Life is sweet

First of all, I wish everyone reading this good health.

Second of all, I wish for everyone to get informed - I mean properly informed from the many reliable sources out there. These are extraordinary times and every one of us needs to find a way to get through them the best way we can for ourselves, our families and our communities.

COVID-19 has governments around the world asking us to fundamentally change the way we live: working from home if possible, restricting travel, sports and entertainment venues are shutting their doors, as are schools and universities. Some accounts say it’s all happening “amid fears of coronavirus” but I think that’s lazy writing, a useful cliché. Better to remember that these steps are being taken for very good reason. They are well-studied measures to slow the spread of infection. Of course many people are indeed afraid, if not for themselves then for their loved ones and their livelihoods, but the point of these actions is to find a way to stay healthy and alive.

In China, in Italy and as of tomorrow (Sunday) in the Philippines governments are putting millions of people in lockdown and enforcing it with varying degrees of severity, but not here in the UK, not yet anyway.

The government’s view is that it wouldn’t make much difference at this point, and is primarily concerned with delaying the spike or “flattening the curve” for as long as possible so that the health care system isn’t overloaded. That’s what’s happened in China, Iran and Italy with health care workers having to make terrible choices over which patients will receive life-saving therapies because there isn’t enough equipment, beds or carers. Doctors and nurses are catching the virus and dying. All this is happening in rich nations with adequate healthcare systems.

If the spread of the virus is going to be slowed, ultimately it will be up to us ordinary people to take the guidance at face value and follow it. The single most powerful thing any one of us can do is to frequently wash our hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water, if that’s not available then use alcohol-based hand sanitiser. “Frequently” for me means every time I leave or arrive anywhere, especially after touching a surface that others may have touched. Certainly more often than you would normally.

Next: don’t touch your face. The most common way of catching any virus is getting the germs on your hands (the virus survives longer on a hard surface), then touching your mouth or nose.

There are mixed views on wearing a face mask. If you’ve got any flu symptoms then you’d protect other people if you wear one, otherwise the very least is that it would stop you touching your face.

If you can minimise going to public places, do so; when you have to be near others – distansiya lang. The lockdowns around the world are to deny people movement and places to go so we don’t infect each other in the process; but we can voluntarily decide to change our behavior to “social distancing.” Hunker down, work from home, and know you’re helping make the world a safer place. It’s a serious challenge to our social nature, but it is also potentially life-saving. In Italy, people are lining up to get into the grocery with two meters between them and they’re only being let into the shop a few at a time.

One expert here has said it just isn’t possible to reduce the number of deaths from COVID-19 without it having an impact on the economy. Millions of people are likely to go unpaid, overseas workers stranded and lose their jobs. Already millions of dollars have been wiped off the value of shares in stock markets around the world and the worst of the virus is yet to come in the USA, UK, the Philippines and many other places.

In London, pubs and restaurants are bracing for the worst, even in Shoreditch, one of the hippest neighbourhoods in the capital. This part of east London is where the cool bars, eateries and shops buzz with creative energy that is modern and multicultural.

Pinoy cuisine as interpreted by chef Francis Puyat at Rapsa@100 Hoxton is a unique addition that’s been a big hit with the hipsters. Puyat told me when he was just 10 years old in Mindoro he’d go to the river with his friends, catch guppy fish and cook them on the spot, but his dad would scold him when he got back for not making paalam.

Thirty years later, having worked in one of London’s best known restaurants, NOPI, with celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi, Puyat’s created a menu that takes Asian fusion to a new level. It’s innovative but accessible, as the restaurant’s website puts it: “designed with a modern twist that makes it perfect for newcomers to try and grow to love the beauty and taste of the best Filipino restaurant in London- mouth-watering in its simplicity and heart- warming in its prices.”

I met film-maker Leah Borromeo and Rohingya activist Ma Htike there for Sunday brunch. Htike had salmon kinilaw, and adobo eggplant salad with cashew, and pickled pepino. I couldn’t resist tosilog breakfast: the tocino bacon was stupendously sweet, salty and sticky. Leah had the cured salmon with bibingka loaf, scrambled egg, salted duck creme fraiche, herb salad, and candied nuts. Dessert was a grand finale of warm, sticky, cold and gooey sweetness: biko with chocolate brownie ice-cream and latik caramelised coconut.

Andrew Zilouf, owner of Rapsa and third generation east London restaurateur, says Philippine food is the original Asian fusion cuisine, he loves it and came up with the restaurant’s trademark “boodle fight” served on banana leaves. He told me a lot of Londoners come without even realising the food is Filipino, and he’s planned new promotions despite the challenge of this new coronavirus. “Chef has reinvented the dishes, but it still has authenticity and traditional elements, like the oxtail kare-kare that he’s made with croquettes. Come and try it!”

I promise it’s worth risking a special journey out, armed with hand sanitiser of course.