Haynaku sa haiku...

Its been a long, long while since I ever wrote anything literary...I think I've forgotten that part of my life way back when I was a teenager.

Back in high school at STC (St. Theresa's College), words were powerful, fun and were something I wasn't comfortable muttering out loud since I had a tendency to speak very fast - jumbling my speech since my mouth couldn't catch up with what I thought I wanted to share. Still, I enjoyed English subjects and didn't shirk my duty as a student when we had to turn in our random written formal and informal theme assignments.

During college at CIT (Cebu Institute of Technology University), words were superflous, unimportant, and fleeting to me...except when they became part of a computer program. 

One didn't think about diction, rhythm, rhyme or the resulting impact on the heart and thoughts on people who read one's scribbles. One only had to think of logic and reason and syntax although structure was important in a way. I left behind my habit of reading classics and novels, and concentrated on poring over lines and lines of code. Debugging was some thing I enjoyed..especially if it was other people's programs.

Did you ever see this comic strip featuring a programmer-applicant and his interviewer? 

The latter said the programmer was superlative in Cobol, Pascal, Fortran and C (during my time, those where some of the languages we gave instructions to the computer!)  It was just too bad the applicant was "lousy" in English. Sometimes I feared being lumped into a particular segment of software developers - tolerably good in coding and logic; and tolerably passable in English.

Now and then, I become nostalgic, and I wonder wistfully whatever happened to the copies of the bunch of poems, stories, anecdotes I had submitted in our English classes more than 2 decades ago. I liked limericks, I liked puns. I enjoyed breaking into Walt Whitman's "O Captain, my Captain! our fearful trip is done;" once in a while. I enjoyed a little bit of Shakespeare and a little bit of Robert Browning. I read Canterbury Tales in the loo. Ok, so I read Nancy Drew too.

I enjoyed various pieces of works but it wasn't something I put a whole lot of my mind into. Some people could ponder and ruminate about great works and I? I was content just standing by and listening slash reading these words. At worst they floated like a wavering ghostly figure past my ears...at best they left a very subtle footprint on my cerebral cortex. Pfft!

I write this now since I had the urge to type about something I felt 10 minutes ago. I felt I missed going 

back to scribbling words on random pieces of paper and sticking them in various places. I wanted to write haiku at 2 in the morning, because when prompted, I can only remember one I wrote during my high school graduation...maybe because it meant something personal to me then. 

Since life at that point seemed to be complicated and exciting, full of various adventures and trails unknown. I wanted to express how I thought all the years of schooling (and waking up early!) culminated at last in that grand transformation. I was a young lady primed to go into the world of....college.

That haiku went this way -

green caterpillar,

spinning a silver cocoon....

metamorphosis!

At this moment though, I just want to randomly write more 5-7-5 lines because my work nowadays seem so far away from any creative leaning. I feel like I am slipping...into a world of contracts, timelines, milestones, engagement margins - everything is so cut and dried! so... so...blah! Hmm...how descriptive of me...is that the best adjective I can come up with?

Wait-a-minute!..I am determined! Before I sign off, I must come up with one haiku! Maybe that will jump-start my brain. Maybe that will get my creative juices flowing. Maybe that will balance out my mind? Or maybe I can just say ..never mind the 5-7-5-7-7...just write the darn thing before your muscles lock in this position in front of your laptop!

Well, here goes nothing - let's give it a shot then - it is not as if I was aspiring to become an award-winning writer...I just need another outlet once in a while so I can find my swing.

first raindrop trembles

poised on a withered leaf-tip..

falling on a frog -

slide and disappear into...

the cracked lips of thirsty Earth.

In tribute to my love of frogs, the rainy weather we are having and last but not the least, here's to Mother 

Earth!

- Nov 22, '07 3:14 AM

Japanese-Cook-Wannabe, Entry # 1

Nov 1, '07 3:36 PM for everyone

Yesterday, I finally visited the out-of-the-way Japanese grocery/sushi bar I had noticed at least 6 months ago. This was tucked into the corner near Landmark and Park Square's parking area/jeep terminal lot.

Alas and alack, I found out that they were doing the "all-items at  50%" since Park Square is going to be torn down and replaced by a hotel. October 31 was their last day! What a waste that I didn't know about it earlier or else I could have found a way to cart home the Japanese rice, sake, and other ingredients.

As it was, I was partially satisfied to finally find the pink thingie (I call it that in my mind, but which is I think what is known as a"Sakura denpo"), used in the kani salad during that Jap food fest, as well as a couple of Japanese snacks e.g. Green tea pretzels, spicy seaweed strips, and Japanese pancake to name a few.

Anyway, it has now inspired me to share a series on Japanese food - whether I am the cook, the eater, the researcher; whether its about preparation, etiquette, eating etc.; whether I am expounding, cutting and pasting from articles, quoting verbatim or rattling my head off foolishly - it will be anything goes my way style.

Today, there will be two simple topics for me to write about.

I. Japanese cooking flavors

Saltiness, sweetness and sourness. Obvious, ne?  ("ne" is like an expression in Nihonggo..like "di ba"?)
The listed flavours above can be produced by using in tandem or individually the following basic ingredients:

• soy sauce (I hear the japs may be pronouncing this as soy-sosu hehehe)
• Japanese rice wine or "sake"
• miso (soya bean paste which has been fermented)
• mirin (variant of sake with sugar)
• sea salt
• caster sugar
• last but not least, dashi (Japanese stock produced from dried bonito...or dried kelp)

II. Eating Etiquette

Chopsticks or "o-hashi" is a Chinese invention that has been assimilated into the Jap culture. While I will not attempt anymore to describe here the correct way to hold them, let me share with you some of the basic principles of etiquette in eating Japanese food with or without chopsticks.

1. Do not spear your food with chopsticks (sashi-bashi).

2. Do not use your chopsticks to pull a dish toward you or push it away from you (yose-bashi).

3. Do not hold your chopsticks over a dish while deciding what to eat (mayoi-bashi).

4. Never pass food between chopsticks. This mimics the Buddhist practice of handling the bones of the dead (hashi-watashi). Urgh.

5. Unless you are a lefty, use your left hand to hold the rice bowl and your right hand to use your chopsticks to scoop up the rice.

6. Japanese noodles can be slurped with much enthusiasm while holding the noodles between your chopsticks. But Japanese soups should be sipped with uhm...a little less enthusiam :-)

7. If you are in a formal situation, do not eat food directly from a large, communal dish. First place food from the large dish into the small dish provided for your portion and then take food from that.

And so I bid you a fond itadakimasu! (いただきます)! 

(This is uttered before eating as it is like thanking God for the food that you have received or at least thanking the person who prepared the food you are now about to eat.)