jollibee

Ok, this has already been making the rounds of blogs, twitter and fb. In Glee’s Dream On (season 1 episode 19), in a dream sequence Artie stands from his wheelchair and dances. They do a flash mob to “Safety Dance”. What caught pinoy’s eyes is the background – Jollibee! The leading fast food chain in the Philippines. It was shot in Eagle Rock Plaza in Los Angeles. And apparently, Chow King is just across Jollibee in this mall.

Here’s a screen shot:

mum’s birthday

Mum flew in a week before her birthday, I specifically scheduled it that way because her birthday would already mark my 37th week which means that I could give birth anytime. Anyways, on her birthday we celebrated it with a yum cha lunch at hilltop phoenix at castle towers.  We initially intended to have the yum cha at eastwood but then we learned that they had a granny smith festival parade that day and preggy me didn’t want to walk a lot that day. After lunch we walked a bit around the mall and even though it was my mum’s birthday it was E who got presents haha. Talk about spoiling the grandson :p I’ll post what E got (a super early Christmas and birthday present) in another post.

At the resto ..

Helping mamita blow the cake …

masterchef addiction

For the past months, we’ve been tuned in to this show every night at 7pm. Ichi and I have greatly enjoyed watching this show. I have downloaded a few recipes from the show that I’m hoping to try. Let’s see if I do get around to trying it. Anyways, from the top 20 it came down to Poh & Julie. I liked Poh from the start but towards the end I was already rooting for Julie. Ichi felt that it was a bit unfair that the judges brought back contestants that were already eliminated (Poh was one of them). I told Ichi that if Julie keeps her cool during the challenges then she might have a chance against Poh. What I really like about Poh is that she plates really well, if you see her presentation you really would be enticed to eat it. And it was a great finale specially the last challenge which was the pressure test – duplicating that chocolate dessert by Matt Moran.

And yay Julie! Australia’s first Masterchef – she walks away with $100,000, a cookbook deal and gain work experience in Australia’s top restaurants.

Now the question is what would occupy our 7pm? :p

Christmas Past

Here are some photos from last month’s Christmas get-togethers.

Lunch with Marlon, Mike & Eden at Vila’ge, Heeren.

Christmas eve dinner at home with relatives and friends.

Dinner at Sushi Tei, Vivo City with seagull chums.

yummy sushi tei

I have seen this restaurant in a number of malls that we’ve been to and it always had a long line whenever we’d pass this place around dinner time. It’s one of those Japanese restaurants with conveyor belt. Also, Ton has been telling us about this place for a while now and initially we had plans of going together but it never seemed to work out, that’s why he checked the place out already, hindi na kami inantay hahaha.

We finally had the chance to go when Marie visited and I must say we weren’t disappointed. The food was delicious! We went there a bit early than dinner time so our wait for a table was around 5 minutes only. We didn’t get to sit by the conveyor but it wasn’t hard to order the food as there were a lot of staff that can attend to you.

soft-shelled crab maki

salmon salad

scallops

phoenix roll – one of sushi tei’s bestseller

Sushi Tei @ the Paragon
http://www.sushitei.com.sg
290 Orchard Road #05-12/18 Paragon, Singapore 238859
Telephone 65 6235 1771
Facsimile 65 6235 1661

updates?!

Ok, had this post in my drafts for quite a while now, was intending to post this before but then this and this happened. So I will just edit this out and post it anyway…

.. I have been trying to organize all of our digital photos. Planning to put it into one online gallery instead of what I have now which is a lot of different online galleries, nakakalito na. [syempre still haven't finished with this, ang hirap ayusin lahat ng pictures lalo na when you just save them on your hard drive and don't organize it at once.]

… Last Sept 9, Ichi and Ton‘s cousin M invited us over for a birthday barbeque at her condo.

… Siobs (M who’s currently based in London) will be here in November. She will be flying back to Manila to attend her cousin’s wedding so she’s passing by Singapore to visit with us and finally see her inaanak (godson) e. she finally booked her flight so looks like it’s all set. Her mom and uncle will meet with her in Manila for the wedding and then they will go to Boracay (or bora as it is fondly called) with my mom and auntie S, sana lang we could join them. [A little more than a week and she'll be here, can't wait to catch up with her. On the bora thing, after looking at our budget it'll definitely not happen for e and I. Sayang, Ichi will be in Indonesia then pa naman, oh well some other time siguro.]

… Just heard (from Len, Ness’s sister who’s also based here in Singapore with her husband) that our friend Ness will be stopping over in Singapore this November en route to her new life in Australia. We will finally be able to meet Joel, her fiancee, they’ll be traveling back to Australia together after their engagement party in Manila. [We were able to attend Ness & Joel's engagement dinner at Rockwell last October 22. It was fortunate that we were also in Manila as we flew back to attend Ichi's guakong's (maternal grandfather) 90th birthday celebration. See you guys here in sg, I think Ness, Joel and Len will be arriving tonight.]

… Ichi will fly to indonesia in October to do user training for their current client. He says there are plans for him to go again in November and if that pushes through E and I can hopefully go to bora. [Ok, Ichi wasn't able to go to Indonesia that time due to his appendectomy which he had a couple of days before his scheduled flight, his collegue had to go in his place. He does have another scheduled flight towards the end of November. And yeah yeah, the bora thing didn't work out.]

.. My mom will be here in October and then E and I will fly back with her to manila, a few days earlier than Ichi’s guakong’s 90th birthday celebration. Icelle will fly to Singapore from Myanmar (where she’s based) and will fly back to Manila with Ton and Ichi on the 20th. [My mom and Auntie S flew in the first of October. Auntie stayed till the 6th. As Ichi had his appendectomy, we rebooked his flight and flew back to Manila together so he can also get some much needed rest. Icelle's original plan was to fly back to Manila via Singapore but since we were already in Manila she flew back via Thailand which is a bit cheaper than passing thru here. She instead planned to fly thru here going back to Myanmar but the timing wasn't right again as we flew to Krabi the weekend that she was going back. So for now, the plan will be for her to pass here in February when she goes back to Manila for chinese new year.]

… We had dinner with pao & cris two fridays ago at din tai fung, this restaurant was ranked as (ok say it with me) one of the world’s top ten best restaurants by the new york times. They’re famous for their xiao long bao (dumplings). There’s always a long queue at this restaurant but then again saan ba wala dito sa sg? :p Anyways, going back what we like about this restaurant is their xiao long bao and porkchop rice. [Though it's not one of our favorite restaurants we've eaten there quite a few times in their different branches, each time with diffrent sets of company, ewan lang gusto lang din naman ipatikim sa kanila yung food.]

First BBQ party on one August night

We had our first barbeque party here in SG last Saturday (August 26, 2006) at our place. We did not try it the last time we worked here, back in 2002. Michelle and my cousin Ton prepared the party for my birthday, thank you very much. A big kiss to my wife and Ethan, you are my life. A big hug to my cousin. The food was very nice…tuna pasta, liempo, chicken and sushi.

I must say I was very happy since all the people I consider dear to me here in SG came. Cris, the very much pregnant Tinand Ronald, Karen and Jack and Kathleen with their friend Joy, Kiro, Maia, Mechie and Selwyn, Mike, Paolo. Thanks for helping out during the party and thank you for celebrating my nth birthday with me. I stopped counting a year ago. Having you as family and friends is indeed a blessing, what more can I ask for.

after-bbq pic at our unit, we forgot to take a group pic during the bbq, haha. – mich

a day out

My mother-in-law’s in town so last Sunday we decided to bring her to chinatown. She enjoyed going around the area and looking at the different items on offer at the various stalls and shops there. She even bought various muscle pain liniments to bring home and tea to boost your energy for hubby. Definitely the highlight would be the yummy dinner we had at the food street there. We ate laksa, noodles and dim sum. The dim sum was my favorite, it was really yummy. Looking forward to going back and eating there again, I think that would be when my mom comes for a visit in a couple of months.

I will post some pics later.

breadtalk ko

Usually when Ichi comes home and he brings something E would usually run up to him and get whatever it is that Ichi brought home and bring the item to me. A few months back, Ichi brought home some floss from breadtalk and as usual E greeted him at the door and took the plastic bag from him. This time though he went straight to his playmat sat down and took one bread out and proceeded to eat it. It was such a joy to see him eating the bread all on his own.

back from manila

We enjoyed every minute of our vacation in Manila, getting to see our families and catching up with some friends kahit na super singit na lang sa mga schedules. Our entire trip was mostly about the wedding as BIL & SIL asked us to help coordinate on the day, mas na-stress pa nga ako with their wedding than when I was planning mine :p. Kami ni Ton lang ata ang super harrased, hahaha. Anyways, everyone enjoyed the wedding and despite it not being that “organized”, our families we’re both happy with the whole celebration. E was super cute and pogi in his little barong and Ichi and I were really proud and happy that he walked the aisle, nagsusumpong nga nung una but when Ichi saw that he was looking at Karl (the ring bearer) walk, he put E down and E walked as well. It’s just a pity that we don’t have that many pictures as Ichi and I were both very busy at the wedding.

Movie time
I was deadset on watching some movies while back home (syempre chance ko ng makanood dahil the grandparents were more than willing to babysit) so I got my brother to take me to watch The Lake House starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, I watched the movie not only because I like Sandra but also because I loved the Korean movie, Il Mare which this movie is a remake of. Syempre we also made sure that we got to watch the highly anticipated Superman Returns which I also hope to catch again on IMAX.

E’s first carousel ride
Last June 24, after we picked up Ichi at the airport we went to the nearby SM City Clark and chanced upon a carousel in the middle of the mall. E was happily pointing at ride that we decided to let him try it. Here’s a pic of father and son on it.

HEAT
Ever since I read Lori’s post on HEAT (Edsa Shangri-la’s newest restaurant), I made sure that during our trip home we would try it out. So two Mondays ago off we went to Edsa Shang for a buffet lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that the place was almost full despite it being a Monday and lunch at that. The food was delicious, you will really want to try everything that they have to offer. The dessert bar was something that I was really looking forward to as I love sweets and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The buffet is definitely worth splurging on.