Blanc & IRIE

If you're from Cebu, for sure you've heard of Blanc. It's an online magazine, basically a collision of fashion, arts and culture, from another perspective. Anyway, after a three-month long sabbatical from writing, I started again and contributed to the magazine by writing articles for them, one of which featuring Irie Gastropubliko. These are just some screenshots, the last two are of the articles I wrote. Just click the link below for the full issue!

The Survival of the Buttercream

Today my friends and I made last-minute plans to hang out and ended up in Talamban. We went to a friend's place and watched Bubble Boy which was my first time to see it, and all they could say was "you've never seen bubble boy??" Hahaha if I ever say the words "500 Dollars" again in my life, I'll never say it the same as I always have. After that, I had a super late lunch/first meal of the day and ate Ngohiong near school which I haven't had at all since summer started.

Adventures In Pixels

Some photos from the past month, phone photos that I just remembered existed, and photos that I'm posting up just because. Macarons, Quiche, Carbonara, Croque Monsieur at Macaron Tango Café, night out at I.T. Park, swimming at Casa Rosita, Milk Tea Mochiko, Nirvana milk tea at Bon Appetea, Purple Kush at Handuraw and other random photos.

One Sweet Adventure

Summer has come and it feels like it's going by so quickly. Must. Make. Every. Day. Count.

The other day, my friends and I had this craving for sweets. Since it's summer, going to Fudge, which is our usual place to get a sugar-fix, seemed too far. And plus, we wanted to try out something new, hence the adventure. We went to Dolce, which is a cafe up in Lahug, a bit farther from The Outpost. It had this all-white modern chic fusion atmosphere which I loved, but it gave this really high-class snob vibe, so braced myself and was well-prepared to spend maybe more than I usually would on cake, but to my relief, the prices weren't as expensive as I thought they were going to be. We ended up ordering a S'mores Cake, a slice of Green Tea Caramel Cake, No Sin Apple Oats shake, Coffee Espresso, and Spinach & Mushroom Quiche. I also brought home a slice of Red Velvet Cheesecake which was the best action my mouth has had since Big Bucks' *which is now no longer being sold :(* Cheesecake. So now, I'm predicting Dolce will become one of my favorite cafe's and sugar fix spots. Can't wait to go back soon!

View From The Bottom

And, I'm back! ;) My normal sleeping pattern has finally caught up with me, at last! I've been so doped on cough medicine for the past couple of days, I can't believe it's already been five days since I left San Remigio. So to keep you all up to speed, I was at an Archaeological Field School the past week and I got back last wednesday. I'm going to have to keep this really short since my bed and 4-hour routine prescription of cough syrup isn't letting me stay awake. To wrap this up, I've learned a lot from field school, also got a ridiculous tan which I'm hoping to even out soon. 

Recent Foodventures

I'm baaaaaack! And it's finally summer!! I am so excited to catch loads of z's and absolutely looking forward to our excavation (i'm majoring in Archaeology) which in two days! And it'll be for about two-weeks, more or less, so I won't be posting anything in two weeks but as soon as i get back, I am going to put up photos :) So lately I've been to Sumo Sam, Spice Fusion, Á Café and Seattle's Best. Sumo Sam made me wish I had two stomachs. Spice Fusion had the best fruity tea drinks that are so summer proper.  Á Café, best Turkey sandwich ever, which I didn't order for myself but it was absolutely delicious. Seattle's Best at the moment has my vote for the best Chai Tea Latte. Also there's this upcoming tea place, near Ayala Center Cebu, called Bon Appetea. I'm not quite sure if they've opened already but it'll probably be very soon, or at least I'm hoping! haha. 

You Cook, You Eat, You Pay

These photos are from the other week. We went to Yakiniku Tajimaya at Crossroads for dinner because it was my papa's birthday! Originally, we had planned to go to this taiwanese shabu-shabu place near Ayala, but it was packed when we got there so my parents suggested we go to Yakiniku instead. It was a new experience, having to go to a restaurant and actually cook your own food. Similar to shabu-shabu places, you cook your own food too, but most of it's (shabu-shabu) already half-cooked and all you need is to let it simmer in the broth. At Yakiniku, you grill your own food-- charcoal barquettes, of course. You're probably getting this image in your mind of Larsian, where it's all smokey and foggy hahaha that's what I had originally expected too, but they used charcoal, instead of the usual "uling" which is typically used for bbqs in the Philippines. It took us a couple of orders to get the grilling thing right, so if you, dear reader, plan on going to Yakiniku, here are some tips I've thought of:

Sweet Little Things

So the other day on my way home, I passed by this Chinese restaurant and right next to it was this little shop that caught my attention, and the next day, I brought my friends with me and we went after school. Sweet Little Things is this little pastry shop, and they specialize in cupcakes! (Hahaha this is probably the ummteenth post I've had about cupcakes) We ordered Cinful Apple, Red Velvet, and my favorite, Lemon Poppyseed-- just the right amount of zest balanced out with buttery icing, so yummy, it was like my heart melted. Also bought home a Blueberry Crumble and Cookies & Cream for my mum and sissy :) *Aaaand the coffee they serve is from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf*

Five-Nation Foodpocalypse

Had so much food over the weekend-- and these were only from Saturday! My papa, sister, and her boyf picked me up from class and we went to Joed's Lutong Hapon for lunch. Awesome japanese food (but they had Kimchi on the menu, which I'm pretty sure is Korean >.<) at an awesome price. We ordered so much for four people, we were so stuffed after and the bill didn't even make it to a thousand pesos. Sulit ;) For dessert, we went to Macaron Tango Café and chilled for a while, before going home. I had a Mango/Vanilla Macaron; the color's very tweety-birdish ;)  I usually get my macarons at Vanille, so when we got to the café, I felt very nostalgic about my first macaron, which I bought there about one or two summers ago. I'm definitely going back for more *wink And! they also had these necklaces with macarons as pendants-- so adorable! We also ordered Canelés de Bordeaux; the chef, Remi Lastere, who was very friendly I might add, came up to our table, and shared to us that Canelés were his specialty. My papa even wants to go back for more :)) For dinner, Ally and I went to our friend's 18th Debut Party, which was absolutely last minute, and we didn't expect it to be so fancy *we felt so under-dressed :( Had lots of Lengua and Paella; personal favorite combo. Explored Casino Español a bit, then went to I.T. Park afterwards with John. We had originally planned to go to La Marea, but of course, since it was a saturday, it was full. So plan b, McDonald's! Had coke floats, fries, made fun of John's forehead *and our friend Carlo came by too. It was such a fun day, I'm having high hopes for this weekend! ;)

Guitar World? More Like Guitar Heaven

Happy TGIF! So it's friday, and the weekend is coming up (duh) and I absolutely cannot wait to catch up on some sleepy time. It's been one hell of a week, but as I had hoped, not all of it was bad ;) We went to Guitar World! (And by we, I mean my friends >.<) It's near our University, and I pass by it all the time, to and from school. *Okay so a little background for most of you who don't know, I had guitar lessons when I was in the sixth grade, and I stopped right around freshman year of high school. I stopped because I realized that while lessons were really helpful, for some reason I felt I could just learn on my own. God knows what made me think that. Sadly, my guitar skills aren't as great as I had hoped, but I still like to play sometimes. Not to brag, but I'm a fairly decent musician (oh wow as if there's anything to brag about)

Anyway, we checked out the store and I felt like I had gone to the gates of heaven. Not heaven heaven, just the gates. When the time comes that I'll be able to afford my Les Paul dream, then, I'll be in heaven. *I sound so cheezy making heaven metaphors. It's not cute or attractive at all. I asked the guy at the desk if I could take pictures, so as usual, I went crazy, and to top it all off, I was bringing my macro lens with me. I browsed through the acoustic guitars and holy crap they weren't as expensive as I had imagined them to be in my mind. The cheapest one didn't even reach P 2,000 and it looked pretty slick too. My acoustic guitar, Apollo, cost around P 3,000. I've had him since high school and he's a beauty; until I painted him and now he looks like unicorn trash, but still sounds very sexy ;)

Pastry Monday

Happy Tots Tuesday! My friends and I went to Fudge yesterday after school for our proposed new tradition: Pastry Monday, previously Flame It Monday, but pastries seem to be more of our thing than burgers ;) This is my third cupcake post this week! Fist bump for cupcake binges. Hell yeah. So all the girls had cupcakes, and Rick had a cheesecake (because he's such a badass) If you've read my Giant Macaron post, we had the same cupcakes then but the ones we had yesterday were Valentine-themed! And speaking of more cupcakes, my friends and I are planning on making some and sell them on Valentine's. Can't wait for our baking party :))

CupcaKen

*This is going to be a critique on the recently opened Cupcake shop in Cebu, CupcaKen.
This post is not intended to offend anyone from CupcaKen or discourage anyone to visit CupcaKen, this is simply my opinion*

PossibiliTeas

Finally, a new post! :D So an update for the other day, my friends and I went to Cobo! And obviously from the photo above, Cobo has some awesome possibiliTeas, and yes, they were indeed awesome.

I honestly thought it was really unique, I mean I kind of expected it to be like Bubble Bee, or Quickly, or Zagu (sorry if you're not from Cebu and couldn't relate to any of that teehee), but Cobo had that youthful and cartoony twist which is pretty much what made it, well, awesome. Plus, not mention their insane variety of teas! It took me so long to choose what kind to get because they had so many intriguing flavors. They had a set of milk teas, teas with floating sea salt, and bubble burst teas. I ordered a mango peach bubble burstea as soon as the lady was finished explaining to me. Bubble burst teas were fruit teas, with juice balls; the balls looked like sago, but when you bite into it, juice would burst out! Cobo's an awesome place to hang out, and prices aren't that bad either ;) Haha and I also sort of interviewed the lady at the counter and learned two things: Cobo is from Taiwan, and Milk Teas are their best-sellers >.<

Time Flies

Photo journal for yesterday!

Midterms the whole day, then went to Terriyaki Boy with Ally and Rick for maki (again >.<) to unwind. 

Real Steal: YSL Arty Rings

 So if you've read my Ringspiration post you'll totally get this one. I've had this recent obsession with these Arty Oval Rings by Yves Saint Laurent. For an authentic YSL ring, it starts at $250 but if you're financially challenged like myself, I found these replicas downtown for an insane bargain. I know some people may think it's shameful to buy fakes, but let's be honest, not everyone can afford a three-hundred dollar ring, and the style is all the same. I was skeptical to buy this ring at first, because it felt very weird to have on my finger; the oval would just hang there but I got comfortable with it after a while. It's a refreshing kind of style to have a ring which overlaps to your knuckle.

Afternoon Delight

These pictures basically sum up my weekend. Archaeology class at the National Museum, pretzels at Auntie Anne's, late lunch at Terriyaki Boy (because of their month-long promo; fifty pesos for an order of california maki! max of 2 orders per table), and dessert at McDonald's. Also gave my new Keds sneakers a try :P I had to tuck in the laces though because they were seriously too long.

Ice Cream In A Ball?

So the other week I had my first Mochiko! And yes, the first thing that attracted me to buy one is the fact that it's basically my name except for one letter >.< I tried cookie dough and the boyf had azuki, then we went back and I had another cookie dough and chocolate. So what exactly is a Mochiko? It's an ice cream ball, covered with a layer of mochi which is a Japanese rice cake. I'm not sure about all the other flavors, but the cookie dough not only had ice cream inside but a cookie too, so, double the yum! The company which makes Mochikos is originally from Manila, but they're setting up a little booth in Cebu permanently at Ayala Active Zone, right next to Tablea. So if you're in Cebu, definitely try a Mochiko ;) *but if you have sensitive teeth, probably take a pill first or some sensodyne teehee

The Giant Macaron!

Guaranteed, no camera tricks! >:)

My best friend, Stefy and I went to this little restaurant nearby school called fudge and they had these huge french macarons! It looked so cute it took me so long to eat it because I couldn't stop looking at it! 

We had a chocolate macaron! It wasn't perfect though, the macaron is a bit chunky most probably because of the almond flour, wherein the perfect macaron is supposed to be smooth. Still, it was pretty yummy ;)