Hot and frozen hot chocolate

Anson treated me to Cafe Xocolat after a shoot, where I had the Aztec, hot cocoa liberally spiced with chili peppers, just the way the Aztecs drank it. We also had the Frozen Hot Chocolate, hot chocolate frozen into balls and served in a martini glass.



The Aztec (above) was thick, rich and incredibly spicy. I couldn't finish my cup but made a mental note to come back for more.

The frozen hot chocolate tasted like dark chocolate, and is best enjoyed with friends.

Thanks Anson!

Red Mango Green Tea Latte

Finally tried something in Red Mango that wasn't yogurt -- the green tea latte. Not as good as others out there (I particularly like the Starbucks one, their coffee is another matter altogether) but good enough when you're trying to pass time. Also, it looks cute in its square ceramic cup!

Ode to Rocky Road

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what an empty bowl of rocky road ice cream looks like.

You may envy me now.

Nomnomnomnomnomnomnom

Luis and I met up with Cynthia and Denise the other night at Nomnomnom, where we had awesome food!

I forget the actual names of what we had, so you'll just have to go there and figure it out for yourselves.



I had the spinach enchilada, which was too creamy for its own good, but tasted excellent once I moved half the sauce away. Luis had the mushroom burger, which I wanted to snatch from his hands while he wasn't looking (he must have known my evil plan because he kept a close watch on his sandwich the whole time). Cynthia had the hemp pesto pasta (sorry, no magic properties here) and Denise had the Bechamel Mucho, whose name I remembered (how can I forget?) but whose dish specifics I forgot.



For dessert, Denise suggested that we have the Snookum Bookum, a frozen chocolate pie (although ours experienced a temperature malfunction) filled with nuts and a dark chocolate medal. The whole thing was topped with confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder, equalling a diabetes-inducing chocolatey treat. I wasn't too fond of the nuts, but everything was just divine.

With the exception of Denise, who had helped with the food tasting (and thus has sampled everything on the menu), we agreed to come back as much as we could to try the rest of Nomnomnom's offerings.

Nomnomnom is located in the building on the corner of E. Rodriguez and T. Morato.

Xiao Long Pao, my pretties!

This is all Kelvin Y's fault. His posts have gotten me hankering for xiao long pao, a Chinese pork dumpling that also contains a tasty broth. I like to dip my xiao long pao in the ginger and black vinegar sauce it comes with, before taking a bite (and sipping the broth) that takes out half the dumpling.



Thankfully, Kelvin also pointed me towards Su Zhou, a place I knew existed but keep forgetting about, where the other day I had xiao long paos and fish congee for lunch.

I can has tea!

Found some Stash Pumpkin Spice tea while grocery shopping. I know it's summer, but I like the stuff warm with milk and sugar before bedtime.

Making sunkit for mangoes

Summer means mangoes. Our maid spotted some growing on the tree outside out window (I didn't even know there *was* a mango tree outside our window!) and decided to pick some the way they do in the province - illegally, and with a stick.

I don't know how to translate "sungkit" to English. It's not illegal, but you don't ask the owners for permission either. I guess it's an unwritten rule that whatever fruit isn't in your yard is free game for others.

The maid laid out a net (her blanket) in between two clothesline poles to catch the falling fruit, but most hit the ground anyway.

The mangoes came just in time. The maid had just finished making a batch of her to-die-for bagoong (shrimp paste), and we all know what goes well with green Indian mangoes...

Needless to say, the person enjoying the mangoes the most is... the maid! After all, they are the fruits of her labor.

Masuki, my love

I love Masuki. We've been going to the resto ever since I was a child. We'd head over to the original spot in Binondo, where the open air restaurant was infused with that distinct Chinatown smell. I remember it had a different name then.

Masuki is one of those restaurants that serves only one thing. In this case, noodles, but with different toppings, plus siomai and siopao. They have a special sauce that you use to flavor the noodle broth. It's the type of resto you either love or hate (I have a cousin that says that the soup smells like trapo).

And then they opened a branch in Greenhills, just a short distance away from our house. What joy! Now they also have a satellite store under the name Siopao Boy in the Greenhills Shopping Center. Double yay!



Ate there a while back You can tell that a restaurant is going places when its presentation starts to change. Yup, now you've got individual bowls of sauce, just a spoonful of onion leaves (for presentation, I guess, since you can ask for more), and the most telling sign of all -- saucy looking condiment containers.

As Erwin would say, clahhhz!

168 D'oh!

Was in 168 the other day, lured by the temptation of the delights to be held in their foodcourt. The pad thai from Chariya, the vegetarian dishes from Kuwan Yin, the bucket (yes bucket) of qwekqwek (batter-fried pre-boiled quail eggs) from the quail egg place. I hate going down to Binondo because of the crowds, but I will brave the biggest of riots for the food.

So my mom went to shop and I went to eat. But when I found the food court I saw McDonalds, Jollibee, Chow King. Where were the Ethnic restaurants?!

To console my breaking heart, I bought a bottle of green milk tea and a fluorescent pink strawberry mousse from a Chinese bakery whose name escapes me at the moment. The cake part was dry, the mousse, springy. And it tasted pink, which is what I expected. The green milk tea was cold, thank goodness, and though it was good, it wasn't enough to wash away the pain I felt at being denied the food I wanted.

I met my mom after. We dropped by the food court.

"Isn't it lovely?" she asked, "They just renovated it."

"I liked the old one better," I said, the one with all the Chinese food."

"Oh that," she said, "That's on the other side of the mall."

I think Homer Simpson expressed it best when he said "D'oh!"

I didn't get to eat at the Chinese food court that day, but I least I know that I can go back to it in the future.

Beacon

The comforting glow of the SM Mall of Asia (what Bobby Chinn says is the 3rd largest Mall in the world) guards against the dark of night.

Twilight over Binondo

This is what the sky over Chinatown looks like. Still blue.

Yogurt!

There's been a yogurt boom lately (It's about time!) so I've been trying every brand I come across. My favorite so far: Red Mango. Its got the right balance of texture (not too soft, though it melts rather quickly) and tanginess (other brands tend to be too sweet). I like the natural flavored one more than the green tea flavor, but the latter one rocks as well.

Yes, this is what I do instead of writing.

Coffee shop

Didn't get any work done, but I felt really writerly!

Sheep disguised as bush (not the ex President)

I had a lot of green. So sue me.

Space Sheep

I think this is self-explanatory.

There is flavor in Misery

Didn't feel like writing last night so I did that picture above instead. Do you think I can have a second career as an emo stationery designer?