Early Valentine's Date

I spent the first day of February by going on an early Valentine's date with the two special men in my life -- my husband and my son. We had dinner at the newly re-opened Spiral restaurant at Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Some of you may remember that back in September 2011, Spiral was devastated by a storm surge that flooded many establishments in the area. Spiral was submerged in waist-deep flood waters. Sofitel was forced to temporary close their flagship restaurant because of the damages brought by typhoon Pedring. The renovation of Spiral took more than a year to finish. It finally opened its doors again last Nov. 8, 2013.

It was our second time at Spiral. We enjoyed our first lavish buffet experience. The three of us had no doubts that our second experience would be equally great.

We went down the familiar grand spiral staircase leading to the elegant restaurant below. Lovely ladies welcomed us to the newly refurbished Spiral. We were seated just across the back of the grand staircase with a view of gentle, flowing water. It was perfect!

The food was as great as we remembered. We were glad to see our old favorites and there were a lot of new dishes added to the sumptuous buffet. For my family, it's the best buffet in the country. The abundance of food is simply overwhelming. The new Spiral is actually divided into 21 dining ateliers.  I don't think it's possible to try everything in one night.

Some of my husband's personal favorites include crabs, shrimps, crayfish, steak, bulgogi, beef short ribs, lamb chops, and the Asian pulled noodles. I love the Peking Duck, Chinese dimsum, Korean noodles, and skewered seafood. My son, Yohan love their salad, pasta, and freshly baked pizza.

I was surprised how my little man turned out to be quite a cheese connoisseur because he enjoyed trying out the different types of cheese at the Cheese room.   The three of us share a liking for Japanese, Chinese, and Italian food.  We also loved their freshly baked bread that we dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yohan preferred butter and pesto on his bread.

After that sumptuous feast, we barely had room for dessert but I knew I would regret it if I missed their delicious creme brulee. Sadly, they don't serve those melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies like before. I think Spiral should really consider bringing those heavenly cookies back. Yohan enjoyed the candy bar and the chocolate fountain. The three of us tried the Creamery which serves different types of ice-cream and toppings. Sadly I was too full to try their chocolates, truffles and pralines.

I had a fantastic time with my family and I'm so happy because on that same evening, I met a dear old blog friend in person. It was a pleasure seeing Kathy of Life is KulaYFul! She is sweet and charming in person as she is on her blog.

 

How To Make a Cupcake Tower

For our son's recent birthday celebration, hubby made a simple 3-tier cupcake tower from scratch. It was fun and relatively easy to do. Even the birthday boy helped out.

Interested to make your DIY cupcake tower? Here are the materials and simple steps.

You will need: 
2 large Styrofoam boards
2 even sized Styrofoam squares
ruler or measuring tape
marker
decorative paper (or fabric)
scissors
cutter
tape
glue
long and thin wooden stick (BBQ stick can be used)

Procedure:

1. Cut 3 Styrofoam squares measuring: *8x8, 10x10 and 12x12. Use a ruler or measuring tape to get precise measurements. Use a marker when making measurements so you can easily cut the proportions using a cutter.

2. Cover the Styrofoam boards and squares with decorative paper or fabric. For paper, you can use craft glue. For fabric, it is better to use glue gun.

3. Connect the pieces using wooden sticks. You also have the option to glue them permanently.

4. Clean the surface of the tiers. You can gently wipe the decorative paper or fabric with paper towel. Arrange the cupcakes starting from the last level going up.

Enjoy!

* You can also use round Styrofoam boards or ready made cake boards measuring: 1×8″, 1×10″, 1×12″. Replace Styrofoam squares with cylinders.

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This free birthday cupcake was too good to resist. It didn't last long. :)

Happy Hamburger Day 2010

Took advantage of Hamburger Day at Brothers Burger. Thanks to hubby's cousin for the treat. Yohan didn't care much about the burger but he enjoyed the fries and onion rings. :)

Yohanism #36

I volunteered to make pancakes today for snack. I asked Yohan if he wanted to be my kitchen assistant and he eagerly said yes.  I laid out all the ingredients and kitchen utensils on the counter top.

Yohan: "Mom, are you sure you know what you are doing?"

Thoughts inside my head: Ouch! My little boy must be thinking I have no business in the kitchen.

Me: "Of course, don't underestimate your mom."

Yohan: "Ok mom."

Yohan set aside his doubts about my kitchen qualifications as he helped me mix all the pancake ingredients. I heated the pan and made pancakes. I asked Yohan to serve the first pancake to his dad who was upstairs. I placed the pancake on the plate and added some butter and syrup. Yohan took the plate and brought it up. I distinctively heard him say to his dad ...

Yohan: "Special delivery! Pancake from mom. It smells good but it's burned."

Yohan went down ready to serve the other pancakes and I told him ...

Me: "Burned?! It's not burned. It's a little brown but not burned."

Yohan smiled and delivered the other pancakes to our helpers. I reserved the last two pancakes for Yohan and myself. We ate it at the dining room.

Yohan took his first bite and said, "This is good mom. May be you can join a kitchen battle because your pancakes are good."

Thoughts inside my head: Awww, my little boy loves my cooking after all.

But my thoughts were premature because Yohan added ...

Yohan: "But the judges might not like the burned part and remove you from the battle."

Colorful Hustle and Bustle Outside Antipolo Church

After hearing mass at Antipolo, one will find it hard to ignore the hustle and bustle outside the church.

Local vendors have found a lucrative business selling colorful balloons and toys.  Small children are easily enticed by the sight of familiar characters floating on strings, flying winding birds and small toys with wheels that you can push back and forth with its handle. I saw a little girl frantically pulling her mom's hand towards the toy vendors.

Yohan didn't ask for any of those this year but when he was younger I bought him one of those ingenious mouse toys that move by pulling its string (made of scrap cloth and rock pulley-like mechanism). 

There are also vendors selling candles outside the church. Lighting candles is a popular Catholic tradition.  One usually light candles to pray for blessings or ask for divine intervention.

I always see these peculiar man and woman wax figures whenever I go to Antipolo but I have never asked what they are for. Some say the man and woman wax figures symbolize marriage but I may be wrong. Please share if you know.

A visit to Antipolo church will not be complete without buying casuy and suman (cashew and rice cakes). I took this quick snapshot when I noticed a lone red cashew among the yellow ones. I didn't buy any but hubby bought plain cashew nuts.

Back at home, we enjoyed eating fried suman with some sugar. It would have been better with ripe mangoes but it was still yummy.

Durian candies

My brother-in-law recently went to Davao on a business trip. When he went home, he gave us assorted Durian goodies as pasalubong. Keats gave us Durian pastillas, Durian candies and Durian yema. I'm not too fond of the Durian fruit but these Durian sweet treats are delicious.

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My hubby, son and I love good food. We make it a point to eat out at least once a month. I guess you can say that dining out is one of our monthly bonding moments.

We recently had dinner at Buon Giorno! It's a lovely and cozy restaurant in Cliffhouse, Tagaytay that serves Italian cuisine. 

You can dine outside al fresco or you can choose to eat inside.  The interior of the restaurant has a homey feeling to it.

We ordered Buon Giorno's Special (crisp crunch of mixed lettuce greens, cucumber and tomato with feta cheese and dressing).

We also had New York Pizza (assorted meat, bell peppers and cheese topping on a crisp,crusty dough). 

I wasn't able to take a photo of Yohan's order. He had kiddie chicken fingers with curly fries and a tall glass of Mudslide freeze (blend of chocolate shake).

This is Buon Giorno's most reserved place - the Opium Bed.  It has big fluffy pillows and white canopy.  When you reserve this place, you can enjoy the scenic view of Taal as you dine.

Buon Giorno! Caffe & Bistro
Unit 4, Cliffhouse Tagaytay
Gen. Emilio Highway
Tagaytay City, 4120
(046) 4132102

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My dear friend gave me a box of assorted Toblerone triangles. It was a treat trying all 5 varieties of Toblerone namely Milk, White/Milk, White, Dark and Praline.

Without the wrappers, you can easily spot the two-toned Toblerone triangle. It stands out because the lower half is milk chocolate and the upper half is white chocolate.

Everyone in the family has a favorite Toblerone. Hubby likes Dark, Yohan likes Milk while I prefer Praline.

I therefore conclude that chocolate bliss is easily achieved when there is no chocolate conflict.  ha!ha!

Koi Action and Water Taxi in Nuvali

Nuvali is a nice and refreshing place where you can dine, relax and unwind with family and friends. Aside from restaurants, it also has a multi-functional lake, outdoor trail and wide open spaces. Visitors can feel close to nature because of its green surroundings.

Nestled at Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Nuvali is becoming a favorite place by many. 

A great activity that you can enjoy in Nuvali is fish feeding. Fish feeds are sold for P15 a pack.  Take note that only Nuvali fish feeds are allowed.  So don't make a mistake of throwing a piece of bread or chip in the water.

I've seen Koi ponds before but this is the first time I've seen a lake with a massive number of Koi. Adults and kids will surely be delighted by the overwhelming abundance of Koi swimming and eagerly hoping for Manna from heaven.

The moment you drop some feeds in the water, the exuberant Koi will swim frantically to get some of that coveted treat.  It's an amazing display of fin flapping and fish tail movements. You might even see one or two Koi doing a cartwheel in the air. No kidding!

Perhaps the Koi are doing it on purpose so that you'll go back to the booth to buy some more of those feeds. ha! ha!

I surely fell for it because I went back to the booth several times to buy fish feeds.  It was worth it because my son had a great time feeding the overzealous Koi.

Fish feeding at Nuvali is from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM daily.

Riding the Water Taxi is another fun activity for the family.  The short boat ride costs P30 per head. 

Enjoy the refreshing wind on your face and watch birds flying nearby.  Expect to feel gentle water splashes as the boat makes a turn.

After feeding the Koi and riding the Water Taxi, my family settled for appetizing snacks at Conti's. Hubby had halo-halo, Yohan chose chicken empanada while I enjoyed a slice of Bananalicious Pie.

It was an afternoon well spent.

Benefits of Eating Healthy Tuna

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of HealthyTuna.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

My family loves eating tuna sandwich. It is easy to prepare, light on the budget and most of all good for the body.  We prefer using hot pandesal buns. I would like to share this very simple tuna sandwich recipe that my family loves.

Ingredients:

pandesal buns
1 canned tuna
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
tomato and olives

Procedure:

1. Open a can of tuna and drain the liquid from the can.
2. Put the tuna in a bowl and break it into flakes.
3. Add finely chopped onions to the bowl.
4. Add 3/4 cup of mayonnaise.
5. Add 1 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Mix everything together.
8. Spread on pandesal buns.
9. Optional: Add slices of tomato and olive if desired.

Seafood and Pregnancy:  There are a lot of confusion about pregnancy and eating seafood. Due to this, some women totally abstain from eating seafood while they are pregnant. Well, it is true that pregnant women should avoid fish high in mercury such as shark, mackerel, swordfish and tilefish. But it is still actually SMART to eat seafood during pregnancy.

In fact, scientific studies point out that eating healthy tuna is good for pregnant women because of its benefits.  Eating seafood such as tuna during pregnancy and breastfeeding period can boost the baby's brain.  Studies show that eating healthy seafood can promote faster development among babies.  Eating seafood can also help fight heart disease.

Aloha Friday #79

Rules: Post any question on your blog on a Friday, share your answer and sign Kailani's Mr. Linky. Then have fun answering the questions of fellow participants by visiting their blogs.

Is there any dish that you never get tired of ordering at the restaurant?

I love TGI Friday's Chicken Mushroom Chicken. I always order it whenever we eat at Friday's. I guess you can say that I'm not adventurous when it comes to food because I tend to order the same dishes.

Chicken Mushroom Chicken is deep fried chicken topped with mushrooms and Mozzarella cheese. It is served with buttered corn on the cob and mushrooms. Earlier version included french fries or mashed potatoes. Now Chicken Mushroom Chicken is served with rice pilaf.

Enjoy Chinese Food at Home

I have always found Asian food exciting to the palate. I'm particularly fond of Chinese cuisine. I love the different flavors emanating from the rich ingredients that are enhanced by all sorts of herbs and spices. I never get tired of eating Chinese dishes at home and at restaurants. My family also loves Chinese food. We have shared countless Chinese feasts together. I believe that good food and family bonding make a great combination.

Weekend Snapshot #82

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Last Saturday, Jules and Yohan made apple pie together. It was a father and son bonding moment.


Yohan had fun helping his Dad knead the dough and sprinkle the nuts. Ironically, my son doesn't like apple pie. He just loves helping his Dad make it.


I had the privilege of having the first slice...


It was yummy!