Heroes, Food and Special Women

Memorial Day in the US has come and gone, but honoring our war veterans knows no deadlines. We are posting an article from Ben de Guzman, first published in Huffington Post.

Filipino cuisine seems to be gaining a foothold in the United Kingdom as British Filipino chefs, eager to celebrate their roots and put some British twists to their culinary creations, set up pop-ups and even regular restaurants to promote and share their food. One of them is Rex de Guzman, aka Le Happy Chef, who is profiled here by culinary journalist Jacqueline Lauri.

In the US, the Quesada family of Ramar Food International is one of the primary proponents of the Filipino Food Movement. Read Again the story of how the family business, the biggest Filipino frozen food manufacturer and distributor in the Western hemisphere, came about in "Healthy, Fancy, Trendy: Quesada Trio Bring Filipino Tastes Mainstream."

Meanwhile, renowned author and academic Luis H. Francia writes about two awesome women who have published notable books: Gemma Cruz Araneta (yes, the first Filipina Miss International) and his late sister, Sr. Myrna H. Francia of the ICM congregation. Gemma's Hanoi Diary is a historical account of her and her then-husband's visit to North Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. Sister Myrna, whom her brother describes as not really a "goody goody" person, shocked everyone including her family when she decided to become a nun. She wrote The Party's Over: A Nun for Modern Times before she passed away. Both books are still commercially available and definitely worth reading.

Our Happy Home Cook feature this week: Le Happy Chef's recipe of his Anglicized version of our beloved sisig.

In our Video of the Week, Kristiane Hill shot an 8 mm film during her travels to Manila and Asia around the end of 1920's till early 1930's. Her grandson, Kim Skaarup, uploaded the video.