Tessa's Day 1 on Celebrity Duet

"All for charity!" says Tessa Valdes who is one of the eight celebrities in the Philippine version of Celebrity Duet. This is a reality TV show combining celebrities of different backgrounds with professional singers and the elimination round is every Saturday. The show was created last year in the United States by Simon Crowell of the Americal Idol fame. I guess the local network got the franchise to air here.
Tessa always amazes me with the things she gets into – be it in triathalon, flamenco, feung sheui, breast feeding advocacy, etc – and mind you, she manages to excel all the time! Lets see how she fares with this new singing adventure! For the pilot last Aug 11, she sang Gwen Stefani's "My Sweet Escape" with pinoy RNB Kyl. Watch her by double clicking start button below and see why the three judges were delighted and said "you are enjoying yourself" and "you are the song!" If she wins, the 1-million prize money has already been earmarked to go to the Assumpion mission schools, the Auxillary Missionaries of Assumpiton, Street Pals for street kids, and the 81 foundation for day care. The first elimination round is this Aug 18, so vote now!!To vote send SMS "Duets Tessa" to 367 (Smart/TalkNText) and 2344 (Globle/Sun/Touch Mobile).

Clark Cruz jams w Kitchie Nadal

Soon to be guitar legend, my 13-year old nephew, with indie rocker/songwriter Kitchie Nadal singing her 2004 hit "Bulong". This was taken with my Nokia N73 during the birthday of my 8-year old nephew on July 28. He's only in 7th grade student in La Salle and already knows what he wants to take up in College - Music at UC Berkeley.
check out his dexterity at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTETWDHvvA&mode=related&search=">

Road Trip to Pampanga's Best (food!!)

With the global warming coming true to form, there's no longer a wet season here in the Philippines. It should be pouring by now but the weather is hot and sunny and good to take a road trip up North and experience the best of Pampanga, the gastronomical delights of the province.
We headed off to “Abe’s Farm” in Pampanga. It is located at the foot of Mt. Arayat, a 3,000-ft inactive volcano. Some friends dared to climb the mountain under the sweltering heat and left Manila at 5am. Its a good way to work up an apetite though and dip in the hot springs. While moi, decided to drive with Clang late in the afternoon to make it in time for dinner.
The farm is a private resthouse of Larry Cruz, famously known as “LJC” of the LJC restaurant chain. According to Evita (Quiambao), this is the first time he opened his farm to ‘non-friends’. He named the farm after his bon vivant and gastronome father Emilio Aguilar "Abe" Cruz (1915-1991).
The dinner was set up in the lower garden, surrounded by three ifugao houses. The blue and green colors reminded me of Provence. Must be from the father's influence since he was also the first pinoy francophile, being the UNSESCO ambassador based in Paris back in the 1970s.
I was expecting something more exotic and exciting dishes like betute (frog), kamaru (mole crickets) or burong talangka (crablets). We were served instead the usual fare – for starters, sisig (Pampanga after all is where Sisig was born!), crispy shrimps and fermented shrimp buro wrapped in mustard leaves.; then fiddlehead fern pako salad, crispy pata, a yummy chicken dish (everybody’s favorite), seafood kare kare and a stewed vegetabled dish; for desert, we had maja blanca, suman in sweet condensed milk and fresh fruits. The cost is P1750 per person for the meal (plus tip). Drinks were water and buko juice. Glen brought the red and white wine.
Another must-EAT reco in Pampanga is Claude Tayag’s Bale Dutung in Angeles City. I’ve been there twice and I assure you its worth the trip. Claude is truly a renaissance man - he is an artist/scupltor, writer and with his resto, he has proven that he can also cook! The place is actually his private home, gallery and studio located inside a subdivision. His wife Mary Ann manages the place and is in charge of setting up lunches and retailing “Claude 9” products –bottled products such as buro, taba ng talangka (crab fat), hot sauce, etc..
Lunch costs P1800 per head and is served buffet style (minimum of 12 persons). The dining area is filled with Claude’s sculptural furniture. His menu is more nouvelle cuisine. For appetizers, a platter of Kapampangan sushi, taba ng talangka (crab fat), fried catfish with fermented rice and shrimps, pindang balaw-balaw (carabeef meet);. The main course is quite a spread : sari-saring pruts (seasonal fruits in a light Thai dressing), sorbets sa dayap and champagne (sherbet), pako salad, lumpiang ubod, seafood kare-kare, 4-way lechon (i.e. crispy skin, fried lechon with soft tortilla, inihaw, sinigang; chiken wrapped in banana leaf and inasal pugo quail egg with mushrooms; and for desert his signature dish called ‘paradiso’ (macapuno, ube and kamote balls with cream of carabao’s milk). Free flowing water, soft drinks, buko juice, beer and wine.
Both places need prior reservations. Book in advance! Contact Merle (LJC) at 0917 899-7731 and Mary Ann (Claude) at (045) 888-5163. Happy road trip!!

Phenomena of Pheromones

“You’ve been feasted on!” exclaimed Dra Roberto Romero, a leading clinical dermatologist in the Philippines and the third doctor I’ve seen in two weeks to treat the insect bites all over my body. The bites have not subsided since my 3-day detox weekend stint at Tiaong, Quezon two weeks ago and in fact, the bites have spread on my face and the ones on my arm turned black and blue.

We were a total of four patients at the Philippine Breast Center Network’s “Tiaong Breast Haven” (photo). Unfortunately, I was the only one bitten! Dr. Romero refers to my case as the phenomena of the pheromones. She said that I emit a particular scent that attracted the arthropods of Tiaong. They left their mark (saliva, even eggs) on my skin. The lumps, itchiness, swelling manifested 2 to 3 days after their sting. We're talking about an anthropod party, lots of anthropods, because my arms, chest, back, legs and face are ridden with bites.

At first I thought I had the ‘shingles’ because it was spreading all over my body. I went to see the first doctor and she said it was an allergic reaction and injected each bite with steroids and prescribed antihistamines (cost me an arm and a leg!). The second doctor also diagnosed allergy and again injected each bite and prescribed oral steroids.

Dr. Romero’s advice was simply to “suffer” and not go back to Tiaong where the arthropods there love my scent. The next bite she said could be deadly! She prescribed a cortisone ointment and to avoid foods that will cause my bites to flare up. My condition will last for another 6 to 8 weeks and meantime I’m wearing long sleeves to cover the bites. Otherwise, will scare some people because it looks like chicken pox marks!

My scent is different from anybody else and I hope this doesn’t deter anyone from going to Tiaong Breast Haven, a two-hour drive from Manila. Danny Meneses set-up the facility as an “alternative venue for empowering women afflicted with the disease - to confront, overcome and live with breast cancer with full honor and dignity.” His wife Rosa who passed away in September 2000, survived 43 months without chemotherapy or radiation. Danny’s protocol is quite intensive and based on the natural approaches of Rudolf Breuss, Max Gerson and Sat Dharam Kaur. This consists of fasting, raw vegetable juice and narra and turmeric tea , and twice a day coffee enema. The therapy is to remove the metabolic waste from the body, free the cells membranes from protein build-up and provide the body with the necessary essential vitamins and minerals while fasting. The coffee enema eliminates estrogen by-products, environmental estrogens and toxins from the colon and the liver. For more info, contact Danny at pbcn@iname.com or visit www.pbcn.org.