Coconut, Chess and a Pork Shortage

With summer already scorching most of the western hemisphere, how about making some Buko-Pandan Gelatin, our Happy Home Cook feature for this week. The recipe which we reprinted (with permission) from the excellent cookbook, Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine, calls for real young coconuts; but you can use the very popular coconut juice from tetrapacks or bottles, and frozen buko (young coconut) strips that you can easily get from Asian stores. This is where you can also buy pandan flavoring. However you will do it, Buko-Pandan Gelatin should bring back happy memories of Philippine summers.

And speaking of memories, PF Correspondent Myles A. Garcia dug up some hilarious/crazy ones in his piece, "The Wacky 1978 Chess World Championship" held in Baguio City at the height of martial law. The lead characters in that zany event were chess masters Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi plus Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. You get the idea.

Philippine-based PF Correspondent Rene M. Astudillo reports on the pork shortage in the Philippines and how the main ingredient for sisig or adobo that Filipinos constantly order may not actually come from homegrown pigs but imported from somewhere else.

So you will always be In The Know, here are some timely and must-read links to stories from other publications:

The Tragedy of Marawi for a Chastened Duterte
http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/tragedy-marawi-weakened-rodrigo-duterte/

Whatever Happened to Manny Pacquiao?
http://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/what-ever-happened-to-manny-pacquiao-a00148-20161219

3 Filipinos on Forbes list of philanthropists
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/158537/3-filipinos-forbes-list-philanthropists

This Filipino Dish Is So Good It Might Make You Sing
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/28/534590761/her-mother-taught-her-to-make-this-filipino-dish-now-shell-teach-you

Sugar Pie DeSanto’s Delicious Soul
https://m.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/sugar-pie-desantos-delicious-soul/Content?oid=7694048

For our Video of the Week, Periscope Films released a 1950s travelogue on the Philippines produced by Northwest Orient Airlines for its passengers.