Tara Laurel

“FOOD

Adobo (uh-doh-boh)---Considered the Philippines's national dish, it's any food cooked with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and black peppercorns (though there are many regional and personal variations)
Almondigas (ahl-mohn-dee-gahs)---Filipino soup with meatballs and thin rice noodles
Baon (bah-ohn)---Food, snacks and other provisions brought on to work, school, or on a trip; food brought from home; money or allowance brought to school or work; lunch money (definition from Tagalog.com)
Embutido (ehm-puh-tee-doh)---Filipino meatloaf
Ginataang (gih-nih-tahng)---Any dish cooked with coconut milk, sweet or savory
Kakanin (kah-kah-nin)---Sweet sticky cakes made from glutinous rice or root crops like cassava (There's a huge variety, many of them regional)
Kesong puti (keh-sohng poo-tih)---A kind of salty cheese
Lengua de gato (lehng-gwah deh gah-toh)---Filipino butter cookies
Lumpia (loom-pyah)---Filipino spring rolls (many variations)
Lumpiang sariwa (loom-pyahng sah-ree-wah)---Fresh Filipino spring rolls (not fried)
Mamón (mah-MOHN)---Filipino sponge/chiffon cake
Matamis na bao (mah-tah-mees nah bah-oh)---Coconut jam
Meryenda (mehr-yehn-dah)---Snack/snack time
Pandesal (pahn deh sahl)---Lightly sweetened Filipino rolls topped with breadcrumbs (also written pan de sal)
Patis (pah-tees)---Fish sauce
Salabat (sah-lah-baht)---Filipino ginger tea
Suman (soo-mahn)---Glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed (though there are regional variations)
Ube (oo-beh)---Purple yam”
― Mia P. Manansala, Arsenic and Adobo

“She lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign. Feeling no obligation to please anybody unless the pleasure pleased her.”
― Toni Morrison, Sula

“Benny stands there in front of the refrigerator, letting the cool air fall on her toes, and thinks of the last cake her mother ever baked. She knows it’s sitting in the freezer but she can’t bear to look in there right now. Instead, she leans her forehead against the upper door of the fridge. This is your heritage, her mother used to say when they were making black cake, and Benny thought she knew what her
mother meant. But she sees now that she didn’t know the half of it.”
― Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

“Are you going to let someone else’s view of who you should be, and what you should do, hold you back?”
― Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake