My Family Health Blog

Committed Family Healer's Research

Paleo Diet Ice Candy with Mangoes and Coconut Cream

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It is mid-April and we are in the peak of a hot summer season. My wife and children decided to make paleo diet ice candies made from ripe raw mangoes and fresh raw coconut cream. Here is the super simple recipe and pictures:

Buy your very ripe mangoes, make sure they are naturally ripened, they should smell sweet.

Buy your coconut niyog and have it shredded.

At home slice open the mangoes

Press your shredded coconut meat and get the coconut milk / cream.

Get your ice cubes from your ice tray.

Put the combination of mangoes, coconut milk and ice cubes in a food processor / blender. And blend.

Pour in standard plastic ice candy wrappers.

Put in freezer.

Enjoy later in the mid-afternoon heat.

Avoid Head On Collisions: Actor AJ Perez Dead

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Actor AJ Perez died last Sunday. Reports said he was riding a van and was asleep. The van got into an alleged head on collision with a Partas bus. But later reports said that the accident was not a head on collision, but another kind. My family and I just came home from a 10 day Luzon tour so we did a lot of driving from Manila to Bayombong to Banaue to Tuguegarao to Pagudpud to Vigan to Tarlac and back to Manila.

Most of our provincial highways are merely 2 lane roads. Overtaking is constant. There are a few 4 lane roads near Tarlac city, but most are 2 lane roads. Here are some of me and my wife’s notes on how to avoid accidents on these dangerous narrow roads:

Expect anything over a hill… so do not overtake coming up the hill, you never know what may pop up.

Expect anything behind a sharp mountain curve.

Drive slowly and comfortably compensating for your own errors and other drivers’ errors. This is important. I will drive only 60 to 70 kph on the 2 lane roads. And only when absolutely clear do I go at 80 kph and I keep my distance from the next one in front of me. I have room to compensate when I brake my car so if the driver behind me cannot brake in time, I advance my car more. This has saved me a couple of times from being sandwiched.

Overtake only when absolutely sure and that there is a margin of safety for you to come back to your spot. Not those one shot overtake or be dead type of overtaking.

Take note of your airconditioner compressor kicking in when overtaking. I don’t care if I’ve got a powerful Toyota Fortuner, when in a tight overtake, I turn off the airconditioner compressor just to be sure. It’s that extra margin of power that may count.

When tired or sleepy, stop. Don’t drive. We spend the extra money to stay overnight in hotels. We did hotel stops in Bayombong and Tuguegarao to break up long trips.

Don’t text or call on your cell phone when driving. When the office needed my attention with a few phone calls, my wife took over my driving.

Avoid driving at night. Drive only during the day. Night driving adds the danger of not being to see as clearly as in the day. It’s faster for the buses as there is no traffic, and may make business sense for the bus company, but for us normal and infrequent road trip family parents, day driving is a must.

We drove towards the direction of Tarlac last Saturday afternoon but there was much traffic. So we took a detour and hit directly La Paz instead and got on the SCTEX.

10 Day Road Trip Finished: Bayombong, Banaue, Tuguegarao, Pagudpud, Vigan, Manila

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We are back in Manila from our 10 day road trip! Family road trip was fun. Nothing to be homesick about for me, I’m traveling with the family so wherever we are is home. Our route was from Manila to Bayombong, to Banaue Rice Terraces, then Tuguegarao, then Pagudpud beach, then back to Manila.

Our original plan was to sleep in a hotel in a town prior to Bayombong, but we couldn’t find it. We wound up in a town just after Bayombong in Balay Gloria. A recommended restaurant in Bayombong was Mrs. Bakers. I had a wonderful rare lamb. This restaurant was the restaurant food I liked in the entire trip.

We got to Banaue Rice Terraces and proceeded immediately to Native Inn in Uhaj. It was totally scary driving up the mountain to Uhaj as the road was a single lane slippery muddy road where a mistake will make you fall of the cliff. We arrived up to Native Inn after some “piss in your pants” scary driving. Our SUV did not have off road tires and was not a 4 wheel drive so I was scared to the point I said to the family to take off their seat belts and unlocked the doors and if we make a mistake and start to fall off the cliff, everyone jump out the doors.

Native Inn in Uhaj is what it claims to be, heaven. You live in the clouds, you have the most majestic view of the Uhaj rice terraces, you live in authentic Ifugao houses. Paleo dieters need to bring their own meats as the resort owner is of the belief system that fat is bad for you and the pork they serve has been trimmed of all fat.

We got a guide / driver to go up Uhaj and fetch us and guide us down the mountain back to Banaue town proper. We stayed at the Banaue Hotel grandest suite. There was a nice cultural presentation show in the evening. We went around several view points in Banaue. We also explored their market. We also went down to an authentic Tam An village. We bought more than 30 kilos of authentic Banaue rice terraces rice. Most of it red because it was cheaper. We had it bused to Manila along with some big handicrafts.

Banaue was cool, calming, relaxing. I vow to come back to Banaue. Next time by bus. No more driving.

We were supposed to go to Sagada from Banaue but 4 days prior, a landslide in Bontoc has made the roads impassable so we decided to abandon our original route of Banaue Sagada Cervantes Ilocos Sur and instead back tracked and went up to Tuguegarao.

In Tuguegarao we slept overnight at the Hotel Roma. Good hotel. In hotel parking which was important in Tuguegarao as lately carnapping was rampant.

We then drove on up to Pagudpud beach. Prior to that we saw the beached North Korean ship being torn apart piece by piece. Will probably be sold for metal scrap. Pagudpud beach we stayed at the Kapuluan. Pagudpud was windy, non-stop, great for surfers. We immediately found the time to check out the hillside for escape from possible tsunamis. Pagudpud is a nice, natural, alive beach. With living creatures on the beach, shells, and all, nothing fake. There is a small dynamic community. And best was I discovered where to buy fresh fish and other food so we can have our superior home made meals… which are always better than restaurant fair.

We drove down to Ilocos Sur to Vigan and stayed at our new friend Marsha of Marsha’s fame. Wow, her home was her castle, non stop improvements and artistic to boot, it’s her hobby. Super thank you to Marsha. Vigan was a nice historic place to visit. The Burgos museum made my day and the zoo visit was great too.

On the last day we drove from 7am to 6pm from Vigan to Manila. We had a lunch stop and a fruit buying stop.

Lots more stories and details to tell in more blog posts. This trip was just so good I want more trips.

Medicinal Raw Honey Hunting in Ifugao and Ilocos

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One of the goals of our 10 day Luzon road trip was to hunt for wild honey in the far flung provincial markets. My usual suppliers of honey have dried up. Even the bees in the farm in Alaminos are on honey strike when I visited last month.

Our first leg through Nueva Ecija, to Bayombong, to Ifugao netted 2 big quattro kantos bottles in Lagawe costing a lot each.

Later in Bangui, Ilocos Norte we were able to buy up 10 bottles of wild honey, of course they tasted different from the Ifugao wild honey. But this was much cheaper per quattro kantos. They also sold en mass some farmed honey which was obvious to my taste buds, they cost less, but still I only bought 1 farmed honey bottle.

Later on in Vigan, we met up with my sister in law who just went honey hunting in the wild mountains with native honey gatherers and she brought back 30 bottles (tasted different too)! And she’s asking us to pack this big box in our car! And she gave us the story of how they got the honey and with pictures too.

Of course we will find a way to accommodate this new honey stash. We will be sending our used clothes in our big maleta by bus. Then we can stuff the big honey box in the car! Hooray for honey.

I’ve learned how hard it is to have to go out of your way to collect true wild honey. And found out from Ifugao that the people there just buy up all the wild honey immediately… it is medicine… medicine primarily for children.

I give raw honey for myself and my children as a digestive aid. Raw honey with raw calamansi is also a remedy for coughs. I’m valuing these raw wild honey so much I’m keeping a good amount of stash in the hidden cupboards for medication emergencies. Must never run out of raw wild honey ever again.

Will make a write up of my sister in law’s adventure in wild honey gathering. Awesome story coming up!

Live Raw Ants Eggs: A Yummy Delicacy of Ilocos Norte

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I remember my in laws saying ants eggs were a delicacy, lip smacking good from Ilocos Norte. We just came from Pagudpud beach on the way down and found myself stopping by at the wet market at Bangui. I first got myself some of the famous traditional Ilocos garlic at only 120 pesos per kilo, then I asked for ants eggs and yes they did have it! Actually, 2 vendors had it!

Ants eggs were a delicacy all right, expensive stuff. 300 pesos per kilo in this far provincial town. At those prices only the rich in these parts can afford that. Good thing I come from Manila, I can afford it. I bought almost 2 kilos of raw live ants eggs, with live ants in them too.

Why wait to cook it? What for? I started eating small hand fulls in the car. Creamy yummy. The ones familiar with it said they wanted it with the live ants because that added a different wonderful dimension to it.

Most people I asked cooked the stuff. I think they resort to cooking it to stop the ants from hatching as that keeps better… maybe… or they are just squeamish at eating live ants.

Well later in the day we did cook a good amount of ants eggs ginisa style, some salt, some onions, some garlic in some virgin coconut oil. Taste? It didn’t taste any different from the raw ants eggs. It’s just that the live ants are dead and they are easier to eat without biting you.

We arrived in Vigan and met my sister in law for dinner. Gave her some cooked ants eggs. She and her friend loved it and ate it all for dinner. I asked if she liked these ants eggs better than the ants eggs she had a few days ago. She said the ants eggs she and her friend ate a few days ago tasted so much better. They were the ones who gathered the ants eggs and they got bitten so many times when they finally were able to sit down for a meal, those ants eggs tasted really great given the effort and the bites they had to endure.

The next time you are in Ilocos Norte, look in the wet markets and get yourselves some nutritious, delicious, exotic ants eggs!

Ants eggs spoil easily. You must let the ants eggs breath. Sealing it in plastic and they die and they don’t taste good anymore even if you cook them, the 2nd batch came out that way the following day.

Just like any meat again, raw and alive just tastes better and is probably far more nutritious. Let go of your squeamishness and just be human. Eat those ants eggs raw and alive. I must plan for a return to this place and establish a contact who will send me some on a regular basis.

Traditional Ilocano Dish: Raw Beef Kinilaw – Ceviche

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Raw Beef Kinilaw

Kabigan Falls, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. We had breakfast in this area. As I was having my raw beef tapa (in coconut vinegar with pepper and garlic), the nice ladies offered me some freshly butchered raw beef at a nearby food stall in Kabigan Falls.

They offered me some slabs of fresh raw beef. Then I noticed a small pot with simple raw beef ceviche / kinilaw. This sold for 50 pesos per little plate. I asked if I could buy the entire pot which they estimated to have 5 servings, the shop owner said yes!

Then I saw the decapitated head of beef, I asked if I could buy the brain. They said they can only sell me half of the brain because they were going to use the other half of the brain to make another traditional Ilocano dish called Dinakdakan.

So I got half a raw brain. Of course it tasted great. We mixed the brain in with the raw beef ceviche. This Ilocos Norte traditional raw beef kinilaw is made with thin slices of raw beef plus calamansi and onions. It is that unbelievably simple.

I wanted this beef ceviche style because it keeps. Currently me and my family are on travel and this goes inside my trusty plastic container and has to keep and not stink. We have no ice.

We had lunch in Laoag with my wife’s Auntie who is an MD anesthesiologist and she was also familiar with this traditional raw beef kinilaw / ceviche. We were in a fine dining restaurant and she and I shared in this glorious fresh concoction which she has fond memories in her youth, she ate a lot of it, said it was fresh and very good.

The waiter in the fine dining place said they had dinakdakan on the menu but said they used mayonnaise instead of raw brain because mayonnaise had less of a smell? I call that BS reasoning. But that is what the waiter said.

What I think is that beef brains are small and there aren’t really enough of it to go around serving dinakdakan in the quantities they sell.

I find it very hard to get hold of raw beef brain in Marikina and Quezon City markets because it is in such great demand.

Anyway, back to the Ilocano traditional raw beef kinilaw… is no exaggeration, it is what it is because it is served in the turo-turo by traditional Ilocano people.