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Biko-making
Biko (bee-ko) is a Philippine dessert made from glutinous rice, coconut milk and sugar. We use black glutinous rice or white or mix of both. My mother usually do mix. We love mama’s biko. I still remember when we were young and mama makes biko. My sisters and I help stir the latik (caramelized sugar…
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New Year’s Celebration in Japan and the Philippines
As a Filipina living in Japan for many years now, I can compare how New Year’s Day is celebrated in both countries. There are few similarities and many differences between Philippines and Japan celebrating New Year’s Day that I would like to share according to my observation and experience. Decorations and Preparations In the Philippines,…
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Food Served at my Maternity Clinic
Food and good nutrition is an essential part in recovery from delivering a baby. I would like to share the meal prepared in my entire stay (six days, five nights) in my maternity clinic. I got admitted in the morning of Tuesday, October 22, 2019, past breakfast time (around 7:30). I delivered the baby at…
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School Lunch in Japan
School lunch in Japan is such a very organized system. It is either prepared in the school by the school lunch teachers and the school nutritionist or in some area, in a school lunch center serving a group of schools. The school nutritionist makes the menu for the whole month and distribute it to each…
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Whale for School Lunch and Other Stories of Food Culture Shock
Whale Yes. I had whale for school lunch! It was a shock for me. I heard the teachers say ‘kyou wa kujira da ne’ (today is whale) during lunch preparation. I help in setting up lunch for non-adviser teachers. And that day, I was the one serving the main dish, which was, yeah, you guessed…
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Setsubun and Risshun: Say Goodbye to Winter and Hello to Spring
The freezing cold of winter makes people long for spring. Spring, the time when flowers bloom. It is when the temperature goes up gradually. It is when people start going outdoors again. The weather is not too cold. Just “choudo ii”, as the Japanese say, meaning just right. The cold turns to cool. Everything turns…
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Eat Indian Curry in a Rustic Japanese House
Have you ever been to a restaurant that looks nothing like the modern restaurants in the busy streets of big cities but more like grandma’s house or an ancestral house situated in residential and quiet place? There is one Curry restaurant in Koga, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, that we always frequent to. The Restaurant The restaurant’s…
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Pork dishes I love that you probably hate!
Are you a vegetarian? ‘Coz I’m not. I eat meat. And my favorite is pork. I love sinigang (pork in sour soup), adobo (pork cooked in soy sauce and vinegar), meatballs, porkchop, menudo, pork steak…Oh! Naming these dishes makes me wanna eat again. Below are some of the (not so common) pork dishes I love…
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Halo-halo in Japan
When I did my self-introduction in class, I introduced Halo-halo as one of the Filipino’s favorite desserts. Some students said it is being sold in Mini Stop. So, one afternoon, on my way home, I dropped by the convenience store Mini Stop and tried the Japanese style Halo-halo. I was a little bit disappointed because…