zambo trip ng mga igits - 1 of 2

it's nice to have friends come over and visit me here in zamboanga... although i know their ulterior motive is to go to Sta Cruz island... hehehe just kidding... they're my travel buddies back in Manila. This is ezra's 2nd time and first for Ryan & Ray (naiwan sila ng plane last time), Dianne (marami kasing excuses dahil takot pumunta ng Zamboanga) and Etz.

Last time i have friends over, my preps was over the top... and we had so much fun going around zambo & sta cruz island. (2009 zambo trip ng mga igits posts: GE Pips in Zambo , Mt.Pulong Bato, Freedom Park, Jardin Lobregat, Camp Atilano & Tree House, Sta Cruz -1, Sta Cruz - 2, Canelar Barter, Sta Cruz - 3, Fishpond, Sta Cruz - 4, Kape Zambo, Cawa-Cawa). But sadly this time, i barely did any preparation because of work and my pregnancy... i hope somehow they still had fun during their super quick trip...considering the planned sta cruz island trip was cancelled due to bad weather.

Guiwan Market

i was this unprepared that i have to drag them to the market after picking them up from the airport... :D but looks like they had fun going around that small place... hehe


Fort Pilar Shrine

last time i brought the previous group here there was a mass going on, we made sure there's none at the time we went there.

Zamboanga National Museum

they didn't get to come here last time too! so we made sure this is one of our first stops...it started to rain after we went around the museum. btw, they've closed the "aquarium"-like part of the place.

Canelar Barter

they have a shorter trip this time so we made sure we'll have their barter needs covered soonest so we'll have the rest of the time going around.

Pasonanca Park

weather's not really nice to us that day. We made a quick stop at the Pasonanca park for a little shoot and for them to see that famed Tree House.

Kape Zambo

and to end the day... we spent time to just chillax at Kape Zambo. Sound trip and food trip galore.

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everywhere around Zambo

11June2011

some photos used were from Ezra Montemayor (as indicated)

colette's buko pie now in zamboanga!!!

i'm not really a huge fan of Colette's buko pie... i was actually turned off when i cut the first and only colette's i bought during one of my Laguna trips before was only half filled with buko... but last month an officemate brought a colette's at the office and told us that it's already availble in zamboanga. i took one slice and surprised to see a different version of colette's... it's buko galore! and their pie here is only Php175!!! compared to the Php200+ in manila (even in laguna i guess). 

so one weekend, we went out of our way to visit the store... they cook the pies there. good thing the displays were newly cooked so we got really fresh pies! 

it's a bit weird to find a Colette's sign here... hehe 

good ol' classic Colette's Buko Pie!

they also have Buko-Langka & Buko-Pandan Pie variants

and the Buko Pie Supreme... i guess it's the topping that's different about this one. But i find this too much for me... so i'm sticking with the classic buko pie... :-)

Dulce Recuerdos de Zamboanga - name of the store. They also sell other famous food from various places.

they also have a packaged lokot-lokot! now aside from the usual barter's coco jelly this is something i can bring as pasalubong.

Colette's or should I say Dulce Recuerdos de Zamboanga's exact address. It's near Claret School.

just so you won't completely miss it, it's inside this building. the only building you'll find at the back of Jollibee-San Jose, Zamboanga City.

kusina experiment: mango crepe w/ butterscotch sauce!

i have days when i would think of something to cook out of nowhere... most of the time trying to mix different food ideas i get from all my food trips... for this, i combined the idea i got from that unforgettable butterscotch banana we had during our Pagudpud trip (had it at Kapuluan Beach Resort) plus that "orgasmic" (according to my friend ezra) deja vu crepe of Cafe Breton... :-)

months ago i've discovered how to make fresh lumpia wrappers... well not really discovered but tried what i found online... and decided i could use the same for a crepe... although texture was still a bit different, so i've tried to search again for a crepe recipe... i should have added milk.... i will still have to try that later. :D 

anyways, for now here's my mango crepe with butterscotch sauce recipe. it's basically made of 3 parts: the crepe with mango, butterscotch sauce, and the ice cream! :-)

the mango crepe

     what you'll need:

          sweet ripe mangoes - as many as you want!!!

          1 egg, lightly beaten

          1/2 cup water

          1/4 cup cornstarch

          dash of salt

          oil to grease the pan

     here's how:

          1. Mix egg, water, cornstarch and salt thoroughly until smooth

          2. Take about 1/4 cup of batter to make each crepe (piece of wrapper)

          3. Brush some oil on a non-stick pan. Spread the batter thinly by turning the pan 
              around. Cook only one side of the crepe over low heat.
          4. Using a spatula, lift the crepe out of the pan.
          5. Arrange the mangoes on the half part of the crepe then fold.


      tips:
          - Don’t keep the crepe too long on the pan as it will be toasted. 
          - When it turns slightly brown or small bubbles appear on the surface, it’s cooked!
          - if you don't have a non-stick pan, a brush and the cover of that trusty saingan is a 
            good alternative

the butterscotch sauce:

 what you'll need:

          4 tablespoons unsalted butter

          1 cup of brown sugar

          3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream (nestle cream would do!)

          1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

          dash of salt

          

     here's how:

          1. Melt butter under low to medium heat.

          2. Before the butter is completely melted, add the brown sugar. Stir until sugar is  

              uniformly wet.

          3. Stir infrequently until mixture turns from looking grainy to molten lava. This will 

              take about 3 to 5 minutes.

          4. Once you'll notice that the caramelizing brown sugar begins to feel and look more 

              liquid than a thick wet sand, add the cream. Use a whisk at this point.

          5. Lower the heat while whisking the cream into the mixture. Once the liquid is 

              uniform turn back the heat and continue whisking for another 10minutes. Turn off 

              once this boiled after the 10minutes.

          6. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Taste, and add salt and vanilla until your desired 

              butterscotch taste is achieved.

      tips:

          - The whole process will happen really quick so make sure all ingredients are 

            measured and are ready within reach before starting.

the ice cream and the final touch!!!

 what you'll need:

          mango crepe (arranged as mentioned above)

          butterscotch sauce

          mango or vanilla flavored ice cream (other flavors may not be good for this!)

 here's how:

          drizzle butterscotch sauce all over the mango crepe and on the sides as you wish. 

          Add a scoop or 2 of mango or vanilla ice cream. Best served while crepe is hot and 

          ice cream is at its perfect state! ENJOY!!!

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sourced of recipes:

Simply Recipes - for the butterscotch sauce

Pinoy Recipes - for the crepe

mango crepe arranged and photographed by my dude!

zambo foodtrip: VG Queen Health Food Center

this is a nice foodie find for me! after trying the nice veggie resto in Tacloban last year, I was really hoping there's also a veggie resto here too... when i told my friends about this they recommended VG Queen to me. We've been planning to go there since last year but...well at least finally we get to try it now! :-) I was told that you are required to finish everything that's on your plate. So we're up with the challenge... hoping food is good. 

It's located at Campaner St. That's the street that leads to the back of McDonalds (the one located in front of Zamboanga Cathedral). Just at the part of the street that's about to curve, you'll find this old building with the yellow VG Queen signboard.

it's not as posh as the veggie resto i've encountered in Tacloban... so don't set your expectations too high. setup is more carinderia-like. The owner is a chinese so you'll see a lot of chinese stuff inside the shop.... and lots of Vegan & food wastage reminder. :-) 

it's basicall self-service. you may stuff your plate with as many as you want. they will charge you Php20 per 100grams. veggie BBQ and rice costs Php10. they have a lot of choices... only thing i didn't like is i don't know the names of the dishes... :D

this is my plate... i guess i overestimated my capacity to eat... took a lot of pasta... i was the last to finish, was forcing all of these in my stomach even though i was already full with just half of what's in my plate. the BBQ's ok, nothing to really rave about. Pasta is good. the mongo sprouts are a fave! it's still crunchy and feels like it's not cooked but doesn't tastes raw. and there's this intestine-looking veggie dish that's also a favorite!

except for the fact that they're serving healthy food, i don't have anything specific to rave about the place. it's nice that there's a vegetarian resto in zamboanga... i've heard they've been operating for years already i hope they'll exists longer... i've noticed that during lunchtime there are a lot of customers too! so i suppose they really have their support. :-)






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VG Queen Health Food Center
Campaner St., Zamboanga City
Tel No.: (062) 991-9191
29 June 2011

zambo wedding singers: Allan, Rawen & Ritzie!

another part of the wedding which i completely entrusted to hubby.... i'm into a lot of different types of music but we both agreed that our wedding songs will be mainly acoustics... his fave and mine too... (was actually thinking also of reggae if only the wedding singers can do it...). he told me he's getting Allan, his friend who regularly sings in Kape Zambo (one of our fave hangouts here in zamboanga) to sing during reception. and told me further that Allan will be bringing 2 more girls to sing with him, sisters Rawen & Ritzie. I've already heard Allan sing and play the guitar, and he's really good! i am very confident he would really do justice to the songs we wanted for the wedding... i was a bit hesitant about the 2 girls because i never had the chance to hear them sing in Kape Zambo... 

Leo asked me for the songs i want to be included in our list.... I told him to make sure Never Saw Blue Like That by Shawn Colvin, Feels Like Home by Chantal Kreviazuk, Lucky by Colbie Callait & Jason Mraz and a lot of other Colbie Callait songs are included in the list. On his part he wanted Jason Mraz songs and his all time song for me daw - The First Time I Love Forever (cheeziness galoreeee!!!).

Leo chose Never Saw Blue Like That for our entrance at the reception... that was the first time I heard Rawen sing... i kept on smiling the whole time... i really really like the way she sang it. :-) and then Ritzie sang The First Time I Love Forever for our first dance.... it was sooooooo smooth and soooo nice! super love... kulang na lang yung Somewhere I Have Never Traveled poem snippets... :-) Leo had it in his mind daw during preps to say the poem in between the singer's part but completely forgot about it already during the day.


too bad we chose to only have an SDE video that's why moments like that was not completely captured... so when we had the chance to be at Kape Zambo while it was our wedding singers performing, we asked them to sing our songs again and i was able to get a video of 2 of the songs. :-)

here's Never Saw Blue Like That (sorry for the dark vid and the noisy friends behind camera!)


and here's Feels Like Home. they sang this when we had the cutting of the cake.


Kape Zambo's close as of this blogpost (for renovation). I know Allan still performs in Mano-Mano in Paseo del Mar. You may want to check them out there. :-) And just in case you want to consider them for weddings or whatever, here's Allan Ebojo's number: 0915 397-7745. :-)






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Kape Zambo
Canelar, Zamboanga City
11 June 2011

zambo foodtrip: ISAW sa Paseo del Mar

just one of those random foodtrip fridays ng kaladkarin. :-) found a way to dodge my grounded status and joined them since they've been craving for isaw the whole week already. They've been raving about how good the isaw  is at Paseo... so despite the little rain, we headed to that crowded place....

for now i think there's only one resto selling isaw in Paseo. It's at the end part of the stretch of restaurants on the right side. The one selling the famous Knicker Bucker's also the one selling the isaw. They've setup this cart where they grill and fry street foods... aside from isaw and tempura, i think i remember trying their chicken balls too (you'll taste more potato than chicken hehehe). 

isaw costs Php1.00 per stick. this tastes really good! i'll vouch for this! a must try!

tempura costs Php5.00 per stick. i'm just ok with their tempura. i think i prefer the tempura we use to have along cawa-cawa or inside Grandstand... the one being sold by street vendors. :-)

some of the kaladkarins. edsel (left most) is usually the one who starts a craving that ends up to be our friday foodtrip destination... :D

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Paseo del Mar, Zamboanga City
01 July 2011

zambo foodtrip: Bibing's BBQ stand

for a city that is very much a meat-lover a barbeque stand will surely be a hit... but this Bibing's BarbQ stand flourished and had grown bigger... i was told that they had been selling barbeques for years already but i only get to try them back in 2009, my dude introduced me to their barbeque... there's nothing really extraordinary about it but it's very filling and tastes just perfect, not too salty or anything, just the average barbeque you would want with a very hot soy&calamansi sawsawan. it's along the way to my dude's house so everytime we need to have our barbeque fix, we always buy it from this stand.

and on one of my kaladkarins' foodtrip fridays they decided to try Bibing's barbeque... and despite my grounded status (for now), i insisted on joining them... :-)

Bibing's BarbQ stand is located along Sta Maria Road. If you're from Zambo's downtown, you'll find it on the left side of the road just right after the Edwin Andrews Airbase Gate and before the Blue Diamond (what a landmark! hehe). It's just a small carinderia but you'll never miss it because it's the only place on that side of the road that is literally smoking once they open in the afternoon.

here's the place's signboard, just so we're very sure. :-)

this is what's going to welcome you once you're at the front. non-stop cooking of kilos of barbeques for customers who would either eat at their carinderia or just take the barbeques home. There are times that you have to fight your way inside and to the lady who's taking your orders because customers just seem to keep coming. there's always another person who's trying to have his order taken

and if you choose to eat there, here's how their carinderia look like. somewhat clean. serve yourself with all the sili and calamansi you can have (the supplies are in the lower part of this pic)

each stick now costs Php16. It had gone up but still worth it though... I can finish 4 pork barbeque sticks and 2 chix atay... hehe

i need to control my weight gain so i have to stop myself from getting another serving of rice... :-)

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a little sidetrip after foodstuffing... since we were still too full we decided to have a little walk and shoot at Paseo de Jardin in Pasonanca.... trying to feel not too guilty... :-)

old school mails

i can't remember what drove me to go through my stuff last February... probably the wedding preparation did... and i encountered my old letters.... most of these were sent to me by highschool friends, kuya and mamang when I was in 1st year college in UP.... the internet was just beginning to take over the Philippines at that time, it's not as accessible now as it was back then (i remember paying Php60/hr before in some net cafes in UP Shopping Center!!!). 

These made me realize how much i miss exchanging written letters with friends before... just imagine how much effort is being put in each letter sent... from what stories to tell, what stationary and pen to use, if some time can be spared just to write letters, if it will be sent an ordinary mail only or will need a special delivery.... i really really appreciate that we had these correspondence before, it helped me cope with my sudden new life in Manila... these exchanges went on until the 2nd semester of my 1st year (1998-1999)...after that, we're all hooked with the net... and exchanges became less and less... either because it's easier and faster and can be done just anytime or we just all end up too busy with college....

but it's nice to see these letters again.... very heartwarming, made me smile after reading all the gossips and secrets shared... since we will be fixing the room for the baby, i will be kicking out some old stuff, but these... these pretties will remain close to me, so its staying... :-)

this kind of communication is going to be extinct any time soon, i'm pretty sure.... which gave me an idea just now.... *wink wink!*

my usual penpals: cherry, ela, monira, kuya, mamang, izzy, julius.... had a letter or 2 from hubby leo (i did not allow him to send me letters then, but he found a way! haha)

how about you, are you also keeping old notes like these? :-) 

underwater preggy shoot

i'm only 6months pregnant during the shoot thus the not so big tummy yet.... perfect timing that my GE buddy Ezra had already a planned trip to zamboanga since last year (thanks to Airphil's tix sale), i was so sure she would be my perfect photog for an underwater shoot (because my hubby's so worried being in the pool's not good for the baby hehehe)....

all photos here were taken and edited by ezra.... lots of headless shots hehehe but i love how it all turned out... here's some of my faves!

zambo wedding supplier: TWIGHT! (lights&sounds)

another fave find! when we were preparing for the wedding, i didn't bother myself with the lights and sounds and asked my hubby to do the search instead... he happen to know Twight for several events already (i guess including our homecomings).... when he told me we're getting Twight, I was a bit hesitant at first because they're charging us half of the price our office paid for the lights and sounds  we had last christmas party... i tried to compare notes... but decided in the end to just trust hubby on this.... 

wedding day... i was a bit overwhelmed with all the smoke and bubbles... they've been very generous -- super like! probably i really had very small expectations from them that my reaction after seeing how they've contributed to the "simple but elegant" feel i wanted the reception to have seems a bit exaggerated... :-) but then, i just really think we got more than what we paid for... :D


for now there's no way to contact them online... they do not have photos to show just yet... but i would definitely vouch for them... :-)


they may be reached through these numbers: 0929 330 0420 or 0916 184 6452