Patyay Outreach Climb

My friends Chito and Atong together with their mountaineering friends from Pilipinas Sierra are going on an “outreach climb” to Sitio Patyay, Brgy. Magulon, Mayaoyao, Ifugao province on May 22-24, 2009. Their mission: to bring school supplies and educational materials to schoolchildren in the community.

When the group dropped by Patyay at one of their climbs last year, one of the barangay officials asked for any assistance that could be extended to their school. Sitio Patyay (one of the rice terraces communities) is the farthest community of Mayaoyao town, which takes the locals 4 hours to reach on foot. There are no means of transportation as well as electricity in the area. The town of Mayaoyao itself is at least a 4-hour drive from Santiago City, Isabela. There’s a day care center (with 20 students) and a primary school (with 29 students) in the sitio. The school building has only 2 classrooms and 2 teachers – one for the day care and one for grades 1 to 3.

In preparation for the school year opening in June, the group is planning to give each student a complete set of school supplies worth approximately P300. The package includes a backpack, raincoat, notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpener, crayons, scissors, writing pads, rulers, and plastic envelopes.

Other supplies that will be bought for the use of both teachers and students are pentel pens, ballpens, manila papers, chalks, board erasers, assorted papers, punchers, fasteners, staplers, envelopes, illustration materials, educational posters and toys.

Kind-hearted people who are reading this might want to make this school year a little better for the children in Sitio Patyay. Please donate in cash or in kind to Chito Atienza (#981-2203). Aside from school supplies, you may also donate old (and new) textbooks, story books, coloring books, and reference books like dictionaries and encyclopedia.

It’s always nice to give to small groups’ outreach activities because I know that my donation will surely reach the intended beneficiaries. Siguradong walang balasubas. I’m personally vouching for this group. I’ve had the pleasure of joining Chito, Atong, and friends in a fun camping trip / trek in Coto, Zambales last March. This time, the climb in Sitio Patyay would be for a cause. I hope they’d continue to hold more outreach climbs. I’m also hoping and praying that I’d be able to join the climb next time. (In the mean time . . . Batanes, here I come.)

 

All things green and wonderful

There’s something so clean and refreshing in the taste of green tea which I absolutely like. Other people find the “lasang dahon” too weird so I guess it’s an acquired taste.

To my fellow green-leafy-goodness lovers in QC,  Kozui –  that small café and restaurant along Tomas Morato –  might just be our green tea heaven.

Kozui’s green tea ice cream tastes and looks the way TV commercial-worthy ice cream should be – dreamy. It has the right combination of the smooth cream, milky sweetness, slightly bitter green tea taste, and summery light green color.

Another favorite is the tiramisu, done Kozui-style with matcha green tea powder sprinkled on top of it. Sugar rush with potent antioxidants. Nice.

On a more recent trip to Kozui with officemates, it was a delight to try out the other menu items and find that there’s more to the restaurant than green tea. “Totoong pagkain” as I call filling savory food, excluding desserts and sweets. Kozui offers very affordable and creative Japanese food which is definitely more than the usual tempura, sushi, and maki saturating the Japanese-inspired restaurants in the city.

Spinach soup, a bowl of scary looking greenish brew, is far from vile. It’s surprisingly delicious and very filling. It’s quite a steal considering that a bowl worth only P120 could already feed three people. (No, we weren’t on a diet.)

DanDan noodles is a great Japanese version of the Chinese Szechuan noodles. It’s served cold like a salad so the spicy flavors of ginger and chili pepper really pop out. The 2-in-1 noodle-salad dish is at once cold, hot, garlicky, savory, crunchy (thanks to cucumber and bean sprouts), and decidedly chunky (thanks to scallions). A plateful costs only P158.

Other delicious choices for “totoong pagkain”  are korokke mix (potato balls mashed and deep-fried with another leaf-flavored favorite, spinach), takoyaki (streetfood fare of squid-and-leek balls flavored with nori), and karaage chicken wrap (grilled pita wrap bursting with chicken chunks, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and onions with black sesame dressing).

Using black sesame dressing in the chicken wrap is brilliant. The comforting taste of the usual honey mustard dressing stops being amusing after so many salads.

Kozui Green Tea is at 258 B Tomas Morato corner Scout Fernandez, Quezon City. It’s very near Bang Café, which is more noticeable because it has a bigger, red signage. Contact number of Kozui (not Bang, hahah ) is 413-2705.

My stash of tea: (left to right) matcha powdered green tea, sencha tea, sencha tea but with nicer packaging, and cherry blossom tea (which is obviously not green tea but bought it in Kyoto just the same for "sentimental reasons")

 

Henry’s Callos

How I wish I cooked that one.  The Callos a la Madrilèna I brought at a friend’s despedida de soltera last Friday earned raves from the guests. 

 

I should have lied and said “Yes, I cleaned the ox tripe myself and transformed it into an unbelievably hearty, thick, rich stew. “

 

But no, ayoko magpanggap. Baka magpa-cooking demo, naloko na. I actually ordered my no-sweat, hassle-free callos from Henry’s Catering (#932-6228). 

 

If and when I finally figure out how to cook callos, I’ll post the recipe and pics here. Until then, there’s the caterer.