The caricature that Dindo Generoso from Australia sent to us while we were having a meeting in Southern California started ANITA’S KITCHEN. What a very good idea from my friend Dindo (who at that time I had not met) I LOVED IT !!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!! AND WILL FOREVER BE LOVING IT!!!!! The caricature really looked like me and I was deeply honored. Now the ANITA’S KITCHEN caricature became the LOGO of ANITA’S KITCHEN, and the hospitality room of OVERSEAS FILIPINO COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL, and lately the cyber world of Filipinos. The encouragements to do ANITA’S KITCHEN were from Dr. Nelson Paguyo of Minnesota, Dr. Ben Majam of California, Lourdes Ceballos of Illinois, Dr. Bert Pagarigan of Minnesota. A small group from Gugma Han Samar had encouraged me to expand the cooking to the world were Jose Avelino III of Texas, Gonzales Reynaldo of Australia, Addi and Elsa Batica of Minnesota, Quint Doroquiz of California, Loudette Avelino of New York, Sheila Zangl of Germany, Jensen Jimenez of the Philippines, Betty Duran of California, Corrie Leano of London. I had actually demonstrated my cooking at Gonz and Jensen’s kitchens.
When I published my ADOBO DE CARAJAY recipe and added a little something out of the box, my friend Ceny Duldulao of Northern California was humored and specially energized while having her morning coffee. This ADOBO was cooked by Cesar Millena of Seattle, Washington, a retired engineer from BOEING whose hobby was cooking for us ARELLANITES, his wife CELIA CONDE was our co graduate. I learned a lot of techniques of cooking from the ARELLANO HIGH SCHOOL of CLASS 1955. Jimmy Galang of Daly City, California, showed me how to do a better PALABOK. Who else could be a better cook than the retired military personnel, Jimmy Esmele, husband of Amelia Tapia from Seattle, Washington. He showed me how to keep our vegetables crunchy. Frank Lopez Jr. from San Diego, California, another retired US Navy person is superb in the kitchen. He can cook up a storm during our gatherings. And a big surprise was Edgardo Gomez of Mission Viejo, California. I can never forget the huge delicious steamed fish he served us during one of our dinners. Oh yes, we have women cooks too; Zeny Ilag of Arizona, Gloria Sicat Reyes of California, Shirley Saplala of Nevada and from California, Hermie Occidental ,( her SABA was so delicious, I just had to have the recipe.) We have a good AHS team from the cooks to the Kitchen Brigade, and I have the biggest advantage, after all I am the President of the AHS Alumni Association in USA, just kidding. All I do is watch, supervise, delegate and take notes. Just kidding, I clean up and do the newsletter. Ok, I am getting carried away, this is not about my High School.
Another great influence on my cooking or ANITA’S KITCHEN was Eisa de Jesus of Jeddah. He encouraged me to write a book and he actually compiled comments from friends for me.
I was able to cook more collections of recipes when I lived at Parc Chateau, the residence of Odette Padilla and Peter Reichter, here I was able to invite members of the OFCI to dine at ANITA’S KITCHEN.
Later, I travelled the country and began sharing the knowledge of extending the peso and cooking and eating nutritious foods and what we call “poor people’s” food.
My collection of recipes is getting larger and there are so many good recipes I want to include in my COFFEE TABLE BOOK. I’m having a hard time deciding which recipes to include.
My friends, Jimmy and Luz Cura took me to Dampa in Ortigas, Pasig, a place packed with people. I was fascinated, there was no such thing as a “ Dampa” when I was growing up. So thru the courtesy of Jimmy, he wrote an article how Dampa came about. Filipinos are very creative, and that is what I am doing now, trying to create recipes while improving the old recipes passed down from generation to generation. OVERSEAS FILIPINOS will always have in our hearts the cooking from our beloved Philippines.
Of course I will not be able to do all these cooking and traveling without my husband Edward A. Schon’s support and generous allowance.
And the last but not least is the great help I am getting from my adopted nephew Manuel “Bong” Amora who created this website for all of us to enjoy.
There will be more cooking experiences to come. Please stay tuned.
