Today’s 中秋節, the Mid-Autumn Festival or more commonly known as the Mooncake festival to younger generations of Chinese descent. This is the time of the year when the Filipino-Chinese community are busy celebrating the festival by playing the famed dice-game.

Back in my younger/grade school days, we always play the dice game in school. But as we grew older, we didn’t get to play it anymore, but instead, we had alternative activities, such as painting contest, and other related contests and activities to celebrate the occasion.

Now that we’re already in college, in the UP Chinese Student Association,  this time of the year signals our annual event of Mooncake Dice game for both Filipinos and other interested people  and Chinese students to play the popular dice game and enjoy the culture.

Today, my Gua Ma came down from Dagupan to be with us in Manila. She brought us some Mooncake too. I love this time of the year because the supply of Mooncakes overflow — I just love to eat 月餅！

I was intrigued by this appetizing treat when I first saw it in Glorietta 4 food court. But because of some reason I have  already forgotten, I wasn’t able to buy and taste Funnel Cake Factory.

But some Sunday back, we saw this in Unimart, Greenhills. It’s a recent addition to the food stalls right before you enter the strip of stores from Unimart going to the V-Mall. I knew that that was the right time to convinced my parents to buy and taste this at long last.

We got the Caramel Almond and the Nutty Chocolate. Caramel Almond stands out, and is a winner — though I would love a scoop of my favorite vanilla ice cream melt on top of it. Yumm

Avril Lavigne is here in the Philippines for the 2008 “The Best Damn Tour” concert!

I won these lovely Upper A tickets from Titik Pilipino.
They arrived early this morning.

It’s okay for me to go to the concert,
but I opted to give it to Jason and Janelle instead.
I hope they enjoy! :3

So, who’s going later? :3

Dong Bei （東北水餃水） Restaurant
642 Yuchengco St (formerly Nueva) Binondo, Manila

After eating at McGeary for a late lunch in Binondo, the Foodista in me made me want to explore more, and look for some fab food finds.

When talking about Binondo, I am certain that food finds (most especially Chinese food) would not escape any conversation. There are really a lot of restaurants, which my parents are calling institutions already, that date way back (30 or more years of existence) from their high school years.

But with all of my more than 10 years of coming and going and visiting in Binondo, I have never heard of 東北 Dumplings. It was just until fellow food bloggers, like Arpee Lazaro, and others went on a Binondo food tour, did I get to hear about this restaurant. Thanks to Arpee, I was able to get directions going there a while ago.

I opted to purchase the uncooked pork and kutchay dumplings. One pack (30 pcs of dumplings) costs Php 200. I ordered 3 packs; little did I know, they have a *promo - buy a total of Php 600 dumplings, and get Php 700 worth of dumplings. (*I was able to get 105 pcs of dumplings for only Php 600. Not bad!)

Later that night, I cooked the dumplings as suggested by the very friendly serving staff of Dong Bei.

First, you have to boil water. When it’s already boiling, just put in the dumplings for five minutes. After 5 mins, you can take it out already, and you can now enjoy the tasty dumplings you’ve been wanting to devour.

I must admit, these dumplings are superb. I can’t wait to finish off these dumplings I bought. To the next food adventure!

My gua ma, grandmother in the mother’s side, recently went “down” from Dagupan and visited us here in Manila. She currently teaches Chinese in Dagupan. And since Dagupan, Pangasinan is famous for fresh seafood produce, what else could she bring home as pasalubong than Bangus (milkfish) and Hipon (shrimp) - lots and lots of it!

See photos of a big pile of shrip she brought to Manila for us to eat. If you think that’s a lot already, then you might want to reconsider. The real story behind this is that I forgot to take pictures of a bigger pile-load of shrimps (that’s why it’s that much left). We already devoured a similar pile with that plenty shrimps as well.

Aren’t they wonderful looking creatures?
Yes. Inside my stomach, that is!

Back from her recent trip, Kim, brought me back some Beijing Coke cans! They’re really nice!

Asian Dragon
together with TriNoma,

United International Pictures, and Solar Entertainment Corporation

invited people to an exclusive movie screening of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and a fashion show before the movie screening this Saturday afternoon. This is to raise awareness of the emerging Filipino-Chinese magazine about the Tsinoy community, and to promote TriNoma to the Tsinoy market.