SHEEP HAPPENS !%*@!

To the Airport and Back

2010-12-04T03:33:00.000-08:00

The clock says 8:20 PM, too early. But I am tired.

Of course it has everything to do with having gotten out of bed at 330 AM earlier today to catch the first bus to INCHEON Airport.

I went there to get me my new gadget - A Sony Blu Ray Disc system bought online during the Black Friday Sale. Oh it's awesome! I spent most of the day grinning! A Blu ray player, with pretty solid 5.1 speaker system plus the player is wifi enabled so I can watch videos via internet streaming! Yay! What a winner!

And how is it possible,that someone like me, living in faraway Korea, can join the Thanksgiving Sale and get the items a mere week after purchasing?-) It has nothing to do with moolah (because I don't have much haha) but with connections. Or more precisely a friend's connections haha. I was just lucky that the friend, good person that he is, and knowing that I am a bit of a bargain hunter myself, thought oh so generously to include me in his Thanksgiving buying spree! Plus he asked his friend, an American who travels a lot to carry the items with him. Lucky us, the friend had a flight to Manila. The American oh so kindly detoured to Seoul first before going to Manila, which is how I and my friend found ourselves on our way to the airport at 4 AM. we were picking up our stuffs!

H

Breakfast on a Windy Saturday

2010-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

A friend and I went walking around the neighborhood on a sunny yet windy therefore cold saturday. Halfway through the walking, we dropped by at a neigborhood noodle shop for breakfast.

It's the kind of mom-and-pop operation that's all over Seoul. Charming wife-and-husband eateries with simple, home-cooked food that are utterly satisfying and comforting.

Korean omelette: thin scrambled eggs with diced kimchi and veggies.

Ramyeon and rice

Soup and some pickled radish to complete the meal.

Kimbap, Korea's rustic version of the sushi roll.

The homey shop's walls are filled with tacked notes:-)

The Make-up

2010-03-13T19:54:00.001-08:00

Somewhere along the ten months I stayed in Pinas, I learned that sometimes, make-up is good! It doesn't change your face or hide your flaw entirely. It does not even make one happy (well, not me at least) but it could give you that shiny, dreamy look just so you could start believing that yes, you deserve to be shiny, glowy, and that you are, in your life, the dreamiest person you can ever be.

Applying some does not mean one is vain, it means only that it's another way to perk the day up. A means to curb the curveballs, because make-up is not really about wanting to be so amazingly beautiful, it's really about giving that added boost of push to let you believe that hey, I am beautiful~

Traipsing Along Seoul on a Spring Day

2010-03-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

Went out despite the freezing cold and had a blast.

My best buddy treated me to a dessert of waffle, Haagen Dazs and coffee.

And that alone made me happy despite a bad cough and an irritating side story.

Once Again at Mabouni's

2009-04-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

A friend and I ate at Mabouni's (Yongsan Station) a few weeks ago because we missed the food! Haha. It's become our default eating hangout when we're craving for pizza and pasta and we don't have much money.

What we ate:

Pensive? No..just hungry!

Buns at Namdaemun

2009-02-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

We went to the Namdaemun Market on a Saturday to look for some stuffs for our respective businesses. Namdaemun is a sprawling open market selling almost everything--from imported goods, to clothes, cosmetics, housewares, kimchi and anything. It is the cleaner, more organized and less intimidating version of Divisoria, the Philippines' foremost open market.

Tired of walking for hours, hunger pangs set in. And we spied a little takeout counter in the market with long lines. We sneaked a view to see what the product is---Korean steamed buns! So while bestfriend lined up to buy a bagful, I went around taking these:

The storefront of the Steamed Bun Store. It says from 1959!
The lines

On the street fronting the stall:

At night most big streets would have these Korean street style drinking outlets. A cartful of goodies, and tables and chairs laid out on the streets.

Our bagful of treats! Pretty cheap too at 4000 won for 10 buns.

The buns-minus two haha!

Innards!

How was it? Yummy! It tastes like the kuchay rolls in Pinas but better, there's a great balance of veggies (onions, ground pork, a kuchay like green veggie, and stewed cabbage. There's also a hint of sesame. It was amazingly value for money, no wonder there's always a long line!

They're pretty filling too as we only managed to eat four and split the remainder between the two us.

And now presenting..the breakfast buns! I just heated them up on a nonstick pan. Such an easy and yummy breakfast. Perfect with Choco Milk and berries!

Jalapeno Pasta at the Doota

2009-02-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

An officemate and I went to Dongdaemun area after work for some errands. I had to exchange some of my hard earned dollars to pay my bills( Hey, staring at the monitor for nine hours a day is hard!) while he wanted to check out some pasalubong stuffs for his wife since he's going back to Pinas soon. After the errands I suggested we eat at a pizza place on the 8th floor of the Doosan Tower (Doota for short).

The Doota Tower in Dongdaemun.

Doota is a big shopping tower akin to Greenhills, the first seven floors are stores but the eight and ninth are restaurants. I dunno why, but the restaurants in Doota are always never fully packed.Perhaps because there are some fastfoods in the lower floors. Anyhow, I always enjoyed eating there for the silence and the view. It's very conducive to long chats and long rants. :)

I requested pizza and pasta from a small yet yummy restaurant.

Here's what we had:

Chicken Salad: Chicken breast, assorted leaves, red peppers and mandarin slices doused in sesame-0live oil dressing.

While the salad was attractive enough, the taste was blah. It was drowning in oil..A no no in salads. Plus the chicken slices were tasteless.

Next came the Pizza: Ham and Mushroom

Now this I love. It's as thin as thin crust goes. Crisp and substantial enough not to turn soggy from the toppings. The toppings were good-- good quality ham, mushrooms, basil and some parsley now can you go wrong with that?

For pasta, I wanted something light and not so ordinary so we got the Jalapeno Olive Oil Pizza.

How was it? Lip-smacking, lip burningly hot! It was so delicious that now all I want is to learn how to make it! How can something so simple as olive oil, fresh jalapeno peppers, garlic turn out a pasta sauce as delicious as this? I used to have trouble trying out those minimalist oil and pepper only pastas, but I am now a convert. I love the uncomplicated deliciousness of jalapeno, garlic and hints of thyme in my mouth there was no need to use the Parmesan cheese dispenser.

Overall, a good dinner. More so because the tab's not on me :)

A Single Girl's Lunch

2009-01-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

This is the last day of our four-day long weekend. Sigh..It flew away so fast, despite having been cocooned in my heated little flat since Sunday. The heavy snow last Saturday is slowly melting, but the sun is up and I know this would be a sunny though cold day, a nice day to walk around, only thing is that the shops are still closed so nothing to do but stay home. Which perfect for me as I've been busy with my little sideline, so busy that I have not finished the book I began reading last Sunday, Le Divorce. But maybe it's the book too, it's hmmm drab, at least for me.

Anyhoo, for the past two days I've been cheating. I have not had a proper meal in two days relying mainly on biscuits, some Cheetos and a heavy breakfast of franks and tater tots which I just popped in the non-stick (without oil of course) and waited until I could hear the hotdog crackling, it's skin balooning to doneness.

But today the franks are gone, the tater tots finished so I checked my pantry for some lunch. Nothing much, except these:

So yes, I decided, I'll make myself a proper lunch (in my world, pasta is proper haha). And made pasta carbonara in 30 minutes--boil up the water, dunk the wholewheat pasta (which by the way doesn't taste differently from the ordinary pasta, except that these wholewheat pasta doesn't photograph as beautifully looking like beige threads..), sautee garlic in olive oil butter, add the julienned sweet paprikas, then the Japanese carbonara sauce, I also sneaked in a teaspoon of pesto sauce,dried basil and pepper. And there it is, Lunch! I had no cheese, but I have a profusion of walnuts. I cracked a few and topped my pasta with them.

A single girl's lunch: Pasta Carbonara, water cracker, celery sticks, sweet paprika slices and apples.

Easy and comforting...:)

Something Red, Something Hard, Something White

2009-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

to welcome the Year of the Rat! Or at least that's what I received as Lunar New Year's presents from my company. Here's what I got:

A boxful of fifteen red luscious apples.

A 5 kilo pack of Korean rice.

And surprise surprise. A mysterious box containing...

Tadaaaa!

Walnuts!

But the coolest thing I got was this:

At first glance it looks like the thing that doctors use to check our ears. But it's,
yep, you guessed it...

It's a walnut cracker :)

Now, this would have been great if I were with my family. But hmmm, I'm all alone. How can I possibly consume all these apples? It would be such a waste to not eat these apples, as these are the special, big organic types but I also know that I wouldn't be able to eat all of them! If I had an oven, I might turn them into muffins, or cobblers but all I have is a stove. Hmmm, maybe I can turn them into applesauce...

And for the walnuts. I don't actually know what to do with them. This is the first time I saw raw, unshelled walnuts! But I have four days of vacation this weekend to experiment. So yipeee! I couldn't be happier getting these for free, raw materials for a series of kitchen adventures. Can't wait for Saturday!

California Sushi

2009-01-17T05:12:00.000-08:00

After accompanying a friend who bought a new Mac Book in Yongsan I suggested some late and light lunch at a sushi place. Truth to tell, I only ate a slice of bread earlier for breakfast and it was already 3:00 PM.

So here's what we had:

A yummy neo-fusion sushi. Well, California Sushi basically does this stuff. Making sushi out of unlikely stuffs like ham, meat rolls, fried crab legs, bonito. We had the sushi roll with some creamy philadelphia cheese and some salmon, topped with a dollop of mashed sweet potato (10,000 won, about hmmm $8 dollars).

As per most restaurants in Korea, there's free cabbage salad. Theirs is yummy, with a dressing hinting of sesame oil. The salad also has some lettuce and purple cabbage mixed in.

There was also some free miso soup. Nothing notable about it except that it was hot...

We also ordered a small platter of Chiken Teriyaki Strips. It came with a small, like ice cream scooped sized portion of rice, cabbage salad, and four cuts of basic kani sushi. (7,000 won, about hmm about 5.6$)

The good thing about most Korean restaurants is they offer free, unlimited water. So we passed on drinks and settled with just plain, calorie-free water.

I've eaten here before and I still think that California Sushi offers pretty value-for-money stuff. The two of us had some good, long-drawn lunch, spending about two hours chatting undisturbed with unlimited water refills for less than 15$!That's pretty amazing even here in Korea where the usual bento in the foodcourts costs about 4$.

Itadakimasu!

One Fine Day

2009-01-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

I was in a rush to finish something at work today. Time flew so fast. I thought I could leave the office at 6 PM but I got out at 7:40. Now how's that for planning. I was late for my own birthday dinner!

I was not able to respond properly to friends messaging me their greetings. But if they know me well enough, which is that I seldom respond to yms when I'm busy, they will understand.

Anyhoo, with the day passing so fast, and nothing accomplished but work. I was a bit scared that my birthday would come and go without any memento of fun! But then dinner time came and with only three of my closest and dearest friends in Seoul, is there any way to mark a birthday than with rollicking fun, lots of food and photo-ops!

We ate at Mabouni's:
Seafood Doria---which is like a sort of risotto topped with cheese. pretty good!

Chicken Salad
x

Spaghetti Gratin

Seafood and Tomato Pasta

Garlicky Hamburger Steak

We also ordered a pizza, some crusty baked bread with anchovies and another burger steak with cheese but we were so famished that we attacked them immediately, thus no pics.

We went home at past 11 PM just in time to catch the last train.

This was one busy, hectic day but I still had my fun in the sun!

Where Pizza is supposed to be what Women want

2009-01-09T23:45:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Seoul and to celebrate we went out for lunch a few days ago to Mr. Pizza. I chose the place because I wanted to eat some salad and at the same time wanted some pizza.

Now, here's one for english used the Korean way. Mr Pizza's slogan is "Knows how to please women". Like really! Haha, maybe it's just me being here quite long enough to ignore whatever transliteration there is with how english is used here. But sure, most people would certainly scratch their heads with this slogan. I mean, could it be that pizza is all we need? *evil grin*

Anyhoo, here's an english poster at Mr. Pizza harking how he understands women.

One thing we love about Mr. Pizza is the salad buffet. They give you a salad bowl and you can stuff it as many times as you want. There's a catch though, you have to order at least 10k won worth of other items before you can get a salad bowl (which I think is about 6.5k won). A salad bowl can be shared by a max. of three persons, I think. Here are some of the stuffs in the salad bar: tuna salad, kani salad, potato salad, sweet potato salad, ham, brocolli, lettuce, arugula, some sprouts, cherry tomatoes, corn, some korean leaves that taste slightly of oregano, lychees, peaches, sliced fresh pineapples, oranges, two types of gelatine, nacho chips, pretzels, corn flakes, mini oreo cereals, raisins, trail mix, cashews and about six types of dressing.

So here's what we got:
First foray into the salad bar: tuna salad, peaches( underneath the corn), corn, diced ham and brocolli.

Second foray: brocolli ( I love!), pineapples, lychees, orange slices, peaches.

The appetizers:

Shrimp blanketed in mashed potato strings, lightly fried and served with a sweet chili sauce. It was yummy, I'd love to try this at home but I dunno how to go about getting that mashed potato thing on the shrimp!

Olan's favorite: chicken wings drenched in red pepper sauce.

The pizza. I chose the garden special pizza. Which has some leaves in it (arugula?), some slices of chicken breast, mushrooms, olives, onions in a not so thick crust. The edges of the crust had some sweet potato filling. But the best part of this pizza was the cheese topping. It wasn't mozzarella, as it's a bit tart and saltier and balanced well with the veggies in the pizza.

So there, a pizza lunch to celebrate my return to Seoul.I dunno about him knowing what I want, but lunch at Mr. Pizza made me smile!

My usual lunchmates and closest of friends, Olan and Kuya Rene.

To Davao and back

2008-12-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

I went home to Davao and was welcomed with a new house. Okay it was actually my father's old house remodelled. A a second floor loft was added,which my father turned into his personal loft/bedroom so now I have the old master's bedroom to myself and will no longer be doomed to sharing a bedroom with my brother.Yipee!

So anyhoo what did I do for five days? Well, I spent an afternoon in Samal Island.

Went whitewater rafting.

Baked two cakes: a chocochip banana cake and a chocolate cake. (Sorry no pics)

And of course pigged out like crazy on:
** Crabs, Chopseuy, Baby Back Ribs and lumpia in a forgotten grill place somewhere in downtown Davao.

*Went to the famous Luz Kinilaw for some inihaw na panga and pusit.

*Ate at Karlyn's Grille in Ecoland for what is perhaps the yummiest most value-for-money no litid tenderloin for only Php120 pesos.

*Had some grilled chicken from Banok's and some cebu style lumpia from Litchoneros in Torres.

Five days in Davao gained me no less than 5 pounds and a kilo of laidback happiness.
I came back to Manila feeling somewhat sad, in five days I'll fly off again to my independent life, be an adult for the next six to 10 months until I can take another vacation, part of which will be spent at waterful, groovy yet soothing Davao.

Brrrr

2008-12-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas was I think the saddest christmas I ever had. Plans fell through and I spent my christmas alone in the flat on the foggiest day in London. Looking back, I can't help thinking, oh man! that must have been an omen! But, well, that's how it is. Live and Learn, aight!

But this christmas, I know, will be great. It's my first Pinas christmas in four years. And now I know, nothing comes close to family. If there is anything to last year, it's that I finally came to see how lucky I am to have such cool parents, not to mention a brother who doubles as my most reliable laughtrip buddy.

Anyhoo, it's just 9 more days of work and then I'm off. Yay! I hope it doesn't snow heavily on those 9 days. It's frickin -11 Celsius now with winds so strong it's an effort to walk fast, much less run to catch the train to work! But get this, I still went out today to buy some stuffs for my brother in Yongsan, and still had dinner with a good friend. The dinner was on him, ha! me being a sucker for freebie as always! Had a cool time, chatted and laughed a lot, bought the stuffs for my brother, ate some pad thai, fresh spring rolls and some type of fried rice at a Thai restaurant. To be honest, the pad thai sucked, and the spring rolls were bleh, If I could get my hands on any of the needed ingredients, I'd make far better pad thai and spring rolls than those. But hey it was a free dinner, and was nice to just laugh away the friday night. Kinda beats staying at home and thinking about persons and stuffs and getting sad for no reason, okay for stupid reasons. So yes, It's a special thing for me to have something to do on Friday nights. Even if it's just mostly eating out, hanging out at a cafe and just babbling and laughing with a good friend. It can't entirely alleviate that ache one still gets at times, but it'll do. The happiness you get with the stuffs you do is pretty helpful, even when it's just to blur out the part of knowing you didn't get what you want. Ha! And before you react, no, it's just me being honest not being bitter.

----
Still, Thank heavens for small blessings, no heavy snow yet. See, snow in itself is pretty manageable, it's what happens next, when it hardens or get rained at, and then it becomes effing slippery and sleetlike. Which is what I'm not ready to face yet. I still don't have snow boots, and I am not yet in the mood for the sore tush I get at least once every winter in korea.

It's such a hassle to go out now. Better to stick to the heated room and type up inane thoughts, or get hungry reading food blogs haha.

------

Tomorrow's Saturday. I should go to the doctor, yes, to get a new batch of my blood meds but I think I'll pass this week. Instead I'll spend my morning cleaning the house, cooking some stuff and having a few of my friends taste test them. Hopefully, all that effort (cleaning, going to the supermart early, cooking) will yield some results, or at least useful feedbacks.

Then at late noon, will have to go to Suyu to bring some stuffs to our pastor's house, chitchat then come home again for sleep! Wow, now that I think of it, tomorrow's a busy day eh!

Tired

2008-12-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a number of things after work today. Most of them business-related. But I got dissapointed witht the result of the first task and now it's 10 pm, too short a time to do the other two tasks I've set out for tonight.

- 0 - 0 -

I can't wait to go home. I'm having a bout of loneliness. But in two weeks I'd be home and I'd have someone to laugh with and kiss (my affectionate labrador, Potter) and friends to meet up with. Haaay, I miss my family...

- 0 - 0 -

Something's up. But I'll keep quiet for now. If things push through I might as well go with a change in career. yay!

Saturday is Pig-out Day!

2008-11-22T04:09:00.000-08:00

Or at least this Saturday is! I met up with Mikee at Yongsan, Korea's own version of Akihabara, the electronic haven where most techno-geeks buy their laptops, PCs, game consoles, camera and other electronic whatnots. Most of the locals and foreigners who are in the know come here to buy their stuffs, because, one, you can haggle and asks for discounts here, and two, most vendors here are amenable to giving you freebies (camera cases, free cleaners, and sometimes even free heavy duty tripods), especially if you are a repeat customer.

Although Yongsan is known for its electronics, a part of the I'Park Mall, the big mall connected to the subway station, was turned into a leisure center, with a section for shopping stuffs (clothes, shoes etc) and a six-story wing crammed with eateries and restaurants. So now after you get your electronic stuffs, you can have really great meals at not so expensive prices and good ambience.

Because it was already lunch time, we first had lunch.

Mabouni's
This is the first time we tried eating here. If you're a Filipino, you'd smirk at the restaurant's name. We were laughing as we remarked that wow, Masarap ang Mabouni's. In Tagalog Mabouni means you have a lot of buni, an embarassing fungal infection characterized by scaly itchy skin. haha.

Here's what we had:
Bread with cheese and anchovies plus some buttered vegetables for appetizers.
The bread was yummy and you could taste the delicate flavor of anchovies. I love anchovies as long as it's not to overpowering, here the fishiness of the anchovies and the creamy-tartness of the cheese was perfectly balanced.

Green Salad
Nothing extraordinary. The usual greens with the sweet mustard dressing that is so de rigeur in korea.

Pasta Vongole (Pasta with Clams)
Now this is one yummy pasta! I just wished there were more clams! But the garlicky olive oil sauce was perfect! I am biased to pesto based pastas because it's a safer choice and most restaurants serve a pretty decent version of pesto but this clam in garlic oil pasta is totally yummy! I suspect that this one's a pretty easy pasta to replicate too, with just a few ingredients (Clams, olive oil, stewed garlic, chili flakes), hopefully one of these days I'll have time to try making it :)

Pizza Margherita (Pizza with cheese and tomato sauce)
A pretty basic thin crust pizza. While the crust is good, thin and crispy, the tomato sauce is a bit too mild for my taste, you have to add a lot of tabasco and parmesan to get some flavor in the pizza. But maybe their other pizzas are better, with more toppings and stronger flavors.

All smiles!

Mikee and the decimated pasta!

I think we had a pretty good lunch. The meal cost about 22000 won ( about 15 dollars) which I think is pretty reasonable since the servings are big. We were not able to finish the pizzas and salads! And the place is quiet and conducive to lazy chitchats.

After lunch, we roamed around Yongsan canvassing the prices of laptops and Macbooks and then met up with Mario. We went to Mr. Kang's stall, the favorite camera dealer of Pinoy Samsung engineers haha, where Mario bought some lighting stuff for his DSLR. Mikee also bought an ipod for "Sam" and then off we go to my most favorite part in Yongsan.

It's a magical place, originally from New York called...

Doughnut Plant makes artisanal donuts that are big, hefty, cakey and very very filling. And best of all, not too sweet! They only have bakeries in Manhattan, where it began, in Tokyo and now in Seoul. I accidentally discovered this a few weeks ago with my dad and bro. We were looking for some place to have some snacks and found this little charming doughnut shop. And from then on I was hooked!

Mikee, Mario and me shared the following Donuts:

Tres leches--a decadent doughnut with a milky, creamy flavor to it (tastes a bit like leche flan!) and covered with a milk glaze

Caramel- caramel glazed doughnut, which while rich is not too sweet.

Valhrona chocolate-- donut glazed with valhrona chocolate

Sorry for the crappy pic..Picture of the doughnuts halfway through our pigout session. Caramel, tres leches, chocolate..
But I'll confess one thing, though their donuts are heavenly, for me at least the best part of eating at Doughnut Plant is this:

Their Valhrona chocolate drink! This drink, rich, cool, and not really sweet, has turned me, who does not really like chocolate, into a fan! I ..will..eat..drink..chocolate..as..long..as..it's..valhrona..

Enjoying every sip!

My Menu for the Holidays

2008-11-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

Because this is my first Christmas with the family in five years I have taken the task to plan and cook/bake the holiday meals. I have been thinking about what to cook, trying to balance the time constraints (because I have only two weeks, I want to make the most of my time too!) and at the same time make something memorable. I know for one that It's been five years since our home had a home-baked cake for the season, and so one thing on my agenda is to bake a few goodies, and limit the store-bought stuffs to a bare minimum.

Yes, it would be most convenient to just buy ready cooked stuffs and assemble them for dinner. But where's the TLC in that? Cooking/Baking has always been the easiest and most tangible way for me to show my affection to people I care about. So now, finally, after years abroad, I'll have this Christmas to cook for my family.

Noche Buena

appetizers (to be served in lieu of dinner, since we don't really eat dinner on Christmas eve in anticipation of the big meal when the clock strikes 12):
queso de bola slices
adelina's ham slices (i prefer sliced pan fried ham without any oil, than baked ones)
bread

Roast Chicken (just marinate the chicken in the morning to make sure that the flavors have been absorbed thoroughly)
Lasagna (prepared and baked a day before, I learned that food like baked mac and lasagna develop their flavors fully after a day)
Homemade Rustic Pizzas
Broccoli Salad + some macaroni salad for my mother who can't eat brocolli
modified Tres Leches Cake with mangosteen yema for filling

Media Noche
Pad Thai (Thai stir fried noodles)
Cha Gio (Vietnamese spring roll using rice wrappers dipped in warm water, something akin to a salad)
Crispy Liempo
Creme Brulee/ Leche Flan (if I am able to buy a portable blowtorch I'd love to experiment with creme brulee)
Buko Pandan Cooler
Fruits! Lots of Fruits

in between, I plan to make a peach cobbler for my brother (it his favorite) and a few batches of brownies and ginger cookies for my Dad in Davao.

Well, that's it. Can't wait to start cooking!

Planning time redux!

2008-11-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

Dahil wala akong ginagawa ngayon (for a change!) Eto at nasa Pilipinas ang utak ko.
Isang buwan na lang, makakapagbakasyon na naman! Superduper excited! Kanina naglilista lista ako ng gift list haha. Ngayon eto at nagplaplano na naman ako ng schedule of activities sa aking dalawang linggong bakasyon. Una syempre ay ang pagwhi-white water rafting ko sa Davao at hopefully sa CDO. Pero kahit isa lang okay na. Nililista ko ang mga friends na dapat i-meet: Si bespren, si sister, si Tekla sa Davao,si Dr. Bogie, yung blockmate ko nung college na magbabakasyon din from Oz, mga college berks, at syempre bonding moments with my favorite Pinsan from Oz at ang kanyang cute na cute na blue eyed son.

Actually, di ako mahilig mag plano plano dati ng schedule ko sa bakasyon, may kaibigan lang akong mahilig magplano noon kaya naimpluwensyahan ako. So far, mas okay nga ang planning, kasi you get to pack more activities in a given time. Saka nakikita mo kung ano yung rest days mo at kung ano pa ang pwede mong gawin. At isa pa, minsan kahit super pagod ka na, knowing na may sched to follow ka, baaa, biglang nagkakaroon ng surge of energy. Mas efficient. :)

Sabagay wala naman akong masyadong goals ngayon sa paguwi ko, basta alam ko lang ay ten days sa luzon at 5 days sa Davao. Usually yung gabi naman ay for meet-ups with friends. So yung aking mornings and afternoons free pa for other activities, like marathon dvds at pakikipagkulitan sa aking mga pamangkins na hopefully ay sa amin magpapasko.Aside from medical appointments at get-together with friends, ang goal ko lang naman sa pag-uwi ngayon ay:
Makapasyal sa La Mesa EcoPark at magzipline
Magpunta sa dagat sa Davao ( na super dali kasi 15 minutes away lang to sa bahay)
Magpa-masahe
at maging in-charge sa aming Noche Buena at Media Noche!

After four Christmasses abroad first time kong magcelebrate ng Pasko with the family, and balik ulet ako sa pagiging cook/baker/table setter, at super looking forward ako dito.
Oo nga pwede namang bumili na lang, kaya lang iba pa rin yung ikaw ang gagawa. Saka namimiss ko na ang magbake ng cake for a special occasion at ang mag-conceptualize ng menu at iba pang ka-ek-ekan sa table. Nagsesearch search na nga ako sa internet kung anong bagong putahe ang okay na susubukan at isama sa aming handa.

Namimiss ko na rin kasing mamili ng mga foodstuffs. Yung tipong dadayo pa kami sa Mandaluyong para sa ham (Adelina’s!), at sasamahan ko ang Nanay ko sa palengke para maghanap ng prutas. Iniisip ko ngang mag-excursion ng kalahating araw sa Chinatown para bumili ng ingredients at prutas doon. Haaay, eto talaga ang trip ko sa buhay, ang nakakarelax sakin kahit napapagod ako, kahit time consuming sya-- ang magplano at magluto para sa important gatherings with special people 

My Jajangmyeon Love

2008-11-15T03:51:00.001-08:00

Jajangmyeon is a Korean dish, often attributed to be originally brought to Korea by Chinese people who migrated to country. It is a simple dish of wheat noodles (best when made fresh) topped with a mysterious black sauce. Okay, the sauce is actually made of black bean paste plus some veggies (onions, zucchini, leeks) and sometimes meat or seafood.

The last time I lived in Korea, back in 2005, I didn't really appreciate this dish. We used to frequent a chinese restaurant near our office building serving set meals with jajangmyeon plus either fried rice or sweet and sour pork. I kinda ate jajangmyeon just because it was part of the cheaper lunch sets.

But one of my best buddies, and usual lunchmate introduced us to this jajangmyeon place near our office. Turns out his boss took him to lunch here one time, and now it's become one of our favorite lunch out restos!

The non-descript looking but delicious jajngmyeon. How do I describe the taste? It's not too salty but it's complex in flavor. A hint of meatiness, the sweetness of onions and the slight rubberiness of the wheat noodles. Comfort food! Having eating other bad jajangmyeon, I'm sticking with this restaurant for my jajangmyeon fix!

To go with the noodles, we ordered fried rice with more jajang sauce. This is a typical meal here. Fried rice + jajang sauce. For me though, I like my jajang with myeon(noodles!)

We also ordered some sweet and sour pork which was pretty good, with lots of pineapple chunks which made Olan happy, because he loves pineapple,actually pineapple is the only fruit he likes, so there we gave all of the pineapples to him.

Of course there was the free kimchi:
The Kimchi served here is pretty good, and has been aged. Fresh kimchi is yucky! The garlic is still too overpowering and the taste is just raw and uhmmm funky. But this restaurant serves pretty good kimchi. And what's more it's free and you can ask for refills!

Olan cutting the kimchi.

I'm savoring the free tea. Because it's gone cold they now serve free hot tea instead of water. Pretty considerate of them, I think.

I don't think there's an english name printed on the front of the resto. But for those who'd like to try a good Jajangmyeon in Insa-dong. Just look for the restaurant with a front show window showing a man making wheat noodles. It's about 15 meters away from Starbucks (which I dunno if you'll recognize haha because the word "starbucks" in Insa-dong is written in Korean so as to go with the Insa-dong theme, that is, traditional Korean arts and crafts). Here's the pic of the restaurant storefront:

Kuya Rene at the restaurant with the noodle man working his magic in the background.

On a chilly Saturday

2008-11-15T02:52:00.000-08:00

I asked my close friend and so-called funny buddy Mikee to accompany me to the Namdaemun Market to buy some Korean Pens that I'll bring home to Pinas in December. We meet at the station at 10 AM, without any breakfast, and haggled our way to buying 70 pens and some Korean Dolls. If you're wondering what I'll do with the 70 pens well, those aren't mine actually. It's for my Dad, his gift to his staff and the dolls are the pabilins of my mother.
After finishing my shopping tasks, Mikee and I walked over to Myeongdong. Now it's a bit of an irony how Namdaemun, the famous open air market where people buy goods at the cheapest prices is just a fifteen minute walk away from Myeongdong, which is often hailed as the trendiest shopping street in Seoul. We went around some shops, but having no budget for shopping, I just gazed at the goods and waited for Mikee to buy his stuffs. (He bought a really cute and pricey shirt at Ralph Lauren. What can I say? He has posh tastes!).

Now all that walking did make us hungry! Since we haven't had breakfast we decided to have some good lunch (my request: no fastfood!) at Nutrition Centre. A no-frills restaurant offering ginseng chicken and an unbelievable roast chicken. I say unbelievable because their roast chicken looks like this:

Looks and tastes like a pretty darn good fried chicken to me.

But yep it's roasted. Part of the secret I think is that they use a young chicken, this in the picture is half of the chicken. Plus they roast the chicken in an upright position, as can be seen if you peek at the roasting area near the front door of the resto. Anyhow, this has alway been our default resto when we are in Myeongdong, it's yummy, nutritious and pretty reasonable. This lunch set costs 7000 won which is about 5 dollars. Good value for money.

I was supposed to go to the office after lunch to do some work but it rained pretty hard and we had no umbrellas so instead we decided to pass the time at TCBTL (The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We had some cakes (cheesecake and tiramisu) and Mint Tea.
My funny buddy Mikee.

Playing it up at coffeebean.

We ended up chatting and laughing for like three hours! Yep, that's why he's my funny buddy, because we can laugh and yap about for hours. So despite the Saturday being a bit depressing and gloomy, and though it means that I'll have to go to work tomorrow,on a Sunday, I still had a good time, many thanks to a great friend. :)

Dahil nagbasa ako ng The Lost Soul Companion...

2008-11-06T21:07:00.001-08:00

May nabasa ako noong isang araw sa The Lost Soul Companion, ang title nya ay What to Do Instead of Killing Yourself. Nakakaaliw sa ibang mga suggestions nya (Breathe, take as shit) tapos napaisip ako, kahit nung sobrang lungkot ko di ko pa naman inabot ang point na gusto ko nang mawala sa mundo. Still minsan meron talagang sad moments, yung di ko mapigilan mag S-mode..Sana, sana, sana with accompanying sad puppy eyes. And I think tama nga yung advise nung Lost Soul Companion, na in times of pathos pinakamadali at mabilis na pangontra dyan ay a bit of self awareness at yung conscious effort to throw yourself into the thick of things. Isipin mo nga naman sa dami ng pwede pang gawin sa buhay ay bakit mo gugustuhin kitilin ito? At eto biggest lesson of all, sa mga biglang nawalan ng other half at pakiwari ay di nila kayang mabuhay o tumayo ng mag-isa, Aysus, nasa isip lang yan! Part lang yang pagiisip na yan ng grieving period, pero hala, andaming bagay na mas masaya gawing mag-isa! Not that I discount the happiness na pagiging isang couple, kaya lang naisip ko ngayon na kesa magdadradrama ka at wala ka na rin lang naman magagawa di ba mas magandang gamitin ang time alone mo ngayon para gawin ang mga bagay na better meant na gawin habang single? Sa akin, pakiramdam ko binibigyan ko ang sarili ko ng isang taon ng “discovery”. Kasama na dun ang self-improvement, paglalagalag at pag-attempt na ma-fulfill ang aking passion (ano yun? Secret muna..pag may result na ipagkakalat ko na wahehehe).

Kaya nga, gaya ng sabi ng gumawa ng Lost Soul Companion, kung nalulungkot ka gawa ka ng listahan ng pwede mong pagkaabalahan gaya ng pagkain ng paborito mong lafang, lumabas ka at mag-photographer mode, makipagkwentuhan sa tindera sa sidewalk, i-lock mo ang pinto at magsong and dance concert ka sa kwarto mo, magjogging ka, linisin mo ang kwarto mo, o kaya matulog ka at kung gusto mo ay nakahubad pa, pero bago ka matulog namnamin mo yung lambot ng unan mo, yung feeling ng kumot at matress sa balat mo, matulog ka na nagiisip ng mga pangarap mo sa buhay nung bata ka, at kung kagaya ko ikaw na na mahilig tumambay sa kusina, magluto ka, ilabas mo ang iyong creativity sa pagluluto ( O kaya basahin mo yung Like Water for Chocolate ni Laura Esquivel, kakainspire magluto!).

Narealize ko ngayon, ang pinakaimportante talaga ay makilala mo ang sarili mo. Yung hindi ka na nag-aadjust lagi, yung mag-stick ka sa pamantayan mo. Ako dati, sa tingin ko, sobrang giving ako sa mga mahal ko sa buhay. Pero ngayon narealize ko dapat matuto kang magpahalaga muna ng sarili mo kesa sa iba kahit gaano pa sila kahalaga sayo. Kasi alam mo yung word na “change”, lahat nagbabago kahit yung gusto mong hindi magbago, at ang constant lang na matitira sa iyo ay yung awareness mo kung ano at sino ka talaga, ipaglaban natin yun! Sabi nga ng isang cheer namin nung highschool, Fight for your right! To be you…Bow.

The fun begins! :)

2008-11-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Kamuntikan na akong ma-governight sa Incheon International Airport kagabi. My gash naman kasi yang bloody fog na yan, nadivert tuloy ang eroplano ng tatay at kapatid ko sa faraway Busan. At imbes na 8:45 PM, mag-a-ala una na ng madaling araw sila nakalabas sa Incheon. Kaya eto medyo lutang ako, pano syempre pagdating sa bahay eh nagkwentuhan pa kami at inutusan pa akong magluto at maghugas. Alas kwatro na ako natulog at ngayon heto at nasa opisina na naman. Anlabo naman kasi, nung nasa airport kami sa tapat ng madaming eateries eh hindi daw sila gutom, pagdating sa flat biglang nakaramdam ng hunger pains! Haaay, pero carry lang naman, for the love of family, charing.

Pero kahit na lutang, masaya pa rin ako, madami na naman akong stock ng paborito kong dried pineapple, may Lapid’s chicharon pa at mangosteen candies! Meron na rin kakain ng lulutuin ko for one week, at hopefully mapupuri ulet ang aking cooking skills (kapal!). Pero maliban sa pagkain, the fact lang na may kasama ako sa bahay, may kakulitan ng isang linggo eh okay na okay na. Isa pa pwede na ulet akong magpakaspoiled brat at isip bata sa anim na araw na nandito ang tatay ko. Hindi ko alam kung normal yun, basta nagiiba talaga ang aking aura pag kasama ko tatay ko. Parang wala lang, pwede ulet magpaka-carefree. At sa tanda kong ito, madalas pa rin akong naguungot sa tatay ko ng mga bagay bagay, yung di naman mahal, pero yung fact lang na may Dad pa ako na makakantyawan para bilhan ako ng small things (minsan small and expensive, pero lately nahihiya na ako hehe) ay super nakakapagpasaya na sakin.
Tapos andito rin ang kapatid ko, may partner at sidekick pa ako sa pagkain, pangungulit, at pagplano plano ng future negosyo. Kaya lang emo mode naman sya kaagad nasa airport taxi palang kami papuntang flat nagdradrama na tungkol sa pagiging heart broken nya. Nakapagreact tuloy ako ng ano ba dalawang linggo na kitang pinagtyatyagaang ichat gabi gabi ah sabi mo di paguusapan yan ngayong bakasyon nyo, daig mo pa ako sa drama ha! Hehehe, ang kulit! Biglang hirit naman ang kapatid ko ng punchline, Si Dad kasi binigyan kami ng defective gene sa love. Sabay tingin kami ng kunwari galit sa tatay ko. Ang cool ng tatay ko, sagot lang nya “Hindi kasi kayo marunong magdala!” Ahehehe. Sabagay, may katotohanan nga yun. Ganun yata talaga, requirement ang masaktan ng sobra-sobra para maitanim di lang sa isip pero sa katauhan mo mismo ang mga di at di dapat gawin sa buhay.

Andami kong naiplano na gala at bonding moments naming tatlo for the next week, sana lang matuloy lahat :)

Ayokong Maglunch

2008-11-04T19:16:00.000-08:00

Two days na akong di naglulunch. Kahapon, kasi inaantok ako. Ngayon, dahil super hyper ako (salamat sa kape) at gustong gusto kong matapos na ang book ni Haruki Murakami. Sa lahat ng books nya na nabasa ko etong A Wild Sheep Chase ako pinaka-enjoy. Siguro kasi di pa masyadong malungkot yung premise (pero tignan natin, kasi kalahati pa lang naman ako) at kinda cool yung character. Imagine may babae na super normal lang pero pag pinapakita nya ang tenga nya nagtratransform at nagiging unexplainably out of the universe beautiful..O diva! Di lang pala sa pinas may blusang itim mentality..Hehe

Anyhoo, busy sa work. kelangan kong kumayod kasi bukas may meeting..Eh medyo nagbagal bagal akong magtrabaho kahapon, kaya eto seryosong work na ngayon.

Bukas darating na ang bro at Dad ko! Can't wait! Excited na akong maging tour guide. At meron na rin akong valid reason na magpunta sa amusement park! haha ambabaw..Sana lang maenjoy nila ang Seoul, sana maayos ang pag-gala namin...At sana maibsan ang pagiging heartbroken ng kapatid ko..(Protective sister mode on)

Anyhoo may pa-farewell pala dun sa dati kong company..Actually farewell ata ng ex-syota ko..At ang mga friendly friends dun syempre may pangaasar na inimbita ako..Haller! Una sa lahat di ko sya gustong makita. Kahit na sabihin pang di lang naman para sa kanya ang party na yon..Ayokong magpakaplastic no..Sa totoo lang ayoko nang makita kahit anino nya..Naiinis akong isipin na medyo super naibuhos ko ang katangahan at ka-martyan ko ng dalawang buwan sa isang "Frankenstein"...Hehe bitter ba? Di naman actually, nagmove on na nga ako..at kasama dun sa pagmove on na yun ang burahin sya sa buhay ko :) Diba, ganun naman talaga ang buhay? Kaya nga minsan tinetest ang patience ko ng isa naming kaibigan eh..Tama bang isama sama lagi si ex-syota sa usapan? Una sa lahat, sa tingin ko nga may problema dahil mahilig sumawsaw tong berks na to eh..Although good naman siguro ang intention nya nun..Sana di na lang sya nageffort makihalo samin ni "Frankie" baka naging friends pa kami sa huli..Kaya talaga grrr..hilig pang idrop netong taong to ang updates kay Frankie..eh sa totoo lang no..Care ko!!! Naisip ko ngayon, di sya kawalan sa buhay ko..Dahil wala syang bola..(translate nyo na lang sa english hehehe)..Yun lang..ayan nakapag-rant na ako..Back to reading mode..

Bakit Ako Tumataba sa Korea?

2008-11-04T05:13:00.000-08:00

Kasi naging super close kami nila Kuya R at O! Sisihin ba ang mga kaibigan?!
Si O at ako, sa Samsung palang best of friendly friends na. Kaya nung bumalik ako dito at nagdadrama drama ipinakilala nya ako sa mga berks nya..Ayun ngayon eto kami na ang three stoogies!

At ang favorite hobby naming tatlo ay ang kumain sa labas at least once a week. Sa mga di nakakaalam, libre ang almusal, tanghalian at hapunan sa aming opisina..Ngunit, sapagkat, we can only take so much kimchi at mabahong isda..Kaya naglulunch out kami usually 2x a week, minimum of one. Meron kaming apat na restoran na pinagpipilian lagi, yung tipong kilala na kami at namumukhaan ng mga waiters hehe. Ayun, umiikot lang usually sa apat na ito ang lunch out namin.

Nung lunes, dun kami sa FOODING kumain. Malapit lang sya sa opis, five minutes walk lang. Sa sobrang lapit eh wala kaming jacket na lumabas ng office kahit na 6 degrees na ata ang temp. nun hehe. Eto ang ilang pics. Wala lang gusto ko lang pakita..Galing yan sa aking bagong sub-compact digicam kasi haha..At sorry di ako nag-phophotoshop (Wala ako nun, at wala akong tyaga mag-edit no!) kaya what you see is what you get! Bow...

Si O, hawak ang picture menu sa Fooding. Yep Fooding talaga pangalan nung resto, Fooding: Nomadic Bistro..Nomadic siguro kasi halo halo ang cuisine--may korean, japanese, mexican at kung ano ano pa sa menu nila. Pero loyal kami sa orders namin, same lagi, yun at yun lang..

Excited na kaming maglunch ni Kuya R!

Libreng banchan (appetizers): miso soup, pickled lotus strips (ata ha..) at syemps kimchi.

Eto ang pinakakonting order namin sa resto na ito, Pramis. Usually dalawa yung pork cutlets, pero di namin laging nauubos..Kaya testing kung kasya to samin..:)

Ang paborito kong Phad Thai..

Excited!

Pork Cutlets (aka Tonkatsu) with side salad, rice at potato tots.

Ang paborito ni O, Quesadillas. Yummy sya! Beefy and hefty..

Parang binagyo no.. Hahaha.

Bakit gusto namin sa Fooding? Una, yummy! Generous servings, good ambiance, sobrang lapit at syempre di sya kamahalan. Our meal cost 17,000 won lahat. In pesos mga 680 lang, kaya we love it. (Saka dito lang yung may Phad Thai na mura na nadiscover ko, I love Phad Thai eh, brings back..wala I love it lang! hehe)

Yeah!

2008-11-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

So eto may bago akong blog. Di ko kasi ma-take i-massacre yung blog ko na ginawa ko for writing purposes kaya gumawa na lang ako ng bago para sa mga kababawan ko. Wala lang, kasi gusto kong magpost ng mga pics na kung ano-ano, gusto kong magrant sa tagalog, gusto kong magkwento ng mga walang wenta, eh syempre kakasira naman ng image at future writing career kung isasama ko yung mga yun sa aking "serious" blog.
Kaya eto na lang hehe..Sheep Happens! Wala lang, galing ng title ano! Kasi naghahanap ako ng magandang skin sa blog ko..Yung light lang..Eh nakita ko to..Tapos may sheep! Eh eto binabasa ko ngayon ang book ni Haruki Murakami tungkol sa paghahanap sa isang tupang may star sa noo..O diba! Serendipity! galeng! kaya eto..sheep happens! At least may bago na akong mantra lalo pag nanggigil ako sa mga tao sa tabi tabi, gaya ng mga pana kong officemates na feeling ko eh tingin sa kin eh engots (or tingin nila eh pinakamagaling sila! Imagine sabihin ba sa meeting namin na India is the best! My gash! Eh nasa Korea sila, tapos kaharap nila Pinoy at Vietnamese at Korean! Kung best man sila, best in kahanginan at kawalan ng propriety!) Ayan nalilihis na ang intro ko..Tsk Tsk ganito talaga tong blog na to..Ala masyadong sense..Kaya oks lang kung mapapa-sheep! sheep talaga! kayo habang binabasa nyo to. Bwahahahaha

P.S. Tinanggal ko na yung skin na may sheep..Hirap i-edit eh nawawala yung mga widgets ko..pero niretain ko pa rin ang blog title hehehe..

S**HEEP** HAPPENS !%*@!