Give the benefit of the "daw"

The word "daw" is commonly used in the Philippines by tagalog speaking Pinoys.

"Daw," when added to verbs means "he/she claims or says" as a statement of fact by another person where the one narrating cannot be sure if true. Kumain daw means he said he ate. Pupunta daw means he said he will go there or he said he will come.

If used alone as a single word answer it means "that's what he/she/it/they claim or say." If asked, "Did he eat already?" the unsure response in one word will be "daw." This is sometimes said with a shrug showing uncertainty on the truth about what the third person said or claimed.

So, if you have friends who claim to have done something and you are not sure if it were true, give them the benefit of the "daw."

Chain of ideas - Filipino and Italian

One day, I was asked by my wife to cook some food. I have no idea what to do then. It was a good thing I was tuned in to one of our favorite cable channels in the office - The LifeStyle Network.

The show was featuring Italian cooking at that time - the pizza. Then I suddenly remembered one episode of another show from that channel where the "bachelor" cooked pasta for his friends. In that same instant I thought "hey! if Italians eat pasta and Filipinos eat rice, it can therefore be concluded that pasta to Italians is rice to Filipinos!" And so came the answer to my previous problem: what to cook.

I went to the kitchen after the show and looked at what I can conjure from the fridge and cupboard. I found the following items:

1. left over rice from last night
2. tomatoes
3. tomato sauce
4. garlic
5. onions
6. left over fried beef strips
7. butter

I began then began dicing 1 tomato, 4 cloves of garlic, and 1 bulb of onion while I thawed the left-over rice with tap water and the beef strips at room temperature.

I then proceeded to sautee the diced tomato, garlic and onion in a small slice of butter. After such time that I believe the tomato was cooked enough, I added the beef strips. I drained the water from the rice pot and mixed the rice with the sauteed ingredients as if cooking fried rice.

I poured a bit of soy sauce on the concoction and sprinkled some salt.

After I am satisfied with the way the rice was cooked, I added some tomato sauce on the pan and mixed the contents in low heat.

In under 15 minutes I have the Filipino version of the pasta ready for munching.

It tasted good and was among the best "inventions" I have made along with my mechado-adobo cross.

I will share that recipe once I get my thoughts organized on how I did it then.