The Halo-Halo Bistro

By Loi Gillera In the fall of 1964 I was doing some schooling in one of the amphibious school of the U.S. Naval Training Command at San Diego, California. One of my classmate was Lt(jg) Lawrence A. Grant of Bangor, Maine. Our initials are both LAG so we're always next to each other in roll calls inside the class, on shipboard exercises and in field activities. We even shared the same BOQ billet. Hence, we became good friends. There were many weekends we spent together just being ourselves (share stories about our lives, hike the mountains of Laguna, take Santa Fe trips to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle). But the recreation we loved most was ogling the fair sex in and out of the base. It was not long then when both of us got our "Susans". Larry's girl is Alice and mine is Lesley. The 4 of us remained inseparable, particularly Larry and me, until the end of our training. Thanksgiving of 1965 was the last time we're all together. Larry proceeded to Texas to ...

By Dr. Herm Valenzuela After a backyard BBQ and servings of tea/coffee I was asked to compose an "Essay" on sugars & artificial sweeteners. The adverse effect of sugar are well known. Nearly all simple sugars are absorbed and metabolized quickly and disrupt insulin levels, contributing to most chronic illness. Sucrose is the common table sugar, fructose from fruits and lactose from milk- all are transformed into glucose or blood sugar. They're all carbohydrates, as all foods made from flour, w'c serves as a major energy source in the diets of (faunas) animals that produces about 4 calories per gram of it. Proteins also give 4calories per gram and fats about 7 calories. A calorie, FYI is the amount of energy to raise the temperature of 1 Kg of water by 1 degree C at 1 atmospheric pressure. You can imagine a hi-gasoline octane rating produces more heat for your car's motor performance. Vitamins are not considered foods- they are various organic substances (mi...

By Loi Gillera Some of you guys must have heard of "Mike Boys". When we're in our 4th year at Mapa, "Mike Boys" is one of those smaller teenage gangs whose turf includes the general area where our school and neighborhood is. What's unique with this teenage gang is that almost all of its members are sons of well-to-do families and schooled in private institutions. Most notorious of this pack is one named Peter Francisco. One late afternoon, I was walking home alone and just about where the tall mango tree outside Mapa High in the junction of Hidalgo and Plaza del Carmen, Peter, with 2of his sidekicks pounced on me. I learned later I was mistaken for someone eyeing Peter's girl and the idea was to hurt me bad. They did not ask any question, much less give me time to talk. The blows rained and before long I was kissing dirt. Both my eyes are almost shut but in the blurr of the scuffle. I saw 2 guys in khaki uniforms joining the fray. Coming to my defense, t...

By Dr. Herm Valenzuela Some weeks ago Zack asked me to open some lines of commo for our Halo-Halo Bistro blog previoulsly known as Minyong's Halo-Halo Stand. He suggested a piece on snoring so, here it is- I hope you won't find this boring! I haven't edited and fine-tuned my poignant tale about The Song of Ruth yet. Mykonos Island (many years ago): In Greek mythology, Lodine was a beautiful godess who fell in love but was spurned by a fisherman (no, his name was not Hermes). She got enraged and cast a spell on him that if he sleeps, he will die. This is called central sleep apnea (Lodine's curse) and the chap died in his sleep. This maybe a factor in SIDS- sudden infant death syndrome. Hundred Islands, Summer of '66: Juanito R. from Alaminos (Greg's friend from NTC) arranged a vacation for fun and frolics for a few days in the sand. So, in the day, we sang and danced and horse-played in the sun. But the nights were a different matter. Nobody was able to sleep...

By Dr. Herm Valenzuela To all the ladies I've known before- This health bulletin is a rehash of what I've previously condensed about C.A.D but this time is from a lady physician from Mt.Sinai M.C. just issued this week. Coronary artery disease is the no.1 killer in the U.S. accounting for almost 1/2 M deaths in 2005. More than 16 M Americans live with C.A.D. and 1.3 M angioplasties were done in the U.S. in 2006. The survival rate for coronary intervention in N.Y. State is 99.2% - This is significant & encouraging (Source: Dr. Annapoorna Kini). "The heart is a muscle that has to keep pumping for us to live, but it requires oxygen to function. It gets that 02 thru the coronary artery, a branch of the aorta. When fatty deposits block this blood flow to the heart, it becomes an extremely serious medical condition," says Dr. Kini. Coronary (baloon) angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure to compress the lipid plaques to re-establish blood flow and using stents ...

In early 1950's, my Uncle Pelagio, who drove a taxicab in Manila for a living used to tell us kids a scary story about his encounter with a white ghost on Balete Drive. In those days, Balete Drive ghost stories were quite popular. Uncle Pelagio related picking up a passenger on Balete Drive one early morning at around 3 am, a pretty teenage girl dressed in white. The passenger asked to be taken to her home close by. While travelling along Balete Drive, she started telling my Uncle her sad love story, and when he asked where the guy was, her image dissappeared from the rear-view mirror and when he looked at the backseat she was no longer there. The story being circulated in those days was that this lady in white who would normally appear after midnight between Bougainvilla and Mabolo Sts. was a student of the University of the Philippines. While on her way to Balete Drive from her school, she was raped by a cab driver and her body dumped in this area. People who lived in the ar...

U.S. Armed Forces Chess Championship 1963, Washington D.C. Mang Bading’s barber shop was very popular in my neighborhood when I was growing up. Mang Bading had only one barber’s chair but his place attracted many -- not for haircuts but for entertainment and amusement. There were benches and chairs outside the shop where the regular visitors would be playing dama (Filipino checkers) and chess while onlookers gathered around the games. I played dama with my Uncle Pelagio frequently but I wasn’t good enough to challenge any of the regular players at the barber shop. After school I would often stop by the barber shop to watch people play dama and chess. I wasn’t very interested in chess at the time. Although I knew the basic rules of the game, I thought it was too complicated. I became more interested in chess when I was 14 years old. My high school friend, Eliezer Fortunato, and I liked to compete with each other on just about anything, so since we were both chess beginners of th...