Pierre once told me he often "forgets" that I dwell in the tropics and keeps imagining, though he knows where I live, that I inhabit colder climes. Silvia is curious to know what I eat when no one is looking. Both are foodie friends and while I've had exchanges about food and sometimes, life, with both of them, neither, as far as I know have met or cyber-spoken to each other. These two seemingly disparate yet related remarks from two very different people, got me thinking about something. T...

Whenever I'm at my cousin Maymay's, this will make an appearance on her table, and yesterday was no exception. But it was only yesterday, as I looked at a bowl of this, sandwiched between the plate of crisp, browned bacon and the glazed chocolate scones I'd taken along as my contribution to breakfast (which we characteristically had at high noon), that it occured to me how very simple, yet very versatile this actually is. As I plunged the tines of my fork into one and popped it in my mouth, I...