Food and Drinks

Drink, eat and be merry. One of my mantras. We all love food.

And one of the perks of traveling is being able to try different cuisines. I don't always have the liberty to take pictures of food and drinks especially when I'm on official business trip.  We're suppose to do work and talk to clients instead of positioning our cameras to snap good pictures.

And sometimes when we go out for fine dining, it's a little awkward to take photos in the resto itself, just makes me feel like I'm acting naive.

Anyhow, please see some photos of food and drinks I managed to take, mostly from a quick shot on my iphone.  Some pictures has a story to tell...


1. Last Feb 2008, it's "raining cakes" on my bday. I had three. We were in Taipei that time for a week conference and I got one in my hotel room (courtesy of the hotel), one from the social event organisers (which I shared with two other celebrants) and this one below courtesy of our company staff. One of the best cheesecakes I've had.

 2. Siopao with yummy sauce. I was on my way back to Brisbane from Manila after attending a 1 day event. I only stayed  in Manila for 3 days - my shortest trip ever in the Philippines -  and I bought this from NAIA for a quick snack before going to the gate.  My, it was so tasty. I wish they would make the same sauce for pork buns they sell in Chinese restos here.

 3. Typical food they serve at work during Melbourne cup, with white whine and champagne of course!

4.  Apple Martini. I had this in Singapore while waiting for my friends Athene and Wade to arrive. They used to live in Brisbane but they are now based in SG. There was also a Filipino community in SG doing Santacruzan that time, and I could watch them from my table.

5. Spaghetti, after a long day of shopping in KLCC, Malaysia. I could be anywhere around the world, and when it comes to food I stick to my comfort.

6. Sono Japanese restaurant. Pricey but yummy! I love the hot tea  and the cup :-)

7. Macadamia pancakes in Pancakes House Brisbane. The restaurant is an old church converted into a restaurant. Interesting interior inside.

8. Lechong Baka, this was during one of the social events held inside Intramuros during our conference in Manila  last Feb, 2009.  I still prefer lechong baboy, lechong baka's meat is somewhat chewy, maybe it wasn't cook properly.

9. Oh so yummy cassava cake, one of the desserts served in my Lolas birthday last March.

10. Sharing a delicious crab with my father, mother and brother at Jumbo restaurant in Singapore. My parents first ever trip oversea. I love this meaty crab.

 

11. Bread and dips. Typical entree we order when having drinks or coffee after work!

12. Attended a Mexican party. First time I heard about 'liqour with worms' I thought they were joking, by obviously they're not. Cuban cigar, well it tastes like an organic cigarette. I don't smoke but I have tried smoking before.

13. I love cocktails - midori splice, sex on the beach, mojito to name a few. This is kiwi mojito, an interesting mix!

14. Freshness of Sizzler's. Having 'all-you-can-eat' once in a while - why not?

15.   Breaded Prawns - one of my favorites!

16. Everytime I go to a Thai Restaurant, I'd always wanna try their Pad Thai.

17. One of the best pork dishes I've had! This was in Alegria (Mediterranean Resto) located along Park Road. Those mushroom looking toppings were actually green apples. I love it!

18. Nice Mexican Fruit Punch

19. Burritos!

20. Paella

21. Home-made Sangria

22. Vegetarian Pizza -  from a 'Moroccan and Middle Eastern' resto

23. Fish in vine leaf - from a 'Moroccan and Middle Eastern' resto

24. I'm drooling just by looking at this photo. I heart sticky date pudding!

 

 

 25.  Creme brulee

26. Fresh Sea food platter. Something different from the usually crumbed-covered seafood~

27. Aussie drink - lemon, lime and bitter!

28. Cake with coconut shreds on top, try this from Starbucks Manila...

29. Weird greenish cocktail but the taste was alright.

30. I'm no coffee drinker but I'm a hot choco lover. Yeah it looks like coffee, but it's actually hot choco.

Port Arthur, Richmond, Mt Wellington (Tasmania)

This is going to be a photo blog.

We finally got the car we rented  on Monday Jan 25.

If you really wanted to enjoy the stunning scenery of Tasmania, it's a must to drive around the island. I was the designated driver of the day, unfortunately, so I didn't get much opportunity to take pictures and enjoy the view on the way.
I think there is no such thing as 'speed limit' to Port Arthur. Totally  crazy! I was driving 120KPH  on a hilly and winding road, but apparently I'm still 'slow' because few cars still overtake.  Thank goodness there's not much vehicle on the road.

Port Arthur is an hour and a half drive from the city of Hobart.

1. As soon as you arrive at Port Arthur, you need to get a pass: we bought the Bronze pass.

2. First, we took the 30-minute cruise along the lake.

The Isle of the dead (yeah, spooky place)

View of Historic Buildings from our boat

3. Then joined the group tour around the Historic buildings, Ruins and beautiful Gardens

one of the many groups taking the tour

historic buildings (you can explore inside to see the remnants of history)

the view of the lake where we cruise

Mr Tour Guide

Not sure what this is

The museum

One of the stuff inside the museum (didn't take much interest)

The inmates barracks in the olden days

Where inmates did their exercise and got their dose of sunshine

inside

stairs to the courtroom

Remnant of the Church built in 1836 AD ...

... but it looks more like a castle!

strking.a.pose

fountain in the garden

remnants of the old prison

and.yet.another.pose

tower in the prison

me again

Inside the governor's house (located right beside of the old prison, it must be the house of the police chief or someone on the highest rank)

The creepiest picture Ive taken, try to zoom it in and you'll see orbs. They provide ghost tour at night but we didn't go. Apparently there were plenty of 'sightings' @night.

a short stop on the way back to capture one of the many stunning views






4. Richmond is about 2 hours drive from Port Arthur (and 30 mins from Hobart).

The oldest bridge in Australia built in 1823. It's been built by the prisoners and said to be haunted. The bridge is located in the beautiful town of Richmond.

St John Catholic School (est 1843)

Oldest Catholic Church in the country ....

built in 1836 (also located in Richmond)

Graveyard at the back of the church - who would want to sit there!





5. Mt Wellington is 22 kms drive from the city of Hobart. The mountain is 1.27KMs high, and the peak is normally covered by snow on winter.

This was another crazy drive. The road is steep and narrow for a  two way traffic, and the speed limit is 50KPH!

 View from the summit

Fog starting to cover the mountain, we have to drive with the headlights on, otherwise one stupid move and we're off the cliff.








Then we head down to the casino for a cool and refreshing 'Lemon, Lime and Bitter'.

All in all the trip was fun, but it's quite tiring because we squeezed in these trips in 1 day. We have to make the most of it as we were flying back the next day.

Later on, I would found out that Port Arthur's tourist site (the exact place we visited)  where the most brutal massacre in the country had happened.

The Port Arthur massacre of 28 April 1996 was a killing spree which claimed the lives of 35 people and wounded 21 others mainly at the historic Port Arthur prison colony, a popular tourist site in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia [Wikipedia] 

 
Most of the victims were tourists.


Incoming trip: Feb 23-March 7, KL Malaysia. This is an official business trip but I'll blog about it nonetheless.

Hobart Tasmania (Jan 23-24, 2010)

I have one word to say: beautiful. That's how I would describe Tasmania in general. The harbour, the European feel of the old buildings, the variety of things you can see and do. The food is great too. Being a sea food lover, I'm impressed that restaurants would serve sea foods fresh and good (not the fresh from the freezer type).

Tasmania has a cooler weather than any other cities in Australia I have been to.  The temperature would drop down to 16 degrees on daytime and 11 degrees at night - which is already the winter temperature in Brisbane. Around this time of the year,  it is suppose to be the peak of summer in the whole country.  Narumon, who accompanied me on this trip, was complaining about the 38 degrees heat in Sydney and was happy to be in a cooler temperature even only for a few days. I, on the contratry, have low tolerance in the cold already being in the city of sun days (that's how they call Brisbane) for 9 years!

I took an hour flight to Sydney then another 1 hr and 20 min flight down to Tassie. I  arrived in the afternoon of 23 Jan (Sat) and decided to walk around the city and the harbour when Narumon arrived around 7:30pm. One thing I noticed,  dawn starts around 9pm so technically we still walked in broad daylight even if it's already past 7pm.
Mures restaurant is the busiest seafood resto in town so we tried to get a seat for dinner. Unfortunately, we have to wait for another 1.5 hours because it was too busy, so we did more walking and came back later for dinner.

Mures Resto along the Harbour

On 24 Jan (Sun), we had brekkie at Salamanca street. I love that place, it reminds me of this place called  Old Town in Rhodes, Greece. I had the best French toast but it's too big for me to finish.  We were planning to drive around that day but we couldn't rent a car until the next day so we decided to take a cruise along the harbour.

Yummy french toast

Our ride

The casino

Pirate boat racing with our boat

After the cruise we walked around Elizabeth St, Liverpool St and the nearby streets around downtown. We had a bit of a nap inside our room (Quest Savoy Serviced Apartment) after having late lunch, then more walking towards Governor's palace.

On a post along liverpool st

Governor's palace

Hogs breath cafe

 another visit to Salamanca place

Next: Tour to Port Arthur, Richmond and Mt Wellington

Byron Bay, NSW, Australia (Jan 2, 2010)

Most people seem to have a mandatory blog entry for the New Year. So I'll follow the trend but will keep it short and simple. Mine went fine, I have my wish granted from last year's (2008) new year's eve, this was after I saw a shooting star (who would have thought wishes do come true). Anyhow, for this year's (2009) new year's eve celebration, I went to the downtown city of Brisbane with my friend to see the fireworks. I don't have a decent photo of the fireworks so I'll just post my photo before the fireworks took place.

Now back to regular programming :-) 10 days after my parents and brother left, I have another visitor who flew from LA to spend Christmas and New Year with me. I took him to the same places where I took my family: Mt Cootha, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Casino, Queen St Mall, Indooropilly Shopping Centre, Roma Parklands garden etc. I won't post pictures of these places again otherwise it would be boring.

But I took him to South Bank and Byron Bay, places where I didn't have the opportunity to take my parents and brother.
view of the city from southbank

wheel of brisvegas



Actually, it was also my first time in Byron Bay, I like the place, it's lovely and only about 2-hours drive from Brisbane. This is less tedious than driving down to Sydney which would  take about 12-13 hours! At the moment, my driving  is limited to 1-2 hours only, otherwise I'd fall asleep from tiredness. We were originally planning a road trip to Sydney, stop at Coffs Harbour, then from Sydney we will drive to Katoomba to experience the '3-sisters' mountain and  Jenolan caves. But that has been canceled because my friend wasn't feeling well, and he gets confused  with the left and right turns when driving, I had to guide him where the correct lane is. You see, here in Oz we use right-hand drive which is the opposite in the US, and according to him they don't have as many roundabouts as we have here. I was mostly relying on him to drive so it would be risky to have a confused driver driving with a lazy driver, what if I doze off during our long drive.
But he's getting better, I let him drive most of the time so he'll get used to the roads here.  Maybe we'll go ahead with the plan sometime this year when he comes back. Hopefully my friend won't get the same cold when he got here.  Being in the sourthern hemisphere, our weather is the opposite in LA, so the cold he got before he left LA (because it's winter in LA right now) didn't get better when he arrived here. But he still managed to drive down to Byron Bay so it wasn't too bad.

Two things I like about Byron bay: 1) the amazing view from the lighthouse; you can walk around the hill to witness the grandeur of the Pacific ocean in the most easterly point of Oz 2) the un-commercialize beaches, they're lovely!

Parents and brother's last week in Oz (Dec 8-14)

This is their third and last week in Australia. I think 2 weeks is enough to see Brisbane. So they're up for the highlight of the trip - Sydney!

But before they leave Brisbane they have to first taste one of my favorite cuisines in the world - Thai food.
(money bags, fish cakes, sweet and sour fish, thai beef salad, curry) they love it too, in fact the next night we ordered thai food again for dinner

We flew to Sydney on Dec 12 and left on Dec 14, I headed back to Brisbane while they flew back to the Philippines.

We stayed at Oaks Goldsbrough Aparment in Darling Harbour while in Sydney, loved the contemporary design of the place, and it's complete with kitchen and other amenities perfect for a family! They also have a nice swimming pool but we didn't have enough time to swim.
(See the building behind, where the Aussie flag is pointing, that's where our apartment hotel is, so it's just a stone's throw away from Darling Harbour)

(from outside our room)
(the room)

So here are the hightlights:

Walking around Darlingharbour











Circular Quay: Opera House, Harbour Bridge and lucky Pacific Pearl ship was there too~ We saw the luxury cruise liner up close when we took the ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay. Just a travel tip when taking a ferry, you can take a public ferry instead of the private ones because it's much much cheaper!
(Ferry as public transport, pretty cheap and cool!)









Even if my parents were a little tired from lots of walking I think they enjoy the trip. Always the proud parents for the 'all-expenses-paid trip' by the ever generous daughter (yeah, that's me!) And they didn't go home without the extra cash x-mas gift from me.

I asked my father if he would come back, he said he'd rather see a different country if we're going to spend money on another trip. Good idea, so our next stop is .... oh well, I'll keep you posted but I've already got plans in my head.

Parents and brother's trip (Dec 1-7)

And the adventure continues...

Memorable event of the week: my father got lost, but he was clever enough to get a cab (lucky he got lost in a place where there's a taxi rank, whew!) to take him at my place. He was walking in the morning to get some exercise until he lost his way and couldn't come back. At least he got to speak English to the taxi driver while pointing him to where I live, I think the fact that the driver was an Indian, they could understand each other's accent. Remember my story from last week, he insisted on speaking with the locals.
(My father, with brisbane river and city lights in the background)

Let's move on to the real adventures shall we.

1. Try more cuisines(Indian, Japanese sushi, Filipino and Australian) - all pinoy foods are from the x-mas party







2. A walk around Roma Parklands





3. Experience Pinoy X-mas party here in Brisbane. They enjoyed this the most because they interacted with many Filipinos, and the food was great.


4. A stroll around King George Square and a bit of gambling at the casino, we lost 40$ boohoo!








5. A trip to Surfer's Paradise in Goldcoast






And a few side trips...
@Kurilpa bridge(the newest bridge in town)(Italian cafes in Park Road)

Singapore (June 2009)

Just before I continue my parents and brother's adventures here in OZ, I'd like to blog about my interesting experience at:



I heard the penthouse of the hotel is a popular place for marriage proposals. Since we stay there on our business trip, and one of my colleagues who traveled with us was celebrating her birthday that week, we decided to go to New Asia Bar (bar located at the penthouse). The place is chic and trendy. I didn't get to take pictures because I was busy drinking my cocktails and dancing to the good music.



We were totally impressed at the place so my colleague (the onewho celebrated her bday) and I came back that same week and try the Equinox Resto which is located right next to the bar. The place is captivating, here's what the resto boasted (according to the websiste): Singapore’s “highest” culinary landmark with world-class cuisine and spectacular views of Singapore, Equinox Restaurant enchants with the most scrumptious authentic Asian or Western offerings. Boasting a multi-dimensional culinary experience, each cuisine is skillfully created by renowned Chef de Cuisine Hugh Styles. Seated in the elegant amphitheatre-style restaurant, be awed by the three-storey high teak and rice paper lanterns, Ming-inspired wooden trellises and a luminous wall of mother of pearl.





I spent (a freaking) 125AUD for 1 main course, desert and wine(I shared a bottle with my colleague). But that's fine, it's good to treat yourself once in a while. And I get per dim allowance at work which is enough to cover the expensive dinner!

One of the features of the hotel that I also like is the Willow Stream Spa. Hotel guests have free access to the spa so I went there two times during our week stay. My second visit was quite memorable, there was a nude old woman who joined me at the spa, she's probably Japanese, korean or singaporean. It freaked me out so I got off the spa, it's not everyday I see old woman in the nude :-)



I also had a full body massage and facial at Raffles City Mall which is attached to the hotel but I can't remember the name of the place now. We got a good deal of 40AUD for 1 hour massage and 1 hr facial. I love pampering myself!

*all photos courtesy of http://www.swissotel.com/