Roommate: Can you show me how you would eat all of this with your hands?

Me: Usually I would, but I had to do a pap earlier today.

Roommate: Hooray! You got to do a pap!

What good is the icing if the cake is bad?

- a fortune cookie

Mudpie can never become chocolate cake.

- Brenda

Visit you at a public school?  Pish. How can I be sure that the university will provide wine and cheese at parties?

- Anonymous Princeton graduate

Anthony: So you don’t think a guy is more attractive if he comes up to you and he’s with another girl versus just by himself?

Shirley: No, I don’t.

Lacy: I don’t get what you mean. Do you have an example?

Anthony:  Let’s say you’re at the mall. A guy comes up to you and asks your opinion about something he might buy.

Shirley: What is he buying?

Anthony: I don’t know – it doesn’t matter.

Shirley: Yes, it does!

Anthony: Fine. He’s trying on sunglasses. And then he tries to start a conversation with you by asking how they look on him. Would you pursue a conversation with him?

Lacy: No.

Anthony: Why not? Because he’s just some random creeper who wants to get your number?

Lacy: No, because I don’t have time to go into long conversations with random people. He might start off asking about sunglasses but then he might go into his family life or how he just moved here and, worse, he’ll find out I’m a medical student and then I’ll have to give him medical advice…

Anthony: No, that’s not the point…. Shirley, would you talk to him?

Shirley: I don’t  know.

Anthony: Because he seems creepy without a wingman or wingwoman right?

Shirley: I would hate to give advice to someone and then be wrong. I don’t know the guy so I would feel bad if he bought them just because I thought they looked and okay and then he would regret it later.

Anthony: No, forget about the glasses. I just want to know if you would talk to a random guy who came up to you in a public place at the mall. What if the same guy came up to you and tried to talk you, but was with a very attractive female companion. Would you feel more secure talking to him? Does he seem less threatening and possibly more attractive?

Lacy: No, because now he’s going to ask me if the sunglasses look good on her. I just don’t have time to waste talking to people I really don’t know. I would know the girl even less.

Shirley: Yeah, I would feel really bad about telling a girl to buy something they didn’t end up liking either.

When news of my grandfather’s passing reached the state-side clan, it clearly upset my father. This was such a long time when I was a kid but I vividly remember my dad’s frustrated face as he received details from relatives over a long distance call. Lolo probably died from heat exhaustion while sleeping on the couch during the sweaty Manila night. My father, a man who taught both me the value of frugality and enjoying life, was clearly upset that his father was too stubborn and cheap to buy an aircon (that’s AC or air-conditioner in American English). That fact only strengthened my dad’s lessons about not putting a value on health.  

Several days later, my tito (my dad’s brother) faxed us a copy of Lolo’s death certificate, which read, “Cause of death: homicide.” We were mortified. Dad couldn’t recall if Lolo had enemies and worried about Lola’s safety. Why was this essential detail left out? He quickly called Manila back:

Dad: What is this? Why didn’t you tell me that Dad was murdered?!

Tito:  What are you talking about? He died in his sleep peacefully.

Dad: Then why does the death certificate say homicide?

Tito: Kase namatay siya sa bahay (becase he died at home).

Only in my familiy would death cause such a confusion over vocabulary, but more generally it reflects a sentiment that all families have. The manner of a loved one’s passing makes a HUGE difference. I don’t mean to be morbid, but I think that by retelling these stories, I hope that it will get a healthy discussion about death and terminal illness. Research has consistently shown that a majority of people in this country do not die in the manner they wish – painless, around family, and at home. Although there’s little we can do about the cause of death or when it happens, there is a lot that we can do about how patients and their family experience the inevitable in a dignified manner. What’s worse is that some patients may be receiving better care than others – that is, some people are asked what their preferences are while some aren’t. Although Lolo passed away so suddenly and in the comfort of his home, it sometimes eats me inside that I will never really know if he had such a conversation with someone, if his last moments were truly peaceful, or if his last wishes were observed.  

Reast in peace, Lolo.

Ingredients

• Boneless pieces of chicken. You can use chicken breasts or even chicken tenders. I’d say this recipe is good for 1-3 pounds. (can also substitute for pork cutlets)
• Salt and pepper mix. (1/2 salt, 1/2 pepper)
• I big bag of panko bread crumbs – a special type of bread crumb with a light, fluffy texture. Last time I made this, I was running low on panko bread crumbs so I combined it with normal, unseasoned bread crumbs and they turned out great! I also like to add a generous tablespoon of garlic powder to the mix.
• Egg wash – 1 beaten egg and 2  tablespoons of water. It’s easier if you can make this in a wide dish, like a small casserole so that the pieces of chicken will fit.
• Flour
• Corn oil

1. Pound the chicken to thin slices. The thinner, the better, but try to aim for 1/2 inch thickness. There are a couple techniques to do this depending on your equipment. You can use a meat tenderizer and beat the chicken thin. Alternatively, you can use heavy frying pan – just place the chicken on a cutting board, cover with saran wrap, and slam a frying pan onto it (just careful you don’t break the pan off the handle). A less violent option is to use two cutting boards – place the chicken on a cutting board, cover with saran wrap, place another cutting board on top, and press all your weight onto the top board.
2. Season the pieces of chicken with a light rub of salt and pepper. (if you’re unfamiliar with seasoning raw meat, try doing just one piece first, taste it, and then adjust your seasoning for the rest of the pieces.)
3. Heat the 1/4 of corn oil in a frying pan to medium heat. Don’t get the oil too hot! Panko burns easily. As you’re cooking, you’ll need the strain the loose, burned breadcrumbs out of the oil or your chicken will turn black.
4. You’ll be breading the chicken and immediately sticking them in the hot oil one by one so next to your stove, set up a breading station – a plate of flour, your egg wash, and plate of breadcrumbs.  Dip both sides of a piece of chicken into the egg wash, cover it with flour, dip again in egg wash, then cover completely in breadcrumbs, and then immediately place it in the  hot oil for 3-4 minutes. You can probably cook 2-4 pieces at a time like this. It’s easiest to bread with one hand and cook with the other (cook with a pair of chopsticks or tongs).
5. When done, they should be golden brown (not dark brown or black or the chicken will be tough and the covering ashy). Slice into smaller pieces or serve whole over rice and noodles.

Sauce

Last time I did this, I had to improvise. Traditional tonkatsu sauce has a lot of ingredients including mirin, which is not easy to come by in Boston. I basically added some Worcesteshire to some ketchup (about 1 part Worcestershire and 2 parts ketchup). Mixed in a couple table spoons of  rice cooking wine, red wine vinegar, and apple cider vinegar and then topped off with a little bit of sugar and generous garlic powder. Mixed it well so it had a thick, creamy texture and a slightly sour, peppery, and sweet taste.

• Enjoy the July 4th fireworks
• Salsa dancing
• Drink a whole Scorpion Bowl at the Hong Kong (okay, technically Cambridge)
• Eat a Felipe’s Burrito (again, I know, Cambridge again)
• Slice of pizza / sub from Pinocchio’s
• Drink by the Charles River
• Eat a banh mi from Chinatown
• Dine at the Top of the Hub in the Prudential Center
• Eat my fill of Clam Chowda’
• Play mafia with my Chinatown kids one more time
• Take pictures of Chinatown – so I can remember what it looks like before it gets completely gentrified
• Drinks at Grendel’s Den
• Fruit shakes at Dong Khanh in Chinatown
• Eat at Legal Seafoods
  
• Get my friends to hang out somewhere on the Green Line
• Eat a Boston cream pie

Serve a slice of the rice cake on banana leaves

Ingredients (and some helpful hints of where to get the harder to find comestibles)

• banana leaves (optional, “dahon na saging” in Filipino in case the package isn’t in English) – try looking for it in the frozen section of an Asian grocery store
• 1 lb. rice flour a.k.a. mochiko – also at most Asian grocery stores and even the gluten-free or ethnic sections of mainstream super markets, they usually come in 1 lb. bags or boxes.
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 can evaporated milk (1 1/2 cups) (not to be confused with condensed milk)
• 4 eggs
• 1 can coconut milk (don’t confuse with coconut cream or coconut juice). Make sure to shake the can before opening otherwise the parts of the coconut milk will be separated.
• 2 cups of sugar (either brown, white, or half and half)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 block of butter
• bag of shredded coconut
• bag of shredded mozzarella

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Butter a 9×13 pan (or you can also use two smaller circular pans – just make sure you don’t have more than an inch of batter otherwise it won’t cook all the way through in the oven). Place two layers of whole banana leaves in the pan making sure that the bottom and inner sides of the pan are covered and just enough hanging over top so you can remove the cake later. Be careful not to rip the leaves otherwise the batter with seep through. Butter the banana leaves, too. (Leaves are optional but add a wonderful banana taste to the cake.)
3. Soften the butter in the microwave. Combine with the sugar to dissolve all of the sugar.
4. Mix all the wet ingredients in a large bowl – sugar-butter mixture, evaporated milk, coconut milk,  vanilla, and eggs. Mix well with an electric mixer.
5. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl – rice flour and baking powder. Be extremely careful when opening the mochiko – it will explode all over the place and it’s a pain to clean up. Try opening over the sink or in a plastic bag with a pair of scissors.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet – using a blender to get out all of the lumps. You can try sifting the flour if you don’t have a mixer but mochiko is usually very fine and this makes it difficult.
7. Pour the batter into the buttered pan / banana leaves. Make sure not to let the batter go over an inch thick otherwise it won’t cook all the way. Tap the sides of the pan to allow bubbles to escape.
8. Bake in the oven for 1 hour. If you used banana leaves, it’s normal for them to turn dark brown or even black.
9. Toss the shredded coconut and mozzarella. Don’t add all of it at once – depending on the brand of the either,you may need to adjust for sweetness and saltiness so be sure to taste it. Just before the bibingka is about to finish (use a fork to check), top it with the coconut and mozzarella and return it to the oven. Broil for 5 minutes or less, just enough to melt the cheese – you don’t want to burn the coconut!
10. Let sit for 15 minutes. If no banana leaves are used, serve in the pan (it’s difficult to remove it because the cake will be crumbly). If banana leavesare used, carefully lift the bibingka out of the pan by holding on the leaves. Some of the batter will inevitably seep through the leaves and will cook at the bottom of the pan – these are the best parts!

I love country music… songs are usually about three things – God, girls, and tractors. Sometimes, a song can have all three! For example, ‘Thank God my girl thinks my tractor is sexy.’”

- Richard

proudly presents 

Feeling Good

A Service Day.

Altrusim. Because we know what’s good for them.

The CIA (Cynical Idealist Alliance, Inc.) is excited to announce its latest committee for One-Shot Servivce. This new committee largest responsibility will be to produce and sponsor “Feeling Good,” CIA’s Service Day. Our new committee is charged with identifying organizational leadership, gathering the necessary resources, and producing a timeline of activities and logitstics.

The Committee for One-Shot Service met recently and have outlined the following:

Committee Leadership Positions and Descriptions (approved by committee, pending review by CIA central leadership)

• Propaganda Coordinator is in charge of the logo, tagline, and other branding-related competitions
• Site Oversight researches nonprofits that do this kind of work full-time and get them to design one-shot projects for the service day.
• Consultants Liaison will seek contracts with management consultants who can tell us about service day activities more than nonprofits, agencies, or we can.
• Fundraising Chair – because consultants aren’t cheap.
• T-Shirt Guru will organize the design and production of t-shirts for the event so sponsors can put their company’s logo.
• Volunteer Recruiter – this position was debated heavily in the last committee meeting and it was decided to merge the potential responsibilites of this position with that of the Propaganda Co-Chair (please see below)
• Propaganda Co-Chair makes sure that the newspapers hear about our entrepreneurial spirit and how we started something new.
• Job descriptions can be amended or new positions can be added through a 2/3 majority vote of committee members.

Timeline (agenda items and order not yet final – to be revised by committee at next meeting)

• First committee meeting to decide on positions and charter for committe
• Hold elections for leadership positions in committee
• Research and hire consultants – preferably a company who can advise on applying a business model to service evnts
• Launch first propaganda campaign – T-shirt, logo, and tagline contest.
• Compile funding proposal and send to CIA central leadership for review.
• Begin fundraising campaign.
• Seek nonprofit agencies.
• Plan for fundraising kick-off campaign at a fancy downtown restaurant.
• Research and reach out to other sponsors.
• Invite nonprofits to apply as a site for service day.
• Make copies of all deliverables and send to consultants for review and comment.
• Invite winning nonprofits to celebratory dinner for the service day event and to announce the winning agencies that will be awarded with our volunteers.
• Convene second committee meeting.
• Begin second phase of propaganda campaign – send out press release to national and local newspapers and network at next marketing professionals networking event.
• Begin planning volunteer appreciation cocktail / dinner.
• Recruit volunteers, hold service day event, and clean up sites.
• Send pictures of event to press.
• Send chotskies to community partners.   

Contact CIA Central Leadership if you want to join this amazing new committee!!!