Silver linings and writing awards

All-day Friday rain and I know why, cuz there’s no sun up in the sky, since my girl and I ain’t together, yeah. But the beauty of silver linings is in the beholder’s eyes. And that’s no reference to TV flash reports on someone’s delayed portage from one hospital to another.

Easy come easy go. Last week when I first took someone very dear to me to his first rehab session at The Health Cube, an oasis of care on Wilson St., Greenhills, I had to walk quite a ways on the edge of the no-pavement road (obviously named after my good friend and fellow Star columnist Wilson Lee Flores) just to find a cup of coffee.

Well, whaddaya know, it had to be at a MacDo outlet, past a BPI branch with a typically long if electronically handled queue, where I deposited an amount for the purchase of a lovely artwork still hanging at a gallery in Baguio City. Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño, daughter of premier poet Luisa Igloria, takes part in a group show that runs until Dec. 16 at Bliss Café in Hotel Elizabeth. I liked a digital collage on canvas titled “Familiar” that she showed her mom via e-mail, thus the e-arrangement.   

Last Friday was another Physical Therapy day. Upon deposit of the outpatient, I asked a guard if the bakery across the street might have coffee. He pointed behind me, at a door in the same building I had just stepped out of. Why, it led to serendipitous Sugarleaf, which turned out to be a combination café-resto and healthy lifestyle shop offering items that spelled charming cornucopia.

The brewed coffee was excellent, to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised to be told that I had been served Roaster Juan’s Cordillera edition. Now, I’ve championed Roaster Juan’s all this time, since I first discovered the special roast a couple of Christmas bazaars ago at Valle Verde 5. Former neighbors Lorie and Terrie Reyes run the cottage industry from where I source my favorite morning brew, Roaster Juan’s Premium House Blend.

Only recently, I ran into the endearing couple again at a weekend bazaar, and came away with sampler packets of two new editions: Dos Fincas and Espresso Roast. Both were superlative. I’ve also tried the Cordillera blend, and was happy to find out that it’s available for sipping and purchase at Sugarleaf at The Health Cube. Coffee lovers can also get in touch with ValleNet Corporation at roasterjuans@gmail.com

Back to Sugarleaf, it’s the kind of tidy, pretty place that health lifestyle nuts and alternative seekers like myself swoon over. The all-day dining menu sports items such as free-range egg mayo, smoked blue marlin and dill, and Turkey Waldorf, interspersed with the usual proselytizing text on such curious if trendy terms like superfoods, pro-biotics, and benefits of a low-glycemic diet.

The shelves offer a range of New Age delights and glammed-up traditional delicacies, from fanciful cosmetics like Leyende’s Out of Sight eye cream cucumber extract (hmm, something for someone) to Kombucha Healthy Tea in attractive bottles and Butchie’s Masa Podrida, mamon tostado et al. — billed as “recipes of la moderna Pampanga.”

The Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Awards judges: Micky Fenix, Mol Fernando, Krip Yuson, Cora Alvina, Karina Bolasco, Maya Besa, and Felice Sta. Maria with the 2011 winners: Harry Mosquera, Jenny Orillos, and Ofelia Niña Reyes Abay.

Hmm. Quite ironic at high noon of Dec. 9, when a hospital transfer was due any minute, right on the eve of Human Rights Day and poet-martyr Eman Lacaba’s birthday (also the fateful day chosen for the traditional UP Writers Night, this time on a rain-soaked rooftop in Diliman).

I tell you, things keep happening in this town. So that we really have to have our coffee breaks in pleasant venues, such as where we find organic this and organic that, to wit: Jello’s cocosugar coco-kefir ice cream, Goody Kefir-chia milkshake smoothies, blended fruit & vegetable shakes including Green mango, Organic cucumber and Organic guyabano, Sweety Pies’ guilt-less indulgence desserts like Cranberry & pistachio biscotti, Kefir cheesecake, Macadamia pie and Organic carrot cake, and… why, even hard-boiled organic eggs with cinnamon!

Yes, I got those, too, for taking home, not so much to adopt a healthier lifestyle, but to check out whatever’s unique, bright and beautiful — this on a Friday of undoubtedly organic rain. 

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the 9th Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Awards, which were handed out on Nov. 21 at a dinner at the North Forbes Pavilion hosted by the contest’s main sponsor, the International Wine and Food Society Manila Ladies Branch.

Pancit, that ubiquitous Pinoy noodle dish of a myriad of variants, was the subject matter for the 2011 competition. 

Bagging first prize was Caesar Horatius “Harry” Mosquera for his essay titled “Codename: Wet Pancit” — his boyhood name for noodle soups such as almondigas, batchoy, miswa with sardines, and chicken sotanghon. A faithful entrant through the years, Harry has previously won prizes in the writing contest that features different aspects of Pinoy cuisine, but it’s the first time he’s topped it. 

Jenny Orillos won second prize with “A Pancit Puti Panata” — an all-white noodle dish she learned from a Quiapo fiesta host, and has since adopted as her specialty for New Year’s Eve dinner.

Third place went to Ofelia Niña Reyes Abay for “The Joy of Slurping a Simple Noodle.” She refers to pancit bato — named after a town in Camarines Sur, where the strands are made with cassava flour, and where the dish is usually topped with inulas or dinuguan.

Sugarleaf’s shelves offer a cornucopia of healthy lifestyle choices.

Ferdinand Cortes gained fourth place for “The Mystery of the Late Night Pancit of Golden Star” — his favorite panciteria in downtown Manila. He discloses that he discovered the secret behind the flavors of the restaurant’s pancit guisado through information from an insider.

The winners were awarded cash prizes from the Manila Ladies Branch and books from Anvil Publishing. Mosquera also won a Mont Blanc Oyster pen donated by a foreign-based Filipino manager of the company. Sponsors included hotels and resorts such as New World, Fridays Boracay, Dusit Thani, Mandarin Oriental, Makati Shangri-La, The Peninsula Manila, Edsa Shangri-La, and Le Spa of Sofitel Luxury Hotel.

The Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award will be celebrating its 10th year in 2012 by publishing a book featuring all of the winning essays. Next year’s competition will be conducted early in the year, so that the 10th-year winners will be included in the book. The subject will be panghimagas or dessert. For inquiries, e-mail dgfawards@yahoo.com.ph

Congratulations as well to the winners of the Fifth Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards, which were given out on Dec. 2 at Sofitel.

Chosen as Agriculture Story of the Year was “XU Graduate Practices Urban Farming to Answer Issues on Food Security, Sanitation, Environment Protection” by Business Mirror correspondent Mach Alberto Fabe. The article relates the accomplishments of urban farmer Perfecto “Jojo” Rom, an agriculture graduate of the Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro, who plants vegetables in discarded plastic containers and old tires in his backyard in Davao City. Fabe, who also won the grand prize last year, received a cash prize of P50,000, a trophy designed by multi-awarded sculptor Juan Sajid Imao, an Apple iPad2, and a trip to Malaysia.

The award for Best Agriculture Feature Story (Regional) went to Adora Rodriguez of Philippine Star for her article “Discover Tea in Zamboanga,” which chronicles the achievement of Leodegario Garcia, a farmer who started planting Ceylon tea and who inspired the Department of Agriculture to establish the Organic Tea Production and Commercialization Project.

Named Best Agriculture Feature Story (National) was “The Master’s Garden — Simulating How Mother Nature Works” by Marilou Guieb of BusinessMirror. The story highlights an organic farming technique developed by Pat Acosta of Benguet.

The Best Agriculture News Story award went to Rita dela Cruz of Philippine Star for “A coco plantation makes a good carbon sink-study” — on research done by Dr. Severino S. Magat of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), who noted that coconut plantations can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Rodriguez, Guieb and Dela Cruz each received a Bright Leaf certificate and a cash prize of P20,000.

The Tobacco Photo of the Year was taken by Mau Victa of Philippine Graphic Magazine, whose “My Leaf, My Life” captured an image of a farmer checking on his flue-cured tobacco leaves.

The Agriculture Photo of the Year was taken by Richard Balonglong of the Cordillera Today — with his “The sweet of thy brow” showing a farmer watering a field.

Both photographers received cash prizes of P20,000, Bright Leaf trophies by Imao, and an Apple iPad2 each.

The Oriental Leaf Award went to Philippine Star’s Andy Zapata, a consistent winner in the Bright Leaf photo category in the past three years. He received an Apple iPad2 unit.

The judges in this year’s competition, which is open to all Filipino journalists residing in the Philippines, were: UP-Los Baños chancellor Dr. Rex Cruz; National Tobacco Administration (NTA) deputy administrator Vicente Lasam; Bureau of Agricultural Research director Nicomedez Eleazar; Cultural Center of the Philippines’ visual arts OIC Ed Cabagnot; Manila Times editor Dong delos Reyes; National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Angelito Banayo; Bureau of Plant Industry director Clarito Barron; Agriculture Information Service director Noel Reyes; Information Technology Center of Agriculture and Fisheries director Gary Glenn Fantastico; International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) communications head Gene Hettel; Press Photographers of the Philippines president Joe Galvez; former Malaya and Taliba columnist Zenaida Cruz-Burgos; and this writer.

As pointed out by PMFTC Inc. president Chris Nelson, the Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards has seen a tremendous increase in the number of entries over the past five years. From 82 entries in 2007, this year the competition received a total of 1, 345 entries across all categories from all over the country — a 45-percent increase compared to 927 entries last year.

“This strengthens Bright Leaf’s reputation as the country’s premier and most awaited agriculture journalism awards today. We hope that you all continue to tell your stories and share with the public all there is to know about agriculture,” Nelson said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan was the guest speaker at the awarding ceremony. He encouraged all sectors to work together “to ensure a bountiful future for the agriculture sector and for the millions of lives who depend on us.”

The chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture summed it all up: “If we can modernize agriculture and fisheries, and if we can use agriculture journalism to usher in new mindsets and new ways of thinking, then we can usher in a new age of progress, prosperity, and food justice — which our countrymen sorely need. We are here not just to reduce poverty, not just to share positive stories, but most importantly, to enrich the lives of our fellow Filipinos.”