Battling The Evil Crab/ X/046 for Pinoy food?

Try googling the word crab and you will get approximately 87.9 million results in a fraction of a second. The online search yields a gamut of information from crustacean species and crab cake recipes, to police robots and the nebulous remnants of a supernova.?   Crab is the English translation for the Greek word canker, the Latin equivalent of which is Cancer.

Last April, Anna Elisa Thomson was diagnosed with “The Evil Crab.” She is the eldest of five children of my good friends Reli and Bunny German. Married to British national Alasdair Thomson, Anna Elisa or Chinot has three lovely children - Callum and fraternal twins Nicola Anne and Euan. They have been residing in London for 12 years and were scheduled to move permanently to the Philippines this year when discovery of Chinot’s ailment abruptly altered their plans.

She shares her roller-coaster experience through a blog entitled “The Evil Crab: Musings on the Big C.” Chinot exemplifies wit, grace and courage in the face of adversity. Throughout her treatment that started in April, she has been showered with expressions of love, encouragement and support from her family and friends, even from those who have met her only through her blog. The following is one of her blog entries.

“I’m not helpless, I just have cancer.

“One thing that has really surprised me about the cancer diagnosis is that when I asked my breast surgeon, oncologist, breast cancer nurse and even the various cancer helplines if I need to make any changes in my lifestyle, they’ve all said no. I suppose I lead a pretty healthy lifestyle (don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t take milk, I exercise and buy organic foodstuffs) so I suppose there’s not much that they can ask me to do. But then I thought they may have said, ‘Drink more green tea!’ or ‘Don’t use deodorant with aluminium,’ but no, nothing at all.

“However, I’d like to be part of the cancer healing process. I don’t feel like leaving everything up to the doctors and chemotherapy - sounds a bit fatalistic to me. So, I’ve made a few changes, such as I’ve stopped eating meat (making me a nightmare dinner guest), I’ve cut down on my junk food and I’m drinking an average of six cups of green tea a day. Oh, and I sprinkle turmeric on nearly everything.

“I’ve also decided to explore alternative treatments. So today I went for my first reiki session. I knew that I would have to have a very open mind when I walked into the treatment room and was accosted by the very heavy smell of a lemon-y incense, walls covered with images of Egyptian gods, hundreds of crystals and music with whale sounds. And for some bizarre reason, porcelain figures of the Seven Dwarves - without Snow White. But still, I stayed and had to stifle a giggle when the ‘Reiki Master’ (you cannot possibly say ‘Reiki Master’ without quotation marks) told me that reiki was founded when this man went up a hill, blacked out and saw ‘visions.’ Personally, it sounds like drug-induced behavior to me. I wonder why Amy Winehouse has yet to discover an alternative therapy. But I digress... Rather than leaving I let the ‘Reiki Master”’ wrap me up in a blanket and do his stuff. Sadly I cannot be more detailed as I had to close my eyes at this point as I was nervous that I would lose it and laugh my head off. And worse, end up with accidental eye contact whilst he was doing the ‘treatment.’

“The funny thing is, an hour later, despite my cynicism, I felt better - and lighter, as if a load had been lifted off me. So, like a proper sucker, I booked myself in for a second session. If I find Snow White hiding in the treatment room somewhere, I’ll definitely let you know.”

If you or a loved one has cancer, follow Chinot’s blog at theevilcrab.blogspot. com and be inspired.  

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ON ANOTHER FRONT: While some people consider philanthropic ventures or charity as “paying it forward,” restaurateurs Andrew and Sandee Masigan are giving back blessings they’ve received the best way they know how...through food.

Recently the couple opened X/O46 Filipino Bistro on the ground floor of Le Grand Tower along Valero St. in Makati. Unlike most places nowadays, X/O46 features traditional Filipino cuisine from an archive of recipes culled from the couple’s family and friends.

So you’re wondering what X/046 stands for. It stands for extraordinary cooking, after 1946, the year the Philippines was liberated from America. So the restaurant offers Pinoy cuisine, but with some stylizing, like in food presentation and a little more tang here and there - and more.

“We want to keep the old ways of cooking...slow cooking alive,” says Sandee. “We have too many instant things today. We’re all for convenience but some things, like our food, have to be done the old way.”

Both Andrew and Sandee come from foodie families. Andrew is from a big family of eight siblings steeped in the food business ( Popperoo, Oz). All five boys in the family are excellent cooks and Andrew is no exception. He’s been known to whip up a mean osso buco in Bella Vista, his mother-in-law’s home in Tagaytay. (Mother-in-law is popular journalist Deedee Siytangco.)

Sandee, I have known all her life, and she’s another one of those who took to the kitchen like a duck takes to water. I remember her baking up a storm at Christmas time long before home-bakers were in vogue. She literally grew up feeding people. Her three brothers used to bring home classmates and teammates for lunch with barely a few hours notice and Sandee would have “to help pull things together and produce food worthy of my father’s bragging.” (Dad is the late Sony Siytang-co.) Andrew’s entrepreneurial streak and Sandee’s penchant for good food produced a match made in heaven.

With their growing daughter in mind and a steadily growing archive of recipes from family and friends, the couple are advocating the preservation of the food we all grew up with and love. “We don’t claim to be experts or historical keepers, but we would like to keep our heritage alive...for our daughter and the kids who are growing up in this age of fast food.” They are grateful for other local chefs who have taken up the cudgels for local cuisine. “We grew up on Glenda Baretto’s food in Via Mare,” says the couple. They praise the genius of other culinary greats like Gaita Fores and Chef Jesse.

“Our dream is that one day ... people from all over will be coming to the Philippines because of our food ... just like how people crave for Japanese or Chinese food.”