OUR AWESOME PLANET

My Top 10 Discoveries in Capiz...

TRACING MY BISAYAN ROOTS SERIES [2 of 3]  

I have traveled all around the country, and this is the first time I explored our hometown city of Capiz. I'll share with you my personal discoveries in the Seafood Capital of the Philippines...

The Secret to Living 100 Years Old...

TRACING MY BISAYAN ROOTS SERIES [1 of 3]

We are so blessed that Lola Atis celebrated her 100th birthday last weekend. I decided to travel to my hometown Capiz to seek the secret to living 100 years old and to finally find my Bisayan roots. I've never appreciated our family's heritage until I visited Roxas City for the first time (after 34 years) and our Bukid in Sinabsaban, Cuardero in Capiz. Now, I can truly say that I'm a Bisaya and proud of our family's heritage.

Would you like to know the secret to living 100 years old (and maybe longer)? But first let me tell you a story about our family...

Arama's Kefir-licious

My latest advocacy is to make healthy food look cool. In Manila, we don't appreciate healthy restaurants so much because of the perceived bland or mild taste of vegetarian/healthy dishes. There was only one vegetarian hole-in-the-wall restaurant in UP that was full of flavor because the kitchen was run by a Kapampangan but, sadly, it closed down.

Thankfully, we did find another healthy alternative. But before I share about it, let me introduce you first to kefir...

The Kefir Culture

"There are two types of kefir: water kefir - small transparent grains that ferment sweetened water; and milk kefir - white or cream coloured grains that look rather like cauliflower florets that ferment milk."

Water Kefir

 

Milk Kefir

"Kefir is a living culture, a complex symbiosis of more than 30 microflora that form grains or cauliflower-like structures (sometimes called plants) in the milk. As the culture ferments the milk these structures grow, creating new grains in the process. Real kefir from live culture is an endlessly self-propagating process."

 

Read more: Seeds of Health, What is Kefir?

Looking for an On-the-Job Training this summer?

I received this letter from Steffanie and I was touched to be asked to help them promote OJTCareers.com. The website is cool and you can post quality On-the-Job Training opportunities for students for FREE. Students can easily apply for the right OJT for them. In fact, I just posted an OJT opening for students who are aspiring Pro-Bloggers and Internet Marketers for the OAP Blog Network. I will train them on the ins and outs of blogging and marketing online. Then, they can launch their own blog or own internet properties and earn from a profit-sharing arrangement from the ad revenue of the blog.

I would like to share with you the email from Steffanie:

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift...

...is a nostalgic performance of Kundiman Songs and an evening of celebration of our Harana culture!

Harana Excerpts -- Watch out for the Standing Ovation at the end of the video. I've never seen such an ovation before in any of the shows that we promoted. Stories of people crying after the show are creating a buzz around Philippine Opera Company's restaging of HARANA.

The Power Women of Harana -- Let's discover our cultural heritage and let's revive our HARANA heritage. Thank to POC for showing Harana once again!

This show will be sold out and we don't want OAP readers to miss it.

Our Awesome Planet sponsors HARANA!

May 30 (Saturday), 8pm Last Show of Harana.

Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Towers, Makati.

Ticket Prices are P1,200, P1,000 and P500.

For tickets, please call my wife Rache at +63 917 5683 627 or email her at rache@diaz.ph.
 
Buy Your HARANA Tickets Online Now from OAP!

Harana May 30, Saturday 8pm

Orchestra P1,200 - $25

Loge P1,000 - $21 

Balcony P500 - $11

Introducing...AWESOME Philippines!

What's better than WOW? Of course, AWESOME is a higher level than WOW and has a more universal/ global appeal. After 4+ years of blogging in OAP, Awesome Philippines is now mainstream.

The Awesome Philippines campaign aims to promote the Philippines to the youth travelers, defined as young people around the age of 15-25 years old, around the world. The country is already attracting tourists who are 25 years old and above, which is why the campaign aims to address the need to cater to a younger generation of travelers. This includes Fil-Ams and Asian travelers who would like to discover the natural wonders of our country, our heritage, our food and, of course, the different party places. :)

Gigi's Custaroons

Gigi's Custaroons 

ORIGINAL: box of 12 is P270; box of 24 is P490; box of 54 (bite size) is P400; box of 108 (bite size) is P735

CHEESE: box of 12 is P320; box of 24 is P590; box of 54 (bite size) is P450; box of 108 (bite size) is P835

We are loving Gigi's Custaroons at the moment and we are glad that we insisted on paying for this box so that we can blog about it. The cheese flavor is the best and it comes with a nice blue pastel-colored box.

Essentially, it is custard cake with macaroons on top but I would describe it as a dense leche flan with roasted chewy coconut on top. Just imagine eating a concentrated sweet piece of butter, cream and cheese. The coconut acts as pampaalis ng suya instead of the typical walnut or other kinds of nuts.

Lorenzo's Way - The Ultimate Tribute to Larry Cruz

The ultimate tribute to Lorenzo "Larry" Cruz is the creation of a restaurant that showcases the best of the best dishes from all of the LJC restaurants. Lorenzo's Way in Greenbelt 5 celebrates Larry's legacy of good and reliable food from his restaurants, which include Abe, Bistro Remedios, Bollywood, Fely J's, Bistro Burgos, Abe's Farm, Larry's Cafe and Bar, Cafe Adriatico, Ang Hang, In the Mood Ballroom Dancing, Cafe Havana and Solana Restaurant.

You can't go wrong with ordering anything from their menu. There is no compromise on the taste of the food. Everything is just right without the need for additional condiments. The dishes are selected based on nostalgia and invoke images of fun days in any of the LJC restaurants.