Time flies....

Time flies...and time heals....

It's been a month since Cocoa's gone and I'm much much better now. I didn't realised I had my closure until a friend pointed out that I had my closure the other day. And yes, it does feel good to leave the pain of loss behind and keep only the happy memories with me.

I've posted some pictures of how Cocoa, looking so much like a lil gremlin transformed into a beautiful princess.

Here's the link on FB:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158036&id=676026336

When she was a puppy, she was stubborn and tom-boyish. As she got older, that stubbornness retained, however she developed a very maternal and sweet girly side to her - a charm that's hard to resist.

~*Cocoa Chanel forever*~

Thank you

Dear friends, thank you for your well wishes and concerns. I am feeling better now. Am  coping and still trying to adjust to Cocoa's absence. For instance, I still can't help saying stuff like, "Where are my boys and girl?", "Boy boy, girl girl...come here!". Whereas, I've only got the boys left. :( 

The past couple of days, whenever I had a quiet moment to myself, I couldn't help but think of Cocoa. And when i closed my eyes to try to think of all those happy times with her...I had a vision of her smiling and playing, in a beautiful place which looked like heaven. And that's always the same vision which popped up (??).

Moving on...
I've come to terms with the fact that Cocoa is really gone for good. But I find strength and comfort knowing that she's with the Lord and she's in a place where she will feel no suffering and pain, and knows only happiness, love, joy and peace.

I guess like any mother, I just wanna know that my daughter is now is a better place. 

Cocoa, you'll forever be my darling daughter. You'll always have a special place in my heart and will be fondly and dearly remembered. I love you dear girl.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


*dear friends, thanks for informing me about not being able to drop your comments here. I think i've fixed the problem. you should be able to comment from now. let me know if the problem persists. 

In loving memory...

To my dearest Cocoa darling,

Mummy is still shocked from knowing that you've passed away. No words can describe the pain I'm feeling right now, the pain of losing you...all so suddenly too. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye my darling daughter. I miss you so :(  

I didn't get to cuddle you and put you to bed last night and say those sweet 'i love you's to you like I always do. Oh, how I wished I did so. 

It pains me when I realised that I no longer can hold you close and snuggle with you like I always do.  I miss you my darling girl..I miss you so.

Mummy loves you so, my darling Cocoa Chanel. Rest in peace my dear gal, rest in peace.

In Loving Memory of
Cocoa Chanel
May 8, 2001 - November 10, 2009

You are God's gift to me. I've never been happier since you came into my life my dear girl. Thank you for loving mummy.

You're forever my darling girl.

Such a loving mummy. You'll be dearly missed by your boys Bebe, Xiao Bai and Xiao Ban.

Cocoa Chanel Tang, sweet memories of you will forever be etched in our hearts. I pray you're now in a happy and wonderful place in heaven playing with the angels. Amen!

Ricci Ricci

Two days ago, I received an email from a Marie Claire (the magazine) staff informing me that I've won a bottle of Nina Ricci's perfume (worth RM250) for the Oct '09 giveaway. 

Went to collect my pressie today since I had to pass some handbag samples to the staff in BluInc to shoot. 

I asked the staff how I won - was it through an email submission or did I send in my entry via post? Her answer: via sms. 

Ah-ha! Many friends told me that all those sms entries are scams and no one wins anything via sms. So there~ :p 

I'm guess this is really my week huh. :)

I love the chic perfume bottle.

My favourite things..Part 4

The quest for good food continues....

Manila Day 2

~*~*~*Cafe Breton, Greenbelt*~*~*~

It was a super relaxing day as we had no errands to run and it was just a typical lazy Sunday. We woke up, dididada-ed for a while before heading off to Greenbelt in search for brunch.

We were spoilt for choices in Greenbelt as there were too many alfresco cafes around. Finally decided to have crepes at Cafe Breton, a place where we both haven't checked out before. The  choices were abundant. There's an array of crepes both sweet and savoury to suit different cravings.

Seeing how easy it was to make the crepe, I told Pingu that I wanna get a hotplate too. "Hunny, i promise i'll make crepes for you everyday" :P

His answer? "Nah..we'll just come here for the crepes". Seems like my plan to get a hotplate isn't working. 

The fun part is that you get to make your own crepe (which starts from as low as 45 peso). You get to choose whatever ingredients to go with your sweet/savoury crepe such as fresh fruits, spreads (nutella! yum..), sauces, preserves, mushrooms, sausages, hams, cheese, etc.

This is my gourmet crepe. Mine's got mushrooms, ham and mozzarella.
Mmmm..it was super cheesilicious!

Pingu ordered something off the menu. It was a typical breakfast crepe consisting of egg, sausage, tomatoes and caramelised onions.

The crepes are undeniably delicious and there is definitely something for everyone whether you're a vegetarian or a hardcore meat-lover.

Being our typical gluttony selves, we naturally progressed to trying the sweet crepes.

This is La Manifique!

Aptly named, La Manifique is generously spread with a thick layer of Nutella,  topped with whipped cream and almond flakes. There are banana slices in the crepe too. All super fattening ingredients but oh-so-comforting to eat.

Sinful? DEFINITELY!

After such a heavy brunch, we decided to do some 'malling' to walk off those calories.

Saw this outside a bar. 

We did our grocery shopping at Rustan's (it's similar to our Bangsar Village Grocer, quite 'atas'). I needed to get some ingredients as I was gonna cook dinner that night.

Nope, I didn't get these 'kuih-like' food.

I'll grab these local kuihs next time. Am quite curious to find out how they taste like.

Look, they have ensaymadas for take away.
6 for 53 pesos, damn value for money! 

We had no idea what's a 'Bibingka'. And oh, have you any idea what's a red duck egg? (i'll let you know what that is later).

Bibingka tastes a bit like those 'kaya balls' we get in pasar malam. But instead of kaya, you get to taste the savoury taste of salted egg (that's the red duck egg I was talking about) and some sweetness from the sugar and egg batter. 

We had fun checking out this exhibition - The Spoils of Love

Featuring: Museum of Broken Relationships.

Some interesting exhibits to share....


"We broke up on skype"
Choi! (*touch wood* in Cantonese)

My Malay Bear

2006-2007

Singapore

My ex presented to me 2 Ralph Lauren bears not long after we started dating. One half is the brown one here, the other has white fur. He's Malay, I'm Chinese. We decided I would take the darker half of the pair, and he'd take the lighter fur bear, so we'd have something to represent each other when we're away from each other. I didn't display anything of our relationship in my house/room as my parents didn't approve of my dating him and I had to keep our relationship a secret. No photos of us, no cards, no romantic trinkets. Only the little "Malay" bear that sat on my bed for the rest of the relationship. When we broke up,  I cried into the bear and hugged it to sleep for nights. Eventually, I packed him up and no one noticed the bear's absence.

Rubber shoes,

Manila, Philippines

It has been said to never give anyone a pair of shoes as a Christmas gift because it is thought that the shoes would make the person you give them to walk away from you.

Few months after Christmas of 2004, we called it quits.

Superstitions? I don't believe in superstitions. I just walked away. Today, I'm still walking but without the shoes.

A mobile phone

July 12, 2003 - April 14, 2004

Zagreb, Croatia

It lasted 300 days too long. He gave me his mobile phone so I couldn't call him anymore.

A head massager. One of the things one doesn't give back to an ex-girlfriend.

Basketball jersey
2008

 Manila, Philippines

He was a player....

~*~*~*Market! Market!*~*~*~

We went to Market! Market! as I couldn't find some ingredients (herbs) at Rustan's.

Found this aptly named jewellery shop.

No-lar! I'm not desperate okay? :P

Our dinner for the night.
Roast chicken served on a bed of roasted potatoes, carrots and onions.

In case you're wondering what those green stuff underneath the skin were, I stuffed thyme and rosemary underneath the skin to make it more aromatic.

Wanted to make salad but decided against it as we had too much food for the 2 of us already.

Excuse the poor picture quality, the skin was actually super crispy while the meat tender and juicy. :D

A bottle of Asti sealed the deal. Yummilicious!

Manila Day 3

~*~*~*Powerplant Mall, Rockwell*~*~*~

One of the reasons Pingu brought me here was to try Diamond Hotel's famous ensaymada.

As it was a public holiday, there was a food bazaar going on. 

I fell in lurve with these chocolate coated mochis. They're da bomb! I've never tasted melt-in-your-mouth mochis like these ones before. 

Bought a vanilla flavoured mochi ice cream from the same stall. 

I was told to wait a couple of minutes for the ice cream mochi to warm up a bit before eating. 

I called these 'atas' cookies!

I've seen luxury bag cakes and cupcakes...but never cookies. This is a first for moi.

The cookies cost about RM10 each.

Guess which one's my favourite arm candy. The Hermes Birkin? The LV Speedy? or the quilted Chanel?

Cute mini Nissin cup noodles.

My quest for all things pink/red.

Found: this bottle of pink Gatorade while shopping at Rustan's (again).

Found: Red duck eggs (the ones in Malaysia are coated with black sandy-looking stuff)

~*~*~*The Cake Club of Diamond Hotel*~*~*~

The ensaymada is a delightful explosion of cheese and cream. 

It is so good that you'll want to savour every single morsel to the last bite. And lick every damn cream off the plate. :P

Our 2nd helping of ensaymada. We ordered the one with ham this time. Surprisingly, savoury and sweet both gelled very well together.

But somehow, the cheese didn't melt like the first ensaymada. Though the former didn't look too good, it tasted so darn good!

Each ensaymada costs around 130 peso (RM10).

Enjoying a refreshing glass of green tea smoothie. 

If you're a coffee lover, enjoy a cup of Japanese kohii (coffee) at Kohikan (Cake Club) of Diamond Hotel, 2nd floor Powerplant Mall, Rockwell next time you visit Manila. And don't forget to try their ensaymadas.

Comes in 3 flavours: original, ube (with yam), and ham.

~*~*~*Sentro, Serendra*~*~*~

I arranged for a dinner with my host parents (since my student exchange days eons ago) to catch up. It's been more than 10 years since I last met Daddy Ed (yup, I used to call him Daddy Ed then). He was the President of Rotary Club Makati West at the time and he's still an active member now. In fact, come July 2010, he'll be the District Governor of the club.

Me and Pingu with Daddy Ed and Mummy Mariz. 

We had filipino cuisine @ Sentro. I didn't take piccies of the food until dessert. (I didn't wanna appear rude by clicking away at the food). :p

Crepes with cream and corn filling.

Coffee-peanut pie, Mummy Mariz's fave.

Manila Day 4

~*~*~*Mall of Asia (MOA)*~*~*~

MOA is currently the largest mall here. And since I've only spent like 2 hrs here, I guess I've only seen a small portion of this place. Sigh, so many things to do, so little time ....

I'll definitely be back...

View of the Manila bay...

Found: Another pink item. Strawberry soy milk. :P

Time to head home :(

Had some lousy filipino-chinese food @ the airport.

L-R: Some green-ish coloured drink (can't remember what it was), wantan mee, crab siew mai, shark's fin siewmai.

I ended up passing the wantan mee to Pingu as I was feeling nauseas. Decided to have the porridge instead.

The chicken porridge was pretty good though. I would have been able to finish it if not for my lack of appetite and wooziness. I was falling slightly ill towards the end of the trip. Parting definitely didn't help. 

More piccies to come i promise :)


[note: Pingu was back for a week and he just left last nite. I'm happy that we managed to spend a blissfully adventurous week together. I can't wait to see him again end of this month. Can't wait :D ]

My favourite things..Part 3

Here's wishing a Happy Diwali to all my Hindu friends :)

The last 2 (My favourite things) posts consist of pictures taken in Manila during the Merdeka long weekend.

Well, Part 3 is (yet) again a barrage of pictures of Manila (and a tiny bit of KL) taken the week before as well as during the Hari Raya break.



~*~*~*Kindori ice cream, Berjaya Times Square*~*~*~

Pingu came back a week before Raya to attend to some errands. I couldn't be happier :)

We wanted to catch a movie but seeing that the queue was so long (and we were pressing for time) we decided to give it a miss. Spotted this cute lil ice cream kiosk and we decided to give it a go.

Kindori ice cream has been delighting many ice cream lovers in Japan and Taiwan with its creamy, healthy flavours. Though their tagline 'The Natural Gift of Health' sounds kinda like an oxymoron, there is no doubt as to why Kindori's ice cream is all the rage in so many parts of the world.

Go try it and you'll know what I'm talking about. We went there on two consecutive days. :p

Green tea and Black sesame flavoured ice creams. I heart them both.

'l

Mmmm...Can we come back for more hunny?

~*~*~*A week later*~*~*~

Manila Day 1

Took this picture in the parking area at Manila airport. It was around 6am when I left the airport, look at how bright it was then. The sun rises around 5am in Fili.

I was famished and it was too early to have a decent breakfast anywhere. So we decided to have Mcker's for breakkie.

This Mcker's is really quite 'different'. It is located next to a petrol station and in front of a church. It gives a new meaning to the word 'busy'.

We went to the Mcker's @ McKinley Hill (about 5 mins drive from Pingu's pad). He had the Sausage McMuffin while I had the Hamdesal burger.

Dunno why, but I prefer to refer to the hamdesal burger as the 'hamsap' burger. And the name's stuck ever since. :P 


The penguin striking a (wannabe) cool pose :p

#1: L-R: My hamsap burger, Chicken McDo set, and my Hello Kitty mirror which comes free with the Chicken McDo. Weee :P

#2: That lump of rice was wrapped up so nicely. See what I mean by the pinoys loving rice with everything?

After a short nap, it was time for us to have our 1.5 hrs of pampering spa treatment.

I met this Malaysian lady at the airport while leaving Manila the last time I was there and she recommended this massage parlour to me saying, "it's got pretty nice ambience and the massage was amazing and it was value for money at P495 for 1.5 hrs (approx. RM35)."

Snapped this picture while walking over to Serendra and over to Market Market to hail a cab to the massage parlour. We decided to take a cab as Pingu mentioned that there is limited parking space in Legazpi Village where the massage parlour is.

I enjoy people watching, especially so when they have a dog with them. :)

Spotted another cafe in Serendra that I wanna check out. :)

To me, it's always more fascinating to check out a tea cafe as compared to a coffee place as I'm more of a tea-kinda-gal.

~*~*~*Dinner @ Elbert's Steak Room*~*~*~

There is no visible signage outside the building where Elbert's Steak Room is located. As low profile as it's trying to project, you can still locate it if you put in a lil more effort.

It is located right across Somerset Salcedo, diagonally across a Ministop, and two floors above an Indian restaurant.  Check out the map here.
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Never would I imagine that there is a fine dining restaurant on the 3rd floor of this building. Looks kinda dodgy right?

But that's the beauty of this place.

You enter this ordinary flight of stairs leading to the third floor, to be honest, there was nothing which spells fine dining to me at all.

However,once you enter through the door, you'll find that you're in a totally different world altogether. No more dodginess, only 'atas-ness' (sorry, I've caught a bug - i've gotta use the word 'atas' at least once today...thanks to my cheemuis - you gals know what you did :P)

Ta-dah!

It's like finding treasure in a secret hiding place, wondering what gems this place has to offer.

Pingu made a reservation and requested for the 'lover's corner', where it is a lil secluded from the rest. Unfortunately, we didnt get to snap pix of us together in our lil corner. (In actual fact, we kinda forgot to ask the waiter to take a picture for us cos we were too busy gobbling down our food and taking piccies of the food).

The bar area, taken from our cosy lil corner.

~*~*~*Camwhoring before dinner*~*~*~

Lounging at the Gentlemen's Cigar Room

Elbert's Steak Room, one of the country's finest steak houses  has been steadily developing a cult following of the country's steak lovers, eventhough it's a lil pricey to start with.

We each ordered a USDA Prime grade ribeye which costs around P2200 each (approx. RM170). Each steak order comes with a house salad and a choice of soup.



Fan-like bread rolls

We were served a basket of warmed bread shaped like a fan or a bloomed flower. So pretty.

After popping the first mouthful, I couldn't help but to squeal in delight. It was good stuff. The dough was so soft and it melted in my mouth almost immediately.

Not only did it taste good, it looked really pretty and I had so much fun slowly picking the petal piece by piece before popping them into my mouth.

Salad

The salad was laced in raspberry balsamic cream. Simply yumm.. 

Soups

Though I love the bread roll and the salad, I was careful not to overdo it as I wanted to make sure that I have more than ample stomach room for the pièce de résistance, the steak. Pingu forewarned me that the steak is hugeass!

I ordered the chicken consomme as I wanted to avoid creamy soup knowing fully well that creamy stuff line my stomach too well. 

Pingu had the creamy broccoli soup.

Our side dish - gramigna with mushroom and truffle cream sauce. 

Pretty good but it was way too rich for the both of us as we could barely finish our steak. (Note to self: if we're both ordering one steak each, we can so do without the side dishes. Must.not.be.overly.ambitious.)

 The pièce de résistance

I kid you not when I say my steak was HUGE!

Pingu exclaimed that the steak was the size of my face. Or was it bigger? 

Where got ribeye so huge wan?

Our desserts

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of chocolate mousse but this 'Our Best Chocolate Mousse' was really something else! I couldn't stop digging into it. Seriously, one spoonful warrants another.

However, it was their Panna Cotta which got me transfixed. Weee...I've finally found the place for panna cotta! I'm SO coming back! :D

Mr and Mrs Piggy after dinner.
(Read: super-bloated, even though I only finished half my steak)

Elbert’s Steak Room
3/F Sagittarius Building III
111 H. V. de la Costa Street
Salcedo Village, Makati City 

www.steakroom.com

My favourite things..Part 2

This is a continuation to my recent Manila post. The previous post is here.

I told the penguin that I don't quite fancy filipino cuisine as i didn't like what i tasted when i was there as a teenager.

Keen to change my perception on the local cuisine here, Pingu brought me to try Chicken Bacolod.

~*~*~*Manila - Day 2*~*~*~

Market Market

I was told that Bacolod is a large city in the Western Vicayas of the Philippines famous for their Chicken Inasal. Chicken Inasal is a roast chicken dish marinated in herbs, spices and vinegar, served on a bamboo skewers (almost similar to our 'ayam percik' in Malaysia in looks, but the taste was tangier).

I realised that pinoys love rice with everything. For a start, I was kinda surprised when my Mcker's breakfast (not this trip though, it'll be on another post) came with a lump of molded white rice to go with the fried chicken. Same goes for KFC.

I reckon if i stayed here any longer, I might get carbo-overdosed. :P

So anyway, we ordered a serving each of Java rice with crab roe topping. Yummz..

Beef sisig

Pingu recommended the beef sisig, a local dish which reminded me of fajitas. I didn't expect a hot plate filled with onions, red and green peppers and bits of beef and liver, but it was good stuff. It arrived sizzling and smelled of meaty goodness.

Oh, and there were chunks of fried lards in there. Who wouldn't love this dish?

Chicken inasal

The specialty at Chicken Bacolod is of course, the chicken inasal— grilled chicken on a skewer. We had the thigh meat.

Mango insalata

I love this simple mango salad.

The special prawn sauce (which somehow reminded me of our local rojak prawn/belacan sauce) complemented the green mangos, tomatoes, and onions really well. Definitely whetted my appetite.

Our lunch for the day.

We were adamant not to over order as we didn't wanna end up feeling super bloated like the night before.

Have to admit that we did well. :)

~*~*~*Serendra @ The Fort*~*~*~

We went to Serendra for dinner. Boy, were we spoilt for choice. Pingu's been here for 6 mths now and he's still not done with trying out every single eatery here.

Serendra (located just 5 mins walk from our place) opens up a whole new world of taste. Here, you'll find a fusion of world-class dishes seamlessly incorporated into a chic and modern dining atmosphere.

For foodies like us who would want to have a taste of just about everything and in the hunt for what the great Philippine kitchen has to offer, Serendra is the place to go.

Serendra offers Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian cuisines, etc - there is absolutely something to please your palete.

The fountains and sculptures lends an 'atas' (upscale) accent to the circle of restaurants in Serendra.

picture: http://anton.blogs.com/awesome/2006/09/serendra_piazza_1.html

~*~*~*Dinner @ Healthy Kitchen*~*~*~

Have i told you that we were spoilt for choice? We spend like closed to 20 mins checking out the menus of each restaurant, trying really hard to decide on a restaurant eventhough our tummies were screaming hungers the entire time.

We finally decided to dine in this new restaurant on the block, Healthy Kitchen.

Like its name suggests, it's all about healthy eating here. There's an extensive selection of salad, interesting mix of healthy appetizers and loads of whole wheat pastas and breads to boot.

Healthy Kitchen, unlike the other upscale restaurants, has a very homey, cosy setting.

Great choice hun!

Chicken Adobo pasta

The chicken adobo pasta was fantastic - I didn't expect this local pinoy dish will go so well with the pasta. I'm so changing my mind about filipino cuisines already.

I also love love love their home made bread. It was full of whole-wheat-wholesome-goodness.
Left me craving for more. Seriously, this picture doesn't do the slice of bread any justice at all. :P

Lory's Pizza

Found out that the owner, Lory created this pizza for herself one day and everyone started ordering it and this is how the name came about.

I love the thin crispy crust of this whole wheat pizza. The turkey bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes in alfredo sauce, topped with organic fresh mozzarella was cheesilicious.

~*~*~*Desserts @ Mary Grace*~*~*~


We didn't wanna stuff ourselves silly even though we were famished as we wanted to hop over to Mary Grace for desserts.

(note: I took this picture off someone's post - refer to source below. It was at night and my camera doesn't produce good night shots)

picture: www.ourawesomeplanet.com/awesome/2007/06/cafe-mary-grace.html

picture: http://www.marygracecafe.com/

There's something sweetly unique here in Mary Grace cafe. You'll notice that every tabletop is different. A closer look reveals that beneath the glass tabletops are testimonials written on various pieces of paper (some vintage looking, some super cutesy :P) by satisfied customers. Pretty awesome I'd to say.

Mary Grace is famous for its ensaymadas, cheese rolls and iced teas. If you're here for the first time, the home made cheese rolls and ensaymadas are a must try. There's nothing like indulging in these cheesy delight in such a laid-back and relaxing place.

2 words: comfort food.


Cheese rolls

There is a block of cheese stick in the middle of the roll. Soft and moist, every tantalising bite melts in your mouth.

The popular Ensaymada

I forgot which flavoured iced tea Pingu ordered (sorry hun :P), I had the Sangria iced tea. This refreshing red tea with a hint of citrus definitely helped aid my digestion as I was still bloated from dinner.

We didn't order the cheese roll nor the ensaymada as those were too rich for us (but i did tapau-ed some home for my family in KL). We shared a choc mousse cake instead. I was surprised it wasn't too jelak-fying :)

Good food, great company, coupled with a cozy setting makes Mary Grace a fantastic place to hang out. I can't wait to go there with you again darl :)

~*~*~*Manila - Day 3*~*~*~
Pingu's pad

Breakfast

Since we've bought some fruits and greens while grocery shopping at Market Market the day before, I decided to make us salad with shaved honey ham, served with honey balsamic vinegar. I thought a light hearted and healthy breakfast would be a delightful change.

We had grapes, cherry tomatoes, eggs, pomelo, mangoes, shaved honey ham and romaine lettuce. Healthy eh? 

As I was due to fly back to KL that very night, we were both a little saddened by the fact that i'd be leaving in a few hours. Feeling 'mm seh tak' (difficult to part) already.

We went to Grappa's @ Greenbelt 3 for lunch.

The decoration at Grappa's is simple yet stylish.

Me camwhoring with my new Charles & Keith quilted arm candy.

We both heart liver pate :)

Mmmm... mMMmm..

Linguine Tutto Mare

I've missed Grappa's red sauce pasta heaps ever since the ones in Malaysia went de-funct. This really made my day.

We were both indecisive..So we decided to go with 1/2 Beijing duck, and 1/2 Quattro Formaggi.

Tartufo

Chocolate gelato with a crust of cruchy choc chips in a bed of whipped cream.

Tiramisu

I was rather disappointed as i loved Grappa's tiramisu to bits. This just didn't do it for me.

All these stomach stretching experiences brought back fond memories of when i used to go traipsing for food. It was fun doing it with my McPingu.

Hun, I'm so glad you're a foodie like me. xoxo

To sum it all, the trip to Manila was one excellent trip - overflowing with love and lots of fantastic food finds. I couldn't have asked for more (err..actually i could..i'd wished to be able to see my Pingu more often).

to be continued...