My own version of sushi roll!

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of things for the first time. I am now calling the year 2012 as a year for a lot of first time. This is the year where I baked bread for the first time, baked cookies for the first time, cooked a carbonara for the first time, created some experimental dish, cooked a lechon paksiw for the time and a lot of other things. Most of these first times are connected to cooking, baking, or in short, lahat sila connected sa pagkain, katakawan lang.hahaha! And a few days ago, it was my first time to make a sushi roll. Enjoy pala gumawa ng sushi.hehehe!

the final product

I love eating sushi roll. I love eating different kind of sushi roll. Kakainis nga wala pang Teriyaki Boy dito sa Bicol so that means hindi ko makain yung mga gusto kong sushi roll sa menu nila. So one fine morning during the long holiday, me and my sister decided to create a sushi roll. My sister is kind of my kunwari chef assistant and my guinea pig because she helps me in cooking different kinds of experimental dish. She always ends up being the person who will test or eat the final product ng napagexperimentuhan kong dish kaya sya ang tinatawag kong guinea pig.hahaha! And she is also my harsh, worst and huge food critic or analyst.hahaha! We started our kunwari-cooking show by preparing all the ingredients for our sushi roll. I already purchased several ingredients from SM a few days ago so I have them all stored in the fridge.

the final product

Nagsimula kami sa paghiwa ng mga ingredients. Our sushi roll is a different sushi roll. It’s a different version. It’s an experimental version, as I would call it.hehehe! Our sushi roll is composed of Japanese rice, cucumber, carrots, cheese, crab sticks, nori and spam. It’s an ingredients-overload sushi.hahaha! We cooked about a ¼ kilo of Japanese rice and then after cooking the rice, hinaluan din namin ito ng vinegar na may sugar, salt and pepper. After mixing the rice with the vinegar and other spices, I then started rolling the sushi. I was able to create about 4 rolls using a ¼ kilo of Japanese rice. Medjo madami nga din ang nagawa kong sushi roll. Umabot din ng 32 pieces yung nagawa kong sushi because I divided each roll into 8 pieces. As usual, my sister tested my new product at okay din naman yung result. Medjo naovercooked nga lang yung rice kaya medjo sticky na talaga. So far, maliban sa overcooked rice, okay naman yung itsura ng sushi roll.hehehe!

In a few days, I might create a different sushi rolls. I still have several nori sheets left which I can use for making another version of sushi roll and I also have a wide imagination when it comes to experimenting with foods.hahaha! Kaya malamang madami na naman akong magagawang different version ng sushi roll because of my wide imagination. Anyway, I am encouraging you to also make your own version of sushi roll. It’s fun doing some experimenting when it comes to food and it’s fun when you’re doing something for the first time.

You can also check this website if you want to learn more on how to make a sushi roll. http://makemysushi.com/ Or you can just search in Google or Yahoo.

Guinobatan, Albay. The side trip.

Well, my trip to Guinobatan was just a side trip. This was actually not part of my travel itinerary because the main destination for the long weekend trip was Jovellar town in Albay. However, since going to Jovellar, one needs to travel to Guinobatan and from there you ride a jeepney to Jovellar, nagsidetrip na din ako sa Guinobatan. Actually, noong nakaraang long weekend, ang plano namin ng mga kaibigan ko is to go to Jovellar, and then Castilla and then Sorsogon City. Pero nagchange of plan kami when I learned that the last trip of the jeepney from Jovellar to Guinobatan is at 3pm. At dahil 10am na and I’m still waiting for my friend to arrive in Guinobatan from Manila, I just then told her na sa Sorsogon na lang muna kami mauunang pupunta but we’ll just meet first in Guinobatan town.

guinobatan public plaza

municipal hall of guinobatan

So while waiting for her to arrive in Guinobatan, nagikot ikot muna ako sa downtown. I took some pictures of their town plaza, church, town hall and monuments. Nakakaboring din kasi kung wala akong gagawin habang nagaantay. Guinonabatan is actually a simple town. There are no big business establishments there. Pwede mo nga din maikot ang buong downtown in just an hour.  By the way, a famous delicacy in Guinobatan is the rice puto or rice cake. Madami din rice puto or putong bigas sa ibang lugar but in Guinobatan, their putong bigas has a sweet macapuno filling. Marami ang nagtitinda ng delicacy na ito sa may Maharlika Highway malapit sa welcome arch ng Guinobatan. Anyway, that’s my story about Guinobatan. Side trip lang talaga ang town na to kaya wala naman ako masyadong maikwento.hehehe!

Our Lady of Assumption Church

st. benedict academy

Putong Bigas stall

putong bigas with macapuno filling

Affordable Food Destinations in Naga City, Camarines Sur.

So you’re in Naga City for a vacation, and you’re on a tight budget, or maybe you just want to make a food trip, and you’re looking for an affordable place to eat in Naga City, and you’ve search Google for information regarding Naga City, and you’ve landed on my website, THEN, good for you because I just have the information that can sort of help you. Pero kung ayaw mo sa webpage na to eh di ano…eh… please....’wag mong iclose…basahin mo naman muna oh! Hehehe! Nagmakaawa talaga..hehehe!

Anyway, I have listed here several locations in Naga City where you can find affordable restaurants, karinderia, turo-turo and famous streets for affordable foods in Naga City.

1. Naga Garden Restaurant

This restaurant is located at Panganiban Drive, near Plaza Rizal. The restaurant is famous for toasted siopao and the yummy lomi. They also serve some bicolano dishes at an affordable price.

Naga Garden Restaurant

2. Mama Eñga Restaurant

If you’re looking for authentic bicolano dishes, then go to this restaurant located at Peñafrancia Avenue, in front of Emily Theater. The restaurant is just a small restaurant near the famous The Park restaurant of Crown Hotel. Mama Eñga serves affordable and delicious bicolano dishes such as pinangat, laing and bicol express.

Mama Eñga

3. Geewan Restaurant

Now, if you want a little bit of classy but affordable restaurant offering bicolano dishes, then proceed to Geewan Restaurant located at P.Burgos Street, near Plaza Quezon (at the back of the grandstand) This restaurant offers different dishes including bicolano dishes. Turo turo style ang restaurant na to pero medjo may pagkakonting sosyal but affordable still to people on a tight budget.

Geewan Restaurant

4. Ateneo Avenue

This street is full of karinderia and affordable places to eat. Most of the people eating in this area are students, given the fact that this is near the two big universities in Naga City. You’ll find affordable budget meals here, mga pang student price, but don’t expect too much here. Mga simpleng kainan lang ang andito. Meron din medjo classy na karinderia and still mura pa din ang presyo.

Ateneo Avenue

5. Cely’s Eatery

Ahhh, the famous Aling Cely’s. This eatery is famous for kinalas, a flavorful noodle soup with slice of beef and thick sauce. Madalas akong pumupunta dito nung college pa ako kasi dito ang takbuhan ko kapag limited ang budget ko bilang studyante. This place is always full of customers during late in the afternoon. Aside from kinalas, they also offer goto, maruya, puto and other snacks. This is located in Barlin Street corner Dimasalang Street. This eatery is near the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral.

Cely's Eatery

6. Dayangdang Street

Just mention this street to the tricycle driver and tell them to bring you to Kinalasan and I’m pretty sure they know where to bring you. This street is famous for Kinalas, a flavorful noodle soup with slice of beef and thick sauce. There are few eateries here offering kinalas and one of them is Kinalas Twin.

Dayangdang Street

7. Naga City Plaza Rizal Skating Rink

The skating rink was converted into a place for street food stalls. There are plenty of stalls here offering kwek kwek, fishballs, and other street foods. During late in the afternoon, this place is full of students and other people who want to eat some quick foods.

Naga city street food

8. Paksiwan at Kainan. Infront of SM Naga City

There are a lot of paksiwan and karinderia infront of SM Naga City. There are also several karinderia around SM Naga City. You have several dining option inside SM and outside SM Naga so if you have a tight budget, you can find a lot of eateries in this area.

Paksiwan near SM Naga City

9. San Francisco

This is the most famous food location in Naga City when it comes to cheap foods. There are a lot of stalls here that offers affordable foods. Turo turo style ang pagkain dito. You can have a meal here for as low as 15 pesos and if you have a 100 pesos budget, I’m pretty sure it will go a long way, to the extent that you can even treat your friends for a lunch or dinner with that kind of budget. Sobrang mura ang mga meal dito but don’t expect much kasi open air ang lugar na to and medjo madami ang tao dito specially during lunch time. This place is located at Peñafrancia Avenue, infront of EMall, and near the San Francisco Church.

San Francisco

8. Magsaysay Avenue

This is the famous avenue in Naga City. This is where you’re going to find lots of restaurants, hotels, bars and other businesses. This is the nightlife center of Naga City. You can find here restaurants that offer different cuisine. There are also a lot of affordable restaurants here and several expensive restaurants too.

Magsaysay Avenue

Cereza, Magsaysay Avenue

So there you have, those are the locations that you can check for an affordable places to eat in Naga City. I hope you'll enjoy your stay in Naga City.

Albay Province. The Quest for Sili Ice Cream

My cousin and I have been doing some travelling for the past few days. My cousin just went home from the US and she missed a lot of things here in the Philippines, from foods, the beaches, friends, et cetera. She wanted to eat a lot of Pinoy foods, yung mga foods na madalas nyang kainin dito sa Pilipinas and she wants to visit those places na madalas nyang puntuhan nung nasa Pilipinas pa sya nakatira. So one lazy morning, we decided to hit the road at nagjoyride papuntang Albay. One of our plans for the day is to try the Sili Ice Cream at 1^st Colonial Grill in Daraga and to swim at Busay Falls.

So off we go to Albay. We are using our uncle’s old car and we are hoping that it can go for a long distance drive. We are crossing our fingers. Mahirap kasi magtulak ng sasakyan.heheh! We left our house at around 10 in the morning and we did a running tour or should I call it a moving tour of some of the towns that we were passing by. Our first stop was in Guinobatan. This town is famous for putong bigas with macapuno fillings. Masarap sya and we bought several puto and ate it. We plan to buy several more but we decided that we will buy later na lang na paguwi namin para medyo mainit pa at bagong luto.

Guinobatan's specialty, the putong bigas with macapuno

the rice puto with macapuno fillings

After eating several puto, we then continued our trip. Our next stop was Camalig. We visited the old church of Camalig and took some pictures, nagpictorial muna kami ng konti lang, mga adik kasi kami sa pagpapapicture.hehehe! So after doing some photoshoot, we then hit the road again. Palitan kami ng pinsan ko sa pagdrive ng kotse kya hindi naman masyado nakakapagod sa pagdadrive.

St. John the Baptist Church, Camalig, Albay

Our next stop is in the town of Daraga. We visited the Cagsawa ruins and of course, we also have our photoshoot. Malas namin natabunan ng ulap ang Mt. Mayon so we weren’t able to admire its beauty and we don’t have a shot with the Mt. Mayon and the Cagsawa Ruins as a backdrop. After doing some photoshoot, my cousin did some shopping for souvenirs. I think she spent around more than an hour just doing some shopping for shirts and other items. At ng nasatisfy na ang pinsan ko sa pagbili ng mga souvenirs, we then left the place and proceeded to 1^st Colonial Grill in Daraga to have a taste of the Sili Ice Cream and also to take our lunch. Upon arrival at the restaurant, we immediately ordered the Sili Ice Cream but according to the waiter, tunaw pa daw ang Sili Ice Cream nila and not yet available. We travelled for several kilometers for that ice cream tapos wala palang available. So we just ordered the Malunggay Ice Cream and the Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream (roasted rice flavoured ice cream) and informed the waiter that we will be drop by later in the evening to check kung matigas na yung Sili Ice Cream at pwede ng maiserve.

Cagsawa Ruins, Daraga, Albay

1st Colonial Grill, Daraga City Branch, Rizal St. 

We ordered our lunch, and since we were craving for the dessert and not for the main meal, we just ordered simple lunch, and after eating our main meal, we informed the waiter to serve the ice cream. They brought the Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream and the Malunggay Ice Cream at siempre, before eating those ice cream, nagkaroon ulit kami ng pictorial, at ang bida sa pictorial na yun ay ang ice cream. Inabot din siguro ng 10 minutes yung pictorial namin, buti na lang hindi pa naman natunaw agad yung ice cream at hindi pa naman naging soup.hahaha! The Malunggay Ice Cream tasted like an avocado ice cream and I think it was something leafy in taste. I really don’t like the taste of it. The Tinutong na Bigas ice cream tasted better. It tasted like a coffee or a coffee mocha ice cream. It has a tinutong na bigas toppings but I would suggest na huwag nyo ng kainin yung toppings kasi mapait yun.

Grilled Liempo and Tinapa Rice

the colonial ice cream

Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream

After na masatisfy na ang curiosity naming sa mga kakaibang flavour, we then left the restaurant and travelled to Malilipot town of Albay. This town is famous for the multi-tiered waterfalls called the Busay Falls. Malilipot town is about 20 to 30 minutes travel from Daraga City, that is via a private car. But if you will be using the public transport, it could take you about 45 minutes to an hour travel.

We arrived at Busay Falls at around 5 in the afternoon, and since it was already late in the afternoon, we then agreed that we will just spend an hour swimming in the waterfalls. It was my second time to be at Busay Falls and I’ve been to several of its other falls too. Gusto ko sana ipagmalaki sa pinsan ko kung gaano kadami ang falls sa Busay pero kulang na ang oras namin para mapuntahan pa ang ibang mga falls kya sa main waterfalls na lang kami nagenjoy sa paglangoy. We enjoyed the cool water of Busay and even though we still want to stay much longer at that place, kailangan na din namin magbyahe na papunta ng Legazpi City. So by around 6pm, we then left Busay Falls and went to Legazpi City.

Busay Falls, Malilipot, Albay

I have been to Legazpi City for several times but I’ve never been to one of its new attraction, which is the Embarcadero. Actually hindi na nga sya new attraction kasi medjo matagal na din sya nageexist. Mga more than a year na din ata but I’ve never been there so icoconsider ko na lang sya as new.hehehe! So we arrived at Embarcadero a few minutes before 7pm. Nawala kasi kami because I don’t know the street going to that place. Nagtanong tanong na lang kami para makarating sa Embarcadero.

When we arrived at Embarcadero, we toured the area, naglakad lakad at siempre, nagpictorial ulet. Buti na lang digital na ang mga camera dahil kung kailangan pa ng film ng camera namin, malamang ilang roll ng film na ang naubos namin.hehehe! After we toured the mall, we then travelled back again to 1^st Colonial Grill to check if the Sili Ice Cream is now available. Binalikan talaga namin yung restaurant kasi yun naman talaga ang gusto namin na matry. Buti na lang sa pagbalik namin medjo matigas na ng konti yung ice cream so we were able to ordered one. We also ordered a meal for our dinner and since our main reason for going back to that restaurant is the Sili ice cream, konti lang yung kinain namin for dinner. After namin makain yung main meal, pinaserve na namin yung sili ice cream plus we also ordered the pili nut ice cream. At dahil first time namin kakain ng kakaibang food, hindi mawawala ang picture taking. We again spent about several minutes taking pictures of the ice cream and of course kasama na din ang mga mukha namin sa pagpicture taking. When we tasted the sili ice cream, my cousin was somewhat disappointed because she was expecting that the ice cream has that kind of taste where you will have the chili effect in your throat. Hindi namin nalasahan ang anghang ng sili, or maybe because we were Bicolanos and Bicolanas at sanay na ang mga dila namin sa anghang kaya parang walang wala lang yung sili flavour. But the sili ice cream still has that sili effect but just a so very much slight anghang effect.  Anyway, it still fulfilled our curiosity and we were still a happy traveller. Mas maisusuggest ko pa din na tikman nyo na lang yung tinutong na bigas ice cream because it tasted much better.

Sili Ice Cream of 1st Colonial Grill

And because it’s getting late in the evening already, we then decided to start driving back home because it would be difficult if masiraan ang kotse na gamit namin. We weren’t able to buy the putong bigas in Guinobatan on our way back because the putong bigas stalls are already closed when we passed by the Guinobatan town. We arrived at our house at around past 11 in the evening. It was such an awesome travel. Both I and my cousin had so much fun doing the joy ride and dropping by on the same restaurant twice on a single day just to taste the Sili Ice cream. We did a lot for a day. Ang layo ng natravel namin. But we didn’t spend that much kasi minimal lang naman yung gastos namin sa mga lugar na pinuntahan namin. I hope you would also travel sa probinsya nyo or sa ibang katabing probinsya para naman madiscover nyo ang mga ganda at mga kakaibang bagay sa lugar nyo. Happy travelling! Woooot!