Abu Dhabi Doo!

Serious movie reviewers said that Sex and The City 2 is terrible. Grossly dressed. An injustice to the original TV series.

I don't care what the critics say.

SATC2 is like girl's night out manifest. It's sometimes overly dressed, sometimes nonsensical. But it's also fun, sassy, and in-your-face. A lot of penis (clothed). And indulgence. It's one big laugh fest from start to finish, with serious moments peppered in between. Includes some SERIOUS manwatching.

I thought George Clooney (Good job on Elisabetta Canalis, she's hot!) was the only one who missed the memo that old guys aren't supposed to be this sexy. Apparently Max Ryan didn't get it either.

It's totally a girl/gay movie. My friend Yeni and I nixed our boyfriends and watched it just us girls. Liza Minelli singing Single Ladies, anyone?

Family Food

Last Friday our cook prepared cosido for us.

I frikkin' love cosido.

It's kinda simple, really: boil beef, put it aside, boil the potatoes in the same pot, put 'em aside, boil the cabbage in the same pot, put 'em aside, boil the chickpeas, chorizos, jamon, etc. in the same manner, then throw them together and serve the soup separately. At least that's what my mum told me, I've no idea why you can't just cook 'em all together.

Either way, it's delicious. It looks spare now, but then you have all these condiments you're supposed to put on them:

Let's go through them one by one. Vinegar, rock salt or sea salt or salt with herbs, Worcestershire sauce, and finally, extra virgin olive oil. In that order.

This is what really makes the cosido special.

During family reunions, like over Christmas or New Year's for example, my grand uncles always fight over who makes better cosido. So my grand aunt prepares two giant (seriously, huge) clay pots of the stuff, and my late grand uncle Eddie (God rest his soul) and his brother Horacio each had their own pot to work on.

When they're done, us nephews and nieces have to taste a little from each and proclaim who made the better cosido.

We always end up quietly telling both grand uncles that, yes, tito, yours really is the best, I'm just eating the other one to be polite.

But really, they kind of tasted the same: really freaking good.

You know what I love about cosido? The crunchy cabbage. The soft potatoes that serve contrast to the savory beef chunks with just a hint of sourness from the vinegar. The chickpeas that split in your mouth and spread over your tongue. The salty jamon and chorizo. Savory, sweet, sour, salty, balanced, all together. A spoonful of a little of everything. That's the perfect spoonful.

And after we'd stuffed ourselves on cosido and bread, we'd sip at the piping hot superflavorful soup.

And then have bread pudding or halo-halo for dessert. But that's another story.

thoreauism

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau certainly got that right. I'm taking baby steps towards my end goal: to become a chef. So I'm about to start (fingers crossed) in the hot kitchen, no pay except meals, just to get some experience. Hopefully I don't lose any thumbs.

That would suck, not having opposable thumbs.

easy peasy japanese-y

This post is kinda overdue, but anyway, here it is.

A few weekends ago my family ate at this Japanese resto by Manila Bay. I don't remember the name of the complex, but it seemed a popular destination--it was brightly lit and attracted a good number of people. You could smell the sea and watch twinkly lights from across the bay.

The bay walk had so much potential, but now it's always crowded and incredibly smelly (because the people who sit on the walls by the sea don't know how to dispose of their trash--all the nooks and crannies among the big rocks have garbage stuffed in them). The sunsets there are the stuff poetry is made of, beautiful enough to rival Boracay sunsets.

Except, yeah, it stinks. And it's noisy because the restaurants along the walk put a bunch of carnival games and dancing girls and...it's really not what you'd want in a romantic walk by the bay.

BUT! The food in this place is still good. It's not exactly in front of Mall of Asia (where aforementioned unpleasantries are) so it's a little more secluded. It's on the second floor of its building, facing the bay so you get a good view over dinner.

This is it. "Tajima."

And this is the view across the bay!

This was the "tiangge" in front of the complex, by the parking lot.

And this interesting looking place is a floating restaurant called Mahi-Mahi that I want to try. It was closed then, but it looks worth a try, if only for the novelty of its place.

Anyway, Tajima. On your table they've got this built in grill so you can cook your own food. They serve great teriyaki beef strips that are sizzling hot and dripping in fat and sauce and just oooghghghghhh sooo yummy with the Japanese rice. Or even the lettuce leaf garnish. Their sushi is fresh and their uni sashimi is to die for. I know most people aren't taken by uni, and I used to be one of them, until the day I had another taste. It wasn't at all fishy, and it was cold and just so fresh tasting. 

You know what else they're good at? Beef sashimi. Raw slices of beautifully marbled Angus beef. I didn't get a photo of it because...well, I was too busy stuffing it into my mouth. It's so refreshing with just a dash of soy sauce. Who'd've thought? 

Raw beef. Ever since that episode with Mr. Bean spitting out his steak tartare and hiding it under his napkin and plate the thought never occurred to me that raw beef might be good. 

Well, it was. 

It's one of my favorite dishes there. If it's not your thing you can just throw it on the grill and watch as the slice begins to sweat and the fat begins to melt and then you can pop it into your mouth like a mini-steak. Now how can that ever be not good???

Be sure to give it a try when you're in the area.

Surprise!!

Friday night The Boyfriend surprised me with a dinner at...

...his house! Cooked by him!

He'd been bragging about how great his steaks are, and apart from that he can't cook much, so he showed off for me by cooking me up a superyummy steak dinner. With squash soup and broccoli and baked potatoes on the side. No occasion, just a regular weekend. He's spontaneous like that. I love my boyfriend!

So, yeah, that's all that was left, pretty much. Practically demolished it. I was sooo full though 'cos I ate broccoli (for once) and lots of the soup (I adore squash soup! With bacon bits!) and the baked potato that I couldn't finish the steak.

I have to say, I'm picky with steak but that was good! Just some regular cut beef that he seasoned some hours before with pepper and salt and it came out so tasty and tender! Pan fried with butter before my very eyes. Rested for a few minutes and voila! Rosy pink steak with a grey corona. The carnivore in me was overjoyed.

The Boyfriend was even thoughtful enough to remember that I really really like frozen iced tea (a.k.a. iced tea slush! I'm a girl of simple joys) and it was a perfect match to the hot, humid weather we were having, so he had some of that too. Finished it all :)

We were both so full by the end of the meal but after sitting around the table for a while just talking in the heavy humidity of a summer's night, we decided we had space for Razon's halo-halo.

I usually don't like halo-halo but I make an exception for Razon's. They've got the most luscious, refreshing evaporated milk slush on top of generous heaps of macapuno and ripe banana chunks, topped with two caramelly sweet  slices of leche flan. Obviously, I'm a fan. It's like halo-halo for non-halo-halo-lovers. It doesn't have all those beans and jellies that usual halo-halos do. It doesn't even have ube! (I don't like ube) This is pure, streamlined goodness.

Hooray!!

I just passed my first interview at Starbucks! Booyeah :) I'ma see you at the Tomas Morato branch, I'll be your friendly barista in black. (Crossing my fingers!)

Kokekokko

Last weekend my family went to Anilao, Batangas and I got so sore from too much fun. I was looking forward to some wakeboarding but what I got instead was an upgrade from the gigantic blue Starboard windsurf board I usually use to a slightly-less-gigantic white sinky wobbly board. No big feat but as a beginner, I appreciated the level-up. And I was beginning to learn to use the harness as well. What happened was that I ended up drifting each time I tried to use it and I had to be saved by kayak.

Arms sore and back burned, I kayaked over 100 meters as many times as I needed saving, and went to play scrabble instead. Lots of it!

My siblings and I are noobs at Scrabble, it's my mum who bought the set and thought we might wanna learn (she beats us big time). Here's a photo of our game one night. It must look pretty lame compared to the words Scrabble fans usually score. We didn't have a dictionary either, so it was pretty much went like "is that really a word?" "yeah." "mama, is that a real word? can we use that?" "mmm, yes." "okay." and we used slang all over the place, Scrabble rules be damned.

On the way home we passed a gas station and I bought myself a pack of strawberry Yan-Yan. For those unfamiliar with Yan-Yan, it's a snack with short, sweet bread sticks and a chocolate or strawberry creamy dip. I hadn't had Yan-Yan in a long time, so it surprised me to see designs toasted into the bread sticks. Designs such as "owl up at night" "bat only in the night" "elephant jumbo" and other weird nonsense (which you can find in the Yan-Yan wikipedia entry).