Native Chicken is Beaten to Death

A famous delicacy in the Cordilleras is known as Pinikpikan. What makes the food preparation bizarre is that the native chicken is being beaten to death. To remove its feathers, the whole Beaten to Death Chicken was burned instead of dipping it into boiling water. It was then cooked in the traditional method known as “tinola” or "adobo".

Did Robert James Fischer a.k.a. Bobby Fischer Killed Himself?

When I heard the news that the former World Chess Champion died at the age of 64, inside my brain I have the speculation that Robert James Fischer a.k.a. Bobby Fischer killed himself.
Maybe he would like to immortalize himself inside the 64-square (8x8) chessboard.
Russian chess players immortalized their chess games through the Russian chess magazine named “64”.

"Eating Dangerously" and “The Test of Loyalty”

In Japan, you can eat a slice of blowfish and hope that the chef skillfully removed the poison.

But that is nothing compared to the delicacies being served in Baguio City, Philippines.

In Baguio, you can order dog meat in restaurant and then pray that the unfortunate dog does not have any rabies.

Eating dog meat is a culture in Baguio. However, the commercialization of dog meat destroy the old culture because dogs are now illegally coming from Southern Luzon to be butchered in Baguio.

In this bizarre culture, man should eat his own dog with his family members or with his friends. And while eating, they talk about the loyalty of his dog to him. This may sounds like a bizarre funeral service.

To my mind (inside the brain of Engr Alex Valdez), I call this “The Test of Loyalty” between the man and his dog. If the man eat his favorite dog and if the dog has the rabies, then together they will IMMEDIATELY be united in eternal life, forever.

A Typical Filipino Lifestyle

A typical lifestyle of a Filipino is this - We eat seven (7) times a day.
1. Agahan or Almusal in the morning.
2. Merienda at 9:00 AM. (Ilocanos prefer Kilabban than merienda.)
3. Tanghalian at high noon.
4. Merienda at 3:00 PM. (Ilocanos prefer Kilabban than merienda.)
5. Pulutan and Toma at 7:00 PM (for Men while singing with friends)
Junk Foods (for Women and Kids while watching telenovelas)
6. Hapunan or Panggabi at 8:30 PM
7. Midnight Snack while watching the evening news.
. . . and not yet included in the above lists are those we eat regularly such as green mango, balut, penoy, one day old, adidas (not rubber shoes), IUD (not contraceptive), and other weird sounding and health threatening street foods.
Finally, a typical Filipino will not starve to death, but change in lifestyle can kill.

Our Aggressive Filipino Food Culture

We, Filipinos, can't wait for a mango to become ripe and sweet. We eat them while they are sour and green.

We, Filipinos, eat duck while still an embryo. We call it balut. We also eat duck before it become embryo. We call it penoy.

Chicks are more luckier than ducks. We wait them to get hatch then after one day, we eat them. We call this food a one day old.

We roast pig while it is a few months old and still drinking milk. We call it lechon de leche.

If you are a foreign missionary staying in the Philippines and you claim that you are already a Filipino by heart, then you must undergo initiation by eating these Filipino foods in front of your congregation.

Is My Credit Card No Longer Safe?

I received my credit card billings today (Friday, January 4, 2008) and to my surprise, a company in Italy is claiming 130.50 Euros (193.41 US Dollars) from my account. The company's name is "TRENITALIA - VENDITA ON L". They claimed that the transaction was made December 13, 2007 and posted to my account on December 15, 2007.

I immediately reported this to my bank (Friday, January 4, 2008). Signed a dispute form. And my bank sent it to the credit card company.

I search the Internet and discovered that Trenitalia was a railway train service in Italy. I am in the Philippines while my double is in Italy.

Now, We have to test the jurisprudence of the Philippines and Italy regarding e-commerce law.

Whatever is the result, I will post it here in the future.

No Traffic? Are These Pictures Real? Fake? or Taken 30 Years Ago?