THE nilupak na saging sold at Gaisano Supermarket at Gaisano City Mall in Cagayan de Oro must be one of the yummiest I’ve tasted, second only to the nilupak prepared by our household’s cook during my childhood days in our hometown.

Her cooking specialties became the standard on which I gauged other cooks’ dishes. Since then, I’ve rediscovered her biko at Nia Ra Jud! which is near St. Francis Xavier Parish Church in uptown CDO, and her nilupak or nilusak at Gaisano. Her humba, however, has remained uncopied.

For more kakanin, there’s Butter & Oven which has food stalls at SM CDO Downtown Premier (in front of China Bank), SM City CDO Uptown (near Bench), and Centrio Mall (near S&R New York Style Pizza).

Talking of malls, Limketkai Mall is definitely busy nowadays—renovating, changing the former cinemas into badminton courts, its old skating rink has been revived although not outside where it was located way back when. It’s now at the second floor of the mall’s East Concourse and has leveled up to Spin City. And tourists can find souvenirs at LKK’s main entrance escalators (near Starbucks).

Limketkai Center’s McDonald’s has remained as the Cagayanon’s favorite meeting place before traveling to other places in Mindanao.

The bookworm always drops by the Fully Booked branch there. It had a sale last weekend and I was there, of course. I know I had decided to stop buying books after realizing I had already read the ones that I truly need, but there’s always that one book that could pique my curiosity.

While browsing, I found myself singing along with “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” complete with the musical ups and downs of “Gloooooooooooooo…”

While waiting for a bookstore staff to cover the book I bought (Fully Booked has free cover wrapping), I was singing along with “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Yay.

I was looking for a book about the carnivore diet but found a familiar title instead. Familiar because it has a film version which was not released in theaters. Kind of straight to video.

While malling at LKK, I was again singing along with Jose Mari Chan’s Christmas songs that were playing inside a store. The mall itself also had Christmas carols as Muzak: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas…”

And I don’t even like Christmas songs. Go figure.

By the way, LKK Mall’s newly renovated restroom, which is the one near Pancake House, probably has the strongest hand dryer in the city. Its brand: Xlerator Excel Dryer. There at its lower part is this additional warning, er, info: “Feel the power.”

But did the Pinoy feel the power of Senator Imee Marcos’s great reveal about PBBM, the First Lady, and their sons? Which could have been summarized into three words: Are you drugs?

And all along I thought the Duterte reign is so over. No more Tokhang.

There were whispers about BBM’s alleged drug use in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Since there was no press freedom then, any bad news about the First Family was always hushed.

For Senator Imee to somehow confirm the chismis makes the Pinoy wonder where this great reveal would lead to. Imee for President in 2028? Hmmm. From the current Marcos presidency to another Marcos presidency. Blood is thicker than water indeed.

And here’s the old Pinoy’s reaction to all that jazz: Same old same old.