Random thoughts.

Time does fly fast. I haven't written anything in a while, and I have all these random thoughts in my head right now. The weather's depressing, there's flood everywhere, I'm just glad I'm safely home, glued to the bed.

Some random stuff, excuse me for non cohesive thoughts :D

1. Glee and Spring Awakening. I'm currently watching Glee, well few minutes left in the 3rd episode when I decided to blog instead, it's a musical tv series. A new flavor to the pile-loads of series I'm watching that's why I don't have time to blog or read other blogs anymore. A lot tv shows have returned already. Oh and the Spring Awakening play that we were supposed to watch today got cancelled. Since we leave near RCBC, we got there early, only to find out the play was canceled. Well if we came from the south, we probably would have called the organizers or assumed that it would be canceled because of floods and traffic. I was looking forward to the play, the music's done by Duncan Sheik! :) Spring Awakening Manila started yesterday, September 25 to October 18, 2009 at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Building. I'm actually happy that I can drag Ian into watching plays, well musical plays even.

2. The Best Frozen Yogurt. Okay, so far I've tried Lulubelle (Powerplant), White Hat, Fro-Yo (in Hobbes stores), and Red Mango. Before I used to say that all these frozen yogurts taste the same, but the verdict: RED MANGO for the quality of yogurt, the price, and the 'cafe' feel to the shop. After eating yogurts on consecutive days/weeks, I was finally able to compare. To think Red Mango's a franchise from US or Korea (I dunno where we got it but both countries have it), the price is actually reasonable compared to the others. Next would be Fro-Yo :) Red Mango is for the health buffs since they mostly have fruits as their toppings, I usually get blueberries with crushed graham for the 'cheesecake' feel. But if I want cheesecake as the actual topping, Fro-Yo in Hobbes!

3. Cooking. Before I got married, I don't really cook, I bake, but cooking? I leave it to my mom and my chef brother :) But now since I have to cook, I'm actually pretty good at it :D Yeah but I still occasionally call the house to confirm with the recipes. I even hoarded some spices from the house. Who has bottles and bottles of McCormick spices at home? I was amazed at what I found in our cabinet, we have Tumeric, Rosemary, Oregano, Cayenne, etc. I swear we have more than 20 bottles of different spices. I hoarded the doubles then brought it to our place. What the hell is Tumeric for right? My brother said it's the yellow for Java Rice or don't quote me on this, I think for Arroz Caldo :)

4. Chocolate Fix. I'm currently raving, oh well thriving on the sugar high from the following:
M&M's Straweberried Peanut Butter

Flipz Pretzels. I love Royce's potato chips covered with chocolate but it's really expensive (We have Royce here and it's P540 a box!), I like salty and sweet. So when I tried these pretzels with peanut butter and chocolate = SUPER YUM. Obviously, I love peanut butter :)

Super thanks to Noelle for bringing me these! :D I once tried to imitate Royce's chocolate covered potato chips by using Oishi potato chips and melting Hershey's, it's actually good :) I will attempt to copy this one also. But for my 'healthier sugar fix', I'm happy with my Yogurt!

5. Settling down. After getting married, a lot of people were asking me how it feels like, or how is it like, and even if I try to avoid blogging about personal stuff since it's OUT there and Google-able, I will rave about it :) It's actually nice, comforting, interesting, and fun. Hmm, for people in relationships, hmmm it's like living with your boyfriend, that's basically it, only you get to be with your boyfriend for the rest of your life :)

Credit Card Freebies.

I love getting freebies and discounts :) I usually have cards like the Bench Card (for Fix/First Aid/PCX/Bench/Aldo/Fox purchases) which I've already earned/collected P200.00 from, A-Card which have a lot of cool freebies in resto's and discounts, SM Advantage which I've already earned P900.00 (credited to the card and can be used to purchase in SM) from the purchases, Tony Roma's card, etc.

Oh and now there's the battle for the best Credit Card freebies! I used to love BPI's free food, I have the BPI card which just my mom's extension way way back, which I would use whenever she asks me to buy anything for her for groceries and errands. My mom would hoard all of these free goodies depending on what freebies are for the month, like there was a time Tokyo Tokyo was the partner, we'd have endless meals from Tokyo Tokyo, then there was Goldilocks, and Chowking. So Ian and I both decided to get this card as our 'joint' card when we got hitched.


From August 1 to September 30, P1,000, P2,000, P3,000 purchases will get you free food in Jollibee! :) But to clarify that, P10,000 charged slip doesn't mean you can claim 10 P1,000 freebies. It's per charged slip, so a P10,000 slip would just give you the P3,000 food freebie.

For a minimum single transaction of P1,000 Jolly Hotdog Classic/Jolly Hotdog Chili Cheese or Ice Craze.

For a minimum single transaction of P2,000 Yum with Sundae (Rocky Road, Black Forest or Chocolate) or Yum with Regular Jolly Crispy Fries .

For a minimum single transaction of P3,000 Cheesy Bacon Mushroom with Large Jolly Crispy Fries or Double Yum with TLC with Large Jolly Crispy Fries.

Not bad right? And then Citibank came up with it's own freebie for the credit card!

Ian and I have been both using Citibank cards as our 'personal' credit card even before we got married, so we just retained it. And the BPI credit card we actually got kind of sucked because of it's low credit limit, they didn't even match our existing credit limit, so we both decided to keep it as well. We love our Citibank Credit Card because we got the Mercury Drug card, it has rebates in Mercury Drug (who doesn't buy medicine in Mercury?) plus that's how we got a low monthly fee in Fitness First because of their tie-up. We don't really check on the interest rates, etc. on choosing the credit cards since we pay on time, but really more for the freebies what we can get from the bank. I'm not a supporter/believer of the 'points' system in credit cards because I used to have an Equitable card (now BDO) and what I got for using it for x years was a measly P500.00 GC. The points conversion are so low. Instant gratification is way better for consumers, imagine the P500.00 GC that I got before can be easily matched in a matter of months from the food freebies one can get from BPI, I mean one can instantly accumulate receipts and get P500.00 worth of food from Jollibee. (Our BPI card's the one with the points system, I just have to consider this as the 'plus' because the main goal was to claim the free food! :p)

Anyway, as for Citibank's freebie, which I absolutely love, it's free movie passes! (Add to that the 5% rebate on all purchases you make using the card until August 31, 2009)

For a minimum single transaction of P1,500 you get 1 Free Movie Pass worth P130.
For a minimum single transaction of P3,500 you get 2 Free Movie Passes worth P260
Plus Popcorn & Softdrinks for 2.
For a minimum single transaction of P20,000 you get 3 Free Movie Passes worth P390
Plus Popcorn & Softdrinks for 3.

Ayala Malls are included! :) You still have to shell out for this though, since movies in Greenbelt 3 are priced at P180 and P200, upon claiming the free movie passes, you'd have to add money. I think the promo's really nice! The free popcorn in Greenbelt 3 is from Chimara (the one cooked in olive oil!).

What we do now if our purchase reaches P1,000, we use the BPI card, if it's P1,500, the Citibank card :D So we can avail of freebies! So if you're reading this, and you've been using HSBC (which only give freebies upon signing like the free Mango watch for instance), or any other card, it's probably the best time to switch! The promos are open to ANY Citibank/BPI credit cards. So if you like the earn-points-system-thing for gadgets/appliances or the one for miles, both banks have that and would still qualify you to grab the freebies I mentioned.

Krispy Kreme.

These are really good, I love the one with the chocolate cream on top with Oreos. I usually try out their new donuts, Reese's, the Hershey's line, even the Halloween donuts with gummy candies on top, but they're usually just plain Krispy Kreme to me with a little twist. Sometimes I even just prefer the normal donuts over the 'special edition donuts'. But THESE donuts really good, these are heavenly!

I so wanna win the Krispy Kreme Fave Fan contest so I can design my own donuts! My own concoction will be a donut with Reese's, Oreos, cream cheese, white chocolate, peanut butter all mixed together :) I wonder if I win if KK can partner with Twix and other chocolate companies for me (in case I actually win this thing).

Myron's Place and Terrace at 5th.

Myron's Place

When you're on a dinner date in the south, it's usually the same choices: The French Corner and Melo's in Westgate, or the Sky Lounge Resto in Vivere. Since moving to Makati, Ian and I have been trying the restaurants in Greenbelt 5 for our dinner dates :) Well I don't know if we can try all of them since it would eventually take toll in our budget if it piles up :p

First stop is Myron's. Myron's isn't really new because they have a branch in Power Plant before they opened in Greenbelt 5. Since we're from the south, we're usually at most in Greenbelt area.

Whenever we try a resto we usually ask what's their specialty and they always always say it's their steak. Well for Myron's, I know it's their steak. Ian usually gets that, while I usually get the ribs and we just share our food :)

Myron's menu in Munchpunch.com

Bianca's Cut 240 grams

Baby Back Ribs

Happy Campers

I am no steak connoisseur but the steak was tender good :) The ribs was really yummy too. Well I really can't be a food writer because I'm so damn easy to please with food :D

Next stop, Terrace at 5th. Terrace at 5th's Menu from Munchpunch.com

I love the service here, first when we ordered, they offered to split the 2 dishes into two plates, half of each order so we won't have a hard time sharing the food. Second, when they offered desserts and coffee, since we wanted hot chocolate, and it's not on the menu, the waiter asked the kitchen then got back to us and offered to make us hot chocolate even if it's not on the menu. Talk about SERVICE :)

complimentary bread

Cynthia's Amazing Artichoke Dip (with Melba Toast)

Half of Grilled U.S. Short Ribs and Half of Homestyle Confit of Pork Belly

Okay, so back to the orders, as I've mentioned whenever you ask what's their specialty, they always say steak so in Terrace at 5th they said the same thing. Anyway, we wanted to try something else :)

For starters, I loved Cynthia's Amazing Artichoke Dip. I love CPK's Spinach and Artichoke Dip (which is expensive for tortillas and dip, P500++), and Cibo's Spinach Zola (Spinach and Gorgonzola, I only like eating in Cibo because of this, P200++). The one in Terrace at 5th is just artichoke, but it's really good :)

The Grilled U.S. Short Ribs(Calatagan, Batangas style with roasted garlic and homemade atchara and rice) is good, again I love ribs, and it's really tender and moist. The Homestyle Confit of Pork Belly (12-hour, slow-roasted pork rib belly in reduced balsamic sauce) even if it was cooked for 12 hours, reduced in balsamic sauce, to me it's still your normal lechon. Yes it's tender and all, but dip it in Mang Tomas, you wouldn't know the difference that it was done in reduced balsamic sauce. I dunno, just nothing out of the extra ordinary, but I'd probably go back for the ribs, the artichoke dip, and to eventually try their steak :)

Oh, and I also love it that you can choose between white or red rice, so there's the healthier option :) There was actually a time in our house that my brother and I ate red/brown rice at home, but the rest of the household didn't like it that much haha.

I already ate lunch but this post is making me hungry again :D

Milo.

I've been drinking Milo since I was a kid, it used to be my morning drink before I go to school, but eventually I grew up, resorted to drinking coffee every morning for my sugar and caffeine dose. Anyway, I don't know if people have noticed, but the Milo we buy in the grocery isn't as good as the one being served in Mcdonald's before, or in school cafeterias. (The cold one)I used to order Milo a lot when I was in high school. So anyway, in the back packet of Milo, it says to prepare one cup, you're supposed to put 4 teaspoons. Repeat: FOUR TEASPOONS.

So back story, when I was a kid, I never really made my own Milo drink, every morning it's always prepared for me already. I haven't been drinking Milo from the packet in a long time, I just drink it from the vendo or I drink the instant chocolate drinks like Swiss Miss. And since we've been doing household groceries, I thought to buy a pack of Milo.

So when I recently tried to make a glass of hot Milo, it tasted bland. I already put 4 TABLESPOONS, and it's still not sweet. Since the information was kind of misleading, I decided to email Milo(Nestle). Yes this gal is a proactive consumer, it wasn't a compalaint/angry email tone, but more of a concerned Milo-loving gal email. Here's the reply below. Hahaha, I actually find it amusing that I actually emailed them!

Dear Rica,

Thank you for writing to us. Regarding your concern, the instructions indicated on the back of the MILO pack is our recommended preparation for MILO. This was based on a research conducted among consumers that showed preference for 4 heaping teaspoons of MILO per 200ml cup. However, a delicious cup of MILO would really depend on the consumer's taste preference, and this would vary from consumer to consumer. McDonald's, on the other hand, follows a different recipe for its MILO, which explains the difference in taste.

We have also forwarded your comments to our MILO Brand group for consideration in future product innovation. In fact, we have a new product in the pipeline that may be able to address your concern, and we shall inform you once this is out in the market.

Again, thank you for bringing your concern to us. Feedback from valued consumers like you is always an important opportunity for us to respond to you growing and changing needs, improve products and services, and ensure continuous consumer satisfaction and delight.

With our best regards, and thank you for your continued patronage.

Many thanks,
_______ _________
Nestlé Consumer Services
Nestlé Philippines, Inc.
Care Center: xxxx-xxxx


I wonder if they'll send me their new product! Hahaha I didn't ask for a sample anymore because I might come of as an extortionist.

BTS.

I used to really love Gayuma's BTS back in college. BTS stands for "Better-Than-Sex", it's chocolate cake with caramel, if you love caramel this is a guaranteed hit! I don't know what happened to Gayuma, it burned down, moved, and I think it closed again? Last time it was behind Mcdonald's in Katipunan. Anyway, here's the BTS that I'm loving right now. It's from Karen Young Karen's Kitchen. I love UCC cakes, and she's the one supplying some of the cakes I think, I'm not sure if all.

Price list is not on their site, I have a copy of their prices, you have to ask them to fax you the price list, I don't know how to post a PDF file here, I already scanned it :) I can email it to you in case you chance upon my blog via Google? I googled some of her cake reviews and a lot of blogs pop up. Anyway price for BTS, 6 inch: P400 and 8 inch: P750. Minimum order for delivery is P1,500.

(Image is from her site, I hope i don't get reprimanded for getting it hahaha. I'll just post my own picture when I open my box)

(edit after taste test)
Okay, this is kind of a let down, I've tried the smaller version of this cake and it's not the same as the big version :( The 3 inch version has lots of caramel on top, instead of the white cream on top with caramel drizzle, it was the pure caramel goodness. This one had minimal caramel on it. It's still good but for a sweet tooth like me, I prefer cakes that are REALLY really sweet.

Next Stop: Japan (Part 3)

Okay okay, so now back to the real story :) Packed our bags, left Manila last January 2. What a way to kick off the new year!

We stayed in Takanawa Tobu Hotel in Shinagawa, which was a few min walk from the train station! :) Funny on how when we got to the hotel, we were looking for the aircon switch and we requested for "cool air" hahahaha. When the only thing coming out is hot air because it's winter. I was actually surprised that it wasn't as hard to communicate in English as expected, I thought I'd have a hard time talking to people. Ian was even texting me the 101's on how to ask for water, when I usually just normally ask for water casually in English.

The train was ultra complicated, there were a lot of lines, it wasn't as simple as riding the one in HK but after a while it's something we got used to :) We had our own Suica card so we don't have to buy tickets every time. It's quiet on the train, people are prohibited to talk on the phone, so you don't hear chatter. The train's efficient and on time. (Oh and riding the Shinkansen or the bullet train, is another story)

We went to Disneyland and Disneysea, one day each. The only caveat on the Disney in Japan is everything, well almost everything is in Japanese. Sometimes the staff would have instructions before the ride, and we're like "What are they saying?" I've only been to Disney in Hong Kong just last year, and people were saying the one in HK is small, and after going to the one in Japan, it really is true. In HK, it's easy to remember the area, in Japan, you really need a map to navigate Disney.

Well, Disney is still Disney, and it brings out the kid inside of us :) Nevermind that Disneysea is really beside a body of water, and we're all freezing while waiting on line for some rides for more than an hour! Disneyland is more for kids, Disneysea had the rides for adults. Didn't get to ride Splash Mountain, I didn't wanna risk getting wet and getting sick.

After Disney, the rest were all tours. We had the city tour, visited the Tokyo Tower, Meiji Shrine, Imperial Palace, Asakusa Kannon Temple. We also had the Sumida River Cruise.

We also had the Nikko Kegon Tour, and the highlight of this tour is the Lake Chuzenji and the Kegon Waterfall. It didn't snow in Tokyo but this area had snow :) We were only ones left outside the tour bus because everyone else was freezing and boarded the bus, the tour guide figured that we didn't have snow in our country hahahaha, it was that obvious. According to the guide, the temp was 1.7 C. Plus add the wind chill factor, it was super cold.

Now for the rest of the Japan Experience, it will have to be the Part 4 of this blog entry, for now I'll just post some food stuff.

A. Different flavors of Kitkat
I tried soy sauce, apple, sesame, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, soy, green tea, cookie, and red bean. We stop at every convenience store that we pass by because some flavors are just available in New Days, in Family Mart, etc. Green Tea is only available in the Airport, beside Starbucks, near McDonald's. So right after checking in your luggage, check out the Airport mall first. Look it up in the Airport map :)

B. Starbucks
They have good Lavander Earl Grey Tea Latte! Plus if you're like me and you collect Starbucks tumbler, and you forgot to buy the tumblers, the Starbucks in the Airport has the complete one! They had Kyoto, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc. I got a Japan 2009 tumbler and Shizuoka which had a Mt Fuji design. This one though, I didn't see in the airport, got it on the way to check out Mt. Fuji. They still give a free drink when you buy a tumbler.

C. Royce Ice Cream
Okay, Royce Ice Cream is found in convenience stores and is the same price as street ice cream! I bought Green Tea ice cream in cone for 300 Yen and Royce Ice Cream in Family Mart for 315 Yen! Times .5 so around P150 for each.

D. Yoshinoya and Pepper Lunch
When we first got there, we were so hungry and saw Yoshinoya right away, since we didn't want to look around anymore, we ate in Yoshinoya. I don't really mind since I get to taste the authentic Yoshinoya beef bowl in Japan! :) After a few days, we passed by Pepper Lunch. And it looked like Yoshinoya, the table/set-up.

Here in Manila, Pepper Lunch is in Powerplant, Rockwell and people line up for it. In Tokyo, it looked like a hole in the wall resto, nothing fancy. In terms of prices, well everything is expensive in Japan!

E. Mcdonald's is so expensive. I checked when I went to eat yesterday, our McChicken sandwich meal is P103. In Japan, it's 620 Yen or around P310! I didn't bother to eat in Mcdonald's while in Tokyo hahaha, I just got coffee once, that's it :)

F. Ate Takoyaki (Octopus balls!), Tempura, Fresh Sushi, Katsu Curry, Katsudon, Eat all you can Yakiniku, Eat all you can Wagyu! Wasn't able to go to Tsukiji :( Writing this post literally made me hungry!

I Heart Dark Cherry Mocha.

I can feel that Christmas is in the air already! :) I started collecting Starbucks stamps last November 4, which usually is a mark that Christmas is near. I am so lovin' the Dark Cherry Mocha. Insert description: Bittersweet chocolate infused with the rich flavour of dark, dried cherries.

I've never been a fan of any Christmas drink, I absolutely can't stand the likes of hazelnut flavor when it comes to coffee, and I don't get why Toffee Nut Latte has such a big fan base, a drink that a lot of people I know absolutely love.

I'm excited to complete my stamps for the 2009 Starbucks Planner, the first ones who got their stamp sheet got one free stamp :) So I only have 15 to complete instead of 16. They trimmed the stamps from 24 to 16, hooray, but for a simpler planner. I really don't mind because I drink coffee from Starbucks so the planner is really just a bonus. I use my Starbucks Planner as a personal journal usually and I get another planner for office use, and for '09, I got a Belle De Jour Planner for work.

Anyway, I wish I can drink the Dark Cherry Mocha everyday instead of swapping it with the pantry's brewed coffee :) Haha, but this girl has a regular Starbucks budget, and I intend to keep it that way :P (Even if the Dark Cherry Mocha is tempting!)

Starbucks Coutndown: 5 Stamps down, 11 to go!

Yummy Desserts.

Outback's Chocolate Thunder from Down Under: P300++
(Image from Google)
Rica's expression: Oh my God, Heaven!
The smile on Rica's face: Priceless
For everything else, there's your boyfriend's Visa (Hahahaha)

Hahaha okay, I'm such a cheapo that I didn't want to try this dessert because I didn't want to pay a friggin P300++ amount for one dessert! But when Ian told me we'll eat this dessert and he'll pay for it, I said yes without thinking twice. Hahaha.

Okay, here are some other noteworthy desserts on my list :)

Apartment 1B's White Toblerone Cheesecake: P180++
(Image from my phone)
I looove this dessert, there's even chunks of white toblerone in it! :)



Rack's Mississippi Mud Pie: P100++
(Image from my phone)
I am so happy that there's Racks in Alabang already, I love the fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs and I equally love the cheapo dessert, way way cheaper than Outback's of course :)

Cymalicious!

I'm officially a Cyma mystery diner! :) If you know me well, I love freebies and I enjoy joining and winning contests. I got a call yesterday from Cyma and I've been chosen to be a mystery diner. Hooray! This means, I get to eat for free in Cyma and get the job of evaluating my dining experience. I've always loved eating in Cyma and it really doesn't hurt that I'm given P1,500 Gift Certificate to spend, and I can bring someone along to join me, and sorry even before I won, my cousin Kat already volunteered to go with me haha so she was really first to reserve the slot.

The evaluation's a tad technical, like answering if you got your dessert within 15 minutes, if you got greeted etc etc. It's 3 or 4 pages long! Anyway, I'd gladly help Cyma out if they need to improve anything(although I'm very much satisfied with the food and service).. and hooray for free food!

OPA!

Monday Pig-out

I swear Mondays are Pig-out Mondays, probably because I have a lot of work so a form of de-stressing, plus the pantry food is refreshed, oh and plus I have a juice stash in the ref which I buy/bring every start of the week.. So aside from the normal meals, just a quick rundown of what I've eaten for today's Pig-out Monday:

1 can of pineapple orange juice
1 glass of orange juice
1 small bottle of apple juice
1 cup of coffee
1 cup of horlicks

1 ham sandwich
1 big bang bar
1 chocnut/hany candy
1 pack of happy peanuts
1 cookie dough pop tart

Okay, conclusion, I'm big on liquids more than food on Mondays.

I heart Tony Roma's.

I now love Tony Roma's! Aside from the fact that I love ribs, they gave me a free discount card :) I'm such a sucker for discount cards, I'm definitely the target market for those things without a doubt.

Eden before treated us for her birthday in Tony Roma's because she got a "Buy 1 Take 1 Ribs coupon" in her email, which she forgot on how she became a part of the mailing list. So I asked the staff of Tony Roma's before on how I can be part of if(so I can also get a coupon on my birthday). They said to sign up online. So I signed up online before and after signing up, you get a free coupon immediately, 50% off on your second order of main course! :)

Anyway so I was asking yesterday in the Alabang Town Center branch after eating, on how I can get their real discount card, and they said I have to accumulate P7k worth of receipts for the period of 2 months, which kind of sucked because I don't think I'll be able to do that. But the waiter suddenly told me that she can give it for free without the receipts! So they gave me one right then and there :) It's valid for a year, and the first 16 visits it's 10% discount then all visits after are 20% off. (Okay, I don't know if I got the numbers right)

I wish that the Bistro Group still offers the discount card like before, the Outback-Fridays-Italiannis-Fish&Co 20% off discount card. Only Outback offers the discount card now, and it's just 15% off :) Well that's still a discount right? And I'm happy to have it. I have this theory on how those things work(I'm no marketing guru so what I pose is just a mere theory), the 20% discount has to offset the lower prices with customer loyalty. So if you always get 20% less revenue but the customer keeps on coming back, it should equal to more revenue, right? Possibly, this didn't work out right. Or the 20% is an added value on top of what the prices should be, so instead of making the prices higher, they decided to strip the restaurants of discount cards and remove the 20% discount. I'm not really sure :) I'm just glad I have another discount card! :D

Definitely going back to Tony Roma's more often :)

Food Raves.

If you know me very well, you'd know that I say "Oh My God" whenever I taste really good food. And since I do that every often, a lot of people, especially my cousins stopped expecting on my foodie finds that I tag as omg food because I usually raise the expectations very high. And most of the time the expectations are not met. It's probably because of my facial expression when I say that a particular food find is tagged as "Oh My God" food and because the bar is really just being set too high, when all along the food can be tagged as just met expectations and not really exceedingly high. I dunno, I guess my palette is really easy to please, and I can be enormously happy with a good food find so I'd instantly rave about it and the only words coming out of my mouth are those 3.

I'm currently raving about two things, I had just finished lunch, and I ate Garlic Buttered Shrimps. I looove it, I even texted my mom that I loved it and I wanna eat it every week. Seriously. I removed the shrimps from the sauce, added some chili and I heated the garlic butter in the microwave. I put some of the sauce in the shrimps and a generous amount in my rice. Boom. Heavenly lunch. I love shrimps period.

The next one is the Maple Cream Cookies. One of the reasons why I love eating pancakes and waffles is because of the maple syrup and I literally drown my pancakes or waffles in it. If these food can talk, I'd probably hear them scream for help or call on a lifeguard. ;) Anyway, I've always wanted to taste these. Imagine the cream being made of maple syrup, sandwiched by 2 cookies shaped in a maple leaf. I first whipped the air when I opened the plastic package inside the box, and it smelled like breakfast in the morning, it smelled like pancakes! And the taste can be described with the three words, Oh My...! (I'm trying hard not to use these words anymore so not to raise expectations) Super thanks to Ann for bringing the cookies from Canada. I can understand the reason why she finished her box while she was still in the airport :D I finished 1/3 of it when I first opened it. Alavet!

Currently Raving.

2005 Entries Back. Thank God for Google, I swear I owe the guys behind Google! Thanks a bunch. Even if my reecah.coms.ph entries are practically non existent, I was able to google them. Uhu. Their system cached the old entries and I was able to view them and copy paste to blogspot. I guess that's also a drawback if you want to delete your entries completely, like emptying your recycle bin. But na-ah, doesn't work online because deleted stuff can possibly be recovered and found :)

White Chocolate Croissant. I'm a big fan of white chocolate. I loooove this croissant, I tried it from Breadtalk, and man, it's a piece of heaven on earth. Manna! I love the bear filled with white chocolate also, but this one's sooo damn good. After heating it up in the oven toaster, the white chocolate melts and it's ooooozing with white chocolate goodness. I used to eat the pizza, floss, ham and cheese, etc on Breadtalk, but now I'm trying to explore their dessert pastries.

Taco Jolly Hotdog. If you know me very well, you'll know that I'm a Mcdo baby. CERTIFIED Mcdo baby,and that's even after watching Supersize Me. Well, Supersize me then! Haha. Anyway, I like chili dogs, and this one's yummy because it has that chili dog taste and ground beef. Well it's basically yummy.

The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm not yet done but it's a really good book. A lot of people are raving about it :) I guess the title says it all. It would really be an interesting thing to time travel. Oh and to clarify, book's different from Buttefly Effect, different sort of time traveling. Both are equally interesting though. Oh and tips for people who love books, wait for Powerbooks' 20% off sale. Then hoard! That's what I do, I list down the titles of the books that I want to read(in my small notebook mentioned in an earlier entry haha) then I buy it during the sale. I had to reserve this book twice before getting a copy of it during the sale. I guess a lot of people really wanted a copy of this, huh? :) And one more thing that I do, I go to barnesandnoble.com then I type the book I recently read then view the "people who bought this book, also bought these books". So that gives me ideas on what other books to read. I guess books have demographics also. Readers are inclined to certain books even if they have totally different topics, writers or stories. And searching on Barnes and Noble apparently works for me, because when the "people who bought this book, also bought these books" list shows, I see that I've read some of the books mentioned on the list.

The Prestige. I saw this movie last weekend, and after watching it, I can only say one word, WHOAH. I loved the movie :) Batman vs Wolverine! Haha.

That's basically it :) Happy Halloween!

Food Blog Part 2.

This is so funny, my blockmate Lawrz, is launching a food review site, and I'm gonna be part of it ;) So my plans of being a food critic is running it's course, yeahba, I'm getting there. Ramblings to reality. I guess I'd have to hone my writing skills for that. I think it's an exciting endeavor and I'm gonna support his project.

Actually he told me about it a long time ago, but I never really thought that it would push through, but now he already bought the domain and the site's on it's way. I'll post the URL here once it's up and running.

Food Blog.

I've been kind of busy lately, that I don't even get to surf the net at work or at home during weekends. But before that 'busy' time, I started surfing through food blogs. Yes, for someone who eats every 2 hours, you can only imagine how much my mouth watered looking through the sites. (Okay, that was kind of gross.. Not really a pretty picture.) Examples are Our Awesome Planet (although this has a lot of other things) and Dessert Comes First(my favorite food blog).

Then *boom*.. I suddenly want my own food blog :)

Haha, but then I'd have to change everything else, because I can't suddenly insert my own thoughts or other experiences if I suddenly become a food blogger, right? :p Hmm but I soooo love to eat, I love the whole dining experience, I love dessert, and even with my family/clan after our lunch or dinner, we get coffee or dessert after because for us it's just more than food but it's also quality time with the family, I just love the whole experience.. but I don't think I'm fit to write food reviews. Haha, because well for me I don't think I have that peculiar taste bud where I can differentiate the food, I don't even think bland food is bland, and it's also kind of subjective. And I don't want to discourage people from eating in a resto because I didn't enjoy my food there, let them try for themselves right? :) Plus I don't have pictures hahaha. Well I used to take dessert pictures in my phone, but I dunno I might have deleted them because I just found the one I posted, it's a dessert from UCC, and the other pic is me pigging out in the office. Oh and I'm so bad at remembering the names of food I ate.

Okay so in my attempt to blog about food, here's my take :) I'll just write about some restos in the South. Because I tried to google some of the new restos in Westgate Alabang, and nobody has written an entry about them yet. And when it comes to food, the only words that come out of my mouth usually are either "Heaven" or "Yummmmm". So forgive me if I'm not as descriptive :p Hahaha, if you want descriptive blog food entries, visit those mentioned above. I think mine's gonna be brief :D

Here are some on the top of my head in Westgate Alabang:
1. French Corner - It's formerly known as Voulez Vous, I read that it's Billy King's, the former executive chef of Le Souffle. It's the one in the corner, in front of Total, the building that was supposed to be Country Waffles. Anyway, it's definitely a date place, ate there with family and when we got in they immediately asked if there was any special occasion like if it was anniversary or birthday. I dunno what they have in store if it's your anniversary, for birthday I think there's cake for the celebrant, dunno though if it's for free. I can't remember if they sing for the celebrant :) Food is yummy. Here's the part where I realize that I can't be a food blogger because I actually forgot the exact stuff that we ate. The organic salad of some sort was good, lamb's good too, salmon's good, pasta's good also :) Chocolate souffle - heaven :) It's a bit pricey though.
2. Poquito Mas - Splatino cuisine, and this one you can find also in other places, I think I saw one in Sta. Rosa. Food's cheap, I think I expected the prices to be a bit high that's why I thought it was cheap, but the food's well.. just okay. I liked the taco like dumpling :)
3. Zong - This is comfort food, well for me chinese food = comfort food. It's family food :) I like Zong because it has better ambiance than North Park in town(town = ATC, in case someone not from south comes upon this site haha). Chinese food is generally cheap, right? I mean compared to other cuisines. I love the Singaporean Sweet and Sour Fish, it's the best sweet and sour fish I've ever tasted in all the Chinese restos.
4. UCC Cafe - I've only tried their desserts, and they're really really good :) HEAVEN. Nice place to chill out.
5. Hula hula - This one's new, there's even a new Oyster resto beside it, it's located after Zong and I've been wanting to try to eat here since I saw it open, and I even tried to Google it so I'll know the reviews on what's good here :) But when Ian and I planned to eat here, I was late and we ended up eating in Pizza Company because we might miss our movie, so it was postponed and we just ate there recently. Funny because I was looking for an affirmation that they serve good food, and day before we ate there, Russ texted me. :) So there, I loooved Mess of Steaks, they said it's good for just one, but it's actually good for two people. Yummy good food.
6. Cafe Breton - Yummmmmy crepes. Nuff said :)

So how's that for my first attempt to do a food review? Okay, I guess I'm not as good as the other blogs, so I'd probably stick to my thoughts and other ramblings :) Guess I'm better off with that :)