Leaving a m a r k, literally ;)

A few weekends back J & I had the luxury of going to Boracay for a few days and it was a really memorable trip in a way we didn't expect it. It wasn't all sunshine and beach weather and in the beginning we were worried that we might not even make it to our destination. :P The small plane from Manila to Caticlan seemed to have problems with the faulty oil pressure instrument and when they told us to return to the terminals after we boarded, they weren't confident in telling us if there was another flight or if we had to wait an extra day. Then factor in the typhoon weather which whizzed past the islands bringing buckets of rain & fierce winds..we thought we would be confined indoors the whole time. In the end we were really lucky to fill our time with some relaxing activities like shisha, massage, buggy riding and is definitely a good reminder that company is all that matters. =)


Yeah we were uneasy when we saw our transfer flight. Or at least I was..never been on such a small plane before. That's one of the pilot's arm and they give you bamboo fans in case you got hot before take off. :P

Our trusty ride..


Arrived *yay! After eating only a ham and egg bun in the morning, the first thing on my mind was fooood.


The food on the first night was pretty dang delicious perhaps because I was starving. Generally speaking Filipino dishes are quite simple and they're like the comfort food you get to eat at home. J says the stews are very similar to Persian stews so it's a cuisine that he can easily relate to as well.


I personally loved the beef adobo and would love to re-create that taste sometime in the near future since J bought a recipe book.


By the pool side.


Almost getting blown away..it felt like a T3 or T8 :P


Grilled chicken inasal with rice wrapped in banana leaf. No messing around just come hungry and leave patting your tummy. :)


Sugar overdose on the ride back. Love cornflakes or any type of crunchiness in my dessert.


hehee We ordered room service and shared a club sandwich with carrot sticks and a bottle of red that we bought at D-mall. As you can see we topped it off with some dun dun dun the Fringe :P


The next day we seized the opportunity to visit the tallest point in Boracay.


This lil attraction was soo ghetto with wild animals in cages and extremely dangerous looking zip lines. Despite that, the makeshift viewing area was quite impressive with a pretty nice 360 degree view of the island.


We had fun taking turns driving and drifting on the rocky roads hehe


Following our guide.


Visiting some other beaches around the island.


<3 hehe we really made use of our camera rod. No more couple shots with big faces.
Beer with ice? My first comment was eh..and then I realized how refreshing it tastes


Abit of mexican and filipino food for dinner.


The last day we saw mr. sunshine! We were both so happy that we skipped breakfast and went straight for the beach at 9:30am.




Lunch by the beach/pool side.




Outstretched toes meaning that they're happy =) Love travelling but gotta save up now. No more trips until the end of the year but it won't hurt to daydream abit and plan for other fun activities around town.

Beautiful memories

Standing out from the rest.


Take it one step at a time and you'll get there.


Sometimes you just have to accept that you will lose some but you can also gain and win so much more.


Do you know what tomorrow bring?


A moment to sit and reflect. It's so true that you are what you eat.


Finding the beauty in imperfection.


Mm..hummus, thou art mine.


Round like my beacon of delight ;)


Haha I chose the silly photo. Happy Father's Day! :)

I love my new Canon SLR. <3 After loosing my precious camera at the airport last week I decided I will never travel without a good camera. Got the EOS 600D with 18-135mm IS lens. Yeah, everything I see and do will remain with me forever but somehow not having those photographs just ain't the same. Spent the whole Sunday afternoon meandering around snapping and deleting photos for the sake of practising all the various functions and techniques. Starting to get the hang of it..pretty easy to use and loving every moment of it!

I think I'm feeling...

Yayyy the long weekend has arrived! Going to Macau tomorrow to sightsee, watch the house of dancing water with J's family and of course eat some yummy portugese food. Mm...haven't had a portugeese egg tart in forever! :D I'm also feeling pretty happy with myself this week, I was able to go running after work on Mon, Wed and Fri..and it feels great to work up a sweat again! Have been thinking of signing up to Fitness First or Pure so I can get some consistent work-outs. We'll see how that goes. Would be nice to exercise during lunch for 30-45 minutes, shower and then grab a sandwich on the way back. :P

I'm kinda looking forward to and also stressing about our upcoming Asia Training Seminar - 5 more days until Bintan and 7 more days until Singapore. Stressing because I feel like I'm the event coordinator liaising with the participants so if anything goes wrong, I feel like I'm held accountable? *eeks. Hope the event and general logistics goes well. Any must see's or hawker centers to visit in Singapore? Will aim to keep it really relaxing and walk around soaking up the sights and smells.

A photo recap from last 2 weeks. Tried Betty's Kitchen @ IFC with J's parents on his lil break-away celebration. :D The salad was so delicate and pretty! Almost didn't want to dig in.

Duck Confit. After watching Jamie Oliver cook it on TLC it kinda blew my mind as to how long the whole cooking process takes. First you got to rub and cover it in salt/herbs for over a day then the fat gets rendered and placed into an oven so the meat slowly cooks for a few hours. After removing it from the heat, the meat is stored and submerged in it's own fat! *Gurgle gurgle.. You can preserve it for a couple of months and then when you're ready to eat...grill it up until the skin turns crispy again. I'll let the french chef's cook this bc I don't think I have the patience to be Julia Child.


Chicken and braised ribs with sugar snaps.


Just chilling on a beautiful Saturday at AC. Didnt take any photos from Andrea's boat party but it was a pretty chill night and the pot luck was pretty yum. The malteeser mini cupcakes, gaucamole with black corn chips AND brie with mermaid bread was...amazzzing. And of course I'll never grow old of the hummus from Great. :]


Back to Back.



Walking along the Peak morning trail and do you see what I see? Find Waldo :)


Brunch with dad at Oolaa. Half of a brekky burrito & one egg. No need to say anymore..except that breakfast rules ;)


*yawwwns so tired..Time for bed n' good night. xxx

P

¿Que quieres comer?

One good day has offset 2 difficult/bad ones. What a difference today made :]

Last Sunday we went to GREAT and bought some ingredients to make dinner bc cooking together is really quite fun. We were originally going to make mushroom risotto but decided that a plate full of rice and nothing much seemed a tad dull. In the end we went for Spanish and did a quick google of how to make paella!! (Doesn't that word itself sound sexy already?) hehe So now I'm going to take this opportunity to show y'all how to make some yummies in your tummies. :D

Our paella was definitely more veggie oriented rather than seafood. We also kind of cheated and bought this paella mix but next time we'll make it totally from scratch with some dry white wine and shellfish stalk. Our spin of the recipe is as follows:

300-400g of Risotto rice
2 king prawns
4 scallops
2 sweet onions
1 red pepper and 1 green pepper
25 g chorizo
Alternatives: smaller prawns, cod fish, mussels, squid rings
Olive oil, salt and pepper + all that jazz ;)

First put 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil onto your round flat pan. Brown your shrimp and once it's half cooked, remove it from the heat and cook half of your veggies.


Pour in your rice and then pour 4 cups of warm water into the pan. Stir it abit to make sure the rice is covered and turn it on medium heat and stop stirring. Our recipe advised us to turn it to high but we realized that the heat wasn't evenly spread out so the middle kinda burned.


Let it continue to simmer and after 15-20 minutes, place the rest of your vegetables and seafood on top so it doesn't get too soggy or over cooked. In the meantime feel free to play some spanish music in the background so you wish and dance around like buzz lightyear in shrek 3 ;)


Ta daaaa!! :D We were worried that the rice wasn't going to be cooked through especially since the center of the pan was abit burnt but..the sides tasted great. No worries for us because we wouldn't even be able to finish it all. (I think this whole pan would serve about 3-4 people??)



Looking not too bad don't you think? :)

Until next time,
Lil miss chef. xxx

My beacon of delight :')

Last class and although we only had 2 hours I managed to finish everything! yay~



Look at all the cool stuff we made.



<3

Can't believe this time last year we went on our first official date by biking to the Tsinghua Park, then Japanese food in the local student joint and chilling out on the rooftop of Bridges cafe. How fast time flies and I still have to pinch myself sometimes :) Thank you for cheering me up on my emo days and stopping me from eating all the gummy bears in one going. haha Had fun playing house and sharing those lil cups of haagen daz whilst watching Fringe (which btw can get soo gory and suspenseful but I totally understand how it gets addictive heehee). It's these relaxing and genuine moments that I absolutely love but they also go by the fastest. I suffer from slight J withdrawals from time to time though I try not to show it. I'm already really lucky to be able to see and hang out with J so often each week. And with whatsap, I feel like we're just moments away. I don't know what it'd be like if I lived somewhere in NT..commute would be such a pain in the butt. hehe I know I'm rambling on my lil blog but I guess that'll happen when one is missing the ps-wiggle. :P

I feel like making tiramisu. Nicely portioned glasses of creamy and cool dessert sounds perfect on a hot summer's day. Will try and make that this weekend! xx