This great country I am now in, Land of Freedom and Frozen Dinners, had a couple of pleasant surprises for me this week.

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Last Sunday, I went to the Fil-Am Annual Ball (which is held each year, in these parts, during the Memorial Day weekend). After the usual eating and speech-making, there were songs and traditional Filipino/folk dances presented by different generations of Filipino-Americans and Filipino immigrants.

The last performance was titled ‘Hiphop Tinikling‘. The first part was the traditional ‘tinikling’ dance performed by graceful Fil-Am teens in traditional costumes. Then the ones at the bamboo, who were wearing tie-dyed shirts and jeans, changed places with the folk dancers. They proceeded to dance to the beat of ‘I Like the Way You Move’, their feet still keeping time to the ‘tinikling’ beat.

It was a fantastic performance, and one I won’t mind watching over and over. I appreciated how the teens and their choreographer managed to blend the two cultures in the dance, and I enjoyed seeing the kids having fun during both parts of the performance.

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Then this Tuesday, feeling bloated after eating so many greasy pork and beef dishes the past two weeks (we had despedidas one after the other for three families who decided to move to California, plus a birthday party, and that ball I mentioned above), I decided to have only fish-and-veggie meals for the rest of the week. My friend Ireen had been raving about lemon-garlic tilapia cooked in butter, so I decided to try cooking it myself.

Tilapia is a fish I had never tried until I moved to Manila at the age of 25. Even then, I had only eaten it grilled. I’ve never tried cooking it in lemon, garlic and butter (which is how I usually cook salmon), so I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the dish tasted. When fried, the edges of the fillet turn crispy, but the inside is still tender and juicy. Very delish!

So, all in all, that two big points for the good ol’ U.S. of A this week.

Posted under Navel-Gazing