(Perdita was caught by this basket in one of those playful times as she tried to fish the jackstones’ pieces in it. Who helped him? Her big brother Winello.)

Yes, you can imagine my reaction to be like Perdita’s when I realized that  we’re almost bidding adieu to February and I haven’t written a single note in this space this month. Anyway, that’s the same old tune so let’s get it straight to the point. A lot of things are unfolding and concluding in my life and I feel that I cannot catch up because it’s just so fast paced. On the other hand, I’m happy that I’m liking the way I approach things and situations because I seem to worry less, control conscious less, and other diminishing approaches which result in a more sound sleep… but with a winking eye (eeek!) lately.  Just yesterday, I had my regular consultation with my ophthalmologist and she evaluated that my sudden winking  (right eye) for straight 24 hours was due to my increased stress level, fatigue and the other associated facts. And she said, “well, please try to manage…”.

Ooops, the title of this post totally contradicts my introductory paragraph. But I don’t want to re-write that.  To a certain extent, that’s part of the February being fun-filled.

February is one of my favorite months because it’s little J’s birth month. She had a celebration at the classroom and those Blackberry-themed mini-cupcakes are one of their treats. I didn’t bake those myself (I feel guilty of not having/ not finding enough time to bake again), but ordered those from Blossom Sweets, a really nice service provider in Abu Dhabi. We’re also busy scouting for a tutor as little J got a violin as a birthday gift. Thanks to those who gave suggestions. Volunteers are also welcome. Hahaha.

(It took over two weeks before Winello and Perdita got along. The latter came in November. And since then they are now the best buddies.)

February also witnessed other celebrations in little ways (got promoted, etc.) But you know what, despite all the buzz, ups and lows, it all boils down about sleeping happily (just like our feline kids up there) at night! I remember the movie “Into the Wild” wherein the main actor had to isolate himself in search for the true meaning of happiness which turned out to be known by him from the start— that happiness is real when shared. It had a non-traditional  (sad) ending, a really nice movie.

Of course, happiness can be defined in so many ways. And this one could be our common favorite.

And well, happiness is being able to enjoy the little windy and cold weather in Abu Dhabi while it’s there. The recent sandstorms only mean that winter may rest soon. Enjoy the sunshine wherever you are and nurture the source of definition of your happiness.

We decided to have a quick getaway last weekend to get a much deserved breather. We thought that Yas Rotana would be so quiet since the grand prix (Formula 1) is still months away. But it was reasonably jovial, just the way we needed.

Oriental mix grill is highly recommended.

And guess what? Our package included free tickets to Ferrari World, currently the world’s largest indoor themed park and houses Formula Rossa, the fastest roller coaster (as if I can manage the scare heeheee, dream on). We are looking forward to our visit, anyway.

(Thanks to those who participated in my blog anniversary and birthday giveaway. It is still open until 17th of July.)

It’s impossible to miss the sight of ripening date fruit in Abu Dhabi nowadays. It’s interesting how nature signals what’s going to happen next. Remember the days when people would depend on the aura of clouds, behaviour of animals, how starry is the starry, starry night, and other “metrics” to tell the weather and what is yet to come?

Yes, that means Ramadan is near.

This is my entry to Photo Cache’s blog anniversary giveaway.

While it’s rainy in other parts of the globe, we’re enjoying the summer in the UAE. Ooops, isn’t it summer everyday in the Gulf ever since the world was created? I thought, too! Apparently, summer’s technically only from June until August. Anyway, my thoughts (and taste buds) are actually driving me to one of our favorite eats this season… ice cream! However, for the ice cream lovers who are not getting any younger and have growing child(ren), options to consume healthy food must be explored. That it is going to be economical is a bonus.

Here’s the good news, ice cream making is possible even with just one ingredient. Even if you don’t have a proper ice cream maker.

The secret ingredient: BANANAS!

Thanks to this recipe shared over the kitchn blog. I modified it a little and came up with my first home made creamy ice cream.  Easy as ABC!

1. Peel the (Dole) bananas and cut into pieces as shown above. One banana is going to qualify for one satisfying serving. However, you may want to peel more because you can store them later on.
2. Put peeled-cut bananas in the freezer for a minimum of 4 hours. In the original recipe, minimum of 2 hours was suggested. However, I like it to be more crumbly and harder.
3. Put the bananas in the food processor (or blender). Blend on high. It is going to appear piecemeal in the beginning, just be patient and not too long (in a matter of seconds), you’re in for the magic! That is, it is going to be creamy.
4. As an option, you may want to mix in the other ingredients you prefer.
5. You may use a scoop in serving the ice cream to make it more appealing.

The good thing about home made preparation is that it works based on your preference or craving. Like in the first photo, the bananas were blended up to the creamy state. While in the last photo it was in mid crumbly and creamy state to match it better with the peanut butter. If you plan to stock up on your “magical ice cream”, try to blend it on a soft-serve style and freeze in an airtight container; it is going to get harder and be more like a regular ice cream. (I remember this happened exactly with my excess flavored icing when I stored in the refrigerator for over 24 hours, that we called it the “accidental ice cream”.)

While the commercialized ice creams out there are fanciful, it is a good idea to explore more healthy options (think of the benefits of eating bananas). But honestly, I like this one-ingredient ice cream with a little add-on. That’s when the healthy part is becoming subjective. So far, we tried Nutella, chocolate bars, and peanut butter as mix ins. And I liked it best with the peanut butter. We are going to try honey, milo (and more) in it next time.

Visiting a souk (bazaar or market) is probably less appealing during the first phase of summer in Abu Dhabi. But it’s definitely a come-on when you think of this new age souk! Few minutes drive from where I live, the historic Central Market is now sporting a new look as it’s transforming into a hub of local food, crafts, boutiques, and traditional and bustling pieces rolled into one. Stories say that the old souk was greatly affected by fire in 2004. As for the idea of resurrecting it, I liked the part that they conceptualized the modern souk not by simply putting up a shiny establishment, and instead they retained the Arabic feel through its architecture.

Although The Souk is still eyeing its completion by the end of this year, it’s worth the visit because of the interesting finds inside it, a peek to its architecture, and the appreciation through your own senses that it’s a stand out in the UAE.

During our visit last weekend, we noticed that the available stalls offer arts and crafts products, antiques, cameras, jewelries, designer glasses (uhum, must be the season – an eye toy, err, cover is a must), chocolates, and a variety of dining choices ranging from Middle Eastern to Western dishes, not to mention the presence of gorgeous coffee, frozen yogurt and ice cream shoppes.

If you’re looking for edible gold-like cake toppers/figurines, you might want to check Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I enjoyed the free taste of chocolates which were kookily shaped as pharaohs and other trivial figures. I willingly accepted the discount card because I might become a suki (frequent customer), who knows? To start, we got a pack of spoon-shaped chocolates.

How I wish I were that articulate in reading Arabic, or even if I am (wishful!) I wish I knew how to use this sort of globe or compass.

The displays near the escalators, as well as the sculptures of deers (I thought we would find camels instead; but there were plenty of camel inspired souvenirs) and other antique cabinets are really attention grabbing. In a way, it felt like being in a modern-non-eerie museum.

While there are mahogany-like structured benches, the sofa and other booths with this traditional design and color were reminiscent of our Desert Safari experience… and of Baguio in the Philippines.

I absolutely liked how they put together the sliding roofs and walls to pave way for a better ventilation. As the architect accounted it, while the towers relate to distance and skyline, the souk and the lower levels are scaled to the pedestrian. An intimate sequence of streets, alleys, courtyards, balconies and colonnades dissolve barriers between inside and outside, with flexible sliding roofs and walls to enable control of internal environments, and to maximise potential for natural ventilation. Like a patchwork quilt of gridded modules of varying height, the scheme is a highly articulated composition that bridges and unifies two city blocks.

Here’s the current look of the food court. It can only get more impressive in few months.

We tried the strawberry waffle and nutella crepe from The Crepe Cafe. Surprisingly, they were light and not too sweet. We found another favorite! But if you really want to know, we’re now earmarking our visits to The Souk to try the tea house and themed coffee shoppes. The ambiance is really magnetic.

This is how it looks from the outside. I’m not sure if it’s the Asian in me, but it felt and it looked like that there was a touch of Japanese and/or Korean architecture in it.

But whatever it is, I liked the practicality and appeal of the combination of old Abu Dhabi with the modern age in this structure. Let’s see once this mall (yes, it is!) is in full bloom.

The Souk, Khalifa Street, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Website: http://www.centralmarket.ae/souk/

I’m a Star Wars fan and here’s my Easter “story” of the year, using some of the cute and delicious stuff at home.

(Click here to zoom)
Princess Leia’s mission is to save the Easter eggs from the dinosaurs. She’ll meet different creatures along the way, most of them are there to distract her. One of the bunnies shall tell her that she must go to the post office (painted red) to meet R2-D2 (yes, the robot from Star Wars) to help her fight the dinosaurs.

(First dilemma: To ride the jeepney or the British bus? If she wants a smooth ride, she must ride the Philippine jeepney. Heehee.)

(The eggs hostaged by the dinosaurs.)

(She must triumph this mission the soonest possible time. The biggest bunny’s the time keeper.)

Do you also like happy endings? If yes, Princess Leia triumphed. And she ate all the Easter eggs (chocolates)!

If you like sad endings, here’s an alternate: No, she and R2-D2 came too late to save the eggs. Instead, they ate all the Easter bunnies. They are also chocolates, anyway.

Happy Easter everyone!

(Here’s another story: When a Muslim greets me, “Happy Easter!” and asks for THE Gossip)

One of the Filipino dishes that I “outsourced” for my housewarming was pancit palabok (rice noodles with toppings and sauce). My guests and I kept raving about it that I had to have it again. As I devoured it I was imagining how it was prepared, just like the details found in most of the online recipes and cookbooks. But I had a hard time matching it because it looked so simple – without the shrimps, squid, and other toppings, but more delicious than those I’ve tasted in the past. (Just like a halo halo with so many ingredients versus the unassuming and plain looking but yummier Razon’s.) Until I found myself asking Ate (the person who cooked it who is from Pampanga) how to prepare it. Instead of sharing the recipe right away, I had to observe the preparation twice and prepare it with her eventually. Think of practical tests.

For those who would like to try it, you will need:
500 g thick rice noodles
water for soaking noodles
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
10 g spring onion
5 eggs
50 g pork crackling (chicharon)
1/2 cup annatto (achuete) oil
200 g lean ground pork
1 cup water
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 and half tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp white pepper

To cook:
1. Soak the rice noodles for 3 to 4 hours. It can be less than that depending on the type of the thick rice noodles. (Thin rice noodles or bihon is an alternate. This does not need to be soaked and can be directly boiled until it gets tender.) As soak is in progress, crush, peel and mince the garlic. Set aside 4 tbsp of the annatto oil for the toppings.
2. In a pot, heat annatto oil and saute garlic and half of the onion for 1 minute. Add flour to the sauteed mixture and whisk continuously (better if you can have a substitute in whisking). Set aside.
3. Boil noodles for 2 to 3 minutes and drain.

4. For the toppings, hard boil the eggs. When done, peel and slice into wedges and set aside.
5. To make the pork topping, mix pepper, soy sauce and ground pork in a bowl. In a pot, heat annatto oil, saute garlic and onion. Add the pork mixture and cook until tender.
6. In a pre-heated pan, fry the remaining chopped garlic to make toasted garlic. Set aside.
7. Roast wrapped flaked smoked fish (tinapa) on the stove or grind the pork crackling (chicharon) as we did.

To serve:
8. Place cook noodles on a plate then pour sauce over the noodles. Since I love palatable presentations, I prefer using a tray. Arrange the toppings: pork meat, chicharon, spring onions, toasted garlic and egg.
9. Serve with a slice lemon or calamansi.

Whew, I didn’t realize it really entails long preparation. But it was really worth it (sulit)!

I have moved in to a new flat which is nearer to my work place and covers a more economical lease agreement. Hence, one of the things that kept me busy as I returned from my vacation was the packing (and unpacking, ugh) of my stuff. I could have done it before I went on holidays to the Philippines, but I just did not want to stress myself that time. Anyway, moving out and in was a breeze. Thanks to my employer who recommended the movers who were very reliable when it comes to shifting stuff. If you are based in Abu Dhabi and need the same service, let me know.

(Yes, that’s the cocktail photo that I took from the food photography workshop.)

We held the housewarming plus the joint birthday celebrations of friends last weekend. We realized that we did miss each other sooo much because it has been so long since the last time we randomly gathered. Since some of us spent the holidays in the Philippines, we did not have our usual pre-Christmas party. After the chatter over very good food, which were all “outsourced” by the way (i.e. I did not cook any, even the desserts, heehee), we felt so re-energized although we practically consumed our energy in laughing over trivial stuff (politics, personal lives, etc.) and well, eat, eat and eat.

(We had sisig, dinuguan, caldereta, embutido, palabok, turbo broiled chicken, adobo, and cheesecake.)

By the way, I have done a little rearrangement of the living room to accentuate it with Filipino decors. But overall, I think that it turned out to be a fusion of Asian look.

These musicians and ballerinas are being sold in Bayti (Arabic term for house) in Marina Mall. I particularly liked these because they are made in the Philippines. Yehey for more Filipino products in the UAE! Remember the Lolo Jose lamp?

(Here’s Sandy Iggy from the sisterhood of traveling Igorota joining Princess Leia and R2-D2 from Star Wars from my online exchange gift partner and the Philippine Jeepney from upto6only.)

(My dear friends-visitors ransacked my DVDs. Hahaha.)

(Another ballerina guarding the digital photo frame. And yes, that’s me on it.)

It was definitely the most fun weekend of my January. I wish all of us a great February. Things can only get better.

Whether you naturally fancy Hello Kitty or not, just like in my case wherein I’m a natural Snoopy, it’s close to impossible not to have been enchanted by the thought of owning Hello Kitty stickers, stationeries, cups, and other cute (yes, that’s the operative word) stuff at least at some point in a girl’s life. My random inventory tells me that I have a Hello Kitty trash bin (in the room), clutch bag, shirt and sweater. Lately, I’m scouting toppers like those in the above photo because I want to bake Hello Kitty cupcakes for someone’s birthday who likes this character a lot, so I can virtually send it to her while I consume it here (*insert facepalm*). Seriously, whenever I drop by in the Sanrio stores here in the UAE, Kayni is one of my blog pals that first zooms in my head.

Here goes my birthday wishes for her, and I wish for myself, too: that we remain childlike at heart, that our being childlike helps us in sustaining a good health, that we may find more time this year to catch up on reading and movie watching, and may we invest more on experiences instead of material stuff, travel that is.

This is my entry to Kayni’s birthday blog party.

If you are a regular to this blog, you probably can tell that majority of my photo subjects are food-oriented. I think that this topic has particularly sustained my interest in blogging. While I am no expert in taking food photos, I am happy whenever my snapshots succeed in making any reader mouthwatered and hungry (*grins*). At times, my own posts make me crazy-hungry. Unarmed with technical know-how, I only had one rule whenever I capture food photos whatever camera I do use: to capture it the way I want to remember it.  Until I’ve joined in the food photography workshop conducted by Jay Alonzo last weekend.

(Jay Alonzo, the same teacher we had for the basic photography workshop the other weekend, as he checked the lights).

When our maestro announced that we will be taking photos of a salad, fish, dessert and cocktail, I thought that I can snap everything in few minutes. That is how shallow is the newbie in me. When we were grouped into three (with an average of 6 members) and asked to discuss the paraphernalia (including the camera accessories) which can be of use for the actual shoot, I fancied the idea of food styling and feared the lighting technicalities since I had zero experience about studio lights set-up.

(Since we did not have a table cloth, we used a shawl instead.)

On the actual shoot, we were asked to photograph the dishes the way we want to compose it. That is, keeping in mind what has been shared during the lecture + on the day reminders. While the chef was busy taking care of the food’s palatability, each group was doing the table and lights set up. It absolutely amazed me how the lights (and shadows) made a big difference on the photo’s appeal. For a newbie, the technicalities can be a little overwhelming and being with professionals can also be very intimidating. I opine that it is our interest and passion to improve which shall sustain us.

(I had to add a couple of uncut tomato cherries in order to improve my subject, i.e. top cherry with the leaf. Also, we interchanged some of the quail eggs to position the one with the nicest yoke near the subject. )

(I have 10 shots of the grilled salmon. I submitted this one because I liked that I can taste the sauce and feel the thickness of the salmon visually. The overall appeal will be different if you capture the entire plate from the top.)

(We have adjusted the lights to make it pinkish to avoid the flatness of the background, which was actually white. The donut-like earrings near the cup are some of the gifts from my online exchange gift partner last December.)

(This was taken 20 minutes after the preceding photo was captured. Since the strawberry already looked dry, we had put on olive oil by using a paint brush. I liked how the cake looked so expensive. In reality, it is one of those readily available slices of cake from Lulu Center which are not pricey.)

Overall, I never thought that it would take time to compose a photo — considering all the set ups required. But I am more than pleased with the results that we were able to capture the taste without the post-processing. After the submission from each attendee, we were adjudged as the best group and the best photo came from a groupmate which had a better version of my grilled salmon submission. (He was able to include the candle in his framing.)

Some of you might want to ask about how delicious the food were. I honestly had no idea because I did not taste any. I keep in mind what our lecturer shared that not to eat anything that we have not seen that he ate. Since the food being used for photoshoots are for the visual pleasure and some of the ingredients are being modified. On a larger note, mind the touches and re-touching alike done on the food as it becomes gloomy.

It was a day of hardwork and fun. I absolutely enjoyed and learned from it.