Surprise Breakfast

Weekend Home-cooked Meals

Sinigang sa miso yellow fin tuna.

Ken Afford Palm Sunday Lunch

Been wanting to eat in one of the best rastaurants and happily surprised that Ken Afford is on the list. Blast from the past suddenly been craving for squid salpicao. Their sisig was also voted as one of the best in the metro. And for our veggies we ordered the crispy kangkong. These are our usual orders way back when Ms. Chato introduced me to this resto in the late 1990's. They are now located just behind the citibank branch along Katipunan.

Visco's Four Cheese

One of the best four cheese pizza that we have tried. Visco is located at Baguio Session Road on the right side if you are going to the market coming from upper session road.

Cafe by the Ruins

Amats' coffee.

my tea.

Bibingka sa Simbang Gabi

Unang simbang gabi ngayon...at talaga naman tinawag ako nang mga alaala na kumain ng bagong hanggo at mainit na bibingka.

Breakfast of Macarons

Lumpia

The main ingredient for this lumpia (fresh spring roll) is singkamas, sliced thinly together with carrots. The singkamas stays crispy and crunchy replacing the traditional young bamboo shoots (labong). The wrap is similar to a very thin crepe. Poured with generous amount lumpia sauce.

Mey Lin's

real hand pulled noodles

grilled string beans stir fried in butter and garlic

squid in special sauce dinner date with Tatay

Menu of Doc Susan

mechadong blue marlin

cat fish, eggplant and kalabasa crispy fried with fresh mango

prawns

pansit

ensaladang sigarilyas and there is one more gulay na kare kare but it did not register well in the photos. had a grand time catching up with old friends in a surprise birthday party =) and for dessert, merry macarons

Boracay shell fish

tulya?

not sure what these are...

scallops

Shrimp with butter and garlic

At Boracay Talipapa for about 250 pesos can have this for your lunch. We ordered this a la carte no need to buy the shrimp if you are not up to going to the market to buy the fresh produce.

Boracay Lobsters

You can have your lobster fix at the Talipapa in Station 2 Boracay at Aquafresh restaurant they have cooking service for all kinds of seafoods. The photo above is cooked Thermidor way which is 230 per kilo. The lobster shells are kept where the cooked lobster meat with milk and cream is served. The are many "karinderya" that provides cooking service "paluto" for a fee for every kilo of fresh produce. You can buy the fresh lobsters, shrimps, oysters just beside these paluto service in a clean wet market in Talipapa.

Puto

Malunggay Pandesal

One of my favorite find at the organic farmer's market is this pandesal infused with bits of malunggay leaves. The bread was really soft. The whole pack on offer was just 50 pesos or about $1.20 per pack.

Keso, Kamatis at Basil

Keso (medium cheddar cheese), kamatis (tomato), fresh basil leaves and Eden processed cheese (so pinoy) with olive oil and lots of paminta (ground black pepper) and a few feta cheese thrown in. A side salad for dinner done in 15 minutes.

Banana cue

Banana cue is a favorite Filipino snack. This is made from "saba" variety of bananas cooked in boiling and deep fried with molten brown sugar. Served on a stick and best eaten while piping hot. One should be careful though.

Camote (sweet potato) can also be cooked much the same way but cut like french fries and a generous amount of ...well yes, molten brown caramelized sugar. Bliss!

Chicken Rendang

Love the colors and spicy thick sauce, that can only be achieved through simmering slowly for a long period of time until tender and the meat almost falls off the bones. I've been eating this at cafeteria and intrigued with what Rendang means so here it is:

Rendang is a spicy meat dish which originated from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia, and is now commonly served across the country. One of the characteristic foods of Minangkabau culture, it is served at ceremonial occasions and to honour guests. Also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, rendang is traditionally prepared by the Indonesian community during festive occasions.

Sopas

After being soaked in the cold rain, a good way to recovery and warm up is a bowl of hot soup. I cooked my childhood favorite comfort food -- sopas. And the rain was relentless at the time. Now as I write this, the rain continues to fall. Sigh.

Operation Boiled Eggs

August 7, 2012 when torrential rains continued to pound Manila, we boiled these eggs to send to Akbayanihan.

Kang kong and Tinapa Quiche

The best quiche I've tasted. This was homemade by a friend who recently came back home from Germany. Her first order of business was to buy an oven. Then they baked this kang kong and tinapa quiche. I am not a fan of tinapa. But my gulay! I had 3 huge serving slices and just salad on the side. I love the smell of baking bread. One of the quiche has this golden brown ( a bit more time in the oven they said) brown crust and nuggets packed the smoked flavor while the golden brown top clinched the savory flavors. Note to self-- ask for the recipe =).

Kinilaw sa Davao

Kinilaw: fresh fish ( tanigue, blue marlin or tuna), vinegar, onion (purple kind), cucumber, salt, ginger, kalamansi, hot chili (labuyo) and tomatoes. This one we had at Samal Island have thin slices of labanos.

Gumamela, one that we rarely see now.

Happy to find a free roaming Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus) at the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos, Davao.

Halo halo sa Laiya

These images represent one fine summer adventure of 2012 as a family. The first time we scaled a rock wall with a sheer drop into the ocean. The sun was scorching hot that day. What best way to counter the heat? Yes. The classic halo halo.