Jalandoni Ancestral House [My World]

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I have been mulling over these photos for months now.   I would like to tell you that this is just another ancestral house I visited in Silay City during my vacation in May.  But fact is, I purposely went to Silay to see this house. The Jalandoni ancestral house in Silay City was built by my maternal great-grandfather, Bernardino Jalandoni, in 1908. Although we don't have a relationship with this side of my mother's family, I was naturally curious.  Bernardino, according to my mother, used to visit them at my grandmother's house in Valladolid in the late 1940's up to the early 50's.  He would then take my mother and her siblings to Hda. Parnaso, a hacienda owned by the Jalandonis, to spend the weekend.  

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Aside from my mother's childhood memories of weekends spent in Hda. Parnaso, there was no kinship between the families.  It was probably because the connection between them, my grandfather, [Bernardino's nephew] had  passed away.

So I explored the house like the usual tourist.  I am glad that the heirs decided to preserve this house for future generations---to see how the elite families lived during the grand old days of Negros' sugar industry.  The guided tour gave insights as to how the house was built and how the family lived.  It's a huge house made of stone and wood but it's design, according to the guide, follows the typical Philippine nipa hut.  The existing wooden structures are the same hardwood that came from Mindoro, an island known for its forests and logging industry.  Most of the embossed tin ceiling trays were imported from Hamburg, Germany.  It's wooden transoms done in "calado" or cut out style, using elaborate French design are a study of combined visual aesthetics and function.

@ mirandablue
the living room

The creative use of glass, capiz shells, steel grills, wooden louvers and panels for windows continues to maximize light, ventilation and security today as it has since it was designed a century ago.

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the master's bedroom

The carved antique furniture, a retablo with religious icons, the solihia (rattan weave) daybed and chairs---the ambiance of this house illustrates the lifestyle of the Negrense elite at the turn of the century.

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The heirs have entrusted the care of this house to the Silay Heritage Foundation, and it has been turned into a museum.  A doll collection, framed old photos and other memorabilia are displayed at the ground floor. 

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the daughter's bedroom

The Jalandoni Museum is at Rizal Street, Silay City.  It's 10 minutes from the airport, about 30 minutes to Bacolod City, the provincial capital.

More photos in next week's My World - Tuesday

A sugary tale [My World]

@ mirandablue

Sugarcane is a delicate plant, and there was always a need for plenty of fertilizer, irrigation, and a workforce that would work long hard hours of backbreaking labor without complaint---or without choice, as in the case of slaves. Although there was never a slave trade in the Philippines, the sugar industry here has its own unique history of exploitation, excitement, and human drama.

Sugarcane is a massive, bamboo-like grass of genus "Saccharum", tribe "Andropogonaeae", and family "Poaceae". Scientists call it photosynthetically efficient, in that it creates sucrose from sunlight, air, and water better than just about any other plant on earth. The only ones that come close are sugar maple and sugar beet; not coincidentally, those are precisely the two plants that compete directly with cane in the world sugar market.

My mother's uncle acquired a few hectares of land in the southern part of Negros Occidental in the 1950's.  It is a remote area that was infested by communist rebels, and nobody in the family dared to farm the land.   It was only about a decade ago when one of my cousins was crazy enough to invest in sugarcane farming.

Driving to Locotan with my cousins one Saturday in April, I was surprised to see that farm-to-market roads have been developed.  There was electricity, health centers, and according to relatives who live in the area, the communist rebels are either in jail or have returned to mainstream society after the 2007 Amnesty proclamation.

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Sugarcane farming is never easy, according to my cousin.  In addition to dependency on unpredictable world markets, the sugar farmer is subject to the vagaries of Mother Nature. When it rains too much, trucks can't get out in the fields to get the cane.  To a naive observer like me, a field of blossoming snow-white sugarcane flowers is a sight to behold---the same scene brings a chill to the sugar farmer's spine.  Because those entrancing blossoms mean that the sugar content of the cane is being rapidly depleted, and along with it market value at the mill.  

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My cousins and I had the crazy idea to walk in the fields at 2 pm when the sun was unforgiving.  I needed the exercise but not heat stroke!  But the view...yes, the view of these rolling hills has a cooling effect even at a 33-degree C temperature.

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Taken in Locotan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental

My contribution to My World-Tuesday

Biko with latik

@ mirandablue

My family doesn't celebrate All Souls' Day but like most Filipino families, we cook some native delicacies on or before November 1st.  When we were kids, my aunts and I had fun experimenting on kalamay (rice cake), espasol (we call it bayi-bayi), but-ong (glutinous rice wrapped in cone-shaped banana leaf and cooked in coconut milk), ibos (glutinous rice wrapped in woven coconut leaves and cooked in coconut milk), muasi (or palitaw--steamed ground glutinous rice topped with roasted sesame seeds and muscuvado).  Those were the days when glutinous rice was inexpensive and we had free supply from my grandfather.

My all-time All Souls' Day comfort food is Biko with latik (a residue of coconut milk).  About a week before All Souls' Day, I start having Biko cravings.  The aroma of boiling coconut cream gives me warm, fuzzy feelings---it brings me back to childhood with my grandfather slaving away in the kitchen cooking his favorite rice cake.  We seldom find my grandfather in the kitchen, it was my grandmother's domain. The only day Lolo was in the kitchen was during kalag-kalag, or All Souls' Day.  His ratio was 1:1 and his biko could stay fresh for a week without refrigeration. It is easy to cook but one needs powerful biceps to mix it.

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I wanted to do my grandfather's biko and I needed sung-sung rice, an aromatic, glutinous rice.  And the price was shocking!  A few months ago, sung-sung was P72 a kilo---now it's P110 a kilo!  A tip from my mother:  malagkit rice should be new, laon is not good. But how should I know if it's new or not?  Leave it to the experts. So far, with sung-sung, I was never disappointed with quality and texture.  I also got muscovado sugar and mature coconut.  

Cook glutinous rice and set aside.  Cook undiluted coconut cream in low heat to extract oil and latik.  Latik should be golden brown.

@ mirandablue

@ mirandablue

Mix in the cooked glutinous rice, mix well.  Blend the muscovado sugar into the mixture.  Calamansi leaves were added to balance the sweetness and add a bit of zest.  Cooking biko on All Souls' Day somehow connects me to members of my family who already passed on. And it's my way of remembering Lolo, a foodie and a kind gentleman with a big heart.

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Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Dinner at MoMo Cafe

@ mirandablue

The MoMo! Gourmet

My mother had her 67th birthday last week and we had dinner at MoMo Cafe in Eastwood together with my 2 siblings.  We don't usually make a fuss about birthdays but my sister was also leaving in a few days so we decided to go out for dinner.  Of course, Fritz was also there---he loves walking around the air-conditioned mall.  

@ mirandablue

I shared the MoMo! Gourmet with my sister.  It's a bowl of Arugula mixed greens with roasted garlic shiitake mushrooms, candied walnuts, fresh white cheese with raspberry-balsamic vinaigrette dressing and garnished with sliced oranges and hard-boiled eggs.

Most of the dishes are for sharing so we didn't order much.  I ordered my favorite appetizer---the melted crab and spinach 3 cheese dip.  It is served with garlic Parmesan toast, tortilla chips and veggie sticks.  And because of the wait, the waiter served us some garlic bread with spread, on the house.  My mother loves meat.  She had the sweet & smoky Hickory BBQ riblets---it's fork tender and off the bone, with party rice, topped with onion rings.  The meat was moist and juicy.

My brother preferred fish so we got the pan-roasted and walnut-crusted cream dory served with spinach cream risotto and lemon anchovy hollandaise sauce.  We had MoMo's own frozen iced tea in dalandan and blueberry in tall glasses.  It was a great meal altogether.

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Sweet & Smoky Hickory BBQ Riblets

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Pan-roasted and Walnut-crusted Cream Dory

This post is linked to Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Picnic Grove [Friday - Finding Beauty]

I dug into my archives looking for "beauty" and look what I found! An afternoon in September at Tagaytay Picnic Grove, overlooking the Lake Taal and Taal Volcano. What could be more beautiful than seeing parents and their children flying kites and spending time together?

This picnic grove is a place to play and take it easy, where nature gives strength to body and soul.

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

~Charles R. Swindoll

My first post for Friday Finding Beauty hosted by Claudia at Dipity Road

Arroz Valenciana

Although my family doesn't subscribe to the belief of cooking something sticky for the New Year, my brother prepared Arroz Valenciana after I pestered him about it. He cooks a scrumptious Arroz Valenciana, and I was craving for it. I bought all the ingredients, diced and sliced and he did the rest.

The aroma of turmeric transports me back to my grandmother's kitchen---she had been cooking Arroz Valenciana since I can remember. At fiestas, birthdays, Christmas and New Year, family gatherings, Arroz Valenciana was ever-present on our table. My sister and I used to fight over the tutong, or the crusty, overcooked bits.

I tried to cook it once and it was very tiresome---the preparation and mixing of glutinous rice and other ingredients were exhausting. It felt like I rowed a boat for hours!

With my brother's strong biceps and triceps, he's perfect for the job!

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Rocky [Watery & Outdoor Wednesday]

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

~ M. Scott Peck

my cousin, Mark, looking out at Guimaras Strait

Posted for Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Ampalaya con Carne

Believe it or not, up to this day, my mother has not given up trying to feed me vegetables. She ordered Ampalaya (bitter gourd) con Carne when we had dinner on Saturday. Sure, the dish looks attractive---love the way slices of ampalaya were arranged around the plate. She assured me while they were munching ampalaya that it's not as bitter I think it is, and it's stir-fried, not raw. I obliged by taking a bite but I couldn't swallow it. I know it's a good source of vitamins A, B and C, iron, folic acid and calcium but I just can't take the revolting acrid flavor. Sorry, mother, I'm a lost cause.:p

The beef tasted good though, and tender, without the bitter after-taste of ampalaya.

Ampalaya has been a folkloric cure for generations but has now been proven to be an effective herbal medicine for many ailments---most significant of which is diabetes. Ampalaya contains a mixture of flavanoids and alkaloids that make the pancreas produce more insulin that controls the blood sugar in diabetics. It's also one of the best herbal medicines for it's ability to help with liver problems and HIV. It is also used in the treatment of skin diseases, sterility in women, as a parasiticide, as an antipyretic, and as a purgative.

Too bad, my taste buds were probably traumatized by its unpleasant flavor---when I was a kid, my grandmother used to give us pureed ampalaya leaves to cure our coughs. I cringe just thinking about it.:p

Posted for Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

Let's stop and talk awhile... [WW and OW]

One hot and humid Saturday night, this fountain at Piazza Serendra was a refreshing sight. Even Fritz decided to park himself under the bench to cool off and enjoy the gargling sound of water.

I've been often told our world's growing old
And that friends are harder to find
Do tell me more about yourself
We could share a thought or two, now who would mind...

~ Jose Mari Chan

Posted for Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Nostalgia [OWM & WS]

There is nothing special about this beach, in fact, I've never been here for almost two decades. But that weekend after we buried our grandmother, my siblings, cousins and I, had a sentimental yearning to see the beach of our childhood. This is where we frolicked during summer vacations, learned how to swim, chased hermit crabs, watched sunsets and dreamed of the world beyond Guimaras Strait. This stretch of seashore was our playground, from the Kissing Rocks to this rustic resort. Nothing has changed around here except for a wider beach erosion, and the owner as well as the nipa huts got older. The simplicity of life here is achingly sweet and familiar.

stroll to Kissing Rocks

the old Talisay is still standing

my cousins talking about the good ol' days

Posted for Our Weekend Memoirs and Weekend Snapshot