Eat Swim and Do Nothing

2012-01-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

"Ukiah, never a dull moment" - T. Jacobson

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

3 days late but, welcome year 2012! May this year be filled with many more happy memories and wonderful times.

Hello Memphis!

2012-01-03T18:27:00.000-08:00

I like Elvis Presley. Do I? Or do I not? Well I didn't until I visited Graceland. Something about Graceland that still radiates the Elvis' aura. After visiting Graceland, I began to understand why his fans loves him so much. His live performances were amazing (according to what I saw on the documentary). He was such a great performer. His house and possessions were very well kept. When you were in the mansion, you'll be able to see his beautiful living room with the 12' white sofa, dining room, kitchen, jungle room, TV room, peacock room, his racquet hall turned memorabilia hall, and his grave. If you love Elvis, you MUST visit Graceland! The tour includes his private jet Lisa-Marie, with gold plated safety belt, his car museum and fashion collection.

So what else is there in Memphis? The food of course, BBQ ribs, fried chicken and catfish.

What surprised me the most is the fried green tomatoes. Have you ever had it before? It tasted really good, it's crispy and dry on the outside (despite being deep fried, it's not soaked in oil really) and very firm on the inside, not soggy like a red tomato, but kinda like a firm potato. Also the hush puppies. I never really knew they could taste so good, I've had it before and they usually taste either too oily or burnt, the way Catfish Cabin did it was super nice. Once you pop it you can't stop! Memphis does know how to do their deep fries.

For fried chicken we went to the town's most popular place, Gus' World's Famous Fried Chicken. When they served it, I thought since the chicken pieces looked so scrawny, I could easily eat more than 2, but nope, I was full after a thigh and a leg. The locals could easily eat 3 pieces each. Lastly was the ribs. We had the wet BBQ sauce and the dry herbs one. It was pretty OK, I still find it a little too dry, but if you put it in the bun it makes really nice pulled pork sandwiches. Hahaha.....

I must thank my hostess for hosting me for a week and feed me like a baby! Thanks YC!

Plantation Tours

2012-01-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

You can't possibly leave New Orleans without visiting a plantation. I know many do not want to be reminded of its history but history is still history and it's really interesting if you listen to the story. There are 4 main plantations open to the public and we chose Laura's Plantation because it won many tourism awards and well known for its well documented rich history. The tour wasn't too long, about 1.5 hours and the tour guide gave us a very detailed history of the beginning and the ending of Laura's Plantation. It's very fascinating.

The tour started from the front of the house, as we followed the tour guide through each rooms, he shared with us the stories of each generation. We saw the basement/wine cellar, the slave quarters, vegetable farms, learned how the house was built, who built it, who worked on the farm, how it started, who sold it, who was murdered, who schemed against who and so on. The weather was so beautiful which made the trip even more pleasant. If only all history classes were this interesting! It is definitely worth coming for a visit! :)

We didn't visit Oak Valley but we stopped by just to take photos of its beautiful old 300 years old oak trees. :)

New Orleans - Part III

2012-01-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

The day was forecasted to rain. We lucked out, it didn't start to pour until after noon, after we've done walking around in the French Quarter. We started the day at 8am, the morning was freezing with the breeze from the river and the whole place was really foggy. I have never realized it can be this foggy in New Orleans but it was a very good weather to be walking around, except that we can't take the river boat cruise.

French Market is a fun place to visit. They have art works, nick-knacks, souvenirs, herbs and spices, jewelry, and all kinds of haberdashery. The souvenirs are only half of what you have to pay in the stores.

After the rain we went to the Garden District, I wanted to see the old houses and mansions with beautiful gardens. As you can see the first one on the left is 100 years old, the second one below is about 150 years old and the last one at the corner is actually almost 300 years old. So I don't know why the older ones didn't deserve as much attention as the 100 years old? As for the one at the right hand corner, I have no idea how old it is but I figure it must be really old and still in its original architecture. I also passed by the old Lafayette cemetery, but it was too creepy to be taking any photos of it.

New Orleans - Part II

2012-01-02T22:11:00.000-08:00

What must you try in New Orleans? Apart from enjoying the music and entertainment aspects of it? Creole food of course!

Considering its history in New Orleans for its famous cafe au lait and beignet, Cafe du Monde became the MUST place to go if you happen to be in New Orleans. We were lucky, we went around 9am and there was no line, it was packed, but plenty of spots to sit down for you to slowly savor your coffee and beignet. By the time we were done, there was a long line outside the coffee stand despite the sprinkle. Cafe au lait was really good, it was really smooth, and the beignet, unfortunately you do need that amount of powdered sweetness if not it just won't hit the spot *guilty pleasure* .

Coop's Place is a small unpretentious pub/eatery on Decatur street, only 3 ladies operating the front of the place no matter how busy the place may be, while the men take care of the kitchen. It's really fun to visit the Coop's because the place serves really good food and is full of character. The menu is handwritten on the blackboard and according to the owner, either you hate it or you love their food. They even have quirky signs posted all over the place such as 'Be nice or you will not be served' or 'The Bartender is always right', etc.

I've always loved gumbo so we ordered the seafood gumbo, shrimp and oyster po'boy. My oh my, the shrimp and oyster po'boy is awesome! They're very good at frying their seafood, sweet, fresh and not oily at all. I'm not a big fan of raw oysters but deep fried oysters are always good in po'boys! As for the gumbo, I like it but I'd prefer chicken and sausage more instead of the seafood gumbo and gumbo never tastes the same because every place have their own style of cooking it. So it's fun to try gumbo at different places!

When the rain got a little too heavy to be walking around, we took a break at Creole Creamery before heading towards the Garden District. Eat ice-cream and be happy. Underneath the writings was a wall full of happy faces smudged with ice-creams. It was quite a cold day to be having ice-cream but after walking for almost 5 hours, it was a very welcomed break.

We were greedy and ordered the sampler with 6 small scoops. We had the lavender honey, gold crunch, chocolate amaretto cheese cake, raspberry vanilla, cafe au lait and double chocolate.

There are plenty of good places to eat in New Orleans, since we were there for Christmas, most good eateries were closed for the holidays and we were only able to sample a few of the highly recommended places.

New Orleans - Part I

2012-01-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to have spent my 2011 Christmas in New Orleans's French Quarter. I had expected the whole place to be completely quiet because of the holidays but it wasn't. The whole French Quarter was decorated with bright Christmas lights and it was really pretty.Bourbon Street of course was filled with merry tourists such as I.

The Flinstones

2012-01-02T08:46:00.001-08:00

This was definitely one of the highlight of this trip, being able to see dinosaur remains outside of a museum. We were on our way into Monument Valley when we saw this huge sign by the road that said "Dinosaur Tracks". It looked a little dubious, because most of the attraction spots had huge signs and posts miles away informing people where they were but this one was a hand painted sign. Curious, we followed the sign. This was on the preserve land, so it's not operated by anybody, and it's free. We had a friendly guide who explained what tracks or who's bones we were looking at. It was really exciting, little did I expect to be able to see dino tracks live on location!

As you can see clearly, those are foot prints and partial bone fossils, but can you guess what are those rounded mounds?

MartAnne's Cafe

2012-01-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Everywhere we went, we always rely on good ol' Yelp for a good place to eat. For breakfast, we wanted to try local good food, so we went to MartAnne's Cafe. This place is so quirky cool. It's very small, as you can see from my little thumbnail, the ceiling is painted with cloud motives and the whole place is filled with colorful local art work. We ordered something special, but I forgot what exactly it was, all I remember was had hashbrowns, beans, cheese, pork and eggs. It was SUPER good and believe me, it can fit 3 little ladies' tummies. At our case only 2 ladies'. Hahahhaa...... Yumms. :)

Postcard Moments

2012-01-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

"I was commissioned by a certain vehicle company to take a product shot", I would love to have said this as you look at this beautiful shot, but nope, it just happened that I took a shot which turned out to be quite a picture perfect moment, don't you think so? :) This is the reliable vehicle that took us through Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Monument Valley.

Then there's also all these picture perfect moment of Monument Valley. Here we're looking at the West, East Mitten Butte, and Merrick Butte on the left.

Can you spot Elephant Butte?

The 3 sisters.

Finally, the Totem Poles.

Grand Canyon

2011-12-04T18:28:00.001-08:00

It was a beautiful day to drive into Grand Canyon. Words can't describe the beauty of nature. I especially love seeing the golden weeds being blown by the strong wind.

The ever changing colors of the Grand Canyon. Depending on the time and the location of the day.

Decadence

2011-12-04T17:30:00.001-08:00

Do you love chocolate? Then you MUST visit the world's largest chocolate fountain, here in the Bellagio Hotel. Everything in Jean Philippe is mouth watering. Especially the breakfast pastries... yummy but we decided to go for the crepes. We had the berry mix and exotic fruit crepe Souffle. Yummss...nothing beats sweet delicious crepe and aromatic coffee in the morning!

For lunch, YC treated us to Julian Serrano in Aria. I love tapas, when I saw the menu, I couldn't really decide what to order, in the end, we decided on the non-alcoholic sangria, ahi raspberry skewer, octopus on potatoes, fried calamari, cheese plater and coca vegetarian. Coca? It's spanish pizza.

You would think such small portions would not be sufficient but surprisingly, we were very very full at the end of the meal. Makes me miss Spain for all the tapas. Nonetheless, thanks YC for the lovely lunch! :)

Vegas Vegas!

2011-12-02T22:58:00.001-08:00

I love glitz, glamour and glass. Haha... I love everything that is shinny, colorful and pretty.

This is Vegas during the day.

And this is Vegas during the night, I think it's more mesmerizing at night with the colors and lights!

So much to see yet so little time, o Vegas I must return! :)

Mon Ami Gabi

2011-12-02T22:19:00.001-08:00

What could be more fashionable than sitting at the patio basking in the warm beautiful sun in a cold cold winter day? Being new in town, we Yelped for a good place for lunch. This place had over thousands of review for having good food in a good location with a good view. Even with reservations, we still have to wait a tad over 10 minutes for a table but it was worth it. The place was beautiful, we were having lunch in Paris, the hotel in Las Vegas, right on the strip. *chuckle*. Look we even had the Eiffel Tower view!

My lunch at Mon Ami Gabi was yummy, I had the scallop gratinees and endives salad. I was a little shocked when I saw that I was only served 3 scallops but it was so rich you wouldn't want more than 3 scallops! It was cooked with caramelized fennel, onion marmalade and mussel cream. The salad came with bosc pear, blue cheese, watercress and celery. It was very satisfying without feeling guilty at all! The rest of the party had the seafood crepe, spinach quiche, and shrimp and crab salad sandwich topped with avocado! Oh I forgot to mention, they serve warm fresh baguette with homemade smooooooth butter! To die for! :)

Happy Birthday Rrotrrot!

2011-11-10T23:59:00.001-08:00

There's nothing I can get for a friend who's constantly giving and not interested in receiving. So the least that I can do is make her a birthday dinner and buy her a cake! Both of us have been craving for Nasi Lemak for a very long time so I decided to make Nasi Lemak for her birthday and made sambal from scratch (recipe courtesy of Omar Food Channel). Oh boy the sambal was so spicy that I couldn't take more than a bite but thank goodness Rrotrrot loves it. So looks like the sambal is a winner and I shall make more in the future to share it with my friends who misses sambal! :)

Ps: Birthday girl also cooked 2 dishes if not the rice plate wouldn't be complete!

Snowy Tahoe

2011-11-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

Summer was late, so did fall and suddenly from summer hot days, it became winter overnight. It was forecasted to be raining over the weekend, which means it might snow in Tahoe. So we packed up our winter gear and drove to Tahoe for a day trip. The day started kinda gloomily but when we stopped for lunch, the day became so beautiful, it was so breathtaking.

If only I could write as well as I take photos. I'm so lucky to be able to take photos of my favorite subject matters: blue skies, puffy white clouds, horizon, sea and the pier.

Is this the road to Paradise, it sure looks like we're in Paradise.

One of these days, I'm going to stay at these waterfront cabins and enjoy the scenery all day long...

We were lucky that the sun came out once again when we arrived at Emerald Bay, we were just lamenting at how dull the water looked like on the way towards Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay

Then the day turned gloomy again, and it snowed briefly. I always think that colored gloomy snowy days are gloomy but they look beautiful in black and white, don't you think so?

Then I met this little fler who was just absolutely elated to be able to run on fresh snow of the season!

What does this remind you off? A thriller movie? Some of the cabins were covered in amazing looking icicles but I didn't stop to take photos of them and only got these.

Tahoe, I'm definitely coming back for more!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

Where did summer go? I don't know... time flies and it's already the end of summer. I haven't really done much during this summer and I felt like I should be spending more time outdoors, closer to mother nature than the four walls of my home, so my friends helped me organized these wonderful trips over the long Labor Day weekend.

Day 1: Beach hopping.

We thought Santa Cruz would be the warmest when the weather was cold but a few days before the temperature suddenly dropped and it became cloudy and foggy. When we reached the beach, it was cold and nippy.

Ooh look! What's going on here? There's a Sand Sculpting event. Everyone was just going around the beach checking out the sand sculptures. They were really cool and awesome!

Look at the waves! So much for a sunny day by the beach. Despite the strong waves, the brave boy marched on unflinching.

After Capitola we went to Half Moon Bay. Isn't this view beautiful?

From Half Moon Bay we drove up to Pigeon Point lighthouse.

And finally, Moss Beach, the coldest of them all. We didn't even stay because it was so cold and windy.

Day 3: Redwood Regional Park

Ooh hiking? Where should we go? Easy trail? Yes, let's go! So we chose this easy 4 miles hike at Redwood Regional Park. The trail wasn't bad and not busy. Although there were signs saying expecting to see colonies of ladybugs and trout spawning but we didn't. Probably because it's not the right season.

Aren't the redwood trees amazingly tall?

After the redwood forrest, we came out to this clearing where we could see Lake Chabot ahead. The weather turned nice and it was truly a beautiful day to hike!

What happened to Day 2?

We decided to take it easy and stayed home. All in all, it was a very beautiful weekend and I really had a great weekend with my beloved friends! :)

Out the what?

2011-07-09T19:43:00.001-07:00

There's the Slanted Door and now Out The Door. How peculiar I find these names. Just like its sister restaurant, OTD is a Vietnamese fusion restaurant, with French influences. After taking a walk at the Golden Gate Park in the cold cold but beautiful day, we went for our lunch at OTD. I really liked the interior of this restaurant. Reminded me of my little dream of opening my own restaurant one day. It's a long restaurant, there are tables along the pine wood wall on the right and on the left it's the open kitchen with bar stools along the counters. The floor consists of granite tiles and they have marble/granite counter tops as tables. If you want, you can sit along the counter and watch them prepare the food while you eat, that is if you want to see how they handle your food. If not, I'm happy to be just sitting by the wall and enjoy my meal away from the kitchen. It is a really simple chic restaurant.

How many types of eggs have you tried? Sunny side up, scramble, over easy...but have you tried slow cooked egg? *chuckle* well it's just like poached eggs. We started the meal with some beignets and Vietnamese coffee, for our main, we ordered the slow cooked eggs, soft scrambled eggs and french toast. Ah, you'd say, why do we bother to eat out such simple meals?

Here's the catch:

Slow cooked eggs come with niman ranch brisket, caramelized onions and crispy potatoes. Soft scrambled eggs come with dungeness crab, crispy creamer potatoes, gribiche, and chives. Mixed berry french toasts come with strawberries, blueberries, mint, lemon creme fraiche, and maple syrup.

Now wouldn't you be enticed to check this place out? :)

Misty Golden Gate Bridge

2011-07-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Every time the weather forecast said it will be a beautiful day out in the city, we always ended up with a fogged up bridge! Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day out.

Cha Ya Vegetarian Japanese

2011-05-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

It was one of those it's too beautiful to stay indoors and let's go spend it outdoors day. So I decided to spent the afternoon in the Mission district, exploring the fun boutiques and quaint little shops. I walked passed this restaurant and was really intrigued by it, Cha Ya vegetarian Japanese? How wonderful, now vegetarian would not be deprived of Japanese food! After spending the afternoon in the strong wind, I'm dying for some hot soup so we ordered the sukiyaki, Cha Ya roll and stuffed eggplant. The flavor is really good but most of it are rather sweet and a lot of the items are deep fried. Nonetheless it's really good and I would love to go again to try other stuff, there are way too many options to choose from. Also, it's really packed, so if you plan to go, go earlier and bring cash (because it's cash only).

Twin Peaks

2011-05-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

The view of SF from Twin Peaks. The wind nearly blew the car door away but hey, it was worth it.

The Painted Ladies

2011-05-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ever watched Full House? Well this is where they shot one of the opening scenes. Finally after 2 years, I visited The Painted Ladies. Apparently there are many victorian houses refered as Painted Ladies in SF but this is the one made famous by Full House! Now, I can say I've been to the painted ladies! The weather was so clear I could even see the city's skyline!

Happy Birthday ML!

2011-05-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

The weather finally turned better and what could be better than to sit outside, have brunch and to celebrate a friend's birthday? So for her birthday brunch, the birthday girl requested The Front Porch.

While waiting for the guests to arrive, we ordered some beignets to start with. What are beignets? They're kinda like donuts sprinkled with confectionary sugar, but I believe that the beignets we had had banana in it. My, it was really good, it wasn't too oily and not too sweet. I can pop 2 or 3 of these anytime with coffee! Only that I was saving space for the main course!

Our party ordered the chicken waffle, fried oysters po'boys, spicy shrimp and grits, and the ever mysterious vegan lunch. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of deep fried chicken, but when you eat creole food, you MUST try their deep fried chicken, it's their specialty. For a person who doesn't like fried chicken, I really liked it. I don't know what they marinate the chicken in but it's very flavorful, it'll be a sin to eat it with ketchup! Even the waffle tastes different. Either they served us red potato waffle if not they must've used some of the chicken marinate in the waffles *haha*.

Verdict? Thums up!! I would definitely bring you here if you want to! :)

Sam's Chowder House

2011-05-22T17:57:00.001-07:00

Because it was a day to celebrate, we wanted it to be special. A month before the date we made reservations at Sam's Chowder House for a party of 12. What's so special about this place? The best place to view sunset while enjoying fresh and succulent seafood with your friends and family.

For starters, we had the fried artichoke and calamari, then for mains, we had the lobster sandwich (voted top five best sandwich in America), crab cake, grilled halibut and jumbo prawns stuffed with Dungeness crab and many others which was devoured before the camera was ready. Haha....

Verdict? I was a little disappointed. It was a foggy day so there was no sunset, there's nothing I can do about the weather but the service was bad. A party of 12 means 20% gratuity but do they deserve it? No. We never knew the reason why but I wouldn't go back again. Nonetheless, here's a picture to commemorate the great company and the people who made the day possible! *cheers!*

May 14, 2011

2011-05-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Graduation. A day to remember :)

Tahoe

2011-05-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

Snow in the summer? How absurd! Well, it's not if you're in Tahoe! On a beautiful weekend we piled up the car and drove to Lake Tahoe. It was so beautiful, the weather was beautiful and the scenery was breath taking.

The water was emerald green and look at the snow covered mountain top!

For lunch, we went to Sprout Natural Food Cafe, we ordered the tempeh burito wrap, tofu bowl, tuna melt and a salad. Yumm......not only the ingredients were fresh and organic but they're also very healthy! It was indeed very satisfying to eat food that is healthy and tasty.

After such a stuffed lunch, we thought we'd have no space for dinner, but by 8pm, we were all hungry! So since we were staying right opposite of Lone Eagle Grille, we popped in for dinner for an early mother's day celebration. We ordered the french onion soup, beet salad, furikake crusted ahi with radish salad, spring lamb rack, sauteed chicken with mascarpone polenta and a vegetarian polenta.

We barely warmed our seats when the fire alarm suddenly rang, we had to evacuate the place for half an hour while it was drizzling outside! What an adventure...but the food was good and they gave us a discount because of all the trouble caused! Well, at least it was a memorable mother's day celebration! *chuckle*

Ti Couz

2011-04-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

I love Ti Couz for their savory/sweet dessert crepes. We were going somewhere to eat but the line was too long and we lost our patience and detoured to Ti Couz. Oh boy we're glad we did. It's been a while since we've been to Ti Couz and I've forgotten how much I love this place.

We couldn't resist so we ordered both savory/sweet dessert crepes and shared. We thought it might be too much but frankly, I think we could do a 4th crepe! We had the shrimp and mushroom, apple crepe flambe and a mix berry crepe I believe. I'm not much of a big fan of savory crepes and I love my sweet and alcoholic flavored dessert but they really do make exceptional savory crepes. I really liked this shrimp and mushroom crepes. It really hit the spot. Moreover they're wheat crepes. How many people like to eat wheat flour? Let alone wheat crepes? But this is a place for healthy decadent food! :)

Spring

2011-04-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite season of the year.

Baker's Beach

2011-04-02T11:41:00.002-07:00

Finally I see you Ms. Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day, the beach was full of people basking in the sun. Like an orchestra, the waves, splashed, surged, rise and fall with a tempo of its own, finally rolling up the shore like glittering diamonds.

Dim Sum

2010-12-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

I love dimsum, but I never had the opportunity to have really good dimsum. So today, on our way back from Reno, we stopped over at Dublin to this Koi Garden, there is another one in Daly City. Oh boy, to eat at that branch, you'll have to wait for an average of 2 hours before you're able to be seated, by the time you get to sit down, everything will be too yummy to decline. But seriously, Koi Garden's dimsum is really awesome!

I didn't take enough photos but the food was very good, my favourite is the radish cake. We had our usual, Phoenix claw, siumai, spinach dumplings, radish cake, noodle, porridge and salty egg custard pao. The next time I want to eat DimSum, I'll definitely come to this branch! Yummy!! :)

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

Finally, after working really hard for the past 4 months, it's time to kick back and have a little break before going back to work. Where should we go? Reno! To gambling? Nah, to SKI of course! The weather turned really cold over the weekend and it was snowing on the way up, so we had to rent a 4-Wheel drive, if not putting on and taking off the chain will be a real pain in this cold weather.

See, it started snowing on the drive up.

Most cars had to stop on the road side to put on the snow chains.

YC said it feels like we're in Narnia.

On the way up to North Star ski resort.

On the lift, prepared to be dropped off and down the slope we go!

After a hard day of battling with the snow, it's time to have some food. Into Reno city we went.

Seafood buffet. Yummy? It was but this was all I could stomach that night.

The next day, we went to Mount Rose and attempted the slope again, the weather was so beautiful. :)

Look at the snow covered mountains.

We had to leave at 7am the next day because there was a snow storm coming up and we didn't want to get stuck in the traffic and it started raining halfway through...

It's so beautiful. :)

I had a really great time, thanks to AP and YC!!

Brrrr.....

2010-12-28T22:33:00.001-08:00

The weather is getting very cold. Thus, my staple diet - vegetable hot pepper soup noodle with home made kimchi.

Santa Cruz

2010-12-28T22:10:00.001-08:00

The weather was really beautiful so we had to take a stroll along the beach after breakfast.

The tide was coming in but we were looking for the anemones in the pool tides.

Finally we found some! :)

Breakfast at Santa Cruz

2010-12-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

We drove almost 1.5 hours to Santa Cruz for breakfast. Was it worth it? It was pretty good. Cafe Brasil is a very small restaurant famous for its breakfast. Everything here is really fresh and superb. As usual, we ordered the Cafe Brasil pancake, Egg Benedict and Omelette. Somebody asked if there was a worm in my tummy, I think so, and it's name is Bo.Pit - Bottomless Pit.

The breakfast was really good, but it's crazy to drive so far just to have breakfast but if you're around the neighborhood, you should definitely try it.

Ta.Ra Thai

2010-11-25T22:31:00.001-08:00

I love the city. I love it even more during the holiday season when the whole place is deserted. I assumed that this place would be packed if it had been a normal evening, but considering it's Thanksgiving night, there were only 3 tables of patrons when we reached. I must say the interior of the restaurant is beautiful. Even though the food is good, but you probably pay a premium for the ambience.

We ordered the fried calamari, samosa, tea leaves salad, satay chicken, Singapore meehoon, and fried sambal ribs. They are as good as they looked. The most satisfying are the ribs. I have been craving for ribs for a very long time so I was very excited when I saw this on the menu. It's so good the meat just slip off the bone. All in all, it was a good meal and I am thankful for the good food.

Ta.Ra

123 2nd street. @ Minna San Francisco, CA 94105 415.34.8.9977

Phnom Penh House

2010-11-18T21:56:00.001-08:00

I've heard so much about this place. A lot of the people that I work with seemed to really like this Cambodian restaurant. So finally, I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner at this restaurant!

The Cambodian ice-tea and eggplant with sauteed pork and shrimp were highly recommended. As it was a cold night, we needed some soup, so we ordered the basil lemon grass chicken soup. T wanted to try the fried noodle, on the menu it says, "Char Khytiw", but it turned out to be just like Pattai, but hey, it was really good so a name is just a name! The egg plant was awesome, before it was cooked with the pork and shrimp, they had charbroiled the eggplant so you could really taste that BBQ burnt taste in the eggplant. Another dish that we ordered was the chicken curry, it was not bad, it was a really light curry so that was good.

As usual, the portion is more than enough for 3 person but I just couldn't stop eating while my friends happily busily chatting away....towards the end, I was really ready to go to bed at 8pm *burp* :)

Aaaah..... life's good. Love the people that I'm with so much!

Phnom Penh House

3912 MacArthur Blvd
(between Patterson Ave & 38th Ave)
Oakland, CA 94619
Neighborhoods: Laurel District, Lower Hills

(510) 482-8989

Barracuda!

2010-10-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

All work and no play makes Sunshine a plain Jane. Thanks to Groupon, we got a $30 voucher for half the price. So on a beautiful Saturday evening I went to have dinner with C at Barracuda Sushi. I have been craving for sushi for a while, but seriously, with only the 2 of us we cannot really order a lot. So we only ordered our usual favourites, agedashi tofu and spinach salad. But since it was a new opening, we decided to try out the Fried Suzuki drizzled with garlic oil and Baraccuda sushi.

Now, what is Suzuki? It is a type of Japanese Seabass. Woah, this was really good. The thinly sliced Suzuki was lightly pan fried and drizzled in garlic oil garnished with coriander leaves. The fish was slightly raw but because of the richness and the freshness of the meat, it was very satisfying. It has been a while since I have had such a satisfying sushi. As for the Baraccuda (soft shell crab, avocado, mangoes and salmon) was also very good. It has everything that I love in one dish, what can you not love about it? Good thing is we bought 2 $30 vouchers, which means we would be coming back soon for second round! *grin*

As the song goes...BARACCUDA! *burp*

The Slanted Charm

2010-10-04T00:04:00.000-07:00

Grumpyurbanslacker said that he wanted to try Vietnamese when he comes to visit. After much planning and research, he decided that he wanted to try The Slanted Door. Right after he decided I called up to make reservations. It was a month ahead but all the preferred time were booked so we settled on a Sunday night at 7:45pm. We couldn't believe how packed the place was! GUS joked that the place resembled a bus transit station. As usual, I couldn't decide what to eat so he made all the decisions.

We started with the appetizer, the slanted door springrolls.

Then seared dayboat scallops with mango, toasted lemongrass and spicy fish sauce. I really liked this one very much! The scallops were cooked just right and I really liked the fresh and pickled mango. Was so glad that we ordered this over the others!

For the main course we tried the grilled ranch brother's berkshire pork chop. I know GUS loves pork! My oh my, it was really good, I really like chewing on the ribs but I don't know what GUS thought of my dinning etiquette and I didn't care to check with him and used my hand. Haha..

And the grass fed estancia shaking beef. We have no idea why it's called the shaking beef and we forgot to ask the waitress. But the beef was good and I really enjoyed the watercress in lime sauce! Haha.... I was ready to go to bed after being so contented with the meal... Hehe..

But we couldn't leave just like that, so GUS ordered the Vietnamese drip coffee. It was a tad too sweet for me but he loved it.

I was really full and we couldn't even finish our main courses but GUS had to entice me into ordering a dessert. Good call GUS, because we orderd the almond milk tapioca. Oh my god, it was really awesome. I could just come to this place again just for this dessert and nothing else! The brown thing is puree kabocha and the white part is tapioca in almond milk and the grapes were garnished with caramelized almond I think. Bottom line is I like this dessert! Yummy!

I had such a great time and towards the end of the meal I was laughing so much, I hope the food wasn't spiked with happy substance that's why we all loved it so much! Hehe...

Thanks GUS for the wonderful time!! :)

Steps of Rome

2010-09-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

On a beautiful summer day, my friend and I took the vespa and zoomed into the city for a dessert break. The beautiful day took us to Steps of Rome. From just a coffee and tiramisu we ended up staying for dinner before heading home and that was yumm.... indeed.

A few months later, my friends came to visit and chance brought us back to Steps of Rome for dinner the 2nd time. I really loved my eggplant baked in mozzarella and the bruschetta. But this time, the tiramisu is a little soft and there was not enough alcohol in it. However, the great company compensated the not so perfect dinner. I hope my friends had as much fun as I had with them!

It was indeed a great day out with my dear friends!

Aaaah....what a life. :)

Baker's Beach

2010-09-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ms. Golden Gate Bridge was too shy to come out and meet us today! As I thought I've gone to all the touristy spot to visit Ms. Golden Gate Bridge, apparently I have not. I went to Baker's Beach to visit the beauty but she was hiding behind the fog. Looks like I'll have to visit her again some other time! Hope to see you again Ms. Golden Gate Bridge!

Emandal

2010-09-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

I love Emandal.

I love everything about Emandal, the place, the food, the weather, the people that I went with. I went to Emandal almost 4 years ago and this was the 2nd time I went and I LOVE IT! Emandal is actually a farm by Em and Al, hence the name Emandal. The weather was beautiful over the weekend that we were there, all we did was sat at the lawn, chit chat, read, ate, relaxed and did nothing. It was awesome!

That's the main building of Emandal. Isn't the weather beautiful?

The flowers and vegetables garden and the barn at the back.

Dining hall at 8pm. Where we got fed 3 times a day.

Campsite by the river.

Breakfast was served at the deck.

Everything was fresh from the farm. Eggs, fruits, milk, homemade yogurt and wheat pancakes with homemade fruit sauce!!

Even the flowers are freshly picked daily.

Lunch - Mash potatos, fresh made buns, salad and beef stew.

Dinner - Heirloom tomato with dill sauce, beets, squash, pesto pasta and onion bread! Oh yum...the onion bread was so yummy!!

We learned to make pickles. We picked the cucumber, cleaned it, cut it, filled it up in the jars with grapes' leaf, chili, garlic and dill.

Another really cool thing was that there were wild berries all over the farm and we got to pick and ate them while we walked.

And grape vines by the deck.

On the last day of camp, they gave us complimentary freshly picked produce! Isn't that awesome?

I had a really great time at Emandal and it is something that I will always look forward to every year. Who know, maybe if you visit me at the right time next year we get to go together! :)

The End of Summer Camp 2010

2010-08-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

You're not required to say grace before a meal. But do you think about the food on your table every time you eat it? For my last meal before heading back to SF, my sister made a big pot of soup and kakak made dinner. It would be my last home cook food until I go home next summer. It was probably the best meal I've ever tasted in my whole entire summer trip because the main ingredient is L.O.V.E. and I thank thee for the wonderful and yummyliciously prepared dinner.

25 yards

2010-08-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

How much would you pay to play golf?

In Manila, 3 buckets of golf balls + a caddy girl costs less than Php. 200 and with an instructor for an hour it's Php. 700. Now, what say you? Golf anyone? :)

Go Green!

2010-08-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Philippines is a meat nation. It is pretty hard to get vegetarian food. Often, if you tell them that you're a vegetarian or you don't eat meat, they'll say, "Oh we got fish." However, Corner Tree Cafe is probably one of the rarest vegetarian restaurant in Manila and also the winner of the Best Vegetarian Restaurant in the Philippines. Not only they serve western style vegetarian food but also local style and catered to vegan or non vegan.

We ordered the feta/spinach croquettes, deep fried lumpia and fried polenta with mushroom sauce. I really love lumpia and they make very good ones, they're crispy and not oily at all. I don't know about carnivores but for me, if I can have such great tasting vegetarian food like these constantly, I really don't need meat :)

Corner Tree Cafe (Vegetarian Food)

150 Jupiter Street Bel-Air, Makati, Metro Manila

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination IV: KL

2010-08-17T14:27:00.001-07:00

YS: Eh, where do you wanna go?

Me: Anywhere lah, just take me to your favourite joint.

YS: Erm, there's this place at Damansara Heights, good bread and coffee.

Me: Sure, let's check it out.

IY: Eh, you just came back from the States right? Takan you still wanna eat bread ar?

Me: It's oklah, what matters is not where but who I'm with mah....

So off we headed to The Bread Shop @ Damansara Heights.

I didn't think I would have time to go KL to spend some time with my Coffee kakis. So when I did, I was very excited, I missed my old friends dearly.

YS said the place has a really good bread pudding thingy but it doesn't come out until 12.30pm. Perfect. Since I was really full from breakfast, they ate, drank coffee and waited until this bread pudding thingy came out. Hahaaa....so IY thinks that since I've been away, I should be either tired of bread or tasted much better bread abroad, but I was really surprised with how tasty this little thingy tasted and I finished it all by myself. It was like pastry puff on top and bread custard at the bottom. :p It was sure yummy!

Being deprived of the time to hang out with each other the past year, we continued our coffee session to YS's next favourite joint - Fat Spoon Cafe @ Uptown.

The interior of this cafe is pretty cool. They decorated the place with all the old and ratan furniture from the early 50s-70s. It feels like going back to our grandparent's place for coffee or tea. YS wanted to try the Pohpiah and they serve it in such a way that you can roll it yourself.

So here's YS busy making the popiah and IY cutting it. :) Such an honor to be able to eat the popiah made by YS & IY. Haha...

I love my friends, they're the loveliest bunch!

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination IV: Penang

2010-08-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Before I came home, I was craving for all kinds of seafood cooked home style. One of our favourites is the octopus. The secret to cooking good Mr. Octopus is to blanch it in hot water and once it's cooked, take it out immediately. Season it with some garlic oil and walah, you have yourself a plate of sumptuous fresh Mr. Octopus as the appetizer.

Our 2nd favourite is bamboo clams. Oh-my-god. They taste best in ginger and onion. Not only they're really clean (free from any sort of sand), I cannot even express how naturally sweet and tasty they are! This is dish is quite rare so not every body knows how to appreciate it. But if you are a seafood lover, I'm pretty sure you'll fall in love with this baby.

*Drumroll*

Our 3rd favourite is Prawns in mint curry.

There must be mint in this dish, without it, it looses its zing. As usual, when you eat seafood at this restaurant, they only serve the best of the season and freshest of the day. Hence, there's no doubt to the freshness of the seafood. Having such fresh raw ingredient, the seasoning, style of cooking are only secondary. But for me, I love the soup more than the prawns. Hehe... I love to flood my rice with the mint curry. I could literally just the curry sauce and rice!

Total damage for lunch was only RM54. Now, isn't that worth making a trip to Penang?

Before I left Penang, my aunt treated me to Thai food and she took me to this place which my cousins love. Since there were only 4 of us, we couldn't really order a lot, we ordered the deep fried kangkung (water spinach), mango salad with minced fish, omelette with Thai vegetable and cat fish kang som (tastes more of tamarind than hot and spicy like the tomyam). Surprisingly our food came out more green than red as it would typically be for Thai food and they were really nice. I like it very much because it was really appetizing and we asked the dishes to be made less spicy and sour than it would typically be. So instead of having to burn my tongue I could actually taste the food! :)

Yummy yummy yummy, yummy in my tummy! :)

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-08-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

How do you usually celebrate your birthday? I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate my birthday with my friends and family at home this year. I had a week long celebration, every time I met up with a group of people, they would celebrate it with me. I was very touched and felt extremely lucky to have these people in my life. Without them, none of these would probably be meaningful.

Thank you.

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination III

2010-08-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

It didn't take long for me to decide where I should go next - Lion City. Reason being? My beloved friends of course! What's better than to meet up with old friends that feels like family. After a long trip away from home, I truly felt blessed to have my gregarious and generous hosts picking me up from the airport and spoils me with the best food in town. All in the name of pre-celebrating my birthday! See, these are the kind of friends we all should have. I felt truly blessed.

1st stop: Rider's Cafe

This cafe is tucked deeply in the luscious green Bukit Timah Saddle Club. As we drove into the parking lot, I thought the place was too posh for breakfast (based on the luxury cars parked in the lot), I felt a little guilty when my hostess insisted on treating me the whole trip I was there. But surprisingly, the food was really affordable and our bill came up to not more than S$40.

After getting used to the American portions, I thought my omelette was a tad too small, but I could barely finish my food and it was just nice. As I thought I was too full for lunch, my hostess took me to another favourite Japanese restaurant of hers Ootoya at Orchard Central.

One thing I like about Singapore is you don't have to pay through your nose for a good meal. A meal like this would probably costs more than double at home. The scallop rice was yummy, the salad is wonderful and even the pork tastes really good. But my favourite is the dessert! Green tea ice-cream served with caramel custard, red bean and banana. Yummylicious!

After lunch, I could barely eat dinner, so we skipped. The next day, she took me to this Dim Sum place which I forgot the name, but it's so old school that it reminded me of old Hong Kong. Look at the red chairs and red lantern hung all over the restaurant. There's not much we can order for 2 person, so we ordered some of our favourites: chee cheong fun, pork ribs, 'phoenix claw', har kao, char siew pow and egg tart. It was really good, it was really the authentic dimsum that I've been craving for and it really hit the spot! So I was a real happy camper that day. :)

After breakfast, I headed towards my 4th destination- Home.

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination II

2010-07-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Summer Fat Camp Destination II is the.... Philippines!

No summer camp is complete without going to the beautiful islands of Philippines'. For this trip, we went to Apo Island. Apo Island is a diving heaven and a marine sanctuary. I was hoping to go diving and I did! But I didn't feel too good after the first dive and got really sick but other than that I had a great time on my 2nd dive and snorkeling in the marine sanctuary. The hotel that we stayed in is so rustic that there's no running water and electricity is only available on certain hours. Reminds me of my grandmother's place when I was growing up. :)

Isn't the weather and the sea beautiful?

It was an awesome weekend! I would love to go to Apo Island again and maybe you can come along too! :)

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination I

2010-07-26T01:49:00.001-07:00

Summer Fat Camp 2010 is not an annual event. When the invitation lands on your lap, you grab it and don't think twice. It is not limited to only 1 destination but to many, where to? It is up to the organizers and all you need to do is to pay for your flight tickets and the rest is planned and covered for. The schedule is crazy but the experience is - priceless. Thanks to all the wonderful organizers!

Location 1 : Shanghai
My first stop was to go to Shanghai and to attend the Expo 2010. Frankly, it was really an awesome event, unfortunately, it was way too crowded. An average of 40,000 people attend the Expo, entering the Expo first thing in the morning took us 2 hours, let alone lining up to go into the exhibition halls. I was told that the to enter the China Hall, many lined up for 4-5 hours. So I didn't bother hence I didn't get to see a lot of the cool ones, I barely made it through the day and spent only a limited time at the Expo. If you have the patience to be in line for hours and be a part of the mob, you should definitely go and check it out.

The best part about this China trip is the accommodation!
My camp coordinator had the best accommodation mapped out! When the hotel's restaurant was fully booked, we just ordered room service. :D
Check it out!

Then of course, how could we forget camp food? Insufferable camp food? *Haha* On the first day, we went for Ajisen Ramen and it was pretty good.

For the next few days, we were stuffed with the best of the best in Shanghai. The best Shanghainese food that I had tasted was at Xiao Nan Guo, not only the food came out beautiful, the tastes were amazing! Most of the dishes looked simple but the tastes from the fresh ingredients were incredibly accentuated by the master chefs. We had the sticky rice in lotus root, salad, drunken chicken, seafood tofu (looked very plain but tasted very good), mixed mushroom, fish, Long Jin prawn, and my favourite is the sticky rice balls in sweet rice wine.

Somehow we always miss Japanese food so we had - Dory fish hot pot rice, agedashi tofu, and Rainbow sushi. When the weather got too unbearably hot, we hopped into Tian Mi Mi (dessert chain) for some grass jelly red bean soup and cold ice tea. Also, not forgetting the famous Lao Ma Mi Xian, thick vermicelli, best eaten either hot or cold.

Of course, not forgetting the Shanghai night scene.

And the famous Bund.

And the crowded Nan Jing East Road.

It's crazy, but I love the lights and colors. They're so vibrant and full of life! Glad to be back in Asia again. ♥

Location II: Hangzhou

We also went for a 2-day trip to Hangzhou, it was pouring during those 2 days, so we didn't really get to enjoy the West Lake but at least we get to see the beautiful lotuses.

When you travel, it's best to have local friends because they will bring you the best local restaurant. We were treated to the famous Cai Die Xuan Restaurant.

Location III: Suzhou

What's famous in Suzhou? The old gardens, temples and canal streets. And what is cheap there? Silk scarves. Well, only if you know how to buy and bargain for them. For the cheap price that I got for the scarves, I still think I was sold the imitation silk scarves although the lady looked insulted when I asked her so. Haha....

Next stop - Philippines.

Black Widow

2010-06-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

M," LOOK! OMG, LOOK AT THAT SPIDER! IT'S SO HUGE! (Her eyes huge and in a disbelieved state)
Me, "What? Where?"
M, " LOOK! IT'S OVER THERE!"
Me, "Where? Are you pulling my legs?"
M, " NO, IT'S THERE, IT'S HUGE!"
M, "Oh, you mean that one? That's not big."
M, "YES, IT IS."

(I chuckled.)
Me, "You're just exaggerating. Here, let me get rid of it for you."
M, "It's so big it's almost like a tarantula,"
Me, "No it's not, have you seen a tarantula?"
M, "It's bigger than a black widow."
Me, "No it's not, a black widow is much bigger."

So I proceeded with using a stick and tried to get the spider out off the chair. Oh, that's odd, the web was so sticky that I find it hard to poke through the web to the spider. I got a better look at the spider, 'Oh, that's an odd looking spider," I thought to myself.

"Maybe I should hose it out?" I told M.
So I got the hose and started spraying water at the spider. It curled into a ball and stuck to the corner of the chair.
"Wow, it's so strong, it's not coming out."

M, "Hit the chair, flick it in the sand and see if it would come out?"

I tried. It's not coming out.
M took the chair and hit it on the pavement, thinking that it might help get the spider out.
Finally it came out. ALIVE.
"Wow, that's really a resilient spider," we said.

"You know, it could be a black widow after all, see if there's a red colored hour glass underneath it," S said over the fence.
"We should put it in a glass jar and take a look at it," M said.
So I rolled the paper up, the spider climbed onto the paper and I got it into the glass jar. I was so surprised how easy it was. M capped it tightly and we turned the jar over. Lo and behold. It was the - BLACK WIDOW.

Was I brave or a complete fool who is oblivious?
M thinks I'm amazing because I was not afraid of it but, I think I was a fool for not realizing it was a black widow.

Fenton Schmanton

2010-05-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our 1st year has finally ended, to celebrate the beginning of a long deserved break, we went to Fentons and watched the Babies documentary. If my memory didn't fail me, this is the first time I've had diner food since I arrived 10 months ago. So a burger is a must! And at Fentons ice-cream is also a must!

This is my yummy Western Bacon Burger with much craved curly fries.

Mozzarella Sticks

Caesar Salad

My yummy Toasted Almond and Pomegranate petite sized ice-cream with complimentary cookies on the side :)

Old Fashioned Petite Sundae with hot chocolate fudge.

It was nice to be able to hang out after 9 months of hard work! Definitely should do it more often. :)

1982

2010-04-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

What happened in 1982? It was the birth of Marco Polo Italian Ice-Cream Gelato. My heart was sold - to this wonderful in the middle of no where gelato ice-cream parlor. It was almost 45° F and the wind was blowing strong, but we just had to go and check out this Marco Polo Italian Ice-Cream Gelato place.

My oh my, the flavors? Durian, jackfruit, guava, lychee, sesame, mango, soursop... on top of all the other typical chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, irish coffee, chocolate, rum raisin, .... (and a lot more).

From top left: Mango/Lychee, Durian, Lychee, Melon/Guava, Lychee/Strawberry

It was 9.30pm and the place was packed with a line! The verdict? It's so good, you can say bye-bye to B&J and Haagen Dazs. The texture is so smooth and the flavor is just so lightly perfectly accentuated that they will have you wanting for more! Serious. Don't believe me? Try it yourself! :)

Yosemite

2010-03-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Spring is here! Let's go and enjoy the sun!

So we went to Yosemite. We went after school, and by the time we reached the area, it was dinner time and we went to Todd's BBQ and ordered the spare ribs dinner for two.

The meal combo comes with a full rack of ribs, potato salad, coleslaw, chilli and garlic bread.

Look at those ribs! Yumms.

After 4 hours of drive and tummy full of food, it's time for bed!

Day 1: Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

Early the next morning, we went up to Mariposa Grove and it's still partially covered in snow!

*Gundu leh*

After 2 miles, we reached 1st stop.

Everywhere is still covered in snow.

That's the snow melting away in the river.

This is the Fallen Monarch.

Look at how thick the snow is.

It's so hard to walk on snow without the snow shoes and I lost my foot at one point and slipped and fell on my bottom at another! Hehe...

California Tunnel Tree - 115 years old! The tunnel is wide enough to fit a mini car.

Grizzly Giant - 2700 years old!

Day 2: Yosemite Valley

This is the Tunnel View - from this vista point, you can see El Capitan, Half Dome and Yosemite Falls.

There are countless of waterfalls in Yosemite Valley.

This is Bridal Veil Fall (620ft.)

Yosemite Falls (2,425ft)

Different angles of Yosemite Falls.

The view of Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge.

The El Capitan

The first time I went to Yosemite it was almost 10 years ago, I cannot believe how long it took me to revisit this beautiful national park. I will definitely go as often as I can now that I am in California! Come, come, let's go together! :)

Salt, Grease and Sugar

2010-03-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

I believe I'm stressed. Hence, I need carbs, salt and grease in my diet. Going for breakfast has always been a luxury. Most of the time they're good, but way too expensive. But much to our delight, we found this place 5 minutes from our place and rated best in the area - Country Way the Original, good ol' American breakfast.

This place is so old it feels like as if it's been around for over 30 years.

I had the today special - Apple Chicken Sausage, scrambled eggs, potatoes and wheat bread. It was really good and satisfying and best of all, it doesn't burn your pocket!

Another recommended dish is the French toast, it is very different from a typical french toast because it tastes more like fluffy cake with castor sugar and honey but I still love it.

Hibiscus

2010-03-14T14:11:00.001-07:00

It's been 2 months since I last updated...not that I have not left the house, but I kept forgetting to document my gastronomic experiences! :) Anyhow, it was time to celebrate - again. Yes, I have all the reasons to celebrate every mini milestone that I have achieved. So my dear wonderful sibling took me to this restaurant rated No. 2 in Bay Area - Hibiscus, creole Caribbean style cuisine.

Callaloo cooked in coconut milk. Tastes just like the Daun manis lemak. Love it, tastes just like home cooking.

Grilled Plantain. (Scratching your head?) It's a kind of grilled banana, trust me, it's really awesome and it's garnished with garlic and parsley!!

Jerk Chicken. (You must laughing) Yes, it's Jerk Chicken, only because it uses a kind of spice called Jerk. This is really spicy, I can barely stomach it, but I'm sure for those who love chicken dishes, you'll love this!

I was craving for crab, so I ordered the Crab grit. Well, it was a little disappointing, can you spot the crab meat? Yup, that was the only crab meat I got!

And the restaurant's famous Miss Ollies Fried Chicken. It's cooked like any other fried chicken but the special thing is that it is dressed in Giblet gravy and had Boniato Puree (a kind of sweet potato).

Verdict? I would come again, if I have friends who would want to try Creole Carribean food.

Believe

2010-01-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

I LOVE EDDIE IZZARD! He's brilliantly witty.

He's so funny he rocks my world!

I was lucky enough to catch the show live! It was indeed a very extremely funny 2.5 hours!

*very happy*

Panipuri

2009-12-31T14:29:00.000-08:00

I have never had Panipuri, over the holidays my friend invited us to her place and her mom prepared Panipuri for us.

These are the ingredients - Pani (the fried puff dough), mung beans,chick peas, onions, potatoes, chutney, and tamarind sauce.

Served on a plate with a hot steaming cup of Chai.

Break a little hole in the pani and put in all the ingredients, flood it or dunk it in the Puri (Masala water) and pop the whole thing into your mouth! Who would've thought such simple ingredients would create such a fireworks of flavours in your mouth! Sweetness from the tamarind chutney, sourness from the Puri, a hint of freshness from the Coriander chutney, and full of satisfying textures from the stuffings of the Pani.

It was really good, try it if you can. After the 'appetizer' we were served another full round of meal and dessert! Yummers!

*Aah... I'm happy.... :)

Jonga II

2009-12-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

Time for a treat! Off to Jonga we go again! They always serve us cold noodles before the food comes!

The last time we went we were served 16 panch'an, this time? 18! Can you believe it? 18 panch'an! We're soooo... lucky!

Grilled Mackerel, we had too much meat over the holidays, so we figure we should eat some fish instead, this grilled Mackerel is really yummy! The meat is firm and thick and crisp on the outside... *sllrrpp*

Spicy tofu kimchee soup

Beef Cold Noodle

Tempted? Enticed? Come and join me the next round! :)

Ukiah II

2009-12-31T14:11:00.001-08:00

I love going to Ukiah, it feels like our 2nd home and I love our hosts, every time we go, scrumptious feast awaits us! We were tired and hungry when we reached Ukiah but the moment we arrived, we see all these wonderful piping hot food greeting us!!

Vege pasta soup

Bread with herbs and cheese

Tofu!

Yummy homemade bluberry pie!

*Thank you for the wonderful time T&S!

Ending of 2009

2009-12-25T15:53:00.001-08:00

I thought I was going to have a quiet and boring winter break but before I got enough of rest, I embarked on a frenzy week traveling with friends and families.

We were thankful because the weather was so beautiful and here's only a snippet of what happened over the week.

18th-20th : Point Reyes

8am at Point Reyes, the fogs were rolling in and streaming through the sunlight.

The quaint little cabin that we stayed for 2 nights. Fully furnished with a hot tub!

A stroll through the national park to reach to the Limantour Beach.

Limantour Beach

21st - Around SF

Then my friends wanted to see Lombard Street, but I didn't manage to take any cool lombard shots though.

It's supposed to be very 'S' like windy, you can google it and take a look for yourself.

22nd - Tiburon

The weather was so beautiful we had to go to Tiburon.

The pier at Tiburon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great ending for 2009 and a great year ahead for 2010!

Lulu's Excuses!

2009-12-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

It's pretty ridiculous I know, but what do you do when you have a bunch of great friends gathered together? Eat drink and be merry of course! So after the Crab House we attempted another dining spot in the city - Lulu House, only 8 of us made it but the meal was definitely fit for 12! We were planning for a simple dinner but we had all these excuses to try almost every other thing on the menu.

As we sat down, we smelled this wonderful aroma of baked mussels, hence we have to order the mussels.

I was cold, so I needed some hot soup - Tomato Basil Soup.

But we needed our quintessential appetizer, so we ordered the French Fries, with a twist! Truffle Parmesan French Fries... OMG! It's so yummy.

Hmmm.. some pizza maybe? So we ordered the Spicy Prawn Pizza for the shrimp lover.

But wait, there's also the Monday special - Steak with potatoes.

And also for the pork lover - Pork tenderloin with mash potatoes.

Then we mustn't forget the vegetarian dish - Squash and mushroom salad.

More vege pizza - cheese and mushroom.

But after all these food, we have to try the dessert - Warm donuts.

It was almost end of the year, we figured we should order some Profiterols for good omen - profits rolling in... Haha *lame*

And the warm chocolate fudge cake!

Verdict? It's good, so good that by the end of the meal I gained 5lbs. Hahahaa....

Crab House At Pier 39

2009-12-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

It's time for celebrations! We had guests from London, Ohio and Manila! So all 10 of us went to this highly rated seafood place at Pier 39 - Crab House. Verdict? Oklah... the food wasn't bad but I wouldn't crazily rave about this place. What to do? We're spoilt with choices back home.

I remember taking a lot of pictures, but I guess out of excitement, I must have not. Here are only a few. We had garlic fries, fried Castroville Artichokes...

Mixed baby green salad

Crab chowder

1/2 order of Killer Crab

Pan Seared Halibut

And dessert?

We went to Ghirardelli and had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae!

I'm so happy that I get to celebrate my holidays with friends and families... xoxo

"Old Golden Hill"

2009-12-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

What a rare sight! The ABC of weather - Awesome! Blue! and Crystal Crisp Clear! The different angles of SF Bridge and sceneries.

Isn't the SF Bridge beautiful? Well, the only way for you to experience SF is to come here and visit the place yourself!

It was very cold, I tried to take some steady shots but the wind was so strong, eventhough my hands were firm but the wind shook the camera! But still, this is a pretty decent photo don't you think?

La la la la la Note!

2009-12-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

What? We're having a few simple slices of French toasts and scrambled eggs for brunch? No way, I'm going to make it at home. That is, until I was introduced to La Note - French restaurant. It was full with the weekend brunch crowd and we had to wait for half an hour before getting a table. The weather was really cold so we ordered the hot chocolate and cafe Au Lait. They were as big as your soup bowl!

We had the special La Note Paine Perdu $10.95 ( 3 generous slices of Semolina French bread sprinkled with Lavender Honey, paired with home made cream cheese) and Cote Nord $12 (2 eggs lightly scrambled with cream cheese over toasted levain bread, with homefries and tomatoes).

Verdict? OMG....the eggs! I could never imagine being so in love with scrambled eggs! Must be the homemade cream cheese. It's so fluffy, moist and smooth in your mouth. The french toast? It's quite amazing, it was so well done that the bread is still fluffy yet crisp at the same time and the light flavor of the lavender honey added a surprising zing to it.

The experience? It's quite a chi-chi French restaurant for brunch, but the experience was worth it, when you come I'll take you there. :)

Zachary!

2009-11-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

I just realized I have not been to a pizza place since I came, so when we passed by Zachary we thought we should give it a try. Zachary is famous for their deep dish Chicago style pizza and they have been around for 26 years and had won over 100 restaurant awards! They even made it into the Michelin and the Zagat lists!

I didn't feel like having deep dish pizza so we ordered the Vege Special thin crust pizza. Wow! It was so good. I chomped down a good portion before I remember to take photos of it! The sauce, oh yummy...it kinda reminded me of a mixture of tomato+Hollandaise+cheese ... maybe it was? The toppings were zucchini, broccoli, corn, tomatoes and heart of artichoke ( I think) and it was really good. The best pizza ever!

Ukiah I

2009-10-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful weekend, I was completely swamped with work the week before so it would be a good time for a short break. So up to Ukiah we went, before we embark on our short road trip, we stopped by for brunch! We went to Lynn & Lu's Cafe and ordered the egg benedict with Worchestire sauce and additional toppings of apple sausage...Yummy!!

Look at the blue sky.

Look at the heirloom tomatoes that we picked out from the hostess' garden.

And the figs! They're so sweet....

Then she cooked us garden pasta! Almost everything picked fresh from her garden.

Doesn't the pasta look yummy? They sure do!

For breakfast, we had these sticky buns from Downtown Bakery & Creamery at Healdsburg.

I must say, they are very expensive, but they're really good to have it with your cuppa tea and behind it is a fig newton.

My oh my, I had a great weekend! :)

Thanks to my wonderful hostess...

Jong Ga!

2009-09-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

I just can't help it, Korean food still remains as my favourite comfort food away from home. The panch'an - 16 of them! I thought being served 12 was good enough but it kept coming until the table is full of the little dishes!! Not only they served one of the best panch'an I've ever had, they also serve appetizer - cold noodle in kimchi soup. We had the lunch special - grilled pork marinated in the house specialty sauce together with tofu soup and spicy cold buckwheat noodle.

Every time I had a really great Korean meal, I get to be introduced to another one that is better and this meal is really really good, I felt so 'touched' while eating it. Have you ever had a meal that makes you wanna cry? This one almost did and the lunch came up to only $28. Considered decent for all these food for 2 don't you think so?

www.jonggahouse.com/

Awaken by The Killers

2009-09-13T00:38:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2009 - A night to remember.

Thanks to C for the tickets and introduced me to the band. To say they're amazing is an understatement, because they're more than amazing.

Truly a mind blowing concert ever! Very grateful for the awakening experience... :)

Sizzling Szechuan

2009-08-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

The distance from SF to Milpitas is about 37 miles/ 60km.

Would you drive so far just to eat dinner? Well, apparently a lot of people would, and not just anybody, a lot of Chinese/Taiwanese/HK celebs that came to SF would make this trip. I saw it on the wall of fame photos. Alex Toh, Tong An Ge just to name a few.

I've never had real Sze Chuan food before, so I wanted to try out this South Legend. Uh huh , even the name sounds legendary... Haha...So we had the spicy pototo shreds, chilli tofu and peanut appetizer, fried brinjal and garlic sauce pork belly. Well, though you'd see your food soaked in 1cm chili oil, I don't find them particularly spicy. At some point the tongue does become a little numb but yet, it's much nicer than having a hot burning sensation to your lips, tongue and throat! Best of all, you still get to TASTE what you're eating.

My favourite is the cubed tofu, that's the best because the chili paste that they use is so fragrant and the spiciness builds up really slowly.

Look at how thinly they cut the brinjal, you'd think that you're eating thinly shredded mushrooms! Good thing we ordered one non spicy dish, I think somehow it helps neutralizes the taste of chili peppercorn. If not we'd have sexy lips towards the end of the night! :)

Trattoria La Siciliana

2009-08-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

When you eat with the Maestro, you go only to the Zagat rated.

Yesterday was a farewell for YC, so we decided to take her to Trattoria La Siciliana in Berkeley - one of the top Italian restaurant in US.We made reservations but we still had to wait a good half an hour before we're being seated. The place is very small and quaint, good thing there were 3 of us, if not, you'll be stuck by the window with a tiny table and be 'observed' by the passer-bys.

It was a beautiful Friday night but my brain was completely fried after class. I couldn't focus on the menu and let the Maestro do all the ordering.

We ordered the Fresh heirloom tomato marinated in garlic, basil, olive oil topped with mozzarella, Butternutsquash, Scampi Rissoto, and Beef Ragu Pasta.

One struck me as really really good was the Beef Ragu Pasta, not the beef, but the flavour of the sauce and the fresh pasta. That is something I could eat more. Also the risotto in the scampi. It was supposed to be a quite pricey place and a CASH only restaurant. Can you imagine carrying so much cash just to have dinner? Crazy - for the American credit card standard.

Next time, I'll do the ordering! :)

Yahoooooo! Kahoo....

2009-08-15T18:18:00.001-07:00

There's 2 things I've been trying to avoid - meat & spicy food.

Ya right. Been saying that for years and I still couldn't stop.

So over the weekend, we went to visit Datuk and Datin - The Ramen Connoisseur.

They took us to their favourite ramen spot in San Jose - Kahoo.

Like any other good ramen place, this place is small, and serves only ramen, there's not much non ramen choices but they do have some mini rice bowl set.

I'm usually very finicky when I try out a new place, but this time, somehow, when I looked at the menu, that particular ramen was calling out to me. I see nothing but that line on the menu :

"Spicy ramen comes with mince pork, egg, bean sprouts, leeks and menma". (Note : menma = bamboo shoots).

Datuk and Datin also highly recommend the "fresh wasabi, bamboo shoots, egg" mini rice bowl set. Within 5 minutes the food came.

Tada!

This is my spicy ramen, I love the flavour of the minced meat and to my pleasant surprise - the ramen! It's thin ramen, it's the first time I've ever had thin ramen and it's so much nicer slurping this ramen instead of slurping the normal ramen. Spicy? Quite. Datuk gave me a piece tissue before the noodle came and he said I'll be needing it, he was right. But the spicy ramen tastes really really good. Best ever if you eat it during winter. *Aaaah....*

Shio Ramen : Salt based soup with chasu pork.

Kotteri Miso Ramen. Really good fatty pork with a slight spicy miso soup.

And this? This is the fresh wasabi, bamboo shoots, egg mini rice bowl set. It's not as 'spicy' as the usual wasabi and the combination of rice, fresh wasabi sauce and sesame oil makes the flavour very refreshing and I'd probably order this instead of a bowl of ramen when I go again the next round. Frankly speaking, the bowl of ramen is way too big for me, why don't they serve kids' size?

And what's after a full full meal? Wii TIME!

I love this Rayman Raving Crazy Rabbit!!! The games are so hilarious! Kudos to the creator. Hahaha....

What a great way to spend the Saturday afternoon.... :)

Oshima - Brooklyn, NY

2009-08-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

The day before my birthday.

Getting hungry at 9pm in Brooklyn on a Friday night. Looked up Yelp. Hmm...what shall we have today? Japanese or Thai? Both have equally good reviews and just around the corner... *thinking*

Japanese it is - Oshima.

We ordered the Seaweed Salad, Shitake Mushroom, Age Tofu, Ginger Squid, Wasabi Conch, Winter Roll and King Crab Tempura Roll - OISHI Neh.....

And the clock struck 12 and we had bubbles and fizzed up my brain.. *Hiccup*

Hehehee....

Gilt-y Birthday

2009-08-04T08:36:00.001-07:00

Gilt - My first Michelin star restaurant experience! And it's 2 Michelin star!

Initially I wanted the 5 course tasting menu, but my companions wanted only 3 course, so in the end we had to settle for the 3 course tasting menu - no complaints, because the experience was - priceless.

Gilt, how shall I put this experience into words? It would really be demeaning to compare eating at Gilt as eating pop rock candy, but it is litteraly how it feels like. Every bite that you take, it feels like a pop of flavours in your mouth. Only by eating in Gilt you understand what flavour is. Somehow every inch of your tongue palette is being put to work, goes to show my tongue has been underused all these while. Interestingly at some point, I cannot even quite compute what I was eating because I'm eating something that tastes completely different from what I'd expect- in a very good way.

So we were served with fresh uberlicious bread, not sure if I remember the names correctly, it's Lemon and Thyme ciabatta (the round one) and .... (obviously I don't remember) but the poppy seed one is the one I love most. Breads are served with unsalted butter and salt on the side.

This is a chef special - corn chowder with some other ingredients. (My food reporting is a disgrace I know.. HAHA.....sorry ) But when you drink this, it's so smooth and yummy that when the soup glides down your throat, it feels exactly like the remedy to a bad day plus a double dosage of happiness. Blissful.

SPOT PRAWNS

Saffron Escebeche, Cauliflower, Smoked Raisins, Capers

BABY OCTOPUS

Tomato Confit, Young Garlic, Celery, Espelette Pepper

FOIE GRAS

Pancetta Spice, Kumquat Mostarda, Candied Black Olive, Fennel, Pine Nut

WAGYU BEEF

Artichoke Kimchi, Sweet Potato, Broccoli, Natural Jus

SUCKLING PIG

Olives, Fennel, Fregola, Cipollini Onions

HALIBUT

Petite Vegetables, Horseradish, Oysters, American Caviar

Another chef special? On the left is a sorbet and on the right is rose champagne foam. One is sour and the other is strong with alcohol, BUT pair the two together, YUMM YUMM YUMM....*gleaming with smiles*

Then desserts are served ...

SICILIAN PISTACHIO MILLE FEUILLE

Orange-Scented Cream

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

English Double Devon Cream

CHILLED CAVAILLON MELON SOUP

Tarragon Sorbet, Honey Funnel Cake

BRAZILIAN & KENYAN COFFEE ICE CREAM DUO

Chocolate Biscotti Wafers, Mascarpone Sabayon

Now, this one came as a surprised! I was torn between choosing this and the cold melon soup but I thought melon soup would be something I've never had it before but.. HEHE... LOOK! I got both in the end! From the photo below it's obvious that it's good right? Hahaa..... Oh my god, this is such a wonderful meal, the moment I took a bite of the coffee ice-cream, I jumped, it is so good.

We thought this is it, the end of a happy meal, but the Maitre'D came by and put down 3 small plates in front of us. We're like....hmm...is there another special for us?

Yes! Chocolates! There's the Cranberry Marshmallow, Hazelnut clusters and Truffles, the one of the far left corner is something with Orange cream I think.... and if you want, you could try all of them on the chocolate platter... it is very unfortunate that I do not remember the names of every single dish that I tried but I'm glad that I had such a wonderful time for my birthday...

Care for a gold bar anyone?

Frankly speaking, I don't know how to put all these into words, and I feel that cooking is really like an art, the combination of flavours and presentations. But the best part is, it's not as subjective as art, it feasts the eye and warms the soul.

Thanks AKO for the wonderful time, you deserve a gold bar! :x

2nd Ave. Deli - New York

2009-08-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

We didn't want to miss out any good food while in NY so wherever we were we were constantly Yelp-ing. So we found out that one of the best deli in NY is 2nd. Ave. Deli.

The moment we sat down, the waitress served us a big dish of pickles and coleslaw. I love the coleslaw, reminds me of Chinese style pickles, lightly sweet and sour and very appetizing.

We ordered the Potato Latkes, Chicken Matzoh Ball Soup, Pastrami and Corn Beef sandwich. When we finished, they serve us a shot of chocolate soda, yummers.

Potato Latkas is also known as Potato Pancake, it is made of potatoes, onions, eggs, flour and deep fried. The first bite of Matzoh Ball is amazing, it feels like egg and minced chicken meat but very fluffy...but when I found out the main ingredient, I nearly fainted - it's chicken FAT and the sandwiches? It's almost 3" thick packed with meat slices!

New York! New York!

2009-08-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

I love New York!

The weather forecast predicted rain throughout the week we're supposed to be in NY but lucky us, we managed to avoid the rain and the weather is beautiful.

The view from Empire State Building.

Lady Liberty via Staten Island Ferry

Rebuilding Ground Zero - The futuristic Freedom Tower.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park and around the City.

Look at how amazing the interior of Guggenheim Museum is.

I love Times Square. Look at how colorful the lights are, they're so beautiful.

Trying to capture the night scene of NY...

Somehow I find the NY subway very charming... Love how these photos turned out.

Isn't the interior of Virgin Atlantic cool?

White high gloss finishing with purple and blue lights and a personal entertainment system right in front of you (email, TV, movies, games, on-board texting etc), the coolest thing is you place all your requests/food orders using the touch screen panel and the air steward/stewardess will deliver it to you right away. Oh, I forgot to mention, there's wifi onboard too!

I love New York so much! I can't wait to go back , there are so many more places that I want to go and visit! :)

Dinners In Boston

2009-08-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

First Day - Legal Sea Foods

Crab Cake, Fish and Chips, Shrimp Caesar Salad, Clam Chowder, Ice tea and Sangria. Everyone told me that trying the clam chowder in SF is a must BUT what they don't know is Legal Sea Foods have the best Clam Chowder.. Ah... fresh clams and potatoes oh boy oh boy I do love my soups! :) Also, the crab cake is highly recommended for it's freshness and tastes.

2nd Day - Border Cafe

Border Cafe - Tex-Mex and Cajun Cookin'.

We had, Margarita, Chreole Chicken with Jambalaya, Quesadilla, Crawfish and Shrimp Caesar Salad and GUMBO! I love Gumbo, there's rice, chicken and sausages in this thick curry like soup. Though too much meat, I love the flavour very much. :)

3rd Day - The Cheesecake Factory

It was a day for celebration, so my hostess ordered a round of Champagne for us and a Cosmopolitan for herself. As for food, we had the wild mushroom soup, 4 Seasons Pizza, Thai Lettuce Wrap and Shrimp Scampi. I usually love my scampi but this time, there's not enough white wine in it and we had Kahlua Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake to go because I could barely walk from all the food! For all the cheesecake lovers out there, embrace yourselves, there are over 30 flavours to choose from! No kidding. :)

Breakfasts in Boston

2009-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Less than 24 hours after I've landed, still heavily jetlagged, we flew to Boston for the weekend. We reached Boston about 9am, first thing first - BREAKFAST at Neighbourhood Restaurant & Bakery. This place has over 20 house specialties for omelette, waffles, frensh toasts and what not. The menu is 6 double-paged (12 pages) long!

Cream of wheat - tastes like sago in coconut milk with porridge like texture and sprinkles of cinnamon powder. Very good but a tad too sweet for me.

It was too early for meat and cheese, so I opted for the vege omelette, it was really good....I love the vegetables and mushrooms in it. Though it looked big but I finished it! Muahahaa.... yes, I'm a glut.

My friend ordered the famous Corned Beef Hash...Yumm....and what else? OJ, Coffee and toasts definitely. I just woke up from the 6 hours flight, right after breakfast, I feel like going back to bed again :)

The next day, we went to Ball Square Cafe for breakfast.

Big breakfast big breakfast! I want my big breakfast I was craving for it for the longest time. So I ordered the Our Favourite Plus - pork sausages, home fries, scramble eggs and English muffins.. Oh ho ho... oh boy oh boy, I was a happy camper right after breakfast, really glad I added the pork sausages! :)

Fresh Fruit With Homemade Granola and Yogurt.

Caramelized Banana and Strawberry French Toast.

After 2 days, before we left Boston, we popped back into Ball Square Cafe for the last round!

This time I ordered the Florentino Eggs Benedict - fresh baby spinach, tomato and poached eggs topped with homemade Hollandaise sauce....MmmMmm-Mm. *Thumbs up*

Sweet Pepper and Corn Beef Hash.

Fresh Fruit Bowl with Yogurt.

Don't you wish you were here with me? ;)

Cape Cod

2009-08-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

The weather was so beautiful, so we drove 2 hours up to Cape Cod.

But everyone else beat us to it, look at how crowded the beach is, everybody is trying to enjoy the sun before the weather turns cold and you have to pay $15 to gain access to the beach's car park!

So we walked 5 minutes up to the other end of the beach, and look at what we get to enjoy? No crowd and beautiful sandy beach with beautiful sky. Tsk tsk tsk... lazy beach bums indeed.

Before we left Cape Cod, I just had to go and take a look at one of the light houses and by then the weather had turned chilly and the fog rolled in and we always thought light houses are supposedly right by the water edge with high waves hitting the rocks? Well, not this one. Haha... but nonetheless it was a beautiful day indeed.

Also, how can you leave Cape Cod without having any LOBSTER?

We passed by Arnolds and saw the long line, natural instinct would be - this place must be really good. So we joined in the line.

See the huge lobster? It's 22lbs, not fit to eat but instead they carry it around to introduce the pet to the patrons. We ordered a mix seafood platter, onion rings and 2lbs lobster. Seriously? This is a super sized nation, the portion is enough for 5! Right after dinner, you see another line forming next to the restaurant for ice-cream!! :)

Food verdict : really really fresh seafood and very very crispy and good onion rings, it was indeed a good place to eat!

An Ode to 'Sisters'

2009-07-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

1 celebration, 7 cakes, 7 of us.

A weekend for the sisters.

(Pity some couldn't make it but doesn't mean we didn't think of you girls :x )

It rained and poured and the wind howled over the weekend but the heart felt warm inside thanks to the beautiful people that made it happened.

We were no where near hungry after the sumptuous steamboat party and the cakes, but the idea of warm drinks and very nice burger entices us to brave the rain. So we went to this Charlie's Burger for the famous sausage+egg burger with marmite sauce and ordered hot Milos.

Yumm...Almost telur mata kerbau (sunny side up) with lightly buttered crispy toast and sausages drizzled in chilli, mayo and marmite sauce. My, it's really something very 'comforting' in this wet drippy windy cold night.

Eat...Chat...Eat...Chat somemore...Falling asleep...Oops, still chatting!

Finally snuggled into bed while the wind continues to howl and the rain pours outside.

* TING* Woke up to hot steaming fresh blueberry muffins!

Women, once they get married and about to become mothers....we're so lucky! :) Thanks! Mummy K.

KL is the motherland of nasi lemak, didn't expect I'd miss any of these while living in Penang but... *salivating*. What a perfect appetizer prior to slurrping Laksa away.

Then there's all these specialities...deep fried popiah, chai kuey and kueh talam.

Penangite - we're so lucky to be living in food heaven.

Initially I thought with all the food ordered, I couldn't possibly finish a bowl of Laksa.

Haha. WRONG! After 2 sips, I turned around and ordered one to myself!

I never understood Penangite's obsession with specifically dry fried kuey tiao, until I tasted this one, OH, so this is the ultimate 'standard' that we, the food obsessed nation is seeking. It's fried without excessive oil and with all the ingredients cooked just nice, *fuh* the aroma.... Am I making any sense?

How did we end this wonderful weekend?

Sing our heart and lungs out...

Friends, they're like sand, they either irritate your eyes or become pearls.

I'm lucky for my strings of pearls.

Thank you very much, my dear treasured friends.

Very happy for the wonderful weekend getaway...

Miao...

2009-06-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

33°C

Current: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: SW at 6 km/h
Humidity: 89%

The weather in Kuching is very hot and humid, but the sky is so beautiful that I'm in love with the skies of Kuching.

My flight to Kuching was delayed for 45 minutes, shucks, not enough delay time to get AA to compensate my wasted time. By the time I reached Kuching it was already 9pm and the first thing I did when I reached was to eat of course! We went to this place called 3-Point. My my, I must tell you, the best dish that I've eaten is the sauteed Midin in red wine. Midin is a kind of fern popular amongst the locals in East Malaysia. It's tender and crunchy at the same time. I just love that dish. The closest thing we have here is Pucuk (also another type of fern), but Pucuk is not as tasty as Midin.

Laksa Lemak, Laksa Asam, Laksa Penang, Laksa Johor. Which one you like best?

I've heard so much about Laksa Sarawak and I really do wonder whether it's any better than Laksa Penang. To my surprise, it turns out to be really good, no wonder Sarawakians don't like Laksa Lemak nor Laksa Penang. You cannot compare Laksa Lemak to Laksa Sarawak, it's just different, even though it may looks like Laksa Lemak but it's not. There's coconut milk in the soup but the herbs they used is different so it gives you a different kick and tastes so much better than a normal Laksa Lemak.

Who said food in Kuching is not good? They're good! The Popiah is very different than the ones we're used to but it's also very nice. Though the skin is thicker but the special crunchy peanut sauce gives it a very pleasant twist to it and pair it with the sauce (sweet sauce+ grounded chilli) you just cannot have enough of it.

Then off to Santubong we go. Look at the sky and the river, it's so beautiful.

What's interesting in Santubong? The non existing beach (but amazing sea view) and a Cultural Village. I find RM60 a little bit expensive for the entry ticket but it's quite worth going. You get to see the different ethnic houses and their cultural lifestyles. They even showcase 45 minutes of different cultural dances twice daily.

It's very cool to see the long houses, the Melanau Tall House, the Ulu House, the Penan Hut, the sword making, how to use a blowpipe, traditional food and crafts making and listen to their traditional music and watch them dance. So don't miss it.

After the Cultural Village it's time for lunch!

We went to a nearby fish village and had this Seafood Bihun Soup. Initially I thought the portion was a little bit too big and the weather is too hot for a piping hot seafood soup. But I WAS WRONG.

No, I did not just got out of jail but this seafood soup is really tasty, the soup is naturally sweet due to the freshness of the seafood and the portion is just nice and now I'm forever hooked onto this seafood soup and will not be able to taste anything as good as this unless I fly to Kuching and drive towards Santubong, best part is it's only RM5.

The weather is really hot, really really hot, I have no idea how much sweat I produced, so daily dosage of ice cold dessert is a must. The ABC in Kuching is slightly different, there's only evaporated milk, syrup, jelly and corn but it doesn't matter, because it tastes just as good as any ABC.

Then I was introduced to Belacan Bihun.

Frankly, I couldn't stand the smell because of the Belacan soup but when you taste it. Hahahaa....it's quite surprisingly nice. All they put is bean sprouts, sliced cucumber and the noodles but I think they put significant amount of asam in the soup that's why it's sweet and sour and very appetizing.

The next day, I went around visiting cat statues, cat museums, state museums, temples, old town, river front, around town and about to get to know Kuching a little bit better.

I like Kuching very much, I think it's a very peaceful yet fully equip and clean. People used to say that Kuching is very backdated but with the recent development, I think Kuching is just as good as any town if not better.

Luicha - Hakka Dish.

To all the meat lovers out there, this is probably the worst punishment when it comes to food.

There's NO meat in the concoction, only vegetables, beans, spring onions, taukuah, leaves, pickles and peanuts and the soup consists of mint, basil and more leaves and herbs. But for all the vege lovers out there, this dish is a must try. I love it so much, I had it two days in a row. To eat it, you have to mix all the ingredients together (with or without rice) and add the soup into the bowl. The soup can be a tad bitter but mix it with the veges it somehow neutralizes the bitter taste and gives it a pleasant minty green taste to it. Definitely a must try dish when you visit Kuching. Then again, this is an acquired taste and most people find it hard to accept it on their first try.

Another famous dish in Kuching is Kolok Mee.

People in Kuching eat early, by the time I reached the place at 9.30am, everything was sold out. So I had to eat it differently. Ended up eating a completely different noodle that reminds me of Pork Noodle, however, it was still a good breakfast.

More ABC to counter the heat and rojak to snack. :)

Saturday is their Local Market for the natives and I just had to go.

Everything is fresh, succulent and cheap.

The seafood, you just feel like packing everything up and ship them home.

The local veges, you just wish you could buy a year's supply.

The orchids, you wish they belonged in your garden.

My base camp for the 3 days I was in Kuching.

These flowers are from her lovely garden.

Not only the flowers are beautiful there are also various fruit trees, just that the season is not right to savour them.

I had a great trip to Kuching, I really do love this little town very much, most of all, I had a really great host - my aunt and her family. I would definitely visit them again in the future.

I'm glad for the family that I have. *love love love*

Palembang

2009-05-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

Labour Day - A day to do nothing and be merry and a lot a lot of happy meals.

We flew to Palembang for the weekend, I've been wanting to go back to Indonesia for the longest time so when the chance arises I jumped onto it. I travel with a pack of hungry souls that I love dearly :)

My cousin was raving about this bread non stop and she was willing to starve herself so that she can eat it. When I saw it I was laughing out loud, it's Roti Boy! My uncle had to run to the mall that sells it and bought 10 of them before he picked us up and we devoured it (not all of course) before we reached the hotel.

The hotel that we stayed in has a very nice swanky interior and the breakfast spread was very nice, I was very happy with all the local specialties that I get to try every morning such as Longtong Lemak, Nasi Kuning, Nasi sumbat, Mie Baso, Model.... *yummers*

For the whole weekend all we did was eat, sleep, shop and eat some more.

There are 2 kinds of drinks you should always try in Indonesia, Es Jeruk (Local Orange Juice) - for the refreshing taste and Es Apokat (Blended Avocado) - for the sinful taste.

Dinner : Night 1 - prawn balls, deep fried frog legs, free range chicken, crab meat broccoli, fish soup, fried vege and kerupuk (fish crackers). There don't seem to have a lot of fancy Chinese restaurant around and all the famous ones are very low profile that feels like the papas and mamas from next door.

After dinner we went around town and visited the well known Musi Bridge.

Lunch : Day 2 - Pagi Sore.

I couldn't grasp the idea of having a buffet spread laid in front of you while you remain seated.

Then I understood. They serve you every single dish that is available in the restaurant and you only pay for the plates/bowls that you touch.

Star of the meal - deep fried free range chicken.

My cousin insisted that you have to make sure it's the real free range chicken and not some malnutrition chicken from the chicken farm. 5 of us whacked 12 pieces of chicken , 6 plates of vegetables, 10 sticks of Satay, Sambal Udang, Kari Ayam and Gado-gado. By the time we're done, we're ready to go back to bed. The food was really really good and I was very happy to be able to taste masakan padang (happy meal No.1) .

Unfortunately dinner came too soon and this time we were treated to a mini banquet by another friend. One thing I realized is that they eat a lot of free range chicken and prawn balls and fish soups. We had - fish soup, steam fish, prawn balls, seafood balls in vege, bitter gourd, fried vege, tofu and steam chicken. What can we do after a meal that I could barely stand after that? SHOPPING!!

Then, the weekend ended too soon...

Last Lunch - Mie Ayam Baso.

I'm a noodle fan. I love noodle and this is by far the BEST noodle I've had in ages. The noodle is so chewy and the sauce so simple and light yet so adequately flavoring the noodles with steam vege and marinated chicken bits. From the looks of it I thought it would a dry bowl of noodle but it wasn't, I don't know how to describe this but the only way to find out is to try it yourself because I LOVE IT (happy meal No. 2)!

Baso Sapi - homemade beef balls.

Pempek - It's a kind of fish balls that is only available in Palembang.

Again, after a bowl of noodles each, 5 of us could still stomach 22 pieces of Pempek. There are the plain ones, the ones with tofu stuffing, the ones with eggs in it, the steam ones, the deep friend ones and the ones that you roast in banana leaves which is my favourite.

I had a great great weekend and I feel truly blessed and lucky for the family and the life that I have.

Dear Uncle and Aunt and my little cousins, thank you very much... x0x0

Tu-Bo-Seng @ Mr. Octopus

2009-04-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

What? Tu-Bo-Seng? What in the world is that?

That, my friend, is the yummylicious Mr. Octopus cooked in hot water and dipped into a mixture of sweet chilli paste with deep fried shallots and grounded peanuts!

I've been craving for Tuboseng for the longest time, it takes about an hour drive from Penang to Nibong Tebal for this meal and if you're really unlucky they're sold out the moment you make your order and this place is yet to be modern enough to be accepting reservations. But if you're lucky enough to be passing by Nibong Tebal, just look for Ruiyen Restaurant, next to Public Bank, the locals usually know where to point you to.

I got too greedy and ordered way too much for 3 of us. When you come to this place, there are a few things that is a must try - Deep fried pork knuckle, tuboseng and seafood. All kinds, crabs are usually the favourite. But I just had to have my lala and fish steamed Teowchew style. Since there's too much food for carbs we ordered the Singaporen Meehoon. Ah. The food was SO GOOD... *swoon* So good and it only came up to RM51 for our luncheon!

Come, and I'll treat you to lunch!

Chelsea - Serendra Mall

2009-03-24T05:59:00.000-07:00

It was up to my choice to decide where to eat for my last dinner in Manila.

The moment I set my eyes on Chelsea I wanted to try. I was too lazy to read up reviews before I left, I had too much to do :)

We sat outside because it was full inside, it looks like a deli/bar inside.

Before our food came, we had complimentary Focaccia bread with grilled garlic bulb - a good pacifier for the hungry ghouls.

We ordered the fig pizza, angus beef burger (so much for trying to be vegetarian), salmon tartare, molten cheese rissoto ball and chocnut cake to share. All in all I had a great dinner but also it was a mini farewell for me... so even IF the food wasn't good, the good company made up to it. ;)

Thanks so much girls!

Pares King

2009-03-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Pares King - Open almost 24 hours.

We never found out their definition of almost 24 hours but it's the best local fast food I have ever had! I had a great meal of Beef Pares, Ensalada Ampalaya (Bitter Gourd Salad) , Laing (Taro Leaves) and Halo-halo (Filipino ABC) !

I love the interior of Pares King, it's like a cottage for kids, with boots flower pots and cloud lamps. Cute!

Legazpi

2009-03-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

After a fruitful 2 days of swimming with the whale sharks we went to spend a night at Legazpi.

The main attraction would be Mount Mayon or Mayon Volcano.

"The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on February 1, 1814. Bombarding the town with tephra that buried the town of Cagsawa—only the bell tower of the town's church remained above the new surface."

After the eruption in 1814, the Daraga Church was built on top of the mountain and is now the country's historical treasures.

We were totally overwhelmed by the beauty and the weather, we just couldn't help ourselves. =)

Thanks NLC and GGA for the photos!

Dear flying friends, I had so much fun! Thanks for the great last weekend!

This is the best Filipino breakfast I've ever had.
Really, I'm not a fish person but this Tilapia is so fresh and well fried and the almost non existence bone almost made me lick my plate clean! My father will definitely be proud of me. =)

Donsol

2009-03-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

So swimming with the whale shark, or locally known as the butanding is a must do in Donsol. On a good weekend, you get to see more than 20 over butanding, but if you're not in luck, there's no sight of them. Too many (good) things happened over the weekend...

Waking up at 4am to catch the 6am flight to Donsol.

Mayon Volcano , Woodland's Resort - Where we stayed at Donsol, the sunset before we took the boat out to see fireflies at the mangroves.

2 hours dinner by this eccentric lady at Barracuda Cafe, though, food is yummy, around the town of Tabacco market and the church that was built in 16th centuries.

JUMP!

2009-03-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I jumped 17 times into the sea, saw 3 whale shark's fin on the water surface and swam over 2 hours with them (collectively). How was it? Oh, it was definitely a very surreal experience, feels like as if you were flying in the water but when you see the whale shark about to bumped into you, you wish you could just jump out of the water straight away - well that's how I felt, I know some people actually wished that they could ride on the gentle giants!

It was quite stressful in the beginning when the guide told you to get ready and before you know it, he said, ' NOW! NOW! NOW! JUMP!'. Then you have to jump into the water before the whale sharks swim away. Sometimes when the guide is really good, the moment you jump into the water, you see the gentle giant head on. Oh my, many times I swerved right away as fast as I could but the guide always pull me closer to it and laughed.

But when you get to actually swim side by side with the whale shark, your whole world seems to quiet down and you're in a surreally calm atmosphere, watching the giant fish swimming next to you or underneath you, until they come too close to you or you have a collision with a fellow blind snorkeler. Haha... =) But this is definitely a once in a life time must do experience!

Thanks NLC for the photo!

S.C.U.B.A

2009-03-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

Aren't they beautiful?

All the photos are taken at Koala and Arthur's dive sites at Anilao.

Thanks to KJL for the photos!

Ukkokei Ramen Ron

2009-03-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

My Japanese friend, told us that there's a really good ramen place in Manila. Ooh...then it is definitely a must try!

So after the tiring scuba weekend, we went to have ramen before heading home. This place is apparently, one of the best ramen place in town!

I had the Ukkokei Shoyu Koumi - Ramen with Shoyu Sauce. The distinctive flavour is from the deep fried minced shallots and it can be quite bitter towards the end. But the ramen is so chewy and the soup is so 'comforting' it's a great meal after a tired day. :)

My friend had the cold ramen in sesame sauce.

From the looks of it, you know it's good isn't it? *grin*

Well, it is. I was very happy, I must say, this is definitely the best weekend I've had.

And it's March already, I hope March is as eventful as February has. :)

Anilao Rocks!

2009-03-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

I did it!

I must say, I'm quite proud of myself and I didn't expect to say that I will definitely come back to Philippines to do more diving with the great bunch of people that I've met!

Over the weekend we went to Anilao for our check out dives, meaning, to check out from diving class. :)

Bambu Villa Resort, where we stayed. Our dive master - Neyney was checking the equipment to make sure everything is ok. Right before the dive, everybody just lounge around doing nothing. Before the dive, the dive masters gives briefing to the group then only everybody suit up and head towards the waters!

Anilao is a great diving spot. Apparently there are more than 10 dive sites at Anilao.

I must say it was very terrifying in the beginning, but at the end everything is worth it. Even the sunset was amazingly breath taking. Just looking at the sunset feels like a reward after a hard day's of work.

So for our training dive, we went to Cathedral and Koala. At Cathedral, you get to feed the fish and they swarm in schools around you as for Koala, the corals are really beautiful but I don't have any photos to show you.

These photos are taken at Cathedral courtesy of my friend who has an underwater camera. :)

To all my diving class buddies... you guys are a great fun to be with!

I'm glad I took up scuba diving. :)

I'm in Love with the Skies of Manila

2009-02-24T06:59:00.000-08:00

On a good day, this is the type of sky that you get to enjoy in Manila.

Aren't these clouds absolutely beautiful?

But sometimes, even if it gets cloudy, the sun always shines through.

Don't they look majestic? :)

La Cocina de Tita Moning

2009-02-20T01:43:00.000-08:00

Right after my walking tour, I was chauffeured to La Cocina for lunch!

I don't know why, but I was the ONLY guest for lunch today.

And it feels kinda weird when all the staff are standing there ready to serve you. Maybe this is how it feels like to be an aristocrat? So before lunch was served, I was given a short tour around the mansion.

The interior is beautiful and the food is really good but - this lunch costed me an arm and a leg and instead of taking the taxi, I took the bus home! Haha.

Upon arrival, I was treated to some bread and chilled Lemongrass Juice.

See, I took a bite before taking the photos :) it was very delicious.

The family room where I was seated before lunch was served.

The stairways, there are 3 levels to this house but the 3rd level is off limits to guests.

This is called the Ballerina Room because two of the Legarda daughters are ballerinas and here they showcase all their belongings.

It's probably the Spanish's influence? Or the American's? Everywhere that I've been to and like are usually furnished with all sorts of chandelier and I have to confess, I love them, they're so shinny and pretty and I really love the interior of this place. However, the Legardas no longer live in this house, instead, the servants do now.

The main dinning hall, there are a few dining rooms to chose from depending on the amount of pax per table, and those blue china on the walls? Each of them is uniquely hand painted and lined with gold. No servants are allowed to touch them and they have to be washed by the Legarda children themselves.

And lunch is ready - table for one. :)

There was a note left on the table explaining the histories of the China plate that I was using, also, they encourage patrons to use this bell whenever the needs arrises. Of course I don't need to, all of them were watching me while I eat! They even know what I wanted or secretly desired (like how I wanted more side dish of spinach and brown rice to go with the main but was too shy to ask for more because I don't want to waste any food).

I was really struggling with lunch, not because it doesn't tastes nice but because it was very rich and filling as how locals would describe Filipino food - comfort food. But of course what I ordered wasn't purely local, they're infused with Spanish influences.

My onion soup - I wanted something not creamy so that I can eat dessert, but they put bread crumbs and cheese in the soup and made it very filling but it is undoubted, the best onion soup I've ever had, comforting indeed.

Fresh Papaya Salad with Jamon Serrano, Fresh Carabao or Mozarella

Cheese, Basil from La Cocina Herbs Garden and a Honey Calamansi Vinaigrette.

La Cocina famous slowly roasted Pork with its own cracklings candied sweet camote and organic brown rice. I felt like I've gone back to Medieval times eating out from China and steel plate.

Now, this dessert is really something - Banana in Mille Fille drenched in Rasberry Chocolate sauce. I couldn't finish it because it was really sweet but I was glad to have ordered it.

Their own Herbs Garden.

Verdict - it was the most romantic lunch I've ever had even though I was all alone. Can you imagine if you were there with your significant other? Sigh...such romantic I am.

Walk This Way - Intramuros

2009-02-20T01:04:00.000-08:00

"INTRAMUROS, the old capital of Manila, was built in 1571. It remains a monumental, if ruined, relic of the Spanish period in Philippine history. It is a city within a city, separated from the rest of Manila by its crumbling walls. This ancient capital had well-planned streets, plazas, the Governor's Palace and churches. However, many buildings were reduced to shambles in World War II."

You can never predict the traffic in Manila. My walking tour is scheduled at 9.30am and I left for the LRT at 8.15am. I was late, it took me 1.5 hours to reach Intramuros and I had to wait 3 times before I got onto the LRT/MRT (because the passengers were already full to the brim and beyond the maximum capacity) and had to practically run to Intramuros. I thought I was late but the beauty of being in Manila is everyone is always late and the tour started at 10am, I was so disappointed when I thought everyone had left without me so I was sitting in front of the steps of Manila Cathedral enjoying the breeze and catching my breath and determined not to let it ruin my day when Carlos Celdran suddenly appeared!

I was so happy when I saw him. It's really an adventure to take the public transportation to Intramuros and I really dread having to go again because I've been there 3 times(for different reasons)!

Though a little bit pricy but his tours are definitely highly recommended, it feels like a walking theatrical experience! He's very entertaining and he has different soundtracks and props for different occasions during his tours! Amazing! Below was when he was talking about the Americans in Manila. He even put on the American accent while he was impersonating General McArthur.

St. Augustin Church and some of the interiors. We're not supposed to take photos, at least, not with flash anyway, but all the Pinoys *snap snap snap* with flash...

You get to make 3 wishes when you're in St. Augustin Church, what would you wish for?

Plaza San Luis

After the 2 hours walking tour, Carlos Celdran treated everybody to a glass (or as much as you want) of Halo-halo. Aww...isn't he nice? Also, because he said, Filipinos are just like Halo-halo, you're not a true Filipino unless you've decorated something to death like the Jeepneys! So Halo-halo is a combination of various sweet condiments in ice, just like our ABC.

So what did I do after the tour? Treat myself to a sumptuous meal of course!

Does Anybody Need Help?

2009-02-19T01:00:00.001-08:00

Cafe Ysabel

2009-02-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

"Cafe Ysabel is the restaurant of Center for Asian Culinary Studies."

A 9 months cooking course costs about US 70-80k. Not only it's one of the best cooking school in Asia, it is also highly raved by food connoisseurs even Anthony Bourdain and Bobby Chin came and had a review at this restaurant.

Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well that night, after an overly stuffed weekend, my tummy was feeling crummy.

However, the freshly baked bread paired with this 'Special Secret Ingredient Olive Oil' is indeed very yummy and special.

I ordered the Angry Sauce pasta -shellfish, salami and rich Naples sauce spiked with peppers, vodka and brandy. The name is so cute isn't it? The flavour is indeed very good and it's not as peppery or alcoholic as I expected and the seafood is so amazingly fresh and cooked just right. Now I understand why people loved eating seafood, especially when it's fresh and cooked just right. Sadly, I couldn't even finish half of it and also skipped dessert.

Salmon ala Griglia - grilled fillet with red wine sauce and kalamata olive puree.

Grilled Salmon in Miso sauce.

Peter Pan Pie – chocolate ice cream, butterscotch and Belgian chocolate in a cookie crust.

Crepes Ysabel – our chef's own rendition of this luscious dessert.
It's actually crepes with mango and Vanilla Ice-cream.

The food presentation at Cafe Ysabel is amazing! If I could stomach more, I would've definitely ordered more stuff and taken more photos, look, even my photos turn out crummy, I guess it really wasn't a good day for me to eat...

BUT! What is great about this place is the school provides short courses for food enthusiast like me! And it's CHEAP! So I'm definitely coming back to take some lessons when my schedule permits! Muahahhaaa....

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T20:56:00.000-08:00

So what did you do for the weekend?

Well, I went for a road trip! Where else but to the beautiful Tagaytay again!

The drive was quite jammed, I think everyone was planning to go for a romantic getaway over the weekend.

First stop - Antonio's. I was really looking forward to lunch because I was hungry and the drive was a little bit crazy.

I'm too hungry! And this time they added parsley on top of the olive spread. Yummers.

My friends ordered the Valentine's Menu Set and it comes with both white and red wine and I ordered the Dalandan juice, a popular local juice. It tastes so much better than lime or orange juice. I had like 4 glasses!

The salads, I can never get enough of the salads, they taste just too amazingly out of your expectation! The combination of the vinaigrette with blue cheese and the greens and the fruits? Woah...it's one hell of a ride for the palette. Simple yet bursts of flavours!

Lime Sorbet - right before the soup and the main course.

Look at my beautiful rack of lamb. The sauce was a little tad too salty, but it tasted great with the pumpkin rissoni! I love it so much!

Gnocchi and pumpkin rissoni.

Ah hah! For all chocolate lovers out there, have you tried Spicy Chocolate? My my, it does burn your throat a little bit like how old ginger does.

I never liked poached pear, but Antonio's poached pear with Vanila ice-cream is perfect. *Swoon*

Supper - What's left of the 600gm steak that comes with the Valentine's Menu Set.

Eating at Antonio's has always been an experience for me, not only the food is affordably priced for that kind of quality, it is also very highly recommended for those who intend to visit Tagaytay.

Day 2 :

We tried to wake up before the crack of dawn the next day just to watch the sunrise but it was a cloudy day and ain't no see no sunshine.

Breakfast by the lake was quite cool.

Right after breakfast, we need to take the boat to the opposite island for a short hike up to the crater.

We stayed at this quaint little B&B called Flamingo Lake Resort which has only 4 rooms.

The trail towards the top was very dusty. On a full day, up to 1000 tourists hike up to the top, we were early, it was only 7am so we didn't have to suffer much from the dust.

The view from midway.

Finally we reached the top after 35 minutes - let's take a break!

On the left is the lake in the middle of the crater, look up front, you can see Taal Volcano, on the far right opposite the island is where we came from.

What is amazing is that, here you see the lake in the midst of the crater, then you see Lake Taal surrounding the island. So it's like a lake in the middle of an island surrounded by another lake in the middle of an island.

Ah, the hammock, just perfect after the hike.

After that, we went to Tagaytay Highlands, it's actually a Private Country Club but since our resort is affiliated to the Country Club, we had special invitation passes. It's not the greatest photo ever but the place is almost as big as Cameron Highlands and it's private, you can only enter if you're a member or you have a special invitation card. It's like a small town, kinda feel like a combination of Cameron Highlands+Kota Tinggi. And on the peak, you have a full view of the whole Tagaytay and you could also see Manila at the far end.

There are 3 golf courses, different properties spread throughout, the cabins, the bungalows, the condominiums and the apartments, various recreational sports and business facilities, cable car services, 20 restaurants.. etc etc etc.

So we went around looking for a place to eat and everyone raved about the Tagaytay Highlands China Palace so off we go in search of good Chinese Food. And of course, the food is as good as it looks! :)

Well I must say, all I did over the weekend was indulging in good food, so don't be surprised when you see me next! Double than what I used to be - Ooops. Hehe. :)