It's a full moon tonight. There is something about nights like this. It drives the minds and souls of men apart. The moon affects the mind so that nothing makes sense. The moon affects the heart so that emotions are much deeper. Emotions bleed truer.

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Normal cholesterol; Low HDL; High LDL; High Triglycerides. Seeing the numbers on the piece of paper forced me to reality. I have known about the possibility of cardiovascular disease in myself. After all, with the diet of adobo, kare-kare, rice and bagoong, the Philippine diet is a prescription for heart disease and diabetes.

But, those dishes are some of the defining moments of being Pinoy. Dinuguan with putong puti is a staple for the Easter weekend. There is a prize for the quiet and the solitude of Good Friday. It is all the food that you will have when Christ is resurrected. Just as He is reborn, so shall all the delightful food be reborn with Him.

As the Holy Week approaches, I lament at the lack of tradition for Filipinos in the US. I suppose that I speak of the middle-age group. I know for a fact that somewhere in Oakland, CA there are PABASAS wherein the life of Christ is recounted in a traditional songfest. As I remember, they start from Thursday and can go on till Easter. The sections of the Bible are sung in verse. The melody is made up as you go along and depends on the participants. I hopefully will have an opportunity to witness a pabasa this Good Friday. Maybe, I will have an opportunity to interview some of the old timers about traditions.

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Knives are the heart of the kitchen. Very early on, I decided that I needed to replace my trusty knife that was bought at Thrifty. That particular knife had been so used that the wood surrounding the tang of the knife had started to rot. I decided that I really should buy a knife that will last me a long time. So off I went to Ohrbach's in Oakland where the Sears store currently resides.

I was wide-eyed at the assortment of knives available. It seemed that each type of cutting required a different sort of knife. There's a bread knife; a chef's knife; a boning knife; even a knife for paring fruits. I was in knife heaven. But which brand to buy? I could go American of course. That is the usual standby. But in this instant, I decided that I wanted the German knife. Henckel's! I was impressed by the handle of the knife. Now, this was before Henckel's began producing knives for the mass market. There was only the professional series being sold. I ended up with a 12" chef's knife, a boning knife, a paring knife, and the sharpener.

The interesting thing was that I always thought that knives were always sharpened. In the Philippines, the knife sharpener rode his bicycle around with a contraption that allowed him to sharpen knives. He would take the bicycle chain and place it on the contraption so that the contraption's wheel would begin rotating as he pedaled. Then, he would place the knife against the wheel and sparks would fly like firecrackers in the sky.

In the advertisement for the Henckel's knife, they explained that their knife never needs to be sharpened by the wheel. The knife edge is really composed of a series of teeth. When the knife is sharp, the teeth are aligned straight. When the knife starts getting dull, the teeth have been bent out of shape. I tested this claim and must admit that after running the paring knife across the circular sharpener, the paring knife cuts as good as new. This works with the chef's knife too.

This past weekend, a friend's mother gave a set of the miracle blades which one sees on the telivision late-night advertisements. These knives purport to never need sharpening. If one were to examine the edges of the knives, they are really knife teeth with an exaggerated size. I suppose that is one reason why they never need sharpening. The teeth are so hugh that they will never misalign.

I had gone to a knife store during the Christmas holiday to buy a knife as a present. I was looking at the stock and was hoping that they would have Henckel's. When I asked, the seller made a face and said that Henckel's was not very good. I knew immediately that I would never buy a knife from that store for my personal use. I mean, I understand that you are trying to sell, but come on. To lie about it!

I am deciding whether someday, I will have a knife solely dedicated to slicing a turkey. The romantic part of me is infatuated with the idea of giving that knife to my kid. The idea of a family heirloom. But the problem with that is that if you have more than one child, who gets the knife? It's not fair for the others. Furthermore, it would only promote the need for material gains. I'm all for being rich, but not for gaining more and more material crap.

Sige, Ingat kayo.