Saturday, September 24, 2011

Stuff Raw Foodists Like #11: Semi-tree ripened, pesticide-free bananas



yummy!


murado, red variety 



Aren't these great? I have a co-worker whose housemate came from Romblon who got these bananas for free. For free! According to her, the people from her housemate's hometown usually prefer fast food to fresh, free fruit. Wow, would I like to trade places with one of them! 

They sure were a nice break from my regular supply of organic, but picked-unripe-from-the-tree saba, lagkitan and lakatan!  So much sweeter and creamier too, with a different texture. Ooooh, how I loved them!

This got me thinking - how many of the banana varieties from the Philippines have I actually tried? There are about 7,107 islands in my country but so far, I am embarrassed to admit I have only tried Senorita, lakatan, lagkitan, saba, and those perfect-looking, spotless mutant bananas from the supermarket. 

One of my favorite teachers, Bartholomew J. Laihiff, SJ challenged my history class to prioritize exploring  the Philippines over venturing out of the country. I realize it is not too late to do this. And when I do, I think I will try to check out wild bananas instead of those pretty lakatans sold at road side fruit stands.  (Aside from bananas, there are also a lot more mango varieties to be discovered.  And I'm not even talking about hybrids. I was speaking with a farmer from Nueva Ecija and they have red mangoes.)

What varieties of mangoes/bananas do you have in your hometown? What should I be looking out for? Kontactr me!

Now, if I can only find banana-type pushpins for my Philippine map!








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Friday, September 16, 2011

Stuff Raw Foodists Like #10: Famous Fruitarians

Steve Jobs used to be a raw foodist. A fruitarian, to be precise.

Legend has it that he was trying to beat a deadline to come up with a name for his new company, and threatened to call it Apple when they couldn't think of one in time.

He was once a subscriber to Just Eat an Apple, Natures First Law's raw newsletter in the late 90s.



Back when he was an Ashton Kutcher-esque fruitarian



I'm not sure how long he was on an all-fruit regimen but he admitted that sometime later, he became a "garbage can like everyone else" (Got this from Raw Food Controversies, by Frederic Patenaude). In 2004 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but surgery helped remove it. There's speculation about what he has now (which caused him to resign from Apple) and what kind of treatment he is receiving, but I am hoping that he somehow gets into raw again! (Not that it is a panacea,  but it does help!)

* * *

I'll be honest - I wasn't that impressed with Apple products when I started using them. Even though we were five minutes away from Microsoft in Redmond, and a lot of our "clients" were Microsoft millionaires, my "office" computer was a Bondi Blue Mac - it was so cute, but I hated it because it was always getting bogged down. My good friend Tin got her brand new iPod and Mac laptop bundle on a student discount and in less than a year she had to have the laptop serviced. Although some of my friends are more than satisfied with their Macs and wouldn't ever "go back" to other computers. Good for them :D

Bondi Blue Mac-ing in Microsoft country

I do enjoy other Apple products now - I think having a Kindle (not an Apple product) and Evernote (not an Apple product) on an iPod is one of the best things ever to have while waiting for Filipino time events to start :D

And I loooved Toy Story and Monster's Inc. by Steve Job's Pixar Animation.




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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Langka Smoothie

I loooove langka. I especially like in a langka-luya smoothie! (Thanks to Asha Peri for introducing me to do this!). Here is a variation of langka-luya that you can use if you are out of gata :D

Try this recipe and let me know  how you like/don't like it. Reviews welcome!

Ingredients:

1-2 cups fresh carrot juice
2-3 cups langka, seeded
1 T fresh turmeric
1 T fresh ginger

Preparation:

Just blend everything in a high-speed blender. Experiment with putting in big pieces of unjuiced carrot :D

or

For regular blenders - Put in the carrot juice and add the langka pieces little by little. Chop the turmeric and ginger before adding them in.









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