Happy birthday Nikka!

Happy birthday to my dearest little sister Nikka. Wow! You look so young just before I left.

 Time indeed fly so fast. Now you're seventeen!  Whaatt?! 

So since I can't be there to celebrate your special day, I did celebrate it here in Wisconsin.

This post is two days late but anyway, it's the thought that counts right?

I don't have a birthday gift for you this year. I bought a birthday cake though. Reese's peanut butter cheesecake. Make a wish! 

And just so you're sure that I didn't just found the cake in Google images, I took a picture of it with me.

I'll be home next year for your 18th birthday. We'll celebrate it for sure. In the meantime, I wish you all the happiness life can offer. Cheers!

Madison Winter Restaurant Week

When you live in a tropical country such as the Philippines, you dream of white Christmas. However, if you live in Wisconsin and you have this as your view for at least five months, it's depressing. Seriously. 

Cabin fever is starting to set in because I'm stuck at home with nothing to do. There's just so much I can do in Madison during the winter time and the idea of a three hour drive to Chicago during the winter doesn't really sit well with me. Good thing Madison is holding a Winter Restaurant Week starting today until January 27th. 

Food lovers such as me can indulge in the finest local culinary offerings of over forty restaurants in the city. All the participating restaurants [except for Samba] will have a special three course prix-fixed dinner menu for only $25. Samba, on the other hand will continue to offer their Brazilian steak buffet for $25 as well. Some of the restaurants had also prepared a three course prix-fixed lunch menu for only $15. What a steal! 

Here's a sample menu of a $15 lunch menu in Johnny Delmonico's.

Capitol Chophouse has an awesome dinner menu.

Maybe I'll try these restaurants later today. I hope they have open spots for tonight. 

For a complete restaurant listing, visit the Madison Magazine's website.

It's more fun in the Philippines!

The Department of Tourism has recently launched its latest tourism campaign which instantly caught the attention of the media and creative Filipinos. The campaign 'It's more fun in the Philippines' will be launched internationally in April of this year.

As expected, tons of humorous slogans made by fun loving Filipinos flooded the internet within the next couple of days after the campaign was launched. A lot of it are just funny. Some of it says a lot about Filipino traditions and culture. 

Here are some of my favorites:

Bayanihan is a common tradition in the Philippines where neighbors and community members help families in moving their houses from one location to another.

Sure it's fun when you have 7,107 islands to choose from.

Pinoy version of planking. Whole roasted pig or lechon as we call it is a staple food in feasts, weddings and other grand occasions.

Cockfighting or sabong is a popular pastime in the Philippines. They even have  interactive websites which contains videos, forums and discussions about it. I liked how they used the 'angry birds' thing in here.

I liked how they associated Farmville with Philippines rich agricultural land. Truly Pinoy!

Grilled chicken feet or Adidas [yeah! for some weird reasons we call it that.]  is a popular street food in the Philippines. Best paired with pitchers of beer. =)

And lastly..

The kind of board meetings that everyone will look forward to. *wink*

These are just some of the awesome ideas that Filipinos came up with in helping the DOT with the campaign.

Despite some negative feedback and  controversies after unveiling the campaign, it is undeniably successful based on the social media results. It became an instant worldwide trend in twitter and other social media sites. 

Yes it is simple. But simple ideas are the ones that stick.

Cheers to the new campaign! It is indeed more fun in the Philippines. These pictures and slogans reminds me of millions of reasons to go back home. =)

Photo credits to Facebook, Pinterest, Chuvaness.com and Spot.ph.

Afternoon tea set

Remember my last post where I grabbed a picture of a gold tea set from an online store? Well, they are currently holding a ridiculously awesome sale on both their mall store locations and online stores. You can buy tea sets and loose teas for 30%-75% less than its original price. So I didn't pass up the opportunity and finally bought myself the Dore Gold teapot set.

I got it for 50% off and it comes with four matching cups and saucers. I paired it with sushi leftovers for a maximum Asian effect. 

I also bought 2 kinds of loose tea. I bought Golden Monkey and Phoenix Mountain Dan Cong. 

What I liked most about Teavana is the fact that every pack comes with specific instructions depending on the kind of tea. It tells me exactly the right measure, temperature and preparation for each variety. 

I bought the Golden Monkey since I saw it in the tea selection of the afternoon tea menu of The Plaza Hotel NYC. It's a perfect companion for a cold weather. Full bodied infusion with a very subtle scent of cocoa. Rich in flavor yet not overpowering. If it was vodka, it would have been Grey Goose. Smooth. 

Phoenix Mountain Dan Cong is a premium variety of Oolong tea. It has a roasted and nutty aroma with a mild hint of honey. I seriously couldn't decide which one is better than the other. 

Next on my list is to buy a three tier afternoon tea tray.

Homemade tea sandwiches, cupcakes, scones, miniature cakes, and a pot of freshly steeped tea. Now all I need is company. Who wants to join me? 

Sushi Making 101

Eating out is my favorite past time. One, because I have a horrible cooking skills. Looking back, I felt bad because I had more than five cooking classes as part of my program curriculum in college yet I didn't try to learn it. And number two, I enjoy eating. [define gluttony] I believe that it's one of the most pleasurable past time. The conversations over food just about anything is always pleasurable. 

However, my weekly trips to restaurants [I eat out at least twice a week] has become a costly activity. On average, me and my restaurant buddy/glutton partner Peter spends about $80-$120 every time we go to restaurants [excluding the tip]. That sums up to a large amount of money if you multiply it by the number of times we go out to eat in a year. It's just so impractical. 

This year, I vowed to start a financial makeover to be able to achieve the goals I set for myself. The first strategy is to minimize my spending. [that means zero credit card debts, less shopping, less restaurant trips] So instead of going out to eat, Peter and I agreed to cook together during our time off and enjoy a series of Netflix movies. 

Good timing because I received an awesome gift set from my Secret Santa on Christmas. 

I love sushi but I have no freakin idea on how they do it so I went to YouTube for video tutorials.

YouTube is indeed a very useful tool if you want to find out something. There are millions of video tutorials about sushi making. Aside from that, you can also pick up a random trivia  like this.

We didn't plan to make a specific kind of sushi. We basically just put all the ingredients we love. I bought a $4 smoked salmon fillet in the grocery, a pack of cream cheese, spicy mayonnaise, cucumber and avocado. I didn't have to buy the rice and nori since it's included in my gift pack from my Secret Santa.

The first sushi roll will not pass any sushi chef standard. It was a bunch of funny looking rice rolls. But we didn't give up.

After two more attempts, our sushi looked so much better. We also tried to do the inside out rolls and hand rolls [hand rolls are not in the picture since I ate it immediately]. Peter also tried the sushi roll without the nori.

We paired it with green tea. Aahh! It was an awesome dining out alternative!

I have to buy this gold tea set from Teavana so the next time we make sushi and pair it with tea, it'll be a more authentic Asian experience. Maybe light a candle or two as well!

2012

Happy New Year!

2011 has been another thrilling roller coaster ride full of ups and downs. But it was undeniably a year full of blessings and learning experiences. I received countless blessings and encountered tons of obstacles all throughout the year.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I really want to do and reevaluating my goals. It was a hard process but now I've got it all figured out. 

Today is the start of a new chapter. I'm looking forward to more adventures and learning experiences. I'm excited to new opportunities, abundant blessings and exponential growth.

I am ditching all my fears. I realized how I'm always on the safe side. I'd rather not try if I'm not sure I'm gonna win. However, in doing this, there were a lot of great opportunities I chose to ignore. I chose short term solutions over long term growth. That's not going to be the case this year. I'm formally saying goodbye to my comfort zone. I'm ready to get out there and play it rough. 

Cheers to deeper love, stronger relationships, fulfilled dreams, great miracles, investment growth, answered prayers, abundant blessings and tons of learning experiences in 2012!