Steps of Rome

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!