My Family Health Blog

Committed Family Healer's Research

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.

Raw Wild Honey in Such High Demand and Expensive In Ifugao

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On this road trip, our first leg took us to Ifugao province. We took the Nueva Ecija to Bayombong and up route. In every w et market I stopped and asked for honey, pulot in the local language. Always no honey. In Lagawe I asked for honey, no honey either. The young lady said to me I should go there on Sunday market day and even then I’d have to go real early because people just snap up raw honey.

The Ifugao locals all know the value of raw honey as medicine. They keep raw honey for their children. The formula is to mix a tablespoon of raw honey with a tablespoon of raw calamansi juice. Just like the candy combination of honey-lemon. Or is that the westerner’s staple honey-lemon remedy. Seems it is the same for the Ifugao.

Finally in Lagawe, the big town capital of Ifugao I found raw honey. A big square bottle of gin. 600 pesos per bottle. And no discounts. And that is the local price, not tourist prices. Only 2 bottles left. Of course it tasted like the real thing. Unique. Unlike any other honey I’ve tasted.

This honey is so expensive and fabled to be medicinal when I go back to Manila I’m keeping these 2 bottles as medicine for my children. I’m not bringing this out as food. It will be in my personal stash of medicines.

I think I’ll try the honey lemon combo now. It is said to be used for kids’ coughs. Well, I haven’t had any coughs since I turned raw paleo diet. But whatever, let’s try it before we give it to the kids.

Is There a Cure for Cancer? Yes. Everyone Can Do this.

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Question: Is There a Cure for Cancer? Answer: Of course there is. It’s right here in this website. You are looking at it. In this very blog post I will outline the cure for cancer. This blog post is for all of you who have cancer. I claim to teach people how to cure cancer for free and people who follow my advice are cancer cured. Cancer is easy to cure when you know how. And I smugly know how and I’m sharing this for all to be cancer free. Continue Reading

Roaming Livestock is The Cure for Desertification. Really.

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This is a 1 hour presentation teaching people how to think outside the box and finally solve problems with the right kind of thinking. True science. Desertification has been a problem in civilized times since egyptian times and Allan Savory argues that for many thousands of years of civilization, our thinking and decision making process hasn’t changed. This is why humans keep making the same mistakes. Desertification progresses.

Roaming Livestock is The Cure for Desertification. Really. It is obvious after you watch this video.

Recorded 7 November 2009, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, Allan Savory argued that while livestock may be part of the problem, they can also be an important part of the solution. He has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, they are essential to land restoration. With the right techniques, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, perhaps four times as many cattle can be kept.

Allan Savory – Keeping Cattle: cause or cure for climate crisis? from Feasta on Vimeo.

Earthing, Grounding Your Body May Eliminate Pain and Electrical Disturbances

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The charismatic David Wolfe introduces earthing. Grounding. A 5 part video. Electrically grounding, being connect to the earth is a very very big deal. Your ailment may just be caused by faulty electrical flow in your body.

Check out the rest of the videos in youtube.

To show the practical application of this concept in an electrical multi-meter, you can actually measure this grounding. How to get grounded cheaply. For all you electrical geeks out there. Try this!

Better living through electromagnetism: electrical grounding technology.

So what are you waiting for? Just walk barefoot on the ground. Stand beside a tree, touch the tree, touch the plant.

Sleep on the floor of a house in the first floor, a floor that is grounded.

Super easy.

Back Pain Cure et al: Holistic Master Acupuncturist, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kung Fu and Tai Chi Master – Caucasian, English: Sifu Sam

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Sifu Sam is someone you dream about visiting and treating your entire household on a regular basis. He is a true holistic teacher and healer. Sifu means master / teacher. Sifu Sam a master at the highest levels of acupuncture with moxy plus massage plus tens machine, which he combines with his holistic approach to diagnosing and treating diseases, injuries and blockages in the human body. He combines this with his knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine where he also prescribes to you a recommended diet and Chinese herbs. He combines this with exercise where he teaches you hands on about Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Yoga. Sifu Sam is the complete house visiting healer. And he has the ripped physique of a martial arts fighter. A good role model for children. Sam is a treasure.

Racially, Sam is of Jewish descent. Sam grew up in Australia. He learned from his Kung Fu and Tai Chi in Australia’s Shaolin Yau Kung Mun. Sam in his younger days liked competitive martial arts. Then he got interested in healing and learned Traditional Chinese Medicine and a whole lot of acupuncture. His style of acupuncture is both diagnostic and healing at the same time.

Diet wise, Sam’s own practice is of organic nutrition, more or less paleo diet in content such as raw vegetables, raw fruit plus raw sea food and seared sea food. Sam partakes in healthy carbohydrates for his athleticism with brown rice and whole wheat. (he’s not allergic to wheat)

Best quality of Sifu Sam is he speaks straight English and some Tagalog! The secrets of Chinese medicine de-mystified in straight English for you! He has been in the Philippines long enough, his mission in life is to be a healer in the Philippines, to teach the Filipinos a better way of life, and probably set up many healing centers so that an army of future Sifu Sam’s can heal the entire country.

And Sifu Sam is a great story teller and teacher. Fun to be with. For Grandparents, for the parents and for the children.

So how good is Sifu Sam’s healing?

Cured my 75 year old father in law of 10 years of “incurable” back pain. Plus improved his fading hearing on his left ear. Effectively rolled back the years, given my father in law new youth. 3 or more sessions of his masterful acupuncture, some Chinese herbs, a prescription to partake in eating raw oysters regularly and ta dahhhh…. awesome results. When all the western MDs have given up, all the Chiropractors and Dorn healers had given up, Sifu Sam delivers and cures 10 years of back pain. How about that huh?

Some pictures of Sifu Sam

Here is a video of Sifu Sam teaching Kung Fu and Tai Chi.

Diseased? Sick? Back pain? Nerve problems? You are in luck! Sam is usually either in Metro Manila or Boracay. You might be able to get into Sam’s busy schedule by replying here in this blog post. Tell me your problem, your name and cell phone number, and I will get Sam to text you back.