Maniolas

Philippine tattoo expert Lane Wilcken demonstrates the ancient art that almost was lost during Spanish and American colonial regimes. FIELD MUSEUM CHICAGO—The nearly lost arts of Philippine traditional tattoos and script writing will be resurrected at the “Pamanang Pinoy” event on Saturday, Dec.3, at this city’s Field Museum, coupled with another free adobo tasting sponsored by the museum’s “Friends of Co-Curation.” Lane Wilcken of San Francisco and Kristian Kabuay of Las Vegas will lecture and do hands-on demonstrations for these pre-Hispanic traditions that were almost banished during the 300 years of Spanish colonization followed by 48 years of American occupation of the Philippines. A Question & Answer will follow both presentations. Friends of the Field Museum Co-Curation will also bring back their popular sampling of pork and chicken adobo made from the recipes in the booklet, “Co-Curating Adobo,” which was originally launched in October. Steamed rice will also be available free. Copies of the booklet are available for sale –in time for the holiday gift-giving. A new batch of adobo chefs will be present to sign copies of the booklet. Additional copies are available online: http//friendsofcocuration.com/. The Field Museum has been working in partnership with the local Filipino American community in a series of cultural events these past years in curating some 10,000 Philippine cultural items in its collection. Co-Curating Adobo is available for sale in time for the holiday gift shopping. FIELD MUSEUM The collaboration has opened an opportunity especially to younger members of the community to volunteer and Read More …

Dinner-time patrons at the award-winning Romulo Cafe in London. WEBSITE LONDON – Filipino-owned and operated Romulo Café was named the “Most Loved Restaurant in Kensington” at the third annual Time Out Love London Awards held on Thursday, Nov. 14 at The Bloomsbury Ballroom here. Romulo Café has provided a showcase for fine Filipino cuisine in London, serving “archly presented heirloom Filipino recipes lovingly preserved by scions of the late General Carlos P. Romulo, the Philippines’ longest serving foreign secretary,” and his wife Virginia Llamas. The 70-seater Filipino restaurant, which opened its doors only eight months ago in Kensington High Street, edged out competition from other, more established haunts in the neighbourhood, carrying off an award for London’s best restaurants, shops, bars and cultural venues as voted by the public. Owned and operated by former senior banker Rowena Romulo and co-director Chris Joseph, Romulo Café garnered the most votes among nine short-listed restaurants in Kensington, a district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, hub of many of the capital’s iconic museums, embassies and the new Design Museum. Among the other restaurant winners were Coya for Mayfair; Dishoom for Covent Garden and The Strand, and The Ivy Chelsea Garden for Chelsea. The award is a testament to Romulo Café’s popularity among UK-based Filipinos and local residents of Kensington, where it stays open seven days a week including holidays. Among its regular customers are diplomats from the Philippine Embassy, businessmen and professionals including bankers, teachers, nurses, families with children, students, visiting Read More …

Pres. Duterte and friend Bongbong Marcos. INQUIRER FILE   NEW YORK CITY — They came like thieves in the night, furtive, uneasy, like vampires not wishing to be seen in the clear light of day, burying the corpse of the unlamented Ferdinand Marcos. But perhaps it was the wax model that was laid to rest. Persistent rumor has long held that what was on view in the family mausoleum up north was a replica, showing a man who seemed to have died in good health and in his forties, not a man who passed away in his early seventies with a body and appearance ravaged by disease. The thought did cross my mind, wax model or not, that the piercing rays of the sun would have melted this being who for so long sucked the life out of the nation. The burial was an act rife with irony. It didn’t bury the past, it resurrected it. It hasn’t healed any wounds but deepened them. The Marcos family and their ever-loyal band of followers have said that this was necessary to erase the divisions that have afflicted the nation. And yet it is so obviously having the opposite effect, putting salt rather than salve on the wounds, and in effect reviving—perhaps resurrecting is a more apt term—memories of state-sanctioned violence and the indignities suffered by the nation when the Marcos regime was in power. Rather than a step forward into a brighter future, the stealthy burial—approved by a Supreme Court that Read More …