Sambal, Lane Cove

This is what the place looks like at 6pm.

This restaurant is good, good. It's hidden behind KFC and McDonald's so you wouldn't really spot it right away, but at 6pm, the place was packed. They weren't seating anyone else until 8pm, luckily, my family had a reservation. There's a wide array of food on the menu making it ultimately suitable for anybody.

First off, Penang Char Kway Teow, it's a popular Hawker Dish. You'd think that serving hawker food in a restaurant wouldn't really work, guess again. It was every bit reminiscent of street food- the color and the oiliness of the dish contributed to that! It's a Malaysian version of the Chinese Beef Hofan.

Eggplant Stir Fried with Chilli Shrimp Paste

If you know me, you'd well know that I'd go for anything that has eggplant in it. This particular one was crunchy but silky soft inside- velvety. It was well spiced, but just in my opinion, I wanted more chilli.*

How Do YOU Good Friday?

How's the holy moly weekend so far?

Mine has been okay.

Like okay, it's been fine.

What did you do during Good Friday?

Let me tell you how I Good Friday.

1. Take a long walk until you reach your favorite bakery.

Mind you, this picture wasn't taken on Good Friday
when the line was pouring onto the street.

2. The line is long- wait for 10 minutes until it's your turn.

3. Be puzzled why they phased out your favorite thing- The Ginger Brulee Tart.

Chef Ahoy's Chewkies

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

So there was this delightful day when my sister was extremely nice and bought me these CHEWKIES. 

We have this thing where we buy a lovely surprise for each other (a few weeks ago, I bought her a pack of happy Marks and Spencer ginger cookies coated with dark chocolate). 

Anyway, once you put these Chewkies in your mouth, you'd wanna stuff the whole Chewkie in...NOM NOM NOM.   

Home-Baked Temptations they are..

LOOK AT IT! don't you just wanna reach in and grab it?

Cheers to Enter The Dragon

In Balmain

It's surely a strange, strange title for a blog post, don't you reckon? But it will relate to food, in a wee little bit.

Gorgeous cakes, all uniformly lined up.

Of course, you know Adriano Zumbo and his wacky ideas, yeah? This is Zumbo the second time around. (Click HERE for the first AZ experience!) Macarons aren't the spotlight this time, cause me and my friends arrived there late in the afternoon and they were all sold out with the exception of the Satay Macaron.

Airplane/Airport Eats, Part 2

I'm about to go on another trip to really exciting places* so I've been reviewing my photos of airplane food. Then I remembered I've only written Airplane/Airport Eats Part 1 (click HERE for that post) and still haven't produced the sequel. So here it is-- the stuff we ate at the airport and plane, on the way back home to Manila from our HK/Xiamen trip! :)

The ever-present, ever-gorgeous smoked salmon, on a bed of beautiful greens. I swear, I could really live off of salmon, salad, oysters, and BEEF. Those are all the things I need.

Mozarella, olives, tomatoes, and mushrooms make a nice salad.

Diversion

WILD WILD ADRENALINE PUMPING ADVENTURE

Don't you reckon that life gets pretty monotonous and boring at times? I need an adventure, a blood-sucking, head-rolling, bone-snapping ADVENTURE. I need a diversion, don't we all? So here it is, the first diversion, in the form of a blog post.

8 Things I'm Loving, and 1 Thing I'm pissed about.

1. Jazz and electro pop had a baby and it was named The Bird and The Bee.  They are a musical duo based in Los Angeles; they're different from your norm of pop and rock. I love them so much that they have been playing pretty much non-stop every single moment when I'm on my computer. Try listening to singles such as My Love, Heard It on the Radio, and Rich Girl.  YAY for indie music.

2. Wholemeal Turkish Bread. You're missing out on a lot if you haven't tried Turkish Bread. It's like the outcome of the marriage of Indian Naan and the everyday loaf. They are heaps of air pockets which give heaps of texture when you toast it.*

My first ever haiku

So I'm brain dead (sleepy? tired?) but I miss blogging so I'm going to compromise with myself (what?) and keep things REALLY short by sharing my newly written, first ever haiku with you. It's in honor of Mario's oysters.*

Tempura upstairs. MAGICAL OYSTERS downstairs.

Heavenly Snickerdoodles

I had the insane need to bake cookies yesterday.

I started baking at 11:30pm, and finished at 1:00am.

You'd think nothing good would come out of baking at that time.

But you're wrong.

It was good, real good.

The Snickerdoodles were mind-blowing.

Perhaps they're even the best cookies I've baked to date.

They had that crackled crust from the dusting of sugar and cinnamon on top.

They were chewy.

They were moist.

They were perfect, well, even more than perfect with that tall glass of fresh skim milk.*

My cousin described it as the cookies you'd put out for Santa the evening before Christmas.

Then she was like, no, they're Santa's babies.

It was 1:00am, that explained everything. 

Moo Gourmet Burgers, Newtown

Moo Gourmet Burgers on King Street.

I've heard great things about Moo Burgers. How their chips are perfectly crisp, how their burgers are so tall, how the milkshakes are to die for, and how crusty the sourdough bun is. It's my second time in Newtown for the week, and might I just say that I absolutely love Newtown. I'd say it's a slightly more hip and cheaper version of beloved Surry Hills. 

Artwork inside

My friends in the courtyard.

The ambiance was laid-back. I'd say it's one of those places where I'd want to catch up with my friends after the stressful week that has passed.* There are sturdy bulky wood tables inside paired with colorful chairs and couches. Kids' artwork adorn the walls. There's a courtyard outside and a black wall where you could creatively express yourself with the pieces of chalk lying around.

There are plenty of tasty sounding burgers on the menu which made it tricky to pick what each one of us wanted to have. 

Vanilla and Strawberry Milkshakes- $5 each

Did you know, when you head to Moo on Mondays and order a burger and chips, you get a milkshake for free? FREE?! FREE?! Yes, you got it! I haven't had a milkshake in the longest time for obvious reasons but it was my binge day for the week! That explains everything! It wasn't as chilled as I would've wanted it to be and it would be more epic if they were thicker too! Other than that, they were slurping slurping good.

C's Italian, Clark

Have you guys heard of C's Italian? It's this resto in Clark, Pampanga. My mom and I tried it out recently, on another one of our Baguio trips.

Romantic interiors begin with the lighting

You'll always be my cuppycake

The other day my sister and I made cupcakes.

Vanilla with dark chocolate frosting. Unfortunately I put a little too much powdered sugar in the frosting! But they turned out GOOD anyway.

They always remind me of first love. :)

Cheers, 

Daryl

The Brunch Puff

The puff pastry didn't do too much of a good job puffing up though. :(

Let's face it, who likes waking up early, specifically, who likes waking up early especially from a good dream? I know I don't. Which is the reason why I often skip breakfast on Sundays.* The meal after breakfast is usually lunch, but my tummy couldn't wait that long, that's why I have brunch instead.

I found some leftover puff pastry in the freezer the other day and I didn't really feel like making something sweet; so, with a few minutes of brainstorming, I came up with The Brunch Puff.

See the layers?
Ricotta, Egg, Mushroom
Spinach and Salmon.

The brunch puff is essentially the things you'd have on your breakfast plate but jazzed up a little bit more.

Sabbaba, Newtown

It's raining today! I specifically woke up early this morning to get a head start at the gym so that I could have a worry-free/ guilt-free day frolicking around Glebe markets and the City. But then, some things never really go as planned. Instead of moping about the sad gloomy day, I'll just write about my Sabbaba experience.

Sabbaba is a quirky name, don't you think? Sabbaba, Sabbaba, Sabbaba! HAHA. Sabbaba is slang for "no worries"! It's a Middle Eastern restaurant cafe that was founded in Bondi 11 years ago, I repeat 11 years ago. Such a shame that I've only been there recently. This branch in Newtown is their third one, and it's fairly new, opening late last year.

Pretty much all the walls look like this, snazzy ey?

I think Sabbaba is cool. The place is airy, graffiti line the walls, and a lot of white-wash wood tables are in sight. It's the sort of place where you'd want to chill with friends while having some good grub- not to mention everything is fresh and healthy!* NO WORRIES. 

A Breakfast of Sizable Proportions

Today I would like to begin with non-rhetorical questions.

Am I a pig? Yes.
Have I been intern-ing all day, sitting in front of my laptop for 9 hours? Yes.
Am I extremely jittery, antsy, and full of pent-up energy because of aforementioned experience? Yes.
Am I going to be a skinny pig? Yes.
Will I be seen with gazelle-long legs worthy of being serenaded The Girl From Ipanema? Yes.

I know I'm not making much sense, but really. As I've said (or questioned myself?) earlier, I've been doing my 9 hour intern job all day and it's muddling my brain up a bit. Honestly, after sitting in front of a computer for 9 HOURS, I'd really rather never see a computer again (slight exaggeration) but being a devoted blogger (not an exaggeration at all, wink wink), here I am!

So before I embarked on the fruit of my intern idea, I was lazing around and having long, leisurely breakfasts...

Beautiful steel-cut oatmeal, topped with toasted oats, stewed cinnamon apples, and honey

The After Gym Lunch

Yes, Yes, YES.

You'd be really jealous of me cause I had a phenomenal lunch, and I cooked it all by myself. It's not complicated at all, it's actually crazy simple. Just do as I say.

Asparagus: Snap off the end so you get rid of the annoyingly stringy bit, then rinse. Bring a pot of water to boil, and drop in the asparagus, give it 10 seconds, and scoop it out. This is called blanching. Heat a pan with olive oil and put your asparagus in. When the color changes ever so slightly season with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. Set aside.

The Rice Den

It was one of those I'm so out of it Sundays up until The Rice Den. 

I love the chalkboard wall.

Wood panels and a rather unusual resort to lights

The ambiance projected a rustic cool image with the black hues, contrasting red bricks, and the warm panels of wood. I have to admit, it was a BOLD move opening this sort of restaurant considering the location it was in.

Steamed Cheong Fun- $8
Silk smooth steamed rice noodle rolls
served with our nutty sweet sesame and Rice Den sauce
topped with fresh shiitake mushrooms

For starters, we had the Steamed Cheong Fun. Cheong fun is one of my favorite things, especially when there are fried donuts inside! This one was just a plain one, but the rice noodles were really silky smooth. They were evenly rolled out as well, don't you just love obsessive compulsiveness? The sesame- peanut sauce wasn't something they skimped on, it was abundant in flavor and quantity as well. I'd just say that I want MORE mushrooms!

Asian Night at Home

My mother cooked us dinner the other night, and everything revolved around an Asian theme. She's been taking lessons at ISCAHM and we've all benefited from it! :)

Kimchi soup: very tasty! My whole family is crazy about kimchi soup.

Korean-style pork bacon. My mom's into this no-preservatives thing now, so we make our own bacon.

Comforting Cheap Fix: Freska & Razon's

Right at this moment I'm feeling stressed, tired, overworked, and overwhelmed. But weirdly, I'm in the mood for a killer exercise session as well, it's my way of getting rid of the stress! And, I want my family, specifically, my mother mum and her terribly tasty home-cooked food. 

Actually, I'd like some FRESH coconut juice too.

This is one of the reasons why it's NICE to live in a tropical country.

I actually wouldn't mind having a pleasant cheap fast lunch fix with her. And post happens to be one about pleasant cheap fast Filipino lunch fix. We have to get rid of the word lunch cause it's dinner time now, and I'd gladly have this food for dinner.

FRESKA!

Freska, Freska, Freska- it's like fresh+cheska! HOHOHO. It's a place for Ilongo Seafood & Inasal.* This particular one I went to was a fast food version of the actual restaurant along Katipunan. But I reckon it's no compromise, the food was comforting.

Quickie Lunch at Starbucks

This is the fairly new Starbucks in the Fort, the drive-thru one. 

The interiors are country-like and it has that whole cozy cabin feel to it.

You know what I could really use right now? A Skim Green Tea Latte, preferably venti-sized and specifically from Starbucks please. Because today has been too much of an exhausting day. There's always one in a week. It never fails. And the thought of going to work and seeing my croco-faced boss tomorrow doesn't appeal to me at all. If I could skip work, I totally would and I'd spent half of the day at the gym- truth. The chances are, I'll definitely head to sleep as soon as I finish writing this cause I'm that tired.

Food selection!
Now, I want a cinnamon roll. 

While I was in the Philippines, I went to my dermatologist quite often and that lead to a quickie lunch at Starbucks. And Starbucks runs remind me of my DLSU friends and their crazy antics. 

Seconds and Thirds at Bar Dolci

Sometimes, once is NOT enough. 
Click here for the first Bar Dolci post!

You've got to head for seconds, and who knows, possibly even thirds! 

SWEETUMS!:)

First time around, I went with my uncle, his girlfriend, and my cousin. The second, I voluntarily brought my two delightful sisters after their hectic training. The third and last time was right before departing Manila, it also happened to be after my sister's swimming competition. So far, it hasn't failed me or my expectations. It has been great!

The gelato selection.

Kinda Lazy Sunday Pick Me Up

So, any clue?

Sometimes, life can prove to be very tricky. 

Sometimes, I have a hard time falling asleep. 

Sometimes, I lay in bed for 3 hours and I still can't sleep. 

Sometimes, at 2:27am I decide to make french toast with maple syrup.*

Sometimes, church could be pretty BORING and you find yourself on the verge of falling asleep.

Sometimes, all you need is a good pick me up to make the day all better.

This is what prep looked like.

This brings me to My Kinda Lazy Sunday Pick Me Up, it might not be the BEST name, but boy, I'm tired. As of now, I've devoured half of it and eager to move on to the next half. But since I'm so in love and caught up with it, I might as well right about it now.