Today

I had dinner at 5 in the morning and breakfast at 3 in the afternoon.

The big bowl of pork sinigang with lots of rice gave me 9 hours of sweet dreams. At 3pm, we had our breakfast.

Eggs. Cholesterol. Check!
Bacon. Sodium overload. Check na check!
Pineapple juice. A dot of vitamin c and a glassful of sugar. Check!
Rice. Carbohydrates. Check!

Wow! This, my friend, is the recipe for short term happiness.

And we didn't stop there. We had dinner at 8pm. Pizza, chicken wings, cheese roll and garlic bread.


Oh! These junk fueled me up really well. I was able to finish 6 online modules for my training at the end of the month. Yey! :)






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Being kind to myself.

Contentment.

We all want this. To be happy, you have to be fully contented, fully at peace with everything around you.

Just last week, I was in Johannesburg. It was a beautiful day, everyone's in good spirits. Me and most of my colleagues (around 16 people) showed up for dinner at the Meat Co. I ordered ribs and got the shock of my life-- the word 'huge' was served on a plate and I had to consume it!




I tried my best to finish it but I was greedy to have ordered an appetizer before this so I struggled. In all fairness, I was able to almost finish the ribs, but the onion rings and mash were hardly touched. Sayang oh! My colleague was about to celebrate his birthday so I asked the Meat Co. guys to surprise him with something. They came with a big bowl of ice cream and a birthday candle. Then we all sang! Yey! :)
Dinner was fun but I decided to skip the night cap because I wanted to enjoy my stay at the hotel. The room's really nice.




I was planning on just having a half bath because I already took a shower right after we arrived but the tub was so inviting, I couldn't resist! I don't really use tubs in hotels but I made an exemption to this one. It was so spacious! I rinsed out the tub first. Then, I dimmed the lights, filled up the tub with hot water, turned the music on, got myself immersed in the water and rested my head on a towel. I almost fell asleep. I fought it by belting out my favorite songs. Hay, happy days!




The next day, I woke up and ordered my breakfast. It was the usual... The best part for me was their butter! It's the best tasting butter ever!




I took a shower afterwards. Then it hit me. That feeling of contentment. That feeling of happiness. I don't know where it came from. Was it because I saw a lot of happy faces the day before? Was it the ribs? Was it my soak in the tub? Was it my breakfast? Was it the anticipation of having a day off with Paolo? Was it finally getting that 'something' that I have always wanted? Was it the butter?!!

I had no idea. I just felt happy. Complete. Contented. I was humbled. I felt blessed and I thanked the Lord.

I don't always get that and when I do, I want to remember it.

Whoever you are, wherever you may be, I sincerely wish that you get that kind of feeling, too. And when you do, I hope you find the time to share it. Let's spread happiness... cause it will always find its way back to us. :)


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Handy Hints: Pasta

If you don't like your pasta sticking to each other after it's cooked, keep this in mind: After the pasta has been cooked and drained, drizzle some olive oil and carefully stir the pasta along. This will prevent the pasta from sticking and it's specially handy when you want to keep the cooked pasta for later use.
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Delaying Tactics

I'm definitely not bored. In fact I have so many things to do, just the thought of it makes me so tired! I have placed my reading materials next to my bed, hoping i'll somehow find the energy to start. Fail!
I rarely have pimples acting up, but because these past few days I have been so busy, the pimple decided to pay me a visit right where you won't miss it-- center of my forehead it is! My pimple has joined the trend, #unicornswag! So cute! I'm giving it a good fight, so today, I have awarded myself with a timeout.
My mind's in a domestic state right now and I'm looking for pegs for our home. I have settled with cottage style/shabby chic and surprisingly, Paolo, my war movies/history buff husband agreed to it! I have found the perfect bed and we took pains in making sure that during its shipment, it will stay beautiful. I hope!




We also got set of drawers and bedside tables to go with the bed. I can't wait to put them all together. I just need to change the handles as I find the ones provided very plain.








It was crazy how we reinforced the boxes of these furnitures and I'm really hoping that they make it home okay.
I don't have plans of renovating the kitchen with fitted cabinets just yet because that's going to cost a lot, so I looked for ways to make the kitchen functional without spending so much and I think this idea should work or now.




This will be my project when I get to Manila, to find a table similar to this.




We shall refurbish Paolo's grandparents' chairs so that they will look something like this.




They're quite bulky so 2 will join the rest of the dining chairs I am hoping i'll find, and the other 2 will be in the attic.
We don't have babies yet but I have 2 nieces now and we're setting up a kid's room. It will have these cute lights.




Paolo's a big fan of air carriers and we found a vintage looking aircraft which we shall hang in the other room. These stuff will find their way in our home as well :)




What a project this is for us! I'm sure it will take a while and a lot before everything's really put together. I'm so enjoying every minute of it! Stressful? Yes. Fun? H*ll yeah! (Are we) Excited? Even my pimples are!!


~most pictures were taken from various Internet sites~

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Handy Hints: Resurrecting your greens.

If you find yourself stuck in a supermarket full of green, limp(y) vegetables, don’t worry. :)
You just need a big bowl of water, immerse your greens, pop in the chiller for a while and voila! I do this with tomatoes too, and it works!

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No Reservations

I was reunited with my Bourdain fixation. If you don't know Anthony Bourdain, you were probably holed up somewhere so uncool and mundane. Joke! But seriously, he's as solid as ice, so cool it hurts. I sound like a lovestruck teenager and if you look him up on the net and see his picture, you'll probably say, WTH! No worries, you're excused. Watch No Reservations and you'll probably download the whole season.


This guy is living my dream! There are so many travel and food shows. Next to Bourdain, I like Bobby Chinn and David Zimmern. But they don't come close. Bourdain is the real deal for me. Blunt and straightforward, interesting without trying so hard. He doesn't have to do acrobatic facial expressions or let out silly remarks. He travels around the world, samples the dishes, makes interesting commentaries, mingles with the locals and everything's transformed into one helluva show. He eats street food with so much gusto, you just wanna buy a plane ticket and fly to his destination. So convincing! I love No Reservations! He might have been placed in a situation wherein he eats something others would not consider as food. But he's Bourdain, he will eat it. He's like Bear Grylls, invincible (on TV)!


Our friend, Mike, gave us seasons worth of No Reservations and it got me so motivated to write my appraisals... so that I will have time to watch. Haha! I'm replaying his feature on the Philippines and I can almost smell Pilipinas. He tried www.market manila.com 's lechon and decided that we have 'The best pig... Ever!' Yehey!

Travels are not exactly cheap. They require preparations and saving up. For me, the next best thing to experiencing a place is food. And if it's too much. You have Bourdain. No reservations required. Just sit back, relax and let Bourdain be.

~Photos are all taken from the tv screen while watching No Reservations~



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Kamsahamnida!

The Urban Dictionary gave me 11 definitions of Foodie, the most popular of which is:
~A person that spends a keen amount of attention and energy on knowing the ingredients of food, the proper preparation of food, and finds great enjoyment in top-notch ingredients and exemplary preparation.
A foodie is not necessarily a food snob, only enjoying delicacies and/or food items difficult to obtain and/or expensive foods; though, that is a variety of foodie.

But the definition I can relate to the most is:
~A foodie is a person who loves or has a deep admiration for food and eating food. Does not neccesarily have to be fat, but like eating. They might feel happy or very at peace when being around food.
If you like food, you are a foodie.

I guess that makes most of us a foodie. Now you can add another description of yourself in your resume.

I'm here again in Seoul and that's where the 'foodie' thing was coming from. I would love to go on holiday here just to eat. I'm only here for 24 hours, not much time so that's exactly what I did. I ate. A lot!

Sabasaba chicken.


It's like BonChon, Kyochon or Charlie Chicken. Korean style fried chicken's the tastiest fried chicken I've ever tried so far. This was my mission, to try the real thing. They do it so well here! It was crispy on the outside, the meat was juicy and the glaze was just right, it was not overwhelming, enough to make you take a couple more. They had so many chicken flavors and I chose the garlic soy. Yummy!


The place was busy with football fans, glad we had a corner table so we managed an almost peaceful dinner.


Let's look at the small details: a small bin for chicken bones, 2 forks instead of a knife and fork (I ate with my fingers though), a side dish and some crisps before the chicken arrived. The side was radish. It was so fresh and bursting with flavor(sweet, sour and salty plus that distinct radish taste all at once!) It's unlimited so you can order as much as you want.


Mission accomplished! Nomnomnom...

After dinner, we went straight to the supermarket. Food again! This is actually my thing. I love cooking so it follows that I enjoy going to supermarkets. I can spend hours and hours, wandering around.


Kimchi, noodles, condiments and so much more! How I wish I can read and understand Korean! This supermarket is called E-mart, two levels of Korean goodness! Pictured above is my favorite tea. It's a brown rice green tea which you can have hot or cold.

My stay here will never be complete without my favorite Korean BBQ!


Clockwise: BBQ, kimchi soup (my favorite!), rice with kimchi soup and seaweeds and side dishes.

I asked for a business card only to find out later that it was all in Korean. This is in Gang nam area and at 10:30am, I was the only one having BBQ! Sweet!


I will not lie. It was too early and too much for me, I felt sick after my meal haha! But it was so good, I know I will come back, I always do.

On a totally different note, Seoul has done so well for itself. The city's really clean. I'm so familiar with busy subways and underground, I almost got scared walking alone in the underground. :)


There goes my 24 hours! Kamsahamnida, Korea!

~Kamsahamnida means thank you in Korean~


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Location:Seoul, South Korea