Girls' Night Out with the BFF

It's Friday once again. BFF had a pretty stressful week, to cheer her up, I invited her to have a spa girls' night out with me.

We're pretty simple ladies. All we need is a decent reasonably priced massage and we're good to go. I was craving for a Thai massage and I searched the web for an affordable alternative to the swanky spas in Makati. I came upon some decent reviews for Ton-Ton massage. All of the reviews that I managed to read agreed on the nice and soothing massage but gave low marks on the ambiance. Me, personally agrees with the review. Ton-ton is a straighforward, massage "parlor", no fancy frills, no designer tea, no comfy lounge and certainly no zen-like ambiance except for dim lights, soft music and a few slats of bamboo. That's it. Barring these, my best friend and I truly enjoyed our massage. After all, shelling out just P375 for an hour and a half of massage isn't bad, BFF even fell asleep and had to be shaken several times to wake her up, he he he. We tried the one along Pasay Road, right in front of The Residences. We'll probably try the one in BF next time. I didn't take any pictures because it wasn't very photogenic. For some images in the BF branch, I got these images from southbound.ph:





I personally prefer the Thai massage over the Shiatsu. Thai massage involves a bit of stretching and lots of deep massages using the masseus' hands, feet, elbows, knees and arms. It is dry massage (without any oils) and you are made to wear lose comfortable clothing for ease of movement, the massage is usually done on a mattress on the floor.

After our massage, we had a simple dinner at Pizza Hut Bistro. BFF is partial to pasta and is alergic to shellfish. We passed by the bistro on our way to another restaurant and decided to try it out instead. It was quiet and comfortable. The food isn't bad and the prices are reasonable.

The Fetuccine Alfredo is a favorite of my best friend. She ALWAYS has this when we go out. So, it wasn't a surprise that she ordered that. She mentioned to me that I actually introduced her to the "white sauce" spaghetti back in the day (maybe elementary days) and she got hooked since then.



I had a Seafood Pasta with Prawns and New Zealand Mussels in White Wine Sauce. I like this also. The flavor is light but quite filling.



We also shared a Salad of Cucumbers and Crabmeat (imitation) with some miso dressing wrapped in rice paper. It was also nice, light and refreshing.



What a lovely evening :-) Can't wait for the next one!

New Bombay Restaurant

It's Tito Boy's last night in Manila after a short visit and we decided to celebrate it with an Indian dinner. Our place of choice is New Bombay Restaurant in Glorietta (right beside Pho Hoa/Bac (?) and Subway).

New Bombay is an intimate restaurant that seats maybe 30 people, tops. The interior is decorated with Indian colors and murals. The heavy chairs even have bells in them and yes, there are plenty of gold, red and orange accents.



We ordered quite a variety of food which was more than enough for four people.

For starters, we ordered the Malai Paneer Tikka, cottage cheese sauteed in cream and cashew nut paste. I like this very much. The cottage cheese is lightly grilled and is very tasty.



My favorite is the Palak Paneer. The menu describes it as Paneer cooked in spinach sauce. Paneer by definition is "fresh, unripened cheese", whatever that means :-)



My mom's favorite is the Dal Makani, thick yellow lentils with spices. My mom can't get enough of this. It's great with some Naan, an oven baked flat bread.



We also had a heaping serving of Vegetarian Biryani. Biryani is essentially an Indian fried rice made with Basmati rice. Basmati Rice are elongated rice granules and "buhaghag" when cooked. I saw an Indian lady at the supermarket the other day, testing the rice guy if Basmati Rice is sticky rice or not. The guy answered, "It's not sticky" and then the lady would try to confuse him again by asking other varieties in the supermarket. Eventually asking the same question over and over again. Poor guy. I wanted to say to the lady to just buy the friggin' rice already!



Anyway, I got carried away with my story. We also had Chicken Tandoori. It's called tandoori because it's cooked in a tandoor oven, usually made of clay that is heated by wood or charcoal in high heat. Sort of like the Indian version of an Italian wood fired oven. I like the cilantro dipping sauce that came with the chicken, great dipping sauce for the naan.



We also had Fish Tikka, bonelss fish marinated in yoghurt and secret Indian spices cooked in a traditional clay oven (Tandoor).



The Malai Prawns were also good. These prawns were marinated in cashew paste cream and roasted in the tandoor oven. The sauce is similar to a barbecue sauce, sweet and tangy.



Overall, I like this restaurant very much. It is quiant, intimate and the food is delicious. I would recommend this to everyone who likes Indian food, or would like to try Indian food. You won't be disappointed. Bring your appetite with you!

In Bangkok!

I'm here in Thailand with hubby. I'm enjoying my stay so far. The food's great! Will blog about it soon.

Oh my, I still have to publish my Sydney blog and now I have more adventures to blog :-)

Life is good :-)

A Sinful Daydream

Last night I had a terrible craving for churros. Churros by definition is a thick coiled fritter of fried dough traditionally dipped in hot chocolate sauce. The very definition of it would probably give your heart surgeon the goosebumps.





The very best churro that I have ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth is from San Churro along Acland Street in St. Kilda, Melbourne. The shop itself is charming and homey, the staff are friendly and smell is so enticing and wonderful. Willy Wonka’s factory might have smelled just as heavenly.







Despite the dough being fried, it wasn’t greasy at all and oh the chocolate sauce, oh my, the chocolate sauce. If I may dare, it’s like an orgasm in a demi cup. The chocolate is simply silky and heavenly, not too sweet, not too bitter. Oh my gosh, just thinking about it, makes my mouth water.



If I close my eyes and picture it, I can almost taste its decadent sweetness…hmmmm...

Dradog

Dralion, a mythical beast, half dragon, half lion



Dradog...aka Poe, Popot, dirty filthy dog, who is incaple of drinking neatly from his dog dish :-)

Hubby and I watched Dralion when we were in Melbourne. Dralion itself reminded me of my puppy Poe. They both look cute and mischievous.

Lunch with a Childhood Friend

My family used to live in Quezon City. We lived in a small apartment on a hilly portion of the city. I remember it quite clearly. We rented the corner unit just beside the garden with Camias, Avocado and Chesa trees. The house at the corner across the street was occupied by a family with three little girls. The oldest, Michelle, was a very close friend at that time (I was four, maybe five years old). We lived there for five years. In those five years, everyday was spent with my childhood friend Michelle.

My family later moved to BF Homes and contact with Michelle, was limited to occassional visits to the area (we didn't have a landline then, cellphones and internet were yet to be invented). Until finally when we settled in our new lives (high school, college, work and then married life)we lost contact. Well, there's a little social networking site called Facebook, and she tracked me down about a week ago. We decided to immediately meet at Trinoma after over ten years of not seeing each other.

While waiting for Michelle to arrive, hubby got busy eating an ice cream "burger" at Sebastian's. Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies and then rolled into more chocolate chips and nuts. Yeah, that was hubby's breakfast together with a piece of apple pie from the drive through on our way there.






I am simply posing with the product, not eating it :-)





Anyway, I digress. Michelle, hubby and I had lunch at Abe. Abe being a Campangan word for "friend" or "companion". Very fitting wouldn't you say? We had very nice selection from the menu. Mangga't bagoong, Crispy Tadyang. Sinigang na Hipon and Chicharon Bulaklak. Yeah, our cholesterol probably shot up as we finished our meal, he he he.







After our meal, hubby was gracious enough to Michelle and I alone to talk in Starbucks, and he went his merry way to surf the net somewhere else.



I had so much fun talking to Michelle reminiscing about our childhood, talking about our families and friends, jobs, our spouses, our marriages and the stuff that we did for the past two decades! Yikes, I keep forgetting I'm in my 30s. Sometimes I feel like I just got out of college. Anyway, I found out Michelle and I still have so many things in common, it's quite freaky in a fun way :-)

It was such a happy afternoon. I should have more afternoons like that.

As hubby and I were about to leave, we chanced upon Red Mango. A youghurt shop that I've heard about that's been getting quite a buzz. We checked it out as well, but mostly because hubby can't turn down ice cream (or frozen youghurt) even if his life depended on it, he he he ;-) Hubby had the regular kind in medium size with three fruit toppings of mango, banana and water melon.





I had the small green tea youghurt with almonds and muesli. I loved it!



What a perfect way to end such a happy afternoon :-)

Mother's Day Celebration 2009

First of all, I would like to greet all the moms out there a belated happy mother's day. To my mom, I love you and I am so happy that God chose you to be my mother. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Our mother's day celebrations by tradition is done in LP, it was like that when my lola was still alive and this year, we are missing one mother. My cousin Annie who is in Canada, happy mother's day to you too.



My mom is usually the "star" during this celebration (after my lola has passed on). She usually cooks something special to show off her culinary talents :-) This year, she combined two of our favorites in one dish. Kare-kareng Lechon Kawali. The title says it all. We've all been trying to cut down on pork but Mother's day was a free pass for everyone, no guilt. My mom made three kilos of lechon kawali for just nine people. Yep, three kilos. It was so good! My mom's kare-kare sauce is famous from the world over (well, Manila, USA, Canada and China). This was a great hit. Hubby would even brag about mom's kare-kare to his colleagues.



We had some other healthy stuff too, like this vegetable lumpia with togue, green beans, potatoes, kamote and carrots.



Mussels soup, baked cream dory with a parmesan crust.





Of course being the dessert ninang, I made a Black Forest Trifle.



Our family is so blessed with such wonderful moms who nurtured us and who will continue to nurture future generations with their love, support and understanding.



What would be the world like without moms?!.....................utter chaos :-)