My MIL frequents Manaoag when HB and I were about to get married but this is the first time that I ever set foot on this church. From what I heard, this church always seemed to have so many people from all walks of life. I was fortunate enough not to witness this because I was not up to rubbing elbows with so many people in the scorching heat and not to mention, JX in tow.

I asked HB to take photo of this board for our reference so the next time we visit Our Lady of Manaoag, we will be able to hear mass there. And of course, to share these kind of information with you just in case, you’re scheduled to visit any time soon.

One of the things I look forward when I go to the North is eating this tupig. I discovered this several years ago on a trip. We were hungry that time and peddlers were constantly bugging us to buy this pack of leaves when our car stops because of the traffic. And so, I gave in since it was only P10/ pak. From then on, I always keep my eyes open whenever we passby Pangasinan area for this delicacies of theirs. My MIL knew where to buy the just cooked tupik…at the back (or side) of the Manaoag church. At P2 a piece, we bought P100 (less than $3) worth of tupig. What is tupig? Tupig is one of Pangasinan’s native delicacies made from grated coconut, glutinous rice (malagkit) and sugar wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over a live charcoal or heated metal ( a little bit high tech :)). The banana leaves when heated definitely added flavor to the tupig. How I loved this treat because it makes me full with an affordable price! I think the next time my MIL will buy the tupig, she would double the quantity as she saw competition is just near.

Did you noticed that I love rice treats (kakanin)?  Well, I’m sure you did because this is another rice treat that we discovered.  The glutinous rice was cooked inside the bamboo.  Our usual suman treat is wrapped in banana leaves so this one was an interesting treat.  The bamboo and the coconut cream made the suman very fragrant that made us very curious.  Good thing, we had brought our own utensils that enabled us to dig in.  This treat was not sweet so we had to put Splenda (the only available sweetener we had) sweetener.  Yummy!  This can be found along Bolinao’s church zone.  Sold for 3-4 bamboos for P100.

Another rice treat AD was looking forward was devouring puto and kutsinta.  Both are also made from glutinous rice (or flour) and sugar with different ingredients for each.  We made sure that we would passby Calasiao just for this even we were already running late.  We knew that Calasiao had the best puto and we just have to make AD happy.  What surprised us was there was a lot of stalls selling the puto and kutsinta!  As in, every ladies in the stall were calling and catching my attention as I got out of the car.  I panicked!  Oh no!  Who do I choose?  The puto and kutsinta all looked the same!  I just trusted my instinct and chose the stall with the name, Remy.  She even asked me if I wanted my kutsinta made from white or brown sugar.  Of course, I chose the kutsinta made from the latter.  More healthy, don’t you think?  One thing that surprised me was that they were selling the puto and kutsinta on a per kilo basis since what we usually buy in Manila are per brown bag which only contain around 20-25 pcs of small puto or kutsinta.  I think you can buy half kilos of each.  1 kilo cost P60 (around $1.50/kilo.  They even posted a notice that because of the rice increase, they had to increase the price from P50 to P60).  I do hope the next time I go to Calasiao, puto and kutsinta would still be wallet friendly.  We finished half kilo of puto and kutsinta in less than 30 minutes.  We were 4 + 1 (AD who is almost like an adult when it comes to eating).  Pardon for the absence of photos.  I will post once I’ve found it.

Related Posts by HB:

Bolinao, Pangasinan: Where Else to Stay and What to do

YOU ARE INVITED TO….

CHOCOLATE CLOTHING’S

WAREHOUSE SALE!

It’s no big secret that we have the BEST WAREHOUSE SALES so this is another delicious Chocolate warehouse sale you won’t want to miss!!

WE HONORED YOUR REQUESTS TO MAKE THE SALE MORE ACCESSIBLE!!!

THIS TIME OUR FAMOUS WAREHOUSE SALE WILL BE HELD IN THE

ORTIGAS AREA…

GROUND FLOOR, PACIFIC PLACE

PEARL DRIVE, ORTIGAS CENTER

PASIG CITY.

(beside TEKTITE TOWERS, see directional sketch above, there’s plenty of parking areas too!)

50-70% OFF… great GRAB Jeans, beautiful dresses, party tops, fun and sexy swimwear, cool accessories, trendy tees… and more! and in case you’re wondering we have men’s clothes, children’s clothes and havaianas on sale too! so better hurry and plan your shopping trip… bring your family, bring your friends there’s something for everyone…as you know we serve yummy cakes, refreshments, coffee and tea for everyone!

This is too great sale to keep a secret!

so pass this on to everyone looking for great deals!

SALE DATE IS ON

May 28 to June 1, 2008.

May 28-30 (Wed-Fri) 8am - 9pm

May 31 & June 1 (Sat-Sun) 11am - 7pm

Credit Cards and EPS accepted!

for more information please call 643-4331, 643-6993/4, 637-9638, 633-5390, 637-5172

A 1st for my HB but not a first for me! hahaha Pardon me for being proud of that because this is one of the few that I get ahead of him!

I got my first PepperLunch experience in Singapore! Yahoo! But I got this humiliating story to tell (at least for me)…

It was August 2005 when we went to Singapore. I’ve mentally bookmarked PepperLunch, a must-go place. It was only me and AD while HB was at work. I forgot what mall PL was.  Anyway, the line was not long so I guess PL opened months ago.  And so, there I was, standing and trying to figure what to order.  To cut the long story short, I ordered Beef Pepper rice.  While waiting, I read the instructions on how to cook the meal.  So, I mentally told myself I want to try to mix the 2 (I think) sauce on my meal.  Since I was alone with AD, my concentration was divided.  I have to look after AD to ensure he doesn’t get troubled with the other customers.  1-year old babies are cute but still needs to be looked after.  Anyway, I started to eat my meal until there was nothing left on my hot plate.  Alas!  I didn’t use any of the sauce.  That’s why, I didn’t like the taste of my food while I was eating!  I totally forgot to put the sauce!  Argh!  Silly me!  And that’s my story…

I didn’t noticed Singapore’s selection of salad back then. Have you eaten at Singapore’s PL?  Did they have salads there?  We got the Seaweed and Spicy Tuna salad. What made the salad interesting was the miki-like noodle. The noodle added texture to the salad that made it more interesting for me.

We got the Beef Pepper rice, Cut Steak and Hamburger combo meal and Salmon Pepper rice.  I love the food!  We love the hamburger with its special onion sauce.  Better ask for it since they don’t give it out when you order the combo meal.  The key to a tasty Pepperlunch is the sauce so put lotsa lotsa sauce!  I also love their rice which is Japanese rice, by the way.  It was only after eating that I got to know that they ensure consistency in cooking.  Actually, in everything!  They had this rice robot that wash, measure the rice and waster before they place it in a net then into the rice cooker.  This way, they always have the same kind of rice served to their customers.  Their cast iron plate was heavy too!  This ensures heat retention and other details that makes you realize that they’ve put a lot of thought on this kind of DIY.  And oh, they have to heat up all the cast iron plate to 270 degrees before they remove and serve it with the food.  Don’t worry, no need to wait that long because it is only a matter of seconds before it is ready.

The only thing that I didn’t like was some of the vegetables were not fresh.  Only, the bean sprouts and greens were from Manila while all others were shipped in can.  Hopefully, they would get some ingredients that are available here in Manila.  I know, they need to have a consistent suppliers of the ingredients.  I’m sure there are lots of vegetable dealers out there willing to supply PL.

These 2 desserts were a hit for me!  I love love the molten milk chocolate and the vanilla crepe cake which Chef Joren created just for PL Manila.  He made sure that the desserts are in line with PL and hopefully, other PL would follow his suit.  The molten chocolate cake was warm when served to us.  The chocolate was simply irresistable, not too mild  and not too strong.  It definitely sealed my stomach.  It was definitely a yummy lunch!  But Chef Joren made us try the vanilla crepe cake which caught my eye but decided not to get it because it was too much for us already.  Good thing, we did!  Coined from the name, the crepe were put on top of the other and in between was a creme filling that was thinly spread like how the crepe was made.  It wouldn’t really matter if it had tons of calories on it.  I felt lighter when the piece of cake was in my mouth.  I don’t know why but it really did.  That’s why I almost had the slice all to myself.

Just playing around when it was drizzling. AD had fun with his violet umbrella while I, with my white umbrella.

Light to carry while it needs a little push for the umbrella to open its wings to protect you from getting wet.  Do not forget — this is not to protect you from Mr. Sun.

Genki Umbrella available at National Bookstore, Market! Market! and Ministop for only P99 each. Available colors are white, pink and violet.

Okay, class. This is the menu for the day. You may choose the meat you crave for and the way you would like your meat to be cooked. This is Purple Feet’s freestyle cooking. A unique experience that caught me by surprise. What?! I wasn’t able to properly gather my thoughts (I got nervous hahaha) thus, a boring lengua meal was in front of me. Sad but I got over it immediately because of my experience with Chef Ed Quimson. Yes! I was rewarded in no time.

(more…)

Nowadays, one of our requirement when scouting for a place to eat is the FREE WiFI sign aside from being a new kid on the block restaurant. And this is how we were able to dine here…

Oh, this you gotta try! Fresh out from the oven. Tender and juicy. We love it!

The sauce was gone before the chicken did. HB super liked it. We’ll just ask him what the sauce taste like because I didn’t have the time to really dissect it.  I know it was kinda spicy and that’s all.

Steak & Mushroom Pie. One of the bestseller in the house but it failed to be on mine. It gives you an illusion that it was full because of the crust cover. In fairness, I liked how the crust was baked. It was a soft crust and easily removed from the bowl. The beef was soft but it didn’t have THE flavor nor did the soup. We finished it all but I was not happy with it.

Since we loved the chicken dish, maybe will give this another try next time…*wink* *wink* *FREE WiFI*