One unusually cold summer morning, a barefooted panhandler walked into our front yard. He requested rather uncouthly (what do you expect?) that we must feed him breakfast. The man seemed to have an Antono Ego moment after smelling mom's cooking: the savory Nabua omelet (Nabua is a small agricultural town in the Philippines). Mom had mixed feelings because she never got complimentary remarks from us her children about her cooking; and this man was a panhandler. That cold summer morning we just stared at him as he consumed the rice like a demented predator.

Mom's omelet has a lot of ingredients -- chopped Chesnok red garlics, impaled fresh-from-the-garden oregano, shrimp paste as seasoning, scallions, a good amount of tomato, a pinch of black pepper, some Peperoncino peppers, diced meat loaf, and. believe it or not, young banana leaves for the frying pan. I heard this is an ancient Nabua dish so it is cooked in a wok frying pan. This omelet also didn't have to be neatly folded. I like the omelet steam seeping out of the cracks looking like autumn mornings in downtown Manhattan. Here's how she cooks it.

1. Heat the pan until it starts to smoke. Then get the young banana leaves and wipe the surface of the pan. This will sear the foliage but will leave the pan with a shiny surface and an exotic scent.

2. Saute the tomato, onion and garlic until tomato liquefies. You can do this by squeezing the sliced tomato on the pan with your spatula. Then mix in the diced meat loaf, peperoncino peppers, pinch of black pepper and a few impaled oreganos sliced in strips.

3. After five minutes, put content in a plate and proceed to prep up the egg.

4. Break a good number of eggs and pour contents in bowl.

5. Mix beaten egg with shrimp paste to taste and scallions

6. Put the stove on low to medium heat, and pour in the eggs, spreading them evenly by tilting the pan.

7. Wait till the egg becomes firm at the bottom and runny at the top, then pour sauted ingredients.

8. Push ingredients evenly at the side. Fold the omelet to close.

9. Serve omelet while it is hot.

With a sacred cup of coffee, Oliver -- not really a panhandler's name so this one was a surprise -- concluded his meal. He walked away on his ragged pair of pants that exposed his tush.