My Doggie Cuff Links

Great is the day when I find products that combine two of my favorite things in the world.  I love dogs and I love cuff links, so spotting these doggie cuff links in a store in the KLIA was a real treat.

Scottie Cuff Link

Neapolitan Mastiff Cuff Link

Wolf Cuff Link

Bulldog Cuff Link

I asked the store owner to give me a heads up when they have a beagle, shar peri or a german shorthaired pointer design.   If they can have all three - even better.

Taking pictures of these tiny pieces had been very difficult in the past.  Thanks to my macro Olioclip lens for the iPhone 5,  I was able to magnify the pieces for your viewing pleasure.

Hiland Harvest Veggie Chips

In a previous post,  I wrote about Malunggay Shing-A-Ling at the Midnight Mercato.  Someone left a comment on that blog and asked me where they can buy that shing-a-ling.   I wasn't able to provide that information and directed that reader to the midnight mercato organizers.  I now have good news and bad news.  I found another shing-a-ling vendor in Baguio.  That's the good news.  I also got their contact information which you will find at the end of this blog post.  The bad news is that they don't have any online presence --- so you will need to contact them via the phone numbers that I listed.

BTW --- did I mention that these shing-a-ling from Hiland Harvest are really good?  

Hiland Harvest

Bagong Bayani Family Association

Ambiong, La Trinidad, Benguet

+63 929 3219088

Prime Rose Kitchen Oriental Salad Dressing

I'm on a raw food diet.  Actually - it's an almost all raw food diet.  I have restricted myself to eating cooked food for breakfast.  All other meals - I can only eat fruits, vegetables ( maybe fish ) that are uncooked.   So to give variety to my meals - I look for different types of dressing for my salads.  Strictly speaking - I should just be eating with oil and vinegar dressing.  I'm sorry - I'm human - I cannot eat salads with plain oil and vinegar everyday.  Every now and then - I can eat it - but not everyday.

The good news is that I am able to find different dressing in Baguio.  Last weekend - I was able to find a delicious - and attractively priced product while I was walking along Session Road.   The name of the salad dressing is Prime Rose Kitchen Oriental dressing.   This is the same dressing that you typically find in Japanese restaurants.  I bought a small bottle ( for 50 Pesos ) - so I can try it first.  After finishing the bottle - I had to buy more - because this dressing is delicious.

I also bought Chili Garlic Oil from the same vendor.  I have yet to try it but I opened the bottle and it smells Oh so good.

To know more about this product - please contact them through these numbers.  If you're in the Baguio area - you can get the dressing and their other products at the Monterey Meat Shop on Caltex near Victory Liner.

Prime Rose Kitchen

Km. 4 La Trinidad, Benguet

+63 917 5508182

+63 939 914 5200

+63 74 423 0600

Nilupak

Last weekend,  I bought this kakanin from the Salcedo Market. I couldn't distinguish if it was Purple yam  (Ube) or if it was Sapin Sapin.  It looked delicious so I grabbed it. After almost a week I had a chance to taste it.  I discovered that it's Nilupak. Nilupak is like sweetened purple yam but it's made of either mashed bananas or mashed cassava or mashed sweet potatoes.  I'm not used to having nilupak in a this elliptical shape but shape aside - it's definitely nilupak.  

Buchi

Do you like Sesame Seed Balls?  I do.  I love the rice paste ball and the red bean paste filling.  Here in the Philippines we call it Buchi.  We actually have two varieties of Buchi - the familiar one which is covered with Sesame Seed Balls.  The other one is not covered with Sesame Seeds - but covered with toasted sugar.  Both are yummy.  I got both varieties in one package at a stall in Salcedo Market.  This is a great food find.

Buchi

Cotton Candy from Salcedo Market

I grabbed two pints of cotton candy from Salcedo Market.  One in blue and one in pink.  Both were delicious - but I wish they were fluffier.

I also got two mini bibingka ( rice cake ).  I didn't care much for these - they didn't give me niyog ( coconut ) and butter.  They were too dry for my taste.

Each of these are worth 25 pesos.   That's a good price to satisfy my cravings for sweet treats this weekend.   

Hipstamatic Fun at SM Hypermart

Our Grocery of choice is SM Hypermart at South Superhighway.  It's big. It has products that we want ( e.g. Del Monte Banana Catsup and CDO "takal" Tapa ).  Moreover - it is not crowded.

iPhone and iPod Touch owners are familiar with Hipstamatic.  It's an app which applies vintage camera style to ones photographs.  

I had a little bit of fun with my Hipstamatic app while doing our grocery shopping at SM Hypermart.  Here are the pictures I took.

SM Grocery Cart

SM has a new type of Grocery Cart that the House of Queens thinks is a clever innovation. 

The top basket is made shallow.  This makes it easier to reach for the goods when transferring them to the Cashier’s counter.  Making it shallow also gives some headroom at the bottom tray.  This allows the shopper to place a couple of baskets which can segregate dry and wet goods.  For the House of Queens – we have two baskets for Meat and Vegetables.

Having the meat and vegetables in a basket makes for an easier check out.  You can just pick the basket up and place it on the cashier counter.

Greenhills Shopping

We have American visitors who have previously been to Manila and they know of Greenhills.  So they invited me to join them for a quick shopping expedition to Greenhills.   I was apprehensive at first considering it is Christmas and people have just received their 13th month pay for the year.   This might mean that Greenhills is going to be packed.   We decided to get there early.  Greenhills was buy but it’s not as busy as I thought it would be.  It looks like it’s regular weekend crowd.

What were we there for?   Of course we were there for pearls.  Fresh water, South Sea, Colored, Mikimoto grade pearls.  You name it and they have it.   It is also interesting to look at the designer bag copies which seems to be getting better everytime I visit.   The same is true for the watches which apparently are also automatic and not quartz watches even if they are copies.

The Hundreds of Stalls selling almost Anything you Can think of

You want the latest Nike?   They have it.

Bags

Swiss Watches anyone?

Colored Pearls

Pearls Pearls Pearls

South Sea Pearls

This is Just Wrong

This is a collection of images that are funny – and sometimes disturbing.  They are also images that shouldn’t have existed if someone was just paying attention and thinking really hard about the implications of what they were doing before they actually did it.

 

This is an ad for a supposedly luxurious Apartment Tower. I am not sure how people will go to the upper floors given that there doesn’t seem to be any elevators.  There are four elevetors though – and I’m not sure what those are.

In the Philippines, part of the drug prevention program is the compulsory drug testing during Driver’s license Renewal.  They are outsourced to accredited drug testing clinics.  This is one of those Drug Testing centers.  I am not sure what they’re laughing about.  Maybe – it’s the easy money they earn for conducting the test which should be free in the first place.

I try to be nice in my tweets most of the time.  The other day – I had a little bit more motivation in staying Nice --- the Big Guy on the North Pole started following me.  I want to be on his nice list.  However – do you really want Santa Claus to be following you on Twitter?   There are days when I just need to be naughty – and the only outlet I have is Twitter.

This sign had two typo errors.  I am not sure what Garic Squid is – but I’d forgive that.  What I can’t forgive is the second typo error.   I eat most parts of the pig --- but one thing I’d definitely not want to taste is SWEAT and SOUR pork.

Speaking of Pork – the last picture in this post is just plain Wrong.  Mr. Butcher – I do not need to be reminded that the Ground Pork used to be a cute animal.  Please – please don’t remind me!  I was planning to have Lumpiang Shanghai for this week but had to change my mind because I didn’t have the heart to CARVE a half kilo of meat from this pig.

 

I Love Egg Tarts

The other day, I was craving for egg tarts.  I didn’t really know what they were until I tried them during our visit to Macau.  The Macanese apparently love this pastry. They got it from the Portuguese.  When I first tasted them – I exclaimed: Oh they’re small versions of our neighborhood Egg Pie but since they’re bite sized – eating them is a little bit more fun.  This is a picture of my favorite egg-tart store in Macau.  When you go through the side streets around Senado Square – you will find all of these small pastry shops.  Looking at them – they remind me of the Hopia stores you will find in Binondo.

The Spice Trade

Ferdinand Magellan sailed to the west in hopes of finding a new route to the Island of Malacca.  For us Filipinos, we know that in that journey – he actually stumbled upon a couple of islands which is part of what is now known as the Philippine Archipelago.  The Philippines was not the Spice Islands that the Spanish Empire hoped for and yet – they came back and occupied the Islands for close to 300 years.  Definitely – the search for the spices had a profound effect to the citizens of this country.  To this day, I continue to be amazed at how spices – and the old world’s obsession with them contributed greatly to the shaping of the world’s history.  

Now – these materials are no longer worth their weight in gold.  Spain, the Philippines, and almost every country has access to the once rare and precious spices.  In fact,  you can grow most of those spices in your own backyard if you choose to.  For those of us who do not have a green thumb – the neighborhood grocery store carries each and every item you can think of.  

I wonder what it was like to live in a world where one cannot afford to buy spices.   All I can say is – whoever broke the “code” and was able to “smuggle” the spices out of Malacca and grow them elsewhere – Thank you.  Thank you for spicing up our lives.

My Favorite Popcorn

I love popcorn.  I was a big fan and I’m still a big fan of Kettle Corn popcorn but I think I have discovered a new favorite popcorn.  It is Chef Tony’s popcorn.  It’s a bit pricey.  They cost close to 200 pesos a tub.  However – it’s gourmet and I love it.  It costs much but it's well worth it!

Sosi Markets in the Village

I call the weekend market at the Velasquez/Salcedo Park – the sosi market.  Sosi of course is the contraction of the Filipino colloquial term sosyal (high society).  This of course denotes that the products being sold are mostly high quality ( or organic or hand made ) but it also means that the prices are higher than what you can get from the local grocer or market.

We are not fans of the market in the House of Queens because we think that it contributes to unnecessary weekend traffic in the Salcedo Village.  Saturdays and Sundays,  we were hoping, will give us respite from the usual vehicular traffic of the weekdays.  So the market definitely takes that away from us.  I am however craving for good home made salad – that’s why we decided to walk over to the park and get our salad greens, fresh fruits, organic salad dressing and nuts.  The resulting product was amazing and it kinda made me thankful that we have the market in the neighborhood.  Just kinda … not yet a full convert.

 

Apart from the salad ingredients, we did score some organic cleansers and deodorizers for the dogs and our linens.  Recently, Madre de Cacao was prescribed for our two beagles because they say it’s got antiseptic and antifungal properties   I do remember the plant and the leaves from my childhood days in San Pablo, Laguna.  If you get a chance to see the actual plant, ask a local if they know how to make the leaves pop like firecrackers. Going back to the cleansers – we got the pet deodorizer,  the enzymatic cleaner ( ideal for the house training of our puppy Char Siew ), and linen spray – which I need because I’m allergic to dust mites.

I guess you can call our weekend very organic.  I wonder if this opening will give me an itch to regularly checkout the market from now on.  I don’t expect it – but who knows?

Being Filipino is Currently Fashionable

For over a year now,  anything Filipino seems to have garnered so much popularity as a design for local clothes retailers.  This weekend,  we went to Greenhills and Market Market – and all shops are carrying T-shirts, Jackets, sweaters, etc which either has the Philippine Flag or the Map of the Philippines embroidered on them.  I can’t blame the retailers --- I think our flag does look good.  Even my foreigner friends agree with that.  As for the Map of the Philippines – it looks like a Rorschach inkblot which can definitely make any piece of clothing interesting.

This Queen Went to Market

Sunday is Market day for us.  We go to different locations depending on what time we are awake.  If we are awake really early – we go to Landmark at the Ayala Center.  It opens at 8:30 AM everyday.  If we end up sleeping through Sunday and wake up late in the afternoon,  we go to SM Hypermart next to TIendesitas in Taguig.  They are open till 11:00 PM.

Today, we planned to go to Landmark which is a typical Sunday for us.  However – after parking and walking towards the entrance of the Supermarket,  we were told by the Security guards that we can’t go through that tiny strip between Glorietta 3 and Landmark because the security team of Ayala center is performing a drill.   We were asked to go around to the other side --- and when we reached that side,  we found that the entrance there is also closed.

Our conversation with the Marshall was a bit of a comedy.  we asked him: “How do we get to the Supermarket?”. 

He said – “go through the entrance.” 

“But the entrance is through this street that you have closed.   So the Supermarket is closed?”  we asked.

“It’s open.”  he replied.

Realizing that we won’t get anywhere with this conversation with an idiot – we decided to just go to Rustan’s at Glorietta ( which is open at 9:00 AM.   Leaving the drill scene – it makes us wonder if it was really a drill or there was another bomb threat in the Ayala Center.  Moreover --- if there was indeed a situation at the center --- will we have to rely on such idiots for our safety?

The Salcedo Market

In my introductory blog, I mentioned that I live in the middle of the Central Business District of Makati. Everyone knows that I love the place - because it is conveniently located near my office and I can actually go to the mall or the supermarket with ease and not be bothered by the a long commute. There are actually two main Villages in this area - Salcedo and Legazpi. These two villages have their own advantages --- but I prefer Salcedo because it has a lot more residential feel to it. Moreover -- there are a lot nicer developments this part of the city than Legazpi. Others prefer Legazpi because it's closer to the Greenbelt shopping Mall.

One of the attractions of the Salcedo village was the very recent establishment of the Salcedo Market every Saturday at the Salcedo Park. It started at around the same time that I started to live in the Village. A year later - they created a similar weekend market in Legazpi. Now - I hear they have a similar setup in other parts of the city. The market provides a place for merchants to sell organic vegetables, meat, plants. There are also home made food items like the Quezo de Bola spread. There are also plenty of stalls for home-cooked meals. One of the attraction is the Dirty Ice Cream being peddled by a Caucasian expatriate.

So people will argue that it's a nice addition to the village. It is --- if you don't live near the place. You see, the House of Queens overlooks the park and when they setup the stalls on Friday afternoons, the temporary structure becomes an eyesore. They actually look like shanties when we look out from the Balcony.
I call the people who frequent the market coming from outside of the village as minions. It's the most negative term that we can think of for the people who come to the market from other places --- and take note they --- are actually richer than me --- they drive better cars and they are part of Manila's elite. The problem is the cars that they drive cause a traffic jam around the park when Saturdays and weekends are supposed to be a respite for the Salcedo Village residents from the weekday traffic.

Oh well --- I guess I'm really just being nasty about the market. As I said earlier - it does provide some character for the area. However - I do hope that they do something about the traffic and the shanty like tents or else - the Queendom will continue to view it in a not-so positive light.