Bright leaf prize: Enjoying what is truly Asia in sumptuous Malaysia

For the past five years, Filipino journalists have been given a wonderful opportunity to enter, and possibly win, a contest that involves print and photo coverage of an interesting if often unheralded subject: that of agriculture.

The Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards have gone to an increasing number of journalists and photojournalists, who we daresay are lavished with grand prizes, thanks to the awards sponsor, PMFTC, Inc.

In 2008, the Manila Bulletin’s Melpha Abello’s article titled “Carabao models commercial bioethanol production,” detailing a new finding by Filipino scientists about micro-organisms from the rumen of the carabao that can be used to produce ethanol, was declared Best Agriculture Story of the Year, winning the top prize of P50,000 and a MacBook Air as well as a trophy designed by sculptor Rey Paz Contreras.

Freddie Lazaro of Star Northern Luzon won with his story on “Why Farmers Choose Virginia Tobacco”  for the Tobacco Story of the Year, also meriting the same prizes.

The Best Agricultural Photo of the Year was titled “Soup in Salad”  showing a Benguet farmer holding up gooey heads of lettuce that had melted in his hand after frost ruined a vegetable farm. Business Mirror’s Mau Victa won a cash prize of P20,000, a Macbook Air, and a trophy.

With the same prizes for Tobacco Photo of the Year, The Philippine STAR’s Andy Zapata won for his photo of an old woman from Candon, Ilocos Sur, hand-rolling part of a 100-meter-long cigar.

Cash prizes of P20,000 each and trophies were also given for Best Agriculture Feature Story - Regional and National, Best Agriculture Radio Program/Segment, and Best Agriculture Television Program/Segment.

The same categories were applied in the next four years, eventually with increased cash prizes for top stories. Melpha Abello repeated as grand-prize winner in 2009 with her story on “A housing material made from chicken feathers,” while for the Tobacco Story of the Year, the agri-writing icon Zac Sarian won P50,000, an IBM Lenovo computer and a trophy for his article titled “Something New in Virginia Tobacco.”

Both Sarian and Abello have since gone on to win more top prizes, so that in 2011 they were honored their serial triumphs, the Oriental Leaf Award that came with a trophy and an iPad. Among photojournalists, Andy Zapata has also received the Oriental Leaf Award.

Cable car ride at Genting Highlands

Other winners for their articles on different facets of agriculture and tobacco farming include 2010 and 2011 repeat winner Mach Alberto Fabe of Business Mirror, Teddy Molina of The Philippine STAR, regional and national writers Leny Escaro, Peter Conrad Cariño, Mancielito Savellano Tacedena, Amy Remo, Francis Martin, Miko Jasmine Mojica, Gloria Tuazon, Neil Jerome Morales, Jonathan Mayuga, Adora Rodriguez, Edmon Agron, Charisma Love, Marilou Guieb and Rita dela Cruz. Winning photojournalists have included Edgardo Espiritu, Mau Victa and Richard Balonglong.

In addition to the yearly prizes, the winners of the top four categories are also awarded an all-expense-paid trip to a Southeast Asian city. Last year, it was Ho Chi Minh City for the 2010 winners, and for the 2011 winners, it was a four-day jaunt in Malaysia conducted several weeks ago.

As a two-time contest judge, this writer has been lucky to be invited along for the last two tours. Ho Chi Minh was all fine dining and rigorous shopping, plus a Mekong River cruise and cultural shows. This time out, we played chaperone to the 5th BLAJA winners Richard Balonglong, Mau Victa and “Bong” Fabe.

Melpha Abello graduated from being a Bright Leaf Hall-of-Famer to media chaperone, together with writer Rene Guatlo and food stylist Editha Antenor,

The four-day sortie took us to Kuala Lumpur, Genting Highlands and Malacca. And again, all we did was tour these places comfortably in a travel coach with our affable Malaysian guide Jack Hanafi, PMFTC, Inc. rep Atty. Amy Eisma, and the Bright Leaf Awards secretariat rep David Isaac Buenaventura. And oh, how we dined, shopped and took pictures.

In KL we were billeted at the posh Sheraton Imperial on Jalan Sultan Ismail, where the dining lounge Essence became a familiar venue for most dinners and all our breakfasts. From fresh oysters and freshwater shrimps to a pan-Asian array of specialties and assorted heavenly desserts, the seven stations in the kilometric buffet counter became a daily and nightly challenge, which we all tried mightily to surmount.

Istan Negara, the royal palace

On the long hours aboard the tour coach, I enjoyed being introduced to playing Scrabble on my seatmate’s new pink iPad, finding out that I could handily beat the Standard competitor, but in turn being repeatedly trounced by the higher-grade cheat that kept employing two-letter mysteries of the English language that I have yet to see in any reading material, let alone fathom.

In the capital, we did the regular rounds that included photo ops at Istana Negara or the royal palace, the National Mosque, Muzium Negara or National Museum, and the landmark Petronas Twin Towers. A visit to Beryls Chocolate Kingdom made us all very happy to be in the only planet with “choclit”  especially me, since in the array of offerings were boxes of chocolate-covered durian. Ahh, the King of Malaysian Fruits, such regal disposition doth thou bestow upon this commoner.

Our second day was given over to a coach tour to the fabled Genting Highlands, where we enjoyed a cable car ride that turned out to be the longest I’ve ever taken, all of nearly half an hour above a lush rainforest of ravines and ridges, with fog often eerily enveloping everything  this while the iPad lady took video and played the theme from The Mission. Appropriate enough, as that was how we felt we were in, both ways. 

Lunch was at the buffet hall of First World Hotel, after which we barely had an hour to wander about the covered theme park (but not the one outdoors because of a constant drizzle)  where replicas of famous buildings all over the world gave us photo op poses by Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the like. It was a happy place, even raucous with kids scurrying around amidst all the rides, pantomimes and other entertainers, shops and food stalls. 

For adult fare, there were the casinos and other Resorts World attractions, with an International Convention Center completing the complex.

Flower-bedecked pedicabs in Malacca

On our third day, the first of June, the comfortable coach took us to historic Malacca. I first visited the former Dutch settlement decades ago, and still recall how, apart from scouring for a Dutch lamp to-go and snapping away at the picturesque buildings in pink stucco, I had struck a friendship with one of the Malaccan painters who displayed their art atop St. Paul’s Hill, by the ruins of A Famosa fortress built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, before the Dutch invasion.

I wrote about Frances Goh and his paintings for Asia magazine. And I heard over the decades how he’d strike up a conversation with every Filipino tourist who wandered up to his spot on that hill, and show them my article replete with photos. The latest send-up from a Singapore-based Pinoy friend came by e-mail less than a year ago, with a photo of Francis still holding up that laminated article for the camera. I thought I’d run into him again on this recent foray, but he must have taken the day off that Friday. So I had to content myself with the usual blitz buys of souvenirs from old Melaka, and the obligatory pics of the Christ Church and the Stadhuys, built in 1650 to serve as the official residence of the Dutch Governor.

One thing new, apart from the profusion of chock-a-block souvenir stalls, was a fleet of flower-bedecked pedicabs that enticed tourists to take even more shots for a colorful album. We did better, rode on one for several blocks until we got to our rendezvous point for lunch, the Peranakan Restoran.    

Here it was a throwback to old China by way of conjugal relations with Malays, as well a recall of the now fashionable Peranakan district in Singapore, where diners feast on distinct cuisine on the high-ceilinged ground floors of old shophouses, with vintage lifestyle furniture and accouterments evoking authentic throwback ambience.

One of the historic old walls left of St. Paul’s Church in Malacca

Our fine sampling of Peranakan dishes was quickly topped that evening upon our return to the capital, however, when we had our finest meal, thus far, at the Atmosphere 360 Degrees revolving restaurant atop the needle-like KL Tower.

The changing view of the cityscape at night, inclusive of the Petronas Twin Towers that sailed past at least twice, bedazzled, then complemented the elegant dinner that started with Jiang Xi Rice Noodle with Scallop and Yam Broth and ended, many other elegancies later, with the dessert plate of Fresh Fruits and Chilled Durian Pancake  that last item the most succulent I’ve tasted in a long time.

Joining us for that last dinner were consular officials and our main host, Chris Nelson, PMFTC, Inc. president, always affable and ready with a quip when he’s not seriously waxing positive on the Bright Leaf Awards.

For one, Chris loves to point out that the BLAJA has seen a tremendous increase in the number of entries over the past five years. From 82 entries in 2007, these have dramatically risen to a total of 1,345 entries across all categories from all over the country  a 45-percent increase compared to 927 entries last year.

But he still hopes to see more often in the front pages or primetime news the issues affecting the agriculture industry and its contribution to the Philippines. “There are more positive agricultural stories to tell, more discoveries to share, and more images to provoke our minds than what is currently reported,” Nelson repeated to our consular officials in KL over dinner.

As it turned out, that repast was equaled if on a different scale by our farewell lunch the next day, our last in Malaysia. It was a fitting send-off, too, at no less than the Central Market, which again sent the blitz shoppers among us into paroxysms of delight and quick flight through the grid of alleys.  

PMFTI, Inc. president Chris Nelson with consular officials at the revolving restaurant atop KL Tower

On the second floor was the Food Court. Tucked in a corner outside that court was the Precious Restoran & Bar, which also served as a gallery of arts and crafts from Old China. The Nyonya meal was memorable, with blue-tinted rice (from the inclusion of edible flowers); pie tee or rice-flour cones filled with minced chicken, sweet turnip, etc.; lobak or deep-fried rolls of marinated chicken strips and turnips, etc.; ayam pong teh, traditional Nyonya braised native chicken in bean paste and spicy sambal belachan; tender beef rendang; fried Assam prawns marinated in a tamarind-sugar mix; chui pei tofu; and the signature dish, garoupa sek pan or fish head curry.

The burps were sumptuous. We had enjoyed Malaysia  its sights, greenery, history, arts and crafts, and food glorious food. Privileged with the bright leaf of an epicurean jaunt, we had our last taste of sago gula melaka, a pudding of sago pearl with coconut cream, palm sugar and pandan. And we were thankful for the signature essence of what is truly Asia.