Super Sunday

...and I'm not just talking about the English Premier League!
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by Philipina A. Marcelo


No surprise

I did shout and "woot-woot" the whole time as I watched Chelsea battled Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on an English Premier League Super Sunday! The match was a "must-win" for both Clubs, as they tried to go up the League Championship Table - closer to the leaders, Manchester United (#1) and Arsenal (#2). Therefore, both sides started with their best men, with Chelsea opening with their epically expensive Spanish acquisition from Liverpool, the gorgeous Fernando "El Niño" Torres. The Blues had home advantage... and the Stamford Bridge fans didn't disappoint - not a surprise, of course! While the Citizens put up a tough contest, mostly preventing El Niño from scoring, the Blues trashed them via a 2-0 victory in an action-packed match. Of course, El Niño is yet to make his first goal for the Blues. The Stamford Bridge action was followed by another tight match between Sunderland and El Niño's former Club, Liverpool, which the latter won, 2-0, out of sheer pride - again, no surprise.

While there wasn't much surpise in the outcome of the matches, it was a satisfying afternoon of fantastic football!

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A 3D surprise

As my throat was parched from all the "whoa-ing" and "aaw-ing", two of my sisters and I refreshed with some shopping at the biggest Mall in the Philippines, SM City-North EDSA, which is about five minutes away from our place - without the Parking wait, that is. :) While SM City has always been jampacked on weekends, there was an unusually big crowd at "The Block" - one of the newest additions to "The City". We went to check it out... and were pleasantly surprised to see that the United States Embassy's Roadshow, "America in 3D: Diplomacy, Development and Defense", stopped by and stationed for three days at "The Block". We were lucky to catch it on its third day. So, we made the most of it! :)

We went around to check out the Show and Exhibits. My sisters and I found a mutual High School friend who worked for the US Embassy's Commercial Services Section manning one of the exhibits. It was a fun mini reunion... and then I was grabbed on the shoulders by someone. I turned to see who it was and I was thrilled to find my friends at the Philippine-American Educational Foundation (PAEF)/Fulbright Commission of the Philippines! They invited me and my sisters inside the PAEF Booth with a "we have a surprise for you" teaser, and what I found sent me reeling in excitement! It was a "Wall" of Fulbright Alumni Testimonials... and my own "testimonial" was part of it. Beside my testimonial - a sentence from my post-Programme report, to be accurate - was a photo of mine from ten years ago... from my Fulbright application packet in 2001! It made me feel kind of nostalgic and felt a pang of longing for those exciting Fulbright/Cornell University days. Aaah, those were truly incredible days... exploring what one of the best Universities in the world had to offer under the auspices of the "Mother of all Scholarships" - absolutely surreal! Until now, I am still figuring out whatever good thing I've done to deserve such an incredible experience - I am so undeserving. Nevertheless, my sisters and I were so delighted to re-live those days through the "Wall"! We posed for a few souvenir shots beside my testimonial panel, chatted with my PAEF/Fulbright friends for a few more minutes... and then continued shopping. :)

Hmmm... talk about Super Sunday!

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A cool surprise

As always, bonding time with my sisters culminated to a foodtrip. Our Sunday escapade was no exception. We voted unanimously for a "to-die-for" dessert... and ice cream got our triple nods. We escaped the heavily commercialized stores in the Mall though and went serching for a "unique" ice cream concoction... and we were happy to find a little ice cream parlor close to where we live. It was simply called "Ice Cream Store" - a small, two-car parking, four-table store, with no airconditioning. They weren't just serving ice cream concoctions with a surprisingly wide range of choices, but they were also selling packed ice cream in an impressive variety of flavors and formulations that were absolutely unexpected given the store's size. The Food Scientist in me was very impressed to see their coconut milk and virgin coconut oil (VCO)-based formulations. I myself am working on stuff like this in my research work, and I understand the challenges in formulation, processing and overall quality... thus the fascination.

My sisters and I ordered different Sundae concoctions, which were all reasonably priced and very satisfying in terms of taste and fun eating - truly to-die-for! And then, we brought home several of the varieties they were selling - in pints and cups - and continued eating at home without feeling "robbed" since all products were reasonably priced! :) The coconut milk varieties were very good - light and tasty, with decent texture. But what was best about them was that there weren't lactose intolerance-induced stomach upsets after enjoying them, and that added to the sweetness of sisters bonding. :) Naturally, we vowed to return to the Ice Cream Store soon... and to spread the word about the store's existence.

So, yeah, I had a Super Sundae, er, Sunday... uhm, both, actually!! :)

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Photo credits: (1) Fernando Torres during Chelsea's March 20, 2011 match against Manchester City in Stamford Bridge - Getty's Image, grabbed from the Zimbio website.

I own all other photos.

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Sisterly bonding... shopping + eats

Girls just wanna have fun... and when sports won't do, shopping + eats certainly will! :)
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by Philipina A. Marcelo


So, after almost a couple of months, I finally spent a Saturday afternoon not glued in front of the TV tuned in to the Sports Channel - watching either tennis or soccer, relaxing. :) The US Open wrapped up last week... the Davis Cup is on, and the UEFA qualifying rounds are on, too... but I wanted a breath of Mall and Restaurant air for a change - so to the Mall and restaurant I went with two sisters - in our house clothes, too! Talk about "relax"! :)

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Shopping

So, on an older sister's suggestion, we went to check out the "Homeworld Warehouse Sale" at the SM Megatrade Hall together with a younger sister! Older sis "abandoned" her husband for the weekend to go bargain hunting with us! :) We found good items... I invested on some wooden furnitures - beautiful and artsy ones... and more than 50% off on their sky-high prices, too! So, I got a very good deal! :) That's the great news... the not-so-great news is that I will have to wait 10 days to have my purchases delivered. But that's fine 'cause I requested the manufacturers to give the pieces a retouch here and there to get rid of a few indiscreet scratches - maybe the reason why they were on sale. And, I think between me and my two sisters, we bought a gazillion of curtains! =) We got 50% off on most items - quite nice, too. So, yeah... we went a little crazy. :) But hanging our finds on our windows later made us feel that all five hours of squeezing ourselves through that intimidating "mob" of "ferocious" bargain hunters was worth every single hour! :)

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Eats

We originally planned to dine at some fancy place at "The Podium" - some plush place at the Ortigas Business Center. However, after depositing our purchases in the car, we were just too excited to see how the curtains would look like on our windows. :) So, we decided to just go ahead and eat at a nice restaurant close to our Village... and so, we drove home. And then, approaching Quezon Avenue along EDSA, we passed by the new "Eton Centris Walk" with all the glowing "mushroom heads" around - looking as if a space craft landed there! Hardcore Trekkers that we are, the place intrigued us, and we decided to check it out and eat there instead.

There was a limited choice of restaurants - Italian, Vietnamese, Thai and a few other chains. After experimenting on an Italian dish in my own kitchen last weekend, we were open to other options. So, we decided to eat at "Asya", a Filipino-Asian Restaurant. The ambiance was quite nice and the service was good. It was unique in that the head of the backrest of one of the chairs at every table was a drawing of an Asian person - Arab, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, etc. We chose a table with an Arab man's drawing - my younger sister's idea. :)

The food was good. We started with my younger sister's choice of crushed crispy catfish appetizer, garnished with thin green mango sticks, a variety of chopped nuts, chili and lettuce. It came with a vinegary dip with chili mix and chopped spring onion. The catfish was on the salty side... but when mixed with the garnish, wrapped in lettuce and soaked in the dip, it tasted heavenly! The texture was perfect, too! We then continued to titillate our taste buds with prawn Tom Yum soup. I thought I knew Tom Yum well... but the way Asya made theirs was interesting - the spicy spikes were delicately balanced by the rich flavor of coconut milk and the sourness of chunks of red tomatoes. The surface of the soup was lined with a thin membrane of coconut milk where finely chopped chilies were adsorbed. Sipping it was in itself a wonderful experience, with the sour taste, spiciness, and the coconutty flavor all blending in my taste palate in an interesting swirl - it was so good, I didn't realize I finished three servings! :)

My sisters and I then chose a dish each to share... I chose Pad Thai, my younger sis chose breaded Lemon Chicken, garnished with crunchy greens, and older sis chose Bagoong Rice, which came with unsalted scrambled eggs and smoked fish cooked in a sweet marinade, and garnished with chopped lemon grass, green mango strips, caramelized onions and crunchy garlic.

The Pad Thai looked too pale for me, but tasting it... the flavor was definitely not pale! The blend of Thai and Filipino spices balanced the fish sauce, it was hard to tell if it was even there, which was perfect for me because I do not really appreciate it whenever fish sauce becomes overpowering in a dish. The mix of bean sprouts and chopped nuts provided a crunch that complemented the noodle texture, which was just perfect. The chicken was excellent - very tender and tasty underneath a thin breading... and the lemon sauce was not overly sour - it has pale sweetness to it that eases down the palate just when it was about to scream "SOUR"! And chewing on the greens and the thinly sliced cucumber washed the palate - getting it ready for more tastes experience. The Bagoong Rice gave just that - the fermented fish ("bagoong") posed a salty challenge, but was balanced by the neutral taste of the unsalted scrambled fried eggs and the band of garnish that also provided a variety of textures and defined tastes. Together - the "bagoong ensemble" made an exotic taste that was absolutely irristible! :) Needless to say, we were totally satisfied that we even skipped dessert! :) The servings were so big, too, that we needed brown bags to take a considerable amount of left-over home.

Later, we walked off the carbs around the Centris Walk - watching the "mushroom heads" turn green, yellow, blue, purple, pink, and then back again! We had fun people-watching, too... and figuring out what the Eton Centris developers have in mind with the place's Zen facade, a carousel right by the entrance, and a Trekker touch at the square where the restaurants are... and, oh, a kiddie train rounded the square, too! The Asya staff shared that there will be bump cars at the square soon! Hmmm... interesting! :) We made a note to come back when the bump cars are up and running.... :)

So, yeah... time well-spent indeed! We did have a great time... not sure about my brother-in-law though who ate lunch left-over for dinner! =)

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