Hunger

It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that human memory is unreliable, at best. This unreliability is especially apparent to me when I think of the novel, Hunger, by the Norwegian writer, Knut Hamsun.

To the best of my recollection, I first heard of Hamsun in the 1980's, in a magazine interview with the American writer, Henry Miller who, in the interview, gave Hamsun credit for being an influence on his writing.

I can remember having read the interview in the mid 1980s when I was living in Rome, GA. It must have been an old magazine because Miller died in 1980, before I ever moved to Rome. I actually don't recall anything else from that interview - only Miller's praise of Hamsun, who I had never read or heard of before this.

I remember going to the local library in Rome to try and find any novel written by Hamsun. This was long before the Internet and Amazon.com. The only novel by Hamsun in the library was Hunger, which I immediately checked out.

I don't recall just how much of the novel I read at the time. I know it wasn't very much. I can remember finding the life of the unnamed protagonist just a wee bit too close to an earlier life experience of my own - thereby depressing and frightening me to no end.

Many years later, I felt a need to pick up Hamsun. He was being favorably compared to Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is nearly incomparable in my eyes. At some point, I downloaded a copy of Hunger as an ebook.

This time, upon reading it, I fell in love with the novel. Yes, I still recognized the similar life experiences, but this time I didn't find them depressing or frightening.

I've been recently meaning to reread the novel, and after finishing a number of novels by C.S. Forester, I uploaded Hunger to my Kindle. Prior to this new reread, I remembered having read the novel twice before on Kindle. However, I've been keeping lists of the books I've read each year since 2011 and that year is the only year I've had Hunger on my book list.

In 2014 I did put two of Hamsun's novels -Pan and Shallow Soil- on my book list. That is also the year my first Kindle was destroyed while traveling to Philippines from the U.S., and I may have reread the novel that year and simply neglected to put onto a proper list.

At any rate, I've begun rereading Hunger and at this point in the novel, most of what I'm reading seems new to me. I have forgotten a good deal of the novel, but it has been years, after all.

The version I'm reading, and have read, is the 1899 translation by Mary Chavelita Dunne (under the alias George Egerton). That version is available for free at Project Gutenberg. From what I've seen lately, the 1996 translation by Sverre Lyngstad is considered to be definitive. Lyngstad's translation is available for Kindle at Amazon.com - for a price. Perhaps one day I will see my way into purchasing it and rereading the novel once again.

You Say Occidental, I Say Oriental.

In a post published earlier today [The Mango Shake from Gabby's - Brgy. Daro. ] I included, at the end of the post, a map showing the location of Gabby's - Brgy. Daro.

After reviewing my post, I noticed that Google Maps gives the location as Dumaguete, Negros Occidental.

This is incorrect. Dumaguete is in the province of Negros Oriental, not Negros Occidental. As a matter of fact, Dumaguete is the provincial capital of Negros Oriental.

A screenshot of the error is at the beginning of this post.

I immediately went to Google Maps to suggest an edit to correct this error. At the time of this writing, the edit has not been published.

The Mango Shake from Gabby's - Brgy. Daro.

Yesterday morning, while watching what would become the final game of the 2018 World Series (go Boston) I received an email from a friend who currently lives in Davao - the writer of the now discontinued blog, Village Idiot Savant, and current writer of dom.cimafranca.com - letting me knew he would be in Dumaguete for a few days, asking if I'd like to meet for coffee later in the afternoon.

We met at the Gabby's in Brgy. Daro. I brought along my camera, knowing I would order a mango shake. I had been meaning to compare the shakes at this Gabby's to the mango shakes found at the Gabby's located on the 2nd floor of the Paseo Perdices building on Rizal blvd.

A photo of the mango shake I ordered is to the left.

But, wait, you might say, this looks like a blank photo. It is, never the less, an accurate photo of the mango shake I ordered. In other words, mango shakes are unavailable at the Gabby's in Daro.

Naturally, I have to give this eatery a failing grade. Zero stars.

I was so shocked that I was not able to get a mango shake, I failed to ask if this was a temporary thing due to lack of ingredients, or if mango shakes were not on the menu there.

Fortunately, this mango shake disaster did not ruin the visit I had with my friend. We had coffee and shared stories and agreed that we'd have to do it again soon.

Mango Shake at the Big Tree Hive.

Once a week I meet, for breakfast with a small group of Americans living in the Dumaguete area. Normally, we meet in a different cafe each week, but for the past few weeks we've gotten together at Senorita's Mexican Grill, located at the Dumaguete airport.

Arriving early yesterday, I thought I'd visit the cafe next door to Senorita's for a mango shake.

I must say, the shake I had there was superior. I would rate it as high as my favorite, the mango shake at Don Roberto's. At 65 pesos, the price is much better than the 90 pesos charged at the cafe next door.

Although the cafe has obviously been around for a long time, I couldn't find the name of the cafe posted anywhere. I even checked the menu and it wasn't to be found. I had to ask the waitress for the name of their establishment. She told me it was called Big Tree Hive.

This morning, just before writing this review, I went to my account on Google Maps (where I'm listed as a Local Guide) and added Big Tree Hive to the map.

The next time I'm at the Dumaguete airport and in the need for a mango shake, I'll know where to go.

The Fruitas Mango Shake

The Fuitas kiosk is located on the 2nd floor of Robinson's Place Mall near the entrance of the Robinson's MovieWorld movie theater. Fruitas sells a wide variety of fruit shakes and smoothies in 3 different sizes - costing p45, p59, or p75.

For this review, I ordered the medium, p59.

The shake has a sweet mango taste. However, the shake does not appear to contain any dairy, so it might be better called a slushy, rather than a shake. The thickness of the drink comes from the large amount of crushed ice used.

This lack of dairy is a major negative for me. Although called a shake, this isn't a shake to my way of thinking. I'm sure quite a lot of folks may like this drink, but I can't recommend it.