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Location : Lazi, Siquijor Island, Philippines
September and the Move
With my move to a house, logistics had to be looked after - getting my kitchen furnished, learning new cooking methods, etc. It's busy and exciting.
The Chinese Wok
(September 6, 2023) The Chinese wok has always fascinated me especially after traveling Southeast Asia where street food is openly cooked in a wok with dazzling expertise by chefs/cooks whose wok is practically an extension of their bodies.
Settling Down
Now that I've stopped traveling and moved to a house with a kitchen, I decided to settle down and commit to being a householder. This means furbishing my rented house with kitchen things - stove, water dispenser, etc. Now, I could realize my fascination with a Chinese wok.
Wok Material
Which wok to buy? The local market only sells aluminum (Alzheimer's anyone?) and Teflon (cancer anyone?) - no self-respecting chef would use aluminum or Teflon. I went to Youtube for guidance. Apparently, there are a few choices of materials for a wok - stainless steel (great for soups but not for stir frying), cast iron (retains heat and heavy to work with) and lastly, the quintessential Chinese wok made with carbon steel (as popularly used in street food and fast-paced Chinese restaurants). Nearly all chefs default to carbon steel.
Shopee Ordering
I'm in an isolated island. Either I cross the sea to Dumaguete to buy or shop online. I chose Shopee and bought from one shop for a wok, spatula, ladle, bamboo brush and wok cover. The strainer, I bought at a nearby store. The shipping was half the cost of the merchandise and it took almost a week. The cover was flimsy and the wooden handles of the wok-spatula-ladle had no pre-drilled holes and no screw came with it. Otherwise, it was all good.
Wok Seasoning and Maintenance
I learned what needed to be done before using the wok for the first time - proper seasoning to make it non-stick and prevent rusting. Done! There is also a ritual after cooking. Rinse the cook in hot water while scrubbing it with a bamboo brush and then drying - no soap is used. When dry, put it back on the wok on med-heat to dry out all the water (no source for rust to develop) and apply a very thin oil coating (as an insulation from oxidation). Before using the wok again, it needs to be put on high heat until smoke (from the thin coating of oil) is burned off, then put priming oil to coat the wok. Chefs discard this priming oil, but I keep it for future priming (no one ever explained why priming oil is discarded while used oil can be reused). New oil is then added for cooking.
It is a lot of work just to do the ritual.
Lingering Thoughts
Given my limited experience with the wok, in hindsight, instead of buying a 2-burner stove, I should have just purchased a cast-iron single wok burner. This would have saved space, more robust and can generate higher BTUs for proper stir-frying.
Wok-cooking is a whole universe all its own with authoritative chefs dispensing their gospels in Youtube. This blog is a start of more wok adventures.
Bike Basket Bar
(September 7-12, 2023) My bicycle basket has been indispensable for hauling stuff which otherwise would weigh me down - water from the spring source, wet laundry, etc. But the steel passenger seat was too small to support the big basket. The solution was to fabricate a metal bar on the passenger seat to support the entire area of the basket.
Welding Shop
I took the bike to a welding shop where the master-welder cut 3 pieces of metal bars which I would then zip-tie to the bike and basket. He cut the steel bar, drilled 6 holes and even ground the edges for a smoother finish - all for P120 (US$2.00).
Optimized for Payload
Finally, I was able to zip-tie everything together and my bike basket turned 'heavy duty'. For starters, I loaded it with heavy laundry and it held up. Nice!
Fabrication
(September 7-12, 2023) My bicycle basket needed reinforcement to support the heavy load I put on it. I took the bike to a welding shop but it took 5 days to get the job done simply because the master-welder was always drunk - either it was his birthday, a town fiesta or karaoke with the boyz.
Drunk
I was wondering how he could make a livelihood if goes drunk for consecutive days on end. Marlon, a local friend who was a hard drinker himself, told me that those welders were harder drinkers than him. Whoa!
No Show
On the same day, I was supposed to meet Marlon to go to Siquijor. I waited for him as agreed at 8am. By 8:30, he still wasn't around and I left for home, making other plans. Turned out, he got drunk the night before.
On another ocassion, he asked me to help him with his immigration papers. I spent a day researching. When the arranged time came for a meeting, he showed up drunk.
Lingering Thoughts
This drunkeness and inability to deliver plagues Siquijor (of course, not everyone). It's frustrating but it doesn't even feel right for me to complain. If I can't stomach it, I can just leave Siquijor. This is their town, it's their tradition and this is how things are done. Period.
I have a lingering speculation though why these things happen. When you know there is prosperity at the end of the tunnel, you keep your motivation high and work hard. However, if there is hopelessness, if you know that no matter how hard you work, you will remain where you are, you leave the country and work abroad as an OFW (overseas Filipino worker) - and a great number have done so. However, to those who are unable to leave, they only see an economic deadend remaining on this country. Why work hard? Why strive for excellence? Just do what you have to do to keep afloat and drink yourself out of your misery until you wake up the following day to repeat the cycle. I say misery because I don't know of anyone who is happy in life yet gets himself drunk every night - no one.
Why is this happening? It's easy to blame them. But if you look at the big picture, it's actually shitty politics at all levels of government - graft, corruption, nepotism, color-coding (being identified with your politics). The system was so designed to keep the masses poor, uneducated and disempowered. This way, politicians get away with everything.
Correcting Google Bard
(September 28, 2023) Google Bard is Google's cutting-edge Large Language Model in Artificial Intelligence. It is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, can generate different creative text formats and will try its best to answer questions based on everything that's out there on the internet. It's a formidable learning tool.
But on one of my Q&As with Bard, it said something not quite right and I corrected it. It realized its mistake and apologized. Whoa! I corrected Google's super-computer?
Lingering Thoughts
I know, it's silly, but it's my 'proud moment' of the day. I'm like a little kid who won a prize. I'll come to my senses later, but for now, I'll soak it in. LOL
Ending Thoughts
September has been characterized by learning new things and somehow, veering away from the readings/writings of yoga. I've committed myself to being a householder (settling down and no more travels) and getting busy in my new kitchen (I lived for 7 months in a small room) and learning new things - how to cook in a wok, wok recipes and doing new and exciting things in a wok. I learned from the huge selections of Youtube videos, as presented by lay culinary enthusiasts to renowned chefs. It's amazing how the world's knowledge is now at your fingertips. There is no excuse not to learn anything that interests you.
--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
YOGA by Gigit
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Next story:
Real Estate Mapping
(October 1, 2023) When an acquiantance bought land, the legal mapping she got was a simple sketch plan with coordinates. I thought I could do better if that land were mapped on Google Map complete with property markers and boundaries. I had to roll-up my sleeves and see if it can be done...more »»
Kings and Queens
(November 13, 2023) I was invited to attend the coronation of the kings and queens who reign from the otherside. These are regular people who exist in our default world, but on the other side, they rule as royalty...more »»
More on Lazi:
More on Siquijor Island:
Jeeps - there are only 2 routes for jeeps within Siquijor Island - and they are rare. Most people have their own motorcycle transport.
Food - these were suggested by a local to me
En route to Cebu City, the ferries usually make a stop-over to Tagbilaran (Bohol) to pick-up more passengers or unload.
There is only one bus plying this route - Sugbo Urban. Tourist class coach, a/c, comfortable, Sun-Fri (these dates keep changing). P420 for bus, P275 for ferry to Liloan. Larena Port around 5 am, makes a clockwise roundtrip around Siquijor Island - Larena, Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi (stops at Lazi market for breakfast and leaves 6:50 am), San Juan, Siquijor (arrives 8am, P50 from Lazi to Siquijor Poblacion) and catches the 1pm ferry at Larena Port (Sundays at 3 pm) for Liloan, Cebu and resumes its land route. Arrives Cebu City (South Bus Terminal) 10 pm.
Sugbo Urban is the cheapest and most convenient way because it goes around the island (clockwise) along the circumferential road, passing through - Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi, San Juan, Siquijor...and back to Larena where it takes the ferry at 1 pm. This saves you the hassle and high transport cost of a tricycle. Besides, it's a long trip from the other side of the island to be taking by tricycle.
These are the nearest popular destinations from Siquijor by boat
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