Stamps anyone?

It was almost like a scene from a Harry Potter book where Harry recieves mail from his best friend Ron who as most people know is unfamiliar with the "muggle" form of using stamps to send mail, so to Harry's surprise he gets this envelope that is completely covered with stamps since his friend didn't know how much stamps he would need. So just imagine the shock I got when I recieved this huge package from Mr. & Mrs. Mancino!!! The 1st shock was who would be sending me such a huge package. 2nd was the fact that it was even delivered by the postman, I mean that has never ever ever happened in Philippine postal history, you would usually get a claim card saying you had to pickup your package at the post office especially with such a big package. 3rd was that the postman even left an official receipt charging me only 30 pesos (for what, I have no idea, I'm assuming transportation or effort) AND that he would leave the receipt and come back for the payment the next day (that normally would never happen). 4th was the number of stamps on the package, there was 140 of them, they almost covered the entire package already. And finally of course was the content of the package which contained a framed copy of a painting done by their eldest son Frank which they wanted to give to me as a thank you for the wedding video I sent them. It was really so sweet of them.

Congratulations Edgar & Daphne!

Diving buddy Edgar finally took the marital plunge when he exchanged vows with longtime sweetheart Daphne last Saturday Dec. 11. Since it was a work day for me I couldn't attend the ceremony & opted instead for the reception at the New World Hotel. Everything was very organized & and I just loved all the flowers that they used! Each table had a different centerpiece which was a nice idea, unfortunately the tables were not very big so most of the centerpieces had to be set aside on the floor so that the different dishes could have a place on the table, or maybe the flower arrangements were a tad too big for the said tables, a fact which the florist should have taken into account. The night would have been perfect if not for the presence of the hired emcee, Michael Lim. I just cannot stand this guy, as soon as I saw his face I was dreading having to sit through a couple of hours hearing him talk & sing! UGH!

Hawaiian escapade 2004

hawaii group
Here's an excellent photo taken by Arnel G. while we were doing some sightseeing in and around of Oahu during our short Hawaiian escapade.

4 Williams & a wedding!

It's official!

Bride's family picture

Bride & Groom's Family

For all you who have been clamoring for me to update my blog ASAP, well here I am back again. The past couple of weeks have been kind of busy & stressful what with my sister's wedding, my dead toe & my christmas basket project all happening at the same time, who has time to blog! Hopefully now that things are back to normal I can get back to my usual routine. I have posted a couple of images from the wedding to appease some of you out there who are just dying to see them. Please give me a few more days for the others, there are hundreds of pictures for me to edit before they are ready to be viewed. I just finished doing the 15 minute video which will hopefully arrive in time for it to be seen by by friends & family of the Mancino's back in New Jersey, I call it the "Hawaiian wedding-New Jersey Cut", I'm planning to do a "Philippine Cut" and of course the official "Director's Cut".

My Left Foot

It's been 2 weeks since I posted, and thanks to everyone who has been supporting my site. This month has been hellish for my left foot or should I say leg. last week I was walking to my dentist and I don't know what happened but I accidentally fell and was practically spread eagle on the sidewalk, all the stuff I was carrying flew from my hand including my umbrella. The worse part was that I even ripped my good Levi jeans, I wouldn't have minded as much if it was my "cheap china-made jeans" I was so embarassed because the traffic light was on red, so there were like at least 20 vehicles who witnessed my embarassing fall. Surprisingly I only had a small bruise. Then a few days later, I was headed to Quiapo to look for chorizo bilbao for my mom (she was planning to add it to her paella), I headed to this sausage factory that I saw during my previous jaunts there, and as I was about to enter into their store I didn't see that there was a gap between the sidewalk & their entrance, and BAM I stubbed my big toe into the concrete. Damn was it painful, I could literally see the blood just slowly filling up the entire toe, it was turning blue! GROSS! But unfortunately me the trooper, still continued on my chorizo search despite my "injury". But owing to my previous experience of the same nature, I thought that I could handle this new "dead toe" like before. But 1 day turned into 2 then 3 and it seemed that the condition of the nail was getting worse instead of better. The last straw came last night when I was awoken at 3am by stabs of pain on the toe, I could see that the surrounding skin around the nail was getting swollen. I administered some first aid and took a antibiotic tablet, fearing the worse like tetanus or something. I decided that I would go see a doctor that morning to ease me out of my misery. I ended up going to this surgeon at Hi-Precision Lab and he explained to me that he would have to extract the entire nail in order for the pressure building up from the puss formation to be released. I was like "just do it" I already knew that that was pretty much the only solution to help me. The entire procedure took like less than 30 minutes, and the doctor made it as painless as possible. Good thing my shoes for the wedding is closed toe!!!

my bandaged dead toe

image of my extracted dead toenail

Biologically 59!

I accompanied Uncle Harry to the Wellness Institute the other day, and since I knew that he would be there for most of the day, I decided to have the BTA (Biological Terrain Assessment) done. The BTA began in Europe by Prof. Louis Claude Vincent, and through his research he believed that healing can be done through the body's biochemistry. The test is done by taking a sample of blood, urine & saliva on the day of the test (12 hour fasting is required and you can't brush your teeth) afterwhich they are assessed by the special computer that monitors the values of pH, oxidation-reduction (the electron potential and enzymatic activity) and resistivity (molecular ion movement) of these bodily fluids. The test provides vital data about the way the body is actually functioning and offers valuable information concerning the biochemical dynamics of the body. The other cool thing about the BTA is that it tells you what your biological age is. I was more or less sure that my test would come out bad, so when Dr. Gonzales saw me and said "you better be around later to hear your test results" I knew that I was in trouble. So after a very nice lunch at Santis with Uncle Harry & Christiane, we all headed back to Wellness ready to hear the "bad news", Dr. Roy was the one who briefed me and informed me of my biological age. I WAS 59! Then to make it worse I find out that I was even older biologically than my Uncle Harry who was 56! Was I surprised with the results? Not really I guess. I knew that I hadn't really been taking care of my body as well as I should, but I can't really say that I have been abusing it with alcohol or lack of sleep. It's more like eating all the good stuff (which is usually bad as you can see on my blog) and not exercising much. But the good news is that my problems can be easily fixed by drinking more fluids, at least 10 glasses of water, no pork or caffeine and taking some recommended supplements. This test was an eye opener for me and hopefully I can turn over a new leaf in terms of my eating habits amongst other things.

Mango Madness!

This picture of my auntie Pilar's mango pudding pie may not look like much but I swear you haven't lived till you try this special dessert. Sad to say, my aunt doesn't sell it, she only makes it during special occassions. The only way I can describe it to you unfortunate souls who will never in their lifetime sample this wonderful concoction is that it's as if you were eating mango ice cream - only better! One bite and you get that burst of flavor from all that wonderful mango, and mind you she doesn't use flavoring, this is the real deal, no shortcuts at all.

The Diary of Alicia Keys

Got a chance to catch the concert of Alicia Keys on Saturday, I hadn't been to the Araneta Coliseum in a long long while so I was really surprised to see how much has changed over the years. A lot of new restaurants can be found all around the coliseum which I think is a great idea, but unfortunately everyone else but moi (I wanted to try cafe Bola) decided to go to KFC instead. So after a quick dinner we headed to the concert. Our seats though not at the center were pretty ok. Front act was Luke Mijares & Kyla who were both really great singers though they were seriously lacking in stage presence & personality. I love going to concerts organized by my friends of No Curfew, they are really pros at what they are doing, the concert started almost immediately after the front act. Alicia Keys really set the mood by playing Phil Collins' most excellent song which I love "In the Air", it got the already pumped up audience even more energized by playing that as an intro. The crowd really went crazy by the time Alicia got on stage, I never knew that there were that many Alicia Keys fans in the Pines, I heard that and from the looks of it, the concert was totally sold-out that night. I was so surprised to discover what a great performer she was, she was so full of energy, she sang, she danced, and damn can she play that piano!! It was a great night!

Shower Surprise

Here are some of the photos that my sisters mom-in-law Louise sent just recently. They were taken from the surprise bridal shower that she threw for my sissy last Sept. 18. So sweet of her!!

my sister was definitely in shock with the surprise bridal shower!

Here's my sister with her fiancee Will & mom-in-law Louise

Here she is opening up presents.

Here she is with the lovely "congratulations" cake

Mid-Autumn Mooncake Celebration

I couldn't wait for Saturday night to roll around, I had been stressed & had probably stressing everyone else (especially Lesley) involved in planning the Mooncake Celebration, I had volunteered to make invitations (I don't know why but I love making invitations!)which was not the norm in previous "cultural nights", and to order & pickup the mooncake, and to research & printout the history, & to buy some of the prizes. So as you can see the stress was actually self induced. Saturday night finally arrives and it was so great to see everyone really dressed up in their pajamas/sleepwear, some were cute, some sexy, some fashionable & some downright hilarious complete with curlers, night cream - the works! We started the night with a great dinner courtesy of Jackie & catered by the legendary Quik Snak from Binondo, we chose this place bec. we knew that they specialized in authentic Fookienese delicacies, dishes we knew most of our friends weren't very familiar with. After dinner we started the main program which involved some games that we thought up, the first was the trivia game - I had printed out individual cards about the history of the moon goddess, the mooncake & the dice game & distributed them for everyone to read, then we had questions based on what they had read & gave out prizes to the winner. our next game involved chinese writing, Lesley earlier in the day picked out a phrase that contained 5 characters, the game involved 5 volunteers who were given 10 seconds to memorize the sequence of the said characters that was being flashed to them, we then jumbled up the characters and they had to write it down, most everyone got the right sequence so we had to judge the winner based on best handwriting. our last activity for the night was the judging for best in sleepwear. during dinner we had already discussed our top 3 picks for male & female, so the 6 finalist who were Mae, Dina, Grace, Billy, Rodney & Carlos had to strut their stuff to the enthusiastic crowd, Dina & Carlos were named winners although it was actually sudden death with Mae & Dina who were neck & neck in votes, they had to play one round of rock, paper, scissors before Dina could emerge victorious. So now we reach the nights main event, the Mooncake Dice game. Jackie starts out by reading the rules, making clear the possible winning combinations. So after a slow start everyone seemed to get really into the game mid way through, there was yelling, cheering & lots of laughter, with most people content to winning at least a "champoy" rather than nothing at all. But the night ultimately belonged to Mia Jimenez, she was the only one who hit the winning "cheong guan" not once but twice - even outranking herself on her 2nd win!! And to think that she & her sister Ana (who was also a big winner) weren't even going to come at first, I'm sure they were glad that they changed their minds. The game finally ended but the night continued on with the free photo session complete with chinese costumes, it was so great to see everyone hamming it up infront of the camera. But as they say alls well that ends well, everyone gave us a big applause as the party winded down, so sweet of them. There's already plans for the next cultural night to be hosted by the "teens" in the group, this time complete with a halloween theme. can't wait. Click for pictures Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4
  

Rurok ng Ikapitong Gloria (tagalog for Orgasmic)

I just discovered something recently since I started doing this blog, It seems that most major events in my life have revolved around food. Not just your ordinary, run of the mill food, but sinfully decadent & utterly scandalous GOOD FOOD!!! We were 9 very blessed individuals who got to be invited to savor the cooking & enjoy the great company of Bonbon & Loy Jimenez at their home. A few days before, Loy emailed us & we were each assigned to bring something to the dinner party, vinaigrette from the Goldmans, bread from Jigs, dessert from Melanie, chocolates from Sockie and some bubbly from Jackie. I was really looking forward to Sunday all week long, I even skipped the Nights of Fine Wine & Dining at the Mandarin on Friday since I had a feeling I would be over indulging myself on Sunday. D-day finally arrives, I met up with Jackie at her place & we proceeded to Terry's in Makati where Jackie bought this huge bottle of champagne. We also got 2 kinds of pate (pork leg & foie gras) with crackers & some chocolates & this lovely garlic appetizer that was recommended by the manager. We got to the Jimenez home by 5:30pm (invites said sunset), and were the first to arrive, but that did not stop us from starting on the pate's and garlic which we devoured with gusto, Loy also prepared a yummy spread made with tinapa & cream cheese that was also very very good. I did not even notice what time it was before Jigs & the Goldmans arrived, meanwhile Loy & Bonbon were busy preparing the evenings main meal, the heavenly smell of foie gras was already penetrating our senses. So finally we eat. What can I say... the "Almost Millionaire's Salad" (salad greens, fresh pan fried scallops,lobster, grapes & foie gras) was truly fantastic as most of us thought, Bonbon's foie gras skills were truly world class, the best part was we could even have seconds! Next we had the Penne pasta which Loy had tossed with Truffle oil before adding the mushroom & blue cheese sauce- recipe courtesy of Melanie (I proudly admit that I was able to bring the leftovers home hahaha), then for someone who doesn't really like fish I really enjoyed the Baked Tilapia fillet with lemon, olive oil & capers - the fish was cooked perfectly! Loy also surprised us with this Caviar Pie which she had ordered from a lady in Forbes, it was so good!! I did not know how I was going to make room for dessert. Lemon Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream frosting and HOMEMADE Strawberry Ice Cream on the side courtesy of the Dessert Goddess Melanie was our special dessert for the evening! Everyone was in such high spirits especially with the lovely champagne that we had to go with the magnificent meal, it was orgasmic bliss from beginning till end! Click here for more pics!

Here's Judy savoring Caviar Pie, need I say more?!

Vanity Fair

I went out and did all these girlie things today. I was out of the house by 9:30 AM and headed to my dermatologist for "diamond peeling" (talk about vanity huh!)on my face. After that I had lunch with Levs & Mel and since I had time to kill before my 3PM appointment with Eric Pineda, I decided to go & have my hair cut at Piandre. I love going to the hair salon on a weekday, I was the only customer there so I enjoyed full service & attention plus the best thing is NO WAITING! It was truly a vainly productive day. I should do it more often.

Having my eyebrow waxed courtesy of Vina

Having my haircut by Ahbii of Piandre

Having my hair rinsed after the cut

Blow dry & styling by Jolina of Piandre

The New Greek Goddess!

I was finally in the mood to start tackling my bridesmaids dress for atsi's wedding. I took the day off from work & met up with Eric today at his house/shop in Quezon City. Eric was in his usual accomodating & welcoming self, I was actually 30 mins. early for our appointment, I kind of had the feeling that he would be there already, he is a true professional. We immediately tackled the most important issue of the dress, which would be the color. Since I was the one who would basically carry the color scheme of the wedding, I felt that it was important for me to really work just within that colors my sister had chosen. So I was so lucky when eric's assistant brought out swads of this silk chiffon that was exactly the color of atsi's wedding - burgundy & gold, with gold being the dominant color. The material was just perfect for a Hawaiian garden wedding. Next came the design, I don't know why the one shouldered gown kept sticking to my mind, I mentioned this to Eric & he readily agreed that it would suit my body type & would also work beautifully with the material, so on he went designing my gown. Any thoughts?

Famous designer Eric Pineda sketching my bridesmaid dress

Here is the preliminary sketch of my one-shoulder gown

Foie Gras Overload

When Jackie called me to say that Mandarin Oriental's Tivoli was having it's annual Foie Gras Festival, I'm pretty sure she knew I would immediately say yes to trying out this years offering, I really love this very sinful yet delicious delicacy. Bon Bon & Loy Jimenez, close friends of Jackie and fellow Foie Gras fans also joined us last Saturday night. This years event was also joined by the mushroom festival, which is also celebrated annually. For starters we all had Millionaire's salad, with a name like this you knew that you were in for something special, aside from lovely fresh greens, there was also lobster, scallops & a generous piece of pan fried goose liver all tossed in a light vinaigrette dressing (Really really good!). Since Jackie & I were sharing the salad, I opted to order the soup, capuccino of morels with sesame encrusted foie gras, this was the first time I had ever tried morels which are considered to be among the most prized of the wild mushrooms and frankly speaking it tasted just like ordinary button mushrooms to me (hahaha), the soup was very flavorful but I was disappointed with the sesame/foie gras combination that was served on the side, It just did not work for me at all, the sesame was too overpowering for the delicate taste of the liver, you couldn't even tell what you were eating anymore. For our main course, Jackie ordered the Rabbit stuffed with Polenta & Mushrooms (also my first time to have rabbit - tasted like chicken),Loy & Bon Bon both had steak, while I the fanatic opted for the Pan fried Duck Liver. I wanted to see the difference in taste between the goose & duck liver. I am no food expert but after my first taste I found that duck liver isn't as rich & intense & has a milder flavor compared to that of goose liver. People who aren't accustomed to the taste of foie gras will probably like duck liver more. We ended our meal with complimentary chocolate truffles from the super nice & friendly Tivoli staff. The shock of the night though was when the bill came & we saw that they charged us Php 260.00 for my glass of hot calamansi juice. At todays market price of 20 pesos per kilo, I could buy 13 kilos wortrh of calamansi with what we were charged with. I could have supplied a whole battalion with calamansi juice at that rate!!!

The Millionaire's Salad

Close up of my pan fried duck liver

Rabbit stuffed with polenta and mushrooms

Cappuccino of morels with sesame encrusted foie gras

LUSHious soap

I ran out of my favorite soap a few weeks back & for some reason couldn't seem to make it to the mall. So when Jackie said she had to pick up some requests for her niece Tintin (who lives in Cag de Oro) at LUSH before we could head off to our dinner at Mandarin, it was like music to my ears. I generally buy only 2 products at LUSH, the Demon in the Dark soap - it's sharp peppermint scent gives me that boost I need to wake me up during my morning shower & the Trachomania shampoo (comes in bar form & is great for travelling) which is actually meant for people with dry hair but it smells so much like hawaiian tropic suntan lotion that I couldn't resist using it, it's a scent that instantly transforms me to the beach.

Bridget Jones 2 "Edge of Reason"

Finally! The release date of the new Bridget Jones movie "Edge of Reason" has been announced - November 19 (at least for North America). I'm so excited. Although I don't know if the movie will have a world premiere, if not then I may have to wait a little bit longer before it gets here. I just saw the trailer at Yahoo Movies and it's hilarious. Renee actually looked like she gained more weight for this sequel. Yehey! There was even a scene in the movie wherein she talks about not eating carbs! Sounds so familiar! Colin Firth (my favorite Mr. Darcy) still looks as yummy as ever! Hahaha!

Hi I'm Janice and I'm a Chocaholic!

It seems that the older I get the more obsessed I am about chocolate. Just recently my dear friend Elena who now lives Down Under sent me a can of these lovely chocolates from Ballantynes. I have been digging into it almost everyday as soon as I come home from work, and I'm about halfway done (Yes, I'm a PIG!). The chocolates come in different flavors, theres dark, milk & white (which I have been setting aside for Christiane)and they all have nuts in them. I never used to like nuts in my chocolate but it seems that I have been learning to like them more and more, although nothing beats just plain dark chocolate. I have this one super favorite chocolate that I can only seem to buy at Singapore's Changi Airport, it's a Nestle Finest Swiss Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Bar. It comes in only one size 400 grams (that's almost half a kilo or a pound of chocolate) and I'm not complaining, the bigger the better. Anyone planning to go to Singapore?

The pen gives you an idea on how huge that bar of chocolate is.

10 peso performance

I finally couldn't stand it anymore, I went out and bought a new phone for my computer table. What really annoys me is that I had just replaced the cordless unit we were using with new batteries assuming that it would solve my problems, but apparently this was not the case. To think that I spent 300 bucks on those new batteries and it was all for nothing. The phone that I bought was made in China and although it's not the cordless kind, I think it was quite a bargain. the mainlander dude at the store was selling it to me for 250 and I was like "don't I get a discount?" and he was like "how many are you buying?" and i said "just 1!" and he was giving me his sales pitch that business was so bad, that he was already selling it really cheap etc. etc. So finally he says "okay I'll give it to you for a special price..." and I was like "yes, finally he caves in to my whining!" then the dude blurts out "I'll give it to you for 240!" AAARRRGGGHHHH!

Ming plus Oprah equals ME?!?!

I couldn't believe the text I recieved from my friend Lesley. She actually said that certain angles of Ming Tsai reminded her of me. Now if I were a guy I would probably be flattered, but unfortunately I'm not a guy. So should I be offended or not? Actually another one of my close friends Levina said that some of my actions remind her of Oprah Winfrey. Why do I keep reminding people of celebrities? Could it be my destiny to be a celebrity? And why do both my accusers have names that start with the letter L? Hmmmmmm . . . I feel a conspiracy in the works . . .

The EVIDENCE!!!

Bon Voyage Devin!!!

Our unofficial "despedida" (send off) for Devin aka Dayvid at "Something Fishy" restaurant located at Eastwood City. This was the 2nd of 3 despedidas which Devin will be attending before we send him back to California on Sept. 11 (of all the days to fly right!). This was the 2nd time I had eaten at this place and I was again impressed. Practically everything we ordered was good, we had palabok, sisig, bulalo steak, sinigang na ulo ng salmon sa miso, country fried chicken, garlic kangkong, bouillabaise soup & beef kare kare (which was the best I've had in a long time). The prices here were really reasonable, I can't believe we spent 1,800 for 7 people and that included our drinks too. Click for more pics...

Total Bullshit!

Here's Dev attacking his drink called "Total Bullshit" aka "Furo Loco", this wild concoction is pretty nasty, it has practically everything you could possibly want in a drink. I think there were more than 10 ingredients in it like rum, gin, vodka etc. It's like a 2 for 1 drink, there's a shot glass inside a martini glass, where you sip the stuff in the shot first then immediately sip the outer drink which is the chaser (according to Dev it was just as strong). Plus they flame up the drink before they serve it to you. To get its full effect you should sip it really really fast!!! I'm pretty sure I would experience BRAIN FREEZE!

The Cherry Bomb. . . not for the faint of heart!

This drink is the bomb! When I saw this on the drinks menu at Cable Car Restaurant in Eastwood City I just knew I had to try it. Maraschino cherries soaked in Bacardi 151 (yes you read it, it's rum thats 151 proof) on a bed of crushed ice. But let me rephrase that, the cherries were not just soaked in rum, they were literally injected with the stuff. One bite of the cherry hits you like POW! To smoothen the effect you take a nice sip of the melted ice/water which by then had already absorbed some of that nice rum and some of the syrup from the cherries and before you know it, it's all gone. Then you order another one....SWEET!

Lumpia Assembly 101

The table is all set with all the components to assemble the perfect Amoy style lumpia. You have the lumpia filling, the ground peanuts with sugar, lettuce, coriander, minced garlic, panocha, ho-tee (dried sea grass) & the wrapper.


Place 1 sheet (or 2) of the lumpia wrapper on a large plate, start at one corner of the wrapper and place a large piece of lettuce (romaine variety works best), and if you have a sweet tooth like me, I place the first of many layers of the ground peanut/sugar mixture onto my lettuce.


Next, take a generous amount of the lumpia filling and place it on your lettuce layer, you can continue to add as much of the filling as you would like. Just remember not to fill it pass a third of the way on your wrapper. It might be difficult to roll up if that happens.


Add a few sprigs of coriander (optional) on top of the filling. In my case I place a lot of it on. I really love the taste of it on my lumpia, it gives it that added kick.


I also added some fresh minced garlic (optional) before adding a drizzle of the melted "panocha" (raw sugar) as shown in my picture.


Then I top it off with a a generous amount of the ground peanut/sugar mixture.


This is how beautiful your lumpia layers should look before you proceed to the final stage of rolling it up. It would be a crime to just glop the stuff all together with out placing any aesthetic value to your creation. The Amoy style lumpia is to be treated with the utmost respect.


Start rolling the lumpia away from you. About midway thru your roll, fold in one end of the wrapper to seal it off, then continue to roll till you reach the other end. You can spread some of the panocha on to the ends to act as a sealant.



Voila a perfect lumpia by yours truly!

Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie with Pecans

My super favorite cookie, a Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie with Pecans. Business has probably been slow which was why they had a promotion, buy 5 cookies & get 1 free. Yummmm!