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...