Happy Easter to all!
I recall celebrating Easter Sunday with family and friends in the Philippines when I was younger as a picnic in a nearby river with crystal clear water. We brought cooked food and grilled using coal and firewood that we can find nearby. That was a long time ago, but the memories still make me smile.
During that time, I discovered a group of guys from our barangay (village) who would go and hike/climb Mt. Banahaw at the start of the Holy Week and go back home on Easter Sunday, in time for the family picnics.
Mt. Banahaw was believed to be a sacred mountain. One hikes up for healing, to restore one's health, or repair a broken family relationship, etc. For us, we go there as a pilgrimage, to meet people, and generally to be with our friends.
This went on for a couple of years until the time that I had to go to college. I missed one, then two, then I was already mesmerized by the nightlife of the big city and had not hiked up for a long, long time.
Mountaineers Creed: Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.
I took the mountaineers creed to heart, except for the first part; sad to say, I don't have photos of those times. I wasn't into photography yet at that time and was only interested in the experience and the happy memories which I have plenty of from those days of my youth.
My Version of Chao Fan
For today's dish, I would like to share a sweet and savory fried rice that we had for breakfast. It was a quick and easy meal to prepare, which helped clear the pantry for the arrival of new supplies and ingredients.
Chao fan is traditionally prepared with day-old leftover rice. I added the ingredients at hand that I thought would make it into a flavorful meal.
The ingredients include day-old rice, potato, pechay, sweet potato, and tomato. I started with some coconut oil in a pan and added the sliced sweet potato and potato. I then added the tomato and pechay after 3 to 5 minutes. I seasoned with salt and pepper, turmeric powder, and some mushroom powder and stir-fried for a while. I added in the day-old rice and just continued to stir-fry until it got cooked. For this rice, it was around 10 minutes of stir-frying. I added some soy sauce and just a pinch of chili powder to make it more interesting. It would have been better with veggie oyster sauce but we ran out of it - just my luck!
Finally, Easter Sunday is a celebration, but it is also a time of reflection. My reflection now is that we should keep the faith in the spiritual sense and be hopeful that better days are ahead of us. We need to have courage and compassion to emerge better than before.
That's it. Thanks for dropping by.
Mabuhay!
Thanks to 
EDIT: Was planning to publish this on the #naturalmedicine community and add in some more details about the "healing mountain", but clicked on the Publish button too soon. lol