Down the Rabbit Hole

Back when I didn't know how to handle a chef's knife and I was deathly afraid of cooking oil , I thought to myself: what did I get myself into? when I attended my first cooking class. Little did I know that I'd continue keeping in touch with classmates (and now friends) after graduating from the culinary arts courses I took.  One such example is my continued association with Ige Ramos , who happens to be the editor-in-chief of SansRival. This is Rustan's Supermarket's magazine/product catalogue that comes out every quarter (I think). I've collaborated with him two years ago, when he featured rice in his column, Bandehado, in Philippine Daily Inquirer's Bandera. This year, we've worked together again but for SansRival this time. Again, it's on rice. But this time, Matty got involved in writing the article, providing a more international flavour to the nature of rice as a staple. A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Se

Mount Everest, tallest mountain above sea level. I knew that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to summit Everest. But that's about what history teachers said about the mountain. What they had failed to teach me (and my classmates) at that time was that it's one very dangerous climb: for every 10 people reaching the summit, it is said that one dies trying. But it is more rarely mentioned that the descent is even more dangerous than the assault to the peak. So many people have died on the slopes of Mount Everest and one would think that they've been given proper burials. But no. Most of their bodies are still there, perfectly preserved where they died... unless if the wind and the earthquakes have moved them, of course. It must be a macabre experience to sit and then notice that the person beside you is actually a dead climber! Obviously, I'm still reeling after watching the disaster movie, Everest. I didn't know what it was all about at the onset.

There are movies and books about heroes. But what makes some stand out is the willingness of the masterminds of these works of art to let go of the kid gloves and to discuss the heroes as if they were human too... because they were. One such mastermind, and I am a big fan of him, is Ambeth Ocampo ; especially with how he treated Jose Rizal  and the Luna brothers . He made them look like ordinary Filipinos without discounting that they've led extraordinary lives. And speaking of the Luna brothers, a movie called Heneral Luna showed up in my must-watch movies this year. So I trooped to the mall with my aunt and uncle to watch it. This movie is so good! #HeneralLuna is the biggest badass in the Fil-Am war... and they (allegedly) killed him! pic.twitter.com/lkie9eGj4h — Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) 17 Septembre 2015 It was a movie that tugged on so many emotions. I had a laughing fit seeing the men comically retreat as the enemies kept moving forward and as the Genera