ramblings, random musings, fascinations, rants, raves and revelations

I have long been doing layouts for our company and so I thought of posting the most recent one here. This will be used for the launching of our new account.

Halayang ube has long been one of my favorites for Christmas or New Year’s celebration. Even if that meant using fork to grind it or to brave the storm, I will do it. I was just captivated by how perfectly Good Shepherd’s are created and cooked. The same curiosity prompted me to ask one nun about it.

My mother was born in Capiz and summered in Mindoro and she had a pretty good handle on ube jam or halaya, whichever you prefer. And our ube jam was always a tad less purple than anything we purchased in a grocery, ate in a restaurant as part of a dessert, etc. In fact, I always thought our jam needed a tan. We even started on a quest to make an ube jam that not only tasted good, possessed a smooth and light texture [mind you, some prefer solid bits in it] and had a vibrant color… After trying several types of ube [from Bohol, Batangas, Baguio, rounded, longish, humongous, smallish] we began to despair as nearly every one yielded a sallow looking jam. So finally, we tried adding just a touch of purple food coloring [the good stuff that looks like syrup, not the watery grocery stuff] and voila! perfection achieved… so what’s the point? The point is this… do I really believe the nuns at Good Shepherd aren’t using artificial food coloring of some sort? And yeah, one has even defensively told me “depende kse yan sa ube, tingnan mo di naman lahat dito pare pareho kulay” the last time I went there.

Is this really a big deal? Do I need to have the brilliantly purple ube jam I purchased at Good Shepherd analyzed at a lab to determine if artificial food coloring was added? Even though it emphatically states in bold letters on the label: “NO ARTIFICIAL COLOR ADDED.” Have I just missed out on some key process that retains the color better? If you are to analyze this dilemma thoroughly it boils down to this: type of ube [some are purpler than others], how you cook it [boiled vs. baked, perhaps?], peeled vs. unpeeled [to reduce bleed to water], manner of mashing? [by hand, food mill, purifier of some sort], proportion of milk [cow, carabao, milk vs. cream, evaporated, condensed], butter, sugar [can’t imagine they use anything but white granulated sugar] and stirring method. The only variation that I haven’t tried is unpeeled and baked before putting it through a rice mill. So I am truly befuddled by the great color of most commercial ube unless they use food color and the nuns say they don’t… Think they are being clever, boiling down the natural dye of the ube until they create a completely natural not artificial purple food color?

Our Yaya tried to make ube jam Cebu style which meant some condensed milk added. She boiled pre-peeled ube [therefore maximum bleed], used a food mill , then added sugar, milk, butter and ended up with the pallid jam. The nice purple jam is from Good Shepherd. Not only is the latter more purple, it was smoother and less dense. We made a jam last year without condensed milk and added a touch of purple food coloring and it was nearly as appetizing as the Good Shepherd version. So unless palengke readers have some good explanation why I keep getting pale ube jam then I have to believe that most commercially made ube jams do in fact use artificial coloring and consumers have just become so used to seeing this “idealized” ube color or find it less appetizing when it is pale [think ube ice cream in pale lavender rather than deep purple]… What do you think?

Halukay ube na!!!

Over the years [if you include my previous blog], my blog has become a place for me to let off steam, share joy, share sorrow, look at life from a different angle. Sometimes I go over my previous posts and just ponder how naive I was to feel so strongly about such trivial issues.

Life has been good to me. I feel I can say that. But there is just one thing missing for it to become perfect. And I have received confirmation that it will never be perfect. So I try to salvage what I have left and still amounts to a fairly nice picture… the only thing missing is the only thing that mattered all the time… other issues were small… this one stayed with me for years and probably will never go away.

Well, life is like that. Takes away what you want most, gives you things you feel you could do without.

Good thing there will always be friends to stand by you.

You may have noticed how silent this blog has been even if I have already been in town for 3 days already, and may think of me as a terrible blogger! I’ve been quiet because I’ve been hospitalized the next day I came back but that’s another story [hehehe] and have also been looking for something nice about Baguio to write about. “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything” applies to Baguio and me these days.

However, with all the price increases happening now, it’s but just timely to post something that could at least help us release our frustrations. Here goes…

Why Take a Cab in Baguio?

The taxi service Baguio is pretty good. I wouldn’t say exceptional, like the ones in Singapore, but nevertheless way better than Manila’s, for the following reasons:

1. The taxi drivers give you the exact change.

2. The taxi drivers do not expect tips [so don’t spoil them].

3. Cheaper than anywhere else in the country. The flag down in just Php25.00 for the first 500 meters [plus p10 as mandated of course], I believe, with an additional Php1.50/100 meters. That’s because the cabs here are not air conditioned.

4. It’s a “rider’s” market as the supply of cabs exceeds the demand, so they hardly “choose” their passengers.

5. The cabbies, especially the older ones, are pretty honest. They will generally choose the fastest way to get to your destination, which usually means avoiding Session Road, unless that’s where you’ll be dropped off. They will not take you round and round hoping for a higher fare. They also do not “contract” rates like they do in Manila. Their honesty, though, does not always go as far as returning to you stuff you leave behind, like cellphones.

6. We do have a large supply of taxi cabs so that now they are everywhere all day! It used to be that only Session Road had cabs waiting around for fare at 3am. Now, even ‘remote’ places like Pacdal have cabs available 24/7!

7. Baguio taxis are pretty well maintained. In all my years of commuting I have never once had one break down on me — knock on wood — not even a flat tire. Plus they do get them washed daily [that’s why we have car washes all over the place, even on the streets], and there’s hardly that sickeningly sweet smell of a cheap air freshener that is usually identified with the airconditioned Manila cab.

Pictures will be posted soon.