Quick post before I head to the kitchen to cook dinner! Here's my cheat entry for the week, I've been quite obsessed with home cooking since I moved to a different unit and I love my kitchen so much! It has been rather easy to resist temptation with the new set up, but of course, I still cheated. LOL.
If there's anything I splurge on more than shoes and clothes, it's food. I can scrimp on stilettos and bandage dresses but not food, especially when it's worth it--and I'm not on a diet. Lol. I recall quite vividly how we were led to the Steak haven that is Brickfire. My friends and I decided to drop by Shopwise Katipunan to get stuff for our art project at work the next day, we got hungry so we decided to drive a couple of blocks and saw "Oven-roasted steaks and chops"--and it was love at first sight.
We've had several visits and a routine wold consist of going here to eat, working out at Elorde then having beer at Tomato Kick after.
When I was in College, I'd spend more money on alcohol than on real food. Not because I'm an alcoholic but because studying in Baguio + alcohol = perfect combination.I'm not saying you should do it too, you know. I'm just saying that because of it, I learned to save my money and be creative with food, just because I had to spend more on alcohol. Lol. Am I making sense? To my 18yr old self, I still am.
The point being, nothing! Loljk. That means I'll be teaching you one of my go-to recipes when I've spent my last penny and all I have are my canned goods and some instant stuff too. In this Spaghetti recipe, I'll be using Elbow Macaroni instead of Spaghetti. I don't know if I should be calling it Elbowghetti but nevermind. I'm talking too much again, am I?
In my kind of work, things get easily boring. Ciggies, food and coffee keep me up at night. If you're familiar with UP-Ayala Technohub, yup, that's where I work. Just right in front of UP Diliman. And you know what, the food chains can be pretty boring especially if you've been working at the place for 2yrs now. KFC, Reyes BBQ, Mini Stop, Ral's, Pizza Hut, Flapjacks, etc. This may look like a lot of variations including pantry food but believe me it gets tiring in the long run. #firstworldproblems
A different company has their own version of Banchetto and we go there every Friday to put some color into our lives. Imagine my excitement when I saw on Twitter that Mercato is going to be invading my workplace, yes, my workplace! Well, in entirety, it's not just my workplace but yeah. I was pretty excited because that meant a new selection of food to choose from. Knowing Mercato, it will be expensive. I guess that's the price we have to pay just to have some variation. And so we welcome, Mezza Norte!
Seafood Paella |
4pcs for P70. |
I love Ice Cream! Who doesn't? Especially for someone who lives in a tropical country where the weather is bipolar, you'd definitely love Ice Cream in the Philippines! On a weirdly unrelated matter, the Philippines has also been swarmed with Koreans who somehow bought their culture with them. Which brings me to something that combines both, Korean Ice Cream! Lol. I hope that made sense, err, one way or another.
Let me introduce you to this baby, Samanco! I first had a taste of this fish-shaped ice cream at Donday, at eat-all-you-can Korean restaurant. I loved the taste because aside from Vanilla Ice Cream, it also had red bean paste which is something I really love! (Thinking about Starbucks' Green Tea with Red Beans? I only eat the red beans because I hate tea. Lol.) I wouldn't want to go all the way to Malingap St. just to buy the fish-shaped ice cream so I felt kinda sad 'cause I only get to eat it when we go there for buffets--well, until I discovered Samanco at Mini Stop! Yay!
I'm sorry for not being able to post consistently on this blog. I've been a little depressed lately, and I've been mulling over my existence for the past days and my birthday made it worst! I'll write about that on a different blog post, I don't want to spread bad vibes.
So, moving on. I'm feeling quite domesticated lately, I didn't celebrate my birthday anywhere. I was thinking of getting drunk but I remember how painful it was to vomit the last time it happened. I thought, a staycation with lovey would be nice, 5 days at home with the family and the boyfriend. It was nice but I'm going back to work later.
And before I do, I thought of sharing a recipe with you! Again if I may say, I'm feeling domesticated. Lol. It's a very simple dish that you can cook anytime, it's most ideal when it's raining! So here goes, drum roll please. Today I'll teach you how to cook, Paksiw na Tilapia! This is my first how-to on cooking so correct me if ever I say something wrong. Haha!
Ingredients! |
I tried googling what Tilapia is in English, for readers who are not from the Philippines, the closest that I got was St Peter's Fish. I hope you have it in your neighborhood so you can try this recipe too!
Step 1. |
You will need the ginger, salt, vinegar and the tilapia. In our practice, we put ginger on the bottom of the casserole and on top of the fishes, basically smothering them in ginger. This will help get that fishy stink out. In kampangan cooking, or maybe just in our household (lol), we don't measure ingredients. We just gauge how much of this or that is needed. Hope that helps.
Step 2 |
Wait for it to simmer down, you will see a change in color. The fish will slightly turn brown. It will probably take around 5 minutes depending on the kind of fish you're using. You can also use Bangus (Milkfish). I think for the tilapia, it took me 5 mins.
Step 3 |
After it has simmered down, time to put the eggplants and add a glass of water. Use a small glass, you wouldn't want your paksiw overflowing with soup.
Step 4 |
Wait for the eggplant and the fish to cook. Once the texture of the fish and the eggplant is fine with you, it's fine with me too. Hahaha! Add some salt or vetsin if necessary.
Step 5 |
After step 4, you can put the sili (chili). Let it boil for 1-2 more minutes. The sili is optional, in our household we like it spicy. Yum. Ready to serve!
Btw, when I was taking photos while cooking this, I noticed that it's not that colorful. Then it came to me, I forgot to put the chili! Stupid. And now I'm doing this step by step tutorial on how to cook it. Lol.
With regard to the measurement, I/we don't really measure. We do the tantsa method. If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to holler. This tutorial is a bit vague but I hope it still helps! Link me your photos or entries if you're going to try it!
Happy Tuesday!
What's going on Chicharon? Hah, that's me trying to pull off a Mikey Bustos opening. Hahaha! Okay, if you don't know him you might not be laughing as hard as I am.
A few weeks ago, we dined at Red Kimono before our tip to Baguio. My workplace (UP-Ayalaland Technohub) is surrounded by various restaurants which caters to different kinds of food. That particular Friday night we were craving for Japanese food thus leading us to Red Kimono. I promise you this post won't be heavy with text, I'll smother you with photos!
A couple of weeks ago, the boyfriend invited me to come with him to Baguio so I can meet his parents. His parentals have been in the UK for quite sometime, I met his dad when we were still in college but not his Mom. I was quite nervous, with the television feeding us with thoughts that our lover's parents are supposed to disagree with everything and they're not suppose to like you by default.
Before entering their house, I have tried every delaying tactic so we can prolong the agony, but alas, we had to come in. Upon going inside the house, we were surprised that his Dad was on his way out and his Mom is out. Yesss! I think God heard me. We slept for we were too tired from the trip, when I woke up it was already time for dinner. This time, I can't delay the meeting anymore because we will be eating in one table. When we went to the table, his mom was smiling and said hi. She was friendly. Contrary to popular belief, she's not scary after all.
The weekend was a blast and his mom was kind beyond words. His dad on the other hand is a natural comedian, he also told me stories about Mountain Province and I was a giddy little girl all ears. I couldn't be more thankful for the weekend. I also met his extended family, I hope the photos justify how good the weekend was for me.
The kind of affair I won't regret. |
Being the self-absorbed person that I am, you'll probably be surprised that this post is not all about me. It's about a friend's birthday so I won't be saying a lot because I'm not good at that. If I were to write something about myself, we can take all day, that's how self-absorbed I am. Nah, kidding. Well, sort of because I've already bombarded you with thoughts about myself before stating something proper about the person we will be talking about today. Hah, got you there!
Bangs. |
In this photo, you can see the birthday girl trying to dab some lip gloss onto her lips as if preparing for a debut party and the debutante is about to come out in her shimmering gown. At least that's how we thought it should go.
As someone who works in an indefinite shift or most popularly known as the shifting schedule, I seldom don't get to call my meals the way you call yours. My breakfast could be your dinner and my dinner could be your lunch. For me though, no matter what time of the day it is, my first meal is always breakfast, lunch then dinner. Dinner becomes breakfast again though if the sun is already up. Hahaha! You're probably confused but don't be because I won't be talking about my time difference with the rest of the population. Meh.
Anyhoo, what I wanted to share is the not-so-new discovery I had a couple of weeks ago. While I did know that KFC already has its breakfast lineup, what I didn't know is that it's not as pricey as their chicken meals and they're quite okay! One of my all-time favorite from KFC is their fully loaded meal which now has a variation. You can have the double down fully loaded, the regular one and they have another option that I forgot. My current eye candy though is their breakfast fully loaded. Tadaaaaaaaaaaa!
In all its glory! |
Being the voracious bitch that I am, you would've
probably known by now that I love Mang Inasal. Not because the rice is
unlimited but because I always feel satisfied when I eat there. I feel like P99
for a chicken is so worth it even when they haven’t had the additional things
in their menu that they have now. And maybe the unlimited rice too, heh.
Oh, I remember there was one instance where I felt cheated. I’ve
blogged about it before; it’s the Ginataang Kangkong which is such a rip off. I
don’t want to talk about that now because I suddenly craved Spicy Paa and I'm not in the mood for a bitch fit! :/
Anyhoo, we had lunch there the other day. Yes, we did get
traumatized by the kind of Ginataang kangkong that we ate but we still wanted
to try some of the new items in their menu and that includes the Chicken
Chicharon. After having the usual Paa meals that almost always order, I also
had one order of Chicken Chicharon. I’d say for P39, it was pretty okay but it’s
not that good. For P39 you get this plate full of Chicken skin I must say, and
not the real Chicken Chicharon. Chicharon isn’t just made of Chicken skin, y’know.
This is how it's supposed to look like:
A couple of weeks ago, the boyfran and I finally had the time to visit Manila Ocean Park. I bought our tickets last June for P500 when they had a caravan in the office. They had a package of some, not all, of the things they had to offer. Once you get there, you'll see a lot of sights you'd want to go to but of course you have to take them one at a time.
Unfortunately for me though, the boyfran and I went there after my shift so I was pretty tired. I little walk here and I'll ask him if there's somewhere we can sit and probably sip something or smoke. The fortunate thing was while having one of those tired moments, we ended up at O My Yogurt!
Our first cup! |
Mang Inasal has been one my the boyf and I's favorite restos. Not just because of the unlimited rice but because of the huge chunk of chicken that you can get for P99. Plus I love the free soup that they serve before you get the chicken, or while eating your chicken, or after eating your chicken. It depends on the number of people eating if they'll notice that you actually have or don't (for that matter) the soup you've been craving for.
A couple of weeks ago, Bunny and I decided to have dinner at Mang Inasal which is located at the back of PBCom Tower. It was closed a bit early and we asked why because we usually eat there around 9PM, the manager told us they're preparing for the 11.11.11 thingy that they're launching. Fine.
I was thinking they might've thought of adding more chicken or adding more soup and yes, adding more food to the menu. I kept on comparing Chic-Boy's line up and boy Mang Inasal is way behind. They have Sinigang na Salmon, Liempo of all sorts and what have you. Mang Inasal on the other hand is limited to the Chicken line up and the Sinigang (and other dishes such as Sisig), both actually taste good. but, if you're looking for diversity when it comes to the menu, your choices are pretty limited with Mang Inasal, including their selection of desserts.
So, 11.11.11 came, my first disappointment was:
Ginataang Kangkong for P25 |
Last week, Bibi and I decided to explore the Ayala Triangle since I'm temporarily assigned in Makati, so why not make the most out of it? We were supposed to go the safe way and head to Bonchon but it was still closed at around 8AM. As we were looking for other places to eat, we chanced upon Chef Laudico's Breakfast, and since it was breakfast time, we decided to try it.
The food was pricey. |
The price of the food is a bit expensive, I'm kind of thinking the place was actually targeting executives considering the price and the taste of the food. I had Buttermilk Chicken, Bibi ordered Angus Tapa and we both agreed that we'll also get Champorado because the photo looked so tempting. The food didn't take that long, the waiter already set our expectations that it might take 10-15mins. And true enough, it was indeed served to us within the time frame.
Belgian Champorado |
I remember being so bored in the morning shift that I randomly asked people if they want to have dinner or drink with me or something that would make the loneliness of my nights go away! One of the things that I did when I was in the morning shift was eat out at night. I'm usually done at work by 5 or 6PM and I don't have anything to do at home so either I end up rendering OTY or going out with friends. The former happens most of the time.
Last week though, Paul and I had something planned for one of the evenings and since he was craving for Burgers, we went to The Burger Project with Len. I didn't have time to take photos of the tiny, adorable place because I was busy smoking.
Sorry for the blurry photos, I had a 50mm with me. |
I hate goodbyes. I don't like goodbyes even for a short while. I like seeing the people I love around me, or often with me. That's how selfish or lovable I am. Depends on how you see it. Given that, one of the few people I enjoy being with at work just resigned. It hasn't really sinked in that I won't be seeing this person on a daily basis nor go down and smoke with him during breaks, but one thing's for sure, I feel sad. I know it'll get worse as the days go by, but then again attachment is one of the things I'm really good at, moving forward/on is not. But then again, let's see how it goes. We'll still be seeing each other, not that often though. I'm going to miss you, Small Asian Guy. :)
Nomnom Pizza! |
I've started to morph into a fast-food monster. It's not enough that I live away from my parents, because of my laziness I've been eating ugh food for almost months now. I don't think I have the right to ask myself why I'm growing this big when I can't even finish a meal if it doesn't have rice, or maybe I can but with Uncle John's chicken.
Let me show you the food I'm eating and then brag about it some more even If I know it's no good. In return you can tell me how many years I've still got. K?
Let me show you the food I'm eating and then brag about it some more even If I know it's no good. In return you can tell me how many years I've still got. K?
Early morning pizza from yellow cab |
When I was promoted as a Trainer, the job didn't actually come with a handbook so I pretty much didn't have any idea what what my gains and misses would be. Apparently, there are more cons than pros and sad to say I only realized that now. But anyway, let me just tell you about our team building during the summer. Everything happened at Bosay Resort in Antipolo.
Before everything else, the photo of the resort was was sent to us and while I looked at it, I said it was pretty okay just like Club Manila East. But to our surprise when we got there. Oh no. The place was crowded, there was unbearable noise coming from all over. Sigh..
The boyf posing after having breakfast |
I want to pose, too! |
I remember a couple of months ago, we had this top talent thing at work. Of course I was a newbie at our department so I had no idea was it was all about. I was just there innocently clapping my hands whenever someone's name was called. But anyhoo, I'm going to tell you about the place where we had the small event and not the event itself.
We were told to go to Crustasia at around 7:00PM, of course I was late because I felt like I lacked sleep which is obviously not true. I've never been there so it could've been really a big help if I went there early so I can look for the place. Good things I had co-trainers who were also running late. We went to Edsa Shangri-la
to look for the place and spent around 15 minutes because the big bold letters in front of the resto says Thai Shrimp House, and we were looking for something more similar to Crustasia.
But, everything was fine after I saw the buffet. Seafood overload, duh, of course.
Peppered Crab |
I only ate a small amount of rice. Hihi |