Healthy. Local. Sustainable.

"Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings?"

~Gene Logsdon, Living at Nature's Pace: Farming and the American Dream

Less than a year old, Earth Kitchen is a small restaurant operated by Got Heart Foundation, which helps marginalized farmers and indigenous communities all over the Philippines with natural and sustainable farming. Earth Kitchen is a showcase of healthy and delicious dishes which use fresh, all-natural ingredients, but it is not a vegetarian restaurant. "Fresh" and "all-natural" are words not limited to fruits and vegetables, after all.

Seriously?

"Shit happens. Doesn't mean you have to step in it.
But if you do I would buy a new pair of shoes."

~Kilburn Hall, American author

While he was in Manila, my cousin (see yesterday's post) stayed with us and spent some time walking up and down the main street of our neighborhood checking out its myriad small restaurants and shops. When he saw this sign, he had to take a photo just to prove that it really exists. It's in Tagalog/Filipino and says, "Throwing shit here is not allowed." Why the sign is necessary, I don't think I want to know.

The smaller green and blue sign lists the phone number of a tubero (plumber) named Rey. Someone told me that these tubero aren't really plumbers, though. They supposedly provide a wholly different kind of service—which I am not willing to describe here. Whether that's true or not, I will never find out. Even if they were real plumbers, I wouldn't call someone who advertises by nailing an ugly handpainted sign on a tree.  • PHOTO BY JOSE

Pray Laugh Eat

A suggestion from the owners of Old Oven Art Cafe.

3.1415

From the same chef and co-owner of Pino and Pipino restaurants comes π (Pi), which serves breakfast fare and pies everyday from 7am to 10pm. Who said that Eggs Benedict, omelettes and pancakes are only for early mornings? And who said that cream pies are not for breakfast?

Dance!

The Halili-Cruz School of Ballet was established in 1985 by Shirley Halili-Cruz. This is the main studio along Quezon Boulevard, but they have four other branches in Metro Manila, three of which are within the campuses of academic schools.

Knowledge and virtue

The coat of arms of Claret School of Quezon City includes the motto of the school, Scientia maxime cum virtute, which means "Knowledge is best with virtue." Their website explains that "This phrase has been adopted by the school as its own motto to embody the search for knowledge and the promotion of intellectual growth, which is made more sublime with the practice of virtue." The school is named after its patron, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1849 in the city of Vic in Spain.

Killing zone

The fiercest sign for a smoking area I have seen to date.

"Official" graffiti

In a country full of politicians who slap their names and faces on publicly-funded projects every chance they get, Quezon City's politicians are probably the worst. They don't even wait for projects—if there's a blank wall, it'll end up with one local politician or another's name, in the guise of public reminders. Similar to Vincent Belmonte's sign, councilor Jessica Castelo Daza says that "Cleanliness is a sign of a progressive nation." I guess neither realize that cleanliness isn't just the absence of garbage.

Today, we troop to our voting precincts for national and local elections. I honestly still don't know which local candidates to vote for.

Coffee and chicken

There's a new Seattle's Best Coffee and Kenny Rogers Roasters in our neighborhood.
  They're pretty small to have such an enormous sign.
  I like how the sign looks small against the big sky, though.

Day off

Trellis Restaurant, which I posted about back in 2009, has been in our neighborhood since 1980. The quality of the food has never changed throughout those three decades. One other thing about it has not changed either: it remains closed during Sundays. In a city where many families gather together for lunch out after Mass, it's quite surprising.

Four chambers

The Philippine Heart Center is a government hospital which specializes in cardiology and other medical branches related to it. It was established by presidential decree in 1975, during the time of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, though, apparently, it was one of the projects of his wife Imelda. I've always loved its logo.

Clean?

"Clean and Green, let's do it in this barangay." I think that Quezon City Councilor Vincent Belmonte should have made provisions for an eco-aide to clean the area around his sign regularly.

Congratulations, graduates!

KFC gets into the act of congratulating our new graduates. The academic year in the Philippines begins in June and ends in March. This sign was hanging on a window of Claret School of Quezon City.

Junior

Back in 2010, I posted a photo of our little neighborhood grocery, named Eunilaine. It closed in December, ostensibly for renovations, and announced that it would reopen on January 15. That date came and went, but the grocery didn't open. It finally did last month, but under a completely different name. Puregold is one of the Philippines' largest grocery chains, with 156 stores under three names. It bought all 15 Eunilaine and Grocer-E stores, closing the deal on January 15.

Chinese Ho-land in Manila

If you ever find yourself in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown, and see this sign for Ho-land Chinese Delicacies, run inside and grab a pack of freshly-baked hopia, flaky puff pastry filled with a sweet mung bean paste. It's delicious.

False advertising

I think Jack's Loft Dessert Bar should be sued for false advertising. If you eat there often (not just desserts, though their rich and creamy baked cheesecake is reason enough to visit), you'll never be as skinny as their stick figure mascot, nor will you be able to climb a loft easily.

Rabbit food

Because of the popularity of their vegetarian dishes, the owners of Pino Resto-Bar (see yesterday's post) decided to open another restaurant, strictly vegetarian this time. It is located just above Pino and is called Pipino. Aside from being a play on the original restaurant's name, pipino is also the Tagalog word for cucumber. You can always order from Pipino's menu if you eat at Pino, which is what I did the last time we were there. I don't think it works the other way, though.

Pino Pinoy

I first posted photos of Pino Resto-Bar back in 2008 when it was new. It's still around, and has even moved to a bigger place—and still in the neighborhood, thankfully. After all these years, though, it was only yesterday that I noticed that the asterisk separating "resto" from "bar" in their logo is actually the 8-rayed sun of the Philippine flag.

On a mission

When I was much younger, Miriam College in Quezon City was called Maryknoll College, after the missionary Maryknoll Sisters who founded the school. For most of its history, it was a school exclusively for women (and I think it is again, but I'm not sure). Management of Maryknoll College was transferred from the religious order to lay administrators in 1977, but it was only in 1989 that the name was changed. "Miriam" is the Aramaic name of Mary, the mother of Jesus and the school's patron, and is also a tribute to Sr. Miriam Thomas Thornton MM, who devoted fifty years of her life to the school. Miriam College has academic programs for preschool up to postgraduate levels, offers adult education classes, and has a school for the deaf.

Cool dude

Last week, I posted a photo of one of the more-than-life-size cut-out figures being used in the Ateneo de Manila University to prepare people for the new one-way traffic scheme. That exercise to ease traffic inside the campus begins today, so here is another one:
  Meet the new university president, Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin SJ, whom everyone calls by his nickname, Jett. He took over from the previous president, Fr. Ben Nebres, just two years ago, in 2011. Fr. Jett is a physicist with a doctorate in Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech, and he just turned 53 last January 30.  

For the curious, his sign translates as "Follow the advice of parents and teachers. And the new traffic scheme." Today, we find out how well it works.