Pinoy ala Pobre

“Ma, kung puputi ako, yayaman ba ako,” (Mom, If I turn white, will I be rich?“) was an inquiry my eldest brother made as a kid. This was when the American soldiers would roam Cebu streets with their transistor radios and chocolates, and Cebuanos would go, “Hi, Joe!” . I often wondered what my brother's real intentions were. Would he want to be fair colored like the Americans or did he want to be rich? Or is being white a prelude to being rich?…

For me, being rich is a state of mind. And being poor is not the absence of wealth, but the absence of meaning. I often tell my children that the best investment is relationship, and if you put your time, effort and resources into having real, true friends, you will reap more than you can ever imagine.

Being rich is what many aspire in the material world. Commercialism abounds so much that sometimes we even measure success by having the means. Because many filipinos cannot fulfill their dreams in their own country, they opt to leave. A prominent school in Bacolod, has half of its population in the nursing department, while the other half is a combined mixture of business, the arts and the sciences. That just goes to show you how desperate filipinos are for a better life and their only recourse is out!


Some look for the American dream which is: German car, Italian Wardrobe and Swiss bank Account. or , the Chinese dream which is : an American house, a Japanese wife and Chinese food...but what is the Filipino dream? I asked a lot of my friends about this, and many replied - to get out of the country which is really a sad plight. But I guess it's a host of many things. The best answer came from an old 'boyfriend' who composed this song and which the apo sang...I heard this for the first time today and just loved it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ2ynVPactM

okay, so do you know who my 'boyfriend' was???? he was a cutie then...hahahah! (but this was in high school, silly!! so no need for explanation on both sides..)...so much for that..

Last week I spent my birthday with brunch at a Brazilian resto in Union Square. I ordered the breakfast menu complete with beans, kale veggies, cassava carbs and a glass of caiperinha. At 2 in the afternoon they were serving me cocktails with the meal! The drink was so yummy, that I had to try making it myself when I got home.

Caiperanha is a poor man's drink in Brazil, like tuba is for the Cebuanos. Cachaca is the alcoholic beverage from sugar cane and is different from rhum, which is a byproduct of molasses. To make the drink, simply cut up lime, mix it with sugar and mash it with a pestle. Put in crushed iced, and add the cachaca. Mix and enjoy. You can even brush the rims of the glass with colored sugar. (i placed brown sugar in mine) Drink moderately because it has the same effect as the agave (tequila)

Imagine, they even have my age printed on the bottle...Talking of coincidences..


A la pobre in spanish means 'of the poor'. And many recipes are called ala pobre because they are either missing some ingredients, or it is the dish which the lower level of the economic chain often eat. But for me, it is a matter of semantics. Anchovies to italians, bulad for us. Same thing. We may not have Brazilian coffee, but we have kopi luwak (the most expensive in the world). Or tequila to the mexicans, lambanog for us. Same thing.

For me, we are all the same-equal, whichever way you look at it. Even when it comes to taste. Everyone has taste, but not everyone has exposure or experience. For as long as we do what we like and are happy, money will just follow us. (that is another law of attraction!) So,..what then defines the rich from the poor...this is what i got:

" Rich people pursue their dreams, read a lot, are curious and they are still kids...Yet a poor person will always try to look damn smart, spend too much on shitty things, and will always hate rich people."

Well said, but as for me, how would I know, I'm just middle class!!!!!

And talking about the pobresitong pinoys, why is it that the filipino culture has the crab mentality....so for today's dish, I have made 2 kinds of crab recipe...relleno and salad. The salad has the costly ingredients like apples, cucumber, green pepper and the caesar salad dressing. The relleno has the leftover veggies I had in the fridge, potatoes, carrots, okra, raisins and seasonings.


Whether one is a rich man's side meal and the other a poor man's main, they still both are yummy either way...Enjoy!