PIPINO VEGAN CHALLENGE

Apartment friends and I decided to check out Pipino Vegetarian for dinner sometime last week. We're fans of Pino but never tried its vegetarian counterpart so I figured it'll be a nice change.

Honestly, I feel most of the dishes are bland (for my taste, at least). I personally expected that vegan restos would make up for the lack of meat through interesting and rich flavors. The only dishes I recommend are the vegetarian kare-kare (it's just Pino's bagnet kare-kare without the bagnet), vegetable tempura platter, the pancit canton (with buckwheat noodles), and the desserts.

The egg-less chocolate cake it most and yummy! Their ice creams are also interesting. I like the buco ice cream. Not a big fan of the chocolate and banana ice creams. hehe

And oh, the place is lovely! It's like a sosyal pre-school. So cute! It's a nice peg for a studio unit if you're into clean, fresh, spaces.

Clockwise: Ana, Carms, Berns,

my new washi tapes which I got earlier that day,

the Pipino work station, and with Mau.

Happy!

Remember I wrote about chocolates? Well, I was shopping for groceries earlier- healthy everything- veggies, fish fillet, tuna, Mueslix, the works. But I made a big mistake of passing by the chocolates aisle and found ALMOND ROCA! My ultimate, first chocolate love! I couldn't say no. As in 9 or 10 years old pa yata the last time I ate it. I totally thought it was phased out because I couldn't find it anywhere. So yeah, I knew I had to buy one. But I got the smallest pack. hehe

Now there are only two things I want to find. Windmill wafers and Storck caramel. I SWEAR THEY EXIST! Ayun haha I hope to find them too.

* * *

By the way, I've been nursing a bad tummy since a few hours ago. I think it's from the buko juice I had at the Landmark Grocery. You see, they have this fresh fruits and native food station where you can buy suman, fresh juices, fruit slush, corn in a cob, etc. I bought their buko juice. It has a little 'off' taste but I didn't really mind because I'm not exactly an expert in juices. Anyway, there, I had a bad tummy this evening. gaaah. Mom told me to drink tea so I can cleanse my tummy. Hope I'm okay tomorrow.

Kwento kwento lang

Literally. haha I'm so stressed and I haven't really thought about things lately so I'll just kwento stuff.

ORPHANAGE VISIT

Yesterday Ana, Mau and I visited the orphanage in Binondo. It was all good except the part where the tricycle driver charged us 100 pesos for the ride from Ongpin to DelPan. I was so pissed but I believe in karma so Manong Driver, mamalasin ka rin one day. Or malay ko ba minamalas ka na kaya dinadaya mo na rin yung mga taong tulad namin.

The nuns were so accommodating. The Indian nun who showed me their grocery list even reminded me that we need not donate everything on the list. She said something like "Whatever you can give, even if it's a small thing, we are very grateful for the blessing." She kept repeating "That's very nice of you and your friends to help us here."

Anyway after the visit we made our way back to Quezon City. It was a very tiring ride because it was rush hour and well, Manila does not have the widest roads so it took us 1.5 hours to get from Quiapo to Trinoma.

STICKER-HAPPY

After dinner we went to Starbucks in the garden of Trinoma. I was telling my friends to give me their stickers if they don't have plans of getting a planner. Then this guy on the next table approached and said "excuse me, nagcocollect ka ba ng stickers?" Shempre I was surprised! In my mind I was thinking 'Shet maybe he's selling his stickers to me. SCALPER?! NO WAY!' So nag inarte ako and replied "Uhh, yeah...-ish." HAHAHAHA Then he said "You can have my sticker card. Pwede naman i-combine yung cards eh." So I accepted it and thanked him nicely. SOOO AWKWARD! Buti nalang cute siya. haha But minutes later, a girl arrived and left with him. haha oh well papel. Such a sweetie.

ORGANIC SOAPS

I purchased my organic soaps online and met up with the seller today at SM Fairview. Organic soaps don't come cheap. Each bar sells from Php95 to 125. I wanted to try these because I guess I just got bored with the commercial soaps (my staples are Johnson's citrus fresh, Safeguard white, Biolink papaya soap which all sell for less than 40 pesos each).

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

I'm not halfway my Christmas shopping. I've only bought gifts for my Mom and Joop. Sooo hard to think of gifts! haha

RED RIBBON

If you love bangus, you have to try Red Ribbon's bangus ala pobre. Super yummy, super cheap! For Php 137, you get the bangus meal, a drink and a slice of cake for dessert. yehey!

FOOTWEAR

Found really cute and affordable oxford leather flats at Manel's. I didn't buy it coz I wanna finish my Christmas shopping first. I'll buy for myself last. hehe

I'm really loving the Christmas spirit! I just wish it's colder, like back in senior year, there was a certain month (or months) that I'd wear a jacket and socks to sleep! In school I was always in jeans and a jacket. It was even colder outside our air-conditioned classroom. Feeling ko winter! I really miss that time.

RENOVATIONS...AGAIN

Mom called me up two nights ago to tell me to shove all our stuff in the room before I leave because the house will be renovated again. This time it's gonna be the floor. The crazy cut marble floor will be replaced by uhh, probably huge granite tiles. It's not that I don't like but this is another waste of time. Our floor is as good as new. Really! No cracks at all. It's the only reminder that this house is 'old' (in a good way). And I hate it that they're changing it! My mom hates it too coz it's an unnecessary change and a waste of money.

GLOBE

I hate Globe for a crappy service! Weeks ago when dad and I traveled to Bicol, I was using mobile web to tweet and check my emails. I was aware of their two ways of charging mobile browing- the default is kb browsing which charges you per kilobyte sent, and then time browsing that charges Php 5 for 15 minutes. Of course I switched to time browsing (send TIME to 1111). Then I got a notification today that my bill is 2500! LIKE WTF?! I am sooo gonna get to the bottom of this and crucify them. hahahaha oveeeerr?! Ah basta, I hate Globe for cheating on their subscribers. Good thing the message they sent me about having switched to time browsing is still on my phone. Patay talaga kayo sa akin. haha

Anywaaaay, dapat good vibes na! Christmas is super near and I'm excited! For that I'll try to tweet about things that I love. Pang dagdag good vibes diba? This 'tweet what you love' was inspired by my friend since grade school Chris Orleans. haha

(Btw I watched New Moon again this afternoon shet. hahaha Will kwento my experience tomorrow.)

It's Official!

Yes, yes! Royce is officially my favorite chocolate! I've loved chocolates all my life but this is THE bomb. I still love Cadbury white, Andes Chocolate Mints, Kinder Bueno and Almond Roca. But Royce is just too heavenly to resist.

I heard about Royce before but it wasn't available yet here in Manila. It was Sir Nestle who introduced Royce to me. Well not exactly just me. He brought home a box of Royce Nama for the class from a recent trip to Singapore. Imagine 20 little squares of chocolates sliced into tinier squares to feed a class of 60+. HAHA 

That's my little piece from Sir Nestle's pasalubong. 

And Fa's left foot. I think she was reporting her good and bad tv ad. haha

My next encounter with the chocolates was during a trip to Rockwell. I was waiting for Emm, Fa and Sherry so I decided to walk around. I stumbled upon the Royce store at the topmost floor. Of course I tried their chocolates. It's free anyway. haha

And finally, they day came when I had to give  in to temptation. Last Saturday I saw a new store in Trinoma and it was a Royce store. I was with Dianne and again, tried their chocolates. Super funny coz we wanted to try the others but we didn't have plans of buying so we just thanked them and walked away laughing.  And then days ago I was browsing blogs and found so many reviews on Royce. I've been fighting the urge to buy it because it didn't come cheap.

So yeah I totally gave in and bought a box last Thursday. I also took the chance of trying the ones I want because I was gonna buy anyway. HAHA KAPAAAAL! Anyhoo here's my Royce box.

That little sachet is the frozen gel and the silver one is sort of a 'cooling envelope' where they put the box.

Close up shot of the velvety chocolate and the tiny plastic knife that's in the box.

Fa and I call Royce an "insult to poverty". HAHA But when you think about it, oo nga naman. She mentioned last night in our brief ym conversation that they eat the Royce Chocolate Covered Potato Chips like nuts in the office. I can't even imagine buying the potato chips because I feel it's not worth the money. I'll keep trying it nalang sa free taste. HAHA

Now I'm just very worried because I only have 6 squares left in the box. hahaha I AM SOOO NOT GONNA BUY ANOTHER BOX SOON. I'll just get a pack of Andes when I finish the box. But I plan to try Machiavelli Chocolates (this is a Filipino owned brand btw) and Benoit (also locally produced by a Belgian who is married to a Filipina). We'll see if they can exceed Royce.

Have you eaten your favorite chocolate lately? Go ahead, reward yourself! yay!

Lazy Friday :)

Yesterday I tried to register at the COMELEC office. But fifteen minutes after I arrived, they told us to come back today because there's power shortage and they don't want to risk losing their data if they turn on their computers in the midst of the fluctuating power. Unfortunately according to the news, the power shortage won't be addressed until next week. Thus,  decided not to go to comelec today. hehe

I tried to finish my deliverable but two pages later, I got so bored typing the benefits from Philhealth so I didn't finish it. Will try it again tomorrow. I am actually 6 pages short from finishing but oh well. haha

I also tried to cook carbonara this afternoon. I studied the recipe I got online and immediately started working at the kitchen. Grabe, fail! I ended up having what seemed to be pasta with scrambled eggs. Major boohoo! Oh well, I've never been successful in white pasta sauces. Red sauces are easier to make. 

Anyhooo, because I plan to stay home this weekend, I had Red Ribbon White Forest cake delivered here at home. Yummy! I also had my favorite chicken empanadas delivered. This is gonna be a yummy weekend. ayieee! 

Our wifi isn't back yet. I have no idea how to fix it again so I'm here stuck by the bar where the LAN cable is. Kawawa naman my auntie next door (eeek! I know, conyo. haha). She can't share my internet. hehe

And oh, I feel bad for not being able to update my other blog. It's mainly because I haven't really gone for adventures recently. And, I find it such a hassle to manage two blogs. So I dunno. I'm still keeping it but probably erase it in time. I really don't know yet.

And lastly, I saw Glee's 6th episode last night. Grabe, I sooo love Glee. I got really pissed at first because the torrent I downloaded had an error so it wouldn't play. Fortunately, I found a website that had a video stream of Glee. Click here to enjoy the episodes. Btw, I really like Kurt and I still love Mr.Schuster. yaaaaaaaay! hahaha

The fabulous and oh-so-sosh Kurt

Mr. Schuster 

Happy weekend guys!

Good Day

First, A BIG BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the graduating students of CBA! Especially to my batchmates! Especially to my cum laude and magna cum laude friends, yehey to you! Pero shemps, super mega congrats rin sa mga hindi cum laude. OKAY LANG YAN FRIENDS! WE HAD A BLAST IN COLLEGE. YUN ANG IMPORTANTE. I love you friends!!!

Second, today my family had dinner at CPK. Again, nadaan ko nanaman sa joke yung Daddy ko. So far I've lured him into getting me a pair of lovely flats, eat at Zong, and now CPK. I usually eat with friends sa mga ganyang lakad, pero ayan. He used to prefer eating whatever mom cooked or he'd have Dencio's or Congo Grill deliver us food. Now his food directory is expanding gradually. Safest bet before was Super Bowl. Then Recipes. Now, so far Zong passed his standards with flying colors. CPK naman, he eats there with his colleagues whenever they have a meeting at ATC. So technically it's his first time to treat us in CPK. I love the Thai Crunch Salad. Also it was a funny dinner coz I told them about the funny kwentos from Raish. Yung Rodic's story and also yung friend niya na nag communion tapos pagkabigay ng priest ng Host, sabi ng friend "ay, thank you." RAISH, REMEMBER THESE STORIES? ahahahaha

Third, I wasn't able to make it to Tim Humangit's birthday surprise. Rona is the mastermind. I hope to hear a lot of kwentos from Keberloo and Weng. I hope it went well!

Fourth, gaaah! I'm excited to see my batch tomorrow! It's our Baccalaureate mass and grad orientation. I miss them na talaga. 

Fifth, this summer is weird. It's raining - like heavy the past few days. Sana sa grad sunny. hehehe Feeling ko Global Warming nanaman toh eh. It's Earth Day pa naman today. We can all do something for the Earth. One, HELP SAVE PASIG RIVER! Two, conserve energy. Commute when you can. Or when we're rich, buy fuel efficient cars please.

YEHEY THAT'S IT. I'm such a tamad-mag-isip-mega-bum-mode blogger lately so ayan, sabog post again.