My weekends keep getting better and better. As mentioned in my Friday post, Vien made me a mussel dinner last Friday. The finished dish can be seen on the right. It was so good we did not have enough bread to mop up that yummy sauce.

We also had way too many Vietnamese bahn mis this weekend. We pretty much had one everyday from Friday until Monday. I think I'm taking a short break from those for a while.

Across the street from the bahn mi spot was this mural which was funny to me because my roommate's name is Caitlin.

Saturday was met with the first snowfall of this season. Usually, it starts with light flurries but that day, it snowed all day until late evening. It got so cold that Vien and I blew off three Halloween parties that we were supposed to attend and stayed in watching movies on Netflix.

 Snow on cars outside his bedroom window.

Halloween day was also moving day for Ana and Poy. I took Santi back to my apartment where we hung out with Vien while Ana, Poy and hired movers packed everything and moved all their stuff to the new apartment.

Later that day, Vien helped me while I took Santi trick or treating. He was such a cutie dressed up as Tigger. After an hour of candy begging, the three of us headed to Cornelius for Oyster Happy Hour. One year old Santi watched as his Nanny and her helper downed 18 oysters each with glasses of beer.

This is Vien when he was a baby. He hardly looks anything like he does today. This baby photo must be of someone else noh?

Monday night, I went out to see a Sandwich gig at the lower east side. I listened to them a lot in college and I was so happy to learn they were coming to NYC to perform. I got to see a few people from Manila I haven't seen in a long time and it was all very nostalgic and fun.

They let Rann play a couple of songs with them and he naturally ripped my ear drums off with his style of noise.

YESTERDAY:

It's true. The temperatures have been morbid lately. But despite the weather, Mica and I trudged up to the upper west side to enjoy lunch at Bar Boulud. We took advantaged of the seasonal $24 3-course meal. But us sassy girls each had to get a $14 mimosa and a $4 cup of coffee each, do the math and we pretty much racked up our bill to twice we would've paid for. Oh well, meals at Daniel Boulud's restaurants would only happen twice a year so I guess we were entitled to a little bit of luxury.

We were so full after lunch that we needed to walk it off. Met up with Kendra and we strolled Central Park. It was a cold day but not windy so it was good for walking. We went past strawberry fields to see the small John Lennon memorial.
I've never been to the Bethesda Fountain. The name might not ring a bell but believe me you've seen this in a LOT of movies and TV shows.
We went passed Wollman Rink (Ging, sa Serendipity toh...)
Then we headed back down to the West Village to meet Mica's friend Aisa. I went back to Murray's to get a quarter block of another one of Louiie's cheese recommendations, the Truffle Tremor. It was THE SHIT, btw. I liked this one better than brillat savarin although that was good too. The Truffle Tremor had a flavor that lingered in your mouth long after you've eaten it but not in a bad way. But like the savarin, it was pricey, at $24/lb.

We bought this organic rustic bread (i dunno, Mica chose it) from Amy's Breads and picked up a couple of items from the grocery plus a bottle of Malibu Rum for dinner. We got home and made tomato basil and mozarella bruschettas and garlic anchovy pasta along with a bottle of house red wine from Cipriani where Caitlin (new roommate) works. We proceeded with our planned inebriation by enjoying glasses of Malibu Pineapple as we watched Leap Year and A Knight's Tale in the living room.

TODAY:
I woke up and read Tita Chon's facebook wall message asking me to make cookies for Omar's birthday party on saturday. I immediately got off bed and went out to buy ingredients. I decided to make red velvet cupcakes along with the cookies since Omar loved the ones I gave them for Christmas. I spent the afternoon baking (while watching St. Elmo's Fire, go eighties brat pack!) and could not understand, for the life of me, why my cupcakes would not rise and just looked wrong. I blamed the shortage of flour and vegetable oil for the sorry looking cupcakes. I kept thinking how, having done these for so many times, could I get this one batch wrong. As I was cleaning up and putting my ingredient's back on the shelves, I realized my mistake. In small containers I bought from IKEA, I kept some of my powdered ingredients. What I thought was baking soda had been CORNSTARCH so that's why my damn cakes wouldn't rise! I will make another batch again tomorrow since I just found out today that Omar's guest have risen to 40 children PLUS parents/guardians so I need to have enough for everyone by Saturday.

I went to Queens today to take the Elabdouni's out to dinner. Ate at Enjeline's and had bistek tagalog, chicken adobo, daing na bangus, and kare kare. I also went to the Phil-Am store and scored myself pan de sal, leche flan, lucky me instant sotanghon (I missed these!), plus a bunch of other goodies.

I'm still so full from dinner but the leche flan in the fridge is calling me...let me go answer it.

I've been getting a lot of days off now that there are about 6 servers to work with at the restaurant. I still don't get weekends off though, boo! I thought of going on another trip this week but I thought maybe I'm pushing the travel spending a little too much so I opted to take a vacation in the kitchen!!! I haven't been making anything as much as I would have liked so I'm taking this free time to flex my kitchen skills. I started off by cleaning the kitchen earlier today. Mica came home exclaiming, "OMG, the stove is gleaming!" Well, by the end of three days, it may not be quite so gleaming.

I busted out the good ol' pressure cooker and made Beef Caldereta since I've had a weird craving for it. I just finished marinating sirloin tips for my breakfast tomorrow, Beef Tapa, itlog na pula and sinangag! I just found two decent recipes for my afternoon project which are Banana Walnut Bread and Bibingka Galapong! I'm also thinking of making homemade chicken sopas (with alphabet pasta!!!) since a good hot creamy soup is very good in current NY weather. Our evenings have now dropped to the 40s and I've already brought out my thick comforter. It seems just recently that I was stashing it under the bed because it's gotten too hot for it. Now I can't even go downstairs to do laundry without putting socks on.

Hopefully tomorrow's projects turn out alright. I'm still trying to figure out what to make for Thursday. I'm planning to squeeze in an IKEA trip tomorrow afternoon so whatever isn't made tomorrow will be done the following day.

Sadly, I have no photos. I was famished by the time my meal was done that I went straight to devouring it. Maybe I'll have something to show tomorrow. We'll see. Wish me luck!

Photos from the past few weeks, captured through my phone. Somehow, my owning a camera phone has turned me into a lazy photographer. I don't bother bringing out my camera anymore, even for the food shots I used to take.

In no particular order:There was a fire alert beside the resto about two weeks ago. Two fire trucks came rushing to the apartment beside us. They used the fire hydrant on the corner and could not shut it off after they used it. It took them about 20 minutes to shut the water off during which gallons upon gallons of water flooded 7th avenue.

There were about 20 firemen standing around watching one man attempt to shut off the hydrant.

Kona Mocha in the comfort of my own home.

The morning after 4th of July I opened my curtains to find an ambulance and cops across the street below. There was a Police Line Do Not Cross tape around this particular space. I'm not quite sure what happened but based on the facts [1.) police line tapes indicate death or a crime 2.) ambulance means something happened to someone] I figured someone was found dead across the street. May have been a homeless man who slept and never woke up, or at least I'd like to think so.

Went to Ikea the Sunday after July 4th despite my morbid hangover and bought new sheets, a new plant and new wall art. It's my room's summer make-over.

One of my lunches during my day off. Pan-grilled chicken breast in rosemary and thyme with grilled veggies and mixed greens topped with crumbled herbed feta. I tried to replicate Jad's dressing (shallots + onions + salt/pepper + balsamic vinegarrette) but I prefer my usual balsamic vinegarette + honey combo.

I'm making nobody's mouth water here except myself. People who read this who like green mangoes with bagoong have better access to it in Manila. I dug through the bottom of the mango barrel in the corner fruit stand to find the hardest one I could find and scraped what's left of the bagoong in the fridge.

If you have been bothering to check here, I'm sorry for the non-updates. I've been meaning to write and my head is actually full of posts I would have written if I had the time to actually sit down and write them. My stay in front of my mac has been limited to selectively reading emails, referring to google maps and updating my Netflix queue. Even my Facebook account has been ignored, with status updates being changed through my phone. I will (hopefully) give a better rundown of the past week or so, beginning with my Trasformers movie date with Omee (photos from that day were taken through my phone and accidentally deleted so no visual aids for that).

I spent my first ever 4th of July crashing at Rann's. He, Oli and Erica prepared a feast which I so graciously devoured. Their apartment building has a great view of the city from the roof so we enjoyed picture time and the fireworks later that night. Photos from that day can be seen here.

Rann's feast.
I was told he slaved in the kitchen for hours that morning.Oli and Erica's Pie with home-made custard.

I will write more soon. Got lots to tell from a man being found dead in front of my apartment building (seriously) to Louiie and Angel coming to visit me soon.

I finally got around to handling the pile of laundry that's been collecting the past two weeks. My days off last week which would normally have been dedicated to cleaning and laundry, were spent in Queens or out with my parents. I cleaned the bathroom and headed out to the Waldorf-Astoria to meet Tito Mo to pick up the blow dryer that mama left in Queens. I'll have to go back on Friday since Tito Mo forgot to bring it. I walked around midtown trying to look for a place to eat. It was already close to 5pm at this time and all I had to eat for the day was a tub of Dibs and a can of club soda. After a while I realized I did't really know my way around this part of town and decided to hop on a train to 32nd street and had korean fast food at Woorijip. $5.50 for a hefty serving of beef bulgogi over rice and kimchi.

I was almost done with my current read (Haruki Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart) which meant I was due to another trip to Barnes and Noble. I skipped down to Union Square and picked up Breaking Dawn, Fragile Things and American Gods. I'm becoming a prolific reader now and can flip through 3-4 books in a week. I've decided to give the Twilight series another chance since I've already read one and will start reading Breaking Dawn (the last in the 4 part series) as soon as I'm done with my current one. Fragile Things was recommended by Jammi and I've also decided to give American Gods another go. I tried reading it in 2006 but found the book too long and the plot too complicated that I eventually stopped reading it. The bookcases in the living room are starting to look real cramped with all the books I've acquired on top of the ones Mama brought with her from Manila. My copy of Absolute Sandman Volume 1 arrived about a week ago and its so pretty I don't even want to take it out of its box. I have so much to read it's so exciting!

I bought myself a fan today since it's gotten real humid now and I didn't want to keep hogging Andy's fan. I got home and ate leftover corned beef and sorted out the laundry. I had a bit of time to kill so I decided to break in the CHI ceramic flat iron mama bought me. I've always wanted to get myself one but found it too expensive ($130!!! mama got me the mini version for $90). Mama also gave me a stuffed dog that, just a few minutes ago, I've decided to call Oscar. This is Oscar and me with my straight hair.

I'm getting into plants too. I got another small plant from Ikea and will try to see what's the easiest way to grow herbs by my kitchen window. They were selling potted herbs in Union Square earlier and I thought it might be a great idea to grow a few of them at home. I keep wasting the parsley, cilantro and basil I buy in the grocery. They only sell them in bunches and I only use a little in my cooking. The rest end up rotting in the fridge. If I'm really up to it, I might set up a little garden on the roof. My only fear is squirrels might come and mess them up.

Met up with BabyG for lunch today. She treated me out on my birthday and I felt it was only fair that I returned the favor on her birthday. I took her for brunch at Cornelia Street Cafe. I pass this place on my way to work and I've always been curious if the food is good. I had eggs benedict (as usual) with smoked salmon and she had the smoked salmon platter. I think the egg benedict I had from La Palette is still the best I've had so far. I got coffee from The Grey Dog and we sat by the benches on the square nearby and chatted until my shift started. There are so many good places to eat in the west village and so little time (and so little company) to try them all. I miss having a regular food trip buddy. Niki! Come here quick! Mica is going back to Manila for 5 weeks by the first week of June and I can't imagine being alone here with no buddy to drag around with me. Crap!

My mom will be here by next weekend and I'm so excited! I don't know where to take her since she has this thing where she prefers to stay home rather than spend out but this will be a rare chance that she will be in NY and I don't want to waste it staying in. She can only be here for a week and so little time for me to go to Queens to see her. I can't take the entire week off since there isn't anyone else to take my shifts for me but Lily has been nice enough to grant me half day shifts on my full days.

Angel will be in Baltimore by the end of the month and I am so glad to have another friend within close proximity (and another name to add to my regular call list). She will hopefully be staying here fr the next few months as she tries to go back to school in Maryland. She promises to come visit during the summer the same time grace (from Rome) promised to come visit too. Sino pang bibisita? Punta na dito dali! I can only offer the couch but your lodging is already set! Come!

...to know so many people who actually WANT to be with me. I can't count how many people have told me "Come and stay with me!" Even people I haven't known very long keep insisting I go and stay with them (uhm, Chriselle!). I am so grateful that I know such a wonderful group of people. I have to say that I am really surprised with how much of them really stepped up in my time of need. THANKS GUYS! I LOVE YOU TOO! How I wish I can stay with all of you and we can be in one big house, ahem Big Brother ahem.

I was telling Niki earlier, that today is the first time in weeks that I felt like I'm moving again. I've booked my travel plans over the next several weeks and I'm getting the same rush feeling I used to get back in July when I was doing all that traveling. Granted I can't afford to spend as much as I did last month, I've managed to cut costs since I'm not exactly bleeding money right now. Thanks to special people who are letting me crash at their houses and even driving all the way from another state to come pick me up. Thanks Louiie!!!

Paul and Bea's arrival is just a few days away and they've asked me to stay with them for a week. I wonder what we'll do?

Guess what I ate today! I had HALO-HALO at the Manila store in El Toro. Yummy! I also scored a few items that I've missed.

not in photo: Boy Bawang and Spanish Sardines!
Woohoo!

Ara just messaged me asking for my Sagada itinerary since she's going there with her friends next week. I can't help but be a bit envious. Sagada was a such a magical place, it felt like another world, really. I wish I could go with them. I'm also reminded of all the travel videos I have yet to edit. I almost don't want to anymore. Parang iinggitin ko lang sarili ko. July 2008 was one of the best months ever...well, except for the news I got by the end of the month, that just ruined it for me.