I was so inspired by the biography of Eric Nernberg I just read recently. With all the things he accomplished, you wouldn’t believe that all of these things were just done by the same person. From a book editor, business man, traveler, then owner of a publishing company. I always say I want to live as many lifetimes as I can in able to do all the things I want to do in life but one person made me realize that everything is really all about passion and that is Eric Nernberg. Time doesn’t really limit us to what we can do but it’s all about the attitude of getting what we want. Accomplishment is truly endless only if we spend our life wisely. If there’s one thing we should all possess that’s passion and hope. A person maybe lost his way in this journey of life but he must not lose his dreams. It is always the passion to our dreams that makes us alive. It is the passion that makes every hardship easy and worthwhile. It is not really simple to get there…. Especially if we want to do a lot of things in life but giving up your dreams is more than just losing it… it is also losing all the opportunities that might come your way if only you try pursuing it. There are no really easy way to be successful but it is true that the easiest way to fail is to stop believing and giving up. We all must the same spirit with Eric Nernberg. His career as a writer and editor did not become an obstacle for him to be a business man and own his own restaurant. If you would think about it, it was two different line of business but he was able to do it. One cannot just give up all this success, but he did. He moved to Thailand because living there was one of his long time dreams and it only proved that as long as you have the dream and passion with you, you can always succeed in anything you want wherever life may lead you.
A particular variety of the hot pot a Chinese dish in which vegetable, meets, seafood and other item are boiled in a large pot in the table, has became very popular in Taipei recently: spicy pepper pot. Restaurants have responded by introducing many special new flavors and other variation to the traditional hot pot format.
Just seeing the words “spicy” and “peppery” we know that his kind of hot pot must come from the Chinese province of Sichuan. According to historical materials, as early as Emperor Tao Kuan of the Ching Dynasty, people in the province of Sichuan were already avidly consuming spicy pepper hot pot, particularly in the areas around the Yangtze River and the city of Chungching. The earliest versions of hot pot were available on the city from roaming vendors. For the hot pot , beef organs were washed and clean and cut into small pieces. A pot full of hot pepper soup boiled on the top of a charcoal fire inside a clay stove. Customers would drop their sliced beef innards into the hot pepper soup and then eat them right there on the road side. Later, a Chungching restaurant moved this street-side affair into a shop and provided each proton with his own copper pot for boiling and dipping sauces. Spicy pepper hot-pot shops caught on quickly and the popularity of this dish has extended down to this day.
Reassuring traces of an age, admittedly idealize, can still sensed amidst the heavy overlay of recent success stories in agro-industry, food processing, fishing port development, and service infrastructure. There are at least 31 banks, 15 financial and investment houses, 60 insurance companies, and 15 real estate developer in the provincial capitol, Iloilo City – attesting to healthy assets. Ilonggos (pronounced ee-long-gohs), though preferring everyday informality and characterized as highly conservative, are very hospitable and big spenders, too.
One guest thought she was being given an exquisite tray cloth, only to discover the real gift underneath: a trayful of diamonds! A few months ago, a real estate developer cancelled its Saturday sales luncheon because all lots had been sold during Friday night’s extension cocktail-some purchased in cash! International cocks derbies are Iloilo have winnings (and loses) in the millions! Ilonggos culture at its best is both delicate and dazzling.
The effects are apartment in two very old traditions: Jaro’s February Fiesta honoring Our Lady of Candelaria, Patron of western Visayas, with its candle motif and court of lovely lasses; and the marvelous Arevalo Fireworks Festival on the on the Feast of the Holy Child. In 1968, the Dinagyang was introduced every second week of January for the Holy Child (Santo Nino). In tipical Ilonggo flair, the costumes are most spectacular traditional undok-undok, uroykoy, dinapay and sinulog dances are executed with verve on the main streets.
Despite Taiwan’s long-term political isolation from the international community, the people of Taiwan have still been able to make contributions to the betterment of people around the world. This is due to the desire of the people on Taiwan to reach out to others in friendship and solidarity. Several examples illustrate this situation.
One of the international relief organization that’s been active in Taiwan is the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF). Originally here to provide relief services for Taiwan’s people, because of rising prosperity, in 1985 the Taiwan branch of CCF began using funds collected in Taiwan for relief operations elsewhere. The organization provides relief for needy children. In addition to sponsoring Chinese children, the foundation began sponsoring foreign children in 1987
Twenty thousand people in Taiwan sponsor children. Each contributor NT$1,000 a month. CCF also has eight thousand foreign sponsors who give NT$600 each month.
Most people in Taiwan prefer to sponsor Chinese children. However, due to the limited number of Taiwanese children, people must wait up to three or four months for s suitable candidate. The Chinese Children’s Fund, therefore, encourages Taiwanese people to consider sponsoring foreign children. The number of people sponsoring foreign children in Taiwan has grown in recent years.
An act of kindness may loom no larger than a pebble in a pile of rocks, but its effect may ultimately change an entire world. It is interesting to reflect that such a pebble – cast by Kuwait a hundred years ago when it gave shelter to the Al-Saud family – was to be repaid by such a solid rock of support earlier this year.
This September celebrates the 59th Saudi National Day. This year of 1991 also marks the 100th anniversary of the expulsion of the Amir Abdulrahman Al-Saud and his family from Riyadh into exile in Kuwait. Among the exiles was the Amir’s ten-year old son, Abdul Aziz, who vowed that he would one day reclaim his family’s lands.
That he did so is both a matter of history and legend. His successful storming of Musmak Fort in 1902 with just a small band of like-minded warriors was to set Abdul Aziz on the path to glory, not only for himself but for what was to become a great Arab nation – Saudi Arabia.
In the years which followed, the young warrior mellowed into the great statesman. Under his guidance a programmed of restoration, consolidation and modernization, consolidation and modernization molded the formerly disparate territories into a united whole – culminating in a new nation, born in 1932, embracing most of the Arab Peninsula, with Riyadh as its capital.
They called the lime-green concoction of gelatin, whipped cream, buko (young coconut) and pandan leaf essence, Claude’s Dream. I thought the name primarily had to do with the light, cloud-like consistency of the dessert. And the man it was named after was not necessarily its creator. I learned otherwise, and by accident too. But that is getting ahead of my story.
It all began as an observation. “You have this passion for food. You must like to eat and cook”. That was enough for Claude Tayag (painter, sculptor, and furniture-designer) to invite me to his house for lunch. “At the rate I carry on about food, people will soon overlook my being an artist, for my cooking. But, I will cook for you. Bring your friends,” he said grandly, a grin spreading across his face. It was then I thought of inviting Claude, in turn, to contribute a recipe for the magazines. The planned lunch evolved into a plan pictorial in Angeles, a city in the province of Pampanga, about an hour and a half drive northwards from Manila.
“My house still unfinished but it is fine to live. You must excuse the mess,” Claude warned, when he confirmed our lunch date.