Philippines, island country of Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. It is an archipelago consisting of more than 7,000 islands and islets lying about 500 miles (800 km) off the coast of Vietnam. Manila is the capital, but nearby Quezon City is the country’s most-populous city. Both are part of the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), located on Luzon, the largest island. The second largest island of the Philippines is Mindanao, in the southeast.
DECEMBER Food and Lit looks to be really good.
My BOOK STACK to read for the month!!
https://www.filipinochow.com/recipes/spamsilog/
Spam, a canned, spiced ham, is an unlikely member of the Filipino culinary canon. It was developed in 1937 by Hormel Foods Corporation, an American company, and fed widely to American GIs around the world during World War II.
I LOVE SPAM!
Imagine my delight that I get to use it in recipes for the FOOD part of my FOOD AND LIT this month!
FOOD AND LIT this month!
These recipes highlight the standout favors of Austronesian, Malay-Indonesian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and American cuisines to make unforgettable dishes. Using easy-to-find ingredients and simple techniques Liza teaches readers to cook their own lumpia (spring rolls), sinigang (sour soup), longganisa (sausage), adobo (chicken or pork), kare kare (stewed oxtail), leche fan and more.
The American Army introduced Spam canned meat around the world, including to the Philippines where it’s an important part of the food canon. …
SpamSiLog (Spam, friend rice and egg), which has become a local staple is what I ate today for brunch. Yum.
I found some wonderful middle grade reads and a fun folktale book to finish up my #FOODANDLITPHILIPPINES challenge for December and ending my Food and Literature 2021 challenge.
Marie Miranda Cruz’s debut Everlasting Nora follows the story of a young girl living in the real-life shantytown inside the Philippines’ Manila North Cemetery. After a family tragedy results in the loss of both father and home, 12-year-old Nora lives with her mother in Manila’s North Cemetery, which is the largest shanty town of its kind in the Philippines today.
Amihan lives on Culion Island, where some of the inhabitants – including her mother – have leprosy. Ami loves her home – with its blue seas and lush forests, Culion is all she has ever known. The Island at the end of Everything.
Light and deep, smart and funny, crushing and hopeful all at the same time, My Fate According to the Butterfly will open your eyes to both the world’s potential for magic, and to its harsh realities.
Andi is short. And she has lots of wishes. She wishes she could play on the school basketball team, she wishes for her own bedroom, but most of all she wishes that her long-lost half-brother, Bernardo, could come and live in London where he belongs. Then Andi’s biggest wish comes true and she’s minutes away from becoming someone’s little sister. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she hopes he’ll turn out to be tall and just as crazy as she is about basketball. When he finally arrives, he’s tall all right. Eight feet tall, in fact—plagued by condition called Gigantism. Tall Story.
Exotic, clever, and poignant, Asian-Pacific Folktales and Legends invites you into a magically distinctive world. Originating from the far corners of the globe—China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia—these tales teach us about morality and mysticism in enchanting ways.
Christmas in the Philippines (Filipino: Pasko sa Pilipinas) is one of the biggest holidays in the country. The Philippines, one of two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia (the other one being East Timor), celebrates the world’s longest Christmas season, with Christmas carols heard as early as September 1 and lasting variously until either Epiphany, the Feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9, or the Feast of the Santo Niño on the third Sunday of January. The official observance by the Catholic Church in the Philippines is from the first day of Advent until the Feast of the Epiphany on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day.
Preferably in the morning, on Christmas, Filipinos typically visit their extended family, especially to pay their respects to senior relatives. This custom of giving respect is enacted through the “Págmamáno”. A supplicant takes the back of an elder’s hand and presses it against the forehead while giving the greeting, Máno, pô (lit. “[Thy] hand, please”). The elder often responds by reciting a blessing or simply acknowledging the gesture, and in return gives “Aguinaldo” or money in the form of crisp banknotes, often placed in a sealed envelope such as an ang pao.
https://goplaceswithkids.com/philippine-christmas-parol-craft/
