feeling lucky

At Roxas City's fishing port last week I got my first 'visual' of how fishing boats operate in the Philippines. It is like how they show it on Discovery Channel, except there's less of the cold and storms portrayed there. Fishing boats like these travel as far as Mindanao and stay in the seas for almost a week with around 20 men on board and a huge block of ice in the ship's lower compartment where they store their catch. So for a week or so, the men live on the boat and get as much seafood as they can so they can sell to the brokers when they get back. Cool, huh?

Inasal's been huge these past few... I don't really know, months? All I know is Mang Inasal, along with a little help from Juday and her Ysabella Bacolod Chicken Inasal promo, has brought back to life the never-dead-in-Bacolod-anyway chicken inasal. But now, with Mang Inasal's unlimited rice promo, it's almost become a fad of sorts.

So when you go to those inasal places, do you ever wonder what the orange oil-like substance in the center of the table is? And do you ever wonder what the tub of salt next to it is for? Well wonder no more! Last week, my dad made me realize that the oil and the salt are actually for the rice. It's like cooking fried rice or sangag, see? Add oil, add salt, eat with the yummy inasal (preferably with your hands, kamayan style) and voila! Just eat this way in moderation if you don't want to get a heart attack anytime soon. (I was going to take a picture of the rice mixed with the oil and the salt with the pa-a next to it but everyone looked so ganado (insert: what is the English word for ganado?), I just had to dig in as well.) 

This picture was taken near sundown, of a boat approaching an island. How it turned out this way, I have no idea, but I do know I'm not one for tinkering around with the camera much. Oh well, it's become one of those nice small surprises. Serendipity is it? Photographers can hate me all they want but I like it, this shot almost makes me feel lucky.