deviating from the "foodie" blog plan and letting fashion take over. for now, at least.

well, my excuse is, I have a wedding to attend, and I'd be the bridesmaid of my childhood friend Aileen. this wedding is big deal, not only because Aileen has been one of the closest people to me but also coz this is the first wedding amongst my grade school circle of friends.

so, I took to Polyvore.com and created a few sets. yep, I spent days looking for the styles of dresses and spent my whole Saturday picking out the top two. i want something I can still use as cocktail dress for other events. yep, versatility is the name of the game, thats why I got these designs.

the theme is teal and Aileen has already given us the fabrics for the dresses. Can you help me decide which look is best?

Aileen's Wedding by sheenalogy featuring christian louboutin pumps

Badgley Mischka Platinum Label teal pleated georgette strapless dress
$264 - bluefly.com
Short evening dresses »

VERY-PRIVE-120 - PATENT PEEP TOE PUMP FOOTWEAR
$795 - footcandyshoes.com
Christian louboutin pumps »

Nadri Tiered Chandelier Earrings
$138 - nordstrom.com
Chandelier earrings »

Kate Hudson - Golden Globes 2010 Red Carpet | kate hudson golden...
justjared.buzznet.com

rafe+clutch.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x375 pixels)
sbeulah.onsugar.com

Aileen's Wedding by sheenalogy featuring slip on shoes

Powder Beige Soft Matte
$650 - mulberry.com
Slip on shoes »

Piaget Limelight Cocktail Rings (Photos) - Luxist
luxist.com
Cocktail ring »

Alice + Olivia > All Alice+Olivia > Alice + Olivia Cleo Strapless...
singer22.com

Recommended Links
paulineforster.com

this blog is being pushed as a food blog by many friends

however, I lack the right tools to transform this space into something pretty.

people get bored by words. it doesnt take almost a year of experience in the field of Communications to actually understand that readers love VISUALS.

so what entries do I owe you?

1. whatever happened to the search for Metro Manila's best five-star hotel cappuccino ?
2. the search for the perfect office desk accessory 
3. the art of drinking tea (as per officemates' request to rename this blog as "Ang Tea Bag at Ako")
4. my cubicle-mates' quest to taste each of the 25 desserts dubbed as Philippine's finest by Philippine Daily Inquirer.
5. the Yakimix/Ongpin adventure pics.
6. I also owe my high school bff the honor to chocolate-trip around Makati one time.

Yep.

Now that I laid down my lofty plans, I can see what form my blog is shaping--indeed, a food blog.

Comfort food

Cheese pasta

I'm not a chef nor a foodie and I'm a newbie cook, but I try to cook whatever (kahit pritong itlog or hotdog!) whenever strong emotions take hold of me. I find the repetitive strokes performed when cooking (stirring, flipping stuff, kneading, etc) extremely comforting. To my dismay, I came home to an empty fridge, empty cupboard and empty pots and pans. Well, everyone at home's been busy, and people have been taking their meals outside.

But I simply had to make something. Anything that would take my mind off a lot of things.

Cheese Pasta

1/2 kilo spaghetti noodles
half a stick of butter
a big bar of Quickmelt cheese
an egg
chili powder
salt
1 tbsp olive oil

I cooked the noodles as per package instructions. I saved a cup of the noodle broth. In the same pot, I put in olive oil and stirred in the noodles. I let the butter melt in, and I stirred in the cheese. Then I put in the noodle broth. Then I stirred in the egg. I let the egg coat strands and strands of the noodles. I watched the strands thicken with cheese, broth, and egg. I seasoned it with chili powder and salt.

I served it to my family just in time for midnight snack.

It was superb. I read a recipe of this in Smitten Kitchen, but that one calls for parmesan, and I dont have that at home right now. But this was hearty, nonetheless.

I had a bowl. It was comforting.

I just hope it is enough to get me through this night. This time to give comfort to others :)

Yes, my job is to Facebook, but I also have things to do aside from that.

My office desk. THE HALF OF IT.

The reason why this blog is not regularly updated.

what got me anaphylactic

well, almost.

i belong to a sub-minority of the world population: seafood allergics, and i am specifically allergic to crustaceans.

but today was the day that several house-help of ours came back from a long vacation--that alone is reason to celebrate, because, as previously mentioned, the turn-over of house-employees here is very, very fast.

they brought home LOBSTERS.

I simply had to take a bite. My dad insisted on cracking them lobsters open for me. I helped him and my fingers got pricked by antlers.

Lobster shells. ARGH. SO. @!$#%$ ITCHY. MY. HANDS ARE. COZ OF THESE THINGS.

And because I wanted to entertain myself (because lots of things have been happening and I needed to do something "creative"), I threw the lobsters in a pan, sauteed it with minced garlic, spanish paprika, chili flakes and butter.

I had three tiny pieces. oh. that creamy, buttery, fiery-spicy goodness.

that does not look appetizing at all, but believe me, it was HEAVEN. at least for someone who doesn't eat crustaceans often (well, I do, when my parents aren't around)

 
after which, my hands and face swelled. my torso was blotched with red marks. i was scratching my whole body. my tongue felt thick. my heart was racing, and i was starting to feel light-headed and hot. so i washed my hands and everything that had contact with lobster.

then coz she was really scared and really panicky, my mom reached into the freezer and fed me:

yes, a tub. and tons and tons and tons of water.

ah. my allergies have now subsided. well, hello, diabetes. nice to meet you! :P

i therefore recommend the following:

• I am no chef, but say yes to this little something i whipped in a whirl: lobster+garlic+butter/olive oil+spanish paprika+chili flakes= Langosta al ajillo. I was craving for gambas al ajillo but since what we had in the kitchen was lobster......well, kinda like gambas, but gambas is "prawns" in spanish. "langosta" is lobster. :) 
• Say yes to eating anything you're allergic to, complain to your mom/husband/wife/bf/gf that you're short of breath, then tell them you need something sweet (how cruel, how manipulative!); chances are they'd give you tons of yummy sweet stuff. (not that I asked for THE TUB, but Mom insisted).
• Second bullet's a joke :) Stay away from your known allergens!! Carry with you your prescribed antihistamines/epinephrine pen shots at all times.
• Sweets aren't an antidote for allergies. I don't know what the hell happened but I was ok after the ice cream and the water. Or, maybe tonight, its the H2O, but i'm not sure. It has always been like that: mom feeds me with spoonfuls of sugar/candies whenever I accidentally ingest things I'm allergic to.

i'm currently down to 1/4 of the ice cream. hey, I'm not complaining. I am just. so. umay.

because taxi drivers were refusing to take me home

...I had to kill time, till it was past rush hour. I had to make them desperate to get passengers, to the point where they'd stop and ask if I want to ride or not (which often happens when you aren't in a hurry to go somewhere, or when you aren't in the mood to take a cab, or when you don't  have enough money to ride in one anyways).


Opposite my cab-hailing spot was Teriyaki Boy, better known as oh-the-Japanese-fast-food-chain-a-notch-higher-than-Tokyo-Tokyo. It was post-work out and I know I was gonna ruin my diet, but I was in the mood to splurge on ANYTHING given the fact that I haven't entertained myself in weeks and I thought I deserve to have a little treat, so I went inside and ordered Teriyaki Boy Chicken Ju. 

3 chopstick-bites later, I got tired of my chicken and saw something curious:

I needed something different. It came in the form of this thing.

It says in the caption,

Macha Ice Cream: A classic Japanese ice cream with our own twist. Premium green tea ice cream with crunchy tempura flakes on the side. P78.

As you may well know, I am a tea addict. Specifically, green-tea addict. There was a time I went temporarily blind for...an hour, because of too much tea (aka too much stimulation/BP elevation/blockage of the arteries in the eyes). So this was something very interesting, given the fact that well,

• it had tempura flakes
• its green tea ice cream, something not available in my nearby Mini-Stop
• it is from Teriyaki Boy, which is very commercial, and now they're offering something...different. and healthy. 

And so I ordered.

Pretty: like a green jade ball nestled on a bed of crushed pearl.

It looks like an avocado ice cream, yes? Since my office cam phone was too low-tech to capture that pretty verdant decadence, I should now tell you that it looked leafy green.

So I had my first spoonful.

• I tasted that certain leafy-ness typical of green tea minus the overt bitterness, but it was most subtle. And it was pleasing that way.

• Its sweetness was not overpowering, light in texture and taste. Its texture borders that of Gelatissimo's offerings and classic sorbet. This is perfect for people who get "umay" easily; also for people who'd rather take their green tea in morphed forms (green tea frappe-lovers, ganyan).

It tasted like EBI TEMPURA at first, so it was quite a shock when it actually turned out to be palatable when combined with the ice cream. If Teriyaki Boy would continue to sell this, they should fry separately the tempura flakes for their green tea ice cream.

But what the ice cream lacks in fat (given that its "green tea" daw), it makes up for in the oily tempura flakes.

• However, the crunch of tempura flakes goes well with the creaminess of the concoction. It was quite surprising, actually: usually, the crunch of a cold sweet treat, such as ice cream--comes from nuts, or for frozen yogurt--cereals. With this one, from tempura flakes--batter-y, salty, crunchy. Eaten together, it is like eating fried bread with cream ala-North Park, albeit cold. Like a cold, creamy donut. :)

Light.

This might not get liked instantly by many, but it is one of those treats which you acquire a taste for.

Ano beh P78 na nga lang eh! Plus its Arce Dairy. I asked ate waitress if it was exclusively made for Teriyaki Boy. She said the ice cream is available in the market, and they just tied-up with Arce Dairy.

Those pictures are taken by moi, thanks to my hand-me-down low-tech 2.0 megapixel cam-phone.

you cannot deny what you need when you find yourself googling this at 2:08 in the morning

No, I am not sad. I am just really tired.

• No, I am not about to post my repertoire of misery. That would be losing the point of making this into an interesting blog (interesing is equal to not spilling the contents of your emotional grocery bag in public: life's lemons, sour-grapes, apples-of-ones'-blind-eyes [might be an exception], salty tears, blood, sweat). 
• A lot of things have been going on lately and I haven't found the time nor that spark of creativity plug, so its been quiet here. 
• And I need a real human hug, it has been so long (I've let at least 2 months pass by without a tight hug, OH MY GOODNESS that is so not right) and since there's no human in sight (well, within 10 meter radius, at least), I had the craziest idea to find myself  a HUG MACHINE. Or build myself one. Yes. At TWO IN THE MORNING.

So I typed that thing there in Google and I found this.

No, that is not something from FunnyorDie.com nor from any of those joke sites. There, my friend, is the LEGIT THING: it is from Carnegie Mellon University. Yes, the Ivy League.

Apparently, this is the thing that I've only heard from my NCLEX reviews (yes back when I still had dreams of pursuing Psychiatric Nursing full-time [oh, you didn't know? Yep, I'm an RN. UST Nursing '07 but I'm in PR now]). This is for people with Autism. Helps calm them down, this Hug Machine does.

I got a whole lot of blog topics lined up. A shame I dont have much pics to go with them [EHEM CAMERA DONATIONS. EHEM.] Will write about them soon.

To drive my point home further (about my intense need for a hug [greater than the desire to open the fridge mid-dawn]), I even typed it into YouTube:

Oh, me and my intense fascination with the Windows 7 Sniping Tool made this possible.

And got this funny video:



Yes, even if I do not qualify as a "man", I'd take this any given day. Heck, I'd take any kind of hugs today. (Yes, ANY).