Cold in Korea!

Me in 6 layers of clothing

I ended up in cold cold Korea in the dead of winter for my annual easter holiday. Admittedly Korea was definitely not my first choice, neither was it my 2nd or 3rd. It was more like my back-up plan location. But I have learned in life that the things you least expect can turn out really really well. And thats what happened in Korea, despite the cold weather I really had a very nice time with the tour we joined. All our meals which was included in our package was surprisingly excellent, it was definitely not your usual tourist food. We tasted a lot of special korean dishes that was beyond the usual korean bbq that we often order here, good thing we did a lot of walking around or else im sure I would've gained 5 pounds from all that lovely fod we had. We toured thru 2 theme parks, a folk village, 2 palaces, and had archery & taekwondo lessons. It was a mix of culture & fun and gave me a different perspective on Korea & its people.

Marc for iPod

Here's my take on the iPod ad that we were assigned to do for my "online" media class. My friend Metrosexual Marc was kind enough or should I say "vain" enough to pose for me! I think it turned out pretty well.

The "Whilemina" cake by "the "master"

A few months ago I was asked by my dear cousin Winnie to make her wedding cake for her big day on March 6. It's been almost 3 years since I last made a wedding cake and decided that since I had a free hand in the whole design and that it would be considered my "out of retirement" cake I was gonna make it BIG. Not hugely big but bigger than average. I was toying with the idea of doing 4 or 5 layers but I wasn't too sure if my cousins family would be on the superstitious side, because 4 layers would definitely be a No-No if they were. But in the end I did 5 layers, actually it's 6 since I made a seperate "real" cake for cutting. WHo eats the cake anyways Right?!!!

New Toy

Here's my new purchase, Philips DVD player model #DVP642K. I bought this baby for the sole reason that it can play the DIVx stuff that I've been downloading, so now I don't have to abuse the monitor of my Powerbook from watching all my shows. Good thing I didn't have to plunk down 18k for this other player that I saw at Megamall, although it was an all inclusive player with video screen.

Eat, Drink & be Merry!

Having already been postponed for the nth time I finally decided that the only way I would be able to get my friends available to have dinner for my birthday was through threats of ending our friendship. Yes, sad to say I had to resort to these kinds of measures. It must be that I'm too nice to them or something, because when someone says "hey, I'm gonna treat you out to dinner", the only alllowed response would be "when & where?!". But I guess God must've had a higher purpose for all those postponements, either that or my friends were probably psychic bec. the Mandarin had just sent their monthly email regarding the Nights of Wine & Fine Dining. Having attended previous "Nights", I knew my friends were in for a treat when I decided that this would be the place for our little get together. Our evening was filled with lots of lovely wines, 2 reds & 2 whites with my favorite Amaretto for dessert. Dinner was pigeon, foie gras, veal tenderloin etc. It was really just too overwhelming. Almost everyone ended up being very very tipsy, noisy & silly.

Valentines Eve with friends!

LAMBlicious

Jackie with her mound of cream with mangoes

It was another glorious evening when a select few were invited to partake in the scrumptious cooking of tita Loy Jimenez. Lovely memories still linger on the foie gras feast which they served a few months back, so I was really looking forward to another gastronomic event. It was the first time I had dinner at their garden which had numerous fruit trees all aglow with lovely lanterns. Dinner consisted of Slow cooking lamb which believe or not tita Loy discovered in the newspaper, it was really really tender & so flavorful, brown rice salad, grilled tomatoes, zucchini & chicken chunks , accompanied by pita bread and organic ciabatta. Dessert was courtesy of Judy who made her famous pecan pie & a sinfully rich Ghiradelli choco mousse, while Stefanie contributed a mango & strawberry streudel. It was truly a magnificent feast.<

Birthday girl Stef

Birthday girl Stef
Originally uploaded by cutejoos.

I was invited to a surprise birthday party for a dear friend Stefanie V., her one & only sister Lesley organized this lovely luncheon for a select close friends. Stef was totally clueless on the whole thing and was pretty stunned to realize that it was a party for her when she arrived at Wah Yuen restaurant.