I Live to Eat!

I remember I was in my second year in high school when Boracay was first heard as a great travel destination. Back then, my Home Economics teacher was from Aklan, and my classmates and I surely hoped we could also go to Boracay. Fast forward to nearly a decade and a half later, I still haven’t set foot in the shores of Boracay.

So the question is, “Boracay, when can I meet you?” I have seen so many great photographs by different people, heard different stories about their experiences, even watched a movie set on the world famous beach, and I wonder, when can share my own story and set of photos?

I stumbled upon this great contest, and I am hoping I could also win. Check this out:

Win a Free Boracay Vacation Package by WOW Philippines Travel Agency

WOW Philippines Travel Agency, Inc. is celebrating it’s 5th year in business during July of 2010, and we would like you to have a chance to celebrate with us, so we have decided to give-away a FREE Boracay Package complete with 5 Star accommodations at the luxurious Le Soleil de Boracay Hotel on Boracay Island. The lucky winner will win the following Boracay vacation package.

Vacation Package Inclusions:
- 5 Days / 4 Nights Luxury 5 Star Accommodations at the Le Soleil de Boracay Hotel
- Flights to Boracay from Manila to Caticlan Airport on Philippine Airlines
- Island Transfers - Door-to-Door from Manila to the resort and back to Manila Domestic Airport
- Three (3) Meals each day, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
- Boracay Activities - Horseback Riding, Island Hopping, Glass Bottom Boat
- PLUS - 5,000 peso Spending Cash
Read More Information: http://www.boracay-packages.com

Very yummy prize, indeed. How I wish I could taste it. Good luck to me!

*** Jenn ***

I don’t know what has happened here in my blog — seems my storage capacity’s blowing up every time I get online, and with the very limited things the Friendster blogs can do, I have already reached my boiling point.

That means, the foods moved in a new home and can now be seen in this address:

http://taraletseat.blogspot.com

See you there!

I have wanted to join this meme since then, but I am always forgetting. Since I don’t have any definite topic for Saturday here in my blog, might as well just put this meme on Saturdays. Here are this week’s questions and answers:

Breakfast
If you could jump into any book … what would it be and why?
>>> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I just love their adventures!

Lunch
Tell how you are feeling today in the form of a weather report. (For example, partly cloudy, sunny with a chance for showers etc.)
>>> Partly cloudy, with chances of being sunny as the day pass.

Dinner
What activities make you lose track of time?
>>> Blogging. When I start to type down the words, I seem to forget the things around me - I sometimes even forget to send a message or answer some friend’s YM messages. Sorry for that, friends!

Midnight Snack
What were you doing one hour ago?
>>> I was eating my breakfast. I was hungry because I didn’t eat dinner last night, but I don’t know why I am not in the mood to eat breakfast. It was actually 8AM when I ate my breakfast.

Recipe for this Week
(instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)
>>> Just start every day with a smile and be optimistic always.

*** Jenn ***

Last July, we were able to use the 2,000 pesos gift certificate sister and I received when we attended the Bloggers’ Event sponsored by Italianni’s. Sister wanted to visit the Trinoma branch for we still haven’t stepped foot in that mall, but when mom said she wanted to buy some fresh prawns, we all decided to check out the Gateway Mall branch instead because it was basically just next to the Farmer’s Market.

Anyway, mom just asked me to order for everyone since sister’s not yet around and it was just me and sis who have eaten in Italianni’s before. I ordered just the same foods as the ones served in the Bloggers’ Event.

I take pride when I spread the formaggio in the bread and handed it to mom. This has really became a favorite - the formaggio was so creamy, the mix of flavors are just right, and as mom put it, addictive. The three something on top were dried tomatoes, which was what I loved the most in this dish. The tangy taste of the tomatoes blended with the creamy formaggio was just perfect!

This dish cost 401.79 pesos, tax not included. There’s a smaller serving (4 bread slices), but I already forgot the price. Good thing we had gift certificates, because as heavenly as this dish tasted, I would never dare take out my own money for this - it’s just far too expensive!

*** Jenn ***

***everyday’s no longer a birthday celebration. hahahah! ***

For two days now, I have not eaten dinner. On both days, I ate snacks and felt that I didn’t want to eat dinner anymore. Actually, it wasn’t really planned that I won’t eat dinner from then on, but DeeJay and I did have an agreement to lose weight. He has lost weight already, and I am stuck again. Why do I always have problems in losing weight? Pfft! But I do admit, it’s all my fault.

So, I guess I need to start anew. I know I am just repeating myself, but really, now’s the time. Like what Odin told me a few days back, if I didn’t want to feel about something, I have to do something about it. Very well said, Odin. You knocked some real good sense in my head.

What I plan is… if I have eaten a rather heavy snack in the afternoon, I won’t be eating dinner anymore. If I didn’t have any snacks, I will just eat oatmeal for dinner. As for breakfast, I will just eat oatmeal and I will go back to my Hip Hop Abs routine. Gosh, I miss that already! If I can’t do it in daytime, I will just do it in the afternoon, before I take my afternoon shower. The use of Xenical is still debatable, it’s effective, yes, but it’s very pricey, and to be honest, I’d rather spend my money paying bus fares to different destinations rather than on a drug store.

Other things to do:

• Rice has to be just a cup per meal; in this case every lunch.
• Water is the main drink, but coffee is allowed (just one cup a day, though). No more softdrinks.
• No more fried rice; rice has to be fresh each meal.
• Back to food schemes for dinner (for mom’s sake).
• No more candies, junk foods allowed one bag a week.
• Cut up fat / oily food intake.
• Fast foods only twice a month.
• As much as possible, desserts have to be fresh fruits (preferably pineapples and papaya - my favorite fruits).

I still have so many things to do, but for now the list will be that. I know this one’s harsh, but I really do want to lose weight, so I just have to do it. I am thankful brother’s returning to La Union soon - that means no more RC Cola… peace, bro!

This would mean my food tripping will be taking on a different path, but I guess the writer is more important than the blog. If the writer suddenly becomes sick, then the blog will suffer. Correct?

So okay, this one’s in writing. I have to do it or else, I would be breaking my own word and thus staining my blogger status. May God help me with this. My inspiration? Who else, but Cookie!

*** Jenn ***

1. Do you use your microwave oven for anything else but reheating food?
>>> I don’t use microwave oven. My parents were gifted with microwave oven when they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary; it has been 5 years now, and the microwave hasn’t been used yet.

2. Pancakes, Waffles or French Toast which do you prefer?
>>> Waffle, the salty side of it. I don’t like sweet pancakes and waffles. I prefer having any salty food in it like cheese, hotdog, anything.

3. Have you ever bought egg beaters for breakfast?
>>> No. I beat eggs using fork.

4. Are you a “hot pepper” person?
>>> Hot pepper meaning if I use hot pepper? Well, I love spicy foods - I got that from my dad. I usually have a spicy vinegar dippings whenever I eat my meal. Sometimes, I sprinkle cayenne pepper on my foods, too.

5. Have you ever eaten an entire block of chocolate in one sitting?
>>> No. I am not into chocolates. I eat chocolate flavored foods, and I do eat bittesweet (dark) chocolates, but I don’t really crave for chocolates, and I still haven’t tried eating an entire block in one sitting.

Join us here.

*** Jenn ***

Weekends usually are lazy days for us. It seems none of us would want to exert effort in going to the market and cook foods and all that, so there are times we would just reheat foods, or open canned foods, or have foods delivered.

At times, if the grocery list is long, and no one’s tired from doing the laundry and other house chores, we would go to the mall and eat lunch out. Such is what we did last 26 August. Pantry’s bare, all are lazy to go to the market, and since the white board was bombarded with things we need to buy in the grocery, we all decided to go to the mall.

Mom did her laundry first (she doesn’t want anyone to wash her clothes), then afterwards we went to the mall. We were supposed to eat at Tokyo Tokyo, but mom said their foods were oily, so seeing that Max’s Restaurant was just next to it, we decided to go for it, after all, the last time we ate there was ages ago (dad was still alive when we last ate here).

Sister told that she will catch up for lunch (she’s coming from her school), so instead of ordering a plate of food for each of us, we decided to get their “table for 5″ and the food package we picked consisted of - one whole chicken, pancit canton, sweet and sour fish fillet, a beef dish, and for desserts - frozen fruit salad.

Sister arrived way too late, and mom was getting disappointed because she was tired from doing the laundry, and we were all starving. But when sister arrived, we all feasted.

And because this is good for five and we were just four, some of the left over foods were packed for us to take home, which also served as our dinner.

*** Jenn ***

While waiting for DeeJay to arrive, I decided to stay in KFC Vito Cruz first to have my lunch. The place was jammed-packed because the big universities are near this place (De La Salle University and DLSU - College of Saint Benilde), but I managed to get a nice table with matching nice chair, but I wasn’t able to take good picture of my food with the oh-so red table and chair because a small family (grandma, mom, and son) asked if I could share the table with them.

Instead, I just a picture of the counter, since it had red facade as well. Eating here was a different experience in the sense that people thought I was one of the socialite students of any of the universities. Before the family shared a table with me, some students next to my table talked to me about the loss of DLSU over their arch-rival Ateneo de Manila University at the UAAP basketball collegiate games, they even asked me which class I was at when the earthquake came earlier that day. Hehehe.. did I look that posh to be thought as one of them? Anyway, the feeling was great.

*** Jenn ***

Yesterday, sister and I went to Market One in the grounds of the Lung Center of the Philippines. I was actually there to meet my scrapbook friend Joyleen to get the plastic storages that she sold on her Multiply site. She’s doing a spring cleaning because she is going to use her scraproom into a nursery (she’s due to give birth next month). Her storages are very cheap, so I grabbed it.

Anyway, sister’s always asking us to go to the market place, but we always postpone it because of the many obligations we have every Sundays. Since I am meeting my friend there, I also invited my siblings, but only sister came with me.

We didn’t eat breakfast, so traveling 45 minutes to the market place made us starving. =) She wanted to eat rice at our favorite food place (Tita Norm’s Bicol Delicacies, atbp.), but because we would also buy some foods at Tita Norm’s for our lunch, I decided to buy pasta for my breakfast.

I bought this at Sweets for My Sweet Bakeshop. 99% of their foods were of course breads and pastries, but they also have one tray each of baked pasta - tuna penne and lasagna. I was in the market place last Sunday of October (I went there before going home from La Salle to check the sights of the Bar Exams) and I bought their tuna penne. So this time, I decided to buy their lasagna even though the serving was much smaller and the price was 20 pesos more expensive than the penne.

I am very much into spaghetti, and although this one tasted good, I am not a big fan of it. For one, the bechamel sauce lacked taste, while the beef sauce was a bit salty. Next time I go to the market place, I will just go with their tuna penne because it was much more delicious.

*** Jenn ***

Even though I have learned about the theme earlier, I still struggled as to what will I present. Brother already has the danggit, and I am stuck to whether I will post a picture of the tinapa I pictured in Vigan Market, or I will I cook something. If I will cook something, what will I cook?

Yesterday, mom asked brother to go to the market to buy some meat for our pancit, and one bangus (milkfish). While cleaning the fish, I decided I will cook last night’s dinner so I will also have my entry for today’s LaPiS.

I used the Ajinomoto Sinigang sa Miso mix that was part of my brother’s prize when we attended the QC Na! event. I wasn’t a big fan of it - it’s way too sour (no balance between the sour and salty taste), and if I can make it my own, I’d rather use kamias or calamansi for my sinigang.

While we were eating, brother and I had a little “battle” over who’s going to eat the head, but of course being the “baby,” I got to eat the head. Hehehehe… I really love fish heads, and because I was the one who cleaned, cut, and cooked this fish, the head part was the biggest cut - therefore it had more belly parts — yum yum!

*** Jenn ***