Seat Matters - Taza Mia By: thepulpyorange No comments

"San tayo punta?"

The question that haunts me, (OA much?! LOL!), where are we going?! where are we going?! and Dora answered... TO THE MOUNTAINS! while the map from her back pack sings... "I'm the map! I'm the map! If there's a place you need to get. I can get you there i bet.I'm the map!" Hahaha! kidding aside, that would be the usual question from my cousins whenever we get a chance to catch each other during weekends at our parental home. Most of us work our butt off in the city where traffic jams and air pollution are the main attraction. hehehe!

I love the fact that I've got people around who I can tagged long just when my mood strikes for a cuppa, especially now that there are a lot of coffee shop and tea house in San Pablo to hang out and just chill. My younger cousin,whom I really envy because she already knew how to drive(someday!), picked me up around 0730pm. As soon as we took off, we realized that we need another crazy soul to officially consider our night out, the retards gimik. So we collected the crazy soul from his work and headed to a new discovered haven.

Taza Mia is conveniently situated along Maharlika Hi-way just before Max Restaurant, if you're coming from downtown. A cafe beside the shell station. Actually this isn't my first in taza, my younger but not so little cousin Elaine, discovered Taza Mia with her high school friends.

For that, I think they've been in operation for quite sometimes now, I remember when the only coffee shop that we love to hang out was RCC near San Pablo Medical, however they shut it down. Di ko lam?! Bakit nga ba?! And since I'm a repeat guest, nonetheless something in them is quite nice that's why a second visit is necessary. 

It's cafe. Basically they offer caffeine beverages, hot cuppa and some flavored ones. Cold drinks and frappucinos are available in their list. They have the usual drink as well, like fruit juices and sodas. If I remember it correctly, I had a caramel frappe on my first visit and Madagascar Vanilla Cream on the second. In terms of coffee, I like it sweet, reason why I'm more of a Starbucks lover than any other commercialize or popular coffee shop. I love it with a lot of whip, jellies and caramel. More of kids type.

Pasta, rice meals, pastries, sandwiches is on their menu as well. I tried their German sausage which I didn't like. Though I don't know if I'm the right judge of that. Sausages in Earle's Delicatessen suits my taste but not this.

Moving forward to pasta-ses?! Toinks! I think my dear cousin is a pasta lover seeing her plate cleaned up til the very last sauce means an approval. I remember her eating every bacon bits and sauce when we had our first visit. A bacon pasta, though I forgot the exact name of it in the menu.  Then for the latest visit she ordered ham carbonara that she barely finished. I ordered Tuna Pesto with toasted bread. When my dish was served, it wasn't that pleasant in the eyes. The pesto was so thick that I thought it was Tuna LAING Pasta. Though in fairness to them, I suspect that the Tuna made it somehow thick (wala akong alam sa cooking, choss lang!) , it tasted fine, nothing extraordinary, just okay. For the crazy soul that we collected, he's always the rice guy, so I wasn't shocked when he ordered the crispy porkchop meal with extra rice. Clean plate for only some minutes, however he always have a clean plate everytime we hang out or even a simple event in our family. He's that takaw! :) 

In terms of prices, their food range to 100-150 while beverage would have to be around 100. So 200 bucks would give you a decent meal in Taza Mia. I'm not a fan of their food but I love their secluded and comfy place. Though it's a bit noisy since it's along the highway especially if you prefer seating in their open area. 

Taza Mia is a good hang out place with their free wifi and comfy seats. I love it big and spacious when it comes to seat, though number on my list would be couch, especially when I can do my indian seat. As long as it's comfy. I like! :) So seat matters! And I believe that it's always been who you are with, though I'm a lot older compare to my cousins. Seating with them makes me feel a kid once more or more on their age range. hahaha!and I believe in world peace as well. *winks!* 

Oh and by the way happy 25th day of the month! Ciao!

The Foodie By: itserinne 2 comments

     I've always had an interest in cooking, but I'm not the type to try to learn the technicalities about it. I'm more the youtube tutorial type. I usually download the video, watch it and see if I'd be able to copy it. And since most of the food that I'm interested in cooking have ingredients not readily available in supermarkets here, I learned to substitute.


    My first attempt at following a youtube cooking tutorial vid. This is kimbap/gimbap:

Image not mine. Taken from Wiki

Gimbap or kimbap is a popular Korean dish made from steamed white rice (bap) and various other ingredients, rolled in gim (sheets of dried laver seaweed) and served in bite-size slices. Gimbap is often eaten during picnics or outdoor events, or as a light lunch, served with danmuji or kimchi.


  
  


    There are a few ingredients in kimbap that I wasn't able to find until later, so instead of the actual steamed ham they used on authentic kimbap, I used the regular cheese dog I was able to buy at the local supermarket and skipped the fermented radish. It turned out fine for the first time. So the next pictures are mine.

Before it gets sliced, it really looks ugly

Tada! Sliced and packed!

   If you're interested in making gimbap, here's a step by step guide for you. It has pretty pictures too! Kimbap 101

   Then I did rice cakes during New Year. I made Gyeongdan, this is a type of rice cake that has sweetened red bean paste inside. I decided to make it when I saw a packet of glutinous rice flour during one of my supermarket trips. The process was easy, but actually shaping the rice cakes was pretty difficult since you need to handle them while they're still malleable. They get hard if you left it too long. And the mixture sticks to your hand like glue, I decided to put olive oil on my hand at first so it won't stick, then I read that you're supposed to put flour on your hand instead.

    My rice cakes look more like mochis (a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape ) than those pretty korean rice cakes I see online. Here are some pictures:

Aren't they pretty?

    These type of rice cakes are usually served during weddings (traditional weddings, that is. They say if the married couple eats this, they would stick/stay together forever or something like that) and New Year celebrations (mostly during the Chinese New Year, not the Western one).

    The next picture is a Japanese mochi. This is how mine would look like but imagine it being more messy.

I just wanted to add this, kawaii ne?

    Having seen those pictures, you'd probably have an idea how badly I failed at doing this project. So the next photo would be my lame attempt at trying to copy the cute mochis you see on the photo above (minus the faces). Oh and before I forget,  a mochis (or maybe it's just mine) shelf life is really short. Mine laster for about 24 hours. After I removed it from the fridge it looks ugly as hell, I admit even I didn't want to eat it.

Lame, isn't it?

    My next projects are egg dishes. The first one was an egg roll. It looks easy when you see the tutorial video. But when I attempted to do it, it wouldn't, ummm roll. After a few tries I was able to make a decent looking one, when I say 'decent' I mean it looks like this

The picture's not mine, I wasn't able to take a photo of my dish,
but just so you'll have an idea

    But this is what it would actually look like if done perfectly:

I want to make something as yeopo as this! ;A;

    The egg roll ingredients are simple, it's just like making an omelette. You just need to roll it. Speaking of omelettes, my recent project is Omurice.

    Inspired by Park Ha from the Rooftop Prince. This is the first dish that Crown Prince Lee Kak and his entourage tasted after they got transported to modern Korea. It originated from Japan, as per Wikipedia: Omurice is an example of contemporary Japanese fusion cuisine consisting of an omelette made with fried rice and usually topped with ketchup.

Courtesy of KBS' Rooftop Prince

    This is one of the simplest dishes to prepare, you just need to cook fried rice, that's going to be your stuffing and then you fry two beaten eggs in a large pan. the instructions says to fold the egg... How would you fold the  fried egg into a sqaure if it's not big enough to cover the rice? That was my main problem. the first attempt was a failure, then my Mom decided to intervene and told me that I was putting too much rice. When I have about three or four tablespoon of rice in the middle of the fried egg, I tried folding it again and TADA! I was bale to make this.

Thanks Orange for the picture! ^^

    I still have soooo many other dishes I want to work on but I don't have time (and the budget) to do all of them. And I wish I'd be able to taste the real ones, you know what I mean, go to Korea and eat everything my stomach allows me to eat, then maybe I'd be able to perfect those dishes and make a few more to add to my collection.

**if you're interested in other Korean dishes, you can visit these sites: Aeri's Kitchen, My Korean Kitchen or if you're not much of a cook, you can just drool over the pretty pictures. ^.^

Living an Intercontinental Life -- Istilong Maynila By: thepulpyorange No comments

Do you live an intercontinental life?

Intercontinental life is centered around one's passion for travelling. I, myself is a reluctant traveler, not my passion but hello... it isn't that hard to like. Due to some factors, (i.e. time, ehherrmmm! money, work) I'm tied to where I am today. (huhuhuhu!) Once in awhile, every time given a chance, I make my way to explore the world, once or twice a year?! naaahhh! Just once! (can we figure out what we keep doing wrong...) LOL!

Moving on...  After several years, I've got the chance to experience the hotel with the famous tag line of "Do you live an intercontinental life?"

InterContinental Hotel Manila is just across the road from Glorietta and Greenbelt shopping centers. It's ideally located in the heart of  the central business district and pretty close to everything. The hotel is specifically situated at 1 Ayala Avenue, EDSA, Manila 3117 .  It was designed by the Philippine national artist, Leandro Locsin.

Luckily for this stay, IC Manila had their points break promotion for frequent guests of their property who joined Priority Club Rewards Program. Membership is free, no annual fee at all, you just earn points whenever you stay at one of their hotels and when you have enough points you can redeem it for a free hotel night stay. A member earns 10points for every 1 USD and best of all points doesn't expire! (Tara na! Join na!). From the standard 30,000 points per room, per stay it goes all the way down to 5,000 points. Just like hot pan cakes, it was sold out before we knew it and all that was left is April 13.

For this stay it was sponsored by Erinssi, unfortunately friends are tied to work until 0830pm while me, hehehe! I'm free as early as 1130am (I did OT that's why!). As soon as the bell rang (parang school lang kuware), I'm off to IC Manila which is about 2 or 3 km from our office. Upon check in, I gave my beautiful name (ehhheerrrmm!) while the front desk was processing my check in, I forgot to mention that we require a smoking room. I was given a 2 double beds deluxe non smoking room. Uncontrollably my eyes are shutting down, I accepted the nonsmoking room since they've promised to switch it later to a room of my choice.

InterContinental Hotel Manila offers 333 guest rooms and suites that boast every comfort and guarantee an enjoyable and unforgettable visit. Compare to Holiday Inn Galleria Manila and Crowne Plaza their rooms are kinda smaller, I really dunno, uhmm maybe because of the low ceiling or the room is just full of amenities to enjoy. Anyhow each of their rooms has the basic needs, i.e. broadband internet access, flat screen television, electronic safe, ergonomic work station, AM/FM alarm, mini bar, mini fridge, coffeemaker, iron and  board, private bathroom, shower over bathtub, bathroom amenities and most especially the hair dryer.

After several clicks, (digicam sponsored by Jenju, thank you sssooo much!), I decided to take a rest after a very tiring double shift, my body started deteriorating, (well not literally! halluurr!) Monee dropped by to have a safe and sound sleep courtesy of the AC in the room. The hot scorching weather makes our apartment somehow like a 32 square meters O-V-E-N, and what that makes us.. uhhmm dough??!! charla! 

Fast Forward >>

About two and half hours, DING! DONG! (aayy mali! ala pala doorbell sa rooms ng IC) I was awaken by sweet knocks on the door, and when I opened it, our huggie bear is at the door. It's been awhile since we have our little sweet bitch in one of our escapades, so our sleepiness subside and we turned into silly jumping monkeys, cute silly jumping monkeys! Just like a protocol, we did our goofy faces and signature poses to please the digi cam (ung digi cam tlga??!!) Charla!

Now to answer the questions of you're rumbling tummy, oohhh yes! Intercontinental Hotel Manila offers the best food, hang out and especially the experience. First stop Cafe Jeepney. The feel good patriotic effect of the place (uuhmm I think because of the Jeepney) offers a sumptuous mouth watering meal. Well to tell you frankly I haven't experience the place, I just saw it. Who wouldn't?! the Cafe Jeepney is located at the ground floor level. Very visible upon my check in. Every Intercontinental hotel shows the culture of it's country. The Cafe Jeepney makes the IC Manila very Filipinize (uhmmm if there's such a word!)  Cafe Jeepney operates Monday to Sunday 0630am till 1000pm.

And now let's proceed to Prince Albert Rotisserie which offers french and continental foodies. The restaurant is open during lunch and dinner only. And for those who wants to chill and relax with  a totally aged wine to sip on your right hand (if you prefer left, gooo!! LOL) and good playing music on the background, the place to be is Gambrinus: Piano Bar. They do offer live entertainment which I saw as well, uhhh I mean heard. We are at the lobby area meeting some friends, when we heard the band do some acoustic jamming. Uhhmm and they really sounded good. Soon I'll experience the good food, good music (errr while sipping champagne. LOL!), and i'll have an INTERCONTINENTAL tummy... soon!! :D

Until the clock strikes at 0900, friends fresh from work about to arrive. Unfortunately monee and huggie bear needs to leave because of work and family. I strolled the nearby mall while I was waiting for the gang. Soon as they arrived we decided to have our dinner in the mall before heading back to the hotel. 

Upon returning at the hotel, we bumped into some friends that was checked in too that night. Lycelle and Aimer kept us for awhile in the lobby for some chit-chat (Topic of discussion: Welcome Fruits for Priority Gold and Platinum members!), and we made a pact to do swimming early morning the next day..(yiihheeee!! swimming! swimming!! Did I use early on my sentence?! uurrgghh!). 

Why won't I love InterContinental Manila?! When we returned to our room that night they gave the room that we wanted, two double beds on a smoking floor. Hurrah! Let the party started!!! Anyhow I have my sisters with me living the Intercontinental life.. este night...

We also have Jenju into the party but not for long since her parents are strict(hoontaarrayyy dba??!!). She was too camera shy that she preferred to be behind the camera. Just so you know her, here she is... 

So what else to do after an eight hours or so of hardwork.... ooohh yeaahh man! It's time to unwind. Unwind which is synonyms of NOMO (drinking session), so we prepared a little for this little unwind-slash-party-slash-nomo session. Mapple reserved a room for him/herself as well, so we just decided to  do the  unwind-slash-party-slash-nomo session in his room. Noms! Noms! Noms! Army Honor, What you see, what you hear, when you leave, leave it here! And the nomo session ended! :b

and then non-stop photo ops...

So this stay won't be complete without having a quick dip in their pool. As expected early morning didn't happen, I was 2 hours behind my early morning. So even with an throbbing head (damn alcohol!) I changed into my swimming attire and off to the pool area. Here meet the IC swimming pool...

Outdoor pool is available starting 0600am till 1000pm. They do have life guards around so no need to fret if you dunno how to swim. :D They also have Sol Y Sombra which their poolside snack bar, open Monday-Sunday 1000am-1000pm.

After an hour of swim we decided to return to our room, and I took a quick hot bath (pang mayaman tlga??! where's my rubber duckie??!) Afterwards I slept l like baby until the check out time. IC Manila was soo nice that they allowed us to have a late check at 0200pm. I thank you! :D

I have to say that the staff were all friendly, professional and very attentive. Although we had a slight problem when we checked out but that's okay since the front desk sincerely apologize. I'm sure coming back, hopefully they'll have points break promotions again! yiiihhhee!!

Cheers to a night of InterContinental Living!

An Ode To Ramyun By: itserinne 3 comments

Ramyun, Oh  Ramyun , I simply cherish you,
You make me happy everytime I see you on the menu.Ramyun , Oh  Ramyun, you make my stomach full
I can't get enough of you, I always need a potful!

    I'm obsessed with instant noodles... Okay, obsessed might actually be too strong a word to describe a likeness to food, but I'd settle with that. If I was told that I'd only be able to eat just one dish for the rest of my life, I'd probably choose noodles, the instant kind. That was my answer back then before I realized there wouldn't be an entire life to talk about since I'd probably have died of MSG poisoning, if there was such a thing.

So, I'm here to share my top 3 favourite Instant Noodles:

First on the list is SHIN RAMYUN.

    As per WIKIPEDIA's description -- Shin Ramyun is a spicy brand of Korean instant noodles produced by Nong Shim Ltd. since 1986. It is exported to over 80 different countries, and is the highest selling brand of noodles in Korea.

      It's basically Kimchi-flavoured noodles. Spicy is an understatement because a few of my friends would probably keel over just sipping the soup. I got addicted to this ever since our local grocery store decided it's high time they add Korean merchandises on their shelves (I blame the Hallyu wave for this). I can eat 2 packs of these a day, and it's not a joke finishing a bowl.

Second on the list is JAJANGMYEON

    According to WIKIPEDIA, Jajangmyeon is a popular Korean dish, derived from the Chinese dish zha jiang mian. It consists of wheat noodles topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang (a salty black soybean paste), diced meat and vegetables, and sometimes also seafood. Jajang (alternately spelled jjajang), the name of the sauce and Myeon (also spelled myun) means "noodle."

    I haven't really eaten authentic jajangmyeon so my bias on this one is only based on the Nongshim brand that I've always bought in the store. I've been addicted to this since I've watched Coffee Prince. And what I like about this particular instant noodles is that the ummm... noodles stays al dente even if you've overcooked it. It doesn't look that appetizing once you've mixed the noodles with the sauce but the taste is really different from the salty, MSG-induced noodles that we're used to here. Annnnnd... it's a huge serving 2 or 3 people can share... even though I can actually finish 2 packs of jajangmyun on my own.

Third on my list is NONGSHIM POTATO NOODLES

    There isn't a particular description in WIKIPEDIA for this type of instant noodles, I wonder why... Isn't it just as popular as kimchi noodles or jajangmyun?
   
    Anyway, this type of instant noodles is different because well, the noodles are made of err, potatoes. It has a different consistency as regular noodles (or maybe it's just me?), different because the noodles are more solid than your regular flour-made noodles. Okay that's too much mention of noodles in one sentence...     I like this because it's different from the regular instant noodles that we have here in the Philippines, aside from the fact that the serving is bigger than what we are all used to here, the noodles are chewy and same with jajangmyeon it doesn't go soggy.

    So now I've already bored you with my favourite noodles, I'm going to add one more to the list of noodles that I wanted to try. The next one is actually hard to find here, I've tried one on a cup but it doesn't seem to be the same one... So I'm still hunting for it.

    It's not a Nongshim brand so maybe that's why I'm unable to find it in regular grocery stores. But this is Cheese Ramyeon, so it's like Kimchi Ramyeon but instead of kimchi it's cheese. More like our macaroni and cheese here. Anyone who's familiar with the brand please, please message me... ^_________^

    Korean grocery stores have been popping up like mushrooms in  the Philippines and there are so many more types of instant noodles I want to try.

    And as I always say... Soooooo many noodles... Soooo little time. ^^