Cafe by the Ruins, Baguio, AGAIN :)

My mom and I went to Baguio last weekend to attend a close family friend's engagement. We also had to fulfill some very important business: eat at Cafe by the Ruins!!!

Since I only had my sad Cybershot camera with me the last time I was at Cafe by the Ruins, this time, I fully took advantage of my new s95. Which is like, only the BEST, most value-for-money camera the world has ever seen. Ever. It's portable, light, easy to use (virtually idiot-proof), takes great photos, and has a long camera life. I am in love with it.

Enjoy the photos! :)

So this is the entrance....

Berting's Grill, The Ultimate Pulutan Place

I like fried food. It's so crunchy, greasy, and satisfying. Which brings me to Pulutan, which is also known as pub grub in the Philippines. Initially, these fried treats are heavenly, but after one drink too many, I wouldn't be too cheery about it.

You know the Philippines, where bars/pubs are everywhere and the drinks are cheap as chips.* And of course, with the drinks come pulutan. There are some phenomenal hole in the wall places for these, case and point, Berting's Grill.

My mom claims that she's found a fantastic restaurant at the Ortigas Home Depot Complex.** They have really good homy food at dirt cheap prices. Little did I know it was one of those restaurant come bar places.  But of course, I didn't mind the slightest bit cause that just means that there's going to be damn good fried food.

Just so you know
CHIKININIS= HICKIES.
I told you they have quirky names.

On the menu they have the most quirky kitsch names, but hey, that doesn't really matter when the food is promising.

Hero Teppanyaki, Chatswood, Australia

Instead of properly drawing
I start doodling
How appropriate
BTW, World's Greatest Shave in the background.
 I've been thinking.
It pays to be WILD cause you'll only live once!

I should be drawing up some perspective sketches and making some painstaking models right now, but instead I'm writing a post. Not because I'm compelled to, but I think it's a rather pleasant outlet for me to unwind and destress. And if I do have time after all of this, I will catch up on all my culinary readings.

We celebrated my auntie's birthday last week, she treated us out for Japanese Food. My cousin got excited at the prospect of teppanyaki.* Apparently, this one in Chatswood is quite popular so we tried it out!

Teppan Fried Udon with Prawns and Hokkaido Squid
YAY for Bonito Flakes!

This dish I found quite bland, there was no layering of flavors or anything of that sort. The seafood that came with it was pristine and fresh. Finally, the main star of the show, the udon was perfectly, perfectly cooked. It had a nice bite to it.

Breakfast, HK-style

My little sister* says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And she is certainly the sort to walk the talk-- especially when it comes to breakfast. She never, ever, ever misses breakfast. And neither do I.

In HK, we usually stick to one particular sort of breakfast: the sort you can get only in HK! We always hit Ocean Empire at least once, and try other places for the rest of the stay. One place we tried was this:

Sorry, but I read write no Chineesey!** I don't know how to say that, so I can't give you some mangled pronunciation via my sad version of fake Pinyin. SORRY. Let's just pretend it's called Know Happy Restaurant. Because I know that the first word is part of two words that make up "know", and that the fourth word is also part of a pair of words that mean "happy." OH GEEZ. My Chinese is really pathetic. Anyway, here are the prerequisites for an HK brekkie: