I'm scared of lasagna - the making of it. Of all the pasta dishes, it is what intimidates me the most. Maybe it's the work involve or the baking involve - I mean why can it not be like a spaghetti - boil then toss the sauce?
After researching about lasagna and different variations of its recipe, I decided to try this one because it predominantly uses mozzarella - my favorite cheese. Forgive my humble assessment but I really feel the turnout was a success. Why do I think so? Because I ate the meat sauce separately and could not stop eating it for days. I'm not a cook, so I'm not going to detail what I did and recipe linked above should do the trick . I'll show you though the experience of cooking/baking a lasagna for the first time.
Photo#1: I'm standing here boiling the meat with the sauce, in near panic as I'm trying to think if I need to transfer it to a bigger caldero as it is almost overflowing and beside it, I'm boiling the lasagna pasta - what the crap is this stuff, so huge and wide -- and I'm juggling texting back to my teammate Venkat (who believes I'm trying to burn down the house) and my friend Tin (who will soon be a professional baker) warning them of where I am with my cooking. By the way, fresh parsleys are heaven and are good for presentation too!
Photo#2: I'm a little bit relaxed at this time, spreading the ricotta cheese mixture with my layers. I go all out with parsley. I put them EVERYWHERE, I don't care. I actually cannot decide now if I undercooked my pasta or overcooked it. True mark of a happy-go luck cook (read: idiot) in the kitchen.
Photo#3: My sauce is ready and I'm ecstatic! Ecstatic because I just layered my mozzarella slices! My perfectionist me wished that for next time, I'll try those raw mozzarella cheese, not the sliced one. I think those kind is a wee bit expensive, I think around 500 pesos.
Photo#4: The recipe never mentioned cheese bubbles. Take a look at that picture. I was worn out with 2 hours of cooking at this stage, I think I was in dementia when I remembered my mom telling me that the secret to a good leche flan is that when you whip the egg mixture, it has to be so fine as to not cause any bubbles. So I started swatting the bubbles while this was in the oven. Yeah, I know, totally non sequitur. I apply pieces of advice on wrong scenarios.
Photo#5 :). I know :). It was good. And note the garnish: ever ubiquitous parsley ;-).
I'm going through my album of pictures and I remember this one in Athens, Greece - Nikki and I wearing our version of a grecian dress.
This is my white lady dress, I figured it would be good to wear with the Parthenon in the background.
We pranced around the city both of us in this attire, thinking this to be an interpretation of their national costume. There were some stares but given that this was the last leg of our adventure, we were pretty much anesthetized by any form of embarassment or self-consciousness. We were in Greece after all, we have hundreds of century-old ruins behind us, the least we could do is wear the part!
The above picture is one of my favorites. It's the Porch of Caryatids (part of the Erechtheion temple at Acropolis) - these are women statues carrying the roof with their heads. Those are fake ones actually - the government decided to preserve the real ones and placed them at the Athens museum to protect it from falling apart. It's so magnificent and grand. I was more impressed with this temple than the Parthenon, it merited a Princess Diana pose reminscent of the hilariously same pose I almost did with the Taj Mahal behind me.
I remember how hot the weather was, and how we hiked to the top of Acropolis at a very scorching heat and came back down, passing by different ruins - quite amazed actually with the Temple of Hephaestus --, amazed to be so close and immersed in one of the oldest cities in the world, here with these ruins that gave birth to democracy, philosophy and some of the greatest literature of our time. I remember us getting dis-oriented on the way down and almost getting lost, getting shouted in Greek for sitting at marble stones (we really didn't know the stones were part of the preserved ruins), and getting a shade darker after the hike.
I remember our friend Marios (our customer in IT, love my job) who called his dad early in the morning for an emergency fix at his house and having to explain why he has two girls sleeping at his bachelor pad. I remember us teaching these new found friends some Tagalog and forcing them to speak it and have some mini-movie about it.
I remember our conversations in the car, how we teased Marios to marry Elena, his girlfriend, him telling us we're invited at his wedding and at that moment we believed we will still see each other again. One of my favorite pictures below - it was sunset, we're waiting for one of Marios' friend and also our customer, Francisco to meet us, we're at the Athens Olympic Complex (birthplace of the Olympics!), dancing around the sexiest arches I've ever seen. It was like walking under the curved shell of a turtle.
Good times. I probably will post the Santorini pictures by...year 2014.
Our meeting point was in Lima, Peru. I'm coming from Atlanta via Miami and Nikki from Manila via Los Angeles with stop over in Honduras (I think). Few days before the trip, we had some adrenalin-rush panic over VISAs and flights - typical of us who always breeze through every trip planning adventures after adventures, cherry picking best places over a huge continent but forgetting the essential stuff like double checking passports.
While in Miami waiting for my flight, I got a text from Nikki that her flight is delayed for an hour and I almost panicked (again) because her connecting flight has just about that window. I started calling TACA (our airline) - I actually don't know why I did that, I thought with my call I could stop the plane from flying and wait for my friend.
Usually when I'm worrying over something, my mental abilities are way over the clouds. When I heard my flight, I rushed to the plane still texting, and while looking for my seat, the stewardess called me and announced (it felt like that, with the volume of her voice) that I'm in the wrong plane.
Um, what airline does that? Schedule 2 flights to the same location with 15 minute difference ? My flight was actually in neighboring terminal. How embarassingly novice of me.
Nikki is planned to arrive 30 minutes earlier in Lima, if she makes it. Upon touchdown, I got a text that she's waiting for me (she literally ran to make it on time) at the Lima airport, oh my god worries gone. And then followed by a text: "by the way, they lost my luggage.." And that my friends is how we roll.
<< Here's Nikki on the left with the only luggage in the coming days: green bag. But let me tread on already on our first day in Lima. We saw each other at the airport, hugged as do long lost friends, laughed over the lost luggage and muttered we will just get it the following morning and she can borrow my clothes. We had our currencies exchanged and as usual ill-prepared about the vital stats about the country we fumbled and said, "Sorry, are these Reals...what do you call these bills?"
We hurried towards a man who will bring us to our hostel. I feel bad saying hostel because we always prefer staying at local's houses - we're couchsurfers and in this age of global connected-ness, I think that nobody is a stranger.
In a speeding taxi, I look over the city and I thought, it's not as different as Manila. Rounding off a corner, we exclaimed, looks like Cubao!
We met up with David and Cesar at Cafe La Maquina, a cute and cozy bohemian coffee place. Nikki warned me she read that it's famous for pick-pocketing. Oh well, what's new, it's not like we did not come from Manila har har har. I'm kidding!
We've never met David and Cesar and they also don't know each other. And no we're not scared of meeting up with locals we don't know. I truly believe that's what's traveling is about - to let go of fears and comfort zones and when you're in a foreign place, you have every excuse to make a fool of yourself. Good thing Nikki has the same mindset, I think she is the one who influenced me to have that mindset.
David is a musician and as he say, "a drummer but the African kind". He loves the Beatles because of course we have to have some common thing. We noticed that Peruvians are very nationalistic, when they tell us about their culture, it is with a hint of pride and lots of passion. They're proud of their Incan heritage. He's very well read on spirituality and so I asked him what does he think about end of the world in 2012 - does he believe....he laughed and said, are you guys taking it literally? And he told us what they think of it and you have to invite me for a cup of coffee before I'll squeal it to you, dear reader. His answer is interesting and affirming.
Cesar arrived late and he's the total opposite of David. He came in a suit and he's a lawyer and brought in lots of tips for us. He comes prepared to say the least. At some point, I wonder now how we were able to maneuver those conversations because we were with people of two different worlds: an artist and a corporate lawyer.
Afterwards, they brought us to watch live music - it was so awesome. The club is very intimate, has the acoustic coffeehouse feel. Favorite moment: Performer singing an allegedly famous song and everyone in the bar sang along! And it has a nice ditty so we sang along too! Woohoo! It was in Spanish (albeit the only Spanish words we know are those that are common with Tagalog).
We ordered pisco sour for a drink, their tatak drink, like lambanog to ours.
We wanted to dance so David brought us to a disco place (disco talaga, with those disco lights, and there's a huge LCD showing music videos!) with the music of...hold your breath, maroon 5 and nicki minaj, super bass! Old guy (a.k.a. drunk DOM) wanted to dance with us and so we did, stealing kisses (harassment na yun) and off we go!
We were at the plaza and it's almost 2AM. The weather is perfect. I have never experienced such perfect nighttime weather, chilly but not cold and the stars! Not one cloud hides them! There's a guy kissing his girl at the plaza, and the bohemian David started humming the Beatles' 'all you need is love..'
This is the kind of city Lima is, making its best impression on our first day and rightfully so. We bade goodbye and we made promises to see each other again soon, although everyone knows it's a slim chance that it will happen.
It's strange, I could remember and feel all of it distinctly as I write this. My heart swells.
To read more about the Oh Lala Latin America Backpacking Adventure:
Looking forward to 2011! Latin America backpacking, New Orleans, living abroad, already on my planning list!
Here's a little something we were asked to prepare for our family reunion especially that we are miles away...but I decided to share it as it could also be my thank you to some of the people who made it a deliciously great year for me, for making all that I wished for last year happened and to thank the void, Universe, God...the blessings are immensely appreciated, I thank with open arms, humbled and jumping for joy.
Forgive the elementary video editing....so pressed for time. Okay, even if not pressed for time, it would still turn out that way - amateurish hehe! :)
Our last day before we start our marathon of flights back to our home base. This is possibly the coolest experience of snorkeling ever. We were suited with wetsuits and because our guide does not speak English, we conversed in gestures and whatever Spanish words we know that we already use in Filipino (Yep, not even Portugese).
We just lie face down and we don't even swim, the current of the river at Rio Sucuri, Bonito, in Brazil, carried us downstream. The water is so clear, you could see right through the bottom. The video and the pictures don't do it justice. We were trying to gauge who wants to lead because it's scaring the shit out of us. Seriously, the river looks like a habitat for Cayman alligators. We ate one previous night and the revenge of the Cayman is a stomach-wrenching diarrhea attacking us in the middle of the night right up to early morning. Who knows it will come back and bite us in this river.
While there are no corals (this is a river), I enjoyed trying to behave like an alligator using Nikki's video cam. With my eyes darted on the surface of the river, I go down underwater like an alligator. So cool! We zipped through the river for 3Kms, nary a stop, and with no panting like a dog like what we did during our Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. This one's peanuts.
You know what's our highlight? Here goes. We were advised never to pee in the crystalline waters so when we got off the river, our tour guide went to dock the boat somewhere and we were there standing at the other dock badly needing to pee. I'm embarassed with this conversation but I'd like to post it for posterity as I remember it:
Me: Pee na tayo! I really, really need to pee! Let's pee now!! I'll pee anywhere!
Nikki: Ako rin! But sige, sa gilid?
Me: Okay! [jumping at the left side of the dock under the trees, I squatted. Nikki did the same on the other side, facing each other.]
Me: Shit, bakit ganun, it's stuck in our wetsuit! [Laughing, could not hold it back, still peeing! So this neoprene is porous, crap!]
Nikki: Oh my gosh, di sya nahuhulog! [Laughing, peeing, looking at my pee] Ayan, kita ko na yung pee mo!
Me: [Laughing] I can't see yours!
Nikki: Oh my god! [Laughing]
Me: Ayan na sa yo, Niks! [Jumping while squatting] Do this, it goes down if you do this! [Laughing while speaking]
Nikki! [Laughing] Oh my god...
Me: I'm done na! Quick, Manong is coming na! [Me standing up, trying to compose myself]
Nikki: [Still laughing and squatting]
Me: Nikki, please stand up na, mahuhuli tayo! [Laughing while begging at Nikki!]
Nikki: [Still laughing and still squatting!]
Me: Nikki, what are you doing, stand up na!
Nikki: I'm not yet done, hahaha! It does not seem to end!
Manong came over, Nikki still squatting and we're both laughing. Given the language barrier, he laughed too but there are things better left unsaid. Maybe these are the things that should be filed under, What Happens in Brazil, stays in Brazil.
But I realize in my deathbed, what would I really want to remember? The clear waters of Rio Sucuri or glorious (not gory) details like this? The experience is just simply worth telling.
I'm nesting. I just came from the best physical adventure I had in years. It's always been a dream to travel to South America, I pined for this dream to come true. Last 2007, I named my first car Machu Picchu and I've started to buy stuff on learning Spanish -- I have no means of funding for the trip back then, even a year ago I have no idea how I could make it happen, I was significantly short on cash then as I was paying for mortgages on my house (still do!). The classic I know where I need to be, I just don't know how to get there.
But thoughts really become things. What I consistently envisioned, happened. It got cemented last August when I booked the Machu Picchu trek for me and Nikki (my very good friend and travel buddy for life!) - this is the first purchase related to that trip, and then I knew, even before I bought plane tickets to South Am, it's going to happen. For realz. How I got the funds to do it, it's a good conversation to tell over a cup of coffee or tea :).
I just came back last late Thursday night. And now it feels so long ago but the memories are so sharp. I still laugh to myself whenever I recall our bloopers.
I met a teenager on my flight back home from Rio to Miami, I was connecting via Lima. Her name is Hannah and she was traveling to Peru with her good friend Manu. It's their first time to travel without their parents, and internationally too. They're literally jumping out of their seats when they told me about it. They have an exciting itinerary, they will be going to Machu Picchu and also to the Lost City of the Incas and I think to Lake Titicaca. Hannah was so giddy and asked me about tips. I hesitated, but I give anyway. I always will feel like a beginner at traveling.
I asked her about the hippie bands/bracelets on her hand. She told me that it was from Bahia (a beautiful place in Brazil and short background: they live in Rio but they're German; their parents moved to Brazil some years ago), and that you make three wishes as you tie it three times in a Bahian way, and it can never be untied in your wrist. Each knot will untie only when your wishes come true. She told me two tied knots are left, one has came true already.
I think I know what it is. I smiled and we bade goodbye, my wish that they will make memories no matter what happens. And then I realized, it's not so much whether those knots will get untied, it's how many knots we make in our lives. I want to continue to dream big dreams, because I know for sure they will come true.
I remember a restaurant I went to with friends here, it's called the Lunacy Black Market and I was completely charmed by the place, the food and most especially the chef.
The place is simply bad-ass eclectic.
The food is served in small servings, perfect for me, who can never finish an american-sized plating. And it's very affordable and most importantly, juicy and delicious. Eating a bite makes me wonder there must be a thousand flavors somewhere in there. Is it too juvenile to say, "yummy"? It was really yummy!
And why I love the chef the most. He took the time to sit down and chat with us, asked us about the food (Yummy!) and where we come from, told us stories about that side of the city, about the US in general, how the society has changed into one for oneself, more than for each other. Seldom do you meet interesting, thinking people - the one that you could easily have a 5-minute conversation and still have a huge mental take-away.
I appreciate the discussion actually. I shared with him how I like the servings in his restaurant, very small and served intimately. We all devoured the food in one plate and I told him I like that in our culture, where we pick food from each other's plate, like it's meant to be shared. In other culture, or even in high society Manila, you're not supposed to do that, it's bad manners to pick food from another's plate.
He told me we lost a sense of that, we're so ingrained with protocols, that we don't even know why it is so and we lose the human connection. And he punctuated it with do whatever you feel like doing because at its core human beings have no intention to hurt.
He is my inspiration that red wine should not always go with red meat. Drink whatever fits you. That florals can match stripes and still look stunning. Everything is in the eye of the beholder.
It was 3-hour lunch, exactly what I always wanted my Sunday lunches to last and more. Chef Paul Luna is a famous Chef and he will run for mayor of Atlanta in 2013. He's added in my list of inspiring people.
I went there the second time with new people to introduce the restaurant to and he remembered me. Chef Paul spontaneously made us a filling paella, not even on menu. This time, he told us stories about the paintings hanging on the wall, who made it, how those were all given to him and we asked him about his vision of the city.
Swimming Holes! I found out about this online while we were figuring out what to do on a weekend that does not involve walking and burning in the sun (all together) at the same time beat the heat that has now veered towards 100 degree F (so american! okay, that's almost 38 Celsius)! And we really do not want to swim in a pool and we are in an inland city with no beach in short-driving distance.
Inspired by Stand by Me, we thought, hey, can we just go somewhere, find a river and jump, and find dead bodies and then be emotionally damaged forever? I want to swim in a river with no entrance fees, one that is super untouched, where we just go there to take a dip, soak Mother Nature in, no buildings in sight, we should not care if there is a lifeguard, ideally there should not be a life guard, just a swimming hole out of wilderness.
With only the latitude and longitude in hand and some description from some kind stranger who posted it on the internet, and despite the "Off Road" signal bleeping on the GPS (could no longer detect the road we are in) ...
...we found it. It was what I have imagined - unguarded with sunlight streaming through the trees. We found it!
There were few adventurous locals with us, jumping on the river - gliding with tubes with the river current, some just lazing around. some diving with their head first - (I will totally not forgive that guy if he brought in an ambulance in that very virginal spot), all just chilling. It was a good day. It was a great discovery. We were heroes!
Isn't that a ridiculously funny name for a trip? I proudly was the one who named our trip that. I went to Savannah, Georgia (Think: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, or Gone with the Wind) with good friends here in Atlanta. Album pictures and stories here.
I think I need someone to whip me into editing pictures and compiling them. I could even go as far as being threatened of deadlines, whatever. I feel that's the only time I get picture-editing of my trips done.
And so carrots on a stick still works, take that, Daniel Pink.
Participated (nope, not just watched, danced!) at New Orleans Mardi Gras 2011, done, check!! I need a very good amount of time to document the totally drunken revelry that was New Orleans as well as a copy of Adobe Photoshop software :). So while I don't have both yet, I leave you an evidence below of the unforgettable experience that was the Mardi Gras - and an evidence of my hysterical costume - a lionness in tutu. That costume - Compared to others including the people who watched the parade - I'm so way tamer.
The beads that we forgot to throw to the crowd, hihihi!
And that my friends, is crackpot New Orleans for you. We love that town!
