By Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, Executive Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

IT’S that time of year again when I feel I’ve died and gone to heaven. Once a year just before Holy Week, books, books and more books drop like manna from the sky, giving us staff an excuse to lounge around feeling like Tom Sawyer chewing on a blade of grass while studying the clouds. Except we’re popping our eyeballs reading the latest book releases so we can write reviews that, hopefully, will guide readers into picking the right titles to pack with their swimwear and goggles for the Lenten break. This is one time when we really get to say–with a dolorous sigh and buckets of crocodile tears, “Tough job, but someone’s got to do it!” Yeeaah, Momma!

Here are some quotes from five titles I’ve chosen for the diverse audience they address: “The Independence of Mary Bennett” for the hopeless (or rather, the hopeful) romantic, “The Mayor of Castro Street” for gays, gay advocates, social scientists and history buffs; “the Many Ways of Being Muslim” for the literati, Muslims, and anybody who wants a good read, “Cory: An Intimate Portrait,” not just for Coryistas but also those seeking another definition of leadership beyond tantrums at Malacanang, and “The Philippines Through European Lens,” for anthropologists, historians, senior folk and just about anybody who finds interesting the grainy but striking black and white photographs of Filipinos and the Philippines during colonial times. Ideal for photo buffs (and which Pinoy isn’t?), this last is the perfect foil for the flawless (thanks to photoshop) digital shots of the here and now.

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By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

YEAH, yeah we Filipinos eat pretty much anything, it’s true. It’s a matter of taste in more than one way. The food that other people find objectionable, I usually don’t have a problem with. Balut? The soup is awesome and salt makes it perfect. The one food stuff I cannot in any way understand is azucena. Dogs are your friend not our food. Seriously.

But the one food which I like that other people really seem to have a problem with is chicken feet, also known by that witty footwear pseudonym Adidas.

From childhood, chicken feet was a dish I got served pretty regularly. I never thought of it as anything else except normal. You can usually get a lot of it for almost nothing because most chicken vendors consider it remainders. Which is a good thing, because it takes quite a lot of chicken feet to feed a group of growing children as so little meat can actually be found on the bone.

There are two important things to remember about chicken feet. The first is that it needs to be marinated very heavily. The chicken feet themselves would be bland on their own, though the chewy nature gives it a very distinctive texture. The usual way to cook them would be adobado, seasoned with a lot of soy sauce and spices. When served, the feet need to be really dark and sticky, because that promises a really strong soy sauce taste to go with the chewy feel.

The second thing, and this is crucial, is that chicken feet need to be eaten by hand. It’s absurd to eat them with utensils since you have to use the cutting tools with incredible dexterity to get the meat off the bones. But put all these elements together, and you have a really busy meal, with the heavy marinade coming off not only on your hands but also on the rice, becoming a kind of extra sauce.

The day I realized that chicken feet is an acquired taste was a viewing of “The Amazing Race.” In Asia, the teams had to eat cooked chicken feet and the teams were uniformly and overwhelmingly disgusted by the task. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “what’s so hard? It’s lunch!”

After that, I found out that many, many people find chicken feet to be a truly reprehensible meal. There are many reasons, none of which I understand, which is pretty much the case for anyone who eats anything unpopular. The strange thing is I have never considered myself an adventurous eater. My parents tell me I was very picky eater as a child. So why can I eat something that many others can’t? It’s a tasty mystery to be sure.

Read about all kinds of exotic food in the March 15, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

IT is always weird to be sitting somewhere quiet and then someone reading a book suddenly bursts out in uncontrollable laughter. But such is the power of really, really funny books. Sense of humor being relative and all, some books are clearly funnier than others. Here are a few recommendations, books that, if read while you’re drinking soda, will send softdrinks through your nose:

1. “Twisted” by Jessica Zafra: The first of Zafra’s smart, acerbic essay collections remains the best. Originally published in 1995, it is still sharp after over a decade.

2. “The Best of Pugad Baboy” by Pol Medina Jr.: These small books gathering Medina’s strips about the overweight denizens of Pugad Baboy are particularly effective when read in moving vehicles and waiting rooms.

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