Food for a change: Jumping Salad and Chicken Dinugu-an (Series 2)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

1.  This is a favorite dish of Ilocanos known as “jumping salad.”

What is it really?

In Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (school-on-the-air) program, five callers phoned to give their answers. Except one who said he learned about this rare dish from a friend, the callers apparently Ilocanos, said they have actually tasted jumping salad.

Newly caught juvenile shrimps, promptly dressed with tomato or calamansi and a dash of salt. Pick them up individually by the head, put it into the mouth in reverse, severe the rostrum (unicorn) and antennae with the teeth to avoid injury. It is the kicking in the mouth that gives this unique dish its name jumping salad. (Photo acknowledgement, Internet)

This dish is prepared from newly caught small to medium shrimps from the estuaries and rivers, and while they are still very much alive are served right there and then with calamansi and salt, momentarily agitating the ill-fated creatures.

Pronto! The shrimps, on removing the cover, frantically jump out of the plate, save the dazed ones. You should be skillful in catching them from the table (and even on the floor) deftly picking them by the head, taking caution so as not to get hurt by their sharp rostrum. You can imagine the danger you face as the creature makes its last attempt to escape. You must get a firm hold before putting the struggling creature into your mouth, tail first and quickly bite off the head, severing the sharp dagger in your hold. The creature wriggles in the cave of your mouth and you can actually feel its convulsion fading as it undergoes the initial process of digestion.

Being an Ilocano myself, eating jumping salad is an adventure and rarely do you experience having one nowadays, unless you are living near the sea, river or lake, or a good friend brings live shrimps to town in banana stalk container to keep them alive.

Try jumping salad. It’s one for the Book of Guinness.~

2. Glutinous rice with chicken blood is a rare treat.

The practice of gathering the blood while dressing the chicken is now rare. Well, it is because we get our chicken from the supermarket or grocery already dressed or frozen. But in the good old days, chicken blood is mixed with glutinous rice (malagkit).

This is done by getting just enough rice, wash it quickly in a small shallow plate, and blood directly coming from the chicken is mixed and allowed to settle, solidifying in a minute or two. It is easily dislodged from the plate when it is time to cook it with the chicken when cooking tinola (stew).

We kids would automatically pick the solid rice-blood even while the stew is still in the pot, but our elders would rather divide it among ourselves to settle the issue. ~

Acknowledgement: Internet image of live shrimp

Food for a change: Caliente (ox's hide), pinapa-itan and kilawin (Series 3)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Caliente, ox hide. Hide is cleaned, and softened under low fire for 
hours, sliced thinly, spiced heavily with onion and pepper, and salt.

Favorite goat recipes: kilawin (left) or medium rare; and pinapa-itan (soup made of entrails and chyme, which gives the bitter taste. Chyme is extracted from the partially digested grass, and heated to pasteurization temperature, around 70 degrees Celsius. Gall is often used as substitute.)

 

Mystery of the Waterfall

Wall mural and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Waterfalls wall mural at author's residence, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Hiss, tumble, and roar;

catch the cloud into rain,

mist and fog in your favor 

for mystery to reign.

Your beginning and end
make a long, long story;
yonder, around the bend, 
down below you're free,

meandering to the sea,
across farm and pasture,
along dike and levee,
greeting every creature.

I followed you long ago,
but lost along the way
to where I didn't know, 
in abandon and gay  
  
of the real meaning of life - 
lesson you teach human
to go on, ease or strife,
 'til the last drop is gone.

Hiss, tumble, and roar;

catch the cloud into rain,

mist and fog in your favor 

for mystery to reign.

Cloti, a visiting Filipina OFW in the Middle East, 

in a make-believe pose before the wall mural.   

Green Cross in the Sky

Green Cross in the Sky

Dr Abe V Rotor

Umbrella Tree (talisay) - Terminalia catappa, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

You lost your crown, but not your glory,

your function as umbrella tree;

 a ladder leans abandoned and empty;

is this symbol of man being free?

  If this is lesson to remind of man's folly 

and pride against the Almighty,

rise up on a Hill that was once holy 

for all humanity to see. ~

Pet Birds - are they?

Pet is freedom, pet is love, it is mutual;  

not in the cage but in trees singing.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Can you tell what these children are thinking about? Palm on check with 

serious expression shows the turning point of reason - "if you were in the 

shoes of someone." Would you be happy if you were inside a cage?

Pet birds in cages weaned from their nest,

to market, to market, but why the haste?

Children are waiting, urging their parents  

to buy them pets - but what a waste! 

A pet is a pet, and curiosity is not enough,

short live impulse, deep ignorance;

and poor child, the world is beyond him, 

to understand the difference.

Pet is freedom, pet is love, it is mutual;  

not in the cage but in trees singing,

a family and whole flock, it's a part of,

not money but freedom - or nothing. 

The children's faces are full of desire

but not of love's true expression;

Reverence for Life they must be taught;

we grownups, it's our mission. ~    

Birds in captivity is a great attraction to children. Here finches of different kinds are sold in small cages. Birds are the freest creatures.  They die in captivity by exhausting themselves to death trying to get out of their confines.   

Artificially colored maya appear unique, they may be mistaken for other species, perhaps rare to the innocent customer. Colors are harmful to both birds and man because of their lead content, among other compounds. 

Day old chicks and finches are made to appear unique and 

"beautiful" by dyeing and painting them with different designs. 

Colored day-old chicks are deceiving. It is not fair to the children, it is not fair to the Creator.   

Carnation- Most Celebrated Flower

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

A Bouquet of Carnation in acrylic, AVR 2015

Perhaps no flower can match you, oh carnation; 

 your colors each a message to convey:

fortune, prayer, celebration, a wish come true;

in garland and lei, shower and bouquet;

  never a wreath, for you are not symbol of death; 

re-incarnation that we your faithful pray.  

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus)  has a long history as a cultivated flower dating back more than 2,000 years, it is rich with symbolism, mythology and even debate. The name comes from the word corone (flower garlands) or coronation since the Greeks used it as ceremonial crowns. Its Latin derivative however is carnis (flesh) referring to the flower's original pinkish-hued color or incarnacyon (incarnation), referring to the incarnation of God-made flesh. Wikipedia

Today, carnations can be found in a wide range of colors, and while in general they express love, fascination and distinction, virtually every color carries a unique and rich association. 

• White carnations suggest pure love and good luck, 
• Light red symbolizes admiration, 
• Dark red represents deep love and affection, 
• Purple carnations imply capriciousness,
• Pink carnations carry the greatest significance, beginning with the belief that they first appeared on earth from the Virgin Mary’s tears – making them the symbol of a mother's undying love.

Carnation is worn on

•  Mother's Day, 
• Teacher's Day, 
• St. Patrick's Day (March 17, 2015), 
• Wedding ceremonies,

Carnation is 1st wedding anniversary flower.

January birth month flower

Sweet Childhood (Part 1)

Dr Abe V Rotor

The world upside down

Summer (Acknowledgment; Prize-winning Canon photos)

Sweet childhood is looking at the world upside down in all its perfection, bringing the sky down, the trees rooted above, passersby floating, defying Newton's law of gravity.   

Sweet childhood is turning back the hands of time, making the day longer and summer the longest season, in idleness and frolic, joining the world of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. 

Sweet childhood is dreaming of goalless dreams, building air-castles out of clouds against the blue in ever changing mythical figures, re-creating the world of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.    

Sweet childhood is looking into the water like a crystal ball, reading the promises and magic of tomorrow, finding the image of Narcissus no one but the beholder himself.   

Sweet childhood is frolicking in careless adventure, bold and daring, nonetheless the test that gave the world the boy who saved Holland, and the boy that stood with an apple on his head. ~

Sweet Childhood (Part 2)

Dr Abe V Rotor

  

  Childhood at the beach 

Childhood is when the night passes

     quickly, rising as the sun rises,

to watch the herons stake the fishes

     singing with the birds in the trees.

Frogs are still before the kingfisher;

     rain is read from a friendly dragonfly;

nests are secrets only to the finder -

     these lessons live to live by.

War is solved in kites and fishing poles,

     in hide-and-seek and barefoot races;

faith lies in seasons the sky extols

     and virtues friendship embraces.

Peals of thunder break the afternoon,

     driving the fowls to their tree;

and we catch the raindrops, and soon,

     across the field, dash for home in glee.

Respite not enough, schooldays are long,

     and everything is passing imagery,

ephemeral is childhood, and all along

     the years are gone, but blissful memory.

Take it from the sages of old who knew

     what makes a man, the child of years ago.

what the seed was and how it grew –

     look and behold! It is true. ~

Childhood on the countryside

"No part is more important than the whole." Auguste Rodin

Dr Abe V Rotor 

The famous statue of Honore de Balzac (picture) carved by Auguste Rodin, has no hands.  But when Rodin carved it, it had hands.  This is how the statue lost its hands.

After completing his work, the sculptor
called in his students and friends to see it. "What hands!" gasped one. 

"Master, I have never seen such hands. Only a god could carve hands like that,"said another,"they are alive!"
"Those hands! Those hands!" exclaimed a third student.  "If you had never produced any thing else, master, these hands would make you immortal."

Rodin was not pleased in the least.  He seized an ax and rushed to the statue.

His students tried to hold him back, but with unbelievable strength, he chopped off the hands that had called forth such praise.

"Fools!" he shouted.  "I had to destroy those hands because they had a life of their own.  Thy did not belong to the life of the entire statue.  Remember this and remember it well! No part is more important than the whole."

Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917), was a French sculptor, progenitor of modern sculpture, but did rebel against the past. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades, his legacy solidified. 
Honoré de Balzac (1799 – 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. His writing influenced many subsequent novelists such as Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Edgar Allan Poe, Eça de Queirós, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Oscar Wilde, Gustave Flaubert, Benito Pérez Galdós,Marie Corelli, Henry James, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Italo Calvino, and philosophers such as Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Many of Balzac's works have been made into or have inspired films, and they are a continuing source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics.

Acknowledgement: Anecdotes of the Great, St Paul Publication; Wikipedia, Internet photos. 

Convergence 6

                      Convergence 6

                           Painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Convergence in acrylic 2015

1. Convergence in a garden with butterflies fluttering among flowers, reflecting the early rays of the sun into a prism of rainbow colors;

2. Convergence on a wall of mosses and lichens carpeting an old stonewall, sanctuary of living minutiae beyond the naked eye;

3. Convergence of seasons with seeds and buds waking up, flowering plants in their prime, leaves of gold and red falling, trees rising bare into the sky;

4. Convergence of art with romance in the air, impressions of vision, realism in everyday life, expressionism in feelings, abstracts in thoughts;

5. Convergence of culture erases the boundaries of faith and belief, race and nationality, inequities of living, into but one global village.

6. Convergence seeks peace and unity in a garden, on a stonewall, in seasons changing, in art movements, in cultures wanting to be free. ~

GET OUT OF YOUR BOX! Message for year 2017

Dr Abe V Rotor
                                              Get out of your box. Be the real you.

Get close to nature, befriend her creatures.  
Find joy with a baby and bring back the joyful years of life.
 

 When your head seems too full and heavy ...  when life seems to come to a stop ... 

Give yourself a break before your break down.  

Get out of your shadow...

Catch butterflies and friends...

Make happy faces...lean on a strong shoulder

  

Puppet show time - you the actor and subject. 

Be a dear or deer ...

Biag ni Lam-ang - Biology in the Epic

Biag ni Lam-ang - Biology in the Epic  

The epic Biag ni Lam-ang is rich in biology, the study of living things, more so on the uses of plants and animals in the world of the legendary hero.
Dr Abe V Rotor 

      Figure of Lam-ang at the La Union Botanical Garden, Barangay Cadaclan, San Fernando LU. The garden is a project of the local government headed by then San Fernando mayor Mary Jane Ortega, and managed by Dr Romualdo M del Rosario, from the garden's conceptualization to its elevation into a world class botanical garden.  

The epic Biag ni Lam-ang is rich in biology, the study of living things, more so on the uses of plants and animals in the world of the legendary hero.  How do we compare the epic's biology with ours today?  Let's look into each stanza and examine the organisms mentioned in their local and scientific names, including some basic data about them.

(4)

Nadumaduma a bungbungan

ti inna dita masarsaramsam:

salamagi a marabanban,

pias ken daligan.


A 900-year old tamarind tree; pods ready to harvest.

She ate a variety of fruits

like green tamarind,

pias  and daligan

[Tamarind or sampalok (Tamarindus indica, pias is Kamias (photo) (Averrhoa balimbi), daligan is starapple (Averrhoa carambola)]

(5) 

Niog pay a lolocoten,

bayabas a pariggalsem,

sua ken lolokisen

ket dagitoy met ti inna sidaen:

Young coconut fruits, guavas

about to ripen, oranges, and 

lolokisen and for meals 

she ate these.

 
Fruits of bayabas or guava: in different stages of maturity..  Pariggaisem (about to ripem) is manibalang in Pilipino. 

[Young coconut or buko (Cocos nucifera), bayabas or guava (Psidium guajava). lolokisen or orange (Citrus nobilis)]

Newly harvested buko or young coconut is popular in any part of the country and in the tropical region, for its refreshing water and nutritious soft flesh.

(6) 

Panapana ken maratangtang,

ar-arosip ken aragan,

tirem a tinoctocan,

pasayam a kinalapan;

Panapana and maritangtang 

ar-arosip and aragan, tirem 

and shrimps.

Spiked and spineless sea urchin

[Panapana or spiked sea urchin, maritangtang (spinless sea urchin);  ar-arosip is Caulerpha or lato (Tag) grape-like green seaweed; aragan is a brown seaweed dominant in tropical regions]

  (7) edible marine shellfish pictures

 Pingpinggan ken im-immoco,

loslosi ken pocpoclo,

leddangan pay ken soso

ta isu dagitoy ti inna cagusto.

Pingpinggan and im-immoco,

loslosi and pocpoclo , 

leddangan and soso - these

she liked much to eat.

These are some edible species of shellfish which come in different dialects. Tinoktokan is likely oyster because you have to pound it open usually with stone.

 [Pingpingan, im-immoco and loslosi are edible bivalve seashells; soso is a pointed seashell.  Shellfish are usually gathered at low tide and in shallow waters in the coral reefs.  Pocpoclo is a green seaweed, Codium edule]. (photo)

  

(11)

"Inca cuma imatangan ti 

immulata a cawayan

idiay bantay capareian

ket inca cuma pucanan. 

"Go and see the bamboos 

we planted on Mount Caparian 

and cut down some.

[Bamboo is most likely of the species kawayan kiling (Bambusa spinosus) plant by means of cuttings.  NOTE: Bamboo planting is thought to be a recent technology and horticultural practice.]

(19)

Ket kinona ni babain Namongan, 

"Ay, asawac a Don Juan,

dayta man tongo ti agdalagan 

a sagat ken gasatan.

And Namogan said, "My

husband Don Juan, I need

firewood such as molave and 

gasatan for my lying-in,

[Molave  (Vitex parviflora)  is a hardwood used as house posts; gasatan is another species of hardwood]

(20) 

"Dangla ken bayabas nga inukisan,

ket inca met cuma gumatang

itay dongdong ken dalican

ta isu ti pagdalangan.

"And also dangla and guava 

stripped of its bark.  Also 

you go and buy a jar and a 

stove on which to warm myself.

 [Dangla is lagundi (Vitex lagundi) a medicinal plant, guava here is used as medicinal plant.] (photo)

Acknowledgement" Internet photos