Lasang Pinoy 25 ‘Make Your Own Bento’: the prizes

Lasang Pinoy 25 prizes

One thing I know, it feels nice to shop for fellow bloggers. I initiate events “once in a blue moon” and as a gesture of appreciation for those who joined the recent Lasang Pinoy 25, I am giving away the following:

Lacquered bento box, a set of chopsticks, a Periplus Mini-Cookbook on Homestyle Japanese Cooking, P1000 gift certificate from Delifrance courtesy of GeiserMaclang and a Blog-O-Rama feature to the most prolific bento maker Miss Kitchencow. Thanks a lot for submitting two bento entries Chrissie … and many more bentos to come ;)

A set of plastic lunchboxes from Japan Home Center and The Adobo Book : Traditional & Jazzed Up Recipes goes to Ryan of KainPinoy who made the picnic adobo bento. The book is a winner of the National Book Award and contains every imaginable styles of adobo you can find, from personal inventions to regional versions to recipes passed on through generations. A few of the examples: Paella de Adobo of Don Anastacio de Alba to pork adobo in buko juice to adobo sa alamang at gata with finger peppers and the Solar Box Day-Long Adobo of Reynolds Philippines. Viva adobo!

I am bequeathing a copy of A La Carte: Food and Fiction (as edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Isip Orosa) to Mike Mina for his blog treatise on the fiambrera. A La Carte is one of the excellent Filipino food books to come out of late, a luscious salad mix of fact, fiction, fantasy and recipes. If you like food and would love the literary effort that goes with loving it, this one is a must-read!

Lastly, I’d like to give Bento boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go (to order from Amazon) to Iska for being this round-up’s earliest bird.

Congratulations fellas. You may contact me soon on how to get your prizes, or how I can get your prizes to you (whatever :D) Cheers to great global Filipino food!

The Legaspi Sunday Market

Cooked food

I figure that summer is the best time to go to the few weekend markets Manila has. There’s really no point doing so when it’s all wet and rainy, doesn’t it? At least with the sunshine out, you can see fruits, plants and vegetables in full abundance, never mind if you have to sort through them with sweaty arms (and pits!) It’s that hot and humid in the city these days.

The Legaspi Sunday Market is located in a quiet enclave of offices and residential condominiums, with a pretty park beside it. I didn’t know how to go here at first, and my personal GPS just told me to go around the side streets of Greenbelt 1 (near AIM) and find the Union Church of Manila. The market is located in a spacious parking lot, with a Starbucks just a few walks away. I would think that the weekend markets in Salcedo and the Lung Center are bigger and have more selections, but foodies and homebound fellas are sure to find interesting things here as well.

Some pictures from this market:

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Columnist and writer Barbara ‘Tweety’ Gonzalez sells her paintings here, as well as a line of talismans from Mt. Banahaw for attracting love, happiness and prosperity.

PICT0474< The Japanese-designed Waraji slippers , made of abaca, are said to massage the feet and cure the body of certain ailments.

The garden lady

From the stall of a gracious lady named Delia, I was able to buy kitchen herbs like thyme, coriander and basil for our mini-garden. No more panic-buying in the grocery for any last-minute addition of things like parsley and oregano in one’s dishes!

Food, and more food!

Crab & Shrimps

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‘Sex and the City’ the movie loses its beat, but not the spirit….

Sex and the City the movie

Like most Sex and the City fans, I simply had to watch The Movie. Never mind if it was such a tall order for its makers to compress six seasons into two and a half hours of musings on love and watching the four ladies sashay in their designers fashions. Except for some very funny moments, the movie places a good second to the TV show, in my humble opinion. Still, the SATC spirit lives on!

Here are some notes:

The ladies get to tame down, with Charlotte Miranda settling to their domestic duties,and Samantha staying in one place, for once. She resists her attraction for the hunky LA neighbor by ‘overeating.’

Our friends will tide us through the worse times, and if all else fails, buy a dog.

It is not too late to read to each other … in bed. That’s what beds are for P

Carrie did marry Mr. Big, even if he stood her up on their church wedding day. What is it with bad guys?? My favorite Carrie boyfriend has always been Aidan.

I doubt if there’s a movie sequel, but hey, we can always watch all of them TV reruns D

The great (late!) Lasang Pinoy 25 round-up….

is coming soon! finally here!

Apologies to our dear Lasang Pinoy 25 participants who made their own creative bentos. End of the round coincided with a major house move, which presently leaves me with boxes of unopened stuff and no internet connection, ugh. What could be worse for a blogger, especially a blogger who’s supposed to do a timely round-up? (

But I did promise some stuff for the bento-makers and they’re here, namely a couple of Filipino cookbooks, bento box, lunch kits and my sexy friend Alma from GeiserMaclang has even donated a P1000 gift certificate from Delifrance. So it’s still fun P

Here’s a summary of participants and their bento creations. It wasn’t MANY D but I do believe in quality rather than quantity. Also, I realize that bento-making is not really part of the culinary mainstream..it’s more like an acquired taste for our aspiring slash busy cooks. Still, I’d like to give my kudos to the following blog friends for coming up with their entries:

Early bird Iska came up with a beautifully-laid tocino bento consisting of yummy cured pork, hard-boiled egg and vegetables.

Ryan of KainPinoy prepared something most of us just couldn’t resist: classic adobo bento with sidings of fried eggplant, tomatoes and bagoong which they brought on a sunny picnic to the La Mesa Ecopark!

Pinoy bento princess Kaoko of Kitchencow did a great feat of submitting two entries: the soy vinegar pork belly bento and an irresistible-looking adobo flakes and daing bento. Yum!

Lasang Pinoy’s resident moderator Mike Mina educates us on the origins of the fiambrera (Spanish for lunchbox) of his childhood. These are the multi-level tin lunchboxes we see in the stores up to now, and very handy too! See how Mike makes his baon more special with a tower of fiambrera goodies.

Ces over at Spices whipped up another can’t resist dish, Longsilata (short for longganisa, sinaing and ensalata) which she prepared on the verge of watching American Idol. We think the highlight of this creation is the irresistible salad of mangoes, red onions, salted eggs and bagoong - yum!

Fashionista Dexie over at FeistyMomma prepared a Pinoy-style bento of my favorite (and yours too?) fried tilapia, rice, green beans and mango salsa. Am suddenly getting hungry, and we surely want your salsa recipe Dexie;)

JMom’s entry is ‘better late than never’ (and it’s indeed getting better!) Her garlic fried chicken bento is just good, and embellished with stir-fried snow peas and bell peppers.

As for me, I was busy myself and was only able to make the Arroz a la Cubana bento you can find somewhere in this blog.

Thanks also to the following for the mention in their blogs: Bembites and Em Dy.

Up next: the prizes!!!

David & Goaliath, Havaianas, Zen Zest & a few of my fave things at the moment…

There’s been a backlog of blog posts ever since the house move, so I’d just like to give the heads-up to the following products I tried recently:

Havaianas

Havaianas…. I Heart! Summer is for flip-flops and I adore the pairs of Havaianas I got recently, especially the one with “Blogger Ajay” spelled out on the straps. The latter is a result of the “Make Your Own Havaianas” event I attended recently in the Rockwell Tent. In the past, I would have shunned a signature brand for my tsinelas (slippers) since it’s just tsinelas anyway. But I like how Havaianas lets you express your individuality with a large selection of styles to choose from. At the “Make Your Own Havaianas,” you can embellish your slip-ons with Swarovski studs, letters in the alphabet or symbols like headphones and further customize them with lacinhos (”little laces”). The Rockwell Tent was filled to the brim with Havaianas fans and am sure next year’s event will be another hit.

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D & G IS FOR DAVID & GOLIATH! I love my PJ’s and I blog, in fact, in my pajamas. So when David & Goliath gave bloggers like moi a chance to try their products, I didn’t choose a tee but their pajama line. Yes, they do have them and unkempt me is shown here wearing their “I Only Have Ice For You ” PJ. Don’t really know what this means (since am not turning frigid anytime soon :D) but David & Goliath has made a name for their wry sense of humor anyway. The brand recently unveiled their Little Losers line-up where you can choose from tags like “Mr. Fartface,” “Mr. Tightwad” and ” Ms. Spoiled Brat.” Hurray! They even have a “Bloggers Suck” tee. David & Goliath has freestanding stores in Bonifacio High Street, Power Plant Mall, TriNoma, Robinsons Place Midtown, Greenbelt 5 and inside Rustan’s Makati.

Zen Zest goodies

Zen Zest is a Filipino home and beauty brand I patronize. Bought in fact their room and linen fragrance as gifts last Christmas.Their publicist Claire recently gave me their coconut conditioner and shampoo to try and am now using it. I guess they got me at the word ‘coconut’ and I just love the familiar coconut scent. For Father’s Day, Zen Zest is offering a 20 per cent discount off special packages of their coconut oil and aromatherapy items. Check it out!

McDonald's Hamdesal

My favorite breakfast at the moment is the McDonald’s Hamdesal. You know how some people say that McDonald’s bread wins over Jollibee? Well,a m simply floored (floured?) by their pan de sal version. It comes in ham, ham & cheese, & ham & egg flavor. W00t! The best things in life cost less than a dollar (39 pesos), with free coffee to boot!