People travel for various reasons. Adventure. Fun. Business. Family affairs. I do travel for all these purposes. But I also travel to be alone. I feel this most in an airport and aboard a full-to-capacity plane. Alone. With no thought or concern except to get to my destination. It affords me an in-between. A shifting...
Category: Lifestyle
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Lessons on the beloved potato (or how it fits quite nicely in Filipino cuisine)
Think of a few of your typical savory Filipino dishes—adobo, menudo, kaldereta, nilaga, maybe even kare-kare or sinigang. You can easily imagine all of them incorporating that ubiquitous and beloved brown-skinned vegetable. “I don’t think you will grow up or get to this age in the Philippines without having potatoes, because we love our potatoes,” Reji Retugal, Philippine representative of...
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Marking Ash Wednesday and recalling Pope Francis’ call to ‘return to God with all our heart’
The Holy See Press Office announced on Feb. 28 that Pope Francis would not preside over the traditional celebration of the Ash Wednesday liturgy on Aventine Hill, which is to take place on March 5. The Pope has been confined for more than two weeks in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to receive treatment for bilateral pneumonia...
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Popularity of K-pop and K-food surging worldwide, says report
K-pop and Korean cuisine are surging significantly in popularity worldwide, indicating the strong influence of Korea’s culture exports that ride on the Korean Wave, or “hallyu,” according to the 2024 Global Korean Wave Trend Analysis Report. Countries in Asia accounted for the most voluminous content about the Korean Wave (50.6%), followed by those in Europe...
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Diamonds are forever
There was something profoundly moving in old friends saying prayers in a misty morning, their lives squarely in the hands of a mild-mannered man expertly steering the vehicle. The voices coming together in a steady hum, the familiar cadence of the words, doubtless stirred many memories. But for the intervening decades, they could have been...
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Lola Mameng and my kitchen prep
Not everyone cooks. But those who don’t cook and take pride in the inability should be ashamed of themselves. Not being able to cook is surprising, given how popular culinary courses are now and even just how dime-a-dozen cooking shows are crowding television and the internet. In fact, the food and beverage industry is among...
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Stay in your lane in the Year of the Wood Snake
As the world prepares to welcome the Year of the Wood Snake on Jan. 29, feng shui expert Marites Allen shares what she deems the best life strategy to adopt for a prosperous 2025: “Stay in your lane.” “Short of saying ‘mind your own business,’ this year is about staying in your lane. The snake...
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The Sinulog is also a festival to recall Christianity’s birth in the Philippines
The Feast of the Santo Niño or the Holy Child Jesus falls yearly on the third Sunday of January. Though originally a simple religious feast, it has become one of the grandest and most colorful festivals now called the Sinulog. To celebrate this year’s festival, various activities were lined up by the Basilica Minore del...
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Finding the quiet
Many movies today, perhaps as a reflection of the world around us, are unbelievably loud, relying on explosions and special effects and outré visuals to stimulate and, at the same time, mesmerize the viewer. Thus, among all the scenes of chaos, devastation and conflict that may be either or both external and internal to the...
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On with the show on New Year’s Eve
SYDNEY—New Year’s Eve without fireworks? Unthinkable! Especially in Australia, one of the first countries to welcome the new year with the now iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge pyrotechnics display watched around the world. But just days before the show, it was in danger of being cancelled in the wake of a dispute between the New South...