The weather has been crazy these past few weeks! Whenever I go out, I don't know what to wear because it can get extremely hot, windy and cold all throughout the day. It's making outfit planning difficult. But outfit planning is really the least of my concerns. The crazy rains and the terrible roads we have here in the Philippines has made travelling to and from work really difficult! And yes, you heard that right. I started with the new job two weeks ago. Which also means I'm a responsible tax-paying citizen again. I'm excited and scared at the same time. New people, new environment, new boss, new work and new colleagues. I'm not very fond of change but I hope this one does my career some good. I rarely make good decisions but I hope this is a part of the good ones. 

Being employed again after 2 months is a breath of fresh air because there are days where I'm so bored and I just want to start working again. But then again I have more days where I feel like, "Aaahhh this is the life!". When I was unemployed, I had the luxury of cooking what I want anytime I want it because I didn't have to rush out of the house to go some place. I also feel a bit sad adjusting to the new work and the new place (yes, we moved!). I'm overly attached to certain things, my old place and work included. I'll talk about that in my next post, for now, I have a series of recipes I experimented on when I was still enjoying the bum life. Meh. I already miss it, haha!  

Moving to Maginhawa wasn't easy for me. Tomas Morato has been my home for 3 years and being surrounded by bars, pubs and restaurants that operate 24/7 isn't actually a bad thing. But whenever I remember all the times I had to feel like a survivor just to get home while battling the rain, moving makes sense all of a sudden. 

Looking for a place close to work wasn't easy either. Sometimes I begin to think, why did I decide to work here in the first place if I had to endure all the evilness this place has to offer? Business-wise, Manila is a pool of endless job opportunities and aggressive career growth, but it's not a conducive place for a healthy and productive life--unless you're rich and can actually afford a nice place to live in. I have more to say on the topic but that deserves a separate blog post, back to the topic. Maginhawa is like a more laid-back version of Tomas Morato. There aren't a lot of establishments that are open 24/7 but the selection of places you can go to are eccentric and fascinating. One of which is Gerry's Jeepney. 

If there's another kind of food I love more than Filipino food, it's Japanese! I love sushi, teriyaki, katsudon, name it and most probably, I love it. And any Japanese meal would be incomplete (at least for me) without Miso soup! It can be the cheapest thing on the menu and it can also be a bit pricey, depends on the restaurant really. Since I love it, I wanted to know how to make it. 

Before I proceed with the recipe, can I just rant about the weather? Earlier, there was a thunderstorm and I had to cancel a very important meeting. After an hour, the heat started to intensify making the weather ultimately humid. UGHHH! Buuuut, this recipe is perfect if you get one of those perfect and cold rainy morning, without the weather getting bipolar. Let's start! 

I remember quite vividly the first movie I watched on the big screen, it was Thumbelina. For some reason, I didn't really like the movie. It may be because we were standing the whole time and as a kid, I didn't understand why we had to pay to be tortured like that--it didn't make sense! Well, it also wouldn't make sense now. I would never, ever pay for a movie and stand up while watching. It's like paying for your demise!  But one bad experience would not ruin my love affair with movies.  

I have 3 all-time favorite movies as a kid : Rock-A-Doodle, The Great Mouse Detective and The Land Before Time. When I was a kid, loved watching movies because there is always a moral lesson in the end. And being the little one who doesn't know much, I absorbed these lessons like a sponge. Each movie felt like a fun learning activity; It wasn't as boring as school yet you still learn something. It's funny how I already forgot some of the other things I learned as a child, but not why I started loving movies, haha. Watching movies as a kid was also some sort of recluse for me. The feeling of being transported into a make-believe world where every story has a happy ending--because we all know reality is very far from that.