Manila Mall Madness!

How’s that for alliteration, huh?

The title has probably already tipped you off to what I did today. Today I went and visited a bunch of malls in Manila with Rosebelle because we wanted to chill out and relax and also because we had to pick up her cat. (She had left it at her aunt’s house in Manila before our semester break started).

First stop after a not-so-great bus ride and also a short train ride was the Glorietta Malls. Glorietta consists of 5 individual malls that surround a central courtyard. We walked around the entire area, which also reminded me of when my girlfriend visited and we explored the malls during her vacation here in the Philippines back in September. We actually got there a little before the mall opened so we went into the courtyard and took a few pictures near the fountain. They had cute metal dolphins in the fountain and Belle and I took some pictures with them. Cute, no?

We ended up visiting National Book Store to pick up some school supplies. Belle picked up a few pens and highlighters with some post-its. I picked up some extra staples, some tape, a graphic pencil, and a book that introduces people to speaking 5 languages. It’s called “Introduction to Speaking: Dialogues for five kinds of languages” The book deals with how to speak Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English. Since those are all languages that I’m interested in learning at some point, the book seemed like a good buy to introduce me into what can be used conversationally. For example,

English: I’m hungry.
Filipino: Gutom na ako
Korean: Nanun baega kopumnida.

English: I’m full.
Filipino: Busog na ako.
Korean: Nanun bae burumnida.

English: I have no money.
Filipino: Wala akong pera.
Korean: Naun doni obta.

Interesting, right? Haha…

After that we made a quick stop to Greenbelt, which also consists of many malls put together. We spent some time at the Greenbelt courtyards, as there are many areas between the parts of the malls that had been well landscaped and well-decorated. Compared to Glorietta, I’d say that Greenbelt is more upscale. It seems tailored to people with a lot more money, especially foreigners. There you’ll find stores like ZARA, GUESS, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. Glorietta has more local stores that are more affordable in general. Just going from one mall complex to another you could really see the change in clientèle. I thought we were in a foreigner paradise when we entered Greenbelt. But I shouldn’t be saying anything, since I was one of them too technically.

Anyway, Belle and I had lunch at Greenbelt at this really good Greek restaurant called Cyma. We had initially wanted to try a fondue place called NUVA, but it was only open for dinner. Since Belle had never tried Greek food before I thought it would be good for her to try something new. Once inside, I did most of the ordering. We both had a lamb gyro each, and I ordered a Tonnes salad that we shared with bleu cheese.

We started off with the salad of course, and it contained nice slices of pan-seared tuna atop a salad with sweet peppers, black olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, romaine lettuce and a light vinaigrette dressing. The shared portion I ordered was bigger than I thought. We had a little trouble finishing it, but according to Belle it was very “masarap” (“delicious” in Tagalog). I added an order of bleu cheese to the salad so that Belle could try it. It’s hard to find good dairy products here in the Philippines, but this restaurant really had good ingredients and thus, it was what I expected.

The lamb gyro on the other hand was your typical gryo. It contained chunks of lamb (which was really tender and tasty) as well as lettuce, tomato and everything else in your typical gyro. It came paired with an extremely spicy red sauce, something that I wasn’t used to when I eat gyros. It was good, but I ended up asking for a side of tzatziki sauce, because it was something traditional and was something I was used to. The tzatziki sauce was really yummy and it was home-made. Belle enjoyed it too.

On the side, we had a pair of mango and yogurt shakes. Again, Cyma did not disappoint. We were very full and satisfied with the meal. I definitely will be visiting Cyma again.

After a long walk, we took a bus to Valenzuela to pick up Rosebelle’s cat. Another one-hour bus ride later and we found ourselves at the SM Valenzuela. Belle left me at the mall to go pick up the cat while I explored around. I took a quick gander at what the 3-level mall had to offer and picked up a new headset with built in microphone from Logitech. I wanted one for a project that I will be working on later. I won’t share details about it yet… maybe when I’m finally ready with it. =) After half-an-hour Belle came back with her cat in a cage and we headed home.

We took two buses to get back home and with the traffic, I’d say it took us about 3 hours. I got back at around 8:40pm tonight, and I’m pooped. I took a shower, had dinner and am now watching cartoons while writing this blog entry.

I had a great time today. Thanks to Belle for taking me and leading me around! This semester break has been awesome so far. I’ve only got two more days before classes start again, but I’m satisfied with how things have been going.

I’ve had a lot of fun, but it’ll soon be time to go back to school. Oh well, we’ve gotta get back to the grind sometime, right?

I hope you enjoyed this entry. I’m going to go veg out some more. Take care guys!

Celebrations and Tagaytay!

So I told you guys that I had another story coming during my last blog post, and here it is. Today was a special day, just because we did so much. I honestly had a lot of fun these past two days just being on break and today was pretty cool.

After Belle and I got up this morning after recovering from last night’s BBQ I prepared a little breakfast for the two of us (nothing too much though, because we were still full from the night before) mostly consisting of green tea and donuts. After some talking Belle and I decided to go to the college at around 11am to check the results of our Parasitology class. Today was the day we found out if we either passed the course or didn’t. It had been nerve-wracking thinking about the exam since we took it last Friday. We both had our own feelings on how we did on the exam, but didn’t want to say anything about the results because we were afraid that if we did, it would jinx our chances of actually doing well. Silly right?

Belle went home to freshen up a bit before heading to the college and I took the time to do the same. After about an hour we headed to the college to find out our results. I first knocked on Dr. Baticado’s office and asked him if the Parasitology exam results were out. He told me that they were at the college secretary’s office and after that I asked him,

“Did I pass?”

Dr. Baticados shot me a strange look and said,

“Um… I think you’d better go and check the college secretary for yourself.”

That response did not sit right with me at all. So I rushed to the college secretary’s office on the other side of the CVM facility where I happened to crash into Belle. I told her the results were out in the secretary’s office and there we asked for our results. The secretary said in a high-toned voice, “Congratulations! You both passed!” That totally set us off. We were both ecstatic after hearing that. That’s all we’d been wanting to hear for the last 4 days. We started jumping up and down due to our excitement. What a relief! It was such a big weight off our shoulders, believe me…

After that, Belle and I decided to walk home and not take a jeepney and enjoy the feeling of being totally free from exams by just walking through campus. During the 20 minute walk we talked about how it was so nice to hear those words from the secretary’s mouth. We eventually found out that some of our classmates weren’t so lucky… but unfortunately that’s the way things go sometimes. 2nd year proper is nothing to joke about. Belle, me and my other friends worked harder this semester than any other previous semester and it was the time where students usually decided whether or not taking up a course in veterinary medicine was right for them. If one failed at this point, it might cause them to switch to another course or reconsider what they would do with their extra time.

While heading home, I texted everyone I knew about the results. Meanwhile, I invited my friends Jae and Elma again to have lunch with Belle and I. Unfortunately it was be the leftover BBQ from last night. On the bright side though, the food tasted so much better since Belle and I passed! Also, since the salad was allowed to chill in my fridge overnight, it came out tasting better today than it did last night. Jae and Elma eventually came over, helped me eat a little more of the food in my fridge and then we again talked, chilled and just relaxed for a bit.

Jae eventually showed us some interesting Korean music sites and told me of his love of So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD or Girls’ Generation), a 9-member South Korean girl pop group that is immensely popular there. He also told me that he prefered SNSD over the Wonder Girls. (Shocking! I think I may have an issue with this… hahaha… joke lang!) The members of SNSD are all very talented and they are also very pretty. But I still prefer my 5-membered Wonder Girls. (A shoutout to WGSpectacle! Woot! Hehehe…)

After that they all went home and we decided to text each other if we wanted to do something that night. Belle was interested in playing billiards with me later that day so that’s exactly what we did. After everyone left I had some time to myself which I just spent surfing the net. After that, Belle stopped over at my place again and then we headed to the university’s student union building to play some billiards. While there I introduced Belle to the game of 8-ball, which is a game that I traditionally played while in high school and college with friends at pool halls. After a few games I was able to lead for a bit, until she introduced me to the game of 9-ball which she is highly skilled at. (I wouldn’t take Belle’s skills for the game for granted. She may look small, but she’s very smooth when using that cue and insanely accurate. I don’t think I’ve ever played with a girl with that much finesse when playing billiards. I guess everyone has their own secret talents.) We only played for an hour because on the way to the billiard hall Jae texted me and asked if we wanted to go to Tagaytay for dinner. I of course said yes… I really wanted to eat anything but BBQ tonight… haha. Of course Belle was invited as well, so we just played for an hour and then headed back home.

During the last 9-ball game we played, we were both done to the last ball and Belle and I were not able to sink the final shot. We were getting a little frustrated so I said,

“Hey Belle. If you make this shot I’ll treat you to dinner.”

She said, “Really?”

I replied, “Of course!”

Belle then prepared for the shot and with an insane amount of power and accuracy smacked the cue ball into the 9-ball and sunk it in the corner pocket. My jaw kind of dropped since the cue ball was in an insane position on the table and I thought that it wasn’t possible to do it. Belle just smiled and I knew that I owed her dinner. I was glad to do so though, because I was thoroughly impressed with her billiard skills. And of course because we both passed Parasitology! Wooooo!

Later on we again split up to go home and freshen up. Tagaytay is cold, so we needed to pick up light jackets and fix ourselves up for the night. Jae and Elma picked me up from the apartment and we picked up Belle. Then we headed to Tagaytay! We reached a really great restaurant after about an hour-and-a-half of driving called Leslie’s. It was a Filipino cuisine restaurant and it was insanely good. The restaurant itself was on a small cliff overlooking a lake and it was absolutely beautiful.

Jae and Elma recommended buying the a large family sized bowl of bulalo (which is a type of Filipino broth with bone marrow, pork and fresh vegetables) and also a large fried fish (I forget the name… sorry). I ordered an Ube shake to go along with the meal which turned out to be extremely yummy and was topped off with a scoop of Ube ice cream. We started off with the soup because like I said before, Tagaytay was pretty cold. And when I say cold, it was just extremely breezy and comfortable. It was the type of weather that I wish we had in Los Banos sometimes so that I wouldn’t have to use my air conditioner so much. The weather reminded me a lot of NY and then I started thinking back to how nice it would be to be back home again.

During the meal we had a good time talking and enjoying the food we ordered. There was a live band going around and when we first arrived at the restaurant the group that they were singing to requested “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls. After hearing the first bars of the song I was surprised and immediately took out my camera to record them singing it. And they were quite good! I will post up the link to the video after I upload it. (*EDIT — IT HAS BEEN UPLOADED! HERE IS THE VIDEO!) It’s was a pretty awesome performance (although in my opinion, Yubin’s rap could’ve used a little work… hehe).

The atmosphere was amazing and it was nice to have a great dinner at a nice restaurant with great weather… and with live music too! There weren’t many people at the restaurant at the time. I think that besides us a total of maybe 10 other people total were eating there. That’s really small considering that the restaurant seemed like it could hold about 300 people minimum. That left us with an intimate and also secluded place to eat, talk and chill.

After our awesome meal, we decided to walk around a little bit before heading off to get dessert. On top of the restaurant was a lookout point that was great for seeing the lake that was below the restaurant itself. There was a small wooden bridge that connected the lower floor of the restaurant to the roof of the building which allowed us to see the view. It was pretty amazing. Later on, everyone started to have fun on the bridge though. We acted like kids and took some wacky pictures, which you’ll see here. Hahaha…

Then we headed to get some dessert. What possessed us to even go and find some dessert after eating BBQ for the last 2 days and eating a huge dinner is beyond me. Jae ended up driving us to Santa Rosa to a little shopping center called NUVALI. NUVALI consisted of a few, high-end stores, reminiscent of places you’d find in Makata, Fort Bonifacio, etc. While there we ended up at a Starbucks and ordered a couple of different flavored frappuccinos, which of course (for me at least), are always tasty and yummy. Coffee drinks are usually good after an amazing meal like the one we just had. Once we ordered, we plopped down on the couches on the second flood of the Starbucks and just started talking. Everything from how school was going, what we wanted to become in the future, what were looking forward to and not looking forward to in the coming semester and similar things like that. By around 11pm though we all started getting sleepy (most likely due to the immense amount of food we had eaten previously) and so Jae drove us all home.

I want to thank Jae, Elma and Belle for being such awesome friends these past few days. Doing things like this are more interesting to me and more fun for me than hanging out in say Manila and just lounging around at the malls. I had an awesome time thus far!

So here’s to the end of the semester and passing all our courses. Congratulations to everyone who has passed, and enjoy your semester break! I’ll see you all on the flip side!

BBQ Galore!

So yesterday was Monday here in Los Banos. The college was not open because it was the day they recognized All Souls Day (which takes place the day after Halloween), so there was not much to do. I woke up, did my morning routine and then by early afternoon I said to myself, “I need to do something! I’m bored.”

I called my friend Jae up and said, “Let’s barbeque!” and he immediately told me, “Why not?” And that was how this whole BBQ journey started.

I’m going to warn you all that this post will mostly be about food and me cooking it. So if you don’t want to hear about me cooking you should probably stop now. But if you like that kind of thing great!

Jae and I went to the grocery store around 5:00pm. I took my friend Belle with me (you’ve seen her in many previous posts of mine) and shopped at South Super Market. I picked up 2 kilos of pork, tons of fresh vegetables, some skewers, milk, salad dressing, condiments, pasta, drinks and even some more cooking utensils. I spent the most that day shopping than I had ever done before in the Philippines, but I was determined to make some good BBQ and some good side dishes to compliment that BBQ. Before going shopping I did some research on some well known BBQ recipes and also some good dishes to accompany them. So I came up with three things I wanted to do: Filipino style pork BBQ on skewers, fresh potato salad, and another pasta salad with fresh vegetables that my friend Elsie from Singapore recommended. For dessert I decided to go with more of Elsie’s suggestions, by roasting over the fire some bananas (to be topped with chocolate sauce later on) as well as sweet potatoes. And thus, that is what I did.

I went home and Belle and I immediately got to work on prepping. Jae had to step out and help his girlfriend Emma, since she had just come back from Batangas and found out that her apartment was totally flooded. They spent some time cleaning it out before coming over. I first prepared the marinade for the 2 kilos of pork that I had bought. It consisted of 2 cups of soy sauce, a whole head of garlic, 2 minced onions, 1 cup of Sprite, a cup of chili sauce and some sugar and salt and pepper to taste. It was supposed to be a very quick marinade, since we didn’t have much time to do so before actually starting up the grill. After that, we dumped the pork in it and set it in the refrigerator to soak while we got the other dishes ready.

The next dish we started to work on was the potato salad. I was going to make this from scratch, so I had bought 5 pounds of potatoes for the recipe. Belle and I boiled the potatoes until they became tender and then we went about cooling them off and peeling them and cutting them into cubes. Belle is more efficient at prepping and cutting than me, I found out, so she took care of most of the peeling and cutting (what an angel!). Meanwhile, I cut up some onions and prepared the dressing for the potato salad. It consisted of about 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of Miracle Whip salad dressing, 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard, and a 1/2 cup of milk with salt and pepper. After mixing this all until it was smooth it came out to a slightly thin consistency, which was perfect for the potato salad. While the potatoes were cooling Belle managed to boil 6 eggs until they were hard-cooked in my small portable water boiler. The eggs would later on be cut into cubes and put on top of the potato salad as an additional topping.

After that was done, we packed it away and set it in the fridge to chill. By that time, Jae and Elma had come over and had already started up the charcoal grill (which he had brought to my place). Elma and Belle helped each other in skewering the meat that had been marinating and Jae took care of the grilling while I was working on the final recipe. For the final recipe, I decided to work on Elsie’s quick pasta salad recipe. Belle and I cut up and diced 3 onions, 6 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers to mix into the salad. I cooked 16 ounces of spiral pasta (that’s right, a full pound) with some olive oil and salt. After that was all done I took out my biggest plastic container and Belle mixed in all the vegetables we had cut up as well as 2 full containers of Italian salad dressing. I added some salt and pepper to taste, as well as some basil, oregano and thyme and it all came together. That recipe turned out to be my biggest one and I didn’t realize it until I had it sitting in front of me. I think I’ll be eating that salad for a very long time until it runs out… hahaha.

After that, Jae and Elma had cooked all of the BBQ and so we sat down to start eating. I set the bananas and sweet potatoes which I had wrapped in foil beforehand onto the grill which was now starting to die down and let them sit until we were done eating. Jae, Elma and Belle tested out the recipes that I had chosen and everything was a big hit! They really enjoyed the meal and I was happy to say that everything was satisfied. There was way too much food for us to finish though. As a matter of fact, there still is. My fridge is packed to the brim with BBQ stuff today. If anyone wants to come over and help me finish things then let me know! I might even send you home with a doggy bag.

After dinner, which totally filled all of us up, we ended up watching funny videos and inevitably some Wonder Girls videos. (So sue me! Haha, I’m too big of a fan.) We tried out the bananas with chocolate sauce and the kamote (sweet potato) we had grilled and they were super yummy. Jae and Elma also had brought some marshmallows to put over the fire and I have to say, if done over a slow fire and not totally burnt, marshmallows that have lightly been roasted are really tasty. Thanks Jae for bringing them over!

We continued talking, eating and relaxing until around 2am. Jae and Elma eventually said good-bye, but Rosebelle decided to stay over. We both watched 3 episodes of Arrested Development before calling it a night. I took the couch while I gave Belle the bed… and that was the end of the BBQ party.

This morning I got up, and that leads to another story all together. I will talk about that later.

For now, I hope you guys all enjoyed my story! Being on semester break is ultra fun and with some good friends, things just get better. Thanks to Jae, Elma, Belle and Elsie (for the great, simple recipes!) for helping me make this BBQ a success!