Where to Eat (San Fernando, Pampanga): Choco-Late de Batirol

One Tuesday evening, I find myself wondering, "where should I go for dinner?" 

When in Eastwood, Thou Shall Try Bone and Barrel

When Janese sent me a message in Facebook asking me if I wanted to hangout in Eastwood and try out Bone and Barrel I was quite hesitant at first because of (1) the unmerciful evil traffic and (2) it’s EASTWOOD and I’m from Valenzuela... Hello?! But because I have been so stressed with work, with my personal life (Hahahaha! Shit, may ganun?); I guess I needed this.

YES, let’s go!

Missed the ZAP Crawl; but Nevertheless...

And I hate it when I have to miss such awesome events.

Young Chefs' Boot Camp at CCA Podium

I love food. Well, eat them at least. I have always thought of learning how to cook but cooking doesn't seem to be in favor of me. Hahaha! Well, at least, I'm still trying. You know I've been making onigiri (well, it's just steamed rice) and bento meals for me and my sisters so maybe I'm just starting to learn now; but it's been a tough process. I mean, I don't even know how to make a perfect sunny side up! Hahaha! Actually, me and my two sisters Kim of Kimtabulous.blogspot.com and Czai of TheBlackSheeproject.blogspot.com don't know how to really cook. If only my parents believe that summer classes are worth it and that cooking classes for kids exist back then, I would have taken that and several other classes. You see, I'm a very active kid!

Onigiri and Tamago

Last day of the long vacation. Boo! ): It feels like my body still wants more. I want to sleep late and wake up late still. Can I go on a vacation leave tomorrow? Hehe. Kiddin'! Anyway, I had a great vacation and it's all thanks to my family. My parents are so kick ass and my sisters are... Errr... Weird yet amazing. Anyway, for the last day of the vacation I decided to make some onigiri and tamago for my two sisters as our merienda. You know we love making our bento so I decided to do some onigiri and tamago to celebrate our awesome vacation.

Bloggers United Pop-Up Bazaar

Merry almost-Christmas everyone! Yep, wrote this blog post December 24 so I'm greeting everyone a Merry almost-Christmas. Yesterday (December 23, 2011) I was super exhausted but happy and, somehow, fulfilled, because of the Bloggers United Pop-Up Bazaar.

Bloggers at Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho

At the GMA Van

Hey everyone! I have been a bit busy and I know I still got lots to blog post about like my Tiny Pink Bow giveaway winner and other events. Need not to worry because I'm blogging them within the week. I have just been super busy with everything and this is one of them.


I, together with three of my awesome blogger friends will be featured at Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho regarding our love for food tripping. You know how much me and my blogger friends love Il Mercanti so four of us were featured to do some food tripping and food reviewing at the place.


First stop was street food at the Quezon City Circle:

... And then off to Il Mericanti Food tripping afterwards:

The show will air this Saturday, October 22, 2011; 8:10PM at GMA 7. I hope you'll support us there.

Genn | Myrted | Eenah | Aubrey

Love,love these girls who were with me: Eenah, Myrted and Aubrey. Plus our ever so dearest manager (hehe) MissGennD. <3


Group Shot!

Myrted | Eenah | Genn | Aubrey | GELLEESH

DLSU Bloggers Congress 2

So my sister (a DLSU student) and I went attended the second DLSU ( De La Salle University) Bloggers Congress at the Yuchengco Building. We actually woke up a bit late for the event but still we managed to arrive quite a bit early. We met up with Ms. Marga (KMBI's Web Unit Head) at the DLSU lobbyand proceeded to the venue of the talk.

Rob Cham | Anton Diaz | Camille Co | Saab Magalona

The first talk was supposed to be by Christian San Jose; but since he could not make it, Rob Cham took his place. He was a very funny guy and my sister and I loved the sense of humor he puts in his comic strip. He just stumbled upon blogging through Tumblr which is the best platform for him to show off his works. Because I asked him a question about DeviantArt, I won a poster of his art work. I am a fan now!


Second talk was with Anton Diaz, the blogger behind Our Awesome Planet. I learned a lot from him. From a brief background about the Digital Publishing model to cloud hosting, viral marketing and most especially this quote: "It is not about popularity. It is about impact." True enough, it's more satisfying to know that a certain reader of mine buys a product I recommended. That means that I have already influenced someone through my thoughts. I know it's a small thing but that's the idea isn't it?

After the two talks, there was a break and a raffle. I won 2 Gift Certificates from Le Plume and a one year web hosting and domain registration from SolidHosting.ph. I'm actually giving the hosting and domain registration GC to my sister, TheBlackSheeproject, but she is kind of having second thoughts. In case she declines and decided to buy her own domain by herself, I will give this away to one lucky reader. Who wants? :)


The third talk was with Fashion Blogger, Camille Co. What I learned from her is more of the important things to remember when blogging and what is necessary to be seen in one's blog layout. She also explained the important details a fashion blogger should do and should have on their blog and accounts such as Lookbook and Chictopia.

Last speaker for the day was celebrity and lifestyle blogger, Saab Magalona. She was honest enough to admit that she wasn't prepared for this because of her procrastinating (I have this sickness too. LOL). However, I had fun from her talk. She told us how she started out blogging and how she was all emo back then with her posts filled with teen angst and all that. She reminded everyone to not let the fame of blogging get into our heads because there was a time in her life when it did and it isn't a good thing.

Ms Marga with Anton Diaz

Gelleesh with Camille Co

After the talk, we were directed to the Yuchengco Building lobby for a cocktail meet and greet. I just had my picture taken and a small chat with Camille Co and a picture with Anton Diaz and we (me, my sis and Ms Marga) left for a dinner in BonChon. I've been craving for this and been talking non-stop about BonChon. Finally!

Our Bonchon Dinner

According to the organizers of the event, the blogger congress will help DLSU with raising awareness regarding their month's advocacy and the blogger congress will now happen every term. So for those interested to attend next term's blogger congress, I'll just keep you posted, alright?


 Till next post!

Around The World With Your Taste Buds

I know many of us are now trying to watch our diet or at least attempting to do it as Christmas day approaches. But what do we do when flavors all over the world are brought to us conveniently in one place?

Appetite magazine brings together Western and Eastern Cuisine in the Appetite Restaurant Festival 2011 from October 14 to November 30 at the Shangri-la Plaza in Mandaluyong City.

As the magazine celebrates its 7^th year, Filipino foodies will be treated with various servings of food especially-crafted for the festival.

Appetite menus with an appetizer, entrees and dessert await hungry Joes who want value for their money. These menus are all worth below P1,000 and are available at participating restaurants: Café Provencal, Claw Daddy, Crustasia, C2, Cyma, Green Tomato, Lemongrass, Pages Deli, Pepper Lunch, Pho Hoa, Secret Recipe and Sing Hainanese Chicken.

The eloquent Sam Oh welcomed everyone to the festival.

The November issue of Appetite Magazine also comes with a coupon that can be presented to C2, Claw Daddy, Green Tomato, Lemongrass, Pages Deli, Pho Hoa and Secret Recipe for additional free treats. The coupons will also be available at the entrances and at the concierge of the Shangri-la Plaza.

Food lovers can also enjoy free parking when they use their Mastercard to spend a minimum of P1,000 in participating restaurants.

I read that moderation is the key to many things. Thus, if you don’t want to get fat, eat moderate amounts of food.

If you still want to stay on track, just remember to keep food servings at a minimum choose healthy food.

Happy eating! ^-^

---

Blogger Correspondent: Jenny Manongdo

Jenny is a Journalist from Manila Bulletin and the author of the blog: http://www.mannaforjenny.tumblr.com titled: The Practical Fashionista. Jenny believes that a practical fashionista knows how to maximize her resources and always looks her best even in the middle of deadlines.

IL Mercanti - Happy Food Trip!

Good vibes on a Friday night for me and some of my blogger friends as we were invited by the organizers of Il Mercanti in Metrowalk for some free food courtesy of our dear MissGennD. Admittedly, for someone who commutes, Metrowalk is kind of a not-so-visible enough place plus it's at the parking lot behind the bars in Metrowalk. It is like a treasure chest waiting to be discovered and opened.

The Il Mercanti is a food heaven for all those who loves food and enjoys food tripping. There's all kinds of food there from Korean to Japanese to your favorite street foods like humongous isaw and even Lechon from Cebu and some baked scallops. Yum.

With Ms. Connie Sison

We were able to meet and take a picture with one of the organizers of the event, Ms. Connie Sison, a journalist from GMA 7. She was a very nice and accommodating host, indeed. Aside from the free food tripping we've had, she also gave us an additional gift certificate so I was able to buy sushi, maki, kani salad and a cake from MedChef by Chef Hasset Go to take home.

IMAGE SOURCE: ayanagrace.blogspot.com -- Rache (http://fashionisarchitect.blogspot.com) | Tin (http://ohhthat.blogspot.com) | Jen (http://shopgirljen.blogspot.com) | Genn (http://missgennd.blogspot.com) | Tiffie (http://tiffiefum.blogspot.com) | Aya (http://ayanagrace.blogspot.com) | Angel (http://wonderwomanrises.blogspot.com) | Kai (http://kaisensei.blogspot.com) | Kei (http://www.keisanpablo.com) | ME (http://www.gelleesh.com)

Tiffie (http://tiffiefum.blogspot.com) | Aya (http://ayanagrace.blogspot.com) | Genn (http://missgennd.blogspot.com) | Kei (http://www.keisanpablo.com) | Angel (http://wonderwomanrises.blogspot.com)

Genn (http://missgend.blogspot.com) | Tiffie (http://tiffiefum.blogspot.com) | Kai (http://kaisensei.blogspot.com)

Although the venue was not commuter-friendly; fret not when it rains for the whole place is tented (is there such a word? LOL) and it's very condusive to dining. They have maintained the cleanliness of the place and that's two thumbs up for me. Only, please do something about the parking space. We don't want Tiffie forgetting where she parked her ride again, eh? LOL


Great food with great friends. Amazing Friday night indeed.


Il Mercanti is open from Wednesday to Saturday, 7:00pm - 6:00am. 

MedChef's 1st Year Anniversary

July 26, 2011 - MEDCHEF celebrated their 1st year anniversary. It was a very fun event as I have also met a lot of Filipino bloggers and, again, made new friends. 

with Chef Hasset Go

MEDCHEF is owned by two very young and bright entrepreneurs, Chef Hasset Go and Jayson Paul Carlos. The reason behind its name is because Jayson is a medtech and Hasset is (duh) a chef. Simple as that!

Anyway, I am not a big fan of sweets and all of my friends know that; but the cakes and pastries just looks gorgeous that it managed to lure me into tasting some of them. They were divine and heavenly and I'm planning on bringing my sister here because she is the sweet tooth in our family.

The Cake Fashion Show was great; though I wasn't able to take pictures because the crowd was really going crazy over the gorgeous cakes being shown.  I was just able to watch the fashion show from the stairs.

Thanks to MEDCHEF and Mark of sleekinthecity.com for inviting me to this event. I had a blast!

MEDCHEF is located at 139 Mother Ignacia Ave., 1128 Quezon City, Philippines

Venice Piazza Food Adventure

Last Saturday, after Minion Treat at BonChon Chicken, blogger Earthlingorgeous invited me to the Venice Piazza Food Adventure at Mckinley Hill.

Upon arriving to the venue, we were given our Food Adventure Passport and we were so overwhelmed with all the food listed in it. The food were pouring in and we couldn't eat everything. We weren't able to finish them all, but we sure did eat a lot.

I wasn't able to take note as to which food came in first; but of course, I will never fail to show you the food I've tried:

Baked Macaroni w/ Orange Salad from Empire Deli & Restaurant

Baked Oysters from Pinchos Restaurant and Bar

Butter Ginger Crab Claws from The Red Crab

Crab & Mango Salad from Blackwood Bistro

Exotic Foods from Balaw Balaw (L-R) Worms,  Unhatched Egg Tofu and some Herbal Leaf

Frog from Balaw Balaw

Quesadillas and Buffalo Wings from Sweet Pea

Gelato (Vanilla, Strawberry, Mi Cherry Amore) from Sol Gelato

Overwhelmed? Well, Imagine all of these in front of you. It took us like 3 or 4 hours before we finish this. What I can never forget is the exotic foods I've tasted. It's the very first time that I have eaten those kind of food. Oh and my favorite was the Baked Oysters. I love Baked shell fishes. I still have 6 restaurants to finish and it's extended I don't know till when but next Saturday, I might go back. I'm still not sure, though. I will still have to check my schedule; but I do want to go back. My Saturday was filled with great food indeed!

Overwhelming indeed!

The satisfied look On Earth's face and mine. We're so full! :D

Till next post everyone! ;)