UP Ibalon Bicol: Elvie's Turo-Turo

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New York City's dining lesson for GMA: Le Cirque versus Elvie’s Turo-Turo

8/11/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Elvie (L) is the lady culinary genius behind Elvie's Turo-Turo.

If Pres. Gloria Arroyo or her sponsor Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez didn’t want to spend hefty---$20,000 for a dinner in Le Cirque, they could have learned from Elvie, the owner of the Filipino Turo-Turo near 12th Street in First Avenue. The cooking expert had served New Yorkers for decades. The last time I talked with her, Elvie said her foodhouse was visited by Pres. Fidel Ramos when he came during a US official visit years ago.

I pass by Elvie’s to savor home cooking right at the center of New York City. While many of the Filipino eateries have folded up, this humble eating hole survives with the usual fare----pinakbet, tinola, laing, tocino, lechon kawali, sinigang, daing na bangus, longanisa, itlog na pula, lumpia, turon, ukoy, and lots of steamy white rice. The fragrant barbecue is good and so is gulaman at sago. Passers-by in the Eastside section of Manhattan drop by into the small food palace where every diner's hungry stomach almost always get satisfied.

ELVIE'S DELECTABLE FILIPINO FOOD

Sen. Miriam D. Santiago was right to say Le Cirque---the French restaurant where Arroyo dined in her last NY sojourn was “outlandish” for the Filipino budget. The classy food house was not just valued for the gastronomic delights it served, but for the people who patronized the place.

So, if one is a hungry visitor of the Big Apple with a huge entourage, in a late night dinner--- Le Cirque could not be as good as Elvie's Turo-Turo.

Not all will agree. There are those who worry about the protocols of dignitaries. But GMA and friends might have liked to be with the Pinoy restaurant proprietor and her team who serve hot delicious food promptly. Without pretenses, affable Elvie entertains with a wide engaging smile. In a mix of Tagalog, Bicol, and Visayan, she stands behind a steel enclosure teeming with Pinoy food, making her customers happy.

Elvie hails from a small village between Bicol and Leyte, bringing with her traditional Filipino hospitality to the dinner table. The Bayan Muna protesters who are averse to pomp and excesses will not complain if they eat in her plebeian enclave. The food she serves is basic and nutritious---at low price of less than $20 for two including soda.

If our Filipino guests from Manila demand to be classy, let them be. They can dine in a restaurant better than Elvie’s---like the Le Cirque. But then, look at the censure they receive when they go back home. A dinner price tag of $20,000 (P 1,000,000) from New York creates an uproar against over-spending and sparks accusations of "insensitivity" --- a source of embarrassment and national shame. (Photo Credit: gianuy; buddhadrinksfanta; chldrevolt; dennis and luba x4 )AFM) =0=

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Labels: cuisine, Elvie's Turo-Turo, Filipino, food, GMA, Manhattan, Miriam Defensor Santiago, New York City, Rep. Martin Romualdez, restaurant, Totie Mesia

GMA’s NY dinner and the discordant ritzy lifestyle of Filipinos

8/10/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

It was estimated the Philippines spent at least P8 billion in some 71 official travels President Gloria M. Arroyo made since she took office. Sen. Francis Escudero said the president went to trips local and abroad lasting for at least 130 days since 2001. Her meeting with Pres. Barack Obama last week that coincided with the death of ex-president Cory Aquino was her 16th US visit during her term.

Accusations of abuse, spending and extravagance are expected. It’s because the benefit derived from such official foreign travels cannot be accounted for with certainty. The public looks at them with suspicion and derision for they can’t see how these presidential jet-settings, numbering at least 16 in US alone, trickle down to benefit the country.

Filipinos had known how public officials and Malacanang friends scrambled to join GMA’s trips. Undoubtedly many people believed her companions were unneeded, but nonetheless became part of the entourage that combined business and pleasure. Who could forget the 56 congressmen asking to join a US delegation for an official visit but many openly wanted to watch Manny Pacquiao fight in a Las Vegas boxing match? Their shameful unprofessional behavior wasn’t far from what Imelda Marcos did during her time.

That’s why there is controversy about a supposed article regarding the July-August 2009 US visit of Arroyo by New York Post’s Richard Johnson. In the newspaper’s “Eat and Drink” section on August 7, 2009, it was written:

“The economic downturn hasn’t persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippines President Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life, even though the former comptroller of her country’s armed services, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of perjury and two of his sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash-smuggling charges. Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.”

So alas! A flag to put our leaders in attention! Even foreign observers are critical of how we spend government money. This doesn’t come as a surprise for they know of our penchant to borrow cash and use them that is incongruent to our means.

It is a simple lesson in arithmetic and corruption. The world sees how some of us live beyond our capacities. Isn’t it that our spending habits aren't compatible with our salaries and the lifestyle we live? Don’t we try to hide it by acting like those with less than a dollar to spend each day? Surely, one can argue, the Philippine president on her offical functions can't be tavelling like a pauper. She must keep the standards of foreign affairs to keep Filipino pride. But how come she goes abroad too often?

Back home however, palatial houses valued in millions are owned by our influential government officials and top military men in plush villages in Manila and the provinces. In their privacies, lavish parties are thrown by the noveau riche Filipinos. They ride in big cars which are difficult to maintain if they only bank on their honest incomes. And many go for vacations to America, Europe and Caribbean tagging along their maids and children for their usual rest and recreation.

So if no single taxpayers’ money is spent in travels of government officials abroad, where do they get their funds? How did they suddenly get so rich? The discordance of lifestyle breeds suspicion---The only way to disprove doubts is to be straightforwardly honest. Why is there only denials from the government and no disclosures of spending?

Even on tight budget, New Yorkers will say (including myself) it’s an expensive place to visit. Eating out in Manhattan with a hungry entourage using our currency back home is truly costly unless we dine at Elvie's Turo-Turo in Eastside somewhere in 12th Street and First Avenue. Without public accounting, many of us are convinced somebody sheds blood money to keep the jet-setting Joneses splurging in Waldorf Astoria or Times Square. (Photo Credit: Yummyinthetummyblog) =0=

RELATED BLOGS: Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s foreign travels questioned Posted by mesiamd at 6/28/2009; Another US trip for Pres. Gloria Arroyo Posted by mesiamd at 7/29/2009; Arroyo-Obama meeting: beholding the face of "god" & the desire to have a photo-op Posted by mesiamd at 8/01/2009

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Labels: Elvie's Turo-Turo, Foreign Affairs, foreign travel, GMA, Le Cirque, life, New York, politics, Sen. Francis Escudero, Totie Mesia, travel, USA, Visit

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New York City's dining lesson for GMA: Le Cirque versus Elvie’s Turo-Turo

GMA’s NY dinner and the discordant ritzy lifestyle of Filipinos

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