Vegetables. Some of us have a love affair with them, others have a love-hate (or hate-hate) relationship with them. One sure thing we all have in common is: We were all made to eat vegetables. We all started out with mashed peas and squash, were scared out of our wits with the bitterness of the wrinkly ampalaya (bitter gourd), and wondered how many more vegetables we should eat. The Bahay Kubo song had the answers, of course!

We all have a vegetable story to tell and a vegetable dish recipe to share. That is why I am very eager to be hosting and inviting you to join Lasang Pinoy 18: Oh My Gulay!



Read the full announcement here.

06/01/07 UPDATE: The round-up is now up! See it here.

After a short hiatus Lasang Pinoy is back.

To celebrate its "resurrection," we decided to relaunch within the week after Easter Sunday. After a series of false starts and consultations with the Lasang Pinoy peeps, it was decided that the secret ingredient for the 17th edition is ... ta..ra... ra ...... The EGG.

The egg in various cultures symbolizes fertility and rebirth. From a Philippine context, the egg is very much part of culture and history. First thing that comes to mind is The Balut. It is something we always claim as our own. It specifies us from other cultures ,though not exclusively. Vietnam has it similar delicacy called Vit Lon. More than that, the fertilized duck's egg is also an eaten object of bravado, virility and Pinoy machismo. Because it takes a certain amount of guts to eat, we love to taunt our foreign friends' comfort zones by challenging them to feast on boiled "aborted" duck's embryo. Balut is often eaten after dark with beer. The Pinoy "barako" who consumes it is said to acquire certain powers when doing a most pleasurable ritual, legit or not, in a darkened four-cornered room. This, even if the V pill came with the same claims.

Read the full announcement . . .