Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Reminiscing: Our first meeting

I can still remember, one Friday, I was in a meeting for the whole day with our Japanese guest when I received a text from my former officemate, Raymund, asking my permission if he could give my number to his friend. I ignored it for a while but he is persistent, sending me texts every hour. I tried to get information about his friend as much as I can and still focus on the meeting. He had said a lot of positive traits of this friend of his. I did not give him a definite answer of my approval. He kept saying that he strongly feels that we would look good together. Got an eyebrow raised when I read his message. More messages exchanged until late in the afternoon. I even remembered asking him if he’s actually at work w-o-r-k-i-n-g! Hahaha. I don’t go on blind dates. And I’m sure once I agreed to give him my number, meeting him would be next. Actually, I have two reasons why I can’t give him my permission right away. First, his friend is working at my former office, in which I know gossip travels fast. Secondly, I’m thinking it would just be a waste of time in case we didn’t like each other in the first place. But this former officemate of mine did not lose hope and seemed so sure of what’s going to happen. I reasoned with myself. First, in case we’ll be the talk in the office, it’ll be in his office and not mine! Secondly, I ask myself what do I got to lose? So at the end of the day I gave him my permission to finally give him my number.

The meeting I’m into ended late. Just as I sat at my desk, I got a message from his friend, said his name is JayR. Really, this guy didn’t want to lose any second I thought. I replied trying to be friendly. In 30 minutes I’m home. As I rest in my bed more getting-to-know-you messages were sent. Suddenly my celfone rang! Shocked, I instantly sat upright. With my mind arguing if I should answer it or not. Whoever it was on my mind urging me to answer it won. Next thing I knew, we were talking on the phone. Imagining what he looked like, I envisioned a tall guy, with tanned skin, and a clean shaved head. Hehe. I remember him asking me if I like to go bar hopping. The time he asked me this question, I knew right away that he’s close to asking me out. I honestly told him that I’m past those activities. And that I only go to bars when I got invited to a friend’s birthday that happens to be in a bar. Needless did I know that his birthday was coming! I got caught off-guard! He did not let one opportunity slip. I’m left with no choice. I didn’t want to be rude so we set to meet on one condition. He has to bring along our other officemate, Tere, who lives near our home. Who says asking me out is easy! Hahaha! Now he had to ask permission from our officemate’s fiancĂ© so she could accompany us.

So the day has arrived. We agreed that he’ll pick me up from my office in Alabang, By the way, did I mention he works in Makati, lives in Taytay Rizal and that I live in Laguna? Poor guy! Hahaha! He had asked me not to bring a car so he could give me a ride home. I insisted that I might be late for work if I don’t bring a car. He didn’t know it’s just my way not to ride with him in case our night won’t turn out the way Raymund had foreseen it’ll be. Also, I asked my officemates to be alert with my text in case I need to escape from our dinner! I had everything planned. I would text my officemates where we’ll have dinner so they could have their dinner there as well. Then when I signal them to help me, they’d find a way to get me out of there! Hahaha! One great plan huh! Unfortunately my fone went dead by the time he picked me up. Maybe cupid’s starting to do wonders by that time! Hahaha! So much for planning!

The first time I saw him, he was wearing a pink long sleeves. I said to myself this guy is confident enough to wear pink. It looked good on him though. I actually though he looked cute, very neat. Perfect! We had dinner at Friday’s. Thank goodness Tere was there so that we, at least my POV speaking, didn’t feel awkward. I just felt that I’m meeting an old friend. I tried to act cool and not give him the impression that I’m nervous and wanted to impress him. I’m matured enough to accept it if he won’t like me the way I am and that would be the last time I’d see him. Then after dinner he took out his fone and started taking pictures. I was a bit surprised but glad that he is not shy when it comes to camera. The night ended fine. Since I brought along my car, he just followed me home. I won’t mention that he got lost getting home. Oops, I just did! Hahaha! Apparently he’s not familiar with SLEX.

How in the world would I know that one text message can change my life forever? The picture of us together then is just the first of the thousands of pictures we have right now and the pictures we’ll have in the future.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Cooking Challenge 2: California Maki



Maki is not my favorite dish. But since, it's my habibi's fave I decided to learn how to make one. I can still recall when I had my first taste of Maki. Back in college, my friend Donna, now living in Dubai, bought one and had me taste it. I bravely took a bite. Instantly, I tasted the mango, felt strange about it and decided that would be the last time I'd eat one. Then my habibi came and re-introduced me to the dish. Strangely, I loved it. So here is my attempt to make the dish my habibi loved. We decided to have an Japanese themed dinner with the dish. I also cooked poached salmon, recipe below.

Ingredients


Baboo mat wrapped in Clingfilm
2 sheets seaweed paper
sushi rice (refer below for the recipe)
Thinly sliced mango
Imitation crab meat
Sesame seeds
Wasabe
Soy Sauce
Calamansi

Procedure:

1. On the bamboo mat, lay the seaweed paper then cover with sushi rice leaving about 1/2 inch seaweed without rice at the bottom. Press lightly so the rice will stick into place. You may deep your fingers on a bowl of water so the rice won't stick.



2. Turn the seaweed paper and rice over.

3. Place crab meat and mango at about 1 inch away from the bottom.




4. Then carefully, start to roll the mat. Hold firmly to form a roll. Continue rolling until the seaweed and rice is compressed into a roll.









5. Unroll the mat.

6. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

7. Cut with cold knife.

8. Serve with soy sauce mixed with wasabe and calamansi.



Sushi Rice (This recipe can make 4 sushi rolls)

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked rice
water

Sushi Vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Procedure:

I've read that the secret to a perfect maki or sushi roll is its sushi rice. I thoroughly washed the uncooked rice thoroughly and let it drain for about 45 minutes. Instead of cooking it the conventional way, I cooked it in a rice cooker. :D I'm not that confident in cooking rice. Once the rice is cooked, I prepared the vinegar mixture.


Poached Salmon


This is my second time to cook this dish. I got intrigued with this dish when we ate at Ikea Restaurant. When I ordered for a salmon, I saw that their salmon were just sitting on a container with clear liquid. I'm sure that it's just not water so I searched for its recipe in the net. I found one at elise.com. It was so easy to do. Anyone without cooking skills can do this. I had some leeks and green onions left overs so I used it as a substitute for onions.

Ingredients:

2 cuts of salmon
1/2 cup rice wine
1/2 cup water
slices of onions
fresh parsley
salt
ground pepper


1. Combine all ingredients in a pan. Bring to boil.







2. Place salmon, skin down. Put salt and pepper on top of salmon. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Update 1: House Project

10 days had gone by since our last posting regarding the construction of our house and as it slowly reaching its completion, the more we want to see every corner and details of it. Our next task is to look for good color combinations for the walls, ceilings, what types of furnitures to install, design for the window grills and for the gate and other stuffs for finishing touches.

Front View


Ceiling


Back Area


Front Entrance / Living Room


Kitchen Area


Bedroom Area

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

House Project


Our dream of having a having a house which we can call "our own" is slowly coming to reality and we are very much excited about it. As much as possible, we want to be involved in everything - from floor plan layout design, to furniture arrangements, materials to be used for flooring, bathroom motiff, color of the roof and eventually every corners of the house and other stuffs - giving suggestions on what we want it to look like. But since we are here in SG, my father is the one who supervise the house construction, giving me updates on the progress through phone calls and MMS (for the pictures). He sent me the initial floor plan layout through MMS and I think it took the architect around 3 revisions until we finally arrived on the final floor plan layout design of the house. The construction is estimated to be completed by August. So after 2 1/2 months of construction, here is what our house looks like.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Cooking Challenge 1: Pansit Palabok



Yes! The image you are seeing is my cooking! I can't believe it myself. I'm not an expert in cooking but I'm knowledgeable enough to follow recipes and tweak it a bit to my liking. I've been wanting to cook Palabok ever since I was in my school days. But knowing how tedious it will be, I focused on mastering my baked mac dish. Now that we are living in Singapore where the source of Palabok is scarce, I'm forced to face the dish I've been avoiding to cook. Last week, we ate Palabok at Kabayan, a Filipino restaurant in Orchard, to pacify my craving. I personally didn't like it. Maybe, I just expected too much on it. Anyway, when I told our experience to my friend Lia (who apparently works in Korea), she suggested that we learn to cook dishes that we haven't tried yet together. So we agreed to make Palabok first. It's a good thing mamaKaye (my officemate) went home to Pinas so I was able to ask my parents to buy me "atchuete" (annato seeds) for her to bring to us. Since I didn't want to use Palabok mix, I searched the net for some easy palabok recipes I could learn from. Below is the recipe I made based on other four recipes I found in the net. So here it goes!

Pansit Palabok

Ingredients:



100grams Crab meat
2 c. shrimp juice
2 tbsp. annato powder mixed with 1/2c water
2 tbsp. fish sauce
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 1/2 c water
1 egg, beaten



Bihon
cooked shrimp
cooked squid
2 hard boiled egg, sliced
bacon bits (in replace of chicharon)
spring onion
calamansi

Procedure:

To prepare shrimp juice:

1. Place shrimp heads of 500grams uncooked shrimp in a bowl.
2. Pound to extract the juice from the shrimp.
3. Put 2 cups water on extracted shrimp juice.
4. Strain shells from the liquid.

To cook noodles:

1. Soak bihon noodles in cold water for 20 minutes.
2. Boil water or chicken stock.
3. Drain noodles from cold water.
4. Put noodles in boiling water
5. Cook for less than a minute.
6. Drain noodles.

To cook sauce:

1. Saute garlic and onion until cooked.
2. Add crab meat, shrimp juice and simmer.
3. Add annato mixture, fish sauce, salt, and pepper.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Add cornstarch mixture and simmer to thicken sauce stirring constantly.
6. Add beaten egg, stir, then turn off fire.

To serve:

1. Place noodles on a plate.
2. Put sauce over noodles.
3. Top with garnishes; shrimp, squid, egg, spring onions, bacon bits.
4. Serve with calamansi on the side.

I'm so proud of myself after I cooked this dish. The sauce I made tasted exactly the way I wanted it to be. I'm able to achieve the taste I wanted. And most especially, my habibi loved it so much! The palabok I made is worth all the effort I exerted. As you can see in the text and pictures above, you'll notice that I used and done some unusual things in the recipe. Since we don't have a pestle, I used a clean bottle to pound the shrimp. I cooked the noodles in the water I used to cook the shrimp. Instead of a chicharon, I used bacon bits. We found a chicharon in the grocery last night, but it's too expensive! A pack costs SG$7! I settled with bacon bits and surprisingly it blend well with the sauce! Too bad, I don't think I'll cook this dish again until next year. Hahaha! I'm not sure if I'll have the same enthusiasm the next time. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to our next challenge! We haven't decided on it yet. If you have some suggestions, we'd gladly appreciate it!

We agreed to learn two(2) dishes a month! Stay tuned!