Ok, so I’m back in the states now and I’m having withdrawl symptoms. Withdrawl from a very special pilipino food and one of the staples of my diet while in the Philippines: pandesal or pan de sal especially from Pan De Manila. I would have it with coffee in the morning, as marienda in the afternoon and a pre bedtime snack.

Pic from wikpedia

For all of you who don’t know what pandesal is I’ll let you know that it is a round bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt and eaten by most Filipinos and Americans living in the Philippines. I checked up a little on the history of pandesal and found that it was introduced to the Philippines in 16th century and came from Portugal. It started out as just a plain roll eaten for breakfast but has transformed into a sweeter and richer type of bread.

There are arguments over where you can find the best recipe for pandesal and who makes the best. My personal favorite is as mentioned prior from Pan De Manila a franchise that is popping up all around the Metro Manila area especially in shopping malls. What I heard is unique about Pan De Manila is they bake their pan de sal in the traditional brick oven. All I know is if I’m in Pavilion Mall I stop and get some pandesal there along with their peanut butter. It beats any mall food you can get.

Whether you get your favorite from the local bakery or from places like Pan de Manila, hot pandesal is one of the jewels of Pilipino food and something you must try if you are visiting.

As many of you know from reading this blog that I am a fan of Filipino music whether it be stars like Charice singing Celine Dion songs or her own to Arnel Pineda singing with Journey but my favorites are  Original Pinoy Music (OPM) aka original pilipino music.

Recently, I became aware of a show called Pinoy’s Got Talent or Philippines Got Talent or something of the sort so I sit down to watch it. From watching many good singers in my years in the Philippines I have to admit the show’s talent did not live up to what I expected. It seemed that 90% of the talent on there was just out to show themselves on TV and were more comedy than serious artists. In all fairness I see the same thing when I watch Americas Got Talent but at least in Americas Got talent there are a few like Fil-Am Thia Megia who really belong on the big stage. Also in fairness I’m not a regular viewer of the Filipino Show so I might have caught it on a bad night. I’ll try to watch some later shows and give it a fair chance but I hope it doesn’t end like my first experience.

And speaking of Arnel Pineda it seems some people including the Philippine’s National Historic Institute have a problem with Arnel’s version of “Lupang Hinirang” prior to the start of the Pacquiao-Clottey bout in Texas last weekend. Seems he didn’t sing it as written and I guess there is a law saying you must sing it exactly as written. To read more about this subject go to the Manila Bulletin’s article: NHI to make formal objection against Pineda; prosecutors ready to act

And finally since we are on the subject of Filipino Talent. I’d like to share a video I made while in Macaleeng Pangasinan during the recent town’s Fiesta. These guys are the true OPM talent!

One of my favorite songs in church when I was growing up was a song called Jesus Loves the Little Children. The song starts out as Jesus Loves the Little Children All the Children of the World. When singing that song as a child I really didn’t comprehend what the line “All the Children of the World’ really meant. But when I visited the Philippines many years ago and saw children actually searching through the garbage at the Subic Naval Base that song came to my mind and at that time I developed a love and caring attitude for the children of the Philippines.

As a young sailor I had many favorite street kids that I would make sure had something to eat everyday. I didn’t give them much money straight out because I wasn’t sure that the money would be used for their benefit so instead I tried to make their day a little better and was always rewarded with a smile. It seems to me that no matter how hard the kids had it they were a happy and fun bunch to be around.

These days I have more than enough children in the Philippines to occupy my time as I have tons of nieces and nephews in the province and in Manila where I stay. Although my nieces and nephews to who I am affectionately known as Lolo Dan are not in as bad shape as the street kids I once helped I still spend lots of time with them just having fun.

 I do have a few children in the province that aren’t related to me that I treat as my own family and I try to take care of some of the simple needs that their parents cannot provide. One is a little girl who passes my house every morning on the way to school and waves and says hi to me. Her name is Mary Grace and I found out she was the youngest of 6 born to a mother and father who have no jobs and feed their kids by getting fish from the sea. I bought Grace some school supplies and I make sure she has a small snack to take with her to school every day. She says thank you and gives me that toothless smile that many 5 and six years worldwide have. That alone is enough to make my day.

I’m not telling this story to brag about helping the kids or to bring any glory to myself but to stress if you are planning as an American on moving to the Philippines, find a way to become part of the community and the lives of Filipino people rather than hide away somewhere doing nothing all day. For me, it’s done by spending time with the children and learning from them. Yea I do learn from them!

It seems like not long ago a young girl named Charice Pempengco from the Philippines shot on to the International stage first on starting on Little Big Star then Korean TV and appearances on Oprah and Madison Square Garden with Celine. I have just watched the latest video Pyramid featuring singer Iyaz and really enjoyed it thanks to my friend Thia Megia, another great Filipino singer.

Anyway I’ve added the YouTube video below for your enjoyment and links to other songs you can get on Amazon.com. As we have from the beginning we will follow whats going on with Charice and try to keep it updated here