Take my word for it, you DON’T want to get sick with COVID-19. I am one of the lucky ones who can say that I survived COVID-19. I was also lucky enough that my case was relatively mild because I was allowed to isolate and quarantine at home. It was mild in that I didn’t need hospitalization, and I could still smell and taste but since then I have had to endure constant headaches and I have had difficulty sleeping.
I read somewhere several years ago that when you have a headache you should grab fistfuls of your hair and tug and release. This massages the scalp and eases the headache. You can just imagine how often I have done just that to ease the pain.
It has been several months now, and I still get headaches every day. I don’t like taking meds so when that happens, I just take a nap in hopes that it will go away when I do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. An ice bag or cold compress on my nape or on my head sometimes works.
It didn’t occur to me that those were COVID-related until my sister told me earlier that in COVID survivor support groups many have mentioned that they are still experiencing those symptoms today.
How it began
On June 19, 2020, I had to bring one of the carpenters working on our house to East Ave. Medical Center because one of our dogs playfully nipped him. It wasn’t a bad scratch, but he was scared of getting rabies and no matter how much we assured him (and showed him the records) that all the vaccinations of our dogs are complete, nothing would appease him, so I felt I had no choice, I had to bring him to the animal bite center. The additional expense and high-risk exposure to COVID-19 but I didn’t feel that I had any choice.
We were at the hospital for at least two hours and I even had to walk a couple of blocks to BPI sometime in between because the hospital did not accept debit card payments. The whole time we were there I tried not to think about the possibility of catching COVID-19, but I knew it was a possibility. Even before the pandemic I didn’t really step out of the house unless it was absolutely necessary, which was twice a month grocery and medicine runs, occasional convenience store and bakery run, and going to work (twice a week) or events (occasionally).
Since the pandemic started and everyone was in quarantine, going to work and events were no longer necessary, and I rarely went out. We even had supplies delivered whenever possible.
The following day I had a general feeling of malaise and thought I was just tired. The day after that I couldn’t get up at all. I had chills, a very bad headache, a raging fever, and the sniffles. For fear that it could be COVID, I decided right then and there to isolate myself. My family would occasionally peep into my room and check in on me. They would also bring me food. I don’t recall losing my sense of smell or taste, but I do recall that I ate everything given to me. In my head, all I could think of was that I needed to eat so that I would recover quickly.
I took an RT-PCR test
One week later I decided to go to St. Luke’s to get swabbed. Two days later and the results came out.
Upon receiving the results, I immediately informed our barangay, and they scheduled a visit from QCESU (Quezon City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit) so that everyone here at home could get tested, too. Thankfully, they all tested negative.
Even before I got the results, at the recommendation of my doctor I isolated myself for two weeks. Since I am the household kusinera this meant that I had stopped cooking for them since June 21, but I continued to prepare my own food. Isolation was not so difficult to do since I have my own space in the house, and we made sure to sanitize often and not work around the kitchen at the same time. It was lonely but I was ok.
I was still experiencing chills, weakness, and headaches and had to rest often, but I didn’t allow this to stop me from working. Thankfully, working from home means that I could pace myself so long as I go things done on time.
I took a second RT-PCR test
At this point, I had already been in isolation and quarantine for three weeks. I was required to do another swab test and to my dismay, this is what it said.
Another two weeks in isolation for me. Sigh. Afterward, I took the antigen test and was cleared of the virus and was positive for the antibodies. I wanted to donate but couldn’t as I am anemic.
In the five weeks that we were in quarantine I don’t know how we would have survived if not for the kindness and generosity of our neighbors and our BHERT (Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams). My cousin a few houses down offered to do our grocery shopping for us. The owner of the carinderia a few houses closer would message me the menu and then would bring over food on credit so that we wouldn’t have to cook and worry about payment. Our next-door neighbor would bring over food in trays for dinner or snacks, particularly those that she felt my mom would enjoy. Even dog food was delivered to us by the nearby pet shop. They don’t normally deliver, but they did for us. We got through this all with their help and the prayers of our family and friends.
I count myself blessed for surviving this pandemic and I pray every day that my family and friends stay safe and are spared.
I love tikoy. I say that every year and every year I mean it. I am the happiest gal in the block whenever my friends would send me tikoy on Chinese New Year. Over the years I have been receiving less and less … I’m lucky if I receive even one small one! The emotional side of me thinks that I must have fewer friends than I used to, which is possible since I have kept mostly to myself for almost a decade now. On the other hand, the logical side of me realizes that times are just hard and it has struck everyone, not just a few.
photo credit to interaksyon.com
If you go to the grocery or any Chinese store and check out what tikoy they have available you will probably see every color of the rainbow as they now make this in different flavors.
Affordability is subjective. If you have the cash to spare it is affordable, but if you live hand to mouth or paycheck to paycheck then it may be a luxury you will opt to forego. Or … hope that one of your Chinese friends would bless you with a tikoy.
My favorite is the brown tikoy, which is made with brown sugar.
How to make your own tikoy
It really isn’t difficult at all. You need three ingredients: sugar, water, and glutinous flour. By default, the tikoy will adapt the color of the sugar so if you use white sugar it comes out white. To mix it up you could add food color (which is what I did to make my tikoy red) or add flavor.
Combine the water and sugar in a pan. Turn on the heat and mix until the sugar is completely melted and you have a thin syrup. Set it aside and cool down to room temperature.
Sift the glutinous flour into a bowl. Add the syrup into the bowl a little at a time while mixing. Make sure there are no lumps.
Oil your baking pan/s well. Alternately, you can line your pan/s with wax paper as removing the cake from the pan when it is cooked is not always easy.
Pour in the batter a little over 3/4 of the way up.
Cooking
Prepare your steamer, make sure it is already steaming before putting the pans in.
Place the pans in the steamer and cook for an hour. If you have a cheesecloth you will want to cover the pans with it before putting the lid of the steamer so that no liquid will drop into the batter.
Resting
Remove the pan/s from the steamer and leave it out to rest and set. Don't get tempted to pry it off. It will shrink as it turns cooler. This will take around 2 hours.
Once you have removed the cake/s from the pan, put it in a container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, longer is better. like overnight.
In the morning the tikoy will be ready to slice, fry, and serve. 🙂
The usual way of serving tikoy
The no-brainer way to serve tikoy is fried.
Cut the tikoy into thin slices.
Beat an egg in a bowl and dip each slice to coat before frying.
Lightly oil a frying pan and fry each piece on both sides. You know the tikoy is ready when the center is soft and the egg coating is browned.
BDO NETWORK BANK MSME. Sobra ang pasasalamat ni Lulu Saquing sa BDO Network Bank Kabuhayan Loan dahil nakatulong ito para makabili sya ng van na ginawa niyang rolling store sa kanilang lugar sa Cagayan Valley.
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Para sa detalye, bumisita sa pinakamalapit na BDO Network Bank branch, o mag-send ng private message sa BDO Network Bank PH Facebook page.
As Galaxy Racer, the fastest-growing eSports Organization in the world acquires a majority stake in the Philippines’ rising powerhouse eSports and Gaming Agency, DreamFyre Group.
MANILA, Philippines, Tuesday, 02 February 2021 – The Philippines’ rising powerhouse eSports and gaming agency, DreamFyre Group, announces a majority stake acquisition by Galaxy Racer Holdings Limited, the fastest-growing eSports organization in the world.
This move by Galaxy Racer paves the way for DreamFyre to boost its local operations, and fast track expansion into two other South East Asian markets, targeted within the year. The deal will also enable DreamFyre to better service local Filipino Gaming Content Creators and Pro Players with more robust and global career development portfolios.
“The vision of DreamFyre has always been to become a global eSports and gaming agency, to bring Filipino talent onto the global arena; and with this infusion of funds, support, network, and resources by Galaxy Racer, we’re sure to be able to bring that vision into reality in a much shorter time frame. DreamFyre is incredibly pleased to join the Galaxy Racer family.” Says DreamFyre CEO Mitch Esguerra.
With this acquisition, GXR DreamFyre, with a rapidly growing exclusive reach of more than 70 million across social media platforms, will now be able to connect Filipino Content Creators and Pro Players into a global advertiser base. This takes the local eSports industry to a whole new level, as the joint operations of both companies now span across 22 countries.
“DreamFyre’s portfolio will now continually grow as we boost local operations and expand to new game titles and markets, especially that we’re enabled by Galaxy Racer to create better offers to the Content Creators and Pro Players that have trusted us from the start,” Esguerra added.
GXR DreamFyre’s eSports teams, including 2019 Top 13 Finalist for PUBG ECL Korea, 2019 ECL PUBG Finalists, and 2020 National Interschool Cyberleague (NICL) Valorant Tournament Top 4, the UE Esports Warriors, now known as DreamFyre Team, will surely be a group to watch out for in the next global eSports tournaments.
“This acquisition in DreamFyre further reinforces our plans for building a complete ecosystem around eSports, entertainment, lifestyle, and content. GXR DreamFyre will benefit from Galaxy Racer’s international experience and resources and we are committed to this acquisition to fund the growth and support the vision the founders have set for GXR DreamFyre.” – Paul Roy, CEO Galaxy Racer.
Welcome back to my kitchen. 🙂 For dinner today I took a look at my stash of Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands and after a lot of thought, I decided to do something different with the Purefoods Beef Pares.
Beef pares brings back a lot of memories for me. It is one of those dishes that late-night denizens are wont to enjoy – it is served quickly and every bite is flavorful and filling. For many years my husband and I would drop by the pares restaurant not too far from our house after a gig just to grab a bite before heading home. But while it is quick and easy for us, the patrons, preparing it takes a lot of time. This is one reason I am quite thankful that Purefoods decided to produce this line – for doing the slow cooking for me.
Quick and Easy
On its own, this ready to eat viand is simple itself to prepare. Whether you heat it up on the stovetop or the microwave, just put it in a container and heat up for 8 minutes and you’re done! All that is left is to serve it then scoop a serving over hot rice. This package is good enough for four people.
Extending the dish to feed more people
There are seven people in my household and if I served this dish as is then Not everyone will really get to eat (especially since half the family eats twice as much!) so, it was time to once again get creative in the kitchen. Aside from the beef pares I had garlic, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and dangmyeon (Korean glass noodles). I decided to make japchae. With the addition of the noodles, this dish can now feed twice as many people.
Some notes:
When slicing the Purefoods Ready to Eat Beef Pares I would recommend doing this frozen so that the meat is easier to slice into strips and none of the sauce is wasted.
I used onion, carrot, and mushrooms, but really you could add any vegetable you want. Some commonly used ingredients for japchae are leeks and broccoli, and some like using bell peppers.
Technically, I could have used any kind of noodles like canton, bihon, or sotanghon, but I like dangmyeon the best. Sotanghon and dangmyeon are both vermicelli noodles but sotanghon is made from mung bean flour while dangmyeon is made from sweet potato flour. Dangmyeon turns into glass noodles that are thick and kinda sticky, which is what I like about japchae.
The package I bought was 500 grams and for this recipe, I only used 300 grams but I cooked all of it anyway. From personal experience I’ve noticed that usually when there is just a little bit of the dish left there is usually a lot more meat than noodles so I just add the remaining 200 grams to the leftovers, heat them together, and I just add japchae sauce.
This is the japchae sauce I used. I think I bought this and the noodles from Landers but they might also be available at other grocery stores, I just never really looked. You could also add this sauce to the beef pares japchae to make it more flavorful, but I would recommend trying it without first.
As a finishing touch, you can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on your noodles.
Purefoods beef pares is a savory-sweet dish which made it perfect for making japchae. It takes the guesswork out of having to make a japchae sauce and sourcing exotic ingredients … or buying a bottle of japchae sauce. 😀
Even though I am calling this a “level up” dish it is actually effortless to make! In less than 20 minutes I was able to feed my family! And, as my sister likes to say, it is a complete dish in itself. 🙂
Yum, yum! Prepare this yourself and enjoy! We did. 🙂
300gramsvermicelli noodlesI used Korean glass noodles aka dangmyeon
oil
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preparation
Boil water in a pot. Once it is boiling place the noodles in and boil it for 5 minutes.
Rinse the noodles in cold water and set them aside.
While still frozen cut up the beef pares into strip-size and set aside. I would recommend putting it back in its original container so that none of the sauce is wasted.
Peel and chop the garlic, onion, and carrot. If you bought whole mushrooms just slice them thinly.
Cooking
On medium heat saute the garlic for about 30 seconds, add the onions. After a minute add the carrots and mushrooms and simmer.
Add the beef pares, mix, and simmer for another 8 minutes.
Add the noodles and mix until all the noodles are covered in the sauce of the pares. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off the heat and serve. Your beef pares japchae is ready to eat!
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands is available at all leading groceries and supermarkets. The price varies depending on the variant that you get.
Take my word for it, you DON’T want to get sick with COVID-19. I am one of the lucky ones who can say that I survived COVID-19. I was also lucky enough that my case was relatively mild because I was allowed to isolate and quarantine at home. It was mild in that I didn’t need hospitalization, and I could still smell and taste but since then I have had to endure constant headaches and I have had difficulty sleeping.
“This acquisition in DreamFyre further reinforces our plans for building a complete ecosystem around eSports, entertainment, lifestyle, and content. GXR DreamFyre will benefit from Galaxy Racer’s international experience and resources and we are committed to this acquisition to fund the growth and support the vision the founders have set for GXR DreamFyre.” – Paul Roy, CEO Galaxy Racer.
Technically, I could have used any kind of noodles like canton, bihon, or sotanghon, but I like dangmyeon the best. Sotanghon and dangmyeon are both vermicelli noodles but sotanghon is made from mung bean flour while dangmyeon is made from sweet potato flour. Dangmyeon turns into glass noodles that are thick and kinda sticky, which is what I like about japchae.
This is the japchae sauce I used. I think I bought this and the noodles from Landers but they might also be available at other grocery stores, I just never really looked. You could also add this sauce to the beef pares japchae to make it more flavorful, but I would recommend trying it without first.
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