bestest goto ever!

© Joselito Briones
this morning omar and i drove a couple of blocks to ate uding's apartment to pick up this goto (rice porridge with entrails) that she made. she's basically been cooking filipino food the past few days, always very good. the other day she made pochero. saging na saba and all.


© Joselito Briones
and how handy is it that there's a kalamansi tree in the backyard?


© Joselito Briones
and as if that isn't enough, the goto came with sweetened saging na saba (very similar to plantain) wrapped in spring roll pastry then deep-fried. it's usually called turon in the philippines, but where i came from we call it sagimes.


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Hampstead Heath

© Joselito Briones

LIfe's been easy... most weekends Jerome and Ronnie would invite us for a drive somewhere nice for a weekend (they bought a brand new volvo). This time the destination was Hampstead Heath, within London. The area we set up picnic in is called "Kite Hill" or "Parliament Hill". Needless to say, there was plenty of food and wine, and picnic necessities (plates, cutleries, wine glasses) willingly lent to us by Waitrose. Pictured above are (L-R) Mati, Ronnie, Jerome, Gaudi, Mickael.


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me and my mini wini

© Joselito Briones

this week is junk food week. why? because. :)

i decided to eat whatever's on the shelves and in the fridge - i find that often i buy things and they end up expired and uneaten. this is food storage purge week. two days ago i had nacho chips for breakfast. and two boiled corn cobs for lunch. also, as the idea is to not go to the grocery to buy stuff while there's plenty of edible stuff at home, i've also been munching on kellogs honey nut cereal without milk (soya milk usually), for dinner. cantuccini and marinated herring for lunch.

the champ tho has been the miniwini's. they're just so lovely and uncomplicated. they're right up there with cheez whiz and spam. they're tiny wieners basically (hence the name), extra crunchy skin, and can be eaten straight from the jar.


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potato salad

© Joselito Briones

today's dinner: potato salad with mixed mushrooms, sage, pepperoni, white wine, parsley and shaved parmesan cheese. i did the traditional german potato salad the other day (one with ham and gherkin) so i thought i'd try something else tonight.


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baked chicken

© Joselito Briones
fresh from the even


© Joselito Briones
ready to go

i made this last sunday. basically chicken breast filled with basil-butter, then wrapped in bacon, then baked with potatoes and cherry tomatoes, and capers. that leafy thingy in the photo is of course rosemary. the recipe was from some charity thingy back when we were still in london.


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vapiano

© Joselito Briones

I so wanted to like this restaurant. It's so nicely located in Potsdamer Platz, and convenient after watching a movie because it's right by Sony Center. It's even recommended by a friend. The decor is decent and yet friendly. The staff is nice.

The concept is also interesting. It's basically self-service. Upon entering, you are given some sort of a credit card that you present to the staff who makes the food, then when you go out you give back the card and they'll see how much you've eaten. Inside, you grab a menu, take your pick, and give it to someone behind a counter who'd cook the dish right in front of you. Okay, that's kinda pretentious in a it's-so-fresh-and-you-know-exactly-what-goes-in-your-food kind because let's face it, everything is ready-made and portioned just-throw-'em-in-the-pan ready, but at least it's different. In Berlin if it's different enough people are bound to at least try it. So try we did. So hmmm... maybe self-service and waiting on the counter for your food may not be the best idea after all, especially when you can be sitting instead of standing and waiting in front of the cook watching him throw everything in the pan. But wait, the serving actually looks pretty! So hey, this can't be too bad, right?

Then of course time to sit (communal sitting downstairs, didn't bother to check out the sitting upstairs) and do away with the food. And this is where it all falls apart. For a restaurant that serves mainly pasta and pizza, and boasts of having their pasta always freshly made, their pasta is just plain yukky. It would've done them better if they bought the usual boil-em in a big pot ready-made pasta, any kind, because any kind would've been better. Theirs managed to be both soggy and gummy at the same time (I tried two kinds, just to be sure). No bite whatsoever and the thing sticks in your gums! Hahahaha! It's just horrible. You know how when you bake bread or anything with a dough and some part of the dough doesn't get cooked, so it's all like sticky and ewwwy? Well, soak that part in some water and you'll pretty much get the consistency of their pasta. It's so bad that I wasn't able to finish my small bowl of pizza dish. I can't remember when's the last time (must be years) I didn't finish my plate because I always eat a lot, so this gives you an idea of how bad it was.

Can't wait to try their pizza! Ha ha!


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do try this at home

© Joselito Briones

i don't know why but i cook almost everyday but rarely take photos of the food i make. maybe i should always set up the camera even before i started cooking, i think usually by the time i'm done in the kitchen i always just want to eat it quickly.


© Joselito Briones

today's food is home-made potato gnocchi and braised oxtail. i made the gnocchi earlier in the day (i'm kinda messy, as you can see), the oxtail a few days ago (always better reheated), i decided to take out the bones and just serve the meat and sauce. would've been better if instead of the basil i used fresh sage fried to a crisp, but i don't have any sage today. ah well, next time.


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food stuff

© Wil

I've almost forgotten this, but since Wil is the only one who comments on my videos, i had to go check his videos too, no? done by Wil from another trip (early last year), this time in some posh restaurant in Chamonix.


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lovely dinner

© Joselito Briones

After Dovedale, we all went back to the house for the dinner that Ann's group prepared. It was most excellent. Salmon and vegies on bread and olive-filled mini pastries for starters, perfectly done roast leg and shoulder of lamb and potatoes for main, and Eton mess for dessert. This is what holidays should always be like.

Photo above is Jerome carving one of the two big pieces of roast. We finished all of it.





© Joselito Briones

Chow time!





© Joselito Briones

Ann and Chris making the dessert.


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lunch at the gherkin

© Joselito Briones

Lunch at London's Gherkin Building today. The very pregnant Pearl extended an invitation to us (dining here is not open to the public, only people working for Swiss Re, the building owner for whom Pearl works, and those they invite are allowed in). The view is excellent, as one can see all of London - and it was a clear day by London standard, and above us was only a spiral dome of glass.

Photo (L_R) Chris, Wil, Pearl.





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Last minute lunch treat

© Joselito Briones

A bit rushed and stressed today. I did some last minute packing, passed by Jane's office in the Flat Iron district, then to Wall Street to meet up with Godfrey for lunch. The lunch itself was rushed, we grabbed some soup and sandwich, while he told me about the new house that he and Scott bought (bigger, closer to Manhattan).

And now, flying back to Germany.


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What protein do you want with that?

© Joselito Briones

Loads of food today. Noel made bulalo (beef and marrow soup) and bought a huge fried fish, and fresh lumpia (my mom's favorite), and Ate Uding made Maja Blanca (a corn-based custard). Yummm.

Norie and Dave dropped by to pick me up, they've decided to treat me to dinner. I don't know why. Am not one to say no to food. So, hey. We went to PF Chang's, a Chinese Restaurant chain. Food was not authentic, but good. Ambience was a bit off, and waiters were very cordial. Our waitress in particular was all smiles, too bad we put her under very defensive mode when we all laughed when she asked, referring to the fried noodles, what "protein" we wanted with our noodles. I don't know, was it too much to ask to be asked if we wanted pork, beef, chicken or shrimps? Oh well.

Right after the dinner we passed by some new housing development in Hayward. Norie and Dave are looking to move again, because of the constant heavy traffic that they experience every day on the way to work, from Mountainhouse.

Right after viewing the houses, I drove to San Jose to meet up with and take photos of Alex (above). I got there quite late, it was a good thing that the sun sets so late these days. The photo above was taken past eight at night already, in front of a parking lot.


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Craisins

© Joselito Briones

It just looked interesting, so I took a photo of it, in Chinatown last week. It turns out this is dried cranberries, also known as "craisins". It's supposed to be good for you. Whatever.


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Pancakes

© Joselito Briones

I can't remember when the last time was when I had pancakes this way, but it surely brought back memories. For breakfast today we had pancakes topped with sugar and drowned in condensed milk. Have you tried pancakes this way?


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Patio's new chef

© Joselito Briones

We dropped my parents off to the airport to check their luggages in. Their flight was cancelled. Supposedly, the plane that they're gonna be in didn't arrive from Manila today. Philippine Airlines. They were giving hotel vouchers to anyone who needed to stay in the city before the rescheduled flight tomorrow. What's very disturbing though, is that, even as my parents paid penalty fees to have their flights rescheduled for today, Philippine Airlines isn't offering compensation fees to the passengers who are involuntarily rescheduled for tomorrow. Go figure. If you want your flight rescheduled, you have to pay, if they reschedule your flight, you get nothing. NADA. Lesson learned: fly with other airlines.

After checking in the luggages, we went to Patio Filipino for dinner. Cesar works there. We had the usual goodies, plus one, the very tasty Paella done by their new chef Lavinia (photo, above). She was imported by the restaurant from the Philippines, where she was a chef for one of Manila's leading caterers, "Mingoy's".


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Japanese in East Village

© Eric Olivarez

I didn't have anything planned yesterday. Eric and I ended up going to East Village, just to walk around, and take loads of photos, like the past couple of days. We had lunch at the Japanese hole-in-the-wall that sells octopus balls, in 9th Street. On the same street, we passed by Hoshi Coupe, the place where I used to regularly have my haircut, and decided to have one before flying to California today. It turned out that Regina, my usual stylist, doesn't work there anymore. A girl named Miki did my hair this time, and she did it really well. The photo above was taken by Eric.


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Eis day

© Joselito Briones
Lovely day. I went for a walk around late in the afternoon and took pictures. There was a long line at the Eishaus (ice cream shop) so I thought I'd get myself some. "Creme Caramel" and "Blau Bär" (picture, above). As is usual, it was impossible to eat it and keep some sort of dignity at the same time. The entire load on the cone (2 enormous scoops) fell on my bare hands seconds after taking this picture. I held the ice cream on my hand for a split second while deciding what to do, and then packed it back on the cone and pretended nothing happened. Kids, and their parents, who saw what happened, were amused. By the time I found a cafe with a public toilette to wash up in, about half an hour later, I realized that they didn't have to witness the de-coning incident to have a laugh at my expense. The darn ice cream was all over my face.


© Joselito Briones

I went through SchlossPark and the pedestrian zone, and by the time I headed back home, it was already dark but ice cream stores (different ones) were still doing good business. Photo above was taken at the carnival in front of the Erlangenschloß.



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Markknocken vom Rind

© Joselito Briones

Yet another experiment in the kitchen. A bit of a mixture of a traditional Filipino food (Bulalo), and traditional German food (soup ingredients - carrots, celery root, leek, etc.). Beef bone with marrow (Markknocken vom Rind) and meat in clear vegetable soup. Fresh spring onions and thyme topping. What you see is what you get. Okay, not exactly. I placed the bones and poured the soup on a bed of fresh field greens (Feldsalat), which stayed at the bottom of the bowl.


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Long My

© Joselito Briones

Long My, the Asian grocery store that I usually go to for fresh ingredients when I cook Asian dishes, recently opened a small fast-food restaurant (photo, above), right around the corner from their grocery store, next to the Turkish grocery store (photo, below) where I usually buy fresh fish. It's a very basic, no-frills, Asian restaurant, and the entries on the menu are standard offering for any Asian restaurant here in Erlangen, or Germany, for that matter, but they do try to serve the best food that they could. As is my usual taste-test in such eastern-combo restaurant, I ordered Knusprige Ente, here available in three different kinds of sauce (I went for Hoi Sin sauce, recommended by the owner - #22 in the menu), and it didn't disappoint. The best thing about the restaurant though, just like the Asian grocery around the corner with the same name, are the owners - they're supper friendly.




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to JFK

© Joselito Briones

I was thinking of a sappy song to put here, kinda like the one I did last year on my way to the airport, but I couldn't think of any. There wasn't anything to say about the drive either, except for a brief traffic congestion. I guess the only thing remarkable about this morning is that we had pizza for breakfast, while watching "Legally Blonde" on TV. Here's "Drive" anyway, an oldie from Incubus, about making decisions.


DRIVE

Sometimes, I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I can't help but ask myself how much
I'll let the fear take the wheel and steer.
It's driven me before, and it seems to have a vague,
haunting mass appeal.
But lately I'm beginning to find that I
should be the one behind the wheel.

Whatever tomorrow brings,
I'll be there with open arms and open eyes, Yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there..I'll be there.

So, if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive
Will I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive?
Aah-ah-oo-o-o.

It's driven me before and it seems to be the way
that everyone else gets around.
But lately I'm beginning to find that when
I drive myself my light is found.

Whatever tomorrow brings,
I'll be there with open arms and open eyes, Yeahhh
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there...I'll be there.

Would you choose water over wine....hold the wheel and drive?

Whatever tomorrow brings,
I'll be there with open arms and open eyes, Yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there..I'll be there.


-Incubus




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