Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2014

First Attempt: Lattice Top Crust for My Apple Pie

My first attempt to make a lattice top pie crust. Not the best looking. This is pre oven.

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After an hour in the oven:

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Looks sumptuous (in my very biased opinion)!

I think the problem I had was that I didn’t roll out the top dough to the right size. It was a little too big, which caused the dough to be too thin and long, and it was uneven all over. Lessons learned. Once we have another bunch of leftover apples, I’ll try to do it again. Master the technique!

I’ll have to let it sit for now to cool down. Will have to wait until tomorrow to taste it!

And that’s my project for this weekend. Let’s see what I come up with for next weekend.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Detox Take 2 Result

I hate to admit it, but I failed my detox 2 (again…). I only made it through one day.

Two main problems I encountered:

1. I followed the recipe right down to the tee. I would say, ideally that’s how it should be, but the problem with that approach is that it may not necessarily cater to your taste – which for me was the main reason why I failed. I just didn’t like the way ginger overpowered my breakfast drink, or perhaps the veggie juice with just tasted awful.

2. I wasn’t ready. By afternoon, I felt hungry, and then I couldn’t focus on work. Might’ve been psychological too (just the thought of only drinking juice).

There are a couple of things I learned though.

1. Be prepared mentally (and physically). It takes a lot of discipline to go through a strict and proper detox. Cheating is not an option as you’ll just be wasting your time.

2. Make sure to prepare drinks that you would enjoy drinking. When I did this detox, I strictly followed the prescribed fruit/veggie combination per meal, which unfortunately, did not always suite my taste buds. However, when I tried mixing the ingredients together according to my own preference, then I started looking forward to drinking them, instead of dreading them.

Since I am not yet mentally prepared for a detox yet, I still made good use of my ingredients. I still made my juices, but this time around, according to my preferred taste. And these juices, I use as supplement for now, instead of a meal replacement. It still gives you that bit of a detox (I suppose), but balances it out with my main meals. And when I get hungry within the day, instead of grabbing just some random stuff to snack on, I drink this instead. And so far, after a couple of days, it’s been working out pretty good.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Detox Take 2

Almost 1.5 years ago, I did a partial detoxification via the Juju Cleanse – a set of expensive juices set to provide you with some cleansing and detox.

With the new year, I’ve been feeling a little bit anxious and uneasy inside out (yes!). In order to address the physical aspect of the uneasiness, I’ve decided to try doing a few days of detox, just to start fresh and clean out the system. I’m planning to do it for three days. I’m hoping I can stick with it this time.

In order to show my drive in undergoing this detox, I went grocery shopping today to buy my ingredients and prepared my breakfast and lunch ingredients for juicing for tomorrow.

Breakfast:

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Consists of: Kale, Apples, Grapes, Blueberries, Cucumber and Ginger

Lunch:

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Consists of: More Kale leaves, Granny Smith Apples, Cucumber, Ginger, Celery and Lemon.

I am anticipating that the breakfast option will be much favorable as there are a lot of sweeteners there (grapes, apples) as opposed to the lunch menu where all I see is green. 

I have not prepared my dinner juicing ingredients yet as I had to catch a Aussie Open match and besides, my hands have pruned due to lots of veggie water cleaning.

I’ll have an update for tomorrow. Hopefully I survive a day without eating solid foods and to strictly follow the program.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Nutella 5kg

I was at Costco earlier to pick up some items that my mom asked me to buy for her when I stumbled upon this!



5 kilograms!! Isang balde!



I didn't even know they sold something this big at all! N-year supply of Nutella!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Rainy Saturday Treats and Eats

My rainy Saturday ended up being a day of eating.

Around 6 AM, I woke up to a hungry stomach so I prepared my sunny side up + almond chocolate drink.

I was feeling a bit restless at home so even though it was raining outside, I decided to go out for a walk straight to this small cafe around 1.5 kilometers away from my place. This was probably around 10 AM and I ended up trying out the hot chocolate plus a nice cinnamon roll. Yummy.

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I went back home for lunch and then went out to the grocery to buy a few missing ingredients that I needed for my weekend project – Super Moist Carrot Cake! I ended up getting a whole lot more than what I needed for my baking though. I ended up getting ruffles! Talk about junk! Just tastes sooo yummy. I’ve been eating a ton of veggies lately, then I guess I’m entitled to have a splurge on junk every now and then?

Anyway…

Carrot Cake

For this weekend’s baking creation, I decided to try out the Super Moist Carrot Cake recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

This is my first attempt. When I eat baked goods, especially cakes, I want it to be very moist, but not to the point of being a little too oily. Thus, just based on this recipe I picked, it sounds like I’ll be getting what I am hoping for, plus the fact that it is quite simple to make.

So here’s before we put it in the oven:

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And this is the finished product:

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It turned out yummy! Again, not too sweet, and not oily, and super moist!

The only problem that I had was that I used a smaller pan than the recommended size from the recipe. This meant that the suggested baking time may not be enough for my cake because at around 35 minutes, the center portion of the cake was still wet. I had to leave it again in the oven for another 15 minutes… I was worried because the carrot cake may end up too dry just because I wanted to get the inner section of the cake to bake! Good thing it didn’t!

I didn’t make the cream for now. Maybe on my next attempt! What I want to do next is to add one of my favorite ingredients to the carrot cake next time, chocolate chips!

By the way, we don’t finish everything each week. I end up giving a few of my friends the food, they do the taste test (like the siopao, banana bread).

Monday, September 23, 2013

food again

I kept myself busy this weekend by spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and in food related activities. Well, I did clean the bathroom, which I hate doing, but is a necessity anyway – in other words, no choice! Oh and I did go back down to the garage just to check if my bike’s back – but of course it’s not! I must be wishing!

And so instead of punishing myself for not getting better locks for my bike, I instead decided to move on by being a busy bee for the rest of the weekend. So here were the results:

Barley and Lentil Soup

I love making soup because it is very easy to make and at the same time, there are no rules… you can put in whatever you want, season it, and that’s it! But so far, my favorite soup to make is barley and lentil soup. I like barley because its texture is the same as rice and you know how we love rice! And it’s healthier than white rice too.

According to this livestrong article: Is Pearl Barley More Nutritional Than Rice? -

Including more whole grains in your diet can lower your risk of heart disease and help you maintain a healthier body weight, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Both pearl barley and brown rice are examples of whole grains. White rice is an example of a refined grain. While some of their nutritional components are similar, pearl barley is a better source of fiber, iron, potassium and folate than either brown rice or white rice.

Lentil on the other hand, is a legume. It’s quite healthy, high in protein and fiber and they give some added thickness to the soup.

The rest of the ingredients I added were broccoli, mushroom, tomato, green peppers, and veggie broth. I didn’t get the taste right after, but my aunt helped me with seasoning it further, and after a few adjustments, it actually tasted pretty good! I made a whole bunch… it’ll probably last us a whole week. Haha!

Banana Bread

And so I’ve been waiting for my bananas to go overripe for more than a week already and finally it’s ready. When I say overripe, I let it turn to black, you know how bananas turn out if you don’t eat it, they turn black, and that’s the state I want my bananas to be. I got this recipe named “Ridiculously Simple Banana Bread” from my aunt and that’s what I followed. To add some more zing into it, I included chocolate chips too!

I think it turned out pretty good, better than what I expected. It’s moist and it’s not too sweet too. My boss in the office brings her home made banana bread to the office every now and then, and I think mine’s much better. Hahaha!

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Elderflower syrup – Carbonated Water Drink

Last Friday night, my friend brought me to this wonderful vegetarian restaurant and got me to try out different types of vegetarian food. That was one of the best dinners I’ve had, but I think I’ll reserve that for another post (if I can get to it). One thing that stood out was that he wanted me to try out an Elderflower drink. That’s the first time I even heard that word! No idea at all what it is. And so when it was served, oh did it make a really good impression. It’s a nice sweet flavor. Actually reminded me of sprite, but a lot less subtle. So anyway, I enjoyed it so much that this morning, I went to Gourmet Warehouse, as suggested by my friend because that’s where I can get this (the one of the left):

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It’s an Elderflower drink concentrate, like a syrup, but not as thick as let’s say, pancake syrup.

The one on the right, the Gerolsteiner is a carbonated water that I got from a regular grocery store here.

The suggested mixture is 1:6 between the elderflower and the carbonated drink. You can also add some lemon and ice to the drink to make it yummier!

And thus, I made my own drink! Wonderful!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Juicy Chicken Breasts

After n times, I think I finally nailed down my juicy chicken breasts. I think I finally got it. My two previous attempts of cooking a juicylicious chicken breast has been a success! I’ve attempted to cook it a lot of times already and they usually ended up dry. But this time around, it was really juicy and tender!

My recipe is simple. Chicken breast + seasoning - salt and pepper, and maybe some garlic powder and oregano. What I used to do was after seasoning the chicken, I put it inside the oven. The problem is that they always end up dry because they get overcooked! Quite tricky. Chicken breasts cook so fast! 

After a few more tries, I finally got it. Thanks to Google's search, I got to try one way that made my chicken breasts really juicy! And it was very simple! 

The solution was simple. Cook the breasts in a pan first, you can use butter or any cooking oil. Cook it only for a while, you don't want to cook it thoroughly Maybe just after 5 minutes, the breast should be partly cooked already. Afterwards, put it straight to the oven. I use around 375 degrees (preheated, by the way), and I leave the chicken for around 10-15 minutes, turning it over once. 

Now, on to getting my potatoes right (which I still haven’t perfected!).

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Hi Jollibee

Hi Jollibee, we meet again. I travelled 3 hours each way, plus an hour wait in the border, just to see you. I was in the road for most of the day.

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But it was worth it, just to be able to eat this. I thought additional side dish lang yung fries. I should’ve picked steamed rice instead. Chicken Joy’s the best with rice!

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Monday, June 17, 2013

yummy!

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Doesn’t this look yummy?

Don’t be fooled though. I only cooked the chicken, the mexican rice is actually one flavor of Sidekicks, a.k.a. easy to cook meals. :)

But last weekend, I did prepare, with the help of my Aunt – my amah’s amazing, yummy, delicious siopao! I still need to work on properly closing the buns. If you don’t close it properly, there’s a tendency that the sauce from the inside will ooze out – as we call it… “sinipon”. You’ll actually see a lot of the siopao in the pictures below that were not closed properly.

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On another note, I’ve also been into making healthy fruity smoothies lately. It’s very simple to make – grab some fruits, chop it, blend it with crushed ice. Healthy and yummy! I bought a ton of mango and grapes (my favorite!!!) and instead of just eating them all the time, I just decided to make smoothies out of them as well.

The one of the left is the grape. This is my favorite so far – but I still can’t mimic the grape shake that I love from Pancake House.

The one on the right is the Mango shake. I’ve also mixed mango with banana or apple. I find the mango-banana combo much better than the mango-apple.

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One thing that I find nice with my new life here in Canada is that I feel like I have more time to do things. Maybe it’s because of the lifestyle here. Kahit walang katulong, I get to do more things. Or maybe since we do everything here on our own, I’ve become less lazy.

But I’ve been thinking about it more, and I really think one of main reasons is that I have more energy to move because I’ve been sleeping pretty well here, given the “regular” work hours now and the relaxed commute. Not only that, I do get more exercise these days which gives me that extra energy boost. So even though I find myself getting sad (missing family and friends back home) every now and then, I still find the positive side of things – that I can wake up each morning to a nice place, to a great job, and to a wonderful family and friends who I am still in contact with regularly (thanks Whatsapp! and gtalk and skype).

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Cooking Attempt #2

I picked another recipe from my recipe book to cook this past weekend.

Veal Cutlets with Red Pesto Sauce

I couldn’t find some of the ingredients in the recipe so I had to look for alternatives.

For example, the red pesto sauce required sun dried tomatoes, and all these other fresh herbs. Some of them, I couldn’t find, some only sold by bulk in the market, and I didn’t want to waste all that money buying 1 bunch of veggies, when you only need a teaspoon of it. 

Instead of veal, we used sirloin instead. We got a great deal out of two huge pieces of sirloin steak for only $12. The picture below is just the size of one – I just split it in half as it is huge. Look at that sirloin cooking. Yummy.

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The red pesto sauce, in my opinion, was the best and unique part of this recipe. It’s a mixture of a lot of ingredients. And since I love Italian stuff, this definitely suited my taste. I loved it. I had so much leftover too that we decided to use it as our spaghetti sauce too! We just added some chickens and more mushroom.

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I had a few leftover baby potatoes left so I decided to roast them! Unfortunately, I left them in the over a little bit too long, and it got burnt a little.

Nonetheless, not the best looking picture, but I consider this dish a success!

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Cooking Attempt

Here’s my first attempt to cooking one of the recipes from the cook book Leda gave me last Christmas. I picked the Mustard and Rosemary chicken. It’s quick and easy to cook, with simple ingredients too. Tada, here’s the first attempt:

Food - Chicken with Spinach and Potato

What went wrong

As you can see from the picture, there were a couple of things that went wrong. First, is that I had the proportions all wrong. I cooked too many potatoes, while I cooked a too little of the chicken. I didn’t realize the chicken fillets ended up being small in comparison to the potatoes.

The chicken tasted good, but the potatoes were missing a lot of seasoning. Next time, I’ll try to season it with different types of seasonings (aside from pepper!).

Also, the spinach were a little too big, I think. The recipe actually called for baby spinach, which we couldn’t find so I used the regular spinach instead. It’s still good, but I think I just needed to chop it into smaller sizes.

What went right (or so I think)

The chicken was pretty good. It was just mustard + rosemary + lime juice + garlic but tasted yummy.

I think that’s the only one that was right though. But it’s still a good start. I’ll cook again next week. Will hopefully get the hang of this cooking slowly, but surely.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hot Pot!

Our family loooves hot pot. Thus, to celebrate my twenty-nth birthday, I decided to treat my family to the wonderful world of Tong Yang Shabu Shabu.

Usually, we have hotpot at the comforts of our home. But to try out something different, I brought the whole family to the fairly new Tong Yang @ Eton Centris.

What I love about Tong Yang is the variety. There are rows and rows of ingredients to choose from! In fact, the pictures I have below are just two of four rows of ingredients that are available. You have your unlimited choices from the thinly and beautifully sliced meat section (lamb and beef), to various types of fishes (they even have fish heads) and shells. Of course, there’s no hot pot without the shrimp balls, lobster balls, etc. Endless. You wouldn’t even know what to get with the many choices there are!

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Below is our soup pot. You can choose from their different types of soup. We got the Spicy and Chicken soup base. The waiter said the spicy was their “best seller” but I find the chicken soup base better, considering I am fond of hot and spicy food. The plate with shells is probably my Dad’s as he looves shells.

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Aside from the hot pot, Tong Yang also has a grill… similar to Yakimix. I loved cooking the thinly sliced meats here.

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Another thing I like about Tong Yang is that everything is unlimited. You know how buffets like Heat or Circles, you have to pay extra for the drinks. Here, everything’s free and unlimited. And for those who don’t like hot pot food, they also have a few “cooked food” choices. When we were here, there was Yangchow fried rice, and even crab! The dessert area wasn’t so bad either. I ended up eating two bowls of halo halo. Couldn’t help it. If only I had some space left in my tummy… I would have eaten more. The service wasn’t bad either. Maybe because the restaurant wasn’t full, but my mom didn’t have to stand up to get her drinks. The waiters got her what she wanted all the time. I guess the waiters thought that she was the one to pay the bill. Hmmm… too bad for me then! haha

Now if only I am willing to spend 600 pesos per meal, I would definitely go here all the time. But still worth the money. Everyone had fun, everyone enjoyed the food, and no regrets paying the huge bill I got after the festivities.

Naawa yata dad ko, kasi when we got home, even though it was just November 02 that time, he gave me ampao at once. Hahaha

Happy Birthday to me!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Food!

I attended my friend’s wedding a few weeks back and what I remember from the wedding, aside from me doing having to do a slightly impromptu prayer in front of a ton of people, was the food.

I’ve been meaning to post this (yikes! 1 month delayed) but just wasn’t able to. It’s always been in the draft of my live writer. So here I am, finally posting these.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the names nor descriptions of these food, but what’s important is that they were all really really good. I remember having soup too. No idea why I wasn’t able to take a picture of it. They all look sumptuous. Reminds me of the numerous times I watched Top Chef. Presentation is as important as how the food tastes.

Of all the food below, the steak and mashed potato were my favorites. The mashed potato, in particular was the first of its kind that I tasted. Texture was different, and very yummy too. The best by far.

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By the way, the food here was from Crowne Plaza. Not bad. I thought it was better than the Lauriat I had at Edsa Shang. Or maybe it was just because I prefer this over Chinese.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Detox

I’ve been feeling quite unhealthy for quite some time and while reading through Patty Laurel’s blog, I stumbled upon Juju Cleanse. It’s a cleansing / detoxifying take for us folks who eat anything from deep fried food to sweet chocolate delights. I decided to try out Juju Cleanse as I heard some great feedback around it, and out of curiosity as well. And I wouldn’t mind the health benefits that it’ll give.

I ordered a Level 2, One Day Juju Cleanse. I picked it up from their pick up place somewhere in New Manila area. It comes packed in a nice bag.

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The juices below, numbered 1 to 6 from left to right.

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The detox process is easy to follow.

There are set times that you would need to drink each bottle. The bottles are numbered so you wouldn’t be confused as to which one to drink. You can learn more about the drinks on their website.

Detox Adventure

My detox adventure started out on Saturday morning with a tea provided by the Juju Cleanse team themselves. Tastes really good. I was sipping it while I was still doing my early morning Saturday work.

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Afterwards, on to drink #1 – which is just by looking at the color, is a concoction of various green veggies. I didn’t like this much. Perhaps I’m not a veggie lover as much as I thought I was. The last few gulps were the hardest. You just wonder why the bottle just doesn’t get empty! The bottles are huge by the way.

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Drink #2 is the red giant. This wasn’t so bad, but be careful, it stains though.

Drink #3 again was the veggie concoction. For some reason, this third drink tasted much worst that the first one. Very difficult to finish.

Unfortunately for me, the days prior was hectic so I ended up sleeping pretty much the whole afternoon (catch up on sleep!), which meant, I skipped two drinks during my sleeping beauty time!! It’s so hard to catch up, especially if you need to drink the greens!

Take note though that at this point, it’s dinner time already, I wasn’t even hungry at all. And I was, surprisingly, feeling refreshed. I don’t know if it’s psychological or not. So far so good.

I ended up drinking another bottle, before I went back to sleep. To sum it all up, I only finished 4 of the 6 bottles. Too bad. I should’ve chosen a better date to do my cleansing. Lesson learned for me was that when you’re going to go on a strict regimen based cleansing diet, be sure you’ve had a good night sleep the previous night. But other than that, the following day, I wasn’t as hungry waking up, and I wasn’t feeling bloated like I have been the past weeks! I’m definitely going to try this one out again.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Quick Pampanga Trip

We were thinking of doing something different to celebrate our parent’s wedding anniversary last May 27. They were suggesting going to Baguio, but that’ll entail a couple of days off which our schedule (mostly mine and my brother’s) won’t permit. But they didn’t want to just have lunch wherever in the city, so for a change, we decided, why not go to Pampanga and try out their food there? It’s supposed to be a haven for food lovers anyway! And thus, after a few google researches, we decided on a few stops in Pampanga.

Aling Lucing’s Sisig in Pampanga

Located in Angeles City, this small carinderia eatery is known to be the origin of our favorite and very popular dish - sisig! It’s supposed to be a must go to place in Angeles City. Although, we did warn our parents that this is not your typical restaurant and not to expect too much. From the pictures we found via google, it looks like a simple carinderia.

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Aside from sisig, they offer different foods as well, but no order necessary. As in a typical eatery, you pick your choice of food from whatever’s available in the buffet food warmer containers. I think my mom picked a few from there but our main goal was to try out the sisig. If I remember correctly, a plate of sizzling sisig will cost you around 170 pesos.

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My verdict? It was good alright, but I missed the crunchiness that perhaps, a Gerry’s Grill sisig would have. Nonetheless, this is probably still a place that you’d still want to drop by to due to its historical significance. After all, it’s supposedly where sisig originated!

Kabigting’s Halo Halo

We were thinking of either Razon’s or Corazon’s but we ended up at Kabigting’s. It’s located in Marquee Mall (Ayala mall), just by the NLEX Angeles exit.

Pampanga is known for their halo halos. According to what I read on various blogs, although there are various popular halo halo shops across the province such as Razon’s and Corazon’s, all of them share the same concept which is different from other halo halos. It is that they limit the sahog to roughly around four different ingredients only. The simplicity makes everything way better.

In my opinion, what makes this halo halo quite different from the other halo halos I’ve tasted is because of its pastillas ingredient. It is good, but it made the treat a little bit too sweet and creamy for me.

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Aside from just eating, we were planning to visit a few cathedrals and churches in the province too. Unfortunately, I had a terrible headache, and it was way hot anyway, so we just decided to go home and just save those for our next trip there. Based from my research, there’s still a ton of places to visit in Pampanga. Can’t wait for the next trip!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Piri piri part 2

When I got home earlier, I was surprised to find a huge bag of my favorite piri piri chips in the sofa!

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Apparently, my Auntie Rosie from Toronto recently arrived and when she went to visit the family here at home, she brought this along! I was surprised she even got me one. Turns out, my aunt asked them to bring home piri piri chips for me!

But here’s what surprised me more. I went to the other room, and I saw this unidentified box in the middle of the room:

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When I opened it, lo and behold, they actually sent me 4 more bags!!!

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I don’t know what my aunts from Vancouver and Toronto were thinking. The three of them are currently in Chicago and when I had a skype chat with them just the other day, they told me that they bough a bag of piri piri chips from Canada and brought it all the way to Chicago for my brother to bring home for me. But I had no idea that they actually got me a bunch already and sent them over here via Auntie Rosie! Crazy ladies!

But I’m not complaining! I love these! Now I just need to run longer distances starting tomorrow at the gym! 5km will no longer be enough!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Amah’s Siopao

One of the things I look forward to when my Amah (a.k.a. Lola) is around, is her siopao! She is an amazing cook and cooks pretty much anything you ask and one of her specialties (and she’s known for it around the Ng family and extended relatives) is her siopao! Yummy delicious homemade siopaos. And after a week of waiting, she finally made one batch this morning!

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See, I already had one right after.

Truth be told, I only only eat her siopao, and no other siopao. Well, I did get to try a few siopao’s here and there but it just never really lived up to my Amah’s siopao.

Ask anyone from my family and relatives what they look forward to from Amah’s cooking? Siopao!

This very food actually helped them get through a rough patch during their mid years while in Manila. According to the stories of my father, there was once a time when my kong kong’s (a.k.a. lolo) hardware business failed and went bankrupt. During these hard times, my Amah utilized her talent and skills and started some food ordering service. And one of the favorites among her clients were her siopao (and lumpia if I’m not mistaken).

I always asked them why they didn’t pursue a food business of some sorts since she had the talent and skill. But they always said, that at that time, it was a good way to make ends meet, but later on, as they got older, it was just not something they wanted to stress over with. It was something she loved to do, and even loved it more when the grandchildren came and started asking for her cooking! She’s the type that can dissect a food that we ate from a restaurant and will cook it at home afterwards. She’s that good.

It is unfortunate though that at least from my immediate family, no one got her talent and love for cooking. haha! I guess the best I can do for now is just to savor her food!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Piri Piri

As much as I try my best to steer clear of junk foods, it’s just one of my weaknesses. And so when I learned that my grandparents are coming to the Philippines for a two month vacation, I took the opportunity to ask them to get me my favorite junk food – President’s Choice Piri Piri flavor chips!

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If you love hot and spicy (very!) junk, then this is a must! I end up drinking a ton of water when feasting on this junk though. But nonetheless, I love it. On another note though, since I’ve been eating a ton of junk (and a lot of food lately), I have surprisingly gone to the gym and exercised a  whole lot more these past weeks. Just proves that we exercise so that we won’t feel guilty eating! haha

Monday, September 5, 2011

Ultimate Taste Test @ Rockwell

Thanks to Rhys, Marcy and I were able to attend Rockwell’s Ultimate Taste Test event last September 03, 2011 (ang mahal pa naman ng entrance fee!). I never heard about this event and apparently, it’s already in its 6th year! It’s in 6th year and this is the only time we heard about it??

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There were limited tickets only, 1000 sold for 585 pesos each. Quite pricey, but I think for the experience, it’s definitely worth the money.

There were 55 merchants, and you get to try food from each of them (if your stomach can fathom it). I think I only tried half of them. Medyo naparami kasi agad yung na try namin na desserts, probably why nabusog agad and then by dinner time, I was sooo hungry.

Anyway, there were a couple of standouts for me.

Theo & Philo Chocolate.

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I haven’t found a local brand of chocolate yet which I feel like will be up to par to world standard chocolatiers. And I was surprised that Theo & Philo Chocolates existed. According to the owner, their chocolates are created from locally grown cocoa beans (from Davao, if I’m not mistaken). What was interesting with their chocolate was that they added a little something unique and Filipino to it. For example, the picture on the right, if you look closely, it’s actually a sample of “Dark Chocolate with Siling Labuyo”. Very very interesting right? In fact, I just had to buy a bar to get my family to taste it! It was a really unique chocolate!

Mang Pedro

We all love Taho. Who doesn’t? So it was a nice surprise to find a stall called Mang Pedro who’s main product are different flavored tahos. I tried the regular taho and the chocolate taho. I still like the regular taho.

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According to the owner, a 12 liter jug can serve up to 50-60 people will cost 1200 pesos. Their main clients would be during parties, and with restaurants who outsource their taho desserts.

Yoh-gee

Amidst all the craze these days with yogurt and gelato, here comes a different variety of yogurt/ice cream/gelato – Frozen Kefir. It’s another variety I guess of fermented milk. Don’t really know the details about it but it is a bit sour, like yogurt, but it’s actually pretty good. I first tried the Mango flavor, nothing special about it, but when I tried their best seller – the regular/plain kefir, oh that one was pretty good.

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There are so much more to talk about this wonderful experience. Thanks to Rhys for introducing us to this great event. And I can’t believe I even saw some friends there who I haven’t seen for years! What a small world!