The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
A couple of days ago, I was chatting with a fellow lawyer who was on his last day in Geneva for a conference. The chat that started with Swiss chocolates took a serious and contemplative turn when I said Switzerland sounds like a good place to retire in. Stable economy, neutral politics, efficient government and ... (more)
The first time I saw the trailer many months ago, I knew I was going to see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. How could I not? I love the 1987 original, and the same director and lead star were doing the sequel. The release of Money Never Sleeps was postponed so many times but, finally, ... (more)
Is it politically incorrect for a Filipino to like Korean and Chinese food? I’ve never denied it — I like Chinese food and I can live on Chinese dishes three hundred and sixty five days a year. I don’t deny either that I’ve learned to love other Asian cuisines especially Thai and Japanese food and ... (more)
Over in the food blog, two separate entries spawned some discussions about tortilla presses. I’m looking for one, some readers gave advice as to where I can buy one, another suggested that, since it isn’t hard to make one, I can have a karpintero do it for me. I replied to the latter that with ... (more)
Some twenty years ago, the 20-year-old daughter of a distant relation left for the United States with her fiancé who was more than thirty years her senior. We didn’t even know she was engaged until her mother came over afterward to gush about her daughter’s good fortune. She was marrying a very wealthy man, she ... (more)
(Today’s column) For about three weeks now, an e-mail about the collapse of the US economy before the summer of 2009 has been circulating. The text of the e-mail is a verbatim reproduction of a Web log entry by one Hal Turner who, until July of 2008, ran a donations-dependent Webcast show from his home ... (more)
Last Tuesday’s and today’s columns were a two-part essay on poverty; in particular, an attempt to understand its origin from an anthropological context, vis a vis the role of government in the development of poverty. Tuesday‘s column: Poverty and private property Poverty is not a modern-day phenomenon. Of course, that is not the same as ... (more)
I was reading an article by Alex Berenson titled “Those With a Sense of History May Find It’s Time to Invest” and it felt like déjà vu. We were on our way to Dapitan yesterday and we passed by an unfinished condominium project in San Juan. Huge project but it appeared abandoned. Speedy’s familiar with ... (more)
(Yesterday’s column. The photos do not appear on the print and online versions of Manila Standard Today.) Last Sunday, we visited the popular Market at the Hills along Temple Drive in Quezon City. Most of the stalls sold food but there was one, Bambuza, selling products made from bamboo and banana fiber. There were beautiful ... (more)
(Yesterday’s column) I found it strange that officials of the Health Department started checking if babies confined in hospitals with kidney ailments could be victims of the contaminated Sanlu milk from China. Sanlu milk was not exported to the Philippines. The accompanying statement of health officials clarified the issue with the admission that Sanlu milk ... (more)
(Yesterday’s column) A decade and a half or so ago, whenever prices of fuel and consumer goods started rising at alarming levels, people used to joke that “Si Nora Aunor na lang ang hindi tumataas [Only Nora Aunor isn't getting any higher].” The literal translation might not make sense but in common usage, “taas,” rootword ... (more)
Casa is Spanish for house. CASA is also an acronym for Connie, Antonio, Sam and Alex. We are all surnamed Veneracion. We all love to take photos -- of anything that catches our fancy. It's a family obsession.
This is a journal of how we live, eat, learn, play and have fun. Work? Work is part of playing and having fun. Seriously.
In 2003, a time when I hadn't heard of the term "blog", I started a recipe website at cooking.houseonahill.net using a now defunct content management system that ran on ASP. Ok, never mind the geek talk, I'm sure you're not interested in that. The contents easily multiplied and, in 2004, I moved the food site to pinoycook.net. Always unhappy with the fact that the dot com versions of houseonahill and pinoycook weren't … (click here to read all »)
I can understand that bottled water and chips may be attractive to thirsty and hungry drivers and commuters, but plants? Does anyone really buy plants from these hawkers? And that’s not the most shocking. They also sell toys, fishing rods, doormats…
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