End of the Month Roundup - February 2013

Ah February! You are the shortest of months but also a turbulent one.

Yes, this is what I feel with February. She is very turbulent indeed but not for this blog but for my life in the offline world.

Today is the last day of February and this is the last day of pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. I am saddened by his departure but what can I do? All I can do now is to thank him and to pray for him.

My exile here in Thailand is about to end so I already did some shopping. I also visited the Grand Palace, which is the best tourist spot in Bangkok.

I also said my farewells to Bangkok Cathedral and my favorite Holy Rosary Church. Aside from that, I managed to buy my most valuable souvenir, an image of Our Lady of Thailand.

February is the month when I launched my newest blog, entitled Tome of a Layman. This blog is for my musings about my Faith and other issues affecting the Philippine society. Let us just say that I returned writing about socio-political topics, which I stopped years ago. If you want, you can read the reason why I started this new blog.

I was glad to discover that Wikipedia cited my post about the Pink Sisters in its entry about Tagaytay City. It seems like this online encyclopedia considers my blog a credible source of information. Thus, my Refresh Post about the Pink Sisters' convent is very timely. 

I persisted in cookery this month. I posted three dishes that I cooked. The first is the very easy carbonara-styled spaghetti. Another dish, which perfectly fits the Lenten Season, is the ampalaya with egg. The dish that generated much buzz is my Afritada de Ahab.

Many commenters (Einz, Phioxee, MeCoy, Fiel-kun and Unni) were confused. Someone even gave me a grade of F. Well, I couldn't blame them. This dish does look weird.

I also talked about my visit to Bang Saen Beach, which is not the usual haunt of foreign tourists to Thailand.

I also posted about another visit to a Catholic church near BTS-Surasak Station. Too bad that it was closed during my visit but I was still glad because I reached the Papal Nuncio's office in Bangkok.

The best tourist spot that I posted about this month is the Victory Monument. I learned many things about Thailand while I was I writing my blog post about it.  It is definitely a good read.

Finally, I posted about the visit of Saint Camillus' incorruptible heart to the Philippines. I was awed with this saint who served the sick even to his death.

February was a busy month! I expect March to be busier and more bloody, because of the Conclave, the coming Holy Week and my imminent return to the Philippines.

End of the Month Roundup is the monthly segment of this blog that summarizes all the adventures that I featured for the month.

Ampalaya with Egg

I hate ampalaya. When I was a little kid, I always complain to my mother whenever we have this vegetable for dinner. I usually argue that ampalaya is bitter because it is poisonous. But she didn't say anything to contradict me. She just continued eating the ampalaya, as if to prove that it is not a poisonous veggie.

My Beloved declared that her favorite vegetable is Ampalaya. She told me that she will cook it more often so I should better try to like it. (Oh no!!!!)

Actually, my “hatred” to ampalaya has lessened a little bit. I can now eat it despite its bitterness.

It is now the Season of Lent for Catholics. I vowed not to eat meat for this whole season. Vegetable, egg and fish are now the stars in my menu. Thus, I cooked ampalaya with egg.

First thing that I did is to cut the ampalaya to bite-sized pieces.

I then sauteed it on a hot pan.

I waited for the ampalaya to be cooked. I then poured the beaten egg. Then some vetsin (MSG) and fish sauce.

Voila! My ampalaya with egg is finished.

The ampalaya is not fully cooked but I think that was ok because it made the ampalaya crunchy. 

It is still bitter but that's OK. It reminds me of the bitter part of my life. Yes, this ampalaya helped me reflect on many things. We can say that life is like food. Not all of it are sweet. We also have the sour days, or that period when salty tears are pouring, or the spicy anger that take holds of us, and then the bitter moments when we feel so much pain.

Some experts say that ampalaya is good against diabetes, malaria, cancer and other diseases. With medicinal effects like these. I might consider eating ampalaya, especially if it cooked by my Beloved.