Tidbits

Vegetative State

Ugh.

Sorry for my absence in this space last week. On top of being busy at the office, things have also been hectic here at the Burnt Lumpia World Wide Headquarters as I was struggling with a side project for a few days (and by "busy at the office" I mean surfing the internet, and by "side project" I mean laziness, boredom, and a case of poo-poo brain).

Not that this post marks the end of my "busy side project-ness"--I still haven't spent much time in the kitchen as of late [for whatever reason I can't seem to shake my current state of blah]--but I have at least been out and about...

FPAC

This past weekend, I got to check out the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture in San Pedro. I spent a only a few hours at the festival on Sunday, but I was still able to enjoy a lot of the activities there. There was some beautiful artwork on display, as well as many musical acts and dance numbers going on simultaneously at different stages within the festival.

One of the many dance crews from the weekend

Escrima demonstration

Balut Eating Contest

Giant Upo. Oh my gulay!

Although I missed out on Christine Gambito's comedy act the previous day, she served as emcee on the main stage on Sunday.

Happy Slip on the left, Giant Veggies on the right

Aside from the giant veggies on display at the festival there was also some Filipino food on offer. Problem was, there was only one Filipino food vendor in the entire place. One. ONE! O-N-E!!!!

Sure there were a few other food stands that served Chinese, Thai, snow cones, funnel cakes, and Boba. But did I mention there was only a single stand serving Filipino food? And it was the busiest of all the food stands! And I'm sure I wasn't the only person upset by this as there were murmers from many of the people in the long line waiting for a plate that would hold a small combination of pancit, BBQ skewers, fried rice, ukoy, and/or lumpia.

My spot in line. It was a long wait for Filipino food.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great time at the festival, and it was great to see such a huge gathering of Fil-Ams of all generations in one place enjoying themselves. But I was a bit miffed at the huge lack of food here as I was initially under the impression that there would be a wide selection of Pinoy goodies. Next year, hopefully.

The Return of the Purple Jar

Also last week, my wife and I met up with Mila, who is visiting the states from the Philippines for a few weeks.  You remember Mila, don't you? Well, Mila was only going to be in SoCal for a few days before hopping on a train to begin a cross-country adventure (of which I'm very jealous), so we wanted to meet up with her before she left. And sweet girl that she is, Mila brought us a jar of Good Shepherd Ube Jam all the way from the Philippines!

As some of you may remember, I had the chance to procure a jar of sweet purple yam jam a few months ago, but I was afraid of spoilage and funkage. But the jar of Ube that Mila brought us was Uber fresh:

I've got almost a month to consume 24 ounces of purple!

First a cookbook, now ube in a jar--Mila is officially the awesomest person in the universe. To return the favor, we took Mila to The Oinkster because she had been fiendin' for a taste of their Ube Milkshake. While at the Oinkster, we learned a little bit more about Mila as we all dined on pork and slurped our purple beverages. And although we agreed that the famous purple shake tasted more coconutty than ube-y, I still say it is my most favorite shake in all the land. We hope to see you again soon, Mila!

It's Just Like Honey

In addition to the Ube Jam, Mila also brought me the August 2008 issue of Rogue Magazine--from what I hear, a popular read published in the Philippines. And no, she didn't bring it to me because of the awesome cover (although I still would have been quite appreciative), but there happens to be a small mention of a particular food blogger within the pages of Rogue:

Pretty neat, eh? Here's a look at the entire page:

That's me in the lower left corner. I guess that makes me Cindy Brady...

Thanks to Wysgal of Rants and Raves, who did the write-up for Rogue and mentioned me among some of her other favorite food bloggers. I took great honor in sharing a page with Marketman of Market Manila, Joey of 80 Breakfasts, Manggy of No Special Effects, as well as Table for Three, Please and Southbound.ph.

Comments

[Manggy]

I totally understand how you feel-- I'd be disappointed too, if there was only one stall. There's obviously a great demand for Filipino food so it's kind of sad that no one else was enterprising enough.
Very honored to be sharing the same print page with you, Marvin!
I've got a bit of poo-poo brain too, but it's mainly because my grandmother's birthday was last monday and several people brought cake. We had 5 at one time. One for each member of the family, it seems. It totally co*kblocked me. (By the way, the asterisk is subbing for an "o". What were you thinking? Ha ha ha.)

[Leica]

Sorry to hear that there's only one vendor for Filipino food. It would have been nice to feast on chicharon, puto at dinuguan, kutsinta, siopao, lechon and sisig! Am I making you hungry?

I hope the organizers will invite more food vendors next year.

[bernadette]

I guess it was just a matter of poor coordination and "kulit" (persistence) on the side of the organizers to invite Filipino entrepreneurs to set up more food stalls. And I surmise this is the first Filipino festival there, right? So...next time there might just mushroom more Pinoy food experts :-)!

How sooo Pinay sweet of Mila to bring you an ube pasalubong! And
as I've told you, just keep it refrigerated. You do not have to worry about that tiny date at the bottom of the bottle. Hee-hee! That's Filipino for you---timeless!

Congrats for being the Cindy of the batch!

[Katrina]

How strange -- a Philippine Festival with more foreign than Filipino food?! Especially considering how important food is to Pinoys, I have to say "boo" to the organizers!

Isn't Mila just the sweetest?! She is always so thoughtful with the pasalubongs. And I agree with Bernadette -- you have way more than a month to eat all that ube. Kept in the fridge, you should have a few months, at least. As long as it still tastes good and there's no mold, it's as good as when it was bought. I'm excited to see if you do anything with it! Over here, it's usually just eaten on its own, in halo-halo, or topped on ice cream.

Congratulations on the Rogue mention! That magazine's just a bit over a year old, but already it's one of the best-written local publications. So, YAY for you! :-)

[Nicola!]

Hi Marvin! I recently stumbled upon your site on my own quest to try and learn how to make the food from my childhood and I absolutely love it! My friends also loved the ube cupcakes from your recipe.

I used to intern and volunteer for FPAC and I wanted to comment about the Filipino food vendors... the festival usually seeks out as many food vendors as they can each year, but it's really hard to convince these food vendors to come out and participate in the event. I wish that was not the case!

I have to say though other Filipino food vendors have participated in previous festivals, but Aling Neri's booth is always the busiest! Her food is great at the festival and her restaurant is one of the tastiest "turo turo" places in Los Angeles!

Thank you so much for this blog! =D

[wysgal]

Oh you got a copy already! I don't need to mail you one anymore then. =)

[Erin]

Glad you are attempting to pry yourself away from your "side projects" as I was missing my favorite weekly read. Congratulations on the piece in Rogue, that's fantastic!

[ahnjel]

congrats on making the line-up marvin! where will i see you next? uno? fhm phil?
goodluck with your ahhhh... side projects!

[Tom Aarons]

They start putting more references to excellent food writing in, and I'll have to read the articles! But right now I've got serious case of gourd envy about those old people and their giant squash. Who won? :)

[Jude]

Never seen upo that big. Wow. Wish I could get some of that ube jam around here. That jar rarely lasts more than few days in our household.
Congrats on making Rogue Magazine!

[joey]

So that makes me Mr. Brady! Zoiks!

Glad to see you enjoying your ube as you so deserve for tootng its horn so often! :)

[elmomonster]

Congrats on the mag mention, but damn...I can't get my eyes off of that cover model...what is that she's covered in? Honey? Damn.

[joe]

Just a quick note on the food...Nicola! is right. I'm close to the organizers and they tell me that many of the usual Filipino food vendors at FPAC went out of business. Getting new vendors was difficult this year because a lot of them did not want to go through the strict LA County permitting process. If you have any leads on vendors, please refer them to Fil Am Arts.

[Julie]

One Filipino food vendor? I hope others step up next year--that could've been a great way to generate business. Congrats on the new ube jam and the magazine writeup!

[greasemonkey]

ube jam! yum! we should start a pool.. i say you finish the jar in 3 sittings over 5 days! haha!

i always wondered why mcdonald's doesn't have any ube products when they have grimace as a mascot.. until someone told me that grimace is actually a tastebud! blasphemy! how can that be? just look at an ube next to grimace, you don't need a paternity test for that, you know grimace could never have come from anything else!

congrats on getting published! i don't think you could have lucked out any better with ag on the cover.. in honey..

[oggi]

Hey congrats on being 'Cindy' in the Rogue mag and getting a pasalubong of ube jam.
I love the veg photo. What did they feed those upo to grow so big? Are they edible?

[Mila]

I tried to find the event with a friend on Saturday, but we couldn't figure out where the heck the show was, so we just went to Port O'Call and had grilled fish.

I'm on the East Coast today, after avoiding the brunt of Hurricane Ike in the mid-west. The travel's been great so far and I am taking way too many photos of buildings and sculpture. Yes, I'm weird that way.

Enjoy the ube, hope it pushes the blues away (turns it into purples), and hope to see you and Barbara on my way back through LA!

[Burnt Lumpia]

I admit manggy, I was thinking something else with that asterisk in the way. Very nice term though!

You are definitely making me hungry, Leica. And yes, it would have been nice to see more of a variety in food.

This festival has actually been going on for many many years now, bernadette. And I'm sure the organizers did their best as the rest of the festival was very well organized and planned. And I will keep a close eye on my ube as the expiration date passes;)

Hi Katrina! Mila is indeed very thoughtful, she was telling us stories of how she had brought yogurt and butter and various other goods back to Manila for friends. And it's good to know that Rogue is already one of the best after only a short time in publication.

Thanks so much for the info Nicola! I know that it must be a difficult job for the organizers of FPAC, so I hope I didn't seem like I was faulting them. I am glad though that you've found my blog and I hope you visit often. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks again, Wysgal!

Thanks Erin! Having "side projects" is always tough;P

Hello Ahnjel. Uno and FHM? If I ever am mentioned in any of those, I can at least be assured of more eye-candy on the covers;)

Hi Tom! I believe the long upo squash (pictured standing with the elderly man) was the overall winner--it was the longest and heaviest if I remember correctly.

Thanks Jude. And yes, my jar of ube is steadily decreasing every day :)

Being Mr. Brady aint' so bad, Joey. I'm the youngest one in curls.

Elmo, she is indeed covered in honey or a honey-like substance. You should see the inside pages!

Thanks for the information, joe. I can only imagine how hard it is to get new vendors to the Festival every year. I will definitely forward any leads that might come my way.

Thanks Julie! I'll probably give your ube jam ice cream a try if my supply lasts!

Grimace is a tastebud? I never knew that, greasemonkey. And Miss AG is indeed very lovely.

I assume the veggies are edible, oggi. According to the guy I talked to, there is no secret fertilizer for growing the giant upo. Just let them grow as long as you can and give them plenty of water and sun.

I'm sorry you couldn't find the festival, Mila. It was right next to the Pt. Fermin Lighthouse.

I'm glad you were able to avoid Ike though and I hope you are enjoying the rest of your trip.

[mely]

My gulay!!I never thought UPO will get that long! Upo with shrimps and alamang na bagoong... my favorite, next to pinakbet.

[Burnt Lumpia]

Hi mely! Apparently, it's not that hard to grow upo that long. And I love pinakbet too! Thanks for visiting my blog.

[Joseph Tabajonda]

i live in delano, california.central cali reppin.aha.well we had our filipino weekend a few weeks ago.i think it was our annual 35th.well it happens every last weekend of july.you should come and check it out next year.yee.