We never stop learning.

A week ago, I attended a 3 day seminar about something related to food. You know, what I love the most. :p The first two days were alloted for the talks about the left and rights, up and downs of food operation and the third and final day was for eating! Not! It's actually for demo and more talks. I won't discuss the subjects that had been tackled but I have something more blog friendly. Let me share about the foods that had been cooked during the demo!☺

Pasta Alfredo x Carbonara

This is the speaker/demonstrator's version of Pasta Alfredo sans the Linguine. It was so rich because of the cream, butter, and milk. I can't consume a lot of it because of its richness but it tasted good and the vegetables were put just right for some balance of texture, variety of flavor, and especially for some pop of color. 

 Fish Fillet

This was so crunchy even after an hour of standby! There's nothing special with this, because it's your typical cream dory fillet but with super crunchy coating or breading and the dory fillets were still moist on the inside. So lovely! The sauce was made from gravy and bechamel sauce, which were both made from scratch during the demo. I'm not a big fan of the concoction but the fillet was so much better with it than with nothing.

 Spicy Clams

This would be a hit to anyone I know! Everyone would love it! The clams didn't have a fishy taste because of ginger. It has a right amount of spice for even the people who doesn't eat spicy stuff can try it. 

 Fried Rice

Quick and easy! Anyone can do this! Anyone whose diligent! Hahahaha! (I'm not cray cray, that's an inside joke. :D ) 

Kalbi jjim

Lo and behold!!! I died and went to food heaven! I love this dish! And I'm so happy I have a recipe of it! Woo!!! ♥ 

A with Ms. Grachie, the speaker in the entire seminar. I learned a lot during the 3 day duration and I'm looking forward in learning some more by myself over time. Wish me luck and may God bless me!☺

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."

-Henry Ford

Toodles!☺

A♥

Boracay: in my tummy

I decided to just put in a post all my Boracay food intakes, so this is going to be a loooong one! And I also decided to attack this post differently, I hope you'd notice. :p Anyhoo, the buffet meals we had were not included in this post. :)

Chicken Teriyaki

Sizzling Squid

These two dishes were from Big Mouth, it's a food corner in D'Mall and it's right after Andok's. We originally wanted to eat at Smoke but it's overflowing with people and we're starving already, then we saw Andok's but we hesitated because it's crazy to eat something that can be found or bought where we're from, so we opted for Big Mouth. And man, we regretted! Haha! Their food were below mediocre, not worth the money really. And what annoys me more was that their tagline was "Come hungry, leave happy." We came hungry and we left unsatisfied and annoyed with the food and the services. When I come back to the island, I'll make sure I won't eat there ever again.  

Chicken Curry

Bicol Express

Lechon Kawali

Chicken Teriyaki

Spicy Garlic Kangkong

Sizzling Bulalo

Mango Juice

Smoke won our hearts over! We ate there twice in our stay and I still want to try it again and again and again! They offer delicious food on a budget! Could I ask for more? When I said their food are delicious, I meant it. I died when I tasted their Sizzling Bulalo! I wanna faint and I almost forgot my name and where I am! You shouldn't miss the chance to eat here whenever you're in the island. The expensive beachfront restaurants or the sure ball ones restaurants from Manila are tempting but local finds like these are the treasures of Boracay! I swear! Double thumbs up, baby!♥

Pa-a

I wanted to try a different Chicken Inasal because I'm actually tired of Mang Inasal already. And this particular one did not disappoint! It's not dry inside and the flavor of the chicken is just right to make you wanna eat more rice! Haha! Gluttony alert!!! This small restaurant is also located in D'Mall and called Island Chicken Inasal.

Song of the Week

5 days to go before everyone's favorite holiday! Christmas or the birth of Christ! Overflowing happiness from everyone because it's the holiday of giving. Let me share to you my most favorite Christmas song, ever since I grew up I've always loved this song. ♥

Happy holidays!

Toodles!☺

A♥

Boracay: in my eyes

This was my first time ever to set foot in the famous island of Boracay. I can honestly say that I had the best 5 days of my 2012 there!☺

We arrived at 4-ish in the afternoon so we just lay around then we ate dinner and walked around the three stations of the island. Luckily, we caught poi dancers in one of the beachfront bars. 

Early morning shot before our island hopping trip. Can I just say, that people were not kidding when they said the sand in Boracay are fine! Hell, it was really fine! Powdery fine actually! I'm obsessed with it!

First stop of the island hopping was snorkeling somewhere in between Crocodile Island and Crystal Cove Island! Sooo fun! 

This manong came out of nowhere paddling his mini boat, selling ice cream! In the middle of the sea! It was so cool we had to take a picture of him!

Every moment in Boracay is a photo op! Perfect for the camera whores! Haha!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

We're in a cave in Crystal Cove Island with the whole Boracay crew! Woot! :p 

A day before we went to Crystal Cove Island, Ben Adams of A1 was there! Yeah, I'm not kidding! I wanted to see him but he seems to be elusive. lol

Yes, the water is really that clear! It's sooo amazing! And the pictures here cannot really give justice to the scenery!  

Boracay caboodle with a couple we met during our first day. They were so nice! I really believe that Filipinos are the best people in the world!

"I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there." -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The island hopping package we got already had a lunch buffet and the whole trip was from 10am to 4pm. It's worth it and I'm recommending it to everyone!☺

Second to the last stop was the famous, Puka Beach. ♥

And another snorkeling opportunity somewhere in the Philippine sea! Haha. There were scuba divers, we can see them feeding the fish on their hands from down below! Amazeballs! :p After our island hopping, we just change boat and headed to our sunset Paraw Sailing. Unfortunately, we don't have a photo there because our cameras were not water proof, but the experience was so fun I also recommend it to people who'll go or come back to Boracay!☺

The night before, we read a poster that says every Saturday of December, there'd be a pyro-musical something. Our second day is the first day of December! Luck or chance, we caught it!♥

Early morning shot once again! We're all nervous for all our water activities for the morning!

(L-R) Ferlie, Leslie, Fretzie, Jomark, Aissa, Niño, and A ♥

Song of the Week

I promise to update soon regarding my Boracay trip, I'm just waiting for some other photos I want to include in my post. Anyway, one of the singers I deeply adore and cannot get enough of is John Mayer.

I swear, I'm gonna update like before soon! 

Toodles!☺

A♥

Afternoon Snack

Sometime last week, Nanay and I pick my brother up from his school in Quezon City and I urged them to accompany me in a nearby mall to buy some things for my then upcoming trip. Before I ran my errands, we decided to eat at my favorite merienda place! It's an Asian cafe which I already blogged about here. Every time we're in the area and it's merienda time, we always run to Banana Leaf. We love Banana Leaf so much maybe because it offers the food we used to eating when we were staying in Brunei, food really brings back memories like what we've seen in the Ratatouille movie.☺

Roti Canai

One order was just not enough. I opted for Curry sauce while my brother favored the Condensed Milk. Either sauces were awesome! It was just a matter of preference, sweet or savory.☺

Mee Goreng

This was an expected order from us. It doesn't taste like the famous and addicting instant noodles of the same name but it's yummy in its own right. It's a little spicy that added points for it.☺ 

Char Kway Teow

You can never get enough of this! This is a staple order from us every time we dine in Banana Leaf. The noodles, the shrimp, the egg, the bean sprouts, and the spices are all perfection in a bite! I will never get tired of eating this!☺

Chicken Satay

It's super tender chicken barbecue with lots of spices dipped in peanut sauce! All those flavors explodes in your mouth, it's uhh-mazing!!! We love it!

My brother enjoying the noodles.☺

When asked what my favorite cuisine is, I without a blink of an eye, can honestly say it's Asian. I sooo love Filipino(love your own!), Chinese, Thai, Bruneian, Singaporean, and Japanese. I'm hoping to explore more of Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Indian soon.☺

Toodles!☺

A♥ 

Song of the Week

I'm still hangover from my Boracay trip which I will post about soon. But since I'm still in beach-mode, let me share you a singer who has a soothing voice perfect to listen to while sipping a mango shake laying on a beach chair while simultaneously watching everyone's favorite 3 S: the sun, the sand, and the sea.☺

Toodles!☺

A♥

03.31.2013

When The Script released their new album #3 last September, I've been really praying hard that they announce a world tour schedule containing a Manila leg. Since then I've been a bystander on their website, waiting for announcements and stuff. This first week of November, I noticed that they already have a South Korea date and normally producers get foreign acts to side trip to the Philippines whenever they're already in Southeast Asia area. And luckily, God and the producers answered my prayer!

My favorite band in the whole wide world is coming to the Philippines!!! I wanna faint! lol They're performing on March 31, 2013 and I'm freaking watching them! I won't miss them for the world! I already missed them once, and I promised myself that won't happen again so I already got my ticket! I'm so dancing-on-air-happy!♥ 

Let me present you Danny O'donoghue, Glen Power, and Mark Sheehan!☺

And if you don't know them(where the hell are you from?), here are some of their amazing songs:

Buy your tickets at ticketnet outlet or online.☺ Let the countdown begin. See you there mate!♥ 

Toodles!☺

A♥

The End

 Mass, dinner, then movie with friends is the perfect way to end your Sunday. Together with my sister and some friends, we attended mass at St. Peter Parish in Commonwealth then head to TriNoma to eat dinner and watch the most anticipated movie this month. 

Crispy Pla-Pla with Garlic

We decided to eat at Gerry's Grill. Affordable and yummy Filipino food, perfect combination! :p

Crispy Pata

Deadly-cious! I think it's unfair that this is actually bad for our health! It baffles me how can something taste so yummy and be so deadly at the same time? 

Sugba Kilaw

I always remember my SuTuKil experience whenever I hear the term Sugba. Read it!☺

Crispy Pancit Canton

I'm in love with this! I used to love Chowking's version of this but they do not offer it anymore, thankfully this tastes so good! 

After our appetizing meal, we roam around the mall and tried the overrated J.Co. I don't think I will ever fall in line for 2 hours just for doughnuts. Just sharing.

Crunchy. Forest Glam. Oreo.

Don't get me wrong, I liked their doughnuts but I'm not gonna waste my 2 hours just for it, if you get what I mean. If there's no line, hell I'll buy something! But if there's a gazillion people lining up, I'm not even gonna think about it and I'll surely pass.☺

Cheezy Rich.

I liked this ensaymada-ish doughnut! J.Co doughnuts are less sweet compared to Krispy Kreme's but it's also smaller in term of serving. But I think what's attracting with J.Co doughnuts is it melts in your mouth perfectly. I think that's the reason of the commotion in every J.Co store here in the Philippines.☺ 

As much as I love The Vampire Diaries, I have to admit I'm a Twilight fan first. I read the books, I watched every movie so it's sure thing that I'm watching the last part. I actually love this last part because they stayed true with the book and the alterations were seamless, every fan would surely love it. I'm aware that as much as a lot of people love the saga, there's as much number who hates it. There are a lot of comments like it's hanging at the end and just when you thought they exceeded your expectation, they suddenly went back to being mediocre once again. I kind of disagree with them, first the book ended just like how the movie did. Second, the battle part is so amazing I questioned my knowledge of the book but they can't modify it totally because the fans loved the movie due to its captivating story. It's hard to bid goodbye to a story I love dearly but I have to accept life's cycle, and I hold unto the fact that endings are beginnings.

Toodles!☺

A♥

Song of the Week

I've deleted a lot of songs I used to love from my compilation the other day and I've been downloading amazing tracks from my new found artists. Some of them are popular and some are not but they're so great, they caught my attention. I've been obsessed last year with their song Use Somebody and I just downloaded some other of their songs and loved them. And now, I'm sharing with you a song by Kings of Leon.☺

My music choices pretty much evolved and I'm loving that music transition. Don't get me wrong, I still love some of the songs I used to like before but now I just have a more particular music that I really love to listen to. I hope you also find the music that soothes your personality, just like what happened to me!☺

Toodles!☺

A♥

Hot & Cold

There's nothing I love more than dessert. I live by it! I always look forward to the end of the meal because of it and when I learned about the idea of 'dessert comes first', I've been too happy to try it and loved it. I just don't have a sweet tooth, I have a sweet teeth! Yes, my dear, plural! Haha! :p So when my friend, Dianne, told me about La Marea, I know in my heart that I have to try their desserts!

Freedom. There's always a choice, my dear. And it's always up to us what to choose. ;)

Classic Warm Brownie Cup

The name has it. Classic. You will never regret trying this out. Warm brownie, cold(redundant alert!) ice cream, sweet, chocolate-y flavor. Oh, it will blow your mind!

Triple Chocolate Brownie Cup

Sweetness is my weakness. I just can't say no to this sumptuous treat. I really love and I can't get over the temperature contradiction. Love at first bite! And that love grew deeper as I finish the cup!♥

Yema Brownie Cup

What a sweet surprise! A great break from all the chocolate flavor. Where have been these warm brownie cups all my life?!

I've been preoccupied with the warm brownie cups I forgot the names of these drinks. They're good but not really great for me to remember what they're called. But, the warm brownie cups are enough reason to try La Marea when you're in Cebu! I swear you won't regret it and I bet you'll thank me instead.☺

A + Cebu people!☺ This is my last post about my trip to Cebu and Bohol last month, this is long overdue but so worth a post! Anyway, I'll leave you with this photo message from Tumblr.. Words I'd love to live by.♥

I have another trip super soon and I promise to share it again! 

Toodles!☺

A♥