Month: March 2009

Lenten Special: Tuna Melt

I’ve been in the middle of a book for some days now (Pagan in Exile), and admittedly, I’ve been losing interest in it. So tonight I decided to “cleanse the palate” with a cookbook, my first cookbook review for the year :)
Book #44 for 2009: Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make you Melt by Marlena Spieler, from one of my favorite publishers, Chronicle Books. This book caught my eye at the National Bookstore Book-sak Presyo sale last December at Market! Market! because I looooove cheese. All sorts of cheese (no, processed cheese isn’t counted), and the stinkier, the better.
Because it’s Lent, I decided to try the recipe for spiced up tuna melt (Tuna Melt with Spanish Flavors), and it’s great because I had all the ingredients — tuna, Monterey Jack cheese, bell peppers (that I roasted in the oven toaster), paprika, half an onion, mayo, olive oil, and some salt and pepper to taste.

Aside from the long time it took me to peel the bell pepper (note: next time, canned pimientos!), it was pretty easy, just like making normal tuna spread except with more ingredients. I had fun using the mezzaluna knife (a la Nigella) that my mom bought at Crate and Barrel (comes with its own chopping board!) for the fine chopping.

And then I grilled the sandwich (brushed with olive oil on the surface) on a non-stick pan, using a clean saucer to weigh down the bread (my battery was conking out, so no photo of the saucer).

When the bread was nicely browned, I sliced it down the middle and yum — cheese came oozing out! :) It was yummy — the paprika and the bell peppers gave the tuna spread some zip, and some smokiness. The Monterey jack was nicely melted; I got cheesy strings stretching out as I bit into the sandwich. Sigh… it was perfect!

My yummy tuna melt!

My goal is to try out all the recipes in this book within my lifetime, and maybe invent some of my own. I need to collect more cheese “specimens” (not a wide variety available in this country, and expensive, too!) to experiment with the different combinations of grilled cheese sandwiches in the book… Meanwhile, just flipping through the pages makes my mouth water.

I think I’ll go make another tuna melt! :D

***

My copy: paperback, bought for P50

My rating: book 5/5 stars, tuna melt 5/5 stars

Blast from the Past (Picture book roundup #3)

There are some books that stand out in my childhood memories, and I am on a crusade to find them all again to add to my collection. It hasn’t been easy, as some of them have been out of print for a while now, so I scour Book Sale and BookMooch for copies.
Recently I was able to find some of them, and I thought I’d share them here (Books 41-43 for 2009).First up is Tubby and the Lantern by Al Perkins, illustrated by Rowland Wilson. For a long time I couldn’t remember the title of this book, I just knew we read it in Think & Try (my pre-school) days, during story time and it was shown on Batibot, and that there was a Chinese boy and an elephant.
I mooched a copy from the US, and had it sent to my my mom when she was in the States as the user wasn’t sending international. Finally it came in one of the balikbayan boxes my mom sent home.

Tubby and the Lantern is about the friendship of a Chinese boy named Ah Mee and a small elephant named Tubby. It’s set in a Chinese, lantern-making town, where Ah Mee’s parents are the best lantern makers. On Ah Mee’s birthday, Tubby decides to surprise Ah Mee by making him a giant lantern, which proves disastrous as he is carried into the air and Ah Mee has to save him.

I remember back in pre-school, we had a lantern-making session after reading the book, just like Ah Mee and Tubby made them. Except the candles, of course!

Even more than 20 years later, I still love the story and the cheery illustrations. The illustrator, Rowland B. Wilson, used to work for Playboy, and also worked on animated films like Disney’s Hercules, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Little Mermaid, and Tarzan, as well as Don Bluth’s Thumbelina. He also worked on the series Schoolhouse Rock.

(Tubby and the Lantern photo by Glenn Mullaly)

The next book is also a throwback to my kindergarten days — Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman (illus. by Eulalie). I still don’t have a copy of this book, but I found a modernized version by Little Golden Books, entitled The Boy and the Tigers (by Helen Bannerman, illus. by Valeria Petrone).

Little Black Sambo is the bizarre story of a boy who walks into a jungle (haha, a leisurely stroll, with an umbrella to boot!) and runs into a pack of tigers, who make him give up his clothes, shoes, and even his umbrella in exchange for his life. The tigers end up fighting over Little Black Sambo’s belongings and they spin round and round chasing each other until they melt into a puddle of butter and Little Black Sambo’s father uses the butter to make pancakes for the family! Fascinating stuff, really!

I remember reading this over and over with morbid interest when I was a kid; I even remember dressing up in my raincoat and umbrella so I could role-play Little Black Sambo and fend off the fierce tigers. So I was so disappointed with the new edition, because it was sanitized and cutesy-fied so it’s less offensive and more lovable. The original book was criticized for being racist, but I grew up reading the book and I was oblivious to the racism, I think it was more anti-tiger than anything else, hehe.

In the new edition, Little Black Sambo becomes a hindu boy named Rajani and the tigers are so cute they’re not even scary. The illustrations are great, but they obviously chose the style to bowdlerize the new edition.

Arrgh!!! I still want a copy of Little Black Sambo.

Finally, my last book for the roundup is Many Moons by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It won a Caldecott Medal in 1943.
I actually have two copies of this book, a new paperback edition that I found at the Book Sale Warehouse and an old hardbound library discount that I found at the Book Sale in Cagayan de Oro (P35!), but in case you’re wondering, I’m not letting either one go.

I remember this was the final story in our CRL workbook in Grade 3 (i think…) and it’s about Princess Lenore, the princess who asks for the moon, and the court jester (who outwits the Lord Chamberlain, the palace wizard, and the mathematician) who gets the moon for her.

It’s a great fairy tale, and Louis Slobodkin’s swirly illustrations are the perfect touch.

I am still looking for a copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo, Robert the Rose Horse, and Are You My Mother? I hope I can find them soon :)

***

My copies: Tubby and the Lantern, hardcover; The Boy and the Tigers, hardcover; Many Moons, paperback / hardcover

My rating: Tubby and the Lantern, 5/5 stars; The Boy and the Tigers, 2/5 stars; Many Moons, paperback / hardcover 5/5 stars

Squee for Book Three!

I have always thought The 39 Clues was a brilliant marketing coup on the part of Scholastic, but as I closed the cover on my copy of the third installment in the series (I was reading it for an article for Manila Bulletin, which comes out on Saturday), The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis (Book #40 for 2009), I think the it would be safe to say that it has gotten into its groove. 

I’m not sure which factors in more, if it’s Lerangis’ writing that makes the difference (he did ghost-write for my favorite mystery series, The Three Investigators) or if the mechanisms set in place by the first two books were simply put in motion, but I honestly loved The Sword Thief more than I did the first two books (I rated them both 4/5 stars, and not so much for the story but for the reading experience).

For the first two books, as action-packed as they were, I felt a certain detachment towards the text, like I was an impartial witness to the action unfolding throughout the pages. Book 3 fits in with the rest of the series (with no less than Nick and Norah author David Levithan directing the editorial team), with the trademark 39 Clues twisty chase (suspension of disbelief is a given, think National Treasure or Da Vinci Code) but to my surprise, The Sword Thief captured what I felt was lacking in the series: an added depth to the characters, and interesting dynamics between the Cahill relatives, which comes in at an opportune moment, because the cat-and-mouse, left-and-right sabotage can get pretty old after a while.

I guess Lerangis’ writing does deserve to be singled out, as he manages to add more introspection to the characters and keep up with the line of action — 20 pages under the last book, at that — and I feel that this book captured the spirit of 39 Clues most succintly.

I think it can only get better from here on, and I can’t wait for Book 4, Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson, which is out in June. Should be good, set in classic treasure hunt wonderland: Egypt!

That reminds me, I should input the cards onto my account soon and get a move on with the clues in the online game… Arrgh, the problem is the game site is sooo addictive and I can’t limit myself to an hour playing…. And I also need to get an expansion card pack soon before the new set (for the next books) is released. Ohhh, to be a kid again!

P.S. If there are any other Cahills out there, I’m a Lucian.

***
My copy: hardcover (the series is in hardcover)

My rating: 5/5 stars

Remember Me? (At last!)

Sophie Kinsella is one of my favorite chick lit authors, and God knows how many times I’ve stared at this book longingly at the bookstores, bemoaning the price tag on a brand new hardcover. When the mass market paperback came out recently, I refused to buy a copy, knowing I’d only end up “doing a Blooey” — in the Flips Flipping Pages /Bookmoochers Pilipinas lexicon, that phrase is equivalent to an irrational compulsion of mine — upgrading paperback copies into hardcovers.

I found it on BookMooch a couple of times, but both times I mooched it were unsuccessful and I resigned myself to getting a full-priced copy when I got the cash until one fateful day I stumbled upon a new listing posted by my good friends at Bookay Ukay (way to go guys!) and almost fell off my seat when I read that they had a hardcover copy, selling for less than half the bookstore price. Within seconds, I had reserved the book (*evil laugh*) and in a few days I finally had a copy (Squee!).
Remember Me is the story of Lexi Smart, who wakes up in a hospital room one day and finds out her life isn’t how she remembers it to be. Her once frizzy, mousy hair is now sleek and shiny; her “snaggletooth” smile is pearly white and perfectly aligned; and her frumpy figure and scaggy clothes are replaced by a lean, carb-free, and perfectly toned bod in La Perla underwear and designer clothes.
Apparently, she has been in a car crash and can’t remember the past three years of her life; and she has gone from corporate drudge to power executive leading a glamorous life and the perfect… marriage?!?

Lexi struggles to find her bearings and reconstruct the three-year memory gap, rediscovering the path her life has taken and reevaluating the choices she has made along the way.

Lexi’s bewilderment translates quite palpably throughout the text, as for most of the book, the reader joins Lexi in trying to piece together the missing chunks of her life, and it can get very confusing. The plot gets unwieldy at times, calling on a suspension of disbelief, but Kinsella keeps the connection with a skill she has mastered in her previous books: characters that come alive on the page. Whether it’s the protagonist, the love interest, the annoying “other guy”, the quirky mum, or even bit parts like the salesgirl from last Christmas, Kinsella knows how to write them and make them memorable and just wildly funny.

Readers can also look forward to Kinsella’s trademark comical situations (her heroines just can’t help getting into the craziest circumstances!): office hijinks, bedroom comedy, and other laugh-out-loud episodes only a Sophie Kinsella character can get into. The awww… moments are there too, especially when you discover the significance of the sunflower on the cover!

Remember Me? is more about self-discovery than romance, tackling themes such as the meaning of success, careerism, friendship, and family. It reminds me 0f the movie 13 going on 30 in some ways (the Mont Blanc scene = umbrella scene), although there is no time element in this book. It’s a quick and engaging read, but still manages to establish that a perfect life isn’t necessarily a happy one.

The Undomestic Goddess is still my favorite, by far.

***

My copy: hardcover with dustjacket, from Bookay Ukay

My rating: 3/5 stars

Book #39 for 2009

Four months’ worth of Bathroom Reading

At the first BookMoochers Pilipinas party last Halloween, I couldn’t resist mooching this book from Triccie: Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, because I am such a sucker for useless bits of information.
It took me four months to finish this massive compendium of trivia, not necessarily in the bathroom, and mostly in bed before reading. That makes it Book #38 for 2009, rounding off February with 21 books, as opposed to January’s 17. I need to read around 20 books a month for the next ten months if I want to reach my goal for the year.

Like other Bathroom Readers, the Giant 10th Anniversary volume I have is a fount of useless but interesting trivia about anything and everything under the sun.

For instance, did you know that:

  • “love” is the most used word in a film title, while “Paris” is the 2nd?
  • the “blue moon” from “once in a blue moon” pertains to a full moon that occurs twice in one month, occuring approximately once in every 32 months?
  • Joseph Stalin was so afraid of farting in public, that he kept a set of glasses and a water pitcher on his desk so he could clink them together to mask the sound of his fart.
  • the officials of the Leaning Tower of Pisa get an average of two letters a week with suggestions on how to keep it upright? The weirdest suggestions include building an identical tower to lean against the firstcDon one; building a huge statue of a man who looks like he’s holding the tower up; tying helium balloons to the roof; and anchoring the top of the tower to a hillside several miles away with a steel cable.
  • in the microwave, food cooks better in a round container than in a square one?
  • for every cockroach you see in your house, there are not just 10 that you can’t see — the ratio is actually closer to 1000:1? (*yuck!*)
  • Carolyn Keene is not a real person? (Ahh, the subject of many FFP discussions — there are three pages devoted to this topic in the book)
  • The ratio of adult bookstores to McDonald’s outlets in the US is 3:1?
  • The yo-yo, a prehistoric Filipino weapon, was introduced to the US by a Filipino named Pedro Flores? Donald Duncan partnered with Flores in the Flores Yo-yo Corporation, bought him out for $25,000 and renamed it as the Duncan Yo-yo Company, which created the biggest yo-yo craze in history in the 1960s?
You just never know when these little factoids will come in handy, hehe… (Riiight, I’m imagining being held at gunpoint and being quizzed on the history of the fortune cookie)

I recently saw a stack of Bathroom Readers at Fully Booked, at around P700-900 each, and I was glad I was able to mooch this one. Will be hunting down other volumes at Book Sale and BookMooch :)

***

My copy: trade paperback, mooched from Triccie

My rating: 5/5 stars