Sugar Cane Juice

Driving down one of the roads in Barangay San Pedro brought us to this small nipa shack that sells refreshing sugar cane or tubo juice.  We just had to stop and try it. 

The fresh tubo were piled up and ready for juicing.  The light green sticks reminded me of the sugar cane carts that used to pass by our house in Quezon City.  My mom would get us a stick each and we would chew on them to extract the juice. 

The lady with plastic food safe gloves (one point!) pushed the stick into the machine and turned it on.  The stainless steel machine pressed the sticks and efficiently juiced them out.  

While waiting, they had some information posted for the customers to read.  Lots of health benefits from sugarcane juice! 
 

 

Two sugar cane sticks yielded this 12oz cup of juice.  Poured over ice and some calamansi extract, it was the perfect break during a hot day!  I suddenly remembered that in the fruit area of Virra Mall and Shoppesville at the old Greenhills Shopping Center, there was a sugarcane juice stand too.  But their juice did not have the zesty calamansi flavor added to it.

 Since then, I've never passed that shack without stopping for some.  Fresh, every time!  

Breakfast!

Two large eggs. One tomato.  One clove garlic.  5 basil leaves.  A teaspoon of Anchor butter.

I wish I could photograph the fragrance that came out of this five-minute pan-sizzling.  Side by side with warm pan de sal and some fresh coffee, it's a well-balanced breakfast ! Sometimes, this is also lunch.

Here in the Palawan, fresh itlog itik (not the salted kind) can be bought at the market for about P6.00, just P1 more than the regular 45-day egg.  It's organic, with a much redder egg yolk than chicken egg, and the elders claim that it is more nutritious too. 

I read somewhere that almost all important nutrients that your body needs are packed into one egg.  It only has 5 grams of fat and only 70 calories.  The protein in eggs help you control the rate at which your body absorbs calories. You'll feel less hungry at lunch and consume 400+ less calories over a 24-hour period. 
They say that it also improves concentration, as it has Choline, which stimulates brain development and function. Eating an egg before the kids go off to school improves their concentration more than a meal of tapa or tocino with sinangag.

But what is as good as tapa or tocino with sinangag?   LAMAYO! 

Butterflied danggit marinated in garlic, vinegar and pepper, drained and fried in very hot coconut oil.  This, we enjoy with diced tomatoes in more vinegar steeped with red peppers, and lots of garlic rice!

Or dilis... small fish heated on a wok and stir fried with brown sugar and chili pepper....

Or, those small flat fish called palat laid out side by side like one sheet of paper.  They are so thin and crispy, you'll end up eating a whole page!

 

Fish jerky or fish tocino, as they are called at the market, are made of bisugo and are just a bit salty and spicy --- to be eaten with lots of garlic rice (and tomato and cilantro with vinegar!). 

 

When I feel like having an early meatless breakfast, this is what I have --- a bowl of cubed avocado and suman with either banana or mango sprinkled with honey and kasuy.  That and coffee with lots of milk hits the spot.  I do not get hungry till about 11a.m.

 

There is also ibus.  Sticky rice mixed with coconut cream, shaped into small logs, and individually wrapped in a single coconut leaf.  Friends from Iloilo recommend that it be taken with ripe mangoes and hot chocolate, made from tablea.   Rene is on a trip to Bohol, and I asked him to get some from Baclayon.  

When he returns, and we get to enjoy this the way it's supposed to be, that will be another delicious story altogether!