Photo Diary: Caramoan, Camarines Sur

Last month, Presley & I went to Caramoan, Caramines Sur with my buddy Ren and her family. It was the sweetest mother's day gift, ever! She treated me for the entire stay and the place was beautiful. The sand was super fine and the water was heavenly. We stayed at the Tugawe Cove and their services were impeccable! The trip was worth it, but I wouldn't recommend it for senior citizens--the resort is located in a very high place; it's a hundred steps away from the beach. Also, the boatride was just two and a half hours but the land trip before then was ten hours long so yeah; this is definitely the type of thing you do in your youth. :)

Home-made Burger Steak & Chicken Chowder

A couple of weeks ago, I made Home-made Burger Steak with home-made mushroom gravy (unfortunately, there was no photo of that) and Chicken Chowder with Bacon on top. The family really enjoyed it! And while it wasn't (admittedly) the most healthy of dishes, it was a treat for tastebuds. :) I find that so long as you don't cook something this decadent everyday, it's alright to deviate from the balanced diet once in a while. ;)

I'll post up a recipe for this soon!

Apologies & Looking Forward

Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry for not updating lately--this past month has been a flurry of adventures for myself & Presley; we've gone to so many different beaches and have seen so many sights, I haven't had time to write about it. I have, however, taken a lot of photos and am planning to post up a photo diary of each of our trips. I hope that you'll enjoy looking through them and that I can share a real bit of our experience with you all. 

More posts soon, definitely! :D

Holy Week, Part 2: Panggasinan

Thankfully, I've got the time today to do a bit of blogging and finally write about our time in Panggasinan last Holy Week. We stayed at the Happy Ripples beach resort and we had a splendid time. The accomodations were very nice and the beach was beautiful--black sand that's very smooth and doesn't make your feet ache. :)

My only complaint about the place is that they don't have a restaurant within the premises so you have to bring your own food or call in advance for them to cook something for us. Thankfully for us, Kuya Will, our dear driver and his wife Ate Lyn cooked for us (they live nearby). :D Below are some of the delicious things that they cooked up for us while we were there:

Food Adventure | Uncle Cheffy

Last Sunday, the family headed off to Tagaytay to spend a day together in our house in Terra Moi. After a day of massages, eating & basically being treated like Kobe beef, we headed down to Solenad 1 to eat some more and celebrate (for about the third time) Jo's special day (which is today, actually). 

Anyway, we ate at Uncle Cheffy and I swear to goodness, this is one of the most satisfying meals that I have ever had. We ordered their pizza: half-anchovy w/ three cheese, half meat pizza and it was delicious. Their pizza is served in a manner similar to Yellow Cab's Dear Darla pizza: with leaves and alfalfa sprouts. The way that worked with the cheese was just wonderful. We also had the rib platter which featured all kinds of ribs: lamb, pork, beef along with a side of chicken barbecue.

Their special rice is also delicious. Perfection embodied!

Afterward, the Cheffy crew came out and sang Jo a birthday song. Very, very surprising as they came out shouting the first few lines. :)) They even made the celebrant wear a jester hat! Hahaha! This also has got to be the most delicious birthday freebie cake I've ever had (that's right, better than Mario's, even): it had mango ice cream inside it's crumbly chocolate exterior. Mmmmmmm.

Enjoy the photos!

 So funny! Mom ordered their special salad as a way of being healthy: only to find out it comes served with lechong kawali! :))

Audrey Cooks: Tacos!

Since today is baby bro-in-law Jo's birthday, we're having an intimate shindig here at the house and as is usual during these gatherings, I've decided to cook my specialty: Tacos! I first fell in love with this recipe last year, during Christmas time; I made it both for Christmas and for Wina's birthday party.

Anyway, this recipe is simple but delicious: I've heard it compared to Pancake House's taco salad, but please--don't take my word for it. :) Try it at home and tell me how you like it!

Ingredients you'll need:

(Good for 20-25 people)

2 kilos ground beef
2 packs Mcormick taco powder

3-4 packs of Molo wrappers

3 pcs of lettuce
1 kilo tomatoes
5 pcs white onions
Sweet chili sauce
Cheese

Defrost the beef for at least hour before you start cooking to ensure that the meat is tender and fries properly.

Step 1. Dice the tomatoes and onions. Leave them in the refrigerator so as to keep them fresh.

Step 2. Cut the lettuce into strips, wash and put in the strainer to drain water. Put them in the refrigerator so as to keep them fresh.

Step 3. Saute the ground beef. After the ground beef has attained a crisp (but not burnt) texture strain the excess beef oil before putting the taco powder (follow the direction at the back of the label)

Step 3. Prepare a deep dish cooking pan (or any pan or pot that isn't shallow) and pour vegetable oil into it--until there is about a centimeter of oil from the base of the pan.

Step 4. Put the fire on low and wait until the pan is hot (tiny bubbles will form near the surface of the oil.

Step 5. Dip the molo wrappers into the oil. Fry until they turn a light, golden brown. Use tongs to keep them from sticking together.
Step 6: In a serving bowl, combine tomatoes and onions and put enough sweet chili sauce

Step 7. Serve the tomatoes/onion mixture, lettuce, ground beef, cheese & molo wrapper tacos in separate containers for your party-goers to put together their own molo wrapper tacos and enjoy.

This is recipe is perfect for buffet parties and merienda get-togethers!

I hope everyone enjoys this! :) More soon!

Terry's | Omakase

I thought these entries had uploaded but turns out I pressed "Save" instead of publish, leaving them to rot in my Drafts box---forgiveness, my dear readers, and thank you, thank you, thank you for reading! 

On to the entry: Ate Ria, Presley's Tita Ninang came home from Vietnam a couple of weeks ago and to celebrate, we ate out--first, we headed to Terry's in Makati and later in the week, had dinner at Omakase. 

1.) Terry's, Makati. This place was beautiful--both as a restaurant and as a sort of grocery where you can buy fresh ingredients. I loved all of the dishes we tried--whether sweet or savory, the people at Terry's do their work very, very well. 

Here are a couple of snapshots from that lovely afternoon:

2.) Omakase, Alabang. The night Ate Ri left, we had dinner at Omakase with the whole family (plus Keavin). Omakase is a family staple for us--birthday? Ate Ri coming home? Special event? They serve the best Japanese cuisine, in my book. Plus, they do the best fusion/exotic maki in the world; the spider & golden blossom maki dishes are absolute perfection!

I'll definitely be uploading more this week, as things have winded down a lot here at home. :) More on our Holy Week & other food adventures soon!

Much love,

Audrey