The Halo-Halo Bistro

By Herm Valenzuela The winter solstice came the last few days of 2010 then the day after Christmas a blizzard of snowstorm swept like a tsunami from the northwest that engulf the city transformed like a winter wonderland blanketing the sidewalks with dunes of ice and the city stood still. The last blizzard of this magnitude was my first winter in New York when John Lindsay was mayor. He mismanaged the clearing of the roads and the garbage piled-up in the streets for days. He lost his reelection the next November. The skies cleared this morning and the sun came out of the azure skies with it's radiant and warm glow and the buses and trains started moving. Three days after we were "holed-in" the house and embedded with my wife I had "cabin fever." I decided to go out. Besides, I wanted to test my cardio-vascular function, like the Canadians do, and walk in the cold. If I could reach the train station without "croaking" then I don't need a tripple cor...

We had a family gathering at our house day after Christmas; even our son Carl and his wife Suzy who are living in Brazil were able to ‘join’ us virtually via Skype video. Too bad they weren’t able to join us for a fine turkey dinner. As I have done many times, I roasted a turkey on a charcoal grill, and it turned out delicious! It was a 12-pounder on a rotisserie, roasting for three hours. It rained on Christmas day, but the weather was perfect for grilling outdoors this time. Here’s the recipe for my rotisserie turkey: Equipment: Charcoal Grill, Charbroil CB940 or equivalent, with rotisserie Smoker Box Ingredients: 10 to 12 pounds turkey, thawed 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons pepper 2 teaspoons rubbed sage leaves 1 teaspoon thyme leaves white wine chunks of mesquite, hickory or alder (pick one to suite your flavor) for smoker Thaw turkey per instructions on the package. Wash turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Season cavity with salt and olive oil. Prepar...

Book Review of "Pinoy Stewards In The U.S. Sea Services" BY ALLEN GABORRO (FilAm Star, December 10, 2010) by Allen Gaborro Writer's Page on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 9:49pm TITLE: Pinoy Stewards In The U.S. Sea Services: Seizing Marginal Opportunity AUTHOR: Ray L. Burdeos PUBLISHER: AuthorHouse 211 pages nonfiction ----------------------------------------------- Former US Navy and Coast Guard steward and now-author Ray L. Burdeos is so calculatedly detailed and prolific in his portrayals and reminiscences of his days in the service that he appears to find it easier to describe the faraway past rather than bring attention to the contiguous present. Even in those relatively few times when the present leaps out in Burdeos’s thoughts, the past invariably creeps in as subjective footnotes and as applicative historical material. Burdeos’s newest addendum of his time as a steward in the US Navy during the 1950’s and 60’s, titled “Pinoy Stewards In The U.S. Sea Services: Seiz...

Seeking for a better future in the land of milk and honey in America, and reaching to fulfill a dream of travel and adventure to see the world, many young Filipinos during the 50’s and the 60’s enlisted in the U.S. Sea Services (Navy and Coast Guard). I was one of those adventurers who joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1959, starting off as a steward recruit in Sangley Point, Philippines, retiring after 27+ years of service. A new book by Ray Burdeos (see photo), Pinoy Stewards in the U.S. Sea Services: Seizing Marginal Opportunity , depicts the experiences of several of us Pinoy sailors, how we endured the tough life as servants aboard Uncle Sam’s fighting ships and cutters, and how we assimilated into a culture much different from ours to chase the American dream. I am honored that Ray wrote about me in this book. The book is available for purchase online at Barnes & Noble , Amazon and http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=69703"> Authorhouse.

LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) was developed for military purposes during WWII, with first operational use in 1942. The system was retained after the war because of its usefulness to shipping, commercial fishing, and long-distance air transportation. LORAN worked by transmitting pulses from various high-powered stations scattered around the globe: the receiver measured the time differences in the reception of the pulses from different sources, from which the position of the vessel or aircraft could be calculated. In the late 1970s, the original version of the system, LORAN-A, was replaced with LORAN-C, which operated on a lower frequency, with more highly-automated receivers and with significantly increased positional accuracy. I got my first taste of Loran in 1965 when the Coast Guard assigned me to LORSTA Batan shortly after ET School. I retired from the Coast Guard in 1987 after serving almost 28 years, and 11 of those years were Loran-related assignments. Crew of Loran Monitor Stat...

At a very young age, I was attacked by a stray dog while playing in our neighborhood. I had to undergo anti-rabies shots in my back for 25 days and I was miserable. The experience gave me dog phobia; I had tried to avoid being near dogs ever since. A couple of years ago I was introduced to Tekka, a beagle-hound belonging to my daughter and her husband. The more I got to know her the more I enjoyed her company. She is a loving and playful dog. I consider her our ‘grand dog’. I have done several watercolor paintings of Tekka and they all ended up on display on the walls of my daughter’s living room. Recently I did another watercolor of Tekka at the request of my wife. The painting was from a photo I took of Tekka while we were wine-tasting in Anderson Valley early this year. This is probably the best one of Tekka I have done.

There is a lot of truth on this. Don't know the "Historian" Author. This brief history of the Philippines , told by a philosopher of the streets, is probably closest to the truth about ourselves. WHAT'S the big deal when Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan in 1521? Nothing much really. During Lapu-Lapu's time, Mactan was strictly tribal. Think small, gid. There were no big ideas such as nationalism or geopolitics. Lapu-Lapu was simply, the local siga-siga and Magellan was the culture-shocked Westerner, a native first-timer in the exotic east. We lionize Lapu-Lapu as a hero and nationalist. Ang totoo, mayabang lang si Lapu-Lapu. But this defeat of a foreign invader, did not make a Filipino nation. The timing was wrong. And don't you believe that bull that Spanish explorers came to find spices of the East to improve the taste of their bland cuisine. Their hidden agenda was to spread their kingdom through colonization, the euphemism for land grabbing. During the 333 year...

In my high school days back in the Philippines I liked to hang out in the magazine department of Stop 'n Shop Grocery Store in Old Santa Mesa. I would spend hours reading their comic books without buying anything until one of the clerks would come and kick me out of the store. Stop 'n Shop introduced me to Mad Magazine. I admired the cartoons, especially those created by Jack Davis. When I could afford to buy a copy of Mad, I would select one that had lots of Jack Davis' work. I liked his style of cartooning. I studied it a lot and tried to emulate his style. Sometime in the '70's I saw in the LA Times a caricature of Clint Eastwood in a spaghetti western garb; I admired it very much, and at that time I had a strong urge to copy his work but I was too busy with my work and my family. Just recently, I did a search on the internet for that caricature and I found it. Now that I have so much free time, I don’t have any more excuses. Here is my rendition of Jack...

Nestor Palugod Enriquez www.filipinohome.com Coming to America Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery. Today is a gift,and that's why we call it the present. Before and After the Navy. Reflecting the ocean in my half century.. This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last month of 2009. A scene you will probably not get to see in person, the sun is below the moon. The sun is at the highest that it could have been high noon. So take a moment and enjoy God's work at the North Pole. The sun and the moon captured by the ocean on top of the world. The game of Mahjong is the rarity of calling the win by dipping the moon under the ocean. The impossible odd but men would reach the moon in the last century of the last millennium. The moon looks larger when it is low or closer to the horizon, but it is only is an illusion. The distance of the horizon at sea is the same anywhere. Walking on water, you can see the horizon about 3 miles all around...