Delicious and Healthy Quick Fixes: Meet Tokwa

There are ways to go around your usual fatty pork recipe, even quicker, more affordable and healthier!

Tokwa or tofu or bean curd is one of the most effective source of protein and iron without the free fat and calorie add-on in almost all meat especially pork. In short, it is the best meat alternative for the health-conscious as well as “shape”-conscious.

Tokwa is made from letting soybean settle until it becomes jelly-like. Soybean is the same row material used in making soy sauce. This curd is compacted into a solid form that is cut into cubes, which we see in supermarkets.

Because tokwa does not have a strong unique taste or smell, it can be a very good alternative to pork, beef or any meat in any dish. Challenge the adventurous side of you and use tokwa in afritada, menudo, curry or adobo.

I also love frying tokwa. Cut the tokwa lengthwise around half-inch thick. To make it taste, apply a pinch of salt before frying the cut pieces. An optional ingredient is ground pepper, which can be applied alongside the salt. That is before frying the pieces. Fried tokwa can be paired with butterred corn and carrot for one healthy meal.

If you know tokwa’t baboy, then you probably can imagine a “tokwa-only” recipe. Remove the pork and leave only tokwa and use the same sauce that you use in tokwa’t baboy. To prepare this, simply cut tokwa into lengthwise shapes and fry them without adding any salt or pepper. When tokwa turns brown, remove from heat and let dry on tissue paper. This will remove extra oil from the tokwa. Cut tokwa into small little squares. Now for the sauce, mix soy sauce, vinegar, water, sliced tomatoes, onions and chilli in a small bowl. Server hot!

Taking the Heat

Whether the court decides in favor of Jan-Jan or the doctors and nurses, honorable medical professionals may suffer the heat and consequences just the same.

I am talking about the case of Jan-Jan (not his real name) and the VSMMC fiasco. If you have not heard of it yet, It is the the controversy over a video uploaded to youtube showing an unconscious patient, Jan-Jan, and a medical team around him cheering and laughing while the patient is being operated to remove a body spray canister from his rectum.

Ever since this issue was publicized and printed, the whole country, plus more and more people abroad have started watching how the story will end for Jan-Jan and the doctors and nurses involved. The doctors have been named. Now, Jan-Jan wants 6-million pesos as fee for moral damages. I heard a lot people who sympathized with Jan-Jan before are now saying this is already too much. I say, let the court decide.

Unfortunately, health organizations abroad, who take care of overseas employment may not necessarily wait for the decision. This fiasco/issue occurred and it may happen again – this is the bigger concern for them. It means now, TRUST is a bigger issue than before. And this will only mean one thing – stricter rules in hiring ang retaining Filipino doctors and nurses abroad.

Stricter rules means our nurses and doctors who do not have anything to do with the issue will have to take the heat indirectly.

Another controversy is the last thing our Filipino nurses and doctors need now. For the past two years, there have been too much heat that affected our nurse and medical students’ morale. Hopefully, none of this will deter our young’s spirit and drive to continue fighting and proving our worth as hardworking and intelligent workers and professionals.