By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net
FILIPINOS love eating mangoes at any given season. If you want to add a twist on the mangoes and make it more visually enticing, you might want to try the “mango trifle”.
Watch the video to learn how it’s done.
By Marjorie Gorospe
If you want to take a glimpse of the former first lady Imelda Marcos’ shoe collection, then you should drop by the Shoe Museum in Marikina City.
Over 800 pairs of shoes are displayed, mostly owned by Imelda Marcos while she was First Lady and Governor of Metro Manila. There are also pairs of shoe coming from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Senator Manny Villar, Senator Panfilo Lacson and other current and former leaders of the country.
“I ask them and sometimes request if they can donate a shoe to the museum,” says museum curator Dolly Borlongan.
Borlongan recalls the contribution of Marcos to the shoe industry of Marikina, as she has always been the number one promoter of Marikina shoes, wearing them during special occasions.
Known as the shoe capital of the Philippines, the Shoe Museum hopes to carry on the tradition and pride of the Marikeños.
In 2002, Marikina shoemakers made world record when they created the largest shoes measuring 5.5 meters long, 2.25 meters wide and 1.83 meters high.
Borlongan says he wanted to place gargantuan pair of shoes in the museum. However, there was little space to spare in the museum. So the giant shoes are resting at the Marikina River Banks Mall.
During my visit to the museum, Borlongan granted my wish to see the giant shoes. When I saw it, I realized the museum represents Marikeños proud tradition.
Dinosaurs from the Jurassic and cretaceous periods will be invading Manila, courtesy of the Dinosaurs Alive World Tour (DAT).
These interactive dinosaurs (almost real creatures of prehistory) will dazzle you starting November 28 until January 11, 2009.
The dinosaurs will be housed in a 12,000-square-meter theme park — which is the size of 30 basketball courts combined– at the SM Mall of Asia, according to James White, vice president for Sales and Marketing of Max Entertainment.
“The dinosaurs will be quite interactive. They move, make the sounds that dinosaurs would have made. They will also jump out at you. You will be scared by them. You will be surprised by them,” said White during a recent briefing.
By Anna Valmero
DURING my last visit at Baguio, I veered away from visiting the typical tourist park attractions and instead took a road less traveled.
Situated across the hilly top of Baguio, just 15 minutes away from the town proper is a haven for artists and culture enthusiasts I long to visit this place called Tam-Awan village after I read about it.
The place was named after “tanaw” or vantage point because the South China Sea can be viewed from the deck on a clear day. The village features Cordillera village architecture including clusters of Igorot and Kalinga huts of different types, namely Annaba, Bangaan, Battad, Bocos, Kinakin and Dukligan (fertility hut).
Editor’s note: You can also read this story on Talk of the Town on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
I am Dino Alberto E. Subingsubing, 44, a communication specialist working with a non-government organization (NGO) health project. Married with three kids, I’m just your regular working dude — except that I’ve been a regular bicycle commuter for the past 15 years.
Yup, I bike to work three to four days a week from Novaliches (where I live) to TM Kalaw (where I work). Let’s see…that would be about 20 kilometers one way. It takes me one and a half hours of leisurely cycling along my regular bike route, which covers Quirino Highway, Mindanao Avenue, C5, North Avenue, Agham Road, Quezon Boulevard, España, Earnshaw, Legarda / Mendiola, Ayala Bridge, Taft Avenue and TM Kalaw (where my office is located).
That would be 40 kilometers in a day, 160 kilometers in a week, 640 kilometers in a month, 7,680 kilometers in a year. Imagine how it translates into the number of calories burned!
Translated in the amount of money saved in terms of transportation fare, that would be about P150 a day, or P600 a week, or P2,400 a month and P28,800 a year. Imagine what you could buy with that.
I really didn’t start out a hardcore bike commuter. In fact, I only learned to ride a bike in 1992. But the appeal of being able to travel at your own pace, being free to choose your own route at will and not getting stuck in traffic gridlock made me choose biking as my ideal commuting mode.
The decision to bike to work (and almost everywhere) came at a time when I turned by all things ecological and environment-friendly — organic backyard gardening, home birth and Lamaze birthing techniques (two out of my three children were born at home, with my partner being assisted in childbirth by a health center midwife), traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and eating lower on the food chain (vegetarianism and macrobiotic diets).
By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
MAKATI CITY, Philippines — Cakes are yummy desserts to offer in any party. But when you’re doing it outdoors, slicing the big cake and serving it to guests could be a bit of a problem. Hoping not to take the fun away, cupcakes serve as better alternative to the traditional big cakes, especially when the guests are kids.
Cupcakes come in different kinds and a must-try is the chiffon cupcake. It is a light cupcake known for its spongy fluffiness.
We need not go far in our search for the famous higantes of Angono. They were right there along the highway, all lined up and raring to fiesta.
The Higantes Festival dates back to the 1800s when the people of Angono created these giant effigies meant as caricatures in protest of tyrannical Spanish landlords (Angono was a Spanish hacienda during those times).
The art of higante-making has become an age-old tradition in Angono. In fact, the artists have formed a collective called HIMAS (or Higante Makers Sculptors Society), or literally meaning “to caress”, in reference to how they use their hands when creating these huge paper maches.
By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net
Do you ever feel belittled in a world of “big people?”
If you do, maybe you can visit the Miniature Museum, a place where you can feel a bit “bigger.”
Through patience and determination, Aleli Lourdes Salinas Vengua, an interior decorator, built miniature houses. She now has a total of 24 miniature rooms in glass cases, where you can find shadow boxes of a sari-sari store, an artist studio, frames of various items like animals, hats, cups, musical instruments. She also has built model houses with miniature interiors.
Vengua’s passion for smaller things led her to artistry. When she passed away, her daughter, Lara Vengua, eventually lent her mother’s miniature collection to the Marikina City government for public viewing.
“Along with her collection are the values which we try to impart to our visitors especially the young ones because this museum is a product of determination and a lot of patience plus artistry. If one really wants to achieve a dream, no matter how big or small—it is possible,” says Dolly Borlongan, musem curator during a quick tour of Vengua’s collection.
Borlongan pointed that Vengua created miniature guitars, which required a lot of attention to details despite its size. She says miniature designers like Vengua often aim for perfection in their craft.
BALICASAG Island in Bohol is described as one of the best dive spots in the country with its protected marine sanctuary teeming with healthy corals. For non-divers, it is also a great place for snorkeling.
Last Saturday, I was part of a small group that ventured near Balicasag for dolphin watching. I did read about dolphins in Bohol although around nearby Pamilacan Island.
Anyway, one important lesson is to wake up early – early as in don’t wait for the sun to rise. Or rather, it pays to be at sea on sunrise because that’s mating time for dolphins.
We set out past 6AM and by the time we reached the area where the dolphins are, it was already swarming with many boats with the same idea.
As one colleague puts it, it was more like “dolphin chasing”, rather than watching. Each time dolphins were seen rising out of the water; it was like off to the races. And it just seemed to scare these poor creatures.
Fortunately, before we headed for home we did see dolphins - one more like twirling rather flipping out of the water. And just when we least we expected it, a whale shark passed by in front of our boat rousing our sleepy eyes.
By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net
IF you don’t count calories, you won’t mind splurging on ice cream.
In his monograph, Chris Clarke’s “The Science of Ice Cream” said that ice cream’s history is linked to the development of refrigeration techniques.
The idea of ice cream came about with the use of cooling to dissolve salts; the inclusion of cream in ice water during the mid-17th century; the invention of ice cream maker in the mid-19th century and later the mechanical refrigeration in early 20th century — as noted in Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, Ices: The Definitive Guide published in 1993.
