A Reunion That's A Couple Of Years In The Making

I've mentioned in past entries that I used to work for a publishing company. It was a small publishing company, and we were all overworked but had a grand time! We were mostly fresh graduates when we got hired, so it was a great way to learn everything you can about publishing. It was where I met my good friends and some of the worst people on the face of the planet.

Many of us left for greener pastures, better job opportunities with probably better pay. I left the company November 2007, and I miss it dearly. We all became good friends when we were there so it was hard to say goodbye.

We've been wanting to have a reunion, but since people have their own lives, it was hard to get all of us together. The last time we got together was during our former boss' wedding last October 2009. But last Saturday we finally pushed through after n million re-schedules!! :) We all met up for lunch at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City and ate at the Super Bowl of China. Great thing for me because I super love Chinese food (as testified here, here, and here!).

But first, let me introduce you to my former officemates! :)

Team Chinky Eyes: AR and Mariko

Part of the original Editorial team: Gera, yours truly, and Jermaine

The super originals of FAME Editorial and PR! The best days of FAME, I must say, was when we were all together! :)

So now, let me let you guys in on what we had for lunch that day. We were all hungry and we had two boys with us, but the funny thing was we still had a doggy bag when we left.

Gera and I both wanted noodles. So we got the Cripsy Noodles with shrimp ad vegetables.

I super loved the sauce in this dish! Although it was just sad that it made the noodles soft in the end, it was nice to mix it in with the noodles and dip the shrimps in it.

When the boys arrived we asked them what they wanted to add and AR said Lemon Chicken.

The chicken was soft and tasty. But what got me disappointed was the lack of twang from the lemon sauce. If I recall correctly it was sweet! So I didn't really feel like I was eating LEMON CHICKEN.

I recommended this because I would order this in ANY Chinese restaurant: Sweet and Sour Pork.

Two-thumbs up for this one! One of the best sweet and sour pork I've had in a while! :)

And last but not the least, Yang Chow Fried Rice.

The star of every Chinese restaurant. Since I'm on a constant diet I don't eat rice. Maybe I should ask them how this was! :)

It was a great reunion I must say. We all had fun that day catching up and talking about the good old days in FAME. We may have our own thing now, but I guess you don't just diss your old friends. 'Til the next reunion guys! Hope that next time, there'd be more than just 8 of us hahaha.

This reunion was only the first half of my Saturday reunion extravaganza. Up next is my reunion with my BFFs in Tagaytay.

Super Bowl of China
SM Mall of Asia
Ground Level South Wing Main Mall
Tel. No. 556-0584
Telefax 556-0583
Website: http://www.superbowl.com.ph/new/index.php

A New Year; A New Decade

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!! :) Can you believe it's 2011 already? Time flies by so fast! So what did you guys do during the New Year? I've been reading 2010 highlights from my fellow bloggers and it made me think of what I did during 2010. It's probably too late for me to do a recap, but 2010 was a year of blessings, but we also had a fair share of trials. But we all have the Lord to thank for helping us get through day-by-day! :)

Anyway, it's our first New year at home, and we were all really psyched for it. We also finally bought fountains and sparklers for this year's celebration. And when the clock struck midnight, this was the scene on our street.




There were people in our subdivision who gave us a wonderful fireworks display.


After bonding with our neighbors it was time to chow! For our New Year's Eve feast, we once again had a home-cooked meal! We also opted for something INIHAW or GRILLED, among other food choices!

My ultimate favorite GRILLED LIEMPO!

It's a slab of meat grilled to perfection! It was so good I had two slabs of this! Cholesterolific to the highest level! :D

Chicken Inasal

This may not be a Mang Inasal, but our helper was able to "copy" the taste of the chicken inasal in our old neighborhood in Makati. This dish made Iloilo FAMOUS and when the recipe found it's way here in Manila (thru Mang Inasal and Bacolod Chicken Inasal) it was an instantaneous HIT! Must-try for foreigners when they get to make their way here in the country! :D

We also grilled this gigantic fish.

Although I'm not sure what fish this was. Mom even garnished it with tomatoes.

The next set of dishes are not grilled anymore. :D

Once again, we had tahong or clams.

Our helper already bought like a kilo of this at the market. But by lunchtime Mom and I devoured it, so we had to return to the market this time for 4kgs of these bad guys! :))

Baked lasagna.

I was kind of disappointed with this. Mom put in WAY TOO much onions, every spoonful of it had onions (yuck!). It tasted funky in the end, maybe because I'm not much of an onion person. So I made sure I got most of the cheese.

Another fishy dish, this time with sauce and vegetables. I LOVED THIS, especially it's zesty sauce, and had it for lunch on New Year's Day! :)


Pinakbet

When I was a kid, I called this pangit na sabaw (ugly broth) because of it was dark-colored. It's a native Filipino dish, which has kalabasa (pumpkin), okra, talong (eggplant), and ampalaya, and cooked with bagoong. It may look fugly and unappealing, but it tastes HEAVENLY!!

For dessert, we still had our Fruit Salad


Fruits - none of those spherical ones that they say bring you good luck.

And 2 kinds of fruitcake.

It was a simple way to usher in the New Year for our family. I am quite geared up for 2011 because we'll be finishing two important things that will mean a huge relief especially for Mom. It made our 2010 very difficult, but I'm very positive we'll make it in 2011.

Mom said that for my sign, Virgo, I'd be traveling a lot this year. That's what TV Patrol (our 6pm news) said, but I'm really hoping it would be true! I'd be kicking off my travel itinerary with my Baler comeback this January 14. I just wish I could go to Baler with two of my college barkada in February. That would be a dream come true! But then by October, my BFFs and I would be heading on over to BALI, INDONESIA so I really gotta start saving!

As for my New Year's resolution I am really trying to be MORE PATIENT (people who know will support this claim and you guys may even wish me luck hahahaha), be a bit more OUTGOING, get to meet NEW PEOPLE (more blogger friends!)), blog some more (more food and travel), and be a much better friend and daughter to my Mom.

How about you guys? What are your resolutions? Let's all try to make it HAPPEN if only we put our hearts and minds to it! Happy New Year guys! CHEERS! :D

Holiday Fruitcake

Christmas Eve Celebration

For us Filipinos, Christmas Eve is more special than Christmas Day itself. It's the time when we all gather around the dining table for NOCHE BUENA and around the Christmas tree to open the gifts.

We had a very busy Christmas Eve; besides preparing for our Noche Buena, we also prepared for the Christmas Drive earlier in the day.

But after preparing our home-cooked Noche Buena meal, we all geared up and heard Mass at our Parish. By the way, also saw my sportscaster crush, Boom Gonzales in Church. He even smiled and greeted me "Merry Christmas!" OH YEAH! :D

Anyway, we came home slightly before 12MN and prepared our dining table with the food our trusty helper and Mom cooked. I'd like to share what we all had during Noche Buena. :)

We already had this during my Uncle's 65th birthday. But our helper made another batch of PAELLA for us.

Since I don't eat rice, I only ate the prawns, chicken, and clams. :)

Our helper is so proud of this, she insists in calling it CHICKEN GARLIC but it's really Garlic Chicken hehe. Really good! :)

My Lola's yearly traditional Christmas food: EMBOTIDO.

I remember when I was younger my Lola would make tons of these. It's labor intensive but she does it with LOVE for all of us. She'd start early in the morning, mixing all the ingredients together. Then she'll finish late at night when everything's cooked well.

And another Filipino trademark, PANCIT.

It's a must for every celebration, and Christmas is no different! :)

PRAWNS! BIG, SWEET, AND JUICY! Need I say more? :)

Thank God it wasn't Red Tide season or else we wouldn't have clams or tahong. I swear I could finish one whole pan of this in one sitting!

For our dessert, we had Fruit Salad (a Christmas staple)

And leche flan. Not too sweet, but our helper wasn't able to beat it well so it came out hard. But it was still good!

After our sumptuous meal, it was time to open the presents. We got our helper a suitcase since she doesn't really have a drawer.


This was gift to Mom - a nice leather wallet with lots of little compartments (?) for the credit cards. I'm happy that she liked it, and she's now using it! :)

And this is her Christmas gift to me - a Nine West bag. It's cute because last year she bought me a Nine West wallet. What's next? Nine West shoes? =P

This past Christmas is really special for us in the family. One, because it's our helper's last Christmas because she's getting married next year. And two, because we finally got to celebrate Christmas in our OWN HOME. We should all thank God for the blessings we have received, not only the gifts we received, but also like having the family together this Christmas. I really hope and pray that this is going to be the first of many happy Christmases in this house.

Hope you guys had a MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR FAMILIES! :) To our relatives, we MISS YOU GUYS! One day, let's all have a grand Christmas celebration where we're all present and all together! WE LOVE YOU!! :)

A Flurry of Happy Birthdays

I feel bad about posting this super late! But hey, better late than never right? :D

So Halloween this year was not just an ordinary Halloween with the costume parties and the trick or treating by the kids. It was also the birthday month of some people who are very special to me.

And also, 2010 is an extra, extra special year, because we have officially entered our QUARTER LIFE! 25 years on Earth, baby! :)

So that being said, Amanda held her grand 25th birthday party at her Aunt's beautiful home in San Juan. She had her food catered so it was more posh than our cheese and wine party for Trency and my spontaneous beach trip!


The theme was of course HALLOWEEN. Amanda was the devil, and boyfriend Mike the angel (well more like Cupid). Trency went on Flower Power mode, and a couple of Mike's friends went as an Egyptian couple (total A++ for effort...turns out they were headed out to another Halloween party afterwards haha!).

Well, except for this one, he came as himself and was our mascot. Amanda's older sister's Lhasa Apso named Churro. Ain't he a sweetheart? He had us running around in fear of him getting out into the street!

The cupcakes were all made by Amanda's sister, Becca. And her birthday cake, with the Bewitched drawing, is also made of cupcakes! Talk about a major case of sugar rush!!!

Her birthday also served as a reunion for us. Miya, whom we haven't seen in a while before her birthday, came with boyfriend Miguel. And Amanda's neighbors who also became our friends, Pravs and Rajiv also came!



One of the things that made the night HAPPIER was because of them:

Amanda wanted to get all of us totally SLOSHED! The amount of alcohol present that night was more than anyone of us could handle. But someone got totally buzzed, and she said she was in her "happy place". So I guess GOAL ACHIEVED! :D

For my family, our Halloween Party also turned out to be an advanced birthday celebration for my 2 nephews (Dustin and Blake) and my niece (Naya). Here they are blowing their COMMON cake (Mango Cake from Red Ribbon)! We just switched the candles depending on whose turn it was to blow on it! :D



Oh childhood! Don't you guys miss blowing single-digit candles instead of candles blatantly screaming your age, say for example, 25? Hahaha! Oh well, they're our family's next generation! Aren't they cute kids?

And since it was Halloween, the kids all dressed up to the nines and showed off their cool costumes. My godchild, Alexa, showed off her modeling skills! Ain't she a cutie? She looks so pretty in that pink Cheongsam!


This is her little brother Trey, the one I first introduced to you blog readers when he celebrated his first birthday. You see he doesn't need a Chinese costume, his Mom just made him wear that cap with the braid. Cutie pie!! :)

Here are my nephews and nieces altogether. They're just so cute in their Halloween costumes! Hope they don't grow up so they can just stay that cute and adorable FOREVER!

Belated happy birthday to my beloved friend, newphews, and niece! I knew you all had a great birthday! But I wish, especially for the 3 little ones, to know that we'll always be here for you guys. Be good kids to your parents. Don't be afraid to dream; dream, and dream BIG!

To my dear, dear Amanda! You know that you're like a sister to me, you and Trency. I will forever love you despite your constant whining! And don't you worry you'll find something that will truly make you happy, just don't rush it okay! I'll always be here, just a phone call away! Love you BRUHA!! :)