October is Coffee Month.

Psst, you! I’m sure you’ve got a food that you just ache to eat when no one’s around.

When the weather is this gloomy, impinging on my morale and mood, I long for certain things. Food comes to mind of course, but not just any food.

When I was four, my mom lost patience trying to teach me how to read.

Look around. See something different? Okay, A LOT different.

In his book, “A Man of My Words” (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003), professional linguist Richard Lederer, writes, “An old dictionary is … nice to have around but of little practical use. Unless you’re a collector, replace old dictionaries with ones published within the past 10 years at least.” Alarmed, I run to my library…

When Starbucks’ Global Responsibility Head, Zarah Perez, asks me to be a Dialogues speaker, I hold off on giving an answer. Having attended a few Dialogues at Starbucks, I’m intimidated by the “loftiness” of the discussions: Environment, Volunteerism, Filipino heritage and pride, Social Entrepreneurship. Compared to those, food writing seems so flighty a topic.

For the past three months, I’ve been a columnist at the Manila Times writing about – what else? – food, for my column called – what else? – Dessert Comes First.