Fruity World

I am sharing with you pics of fruits thriving in our backyard. . . we'll be missing these blessings once we move out. . .

That's Patricia with avocados within her reach. . .

shining evergreen avocado

so sweet atis. . .

golden yellow balimbings. . .

Once we are settled in our new place, I promise to plant as many fruit trees as I can. . .
please wish me luck, folks!

Squid and Seashells on a Saturday

Early Saturday morning walks for me usually means finding the freshest bounty from the sea inside the Gensan wet market. ( I got this habit of waking up early on a Saturday from my dear lola!)

These are simple dishes made out of freshest catch from our seas!

sinabawang aninikad

adobong pusit

and I usually buy ibos from a dear suki of mine
sa may kilid sa bularan. . .

My kids love Saturdays because of these!

Kung Hei Fat Choi from my Family to Yours!

My family joins the entire community in wishing everyone "Kung Hei Fat Choi!". I took advantage of this celebration by doing some special dishes relevant to the occasion for my kids and husband.

Recipes of the foodies I cooked will be made available in my upcoming posts. Meanwhile, I am sharing with you, my friends, pictures of what I prepared for this evening!

Bon appetit!

A Mom's Champorado

My Lola Iyay makes the best champorado during my younger years. We usually pair this fare with fried salted fish (bulad/daing). Having this food during rainy days was heavenly. It can sooth the numbness brought about by cold weathers.

I also tried serving my kids champorado and fried daing before and what I got was Ewwwww! For them, it was an odd pair so it's Ewwwww. . . . :-)

The mom in me made me look for ways to make my kids love champorado. Thanks heavens, there's fresh milk to the rescue :-) My kids now love more than ever my champorado!

here are the ingredients:

glutinous rice (cold rice can be a good substitute)
tablea/cocoa/chocolate
brown sugar
fresh milk

simple steps in cooking:

• cook the glutinous rice in water inside a big casserole/pan (1 cup rice = 4 cups water)
• when the rice is almost done, add your tablea/chocolate (stir until the chocolate melts)
• serve immediately with brown sugar and fresh milk

Best served with your best smile for your kids!

Manila Food Trip (My Yakimix Experience)

One of the unforgettable places I visited in Manila (thanks to Lito and family) was Yakimix. This is a sushi smokeless grill restaurant located at the ground floor of Mall of Asia in Pasay City. They offer an eat all you can buffet of Korean, Chinese and Japanese dishes for Php580 per person. Amazingly, it's quite pricey but the throng of people I saw when we went there made me conclude - when it comes to good food, price won't matter anymore! Also, you have to make reservations a day before or hours prior to their opening time to be accommodated (huh!) and you have to wait for your name to be called before you are allowed entry inside the posh restaurant. Scheduled opening in the afternoon was at 5:30 PM but as early as 4:00 PM people with reservations were already waiting outside of Yakimix.

I was in awe with their food offerings from the salad bar/appetizers, different kinds of rice, wide array of main courses (cooked and uncooked) to desserts - fresh fruits, cakes, pastries, ice creams and other what have yous. . .

a plateful of assorted super yummy Chinese dishes

seasoned meats for grilling in our table
( I loved the experience of cooking the meat and seafoods according to my preference!)

eat all you can maki!
(waiters are refilling the maki line up almost every 10 minutes)
sushi, sashimi, crabsticks and other Japanese fares are also offered

pastries and cakes area

they also have eat all you can popsicles, ice creams and toppings

this is my creation - for my eyes not for my tummy

(I was so full already - no more room for sweets :-)

For me, Yakimix delivers! You get you money's worth and you'll definitely keep on coming back for more!

Manila Food Trip (Part I)

My recent very short trip (36 hours to be exact!) to Manila gave me colorful memories of the good food we've had. My daughter Rafee and I wasted no time in having a taste of foodies not yet offered here in our city.

It's a good thing that near ADMU where Rafee is studying are several food joints to choose from. My first choice was Kenny Rogers Roasters. Ordered their holiday plate composed of mouth watering Waldorf Salad, Barbeque Chicken, Java rice, muffin and sparkling apple juice. It really made me burp and burp :-)

Next on my list was Starbucks! Actually, this was the only place I dreamt of setting foot into once I go to Manila - and I did it! The other places I went to are bonuses already for me :-)

Starbucks fare for Rafee and I - Capuccinos, luscious choco doughnut and my fresh from the oven cinnamon roll! I swear, I loved it!

There's more about my Manila foodie escapade, please watch out for it, guys! Thank you!

Biggie Veggie Salad

After a brief hiatus from my normal day to day activities, I am back again to one of my usual fare, blogging! That is to blog about the things I love to do over and over again...

Last Sunday saw me busy preparing for foods to be brought to Forest lake for a merienda cena with my dear cousins as we remember our Lolo's death anniversary. Despite the weary feeling after the several week grueling training, I still managed to please my dear couz's taste buds! :-)

I just prepared goodies I could prepare, literally, with my eyes closed. We had spaghetti, biko and fresh veggies salad.

Prepared three kinds of food only to save on time and the very precious energy of my sexy body (charing!) and truly, it did serve its purpose. . . Yeah, only three but all in big trays :-)

The fresh veggie salad was a hit! They did not expect I could come out with those kitchen masterpieces despite the very short time I had, but I did! Making fresh veggie salad is after all as easy as singing your ABC's. . .. . all you need is the time to buy the freshest of this veggies for the appetizing look and taste... and your love for cooking and concocting new recipes!

It's good that we already have supermarkets with ready supplies of these veggies and fruits:

lettuce
cucumber
carrots
tomatoes
apples
oranges
pineapples

I just mixed these assortment of fruits and veggies and topped it with crispy chicken meat , prepared dressing made up of mayonnaise, olive oil, pickles and a little parmesan -- lo and behold - I have a big tray of salad to serve to a bunch of happy people!