Watami on Father's Day

19 June 2022 is Father's Day. A day to celebrate to thank the Lord and celebrate for the life despite the challenges specially the pandemic. I suggested Watami, a Japanese restaurant which I found to be serving good and tasty hotpot. My first Watami experience was at Shangrila Mall when Apple and UP friends, Gil, Chuck,  et al met for a reunion with Annette, my niece living in the Netherlands. 

So we had lunch at Watami at UP Town Center, QC. We ordered pork curry, tempura, chicken wings and the shabu shabu hotpot. I realized after tasting the hotpot that it was not the same hotpot that I enjoyed during my first Watami experience. The Sumu Hotpot was phased-out by the resto according to the manager at Watami when we visited the Shangrila Mall branch in one dinner. I told the manager that it's the Sumo Hot Pot which I craved for, why did they removed it from the menu. Anyway, back to the original story on Father's Day lunch. We enjoyed the Watami food except the Shabu Shabu Hot Pot. Food rating is 4/5. 

Pork Curry

Tebasaki

Shabu Shabu Hot Pot

Ebi Tempura

A Mother's Day Tribute: Missing my Mom's Cooking

I miss my mom. I miss her dishes. Her cooking is an expression of her heart's or Corazon's love to her children. That's why her dishes always fill our tummies with nutritious food and make our hearts more loving. This mother's day, I pay tribute to my mom, Corazon Coronel Oreta (June 15, 1931- June 22, 1979) through a list of three dishes that she cooked and that I really miss.

1. Ginisang Bulaklak ng Kalabasa

When we were living inside Basa Air Base, Pampanga, I remember our vegetable garden with flowers of the kalabasa (pumpkin), alugbati and root crops like kamoteng kahoy. The ginisang bulaklak ng kalabasa my mom cooked from the flowers harvested from our garden always come to my mind whenever I pass by an open market and see the yellow flowers of the pumpkin. Cooking this vegetable is so simple yet I sledom find this in restaurants. You  may saute the vegetables and flowers with bagoong or coconut milk to introduce a different taste. Make sure the flowers are not overcooked so that when you eat it you will feel the crispiness and rough texture of the flower.

2. Pork Humba

Humba is a sweet pork dish like the adobo but it is highlighted with certain ingredients such as brown sugar, salted black beans, and sometimes banana blossoms. It is a dish not for those who are in diet or reducing in cholesterol.

My mom cooks her humba in a claypot until the pork is so tender that it melts in your mouth. I've tried the humba at several restaurants in Metro Manila but  so far no resto was able to equal the quality and taste of my mom's version. At home, too much "taba" or fat is a NO NO especially to my wife. But it's the fat that makes the humba awesome!

3. Nilagang Baboy

Nilaga is a simple dish and easy to cook. You just throw everything - the pork, the vegetables, onions, potato, etc. and let it cook until tender.  I can easily cook the nilaga but I still miss my mom's version. I remember my mom saving a bone (from a ham) and let it dry under the sun. Whenever she cooks the nilaga she includes the bone with the other ingredients. So when you taste the soup, there is that unique taste of ham in the nilaga which you will not find in an ordinary nilaga.

Remembering Corazon - our lovable Mom

A Mother's Love Detremines How*

(Copyright by NicholasNicholas Gordon)

A mother's love determines

How we love ourselves and others.

There is no sky we'll ever see

Not lit by that first love.
Stripped of love, the universe

Would drive us mad with pain;

But we are born into a world

That greets our cries with joy.

How much I owe you for the kiss

That told me who I was!

The greatest gift--a love of life--

Lay laughing in your eyes.
Because of you my world still has

The soft grace of your smile;

And every wind of fortune bears

The scent of your caress

Corazon Coronel Oreta is our mom. What do I remember about my Mommy?
1. HARDWORKING: To proivde us a comfortable life and good education after my Dad passed away, my Mom worked as a pharmacist at the former Basa Air Base, Pampanga and managed a drug store ( I remember watching the store during school breaks) and a small karinderia (restaurant) for the air force men at Basa Air Base. She also travelled to Zamboanga, buying goods (blankets, textiles, etc) and sell them in Manila. She managed a canteen with my cousin, Ate Dina, at a tannery in Guiginto, Bulacan.

2. LOVES READING AND MOVIES: It was through her that I developed the hobby of reading pocket books and novels. I read almost all the books she read like Airport, Lust for Life, etc. She also loves watching movies just like my Daddy. I remember the last movie she watched with me and my sister, Cosette, at Recto, "The Deer Hunter" starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.

3. VERY PATIENT AND PERSISTENT: Despite her sickness (cancer), she never complained about the pain. I remember she wrote in one of her memoirs, "this pain is so small compared to what Jesus experienced during his crucifixion ..."

4. HER LIFE WAS FOR HER CHILDREN: She is a selfless mother. All her actions were for the good of her children - five of us (Rose, Lou, Jun, Andy and Cosette). She was not capable of giving us the luxuries of life, but she gave us our life, education and values which we cherish to this day. Our Mom died young - only 48 years old - I wonder how she will feel if ever she lived longer. We now have our own families and we owe our comfortable lives to Mom and Dad.

As a tribute to our mom and my children's lola, I named our daughter, Julia CORAZON.

Kids love your Moms!


*The poem above comes from the ff site: http://www.poemsforfree.com/molove.html - Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

Remembering Dad

Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” is both a book and a movie (This can be viewed at YouTube) which celebrates the dreams of his childhood that he has realized. “The Last Lecture” is Randy’s farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 before he died of cancer in 2008. He delivered this lecture specifically for his three little children – the oldest then was Dylan at five years old – so when they get older they will know who their father was and hopefully they will learn lessons from Randy's life as a son, father, teacher and computer science professor.

After reading the book and watching the movie, I reflected about my past and my own father. My Dad also died very early at only 43 years old, when I was just only nine years old. What do I remember about him? Not so much now, but there are still images of him that really stick in my memories. Let me share a list of ten memories about him..

• He is strict and a disciplinarian. He keeps a narra wood which we were afraid he may use whenever he gets angry at us. But he never used it on us – not because we were behaved but because he loved us.


• He loves to tease people as a sign of his fondness (“lambing”) for them. He calls his closest friends and relatives names like “Kotat”, “Bulugan”, “Kukang”.


• He loves watching movies – only English movies, no Tagalog movies. I remember our regular trips at the movie houses in Cubao (Odeon, Remar, New Frontier) and Avenida (Dynasty, Galaxy, Cinerama, Ideal, Podmon).


• He loves to cook and eat. I remember that he loves to grill a specific type of fish similar to the Sanma in Japan and cooks adobo of a certain type of bird which he always buy whenever we come from Pampanga. He likes roasting chestnuts during Christmas.


• He loves San Miguel Beer. Every night he drinks one bottle of beer.


• He loves dogs – specifically the German Shepherds. Our dogs then were named Laika and Brutus. We have cages at the back of our house built for these dogs.


• He loves taking photos of his family and friends. We have family photo albums and in most of the pictures he is not there coz he’s the one taking them.


• He loves going outing with relatives usually swimming at Los Banos’ hot spring pools.


• He wants his kids to enjoy life with various activities and toys. He taught me how to play chess. He brought us to swimming lessons at San Beda College. I remember when in a toy store he asked me and my Kuya to choose the toy we want for Christmas. I chose a plastic military Jeep (similar to the Rat Patrol) and my brother got a wooden train.


• He was proud of his children. I remember occasions where he wants his friends to see my brother and I to show-off in a gun draw.

I wonder how will I be remembered by my two kids as a father. Geof, in the recent “Father and Son Day” at Ateneo, wrote me a letter and thanked me for teaching him in his Math lessons. I hope Geof becomes good in Math. That will be my legacy to him.