Author: Khursten Santos

Posing on a boat, like a boss.

| Khursten Santos

In this day and age, camwhoring is second nature to kids. They either grab their phones or SLRs and start taking pictures of themselves. I still remembered the time when film was used for the camera and for memories of some fun times, my friends and I would go to a photo studio and have our pictures taken. Wallets used to have sleeves for photographs and my friends and I would make a collection of our adventures in the mall.

Back further in the day, we also had something like that. But they were a little more creative and took their subjects into a different world. Beyond formal clothes, photos taken in photo studios during the American period can also mean dressing up as an igorot or a geisha. Better yet, you and your friends can ride on a paper boat and sail down the river whilst holding your diploma.

These photos posted by Ambeth Ocampo has been forever ingrained into my mind on how creative and silly we can get just for that one shot. I bet the guys who took this photo on a boat were totally serious about it (look at their faces!) but more than that, I bet this unique photo was definitely something they will remember. I heard in Dr. Ocampo’s lecture that even Leonor Rivera, one of Rizal’s loves, also had her photo on a boat.

Personally I find the idea hilarious and I am serious that when I get married, my photobooth will have this paper boat in commemoration of these brave men who courageously posed for this dramatic memory of yore!

Crossing Frau Rauscher-Brunnen in Frankfurt

| Khursten Santos

When in Frankfurt, don’t mess with Frau Rauscher.

Found in the bar district of Frankfurt, Sachsenhausen, this old lady will spit out at random pedestrians! Does she care? When I passed in front of her during my visit in Frankfurt, she honestly didn’t give a damn! Anybody can be victim to her antics but is there a story behind Frau Rauscher?

Apparently, Frau Rauscher was based in a 19th century story about an old lady who was down on the street, nursing a lump on her head. Some bystanders bullied her until the police came with guns and 300 blackout ammo and took her out of the streets. The story goes that they didn’t know if she had a lump due to her husband or because she was too drunk from drinking cider. Granted that she was found in this biergarten district, I think I won’t be dumb to assume that Frau Rauscher had a too much fun with a bit of cider. Perhaps she may have needed an online law degree to get her out of this mess, but instead she was immortalized in 1929 with a song.

She may have been built in 1963 but she’s a constant reminder of how uncontrollable we can get if we hung around the beer gardens. She’s probably the safest example of what inebriation can do to history.

Searching for legal manga online

| Khursten Santos

Scanlation is the fan initiated process of translating a foreign-language comic to your local lingua franca. This mostly done with Japanese language comics, manga. And the Philippines is one of the largest consumers of it.

I will not deny that scanlation has been a part of my life. It is a necessary evil for me and given a choice, I will buy the manga that I want. But the Philippines doesn’t have that much choices. Bookstores may be stocking some manga that we can read but not the manga that we want.

It almost feels as though scanlations cannot be avoided, but I’ve written in Champloo something hopeful. A lot of US localization companies are making some titles easy to read online. For now, Viz has allowed access to some of its titles, via SigIkki.
Hopefully, this is the start of something amazing.

Reformatting for pimping

| Khursten Santos

Some of you guys might feel a bit disoriented with the site. In fact, I’m losing a bit of love for the site, not because I don’t love food but rather the things I do right now are not aligned with the purposes of this domain. Not that I don’t like food blogging altogether, but rather, I’ve been giving away calling cards that link to this website and those people can’t seem to associate the blog with what I currently do.

Thus, this formatting.

Don’t worry. There’s no deleting of my old stuff. Just a reorientation of things and an integration of some of the things I do in my life. Please give me a week or so to get this site finally in order. Although right now… it’s clear that I am in the mood for yellow! Cheers! o/

Experiments 002: Pork Roast

| Khursten Santos

I spend for pork roast. I love it and on difficult days, or at least once a month, I’d like to have a good pork roast.

Recently, I live in a place that hardly has a good raost around, not even Baliwag! Hence, this weekend I thought of giving myself a good roast for the weekend.

I’ve never made roast before and when I did, it often tasted bland. Maybe if I got myself into some online college classes to better my cooking skills, I might be able to make it taste better. But even Jamie Oliver’s videos were hardly helpful. Sorry Jamie O, your recipes look hopeful but it doesn’t seem to work with Philippine pork (or maybe I’m really just not doing things right).

But I saw this technique of Market Manila where he brined the pork first for flavor and slit it in the middle to put some stuffing in. Hence, with great courage, I went to my butcher and got me a good slab. Since I didn’t have a rotisserie, I figured that it’ll be all right if I just cook it in my oven.

Here’s where Jamie Oliver comes in. He does this roasting technique where he puts either onions or lemons under his meat to keep it from sticking and to making it really flavorful. I thought I’d do just that and as soon as I stuck it in the oven, I waited for magic to happen.

The result was… all right. I think I got too confident with the salt. It was a little salty at first but it got better much later. It was definitely flavorful and juicy. The skin still… needed some work. I couldn’t get the temperature right in my oven hence rather than being a smooth crackle… I got this oven popped skin. It was a little like chicharon but some parts were not worth eating.

The filling inside was simple yet glorious. It’s just a mix of kinchay (parsley), leeks, lemon, and garlic. It was a good flavor but I was aiming for a chimichurri-esque flavor. Next time, there will be peppercorns and chili. Also, next time, I will buy a smaller portion of pork. -A-) I cooked too big a slab that it was… yeah… too much. Overporked much.

Experiments: Wheat bread

| Khursten Santos

A friend has challenged that my knack for familiar things has made me “incapable of becoming a Junior Master Chef.”

While it was said in a joke, I said CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

So last weekend, I chocked up the courage to make my own bread. *w*) I made whole wheat bread with… a breadmaker. And while it’s not particularly exceptional, it’s still something done!

The result was… not good actually. It was too hard and quite salty. It turned out that the yeast was too old.

Next time… Put live yeast. T^T)b

Third time lucky with Ramen Bar

| Khursten Santos

It took a while for me to write this review because it was quite hard to assess my emotions with this restaurant. When it comes to talking about restaurants, I always have two reactions. First, the restaurant is great and this reaction is always something that’s clear to me after the first bite. Second, it’s horrible and it’s possibly something I’ll never recommend to friends or even spend some time writing about. Again, that’s a reaction garnered from the first bite.

Somewhere in the middle was this restaurant which everyone who had gone with me, and everyone who has blogged about it were singing praises for and for me… I just couldn’t seem to sing the same praises.

I’m not saying Ramen Bar is bad but if it claims to be an authentic Japanese ramen and put it against the best ramen in Japan, it’s not good enough to cause a Ramen boom.

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