Want to retrospect but it turns to experimenting

Testing this new format. I just want to blog and I'm doing again experimenting here with the new settings. Will this continue...where will the photos go. Below are the "pasalubongs" from Central Asia brought by the peripatic Kabiyak ng Puso. You have to learn a bit of Filipino to understand my bloggings. I teach it, btw. So if interested, get in touch.

The cheese cake coming in flown from New York for the Anuga.
Thanks Noel!
The text below I photographed when I was in Berlin. The small
note explains that the text was seen in an Apple outlet in Manila.

Pwera Bati! Pasalubong from Turkey

My dear neighbors came back from their holiday in Turkey and
brought me these pasalubong.
The blue and white looking like brooch is a decorative ceramic
magnet sticker. It is called nazar boncuk,
an amulet which protects someone against evil eye, and as you could
very well imagine, one of tourists' favorite souvenirs visiting the
beautiful country of Turkey. Who wants to carry around a carpet
as Pasalubong?
The other wrapped piece is an assortiment of Lokkum, sweet,
sticky so-called Turkish delights filled with different nuts.
Thank you thoughtful neighbors. By the way, do you have a similar
amulet against my dentist?

Pasalubong Galore

Ordering pasalubongs is now easier...even the last minute
pasalubong order is possible with our access to internet and
texting possibilities. As hubby was doing a reportage during the
Easter week in Wow Country, I was pestering him this time
to bring me Pasalubong,
not the big travel souvenirs as dust collectors but just
heavenly tasting Ube Halaya,
a especialty of my elder sister, and the world famous
hopyas from Chinatown. It is my third order for hopyas
and no one as of writing has been successful in getting them.
I heard during my brief visit in Holland that bags are now rigidly
controlled, opened and even contents are thrown away which as
you could imagine cause so much heartaches for returning Pin@y
travellers. A returning Pinay lost the content of her delayed
suitcase which I learned later to be packs of tuyo (dried fish)
and maybe other intriguingly smelling goodies from the home
country. I wonder what happens to such confiscated goodies?
Thrown away, feed to the sniffing dogs or brought home
as doggie bags by Customs/airport officials and workers who know
by now that such smelling goodies could only enrich their
taste buds and culinary experience.

When the dear "kabiyak ng puso" returned recently from
a reportage travel in the Wow Country, he surprised me with
packs of Pasalubongs which I religiously reminded him
to bring back: my ube halaya (sweet violet yam jam), mangoes and
pandisal. There were small packets of dried, mini-mini anchovies,
(dilis) dried kamias, some pieces of Kalamansi (native citrus),
small heads of native garlic (hubby's most fav travel souvernir
in addition to his books), first home-grown papaya from
my elder sister who also did this labour of love in preparing
the Yam jam, small packets of sampaloc and other Phlippine spices.
What a especial treat from hubby who is learning to capitulate
to the texting and emailings of wifey for these treasures from the
homeland.
Forecast this weekend is sunny and with these precious
Pasalubongs to enjoy, I would not care if it rains cats and
dogs again. Meanwhile, hubby is still sleeping, recuperating from
the heroic act as Pasalubong carrier.


In return for his consideration, I think I would let him indulge in
his passion for garlic and just bear the garlicky days ahead in our flat.
Nope, he also did not get the world famous hopyas from Chinatown.
Nabitin na talaga ang hopyas!

Pasalubong from America, The Beautiful

Last year, the same month almost the same date, I got the same
package of Pasalubong coming from friends who have immigrated
to the Land of Milk and Honey and are now travelling every now
and then the Olde World Europe.
Last year, Cora spoiled me with her packs of Babe Ruth and
this time upstaging his sister, Noel B. gave me a box
of this finger goodies plus his alternative popcorns.
What a treat after my fasting the last week.
America, the Beautiful...why your chocolates tease me
no end no matter how long I have been staying in Europe.
As one writer was saying...Patriotism is the memory of
food eaten during childhood.
Thanks Noel B. for the treat. May there will be
more opportunities for you to come over with these
treasures from the land of Mr. Obama.

Mitbringsel or Pasalubong "Perks and Irks"

 

Blessed are those who do not expect for they will be
given pleasant surprises. But this time I was expecting
because I gave him an extra travelling bag to use for my
ordered "pasalubong or bilins."
So when the Datu came home from his short lecture
stint in the Philippines including a brief visit
to Jolo (the news I found out through another friend
in Manila)and stay in Hongkong and Macau,I was a bit more hopeful
that he would this time surprise me with my ordered
goodies from Chinese silk shirts to moon cakes.
"If only looks could kill," he said, when I saw this
red plastic bag he was holding when he got out of the ICE
train from Frankfurt airport, and the extra travelling bag
was nowhere to be seen. Not a good omen, I thought saying
goodbye to wishful thinking about silk blouses and moon cakes
and all other "bilins" I wrote in this piece of paper which I
tucked into this extra bag for Mitbringsel or pasalubong which
is a compulsory gift given by the travelling partner
to his/her partner who freely opts or forced to stay domestic
than jet-setting.

Pasalubong, btw (by the way) is not only for those who
are waiting for your return from your journey but these
are the goodies given to the nice people of your destination
for waiting for your visit. In short, they are symbolic
small things saying you have not forgotten these people
and if you are married, related, friend, supportive to someone from
this Wow! 7,107-island Archipelago, then you are in such a big
trouble if you do not know what "Pasalubong" is all about.
Well, the Datu has known his trouble and he seems to be
getting used to it. So don't despair, nothing is really
so serious with us people coming from this Wow! 7,107-island
Archipelago if you do not really care about the implication
of not having any Pasalubong.

But to be fair to the Datu, when he opened the plastic
Travel Value bag and started giving me its contents, I was
all forgiving for his forgetting my ordered moon cakes from
Hongkong. He handed me the following treasures which I either
ordered or sent as Pasalubongs by friends and members of my clan
back in the "Madercountry."
* Filipinas Photographs by Isa Lorenzo from dear Ricarda K.
* A Bag out of recycled tetrapaks from Ricarda K.
* Book "How to Win an Election" given by Klaus P.
* Book "The German Club - A History of the German Community in
the Philippines" given by Thorsten F.
* One small bottle of Taba ng Talangka (crab eggs)
* 3 Pieces of JMGoulbourn linen blouses (each piece costing about
850Pesos...my order and not pasalubong)
* A plastic SM bag full of Choc Nuts, Adobong Butong Pakwan
(dried watermelon seeds),dried mangoes and pastillas from Lengleng
* Malong from Luz M.
* Tausug table cloth from Zeny S.L.
* Badjao pearl bracelets from Zamboanga (no longer called
City of Flowers but Asia's Latin City)
* A necklace of smoked topaz from China
* Two wooden necklace from my elder sister
* Two hundred pieces of calling cards...thanks Paula G. for ordering them.

If I miss mentioning your pasalubong, please do email me and will
hold the Datu responsible for this oversight. Maraming Salamat!
Grazie Tanto! Vielen Dank!