My Pink Shoelace

Found myself at La Marea on a Wednesday night with my good friend MJ enjoying Triple Chocolate Warm Brownie Cup and a cup of Espresso Mocha.

As much as I like it … I am now feeling the after effect of these goodies. A very painful tonsilitis, it bloody hurts!

I have been craving for ice cream (bingqilin) for quite some time now and the opportunity to binge in presented itself when my friends and I went to Ayala to have dinner and went to Gelatissimo for dessert. Given the large selection of ice cream flavors we had a hard time deciding. Since there were 4 of us the sales lady suggested we try Gelatissimo’s Coppa Bambino which would give all the flavors in mini scoops, totaling to 32 flavors all in all.

Of the 32 flavors I could only recall about 7 or 8 (lime, choco chip, forest berry, dark chocolate, coconut, melon, and raspberry). We finished the large bowl of ice cream and vowed not to mention the word ice cream to each other in the next couple of days.

I ♥ Alberto’s Pizza. My all time favorite is their Full House with quick melt cheese and very thin crust. The good thing about this pizza is that they have branches all over Cebu and lucky for me there’s a branch not too far from where I live. A friend of mine from my old work introduced me to Alberto’s Pizza one day after our shift and I was hooked since then.  They have all sorts of pizzas and they come in two sizes: 9″ and 11″. But for the Full House it only comes in one size and that’s the full 11″.

If you love good pizza like I do then give them a shot. Not only are they yummy they’re pretty affordable too.

Doi had been telling me about this nice place to chill out at IT Park, Cebu called Wanna Eat. She said the place offers good food at a decent price, the place is neat and they have free wi-fi connection. I said that definitely is a good place for bloggers and freelancers like us to chill. We went there after our short stop at SM and ordered Pork Belly, she said its yummy and recommended that I try it. It was my first time there and I ended up ordering it.

The food came, we ate and we started working. We did not use our battery chargers since our battery was full, a hundred percent full. Ed arrived and ordered burger and spaghetti while Doi and I ordered Tacos. Our battery went down to 30% and we started using our chargers, this was around 45 minutes before 11 PM. 30 minutes or so after this man came to us and said that they charge customers who charge their laptop batteries and thats 30 PHP per 30 minutes, so thats 1 PHP per minute.

I was disappointed and I found it rather rude that he approached us about 30 minutes after we started using it. I mean if its company policy they should have some signage informing the customers of this and that. It did not matter if you order food the minute that charger of yours hit their socket the countdown begins. Doi said at Coffifi the charge was 20 PHP per hour and there’s a huge sign inside the coffee shop informing customers of this policy, Wanna Eat Cebu does not have that. That’s a real bummer!

Blimey! I have been to several coffee shops in Cebu and none of them charged me for charging my laptop batteries. I spent almost every day during the summer of 2008 at Starbucks IT Park and never was there a fuss about me using their socket. It was a shame that Wanna Eat Cebu would have what I think a ridiculous policy. My biggest disappointment was that they didn’t inform us well ahead of time. They saw us using our laptops for two hours they could have approached us and informed us …. common sense would have told them that eventually the batteries of their laptops would ran out soon and they’d start charging. Don’t tell me they were busy … for crying out loud only two tables were occupied and there are plenty of them at the counter.

My first experience at Wanna Eat was a disappointment and here I thought I’d be chilling there from now on, bad idea. Stick with Starbucks Weng, they have the best signature hot choco.

So I have been trying my luck at cooking ever since I’ve been home bound and I think it was fun, I hate the part where I have to wash the dishes after though. lol Nothing major really just frying and oh I made Mango Float yesterday afternoon and just earlier today I had Bena and Diva sample a huge slice. Hope they liked it. Hehehe

- Scrambled Eggs -

- Corned Beef with Eggs

- Sardines with Eggs -

Apart from Math and swimming, cooking and everything that goes with it is also one of my many weakest links lol. I had a conversation once with a friend who asked who’s doing all the cooking now that I live alone since mom died. Her eyes went as round as saucers when I told her that in case she has forgotten I lived in the downtown area and there are several fast food chains nearby, one of which happens to be a favorite of mine, Chow King. Her reaction was actually funny and of course if I am lucky I might be able to coerce a friend or two from work to dine with me at a Japanese restaurant or at Big Mao.

I never attempted to learn how to cook that I admit … its just that I don’t get along well with kitchen utensils. Nyahahaha … anyways now that I am unemployed [now feeling the signs poverty creeping in] I encouraged myself to start cooking [if you call frying hotdogs and eggs cooking lol]. So yesterday I cooked corned beef with eggs and onions and by my standards [which is really close to nil] it went rather well. It was edible so I guess that went well.

I have made a promise to myself that from now on I’ll try to avoid fast foods and so long as am at home I’ll cook my own meal. Good luck to me …. many more burnt rice to come. Nyahahaha

This is the setting of one of the Japanese restaurants here in the city and I love the environment. The way the interior of the restaurant is arranged and decorated is just cozy and private, the food is good too. RJ, Rose and I had dinner here when we celebrated my 23rd birthday and it was fun. I look forward to dining again in this restaurant with the same company.

I have an affinity for good food I mean who doesn’t right? The only catch is I have no cooking skills whatsoever I am a total klutz in the kitchen so all I can do is eat out alone or with friends or have a friend do the cooking and we’ll have a cookout, of course I have my own share of contribution for the ingredients and all.

Right now I am craving for some California maki and sushi hopefully I’d get to dine in a Japanese restaurant real soon.

~ via google images ~

Aren’t they just yummy or what???!!

image taken from: http://blog.americanfeast.com/images/Grilled%20Quesadillas.jpg

The Quesadillas above look so so so yummy! There’s this coffee shop at work that sells Quesadillas in a variety of mixes and I have fallen in love with the Beef and Hash Brown Quesadillas, they’re absolutely stunning. I cannot wait to go back there and have another round. Good luck to the my weight … lol

I have been driving some of friends and colleagues at work crazy with my constant obsession with eat all you can buffets, don’t get me wrong I have no eating disorder [or there was a time when I was called bulimic] but I love the idea of having to pay a fix amount where you get eat to your hearts content.

So one of the places I’ve gotten crazy over would be this local pizza house which I pass every day when I get home from work, it’s called Handuraw’s Pizza. They have this eat all you can pasta and pizza buffet every Sunday for lunch and dinner and I absolutely loooove it. The pasta and pizza is just superlicious!

~ Handuraw Pizza ~

I have this addiction for pizza and pasta and believe you me … theirs is one of the best home made pizza and pasta and there’s free wifi too. Heheheh

I was sick last 22 and on the 23rd, so much for a happy birthday but all’s well now so here’s a few tidbits. On the 24th Bena, Diva and I met up for lunch after my appointment with the quack. I decided that since we’re all food people we’d better go for eat all you can and we did at Family Choice. There was not that many people [must be coz of the rain] but the food was good and so was the company. It was fun!

- moi, or shall I say yours truly -

- Diva -

- Bena of bena-yot.com -

- Bena, Diva and Moi -

It was a good choice to go for eat all you can, I had two rounds lol but the bayot had 3! Waaaaaaaa lol. Till next time

MJ and I have close to similar rest days and we’ve hanged out couple of times in the past just last Friday we decided to go to Ayala to buy scrapbooking things and writing papers. MJ has gotten an all in one printer and because of me (that’s what she said) she’s back into the penpalling and swapping hobby. lol. I never thought I’d meet someone who’d be into making and swapping of fb’s, decos, label bags and what have you but I discovered she is and now she’s back on track. Weeeee

I’ve created a different blog about it on blogspot, you guys can check it out @ Of Letters and Beyond. It’s still fairly new but am working on it the same way I am working on my scrapbooks and a whole bunch of other stuff.

MJ

Moi

Caesar Salad

Pasta w/ Giant meatball

Norwegian Salmon

After buying a whole lotta stuff from National Bookstore we ended up dining at Spaghetti House, MJ ordered that pasta with the giant meatball and I ordered the norwegian salmon which was really yummy, the caesar salad was well nevermind. lol. After Spaghetti House we headed to Maze where I bought another case for my iPod Touch, a black leather from Capdase, we then headed to iStore where I purchased a new set of earphones, the original ones that came with my iTouch is still functional, no issues with the sounds but boy it looks awful and dirty, tugs, certainly needs replacement.

We were roaming around Ayala as it was raining heavily, we met two of MJ’s classmates back in Med School they chitchatted for a bit then we proceeded buying or shall I say I proceeded buying more scrapbooking stuff from Arts and Crafts and a few more from Metro Ayala’s bookstore. Should I change the title to Friday Shopping Galore??? toinks!

When Judai lost tremendous weight it shocked people worldwide, I mean she was not really big but more on the chubby side but now after inculcating what they call South Beach Diet she has lost weight and now looks super stunning ang not to mention sexy. Lol and envy from both A and I. Maybe I should try it … maybe not. Oh well, we’ll see.

23 on the 23rd … presents are very much appreciated. lol!

Yummy right? Any idea on what it is? Was browsing through the many food blogs and recipe sites when I ran into this. Its called cornbread dressing and the recipe’s as follow:

Preparation

Place 1/2 cup butter in a 13- x 9-inch pan; heat in oven at 425° for 4 minutes.

Combine cornmeal and next 5 ingredients; whisk in 3 eggs and buttermilk.

Pour hot butter into batter, stirring until blended. Pour batter into pan.

Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.

Crumble cornbread into a large bowl; stir in breadcrumbs, and set aside.

Melt remaining 1/2 cup butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onions and celery, and saute until tender. Stir in sage, and saute 1 more minute.

Stir vegetables, remaining 4 eggs, chicken broth, and pepper into cornbread mixture; pour evenly into 1 lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish and 1 lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish. Cover and chill 8 hours.

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.

*1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage may be substituted for fresh sage.

Andouille Sausage, Apple, and Pecan Dressing: Brown 3/4 pound diced andouille sausage in a skillet over medium heat; drain. Add sausage; 2 Granny Smith apples, chopped; and 2 cups chopped toasted pecans to dressing. Proceed as directed, baking 40 to 45 minutes or until done.

Source: myrecipes.com

I’ll probably ask Mitchy to do this on her birthday or on Aisat’s or on mine, cooking has never been my forte … all I know is devour the good food prepared by skillful people.

23 on the 23rd … presents are very much appreciated. lol!

If there’s one vice I can’t seem to stop that’d be my addiction to the aroma of coffee. That’s the reason why when am facing my notebook there’s always that huge mug filled my coffee right next to my mouse. I sip coffee while working on my tasks online not only does it keep me awake but it just complete me *sigh*. Now Lee once said instead of buying those ready made coffees in groceries why don’t I just buy wholesale coffee beans and prepare them myself so I can make use of my coffee maker. Hehehe I’ve purchased this black coffee maker long time ago but up till now its still in its box, so now am considering buying bulk coffee beans online and see if I can get any sort of discount.

A friend of mine is selling discount bulk coffee but these are the ready made ones, am not so sure if I’ll go for it, price is reasonable and the brand is ok but we’ll see.

Monday Shift , there was low call volume as expected and with the day shifters coming in at 7 and 7:30 the avail time was really long. So as expected there was VGH, they laughed at me when I said am a changed person lol! Told them I won’t go VGH and this time its for real and am sure of it. But when the offer arrived damn!! ’twas so hard to refuse. So the three of us (moi, bena and diva) went on VGH and together with Jao and April went on another series of food trip.

First stop was McDonald’s were we had our fill … we’re s’pose to go to Madeleine’s in Waterfront but changed our minds and decided to head on somewhere in the Fuente Circle to eat “ginabot”. Diva has been craving for it for weeks and finally he’s getting it. From McDonald’s we went to Fuente were there’s the infamous pungko-pungko, the same spot where Kitoy and I ate once and where Daddy Joe, Jep-Jep and I ate once too.

So the 5 of us ate like there’s no tomorrow … foodtrip at its height and I’ve never felt so full and so heavy. Whew!!

Till next time mga vayyyeeeettt …

This is a bit overdue I’ve been feeling terribly busy these past few days so uploading these photos went off my head. As I was cleaning my bag I saw Ed’s memory card reader which triggered the fact that Diva’s mini SD is with me … so I finally got them uploaded. This was right after our shift as all three of us work from 1:30 AM to 10:30 AM … we decided to go eat somewhere and the nearest fine dining was Golden Cowrie. My first to eat there and it was “swell”. If Mitchy was with us she would have asked for the recipe of their dinuguan … it was very very yummy. Too bad we didn’t have a photo of it.

Sa uulitin mga vayyyyeeeetttt … with Diva and Bena.

~ Garlic Rice ~

~ Pork Belly ~

~ Fried Kangkong ~

~ From left to right: Bena, Diva, Yours Truly ~

Images : Courtesy of Diva … tosha yotch

I can no longer remember the number of times I’ve been to Cafe Georg but last night I find myself there again for the nth time with Doi and Eds. We had a busy afternoon taking pics of the stocks and we rewarded ourselves with good food.

- Cafe Georg’s Logo

- the menu

- the lights

- the couch

- yummy

- the counter

- Moi and Doi

- Doi’s Lychee Fruit Shake

- Moi Coke Float

- Drinks

- Chicken with Pesto Sauce

- Red Saigon Pork Belly

- Singaporean Style

- Oreo Cheesecake

- Swiss Choco Mudslide

- Choco Mint Chip Cake

Food – courtesy of Doi

Images – courtesy of Eds

Moi? – Nah just tagging along.