Christmas bread project

I like panettone! Don’t you? Whether fruit- or chocolate-studded, this sumptuous Italian Christmas bread never fails to satisfy my taste buds. But like any other bread that I come to like and keep coming back to as long as it is in abundance, I often find myself experimenting in the kitchen after a while for a homemade version. 

Simple pleasures of patis

A good friend brought us patis (fish/anchovy sauce) last week all the way from the US and since then, I’ve been enjoying all the simple pleasures of having it on the dinner table.

There’s no patis in this part of Brazil so I haven’t tasted this salty condiment for a long time. At times in my desperation and uncontrolled cravings, I had considered the crazy and brave thought of making my own. How desperate is that?

Filipinos in Pelotas

Who would have thought that more than a couple of decades ago, a Filipino family came to live here in this small city of Pelotas?

Knowing that they raised their children here and stayed much longer than they planned is, to me, very comforting and inspiring as well. Somehow, it comes with the message that everything is going to be even much better than I expect. They were probably like us especially in the beginning, tagging along our child wherever we go, sticking together as often as we could, hoping and praying to see another Filipino (or Filipino food ingredients) in this part of the globe, and getting lost in a Portuguese conversation.

Dads & daughters

I got amused while eavesdropping on a conversation between a young man and his daughter as the three of us gathered around a heap of red, succulent tomatoes in a frutaria.  The girl, about 9 years old, was holding a small piece of paper, which I supposed was a list made by her mother. 

Eyes glued on the list, she was telling her father that they were to buy three tomatoes. The father frowned in confusion as he absentmindedly picked one tomato after another while asking if that meant three kilos or three pieces.  His daughter said there was only “3 tomates” in the list and guessed that her mother meant three pieces.  But her father laughed and told her that perhaps her mother forgot to put “kilos” in the list. The conversation went on, punctuated by laughters, and then they started to debate, but in a positive and obviously fun way.