G-OGRAPHY: a southeast asian lady travels...

First of all Happy New Year =) Here's to 2010. It was a very very good year and I know 2011 will be fantastic!! CHEERS!

Ok, so I was suppose to upload blog posts on my Peru and Bolivia trip but I'd rather savor the last hours of 2010. Actually, I've been procastinating for months now on doing this. I chose, to instead, make my own new year's meal from scratch (beef stew, rosemary bread, pomeberry tinis and apple crumble with madagascar vanilla ice cream).

Plus, I obviously chose to post some photos of last Christmas...I hope your Christmas was as fun. Being an expat, I am lucky to have my Aunt (my dad's sister), her family and her husband's clan as my extended family in the US. I do miss Christmas in the Philippines where my parents, my bro and sis still live. It's totally lots of fun and very festive. Most of all, it's the best time to hit the beach!!! As you can see in this Yuletide surf trip post from 3 years ago. *sigh*


Christmas day...totally missed on on taking more family pix. This was just half of the chaos. As usual, the day was filled with eating followed by a Wii Just Dance showdown and a Pictionary battle of the sexes where the boys tried to cheat! =)



My family picture with Roxy-pooh


My uncle, aunt, cuz and Woxie-pooh



This is Mojo- not a shrunken Roxy =) It's the new pup in the block.


My cousin is into baking and decorating cakes with fondant.

Christmas eve at my aunt's...she went with fancy finger food. There wasn't a lot of cooking but the prep work was so tedious!!!!! We thought nobody was going to show up- thus the empty photos. The clan showed up finally and the stuffing of faces began. It was a chill night...my uncle put on netflix streaming and we watched a riveting documentary on dogs (which I've already seen). The young ones played rock band and I was so tired that I said goodbye to everyone, went to my room and slept.















Roxy is sporting a cat Christmas ski cap that I got her from Target...she absolutely hated it.



Christmas decor in our apartment...oh this is my first real Christmas tree ever. It's magical. Growing up in a tropical country we only had coconut trees...hehehe...ok actually we had fake overpriced trees made from China.

I have recently been watching the Cooking Channel nonstop. I love how the shows are edgy and fresh. Everything is just damn good. One of my favorites would be Jaime Oliver's: Jaime does Christmas and Jaimie's Family Christmas. It's a rustic, quirky and hearty production. I love how he has different members of his family as his guests. Add Jaime's no frills approach to food and sense of humor- you will be glued.I think he's my foodie soulmate. I knew it as soon as I saw him show how awesome a combo of grappa, frozen grapes and chocolate are. I thought I was the only one experimenting on store bought food and/or drink combos. Ok I am a bit smitten by Jaime Oliver =) Who wouldn't be? Women love a good cook and with an accent to boot. Ha!

Anyways, the channel has inspired me to start cook. I've dabbled here and there but I realize that it's now or never. I have to start getting serious about cooking. I, after all, come from a family of good cooks. Most especially, my Lola Nena who hands down is one of the best cooks I've ever known in my life.

Below are a couple of dishes I made.




This is my pride and joy. It's my queso de bola cheesecake with muscavado sauce. In the Philippines it's traditional to have a ball of cheese on the Christmas dining table. This usually goes with Chinese ham, grapes or grated on top of fresh buns of ensaymada. It's the perfect Nochebuena accompaniment. Note: QDB Queso De Bola is just edam cheese.

For this recipe, I took a rich and creamy cheesecake recipe and added 2-3 cups of grated Queso De Bola. I then caramelized a cup of muscovado sugar with a cup of heavy cream (add a pinch of salt too). Muscovado is a type of unrefined sugar common in the Philippines. We regularly use it on coffee and it tastes almost like molasses. I then suggest adding some crumbled walnuts on top of the finished product to break the heaviness of the cheesecake. Warning: this is very decadent- it's sweet with bits of saltiness while the sauces has a deep caramel flavor. Ultimately, this converts your regular cheesecake into a unique Filipino dessert =)




Siomai- to make it Filipino style serve it with rice and a side of toyomansi (soy sauce with lemon juice). When I was young, my mom used to make this at home. I was always fascinated by the way she was able to daintily wrap this delightful mixture of minced shrimp, pork, carrots and green onions. The key is to buy your ingredients fresh from your local Asian store. For the wonton or siomai wrappers, avoid getting the ones in the freezer- gross. The wrappers also come with a simoai/wonton recipe which I actually ripped off for this one. The bamboo steamer came from World Market (just place it on a wok with boiling water for 10-15 minutes). You can also steam some bok choy leaves and mushrooms to serve as side dishes.



This is a pho/wonton soup hybrid. You can choose to use leftover wonton/siomai or thin slices of beef round eye. Boil the wonton noodles separately because they are covered in starch that will cause your broth to become thick. You don't want that to happen. To assemble, place blanched bok choy leaves and cooked noodles in a bowl. Then place the beef slices on the side and pour boiling beef broth in the bowl. This will cook the beef. You can also choose to precook the beef. To do this, quickly dip the thin slice of beef in boiling water. You want it to be soft and not overcooked.



Ah, the classic pot roast. Awesome for a rainy California wintery-ish Sunday. I was inspired by The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast. In fact, I just finished cooking this baby an hour ago and it went down really good with a glass of cheap wine. I made sure to put lots of veggies- I never seem to eat enough of this. God, it was so tasty and tender it took all of my self control not to gobble the whole pot up.



This is my aunt's thanksgiving seafood paella. As you may well know, the Filipino culture has a heavy Spanish influence. And as Filipinos living in America we always have to incorporate rice in our holiday cooking. This recipe makes for a very festive rice. It's surprisingly super good with turkey. We serve this instead of stuffing. It's just a mixture of yellow and white rice, clam juice, saffron and any seafood that you can fit in the pan. World Market sells a paella kit for $20 so all you need to buy is the meat.



This is Jamie Oliver's homemade pear pancake recipe. It is soooooo easy and soooo good even his kids can make it. If you don't have self-rising flour just add 1 1/2 tsps of baking soda to 1 cup of flour and a pinch of salt. As for yogurt, I am going to suggest the nice and thick greek style yogurt. For the pear, the red d'anjou's are in season so make the most of it.



Alas, it won't be Christmas without frosted cookies. This is a shortbread cookie that my cousin mixed up. She didn't have time to finish it so I shaped, baked and frosted these babies. As you can see, I have yet to improve my piping skills. I've already popped 3 of these and am currently making room for my leftover QDB Cheesecake. Folks, Christmas is the only time of the year that you should enjoy guilt free eating =)

Print Screening it = framing it.

Ok so according to this blog post I'm "LA’s Top 100 NON-Celebrity Bloggers You Should Take to Lunch : Social Media Marketing Secrets". I didn't even know I was on the list until I saw someone tweet the article on Hootsuite. So who's taking me out to lunch =)

By the way, I would really love for you guys to leave a comment. I know you are out there lurk...errrr....reading. Send me some cyber love.

I don't know what's more embarrassing- having mud on your face or having mud on your face because you failed to land a front roll. This morning's Krav class was pretty intense since it was held outdoors at a nice muddy park. Plus it was the last few sessions so instructors want you to step it up. One of the drills was to pick a partner where you then proceed to run after each other. Once you catch up to your partner you give them a push from behind. The idea was to quickly do a front or forward roll once this happens. This means you have to put your arms up and around as you tuck your head while you start to roll towards the ground. As you roll, your hands and forearm should hit the ground first while following through with your shoulders then the side of your body. It sounds easier said than done. It's hard to remember since rolling forward is not what you do all the time. Add the attack scenario and you have adrenaline rushing through your body. This video will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about especially 1:20 in to it:



Now this may come natural to some but I'm not one of those people who would do rolls and flips when they were a kid- and for fun. I hate falling! So when my partner caught up to me and gave me a shove. Boy was I not ready. I ended with half of my face kissing the muddy ground. I turned around to my partner (chunky white guy) and I knew as soon as I looked at him I had mud smeared on half of my face. He did not even try to hide his laugh.

I admit, I've missed some sessions over Thanksgiving and some Sunday morning ones which always cover the groundwork. So yes, I was rusty on the front roll. I eventually got it together in time for the obstacle bonanza the instructors had in store for us. We essentially had to run through the park, climb up a kiddie slide and scale a low wall, front roll and bear crawl while defending ourselves from chokes, punches, headlocks and unleashing our "lethal" elbow/heel strikes, punches, kicks and knee throws throughout the course. Not to mention my all favorite forefinger on attacker's nose to release a side headlock move. *cringe* There's just something about possibly touching a strangers mucus that disturbs me during a non real attack session. But seriously it is very effective when done right. I've brought some large men down to the ground with this finger technique (in Krav class all are encouraged to make an effort to simulate an attack). This video shows you how to do this:



It's hard work but it's also a good time. In Krav Maga there are two rules: 1) There are no rules 2) Use your aggression and effort to defend yourself. Here's a really good video from the History channel's Human Weapon series which features Krav Maga (the rest is on Youtube):



Sorry, I know it's cut off but there were no options for a smaller frame so just watch it on YouTube.

Last Tuesday my dog was attacked by a rottweiler on our way back to our condo from our usual morning walk. We were this -> <- close to our place when this big black dog came running towards us. It happened so fast. One second she was sniffing Roxy then suddenly my dog was off the ground being mangled by the rot. The owner came running while I stood there frozen...or rather I was screaming "oh my god, oh my god". I didn't know what to do! Thank goodness he was able to pry off my dog from the jaws of death. Roxy emitted this horrible whimpering/crying/panicky sound as I tried to comfort her. It was just so surreal. I still couldn't believe that Rot was off it's leash!!! I'm lucky since the owner was decent enough to give his contact details (he also offered to pay for the vet bills).

After trip to the vet and 8 stitches later, I am happy to report that my dog is recovering. Next time around, I'll be more prepared. I'll be using my krav maga kick and chop on whatever tries to attack my dog! Grrrrrrrrr.

My buddy back in the Philippines recently moved to Palawan which is this amazing island in the southern part of the country. We've always talked about living next to the beach and he finally did it! With wife and son in tow this young family is living a sustainable and organic life (check out his blog: http://myonebigtrip.wordpress.com/ and this is his wife's: http://dharmadream.blogspot.com/). He's been sharing stories on how his quality of life has increased. Now he has time to wake up and watch the squirrels from the trees in his backyard and make his own peanut butter!

Did I mention that he just opened a boutique adventure shop for tourists who want to explore the island the off the beaten track kinda way? If you are planning to go to the Philippines check out http://discoveramazingpalawan.com/.

NNP is back!


Krav Maga is the Israeli hand-to-hand combat system that involves wrestling, grappling and striking techniques (very brutal counter attacks). It's heavily influenced by street fighting with an emphasis on threat neutralization, simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression. The Israeli military isn't the only using Krav...it's so effective that various American law enforcement and intelligence organizations have adopted it. If you've ever seen Liam Neeson's movie Taken, a lot of the fight scenes use moves from Krav Maga.

For ordinary folks like us, Krav Maga can be most useful for self-defense. I'm into my 3rd week of training and so far I really like the practical and applicable approach of this technique. Being a single female I'm pretty vulnerable to a lot of possible hostile situations especially when I travel. One of the things that Krav can teach me is how to handle myself during a life threatening situation. The objective here is not to win the fight but to fight to gain enough time to run somewhere safe or to get help.

I used to take Karate when I was a teenager and eventually became a brown belt. It gave me a lot of strength and flexibility but I don't think I'd ever be able to use it to fend off an attacker. I think it didn't really lend a lot of the mental conditioning that Krav has. For example, drills consist of partnering up with different people (women and men some very big) to simulate choke holds, fending off attacks from the ground and running erratically around a crowded small room like you were being chased while trying to avoid from being grabbed.

Again I'm only on my 3rd week so I am looking forward to what fundamental techniques I can learn from Krav. More to come...

My first test batch of lemon squares were a hit...thanks to my Aunt for sharing her secret recipe! I think I may have a future career in baking...next on my list is bread!

This year I've decided to skip the usual American Halloween festivities and hole myself up in my apartment. I just cooked myself a test batch of homemade lemon squares and semi-homemade mac n cheese. For the main event, I have queued up a cult classic that I've never had the chance to watch...




god, I love b-movies and their awesome posters.

of course is my dog =)look at the small little wet nose and big brown eyes! *cuuuuteeee*

Have I ever mentionied that my brother is a wedding photographer? He is now here in the US visiting from the Philippines. He is also here to shoot a wedding and some prenups. Bro is going international..w00t! I'm a proud sister =)

The picture was take near the Wild Card Boxing Club along Vine- also close to my old apartment in H-wood. I took him around LA a week ago and you can check out his blog entry about it here. Ignore my icky photos and click on his other posts. I must say that he has really grown into his profession and passion. I'm really digging his gallery.

Oh btw, this is the first time I've seen him in two years. I say always good to spend time with family...at least in small doses.

It all began with my co-worker asking me about Peru. She and her man were possibly planning a trip so she asked for recommendations. I mentioned a couple of places to go and things to do. One of which concerned dishes to try. Thus, bringing us to the subject of the guinea pig. A national delicacy in Peru. Since co-worker had an Irish sense of humor I told her that she should try it. I was testing to see if this would faze her. Adding that I was Andrew Zimmerman enough to try it (I know! Don't judge). I was being silly and in the mood to shock. We were laughing when all of a sudden she stops and looks over my shoulder.

I glanced and it was one of our SVP's looking at us with this look of horror on his face. Well looking at me most especially. At first, I thought he was pretending to be in utter horror. After a couple of seconds we were like you didn't have a pet guinea pig before right? Of course as it turns out he did and had around 7 at one time in his life. Wow 7?

After he leaves, I discover he passed by our area to drop off a photo of him as a kid for one of the events we were arranging for work. Lo and behold on the photo was him holding the cutest guinea pig with the craziest hair ever. WOW. Like what were the chances huh?

Let's just say that I am now planning to adapt a rescue guinea pig from Peru to make up for my sins.

Number 1 soon to be addiction: Plants VS Zombies extended play on XBLA (click on link for the super cute music video dedicated to the game). I love it! The game designer, George Fan, really did a great job on this indie platformer.It really puts the fun back in fighting zombies. None of the COD Nazi stuff that spooks me out! Who would have thought that plants can be bad-ass?! With colorful 2d graphics and a catchy in game tune it will have you chanting to brainsssss! BRAIIIINSSSS! in no time.



Number 1 current addiction: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know...I watched some of it back in the 90's but have lately been hearing about how good it was from fellow Joss Whedon fans (Firefly is the bomb!). Lucky for me my cousin has the whole 7 seasons. One of the things I love about watching a series after it has been released to DVD is that you don't have to wait for the next episode or the next season to find out what happened. Also, you get to know and understand the characters better and watch how they evolve. I like how Buffy takes a unique twist to the monster/occult/vampire genre- a blonde cheerleader saves the world (Heroes you were a decade too late). Plus, Whedon really knows how to pack a punch with those witty one liners. Makes me wonder if teenagers of America really talk this way? And are there real slayers out there? Hmmmm...Buffy much?

Photo: Buddha's Halo (dawn), Mt Fuji 2005

It's minutes away from the end of the year. At least for me it is. Seven years ago I started celebrating the beginning of my year during my birthday. I was 25 and I had just climbed Mt Fuji. There was something very inspiring about being up in the clouds looking at Buddha's Halo. It made me feel invincible. I thought if I was able to endure hours of trekking 12388 ft of stratovolcano solo (no guides, no buddies), then I could do anything. That was when I started making the list. It was a list of things to do before my next birthday which I do every birthday.

For the 31st year, it was:

1. Visiting Darwin in Galapagos [check]
2. Exploring the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu [check]
3. Experiencing the unearthly beauty of Salar de Uyuni [check]
4. Learning to choke and throttle while balancing on two wheels. [check]
5. Discovering the deep sea- well at least 60 ft or so of it. [check]
6. Completing my second triathlon. [check]

As for year 32, well I've got a lot of ideas. It may involve a Felucca, an iron fist, fresh mozzarella, the lost world, an island, some French and LOTS of imagination.

Happy New Year to me!

So I went out with my new sassy gay friend tonight at Urban Mo's (I randomly met him at this same bar a couple weeks back) which is in Hillcrest- a gay friendly neighborhood. I was excited because it has been a busy past couple of months on the new job and a new town. I had so much fun dancing and being silly with my new friend in San Diego when BAM he told me he wasn't gay (*cringe*)! At first I thought it was a joke but he was pretty serious. I was speechless. So why the hell would you invite me to hang out in a gay bar? Why? All signs indicated that he was gay! I have been around tons and I mean TONS of gay guys before and have a pretty good gaydar.

Ugh, I thought the weirdness would stop after I left LA. Yes, I felt pretty disturbed and a little violated (gay bars are my awesome mini getaways from the straight world). But there is one good thing that came out of it. It made me realize that straight women are more themselves with other women or with gay men. There totally is a different dynamic happening between heterosexuals. Maybe I speak for myself but it's like the mere fact that we acknowledge the difference in gender makes communication instantly complicated. I definitely had my guard up after that revelation. I guess I can become a little more uptight around men (uhm, come think of it who wouldn't be when it comes to meeting men in bars)! Now I know it's only in the head. Moral lesson: always be yourself and always make sure you get a second opinion when you gaydar fails!

Last October, I decided to get scuba certified. After diving the Catalina and Anacapa Islands I thought it was only proper to go on a scuba adventure. What better place to go than the Galapagos for 2 weeks of exploration. I have always been a fan of Darwin and the Galapagos is a place that has always captured my imagination. I envisioned a rustic prehistoric island isolated from civilization. I got there along with bus loads of European tourists wearing their matching khaki expedition outfits and saw a bustling little town filled with every creature comfort which included ATM's, wireless internet and LCD TV's with satellite cable. I guess I was 50 years too late. I know any other "normal" person would have loved these modern amenities but I really wished that things were a little more bare...a little more untouched.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed exploring the little island. It was very diverse in flora and fauna. The wildlife was amazing and so far it is the only place I have been to that had a bunch of iguanas, sea lions, tortoises and albatross' scattered around delightfully apathetic to us annoying tourists.


Ok maybe not so apathetic...Mr. Tortoise was hissing at me at this particular moment and I had a brief chilling vision of being attacked by an 1800 pound reptile (which is absurd because the only thing you have to watch out for would be their powerful fist crunching jaw if you were within it's reach).



One of the other things that I enjoyed about Galapagos and Ecuador in general is the people. Extremely friendly, always a smile on their faces. This being my first trip to South America, I also noticed a lot of similarities to the Philippines in terms of the food (their ceviches were scrumptious) and the culture. They were, after all, occupied by the Spaniards and though this may not make obvious sense to everyone Filipinos are the Latins of Asia. This is another long topic of discussion and debate that I think I will write about after I've traveled the world and collected more observations.






Anyways, back to the scuba story. So my friend and I had courageously booked a 5 day dive session from the awesome Scuba Iguana shop. I highly recommend that for beginners not to do the same because it is exhausting! You should pace yourself and allot time to roam around the different uninhabited islands. A lot of divers do a live aboard but I did not want to deal with the constant motion of the boat especially when going to the loo.

I think I was able to do a total of 12 dives after the trip. It was not the colorful tropical underwater setting that I am used to but the marine life was spectacular. We saw sharks, hammerheads, pelagic fish, rays, sea lions (they are as cute and as playful as puppies), eels, seat turtles, dolphins and a bevy of other sea creatures. A particular highlight was me cowering behind a pinnacle of rocks to witness a shark pit! The current was whipping around us and I had to grab on to the rocks for dear life. I also tried my hardest not to hyperventilate because there were a LOT of sharks up close (granted they were small reef sharks there were the bulkier Galapagos sharks that hovered). I was about to chicken out and swim away when this seal dives from out of nowhere and starts clowning around with the reef sharks. The group was able to capture the video here. Oh and 28 seconds in to this video a reef shark was filmed stalking me!! You can hear my friend yelp out GRACE!

Here are some more photo highlights of Galapagos:




Dolphins are always a good sighting. We saw a whale after this but I was too slow to take a photo.


First time doing a back roll. I like it more than a high jump!






Eels are really ugly.


Stalking a bat fish.


Deadly urchin.


Sea Turtle and a friend.


Bat fish up close.


An eagle ray...the manta rays were more majestic. They look like alien underwater birds.


Funny fish.


I think this was a Torpedo Ray.


Sharks!


We went inside a big ball of mackerel. To be honest, I got a little claustrophobic.


A school of fish.


The dive crew.


The cutest pelagic fish ever!


The dreaded stone fish...it's poisonous.