Excerpt from A Foretaste:"Novel are these 'random recollections' because the innocents abroad who chronicle their misadventures in the Philippines are usually Gringo. But here's a Kastila - a genuine Peninsular - getting as staggered as any wasp over our Pinoyness! Somehow we assume we're inscrutable to someone from La Madre Espana, having been, after all, for over 300 years imperially Spanish. But here's Senor Jose Rodriguez doing enormous double takes on things Pinoy - from house lizards to jeepneys to Filipino time to pissing against the wall. 'I even came to like, not just forgive, the Filipino kitchen's own idea of Spanish cuisine.' And you'll feel the same about his Cronicas, which are delightful, delicious, deluxe, delovely. It's a love letter (at last!) from dear old Spain."...Nick Joaquin, National Artist for Literature. Despite its title, this book is written purely in English.
