Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center

These are the reviews from from two of our guests published at the Trip Adviser web site. Visit the Trip Adviser website for additional details.

1.What a peaceful place to spend relaxing time in Marinduque! The cottage is very comfortable, and right on the beach, with a large deck for watching the sunset. The location in Boac (and not too far from Gasan) is well placed for a home base for day trips around Marinduque. But the best part of our stay here was the graciousness of the hosts, David and Macrine. They are warm-hearted, know the island well, and truly made us feel at home. Although we were there to explore the island and relax, the property has a great conference/meeting facility as well. Highly recommended.

2. Nestled against the beach, this cottage on stilts was a great place to spend a week away from all the insanity of urban life. With a spacious deck, two bedrooms, a living room and a full kitchen, my entire family truly enjoyed their stay. The hosts, Dave and Macrine do everything possible to make you feel like family, while still giving you space and privacy. The beach is all of 25 feet away and early morning walks on the beach are what I remember most. My kids were fascinated with the bamboo flooring. A reef is just off shore and filled with beautiful fish to enjoy while snorkeling. I would go back in a minute if I could.

Joke of the Day

Photo from Fritzliess.com

Gynecologist's Assistant Needed

A young guy goes to the Job Center in Sacramento, Ca., and sees a flyer advertising for a Gynecologist's Assistant. Interested, he wants to learn more. "Can you give me some more details?" he asks the clerk.

The clerk pulls up a file ad says, "The job entails getting ladies ready for the gynecologist. You have to help them out of their underwear, lay them down and carefully wash their private regions, then apply shaving foam and gently shave off any hair, then rub in soothing oils so they're ready for the gynecologist's examination. There's an annual salary of $55 thousand, but you're going to have to go to San Francisco, California. That's about 100 miles from here."

"Oh, is that where the job is?" the young man asks.

"No, sir: that's where the end of the line is right now."

Stolen from: Hale McKay of It Occurred To Me

Filipino Discrimination in the US-An Update

The prejudice against Filipino immigrants in the US and specially in California in the 1920s to 1940s is well documented (1). One of the well-known books, America is in the Heart, documenting the life of the Filipino immigrants at that time period, was written by Carlos Bulosan. Mr Bulosan is my number one literary heroes of that time.

Like many Filipinos during that time, Bulosan left for America in July 1930 at age 17, in the hope of finding salvation from the economic depression of his home. He never again saw his Philippine homeland. No sooner had he arrived in Seattle, was he immediately met with the hostility of racism, forcing him to work in low paying jobs.

He worked as a farm worker, harvesting grapes, asparagus and other kinds of hard labor work in the fields of California. He also worked as a dishwasher with his brother, Lorenzo in the famous Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. He was active in labor politics along the Pacific coast of the United States and edited the 1952 Yearbook for ILWU Local 37, a predominantly Filipino American cannery union based in Seattle.

Mr Bulosan died in 1956. To honor his memory, a Bulusan Memorial Exhibit located in Seattle's International District and in the Eastern Hotel features his literary works and manuscripts. One of his famous books, America is in the Heart based on his autobiography is now made into a Philippine movie, Hanggang Sa Muli.( Until Then)_ Till we Met Again),(Hasta La Vista).

One of the famous quotes from that book is timeless, as follows: "We in America understand the many imperfections of democracy and the malignant disease corroding its very heart. We must be united in the effort to make an America in which our people can find happiness. It is a great wrong that anyone in America, whether he be brown or white, should be illiterate or hungry or miserable."

Discrimination against Filipinos was very blatant during the time of the Manongs and Carlos Bulosan. It appeared that by the 1960s, racial discrimination had disappeared from the minds of the American people. But in 1965, my wife and three children experienced their first discrimination experience in Gladstone, Missouri.

Gladstone is a northern suburb of Kansas City, Missouri with about 99.5% Caucasian population at that time.

The discrimination was not blatant but very subtle. After relocating in Missouri for my first job after my Ph.D. graduation from the University of Illinois, my family and I joined a Country Swim Club just a couple of blocks and a walking distance from our rented residence.

My wife, Macrine, and the kids would swim at the country club twice or three times a week. The first day, they were there, she overheard the conversation from two middle-aged ladies. She heard a comment of the first lady to her friend, "Look we are getting invaded by blacks already". Macrine looked around, but there were no black families around; she and the kids were the only colored (brown) people relaxing and swimming in the pool area. Macrine was bothered by what she heard but did not get upset. She continued watching the kids swimming in the pool.

Suffice to say, I had never experienced an incident of prejudice or a discriminatory remark in my more than 53 years residing and working here in the US (California, Illinois, Missouri and Maryland).

After our second year in the neighborhood, we became more active socially and became well-known to the Gladstone community. I was elected by the members of the club as treasurer for two years. I was handling the payroll of three employees and collecting the membership fees of the 300 members. I was delighted that the club members and Board of Directors trusted me with their finances. I therefore conclude that the cure for discrimination is education and ignorance is the mother of prejudice.

If you are a Filipino-American or a member of a minority and are reading this article, have you ever experienced prejudice or discrimination in your life here in the US? Discrimination may be racial, religious, sexual, financial or your educational status.

(1) Carlos Bulosan, America Is in the Heart, 1946

Your Caption for this Photo Needed?

I saw this in Facebook the other day. I am tired of reading the never ending saga of the fight for the Pork( source of corruption) in my second home-Marinduque Island. Let us have some fun for today and send me a caption for the above photograph via your comments. Have a Great Day!

Dim Sum and Fresh Lumpia

I love Dim sum. We used to spend a leisurely lunch at a dim sum restaurant every Sunday, just after our weekly Sunday 11AM mass when we were still residing in Colesville, MD. But today, My wife and I had not visited a dim sum restaurant for almost a year now. I am suffering from hunger pangs and salivating just writing this post, because I remember the delicious dim sum dishes in the photo above as well as the one below this paragraph.

Dim sum is the Cantonese term for a type of Chinese dish that involves small individual portions of food, usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate.
Sweet Buns-yum,yum

History

Dim Sum is usually linked with the older tradition of yum cha (tea tasting), which has its roots in travellers on the ancient Silk Road needing a place to rest. Thus teahouses were established along the roadside. Rural farmers, exhausted after working hard in the fields, would also go to teahouses for a relaxing afternoon of tea. At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacks.

The unique culinary art of Dim Sum originated with the Cantonese in southern China, who over the centuries transformed Yum Cha from a relaxing respite to a loud and happy dining experience. In Hong Kong, and in most cities and towns in Guangdong province, many Chinese restaurants start serving dim sum as early as five in the morning. It is a tradition for the elderly to gather to eat dim sum after morning exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers. For many in southern China, yum cha is treated as a weekend family day. Consistent with this tradition, dim sum restaurants typically only serve dim sum until mid-afternoon (right around the time of a traditional Western 3 o'clock coffee break), and serve other kinds of Cantonese cuisine in the evening. Nowadays, various dim sum items are even sold as take-out for students and office workers on the go.


While dim sum (touch the heart) was originally not a main meal, only a snack, and therefore only meant to touch the heart, it is now a staple of Chinese dining culture, especially in Hong Kong. Health officials have recently criticized the high amount of saturated fat and sodium in some dim sum dishes, warning that steamed dim sum should not automatically be assumed to be healthy. Health officials recommend balancing fatty dishes with boiled vegetables, minus sauce.

Fresh Lumpia
My other favorite dish is the Philippines Fresh Lumpia- the one made from "ubod"-the heart of the coconut. Lumpia are among the most famous of all Filipino dishes. These are not the fried, eggroll-like lumpia you may have tried, but a lighter, home-style version, in which delicate egg pancakes are rolled around lettuce and a tasty chicken, shrimp, and vegetable filling. If you have adventurous guests, let everybody make their own lumpia right at the table-it's a great way to get a dinner party rolling!

Here's a recipe for the fresh wrappers and a typical filling. Instead of the coconut heart(ubod),the recipe below used jicama sometimes called the Mexican turnip or sincamas in the Philippines. In Marinduque, the availability of coconut heart ( ubod) is limitted since it is againts the law to cut a coconut tree without a permit. To get a permit requires so much documentation and time, it is not worth it. So we get only ubod after a big typhoon when a few coconut trees are uprooted by the typhoon.

Wrappers
2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups water
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
About 3 tablespoons cooking oil

Filling
1/2 cup julienned onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half, thinly sliced
1/4 pound medium raw shrimp, shelled, deveined, and halved
1-1/2 cups finely julienned jicama( or coconut heart(ubod) if available)
1/2 small carrot, finely julienned
2 green onions, finely julienned
2 teaspoons oyster-flavored sauce
1 teaspoon Filipino fish sauce (patis)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
5 tender lettuce leaves



Recipe: Fresh Lumpia (The Philippines) http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/special/1999/asia/lumpia.html