Family archive at blog.chesca.net

Archive for the 'Family' Category

16MarPapi’s 50th

I’d like to remember my dad’s 50th birthday in (food) pictures.

The night of his birthday, we had our family dinner at Emerald Garden in Roxas Boulevard which is one of his favorite restaurants. No meat for us since it was a Friday. Although I think we defeated the purpose of abstinence, that is to have some form of sacrifice, because the food was just delicious. lol.

Some food shots below. (Thanks pictobrowser for this nifty slideshow application. ) Go ahead and click on the picture to see the next one.

The following night we had another family dinner - this time in our home with our relatives. My mom cooked her specialty, Kare-kare, which I think is the best version ever. My brother also whipped up his version of Baked Chicken with Tomato and Basil that turned out really good.

It was an amazing week for him. I think he had 5 birthday parties that week - 2 with the family and 3 from his friends and colleagues. All these people wanting to celebrate his birthday - this just shows how loved he is by people whose lives he had touched. I’m truly blessed to have him as my dad. Happy birthday Papi! Love you! (xoxo from your favorite daughter )

in Family, Food and Photos. 0 Comments

07MarColour like.no.other

I was randomly searching for more info about Jose Gonzalez’ Heartbeats (my current LSS. see the post before this) when I stumbled upon this amazing and colourful Sony Bravia ad in youtube. I didn’t know about this until today. I know! I’ve been living under a rock. I’m not quite sure if this was shown here in the Philippines, but if it was, I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it anyway because I barely watch TV. lol

I could watch this video forever. I like that after the clip, you get to see the behind-the-scenes of making the commercial. The soothing and calming scenes of tiny colourful (haha I’m spelling like the Brits now ) balls bouncing slowly down the streets of San Francisco, is very different from the noisy and not to mention, potentially damaging actual shoot. You could hear that ‘thud’ as the balls hit the parked cars and also the car alarms as they go off. Yikes! One of my favorite parts would be that frog jumping out of a pipe. I like noticing tiny details.

Click here to be directed to the official Sony Bravia site.

Play doh!

Wow! So the creative geniuses in Sony produced a follow-up commercial. This time they used colourful play-doh molded bunnies and stop-motion. Again, it blew me away! Imagine the effort they all put in making the ad (they didn’t use CG!).

I’m pretty sure that Sony Bravia sales shoot up, thanks to these ads. They’re pretty effective, imho. And if only I have the means, I’d probably buy an LCD TV. (I wish! lol)

[EDIT] The Pyramid Ad [/EDIT]

Thanks Way and Maws for letting me know about this Asian Bravia ad.

Brilliant beyond words!

* * *

50!

To the sweetest dad in the world, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We have a surprise for you this evening (part of which, I’m making right now) but you wouldn’t know because you don’t read my blog. lol. Love you! xoxo.

in Family, TV, Video and Web. 4 Comments

13Feb99 red balloons floating in the summer sky

Though the balloons weren’t only in red but in yellow, green, blue and even in rainbow colors. I’m talking about the recently held 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival at Clark Field, Pampanga which I attended last Sunday. It was my first time to be part of such event. I tell you, the experience was surreal.. riding one of ‘em balloons. I want to do it again.

My favorite among the bunch:

The Octopus balloon is too cute! Too bad I wasn’t able to take a front shot. I also like the rainbow balloon because rainbow colors make me happy.

More pictures in my multiply.

Special thanks and shout-outs go to: Nhatz for letting me know about this event. My family of course, for giving in to my ~~pangungulit~~ request of driving all the way to Pampanga to attend the balloon festival. Tito Manny and his family for accommodating and feeding us heftily. Food was AWESOME! We were stuffed to the brim.

We had Shrimp with chopped beans in gata (on the left) and Crispy Pata (on the right). There’s also Steak and Ripe Mangoes which I wasn’t able to take pictures of because I was too busy eating haha!

Last but certainly not least, Tita Beth THANK YOU for the passes. Without which, we won’t be able to go “backstage” and ride the balloon (Gulfair balloon FTW!).

I rode that balloon!

‘Til next year! Hopefully by then, my lenses would have improved lol.

X’s: This is me, looking badass hah!

in Family, Food, Friends, Photos and Travel. 0 Comments

04FebPicturing food: Turning Japanese

There are occasions when I do not bring a camera when going out. So whenever a photo opportunity arises, I have no choice but to take pictures using my phone’s built in camera.
Below are a few pictures taken with my trusty W700i. I was only able to upload them now as I do not regularly transfer pictures to my PC.

Okonomiyaki at Little Tokyo

Taken last October 2, 2007.
It was Bigi who introduced this place to us. Since he has this amazing ability of making us instantly crave for the food he describes in full detail, we (Franny, Bigi and I) decided one lunch time to head over Little Tokyo in Pasong Tamo Makati to have a taste of this so-called Japanese Pizza. Now, Japanese cuisine is definitely my favorite — the sushis, teriyakis, tempuras, sobas, ramens. I so can’t believe I haven’t come across an okonomiyaki dish ever. And I’m very happy that my first encounter with the dish was a delight. The okonomiyaki is basically made up of eggs, chopped meat and vegetables (Unfortunately, I cannot enumerate what we had in our order because it was a long time ago and I already forgot. lolz ) All I remember was that ours was cooked perfectly. For me, what made it more delicious was the okonomiyaki sauce and the added flavor of this green powdery stuff (I found out later on that this is dried seaweed). So thanks Bigi for bringing us to this place. I would definitely go back and bring my family here.

***

Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak at Trinoma

About 3 Sundays ago, my family went to Trinoma to check the place out (first time for us! ) . Part of the plan was also to have dinner. We searched around for good places to eat but we couldn’t unanimously decide on what to choose. We were walking for quite a while and were getting hungry by the minute. Since I’ve read good things about Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak (via our the Project’s Newsletter), I suggested eating there.

We scanned the menu which by the way was laid out well (the pictures were really enticing) and decided to have the Gyu Saikoro Burger Steak, Teriyaki Chicken Steak, US Yakiniku Steak, Beef Papper Rice, Wafu Steak and Hamburg, Chicken Salad, Corn Soup and Tamago Soup.

Unfortunately, the food only looked good in pictures and didn’t live up to expectations. (No offense Bigi.. Probably my fault too because I set my expectations way high haha.) The salad = mayonnaise overload. The Gyu Saikoro Burger Steak tasted like it was stored in the freezer for so long. The chicken teriyaki was undercooked (had to return it to have the plates reheated). I also remember my dad returning the Yakiniku and the Wafu Steak and Hamburg because they weren’t cooked well. We were really disappointed. Even the corn and tamago soup were so-so. The only saving grace for me is the Strawberry shake. And that’s only because I like strawberries. Bigi said that I should’ve tried the Beef Pepper Rice. Well, maybe next time. But I doubt if we’d ever go back. We should’ve just waited for the real deal (Pepper Lunch..coming soon!).

***

Kimpura, Greenhills

One of those ‘spur of the moment’ dinners we had. Last Saturday, after hearing Mass, we initially planned on having dinner at The Old Spaghetti House. But when we’re already in Ortigas, my brother suggested eating at Peri Peri Chicken. When we’ve already parked our car, my mom saw Kimpura and said she’s kinda in the mood for Japanese. Because we haven’t tried that restaurant yet and my dad couldn’t really resist my mom, we went straight to Kimpura. We had a wonderful time at this place. We stayed in a private room (you need to pay extra but when you reach P3000, there’d be no additional charge!) so our family got a chance to bond sans the shoes.

The service was good. Waiters were prompt and food was served on time. And everything is delicious! I especially like their salmon and tamago sashimi and gindara teriyaki. I would have ordered a lot, if only they weren’t too pricy. I won’t go into details about the food. Let the pictures tell you how yummy the food in Kimpura is (which, according to the waiter, they’ve been serving for more than 30 years).

house tea

sushi sauce in cute fish saucers

yummy~

tempura and at the back is the gindara teriyaki

Papi’s bowl of seafood ramen

a serving wasn’t enough, so we had another order of chicken teriyaki

tonkatsu

yakisoba

empty plates lolz.

in Family, Food, Friends and Photos. 2 Comments

27JanNew Year’s in Baguio

Chalet Tepeyac at Night

the gang ;)

To view the whole set, visit my multiply.

in Family, Photos and Travel. 0 Comments

18NovBaguio + Halloween

Baguio with the family. All sorts of pictures here.

***

held last Nov 8 @ Warehouse 135
theme: Very Highschool
more pictures here.

in Family, Holidays, Photos, Travel and Work. 0 Comments

02NovUndas 2007

Every Nov 1st, our family would go to Calumpit, Bulacan to see our relatives and visit the panchon to offer prayers to our departed loved ones. I don’t think I ever blogged about this so I’m doing it now—complete with visuals. (yay!)

The menu would always consist of: 1) longganisa calumpit, grilled fish (dalag and hito), veggies (boiled okra, eggplant and winged beans aka sigarilyas), buro and a menudo-like dish.

I also noticed that every year, they upgrade their sari-sari store. I remember years ago it was just a small tindahan. But know I’m amazed at the variety of things they sell. They even have this videogame booth thingy were you need to drop P1 coins to play.

Every nook and cranny has paninda.

Lola (I’m not sure tho if she’s a relative.) watches over the store. I’m sure she was very happy because my brothers, cousins and titos bought lots of junkfood.

Yo takes a picture of me while I take a picture of him

Jaybo doesn’t like his picture taken. (KJ)

I went outside to take more pictures.

More and more pictures.

After everyone had eaten lunch, we went to the panchon were we lit candles and said our prayers.

Black, Pink. Pink, Black.
(go figure )

We also take pictures of this particular tomb every year. His wife is in Texas and can’t have yearly visits so we just send her pictures while she sends us $ to buy flowers.

Because business-minded pinoys take advantage of occasions such as this, stalls and food stands are everywhere.

On our way back, I saw tita and my baby cousin so I also took pictures of them. (I also take advantage of occasions such as this to take pictures. hah!)

Super cute!

After Calumpit we also went to Sta. Maria, Bulacan to visit our relatives on my Mom’s side. No pictures were taken because I was already tired and busog. Aside from taking lots of pictures, I also ate lots. Today alone, I think gained 10 lbs. Lolz.

The end.

All pictures are at my flickr site

in Family, Holidays and Photos. 0 Comments

31Octmove over Col. Sanders ;)

I was in hurry to go home a while ago because it was almost 8 and my family hasn’t eaten yet. I’m in charge of dinner so there’s no food on the table aside from the pinakbet that my younger brothers swore not to touch. It was almost 9pm when I arrived. I removed my shoes, put on my slippers and dashed to the kitchen to begin my cooking. 20 minutes and 10 million shots later, food was served.

They may look like a bunch of brown rocks but they’re really deep fried chicken - my version of KFC’s ® funshots (it wasn’t spicy enough to be called Hotshots). Since I don’t have the recipe for the gravy, I "cheated" and asked my brother to buy 2 large cups from KFC.

My family loved it. But of course! This was made with love~

My youngest brother, Justin told me he likes it better than KFC because the chicken’s tenderer. My mom couldn’t agree more. I’m one happy cook!

in Cooking, Family, Food and Photos. 1 Comment

30OctHelga’s First Shots

I just realized that Helga has the same birthday as my mom.

Continue reading ‘Helga’s First Shots’

in Cooking, Family, Food, Photos and Work. 1 Comment

03JunMissing Heroes and House

I miss having my daily TV show marathon. Back in the days when my schedule wasn’t as tight, I used to watch an episode or two with my brothers before going to sleep. We’re already a bunch of episodes behind two of our favorite shows—Heroes and House MD.

I kinda cheated with Heroes though – I went ahead and read the summary for each of the remaining five or so episodes. A weird thing about me is that I usually don’t mind reading spoilers and knowing who’ll be killed next. I like that I’m informed way ahead so I won’t get surprised.

What usually happens when I watch suspense is that I hide behind my pillow during intense scenes. I end up asking my brothers for a recap since I miss the most important parts of the show. Reading the spoilers prevents that from happening.

Of course, I have to keep my mouth shut the rest of the show. Otherwise, my brothers will throw pillows at me.

my fave Heroes character, Hiro

* * *

The chess nerd won!
In other news, my younger brother competed for the first time in the recent Milo Best Chess Tournament held at St. Francis Square Mandaluyong. That nerd* won third place. (*just a term of endearment ) Everyone here is celebrating. Don’t worry brother dear, next year, you’ll gonna beat the pants off those two.

in Daily insights and Family. 7 Comments