Top 5 Things To Do in Kabankalan City

Here is my list of the top 5 things to do in Kabankalan City (from a visitor's point of view):

1. Take part in the Sinulog Festival (held every third Sunday of January)
2. Swimming, hiking and a picnic at Mag-aso Falls
3. Public plaza
4. Public market (just so you see what the locals do)
5. Visit the new City Hall

More Mag-aso Falls Pictures

Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra Performs

When someone discovers something awesome, one doesn’t keep it to one’s self, but instead, shares it with everyone. Recently, I discovered something rather surprising. The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra performed recently at the Ted Talks Conference. They are the product of Venezuela’s El Sistema, where the most talented youth go on to be part of a real orchestra and go on to making great music. At the conference, where the founder accepted the TED Prize, they played Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 (2nd movement) and Arturo Marquez’ Dance Song No. 2 (wait or forward to that second number, it’s great!). The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, also a product of El Sistema, and who is the new Musical Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

I saw one of L.A. Philharmonic's performances but unfortunately Gustavo Dudamel wasn't part of the performance that weekend. I guess I should have reserved another ticket for a performance in which he was conducting.

Exotic Food

Filipinos in other countries must be really home sick, for Anthony Bourdain's post on the Philippines episode for the No Reservations show got 407 comments. Who gets 407 comments on one post? While going through the latest tweets tonight (or this morning, or whatever), I hopped on several links and ended up at his blog. It's crazy and the conversation even extends to Colin Devroe's review of the show. I guess it was expected, what with all the lechon, sisig, kare-kare, adobo, fishballs and other food that all reminds us of home. These are the food that our grandmothers cooked for us, our mothers served us, our comfort food. Maybe even fiesta food.

Some friends once described how kare-kare is cooked to an American friend, and they had a hard time describing the dish. It's ox tail cooked in a sort of soup with peanut butter and local vegetables, and then it's eaten with bagoong (fish sauce?). So imagine describing that to someone who grew up in the U.S., someone who cannot imagine an ox tail being cooked, let alone with peanut butter. Let's just say, they were hooting with laughter that ended with the friend describing it in the end as (forgive my "French") "peanut butter and ass".

The show could have featured many other dishes. I haven't seen the Philippine episode of No Reservations yet, but since the show is about exotic food, there are a few dishes that they might have also liked to try like ox tongue (cooked all over the country), diwal (I don't know if they have it also in Luzon but I saw this in the Visayas; it's a "longish" shellfish that is usually baked or boiled with just salt, red pepper and green onion leaves to top it off), and maybe some roasted goat.

Space Food

It's always interesting to learn about space travel and the intricacies of preparing for one. A couple of years ago, I read a lot of books on the lives of astronauts, for I also wanted to be one. Then I thought of becoming a pilot because I noticed that astronauts are usually former pilots, either from the Air Force or as test pilots. As in a lot of our dreams, we dream new dreams and we end up in other pursuits.

Space travel is a lot more advanced these days. But there is always one interesting topic about it all - space food. How do they plan for it?

In the video below, Professor Joseph Marcy of Virgina Tech described the challenge of planning for how to feed astronauts on a nearly three-year-long mission to Mars.

Long Weekends in 2009 (Philippines)

There a lot of long weekends in the Philippines in 2009. As you may all be eager to plan your weekends and vacations, here's a list of those 10 long weekends:

• April 4 - 6 (Araw ng Kagitingan on April 9 was moved to the nearest Monday, April 6)
• April 9 - 12 (Holy Week)
• May 1 - 3 (Labor Day weekend)
• June 12 - 14 (Independence Day)
• August 21 - 23 (Ninoy Aquino Day)
• August 29 - 31 (National Heroes Day)
• October 31 - November 2 (All Saints Day/All Souls Day)
• November 28 - 30 (Bonifacio Day)
• December 24 - 27 (Christmas holidays)
• December 30 - January 3, 2010 (Rizal Day & New Year)

When I heard this news, I had to sit down for an hour and mark my calendar on these dates. Also, the christmas holidays in 2009 will be a long one again, as only December 28 and 29 are not official holidays.

Also, Air Asia is giving away free seats. Yes, free! Check out the site now as a lot of people in Asia are interested in this too. But yes, their airport in the Philippines is at Clark.

We better start planning already!

Chinese Food Mysteries

Ever wondered about the origins of General Tso's chicken? Just wanted to share this video from TED Talks.

Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food