24
May

Philippine Fashion Week

Last night (May 23) marks the second day of Philippine Fashion Week. I’ve seen fashion shows on television like the well-loved Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, runways on America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway. Never in my wildest imaginations would I have thought that I would be able to attend one LIVE! It was an amazing experience! Sure I wasn’t able to attend the fashion show for designer labels as my ticket only allowed me to watch the SM Ladies’ Fashion part, but I don’t mind. It was my first time and I had fun. During the event, I spotted some well-known figures such as Melanie Marquez, as well as some known to bloggers such as Camille Co and Laureen Uy.

So for this part of the fashion show, SM wanted to showcase the new shoes by Parisian as well as their new collections for clothes. The models for this show were from Elite Modelling Agency Manila. It was interesting since I think this is the first time I’ve seen a fashion show focus on footwear. Since footwear was the item being highlighted, the models were wearing nude colored undergarments with a sort of transparent coat. This was done in order for the attention of the audience to be directed to the footwear which the models were wearing and were toting around in these transparent carrier bags. I wasn’t able to really take a photo of each garment or each shoe which came out since I don’t have an SLR camera, however, I managed to take some photos:

 

To end my blog entry, what would Fashion Week be if you yourself won’t get the opportunity to dress up? My friends and I have to admit that we’re not really fashionable. I mean sure we dress up and stuff, but we’re no match compared to those who have Lookbook accounts and such. We don’t dress up every single time we go out. I guess the only times we dress up is when there’s a special occasion like one of us is celebrating our birthday and has plans to treat the others out to lunch or dinner at a fancy restaurant, but that’s about it. You can just imagine the panic that we experienced while we were trying to decide what to wear for the event. In the end, here’s how we all ended up.

 

Raissa Chua

 

Joan Sy

 

Tiff Kang

 

Me :D

 

So, how do you think  we did for our first appearance for Fashion Week? Did we end up picking the right clothes? The invitation did say to come in a semi-formal attire. :P Oh, before I forget, much thanks to Raissa who was the one who got the tickets for all of us! Thank you so much, dear for this wonderful opportunity! :)

Category: Blog Entries, Fashion  Tags: , , ,  One Comment
22
May

Bookworm Mode!

To make up for the long hiatus I had from blogging, here’s another post which shines light on how much of a bookworm I am. :D Ever since classes ended around the last week of February, I took the time to finally get back to something which I really love: reading books. It’s been a really long time since I was able to read books for leisure what with school work and student organization responsibilities hounding me left and right. Now that I’ve officially graduated and am part of the unemployed population, I can finally get back to reading books at a leisure. For this year, I’ve pledged to read at least 50 books. Since I had a lot of time on my hands right now, I’ve managed to read a total of 26 books during just this summer to have a total of 29 books for the entire year. I’m still quite a way from my target of 50 books, but I’m hoping that this year will be a good one for me and that I’ll finally be able to reach that 50 book goal of mine :D My best friend, Tiff, who’s also a bookworm at heart made me answer this questionnaire of some sort regarding books.

 

1. Favorite childhood book?

  • Goosebumps hands down. Especially the “Choose your adventure” series.

2. What are you reading right now?

  • The Legend of the Five Rings: The Scorpion by Stephen Sullivan

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

  • I don’t usually request books from the library since I only borrow books for research there.

4. Bad book habit?

  • Does the tendency to skip really, really long narrations count?

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

  • Doesn’t apply since I haven’t been to the library since graduation, if you count friends’ houses as libraries then I have Pillars of the Earth, David Gemmell’s Troy trilogy and The Legend of the Five Rings series.

6. Do you have an e-reader?

  • Of course! I took to reading e-books back in high school when mom wouldn’t give me money to buy books.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

  • One book at a time since I feel that I’ll just get confused with the different plots and forget some events/characters if I read more than one at a time.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

  • Nope! My reading habits are still the same :)

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far)?

  • This is a tough question. Thus far I’ve liked the books I’ve read this year :-s Although I guess it would have to be Heat Wave by Richard Castle. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Castle (the tv series) however, I felt that the book was a disappointment since I was expecting wit, humor and action all rolled into one just like the tv series, but it wasn’t. I felt that the narrative was kind of dragging and there were a lot of typographical errors :(

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?

  • Definitely the Troy trilogy by David Gemmell. Best retelling of Troy thus far.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

  • Rarely, I guess only when school requires me.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

  • Romance, Historical fiction and fantasy genres would probably make up my reading comfort zone

13. Can you read on the bus?

  • Yes, but I’m trying not to for the sake of  my eyes :) )

14. Favorite place to read?

  • At home on the bed or on the couch :)

15. What is your policy on book lending?

  • Please return my book in the same condition as when you borrowed it. No dog-ears and no creases on the spine please :)

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

  • No. Never, I always use bookmarks or any piece of card or paper on hand as bookmarks

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

  • I only did this when our prof back in high school asked us to since she will be reading the writings in the margins of our assigned books for our book report. Otherwise, I like my books clean :)

18. Not even with text books?

  • Textbooks are another thing altogether, those are the only books I write on :) )

19. What is your favorite language to read in?

  • English

20. What makes you love a book?

  • Plot, characters, writing style. I have feel absorbed by the book

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

  • If the book is really good and I was really into it

22. Favorite genre?

  • Romance, Fantasy, Historical fiction :)

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?

  • Science fiction

24. Favorite biography?

  • I don’t think I’ve read a biography before

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?

  • Does Chicken soup for the Soul count?

26. Favorite cookbook?

  • All of them I guess :P

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

  • Troy :)

28. Favorite reading snack?

  • Bread and milk although I rarely eat while reading books since I don’t want to get any crumbs or stains on the book :)

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

  • Harry Potter. I guess since I read the first four books and was so amazed that I expected the next three to be amazing, but I found the writing rushed and I think there was just too big a time gap between the fourth and fifth that a lot of things seem hurried and the mood so different.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

  • Relatively often?

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

  • I try to avoid those unless they really can’t be avoided

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

  • Definitely in Italian <3

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?

  • The Historian since it was really thick and I wasn’t so sure if I was up to reading it since I wasn’t familiar with the author’s style of writing

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?

  • Pillars of the Earth. It was recommended by friends, but again I’m not sure if I’ll like the style of writing and therefore I’m unsure if I can finish the book. My problem is that I can’t read another book unless I finish the one I’m currently on

35. Favorite Poet?

  • Shakespeare even though his poems are sometimes hard to interpret :) )

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

  • School books around 3-5, when I was in high school and we had books for leisure, as much as the library would allow us :)

37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?

  • None. I read the ones I borrow.

38. Favorite fictional character?

  • I have a lot of favorites. I can’t pick one over the other, it would be unfair :(

39. Favorite fictional villain?

  • Bayushi Shoju from Legend of the Five Rings: Clan War First Scroll The Scorpion just because I could actually understand why he did what he did (not to mention that I was actually rooting for him to win :) ) )

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

  • Any book that I’m reading at that moment :)

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.

  • A year or so I think. I remember there was a time when my mom forbade me to read books because she says that books were affecting my school grades badly :(

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

  • I almost didn’t finish The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and The Testament by John Grisham

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

  • Friends suddenly chatting me up or a nice show

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

  • The Lord of the Rings

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

  • Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

  • A thousand pesos

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

  • Once in a while when I’m trying to get a feel of the book

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

  • If the plot gets boring, if the character gets annoying or if I suddenly decide that I really don’t like the author’s style of writing (ie too much narration)

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?

  • Yes! By author and by the year they were released

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?

  • I tend to hang on to my books :)

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

  • Chick Lit. I find the characters usually annoying and frivolous

52. Name a book that made you angry.

  •  Twilight because I got so frustrated with Bella, at how whiny her character is

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

  • All American Girl

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

  •  Heat Wave by Richard Castle

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

  • Any book which isn’t related to school

What about you guys? Any bookworms out there who would like to share or recommend some books? :D

Category: Blog Entries, Bookish  Tags: , , ,  2 Comments
22
May

Macau-HK Trip Day 1

So I’ve been out of the country for the past few days for the first time in 6 years. Yep, it’s been a really long while since I last had the chance to get out of the country. I left the country Tuesday early morning for Hong Kong. My aunt suggested that we first stay in Macau before heading off to Hong Kong. After spending an entire day and a bit more in Macau, I have to say that I absolutely love love love the place!

 

In order to get to Macau from Hong Kong, my aunt, uncle, sister and I had to take a ferry. We rode on the TurboJet line. It was a bit of a bumpy ride at first, but it was smooth sailing afterwards (or so I think. I fell asleep and only woke up when we arrived at Macau so I could have missed all of the excitement while I was in dreamland. Haha! ) When we got to Macau, the first thing which we did was head straight over to The Venetian hotel there to check in and leave our luggage. It’s my first time inside the hotel so I was pretty amazed with its interior. Just the fountain which greets you as soon as you enter the hotel is enough to take your breath away. Btw, just a top, don’t forget to look up at the ceiling once you get dropped off outside since you’ll be greeted by this really nice design.

 

 

Another surprise which The Venetian has in store for its guests awaits them at the Grand Shoppes Canal. The inside of the Venetian, especially the section where the shops can be found is designed to replicate the feel of Venice. As such, one will be treated to houses which give off that rustic feel which houses in Italy do, as well as a canal where you can board a gondola complete with your own personal gondolier who will serenade you with songs for a fee (of course, there’s a fee!) of 180 HKD per person. If you don’t mind spending that much and if you really want to experience what it feels like to be serenaded by a gondolier and riding a gondola then go ahead and give this a try ;)

 

 

 

Another thing which I love about The Venetian is the extensive food court which can be found near the shops. There was a huge array of choices which offer guests different kinds of cuisines! From Chinese to Japanese, Portuguese, Singaporean, etc., you’re sure to find something which will make you salivate! For our first time there, my sister and I got these dishes from Hei Kee.

 

Braised Pork Rice

 

Shrimp Wonton Noodles

 

While we got these from two other shops which I forgot to note the names of :|

 

Takoyaki or Octopus Balls

 

Milk tea with Nata (Coconut jelly)

 

After going around The Venetian, we decided to hit the city that night. We started off by taking one of the hotel’s shuttles to Macau Ferry Terminal where we could ride one of the other hotels’ shuttles and thus be able to visit the other hotel casinos in the area. It was a really fun night since we were able to casinohop. We first took the bus to the Wynn hotel casino which was conveniently located near the center of the city. Before we continued with our casinohopping, my companions and I decided to grab some dinner. As such, we went to the nearest restaurant which we saw since my uncle was really hungry. We found ourselves sitting down and ordering at this quite obscure restaurant. Since it’s my first time to be in Macau and to eat at this place, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I was thinking that the food might not be that great, but the food was pretty good. Better than what you would normally expect from unknown restaurants which you find.

 

 

My uncle got a Hainanese Chicken Set which included hainanese chicken and rice. It was pretty okay for me. It’s not bad, but it wasn’t awesome. I found the sauce a bit lacking. There was a certain lack of “oomph” in the sauces.

 

 

My aunt on the other hand ordered Shrimp Egg Rice which was basically rice covered by this soupy form of egg topped with shrimp. The shrimp was yummy, it reminds me of the kind of shrimp which Chinese restaurants here in the Philippines sell. The thing which I found lacking in this dish is salt. I think the egg needed a bit of salt since overall, aside from the shrimp, there were no other flavors. I think with a bit of saltiness in this dish, it would have been superb.

 

My sister ordered Slice Pork Congee. I wasn’t really able to taste the congee since I was buying eating my own dish. I did, however, asked my sister for a slice of pork. I was amazed at how tender the pork slice was. It wasn’t the usual tough slice that we get here. It kind of melted in my mouth and I was really happy with it.

 

 

Lastly, my order was Shredded Duck Congee. I’m not being biased or what, but this was my favorite dish of the night. The soup and the congee was superb. One sip and first thing that comes to mind is “duck”. By that I meant to say that the entire bowl tasted like duck which made me wonder if the restaurant used duck soup stock as the base of the congee. It was amazing. I finished spoonful after spoonful, always tasting duck.  I highly recommend that if you find yourself in this part of Macau and decide to eat at this restaurant, order their Shredded Duck Congee and I guarantee that you won’t regret it.

 

After dinner, our company decided to enter Grand Lisboa which was a short walk away from where we had dinner. We just looked around at their casino and being a casino and gambling novice, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets when I saw how much money people were gambling away in the hope of winning big. I saw one lady put down 4000HKD (which roughly converts to 24,000 Php). I guess I don’t see myself gambling anytime in the future since just spending 100HKD (600 Php) is enough to give me pause. After strolling through the casino, we decided to head over to Macau tower to see if it was still open. I heard from my aunt that the view from the top is just amazing. Unfortunately for us, it was closed when we got there. After visiting Macau Tower, we decided to head on over to Galaxy Casino, it’s the newest casino in Macau and can I just express how impressed I am with how grand and lavish the design of the casino was. As you enter the casino area, you’ll be greeted by servers who ask you whether you would like to have a bottle of water or a glass of milk tea (and yes, it’s for F-R-E-E!) We didn’t really stay long, we just took some photos and decided to head on back to our hotel (which was located right across Galaxy) since it was pretty late and we wanted to get a head start the next day since we were going to leave Macau and head on over to Hong Kong. ‘Til my next entry! :D

Category: Blog Entries  Tags: , , ,  2 Comments
15
Mar

Down in the Dumps

Such a dramatic title, however, the title fully describes how I feel right now. As graduation day draws closer and one by one, my batchmates are rejoicing over the fact that they have gotten job offers, I couldn’t help but feel bad for myself. I’m probably one of the few individuals in our batch who contacted early on by companies for interviews. I had interviews with two of the companies which I really wanted to work for and how did that turn out? Not well. I wasn’t accepted by both companies, which really sucked for me. Sure, I made it pass the initial interview, for one of the companies, I was able to reach it all the way to the third interview before I failed to qualify. For the other one, i only reached until the second stage of the screening process. It feels so bad when companies reject you. You start to have doubts about yourself, you start to wonder if maybe you’re just not good enough or maybe you should have pursued further studies and avoided this heartbreak.

 

I admit that after I received the emails stating that I didn’t qualify, I really did and still kind of do feel down in the dumps. However, if there’s one thing which I really learned in school and in my organization, it’s that what to do after these failures which will determine your future and who you are as a person. Sure, you can mope around and feel sorry for yourself all you want, however, you can chose to go the other way and rise up form these failures.

 

As I was spilling my worries to my friends (yes, I did have that moment when I felt like my entire world just crashed and I had to feel sorry for myself), they told me this, “Don’t worry. There are more jobs out there and we’re sure that something better is in store for you.” Of course at that point in time I was feeling too sorry for myself to appreciate this, but after having slept on this, I realize the wisdom in what they told me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t arrive at the conclusion that my luck would suddenly turn around or that I should expect awesome job offers. In truth, I just arrive at the realization that maybe there was a reason why I didn’t get into those companies, maybe I wasn’t ready yet, that I had to find myself more. This morning, as painful as it was, I reread the rejection letters from both companies. At first, I felt the sting of rejection all over again, but after I braved through it, I felt my resolve strengthen. I found the strength to rise up. From these rejections, I was able to learn a thing or two, I was able to re-analyze what I did during the interviews, I tried pinpointing the areas where I did badly, I tried to look up tips on how to do better in interviews. After all of these, I took the initiative and started sending out my resume more companies. At the end of the day, if there’s one thing that I learned from all of these, it’s that one is bound to encounter failures, one does end up being rejected by their dream companies. However, what matters is that you don’t let these failures get to you. Instead, what you can do is strive to do better, review what you did and learn from your mistakes so that you can do better in the future. I think I became a stronger person because of these failures which I experienced early on.

 

What about you guys? Have you ever experienced something similar to what I did? How did you cope with it? How are you doing now?

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12
Mar

About Silencing

It’s been a long while since I had the chance to blog about anything and it saddens me that the first blog entry that I’m writing since my hiatus would be a simple rant about certain people silencing others.

 

I’m quite saddened over the fact that some people chose to prioritize their welfare above the interests of the majority. I’m not going to mince words, I’m going to tell the truth. I’m upset over the fact that my school’s yearbook editorial board made me remove the post that I made in our Facebook groups alerting people to check their yearbooks to see if there are discrepancies. This afternoon, some friends of mine were bored and decided to browse through the yearbook. We went from page to page and noticed that there were a couple of errors made by the board. For one, we noticed that some pictures were placed above the wrong name. My friend caught the mistake they made regarding his friend while I noticed the mistake they made with my blockmate’s. My friend also noticed that they skipped a few people in some pages. For such a small thing which can easily be addressed and fix, I don’t understand why they had to “order” me to remove my post. Is it so wrong to raise other people’s awareness that there might be something off in the yearbook? Why can’t the editorial board release a statement telling people to check their yearbooks and see if there are errors/changes which need to be fixed? Why must they have posts related to this removed and pretend that everything is all right?

 

I guess that at this point you might think that I’m bashing the editorial board and such, but I’m really not. I just want one simple thing from them: have them acknowledge that there are errors in the yearbook, have students check to see if their photos are in the right place. It’s a small thing, really. It’s better than letting people think that nothing is wrong and only have them find out 10 years down the road that they’re not in the yearbook or someone else’s photo was placed with their name. By that time, there’s nothing that they can do about it. At least at this point in time, they can still have their concerns addressed. I guess this is stemming from the fact that I know I would be upset if this happened to me, that I was left in the dark that there are some mistakes in the yearbook and I happened to be one of the unlucky people who wasn’t able to catch the mistake and only saw it after years have passed and there’s nothing else that I can do to fix it.

So with that thought in mind, I now rest my case. I just needed to let this out.

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10
Feb

More Giveaways!

Hi guys! I know it must have been ages since I last blogged about anything. Blame it on the academic workload. As a senior, I only have two more weeks before I shall end my final semester in the Ateneo and as such, I would like to ask for your forgiveness and maybe patience as I try to cope up with school work first. I promise that I shall write a whole lot more after I finish my academic year ;)

Anyway, a friend of mine is celebrating her birthday today and as such is having a birthday giveaway! Awesome, right? Her mechanics are pretty simple so I suggest that you guys join it ;) Here’s the link to her site where the mechanics of the contest are written! http://prettyingenious.tumblr.com/post/17369374918/giveaway-birthday-blowout-part-1 Wish you all the best! :D

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22
Jan

Lucky Week! :)

I’m not sure what exactly I did this week in order to deserve all the luck that I got, but hey, I’m not going to complain when I’m being lucky. I guess everything started last Sunday when I got home and was greeted by an email from Ms. Jerica who owns the blog inmidnight.wordpress.com. I remember joining her CBTL planner giveaway because I don’t have a planner and I wasn’t in the mood to spend money on one. It’s not that I don’t find planners worth my money or anything negative. The reason has more to do with the state of my finances. You see, what with graduation just around the corner, I’m swamped by requests from friends to travel. If you know me personally, you would know that every now and then I would get wanderlust. I guess I’m really just one of those people who enjoy travelling in order to better appreciate my surroundings. Anyway, since my mom doesn’t want to fund my upcoming trip to Boracay with friends in April, I’m left with no other option but to fund my own trip. Since I’m still studying, I’m not earning money and so I have to really save up my allowance. Now, you can just imagine my joy at finding out that I won the CBTL planner which Ms. Jerica was raffling out! I’m just new in the blogging scene and with these blog raffle contests so this is my first time to win anything! I still haven’t gotten the planner, but Ms. Jerica assures me that I’ll be able to receive the planner by Monday. So excited! I shall post again once I have obtained the planner! :D

 

The second lucky thing happened Wednesday. I was attending the L’Oreal Brandstorm University Finals in school because my friends were part of the finalists. I was simply blown away by their amazing presentations. After seeing their presentations, I felt both proud and envious. Proud because their ideas were simply amazing and innovative. Envy because I couldn’t help but think of why I didn’t join the contest with them. :( However, what happened in the past has already happened and I have to move on with life. So, during their presentations, L’Oreal decided to have a few games in between each presentation and give away some freebies! For their first game, they asked someone to bring them any product by The Body Shop. I didn’t move at once since for some reason, my mind sort of froze up and was slowly processing the information. Then, I realized that I have a lot of products by The Body Shop with me. Just my facepowder was bought from them so I immediately began riffling through my bag in search of it and rushed to the front! It was a good thing that apparently, not a lot of girls in that room at that time carry The Body Shop products around with them at that time so I was able to reach the stage first and get the prize! The prize that I got was this:

 

 

Now, the third freebie which I was lucky enough to acquire for this week was a Star Mobile Venus SQ301 when I attended my organization’s Spring Film Festival’s Gala Night, Friday Night. I guess being the president has its perks since when you invite sponsors like Star Mobile, they offer you a freebie just for inviting them. Star Mobile is a relatively new player in the market of cell phones here in the Philippines. To know more about this brand, please visit their Facebook fanpage here: https://www.facebook.com/starmobilephones. They offer some really cute and cool looking phones which are budget friendly to a lot of Filipinos. This is the third phone which I’ve received in a span of 4 months! Since I only need two phones (one for my Globe sim card and another for my Sun sim card), I decided to give one of my extra phones to my sister and this new one to my mom! I’m actually kind of feel sorry that I have to let them go, especially this new one since it looks so cute and it came in violet! On the other hand, after some thought, I came to the realization that it’s better to give it to my mom and have her use it than to see it gathering dust in my shelf. Here are some pics of the Venus SQ301 which I was given:

 

It’s such a cute, small phone and it’s dual sim!!

 

 It slides up and has a Qwerty keypad!!

A pretty nice phone for the price that it’s being sold for :)

So I guess this wraps up my pretty awesome week! Here’s to hoping for a similar or nicer week ahead since it’s Senior Year and we’re only a few weeks away from graduating! (Eep! I can’t believe how fast time flies by!) In line with the expected upcoming of exams, papers and other school requirements, I’m apologizing ahead of time in the event that I won’t be able to blog as much! Please to bear with me and still continue to read my blog! I’d really appreciate it! :D

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18
Jan

Presenting Cbox!

You read that right! Just today, I decided to install a Cbox because I want to hear from you guys! I know that this is my first time to get into blogging and while I enjoy sharing my thoughts and stuff, I also want to hear from you guys. I know that some of you might be shy in leaving a comment to one of my posts so I came up with the idea to have a Cbox instead so that you guys can drop by and maybe say a short “hi’ or ‘hello”. I’d really appreciate it if I could meet more friends through blogging and maybe this Cbox could provide a stepping stone!

Looking forward to hearing from you! ;)

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17
Jan

6th Spring Film Festival

I haven’t been able to update my blog for a while because of all the academic requirements that are piling up in front of me, as well as organization requirements.

Since nothing exciting has happened to me what with all of these matters to attend to. I’m writing this blog entry to plug my organization’s HUGE project!

 

 

Ateneo Celadon, in partnership with the Ateneo Confucius Institute and Shangri-La Plaza Mall, are once again presenting the public with 6 Chinese films to celebrate the 6th Spring Film Festival. The Gala Night shall be held this coming Friday (Jan. 20) at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall.

This event is open to public and.. the best thing about this? ADMISSION IS ABSOLUTELY FREE! I repeat, all the movies which will be shown during this week-long event is free of charge! Want to get your dose of Chinese films but don’t have the budget? Take advantage of this huge opportunity!

For more information regarding the films that will be shown, as well as their show times, kindly visit ateneo-celadon.org!

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07
Jan

Feng Li Su (Pineapple Cakes)

Ever since one of my friends came back home from Taiwan and brought home Feng Li Su (or pineapple cakes as we know it), I can’t stop craving it. I’m reminded of the time back when I was in Xiamen, China and how I developed a certain fondness for pineapples there. Now, Taiwan is known for it’s extremely delicious and well-known pineapple cakes. Pineapple cakes are these small shortcake looking pastries filled with pineapple filling. Because I found myself craving for it nonstop, and seeing as I already finished the one that my friend gave me, I tried to look it up online to show my friends what exactly was I craving for. In the process of trying to look for pictures of this yummy treat, I stumbled upon an article by one fan of this treat. I found out that the pineapple filling found inside these pineapple cakes mostly consist of winter melon rather than pineapple since if the filling is made of 100% pineapple, it becomes too concentrated and ends up looking like black mush. The winter melon turns out to be a sort of regulator which balances out the fruity pineapple flavor and retains it.

Now, just tonight, my friend and I entered this Chinese store which we passed by, on a whim, to see if they had any because I was still craving for some. The brand that we found is from China. We assume that it is because of how the characters on the label looked. If something is made from mainland China, you can expect the character to be written in simplified form. Those that come from Taiwan are written in traditional form.

Here are the pictures of the Pineapple Cake which I bought earlier this evening:

 

 

I’d like to think that after I’ve tasted the best kind of pineapple cake (the one that was bought from Chia Teh in Taiwan), I’m capable of saying if a pineapple cake is good or not. Sad to say, this brand did not do it for me. It didn’t reach my standards. The Feng Li Su which I was able to eat from Taiwan had a soft and buttery break and the store was very generous with the filling. I mean, sure the filling wasn’t overflowing, however, the balance between the bread and the filling was perfect. You could taste each separately at the start then the tastes will mix into such a heavenly flavor that it’s not that hard to get addicted to it. In this version of pineapple cake, once you take a bite of the cake, the cake sort of crumbles inward. I also felt that the filling was too thin. If you take the time to look at the cake again after you bite it, you’ll see how the inside of the cake just falls in on the filling and you taste more of the cake in your mouth. It was disappointing, however, my friend did warn me how the ones which I will be able to buy outside of Taiwan aren’t as good. I won’t stop hoping though that I will be able to find one that will be able to satisfy my craving for this exquisite pastry without my having to go to Taiwan.

Just in case you’re in Taiwan and you’re wondering what this pastry and its packaging looks like:

 

See how soft and how thick the filling in the original cake is when you get it from Taiwan? That’s the pineapple cake which I’ve been craving for the past couple of days. I definitely recommend this tasty pastry to everyone! :)

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