January 2014 marks the start of a new chapter in my life not just because another year has gone by, but also because I'd finally get to live my twenties to its fullest: Imagine the life of an independent and single twenty-something minus the glamorous flat and the expenses that comes along with it
This is the year when I'm finally graduating from college and enter the work force. I'm quite certain that a lot of things await me this year and unlike most people who dread working, I'm really excited to start my corporate career and whatever opportunities that might arise. However, before I begin ranting on about the present, let's look back at the first half of my year starting with January...
My mom's side of the family resides in Davao City and so, all 21 of my New Years were celebrated in the City of Durian and Suha and because our most respectable mayor banned fireworks a few years back, I didn't get to spend my New Years listening to the sound of exploding fireworks. However, I do get to spend it munching on delicious Davao Lechon, which for me is better than Cebu Lechon (too salty), every year!
I consider dinner of December 31, 2013 as part of the first day of 2014. This year, instead of celebrating New Year's Day at my grandparent's place, I proposed that it would be more practical to dine out since my grandparents literally had zero mades (big house + three senior citizens = not an attractive employment) to help clean up after us. So what better way to celebrate than to have dinner at the newly opened Vikings branch which was the hype of Davao's food scene at that time.
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| 2014 Food Trip #1: Vikings in SM Lanang, Davao Meet my mother side. I have to say that we're the role model for practicing birth control with a ratio of two kids (A big sister and a younger brother) per couple. Although the youngest brother of my mom only has one child (a girl) thus breaking the record (too bad!). |
Short Review: 3.5/5
The buffet didn't offer oysters like the branches found in Metro Manila. However, the other seafood such as the squid and other fishes were way fresher than the ones in Manila. The carving station was also complete with turkey, beef, pork and even lamb however the mint sauce was of cheap quality (better bring your own than use their bright green mint that looked more like tooth paste. Overall, Vikings did not disappoint. The buffet was priced cheaper than the branches in Manila and for me, its variety is able to beat the posh hotel buffets found in Davao which would cost you the same price.
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| 2014 Food Trip #2: Ice Giants in Davao City My dad's face might intimidate you but he's actually approachable and even knows how to be funny. |
Short Review: 4/5
Another restaurant that's in my checklist whenever I visit my hometown is Ice Giants. This restaurant brings joy to big groups be it families having their reunion, co-workers celebrating after work or friends catching up with one another. The owner of this restaurant used to work as a manager of Shakey's and when she decided to start her own, her experiences in that establishment guided her to create quite a successful business (they've recently opened a branch in Cebu). This place is famous for its ginormous desserts that uses the finest of shaved ice (or is it milk?) that has people coming back for more and among all their desserts, Ice Giants is most known for its Halo-Halo Giant served in a huge goblet with loads of ube ice cream, leche flan, gulaman, red beans, saba and langka but what makes this even more special is the addition of ube flavoured Oishi Pillows that's surprisingly a great topping for halo-halo.
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| Me posing in front of my school's entrance |
High school wasn't the best years of my life because I'm pretty sure that it's my twenties but because my batch (2010) along with other batches were invited to attend the Saturday mass at our alma matter, I went back to visit the place.
Going back to this place after almost five years made me feel nostalgic. There were some things that never did change, such as the presence of vandalisms in the cubicle doors of the grade school toilet (not sure with the men's room though) and its lack of tissue paper (my bathroom O.C.D show is starting to show...) but there were also some things that did change such as the huge signage in the photo that finally points out where our school is located and the new K12 system that I still can't understand (I think I'll postpone understanding it until I have kids of my own).
Going back to this place after almost five years made me feel nostalgic. There were some things that never did change, such as the presence of vandalisms in the cubicle doors of the grade school toilet (not sure with the men's room though) and its lack of tissue paper (my bathroom O.C.D show is starting to show...) but there were also some things that did change such as the huge signage in the photo that finally points out where our school is located and the new K12 system that I still can't understand (I think I'll postpone understanding it until I have kids of my own).
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| 2014 Food Trip #3: Ramen Nagi in SM Aura, BGC |
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| From left to right: H, C and E, my Girl Friend for Life (GFL) whose pretty face you'd get to see a lot in my future entries. |
Short Review: 4.5/5
Before hitting Hyve with my friends for the Lenovo launch party, we decided to try out the newly opened Ramen Nagi in SM Aura. Due to the heavy traffic, we arrived at the mall around 11pm and still, the ramen house was packed with people.
This was my first encounter with Ramen Nagi and although I gave it a 4.5, I have to admit that being a Noodlehead, I am very particular with my noodles. I didn't immediately rave about Ramen Nagi and even described it as a Once is enough (OIE) restaurant after I was done eating my first bowl.I think that because it was already quite late, the broth was not that hot anymore and so I was left with an umay-ed feeling that made me think that Ramen Nagi was not a good place to eat. However, I was surprised that after a week, I found myself craving to go back for more of their unique broth, melt-in-your-mouth charsiu pork and quality noodles.
Now that I got hooked with their ramen, I've been constantly having Nagi cravings (looks like I know what food I'd crave for when I'm pregnant) and so I'm very excited once their Robinson's Magnolia branch opens because I'd definitely be able to satisfy them and have them more often (will never regret consuming carbs from noodles)
This was my first encounter with Ramen Nagi and although I gave it a 4.5, I have to admit that being a Noodlehead, I am very particular with my noodles. I didn't immediately rave about Ramen Nagi and even described it as a Once is enough (OIE) restaurant after I was done eating my first bowl.I think that because it was already quite late, the broth was not that hot anymore and so I was left with an umay-ed feeling that made me think that Ramen Nagi was not a good place to eat. However, I was surprised that after a week, I found myself craving to go back for more of their unique broth, melt-in-your-mouth charsiu pork and quality noodles.
Now that I got hooked with their ramen, I've been constantly having Nagi cravings (looks like I know what food I'd crave for when I'm pregnant) and so I'm very excited once their Robinson's Magnolia branch opens because I'd definitely be able to satisfy them and have them more often (will never regret consuming carbs from noodles)
Definition of terms:
- Noodlehead - the carb equivalent of a potato head in which a person cannot resist anything noodle such as pesto pastas, tonkotsu ramen, beef noodle, beef pho, seafood laksa, hofan and the likes.
- Once is Enough (OIE) - restaurants that are good but are not good enough for a repeat dining.
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| 2014 Food Trip #4: Chili's Tomas Morato, Q.C Didn't I just say you'd see a lot of E? |
Short Review: 3.7/5
Chili's is an already established restaurant that serves American favourites in the Philippine food industry. Coming from a family that prefers Chinese food, I don't get to go to Chili's quite as often (little did I know that I'd frequent this joint on a weekly basis this year) and so it was a treat for me when E and her sister decided to dine here to redeem their free appetiser. Having gone through a gruelling diet for six months, Chili's has been in my restaurants checklist after my cousins went there last year and I didn't get to eat any of the food they ordered. Chili's serves delicious Southern American cuisine that I am starting to appreciate (Japanese is still my cuisine of choice). However, I think that they need to continuously revamp their menu in order to remain competitive and prevent customers from getting bored with the items they're offering.
January Food Experiments
Chicken Pie
I refer to our kitchen as "Ten's Kitchen" whenever my passion for cooking and baking kicks in and for this month, here are some of the dishes that I made. |
| You'll be seeing a lot of those yellow striped placemats in Ten's Kitchen |
Tried out Heston's Chicken Pie recipe after watching an episode from How to cook like Heston in which he uses agar agar or more commonly known as gelatine powder to make the cream base of his chicken pie creamy. Although the above photo shows a perfectly baked pie, my attempt at the agar agar cream filling was a failure. The cream turned out runny instead of creamy and so, I believe I'd stick with the traditional way of making Chicken pie.
But in case you want to have a go with it...
- Heston's Chicken Pie Filling for the filling
- Martha's Pie Crust for the crust
Cantonese Fares:
Born to the yellow race, it is not surprising that I'd sometimes crave for Chinese food and so I tried making some of my cravings in Ten's Kitchen.
Hakaw
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| A successful attempt at making Hakaw. However, I found it difficult to recreate. Making the wrapper takes a lot of practice and the right amount of hot water to create the translucent skin. |
Bicho-bicho or Youtiao
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| Obviously my bich-bicho is a failure since it wasn't airy AT ALL plus it was as hard as a rock. I might have kneaded it too much or placed too little baking soda |
Hot and Sour Soup
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| The Hot and Sour soup was okay though it lacks in terms of spiciness. Asides from bamboo shoots, Japanese tofu and black fungus, I incorporated pork blood to make it extra special. |
All these dishes can be found in http://wantanmien.com a website by a cantonese granny who really knows how to cook but be warned, there are no English translation for the youtube videos. Luckily, the recipes in her website does contain some english translations and ifood.tv also features her recipes.
Recipes
- Hakaw Video with written recipe Hakaw Recipe
- Bicho-bicho Video with written recipe Youtiao Recipe
- Hot and Sour Video with written recipe Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
Taro Puff
Another cantonese cuisine that I craved for was Taro Puff and surprisingly, it isn't that difficult to make. But after reading the recipe, I don't think I'll be craving much of this due to the amount of lard needed in the recipe.  |
| I love taro puffs and this one just hits the spot |
I had to make my own pork lard since it wasn't available anywhere. You can make it using tampalen (pork belly fat) that can be bought at your local butcher. I bought mine from Gonzales a meat shop located in Wilson Street, San Juan.
Recipes:
Chinese food is not that easy to make and compared to other cuisines, it has a lot of steps that make you just want to go to a tea house and order some instead of making them at home. I was poofed out after this Chinese session and I don't think I'll be making some more of them any time soon.
Molten Lava Cakes
Last but not the least, my attempt at making Chocolate and Matcha lava cake. The chocolate one was a recipe that I got from Lunch in Paris book by Elizabeth Bard who shares her passion for french cuisine through the book and her blog postings.
Recipes:
My January ended with a Chinese New Year celebration in Uno Seafood Palace in Annapolis Greenhills. The place was packed and we didn't get to dine in a private room. Just like your typical Chinese celebration, everyone was in red, as in literally everyone was in red with the exception of the restaurant staff. I didn't get to take any photos of the food because we were already hungry and so I leave you with a photo of my cutie cousin J during the dinner and what she'd look like with long hair.
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| Baby J with hair "extensions" (which is actually just the long hair of my cousin, B) |
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