Food Trippings 04-09-2011

      School breaks are probably the busiest days in our house. All of us kids are at home and my mom can't get enough of us roaming around the house. Everytime we're home, we ask our parents to buy/cook us food that we don't get to eat when we're away and my parents oblige happily. Especially to me, since I'm the one who is always away and they feel like I don't eat well in U.P.
      Well anyway, a couple of days ago, my siblings and I went to Subic with our mom for grocery shopping. My Kuya and I picked up some microwavable mac & cheese, taco shells, taco mix and cheese to try out when we get home. And today we had the chance to try it. :) I bought some ground beef, white onions and cabbage to complete the recipe. Sauteed the beef with the onionsand taco mix, made salsa, grated the cheese, heated the shells and WHOLA! Instant home-made tacos for merienda. :D

taco assembly line
      The thing is, merienda is kind of a big deal in our family. It's like one other official meal. People could probably tell if they see our bodies. Haha Today our relatives came over for merienda and good thing they liked it else my Kuya and I were gonna be the only one to finish all that food. Three families ended up having the tacos for merienda.

my own taco with no gulay. hehe
      After a couple of hours, my mom and I realized we didn't have anything for dinner so we started thinking of food, 'coz last night we had Jollibee for dinner. We then remembered the Soy Chicken we had a week ago in SM Megamall at Kowloon that we really liked. And so I looked up the recipe on the net and bought the necessary ingredients. We already had half of the ingredients at home, so I just bought chicken, scallions and star anise.
      As soon as I got home from, my dad and I started preparing our own Soy Chicken following the recipe from Food.com. We kinda strayed away from some of the stuff like replacing the five-spice powder with ground black pepper, using 4 chicken thighs instead of a whole and ignoring the sesame seeds completely.

our very own Soy Chicken... yum!
      My dad was kind of skeptical about it, saying that it's just chicken dipped in soy sauce but it turned out really good even though we weren't able to thicken the sauce as much. Overall, I'd say our little experiment was a success! :D Hehe

      Tomorrow, we're gonna try the mac and cheese. If not, some spaghetti doesn't sound so bad on a Sunday afternoon. :D

Food Trippings 03-31-2011

    So my Mom called me at 8:30 in the morning to tell me to go to SM Megamall to check out this watch sale in the Main Atrium. Brands such as Guess, Timex, Esprit, Versus, Sketchers, etc. were having a sale on their watches. She wanted me to check them out so in case I like something, she can go to Manila tomorrow and we'll buy it. dapat talaga ibigay nya na sakin yung credit card eh
    Since it was for me naman talaga, and I really didn't have anything to do today, I left UP a little before 12nn and went to SM Megamall. Took the jeep and MRT, and when I got there, the Main Atrium was filled with people already. And then after picking and choosing and lots of pushing, I called my Mom to tell her which ones I like. I picked out a Guess silver watch with circular dial and had rings on it's bracelet. I also saw this other one from Esprit silver watch that has this really thin, rectangular dial and usual links. I like the Guess better, but it's like P1,000 more than the Esprit one, so we'll see tomorrow.
    After that, I went on strolling around SM Megamall A and B. Then I saw F21. It was my first time to go there, since Megamall isn't really in my usual route. No it's actually so far from my route that I think the last time I went there was when I was still in High School. Hahaha Anyway, so F21. OMG I've never felt so happy and sad at the same time. It's like finding treasure with poisonous cockroaches crawling on it. I hate cockroaches. So much stuff to buy... and no money. Good thing magkikita kami ng nanay ko bukas... HAHA
    Before going home to sulk around my moneyless state, I realized I haven't had lunch yet so I went on looking for a place to eat. Ended up at the end of Mega A building, the side going to Mega B ground floor. There was Wendy's, Pollo Roco, Kenny Rogers and Sbarro. I didn't know what to eat and I ended up going inside all of those restaurants before deciding to eat at Sbarro.

leftover half slice of pizza
    I ordered of course a slice of Supreme Pizza, thin crust because I never liked Pan Pizzas with so much bread. Also, out of hunger and because I was itching to spend on something, just not much. I ordered a Meat Sauce Spaghetti. I was so tempted to have meatballs on it, 'coz who doesn't love meatballs? But decided on the opposite, thinking I can't finish that! Hahaha As if the pizza and spaghetti weren't enough. LOL I ended up just finishing the spaghetti and only half of the pizza, thus the take-out bag.

    What I love about Sbarro is that it never fails. Everytime I go there, whichever branch, it's always good food. The thing kasi about restaurants is that not all branches taste good. Sometimes, their food differs per branch. Sbarro pizza aside from being huge, is that they never compromise on ingredients. There will never be a bite that's just bread and cheese. You get a pepperoni, as sausage, mushroom or bell pepper. And even though it's not always oven-fresh, when you order, they re-heat the pizza just enough that the cheese is melting and the crust is crunchy, but not too hard. Perfection.♥
    And if you're looking for real Italian pasta, Sbarro serves pasta with real tomato sauce made out of REAL tomatoes and not paste. You can actually see the crushed tomates swimming with the ground beef, mushroom and onions. The sweet and sour taste of the tomato combined with the beef plus Sbarro's arm-thick oven-fresh garlic bread..? Super comfort food ♥

    In fairness to my meal, it wasn't as expensive as I expected. Considering the amount of food that I bought and the quality, it's actually a good deal. :D Spaghetti + thick garlic bread + 1 slice of pizza which is like 2 slices of regular pizza + large iced tea = Sbarro love ♥

Food Trippings 03-24-2011

    It's the end of the semester and Mariel and I had only one class that day. We were supposed to present our LIS 131 project and then head off somewhere for lunch. I was craving Ma Mon Luk mami so we decided to go there after Michi's practical exam. But then, Michi's exam took longer than expected so Mariel and I decided to just head off to Burger King Marcos Highway to have lunch and take advantage of their free charging and wi-fi.

Mariel doing her abstracts for LIS 64

    After stopping for gas, Mariel ordered her usual Mushroom Swiss Burger and I tried the BK Single Stack Burger (the one with bacon) with large iced tea and fries. I didn't know at first what the difference was between the BK Stack Burger with my usual BK BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. Apparently, it's just the sauce/dressing. One had BBQ sauce and the other one had mustard and mayo on it.

going crazy after hours of thesis-ing

    After 4 hours of studying and discussing SLIS@50 stuff, we decided to go home to avoid the traffic during rush hour. We then went home to Mariel's house in Marikina, my second house to continue with school stuff and Korea stuff. After dinner, we ended up talking to Mariel's Mom, Tita Kyen about aswangs, manananggal, tikbalang, Neptune and Little Mermaid. Hahaha

    We went up to Mariel's room at around 9pm and after just 30 mins. we decided we were hungry... again. Hahaha You see the thing about Mariel's house is that most of the food they have, if they have any must be cooked first before consumption. And given our state and lazyness, we ended up making PB&J sandwiches and heated them up on the waffle maker. We were too impatient to wait for the toaster to toast the wheat bread. Haha

PB&J sandwich that tasted like wheat bread

    We kept on wondering why we go hungry so often even after eating so much food. Hahaha And we only had one explanation. STUDYING. Our brains burned up all the stuff we ate and so we feel hungry so fast after eating. Hahaha We know it's a lame excuse, but hell we just wanted to eat. Haha

Food Trippings 03-15-2011

    To start of my food documentation thingy, I took pictures of some of the food Mariel and I had today. We kinda had a longer than usual lunch break today, so we actually had the time to go outside UP for lunch.


leftover chicken tenders from flaming wings

    We ordered our usual chicken tenders meal, Carribean Jerk with honey mustard dip for me and wasabe mayo for Mariel. For some odd reason, the chicken tenders today was extra spicy that day that I couldn't even enjoy what I was eating. I ended up feeling full because I finished my pink lemonade halfway thru my meal to counter the spicyness, hence the leftover.

    After PE1 class, Mariel and I decided to watch Adjustment Bureau in Trinoma. The movie was scheduled at 3:00pm so we had time for Mariel had time to buy a new shirt to replace the one she was wearing [it had a hole kasi]. Before going in to the movie, we decided to go to McDo and buy some fries and drinks to take to the cinema.

    After the movie, we stopped by Cinnabon to satisfy my week-long craving for cinnamon rolls. I've been wanting to eat cinnamon rolls since last week and I only got the chance to buy one today, so Yay!


classic cinnamon roll from Cinnabon

    What we love about Cinnabon's Classic Cinnamon is that it's not too sweet. They pour melted butter on top of it, so it kinda nuetralizes the sweetness that comes from the cinnamon and sugar. [I first wanted to buy a Pecanbon, but the caramel they put on top is too sweet for my taste] Plus, they always serve it to you soft and hot, like fresh from the oven. :D But I guess the best thing about Cinnabon is that the cinnamon is actually there in the whole roll, and not just in the core/middle like other commercialized cinnamon rolls. It was P90 spent well.


check out Mariel's cheek with cinnamon in her mouth. Haha

    We got out of the cinema at 5:00pm, and Mariel had to be at choir rehearsals at 5:30pm. So I ordered the cinnamon for take-out and we just ate it in the car on the way back to UP.Since Mariel was driving, I ended up feeding her the cinnamon. Haha It was a good way to start the week. <3

Food trippings with Mariel

    This I think is my first blog post this year. Hahaha I seemed to have forgotten about this blog when 2011 kicked in and everytime I thought of posting soemthing, I couldn't think of anything to write about... But then, a thought crept up to me to start a sort of food blog of my food trippings with Mariel. :D So here goes...

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    So here's the thing. Ever since Mariel got her car, we've been going everywhere in search of places to eat... not exactly everywhere, but you know -- around UP. Every Tuesday and Thursday or any day during lunchtime, Mariel and I go search for new places to eat, which wasn't actually that special or out of the ordinary thing.

    However, around a month ago, I think it was UP Fair Week, for some odd reason, Mariel and I started craving for food and all. We had Wendy's on Tuesday, Box o' Rice on Wednesday, then Boulevard Diner in Xavierville on Thrsday. We ended up eating so much food that week that we felt so guilty and decided to eat like fish and salad the week after that. But of course, we didn't really do that. Haha

    And then there was this Monday a coupleof weeks ago, I slept over Mariel's house and on the way home we stopped by Rustan's Supermarket in Marikina and bought 1.5L root beer, 1 pint vanilla ice cream, a box of microwavable cheese popcorn [staple overnight food] and fish crackers.

    Last Tuesday, we had Sizzling Keema from Mister Kabab and Thursday we went to Trinoma for some awesomely good chili con carne from Mexicali. We even thought of starting a food blog just because we go so many places and we eat so much. haha

    So from now on, I think this blog will be dedicated to the documentation of our food trippings. Hahaha Majority.. Here's to hoping I can keep this up! *crosses fingers*