozcaldo and dinailan are perfect meal during and after big storms as all the members of the family gather around the flickering oil lamp. It is also a perfect diner combo during heavy rains and on cold strong windy nights... Now I feel warm... and for that brief from the first mouthful till I emptied my bowl, I was huddling back with my family who are miles down south tonight...