Foodtrip in Lucban

If you search for information regarding Lucban, Quezon, the first few information that you will get will be about the Pahiyas festival that usually happens in May. This festival is a harvest festival wherein all houses are dressed up with the family's farm harvest.

In my recent trip to Lucban last month, I realized that Lucban is not just famous for the harvest but also for the delicious food that they serve.

Amongst the variety that we enjoyed in our three-day weekend were Sinugno; Ginataang Kuhol na may pako; Sizzling chicken; empanadita and Lucban's famous halo-halo of Salud.

Sinugno is Inahaw na tilapia with gata. Rather easy to prepare at home but so tasty to feast on. Try making it a bit more spicy and you would enjoy it more.

Ginataang kuhol was surprisingly sweet and fun. You get to slurrp the kuhol out of the shell. Quite fun if you ask me.

Sizzling chicken could have been the usual meal you order in sizzling plate, but what made it diffrent in Palaisdaan is the sauce. It tastes quite special.

Empanadita and Salud's Halo-Halo were not part of our Palaisdaan dinner. The halo-halo came after dinner and we had to drive back to bayan to get a taste of it.

Salud's was few blocks from Lucban church and it was rather an old house. They serve halo-halo and mais con hielo and costs about 35 pesos only.

The halo halo does not boast of a special kind of ice like Razon's or the commercial fantasy that Chowking's and Sandosenang Halo offers, but it was probably one of the best that I have tasted since my very first halo halo experience in Tondo. Just look at the mouth watering colors of the blend and the sweetness that is blended perfectly to ask for another round. I wish that they have Salud's in Manila so that I can enjoy it anytime I want.

Lastly, the empanadita came quite a surprise. There was this modest food court outside Lucban church were you could enjoy most kind of street food from bananaque to isaw to hotdogs. Empanadita looked cute for its 2.50/pc and I just had to try it. What was interesting was that it did not have meet or chicken inside like the usuals you get from goldilocks...rather it had sweet kamote inside. Delicious and cheap and rather light for the stomach. The gang bought 250 pieces of it and became the pasalubong.

Just hang on there my friend...

Today is one of the saddest days ever.
My friend was diagnosed with a spleen cancer.

I didn't even know what a spleen is and what part of our body it is locate...but right now I am browsing google to find more answers as to what a spleen is and what are the types of spleen cancer.

In this age where cancer is one of the more notorious killers, it is doubly hard getting news like this, especially if its coming from a very dear friend.

So many things going on my mind right now...and yet I know and I feel that my friend is gonna fight this disease and hopefully wins over it.

But more than anything else...sadness still envelops me hearing the news. I don't even know yet how to react to this or how to keep this bit of information to myself till the day he decides to tell everyone in our group.

Still I pray...that the Lord will be more merciful to him and delivers him from this disease.

some thoughts from the alternative world...

I looked into my other circle today and got some interesting notes on the alternatives...

read on..

Quote:Originally Posted by bboycrumbs84
Making a choice to come out about your sexuality is a healthy part of affirming your choice and your worth as a human being. By discussing what it does and does not mean to be who you are sexually, you may also help to educate others and even to empower some individuals to accept their own sexuality and realizing that is good to discover sexuality in all ways.

my thoughts:
its always hard to come out to your friends and family and tell them what you really are underneath that clothes or that facade.
that is never easy because there might be rejections and then the stigma happens all over again as if it hasn't been working through the most parts of your life.
but in this age, i think more people are open to it...open to the accepting sexuality and the differences that friends bring into the circle...and its good because you somehow feel that the society gets more humane into accepting whatever differences it brings on the daily fold.
to those who come out in the open...congratulations...coming out is not just really putting a label to what you know you are...but moreso, getting the real freedom of life that one truly deserve.
to those who cannot come out...its their choice to live in the closet..and for whatever reason they have...i'd always give them that choice to make...afterall..it is their life to live.
happy independence guys..

Quote:Originally Posted by bboycrumbs84
It is nice to be with people who are very open minded.

my thoughts:
There is nothing wrong to be liberated in making decisions in life especially the so called "sexuality" but its just that we need to keep our values within us.
somehow ur values would be changing when you come out in the open...you widen your horizon and then take new things into consideration.
the principles that you have actually built when you were in the closet would still be applicable into most situations but of course you will do some bending of rules from time to time if only because you are now open to alot more possibilities that were not options for you when you are in the closet still.

Originally Posted by voltz87
and it's you, the real you, if one does is to always blindly deny the truth of his/her own sexuality then he/she wouldn't be able to enjoy a good life. this is what i told myself when i really tried hard to change my sexuality, wala eh ayaw talaga eh

my thoughts:
hmm. i've always believed naman that sexuality isn't just the private organs that you were born with.
it is also something that you feel inside you.
for instance, a byukonera would always feel that she is a girl trapped inside that body..whether he chooses to change her organs in the future when he can afford to...or not...he would always remain to be that woman inside that body.
in the past, i tried to deny myself with homosexuality and for two or three months i was successful until the fourth month...
on that fourth month, i did things i never thought i would kasi sobrang "nagutom" yata ako..haha.
but when I asked God kung bakit nga ba iba ako sa mga kapatid ko at sa mga friends ko...i didn't get a straight answer but i got acceptance little by little...from myself and from my friends and family...
to which I always think na it was God's way of showing me that I have to accept myself first and then acceptance and peace from the others would come along.
afterall...God's love really has no gender.

Loving Lucban

Last weekend I had a chance of bonding again with my girls.

From my other circles...i'd always refer to them as my girls...afterall...they really are my girls for the past 8 years or so now.

Anyways, one of my girls, Jing, invited us to spend the weekend in her ancestral home..err..in her husband's ancestral home...Lucban and it was a blast.

We were actually planning for a Bohol trip but due to some difficulties encountered with the travel agency, we decided to scrap it and take a trip nearer.

Lucban is very famous for its Pahiyas festival in May. I call it the harvest festival.

Before and after Pahiyas, Lucban is just your regular town situated in south Luzon...but wait..there is more.

The town boasts of a floating restaurant...a healing church that rivals one in Brazil...a halo halo house that gives Razon's a run-for-its-money and two-peso panadita that is so delicious you can eat outside the historical Lucban church, not to mention the grand torrino (calzone) and the twisted bacon in a local resto that is more delectable than our pizza houses in Manila.

If that still doesn't make you fly, then try to pass by Liliw to get the best deals in your footwear and get a taste of the local posh resto Arabella that tastes like Itallianis and again visit the beautiful church of Liliw in brick red.

Finally, try to stop by Majayjay falls and drench into its cystal clear and cold water and appreciate the wonder of the nature located about an hour or two from Alabang.

There's really more to Lucban than just the Pahiyas...and as Jing promised...next month we will visit the other hidden treasures of Lucban and continue loving it.

Missing you...

friday again.

i rushed to the mall to have dinner with friends.

Mongkok seem to offer an interesting treat...problem is I remember us dining out...then some flashbacks.

i have to admit, i miss you.

remembering those fridays that I had to rush to the apartment after work just to sleep beside you and wake up with your smile...

it now becomes a never ending battle of missing you again.

..and then i realize that the only thing i can do now is to......miss you.