My Birthday 2014

 

July 12,2014 - The day of my flight back to to Davao. I flew to Manila on July 11 to attend my friend's wedding on July 12.

My mom made advance birthday misua for me.

 

July 24- My birthday misua

That evening, the whole family went to Claude's for dinner. (It's a French restaurant here in Davao)
These were the garnishing for Mr. Baked Potato, side dish to Monsieur Steak - Bacon bits, butter, home made sour cream and chives(?)

I (actually most of us) had the tenderloin steak - 330grams.
Gak! I'm a big eater, yet I almost couldn't finish this one. It's huge!

Afterwards, the French owner together with his staff turned off the lights in the private room and sang 'Happy Birthday' while walking in. Ofcourse the whole family chimed in.

I'm really quite lucky, none of those 'problem-with-the-in-laws' thing.

I then blew out the candle on my ube cake from Red Ribbon. Made 2 wishes too.

How I've missed Red Ribbon's cake so I specifically requested for it. I was disappointed though, the cake was dry, the whipped cream has developed a different taste, and the ube topping (which was basically just ube cake crumbs) was uber dry. Ugh! My 5 year old nephew took a bite and then just played with his food. When he was told to finish it, he said he doesn't like the taste.

Sigh, why do things change? I mean people change, but must the taste of 'foodsssss' also change?

Fyi, I hate the word 'foods'.

Peach Ballerina Flats

My first peach colored ballerina cut-out flats.
They're so cute, and pretty, and comfy, and cheap!

It's on sale on Zalora! Gak, I got pretty addicted to online shopping last July and am currently (Aug) on shopping rehab. I checked my online shopping account and discovered that I spent PHP8K in a month (about SGD230). Well, it's not a huge huge amount per se, but a significant amount still for online shopping.

Anyway, I'm steering away from my topic.

I'm 33 years old, and just started seeing the beauty of feminine flats.  Oh gosh, it's going to be a tough month, being restricted from shopping. *sad face*

Shinkansen (Tokyo to Kyoto)

Quite an effort to take a clear photo of the approaching train, especially since I'm just using a camera phone.
This shot is not bad at all!

 The train is such a cutie! Just look at the shape of its 'face'

 Inside the bullet train: It wouldn't be me if I didn't bring snacks for the ride from Tokyo to Kyoto. We ate Tokyo Banana, Calbee chips and Jagabee.

 Then the snack lady came along...

 So we ordered our bento boxes.
I knew it! We should've bought the bento boxes that were being sold outside the station. Theirs looked fresh and yummy.

 The one I ate wasn't so nice.. the tempura was quite dry and tough.
It just looked pretty.

I took a bite of this thing and took the whole thing out of my mouth because I didn't know what I was eating.
Then I saw the bite mark and thought it was so cute so I took a photo.
I'm pretty sure I was able to decipher then what the food was, but now I couldn't remember. Must have tasted plain that's why I've forgotten about it. 

It's quite expensive to take the shinkansen, but since it takes you to your destination at such a fast speed, I think it's well worth it.

The ride took about 2hrs ( a little over it).

Cherry Blossoms in Japan

We went to Japan mid-April of 2014. Good thing we were still able to catch some cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Some of them were already turning white though.

I think the best time to go then would be around end-March to first 2 weeks of April.  Be prepared though to shell out more since you'd be getting peak season rates for airfare and hotel nightly rates.

Note: we booked our hotels via japanican.com

 

This was taken in Kyoto, I think near the cityhall.  Near the Calbee store. I remember this well because I bought a lot from that Calbee store ^-^

Cute huh. A girl in kimono standing below a cherry blossom tree..

 The cherry blossoms in Osaka were the pinkest of them all. The petals are so fluffy soft!

Japanese Instant Ramen (Nissin)

 I bought a few bowls of instant noodles during my Japan trip. If only they weren't so bulky, I'd probably buy all the flavors available.

Bought this shoyu ramen and was so delighted to see the meat! The taste of the meat and ramen were good too, better than the ramen I ate at Menya Musashi Bedok Mall branch. (Hrmp. I've never liked the ramen there.)

One of 'em Mutant Food - Croissant Donut

I am so behind.. I've only eaten croissant-donut twice.. Well, it's the second time I've eaten a croissant-donut but I had a super bad experience the first time that I sort of swore off this food. Even when I was in Singapore, and my friend wanted to give me some cronuts, I didn't dare try and gently refused the offer. Imagine, me refusing food.. that's a very rare occurrence.

I bought my first croissant-donut at French Baker- SM Lanang. This was back in 2013, probably around September. When we got home, my husband took a bite and immediately spit the whole piece out.

I thought he was exaggerating, so I took a bite to try it. I did the same thing. Spit the piece out in disgust. It was stale-tasting and oh-sooooo-oily. I felt like I swallowed a tablespoon of oil. Eeeeew!

Two months ago, I was in SM Aura food court and I saw the Bronut stall in the middle. People were actually queueing for it. I was wondering why, because I thought the fad was on its way out..

Anyway, me being me, decided to give it a try. I mean, people were buying it, and with the fast turnover, their pastries were probably fresh.
I bought (my mom actually, so that she could use her senior citizen card) 1 belgium chocolate for my brother and I to share.

Oh why oh why did we just buy one!? It was so good! It tasted really fresh, and the croissant resisted each bite, making it more fun to bite into and chew on. The chocolate was of good quality too.

It's a bit pricey at PHP110, but I think it was well worth it.

Snack Box from Osaka

Bought this from Osaka.. wanted to buy something authentic for my husband since he wasn't able to join me during my Japan trip last April.

I was amused on my first bite since it did taste like okonomiyaki.. but the more I ate, the more I gagged with its fishy taste. I can't remember how much it was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't cheap.

Lesson learned (again) : Eat the real thing. Snacks flavored like dishes usually taste awful.  (I've had a similarly disgusting experience during my snack-buying spree in HK before)