My mom went to the US for a high school reunion in LA and then visited my uncle and his family in Arizona. Anyways, I wanted to take advantage of her trip and decided to order the photography books that I have been looking for. It took me awhile to decide whether to order or not. I finally succumbed and ordered the 4 books. It’s much cheaper in Amazon and there’s no shipping fee. I just directed the shipment to my uncle’s place and my mom just brought home the goodies.

The fifth dish smelled like your typical chinese food.  I guess it was because of the sesame oil which you could easily detect.  Too bad my Miki Bihon only had noodles in it and none of the “sahog” so I wasn’t able to enjoy it too much.   One participant said hers had shrimps.

The sixth dish I really loved since I’m very fond of gata.  They call this one the Serye Express.  It’s a cross between your bicol express and pinakbet.  I appreciated the hint of spiciness which wasn’t too over powering.

The next one wasn’t really a dish, but a drink.  It was a specially concocted Iced Tea which I really find very flavorful and refreshing.

The last one was dessert.  They call it Serye’s Filipino Fondue.   We were served 3 different kinds of turon.  I had a little difficulty differentiating one from the other and later found out that they were banana-langka, buko-pineapple, and mango-sago.  Good thing the fondue wasn’t too sweet and somehow balance the sweetness of the turon. It was also served with a small enseymada.

After taking off our blindfolds, we were presented with the food that we just tasted in full serving sizes this time.  The owners of Serye were also there.  It turns out, they are the 4th generation of the Reyes clan of the renowned  Aristocrat Restaurant.

Lunch was served shortly afterwards wherein we encountered their boneless Crispy Pata.  It’s really quite a mystery how they cooked it.  We asked the owners to satisfy our curiosity but we were just jokingly answered that they breed boneless pigs!

I loved the first dish which even from afar I could already smell and identify as Sisig.  Good thing there wasn’t any sizzle for safety reasons. It had the right blend and had the crunchiness I prefer when eating sisig.  It was just right for my taste, no need for extra soy sauce and calamansi.  I wished I had rice to go with it.  Too bad it was only a taste test! Hehehe!

The second dish was Sinigang na Tyan ng Bangus.  I remembered the previous discussion on what other people put in their sinigang like tamarind, calamansi, kamias, and guava.  Well, Serye’s version reminded me of my mom’s good old sinigang recipe.  The homey feel instantly hit me.

The third dish was this savory meat (Boneless Chicken BBQ).  The sauce was just divine and the meat very tender.   I just love that it’s boneless since I hate eating chicken when dining out since it can get a little messy.  You don’t want your chicken flying off your plate when you’re separating all the meat from its bones.

The fourth dish was one of those which I got to identify just by smelling.  The peanut-y flavor of the Kare-Kare gave it away!  I love how they made the ox-tail so tender and the vegetables still crunchy.  I was just craving for some Alamang which I’m fond of adding to my Kare-Kare.

I was lucky to be included as a participant, given the limited 15 slots.  July 14 got a big red mark on my calendar. Arriving a few minutes early I guess showed my excitement.  But I have to admit being initially intimidated with the presence of some probloggers (who I really idolize, by the way).  My inferiority complex was triggered and made me question myself if I deserve to be there.  I guess it was just a little comforting to know that despite being great writers already they also use shift F7. Well, I’m glad I became part of this great event and met these wonderful and fun people who share one of my passions…FOOD.

Our speaker is one certified foodie! It’s just a little unfair that she still gets to maintain her slim figure! Hahaha!  Christine Nunag talked about the basics on food reviews.  It was a relatively light discussion, but nevertheless enriched my knowledge on food writing.  And having the other participants generously share their thoughts regarding some of the topics made the discussion even more fun!

I’ve had that realization that yes, you somehow have that responsibility to your readers.  And the workshop just reiterated that  somehow, someway what you’re doing makes a difference in other people’s lives.

I guess the highlight of the  workshop was when we were blindfolded and got to taste some of Serye’s dishes.  What was great about the experience is that we already get to apply what we just talked about.  Being blindfolded indeed heightened our senses and made us appreciate more what we were eating.  It wasn’t just our taste buds which were worked out but also our sense of smell, hearing, touch, and sight (after we took off our blindfolds).

Just sharing my food writing and photography class which I took last year:

When I look back at my past foodie entries I realize that I’m not really the type who puts in too many words, but rather relies on photos.  I feel they can speak louder since bombarding my readers with words wouldn’t really do justice to my foodie experience.  I don’t wanna bore my readers as well.  Oh well.  I guess I just wasn’t confident with my writing skills.  There are really days when I just go blank or just settle with simple sentences.

When I first read about the first blogger food writing and photography class I was really ecstatic.  Even if I’m really more of a food blogger rather than a food writer (a big difference if you pay attention) I still felt that this is a great chance for me to broaden my writing skills.

I love having Mandarin’s privilege card! Me and my hunnie got to eat at Paseo Uno again  and only paid for 1pax!  It’s really great that they rotate their dishes (they call it the 6-cycle) to ensure that they provide a wide variety of dishes everyday.

As I have promised myself, I’ll be starting off with desserts first since I usually end up too full by the time I reach the dessert part, thus not having to enjoy it. as much as I’d want to.  So this time, I’m back with a vengeance! hahaha!

I started it off with peach mango crepe with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!  Super yummy!  I had a little bit of almost everything from the dessert bar.  Particularly not forgetting their chocolate fondue!  In every bite, I could just imagine my blood sugar shooting up! I got some sugar free mango sago to lessen the guilty feeling! hehehe! As if it would help lower down my blood sugar! Oh well. Fine, I was a bad girl that night! But I hope you understand that it’s soooo hard to resist those goodies!

I started out the main entrees after finishing up my peach mango crepe and alternately having a taste of some of the other desserts.   They featured more dimsum this time.  They served fried ones besides the steamed ones.  Of course, I got some of their never-to-be-missed tempura.  They also served some seafood thai noodles which I really really loved and even got a second helping of!   It was also my first time to taste an octupus.  It tasted good actually, more like the taste of squid.  I also took advantage of tasting their different kinds of grilled sausages.  I just had a major boo-boo of getting one of their spicy mustard sauce.  Good thing I had some panacotta to take the spicy and tangy taste off my tongue.

I wasn’t really able to take a lot of pictures since I was really getting frustrated at taking pictures inside a room with subdued lighting.  I couldn’t seem to get some nice shots and were getting a lot of blurs and pictures with lots of noises.  I just enjoyed the night, spending quality time with my hunnie while enjoying the delectable dishes that Paseo Uno has consistently been offering.

I just can’t get over this girl’s voice!  It’s another weepy morning for me after watching her videos.  This little angel has got the sweetest voice!  If you loved her short rendition of somewhere over the rainbow, wait till you hear her sing the whole song!!! Her voice is soooo amazing!

connie talbot

Here’s an orchid picture gallery of some pictures I took last Sunday when me and my family went swimming.  The place was full of orchids and other plants and I just had the urge to capture some photos.  I think some of my relatives think I’m weird.  One of my tita’s called out when I was engrossingly taking picture, “huy, anong ginagawa mo dyan?”  I just answered, “Wala, nagpi-picture lang ng langgam sa bulaklak!” Hehe!