black is beautiful
Posted at 05:49 PM

i just opened a bar of meiji black and i'm telling you it's beautiful. there are fewer things in this world more heavenly than dark chocolate.

very simply put, dark chocolate has less milk and often less sugar than the more popular milk chocolate.

chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree. the seeds are dried, roasted and ground and then blended with different ingredients to make anything from beverages to fine chocolates in a box.

chocolate was believed to be for the gods and it's easy to see why. and the darker it is, the purer and, in my opinion, the more delicious.

turkish delight? bah humbug
Posted at 06:09 PM

narnia fans know this one.

when the white queen tempted edmund, it was with turkish delight (i'm not sure if they changed it in the movie to make it more relevant).

turkish delight is a candy made with sweetened and jelled fruit peel rolled in confectioner's sugar. it's a popular christmas treat in some parts of the world.

got to try some yesterday. i was really excited with the prospect having been tantalized by c.s. lewis's descriptions. i took a bite and chewed. i reflected. it tasted vaguely like... cough syrup. bleh.

so if the white queen comes a-knocking with these as her great lure to the depths of hell, i'm safe. 

unsung hero
Posted at 12:06 PM

i love cabbage. and it has nothing to do really with its underdog status, with the fact that people generally just throw it in dishes just for additional green. nah, even if it were a celebrity vegetable, i'd still love it.

the taste of cabbage is neutral enough so it doesn't overpower any dish it's in. even if you eat it solo, you don't really get a strong cabbage-y taste the way you would with, say, eggplant. it's got a great crunch to it and is light so you don't feel a bit bloated after eating it the way you would with squash for example.

and it's nutritious too! cabbage is an excellent source of fiber and beta carotene. it's also a pretty good source of calcium and vitamin A.

the two most popular ways cabbage is taken are probable cole slaw and sauerkraut. in cole slaw, the cabbage is shredded, mixed with other veggies like carrots and tossed in a mayonnaise-based dressing. in sauerkraut, it's soaked in brine until it's pretty much pickled.

i'd like to share this recipe for a cabbage roll that is just... mmmmm, so good. enjoy

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 pounds ground beef
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 3 1/2 pounds chopped cabbage
* 1 cup uncooked white rice
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 (14 ounce) cans beef broth

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large skillet, brown beef in oil over medium high heat until redness is gone. Drain off fat.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine the onion, tomato sauce, cabbage, rice and salt. Add meat and mix all together. Pour mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour broth over meat mixture and bake in the preheated oven, covered, for 1 hour. Stir, replace cover and bake for another 30 minutes.

piece of cake
Posted at 03:11 PM

it has always been my favorite cake: black forest.

perhaps one of the best culinary wonders ever to come out of germany (together with sausages, sauerkraut and beer of course), black forest was originally known as Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte. Kirschtorte means a cake made from cherry brandy. Schwarzwaelder means black forests - which is a region in Germany believed to be where this absolutely scrumptuous dessert came from.

it's basically a chocolate cake. nothing special there. but its being infused with cherry brandy and cherries makes it truly tantalizing. and it sure has to be. it's been around for 500 years. yep, that good.

here in the philippines, red ribbon tries valiantly to make it, but it just doesn't cut it. i haven't really gone around on a black forest taste test (hey, there's an idea) - but i discovered that conti's makes a really good one. when you find yourself in the paranaque area, make sure you look for it  

OUR RECORDING STUDIO
Posted at 04:15 PM

We're ready to open! Well, Feb 1 will be our opening day - but still... we are accepting bookings na

MMR Track 2 Studio, located at the corner of Malingap and Matimtiman Streets, Sikatuna Village, QC (right beside Bayantel). This is an extension of MMR Studio in Xavierville operated by Billy of Kiko Machine.

Recording rate at P400/hour. We've got an opening promo of P2,500/song (no matter how long it takes you to get it right), with no minimum song requirement. When you get to your 4th song onward, we'll even bring it lower to P2,000/song

Our equipment is shiny and new -our nerve center is Pro Tools 7, the grammy award-winning software, together with the M-Audio Delta 1010LT and the Behringer ADA8000. My favorite baby is our vocal mic, the Rode NT1-A. Beautiful.

So, let us know what we can do for you Text 0920-5514176 or 0917-8513164, or email track2studio@gmail.com 

a challenge
Posted at 07:52 PM

The rules: (1) write a 100-to-200-word entry using the following words: I, me, blow job, grapes, random, power, loneliness, water, robot and blue; (2) use these words once and only once; and of course (3) the entry should make sense.

And because this blog is all about forcing me to write... here we go

 

They gave the most difficult assigment to me. The task was to look at some grapes and see if they were experiencing loneliness. This was obviously not my idea of fun and I was thinking of ways to blow this job. But hey, somebody had to do the dirty work and it's usually the minions with no power. So an experiment was in order. Some of the target fruit were chosen at random and placed in a tub of water simulating a swimming pool. Some of the fruit were left outside the pool. The hypothesis was that if the fruit that were not in the pool turned blue, then yes, they were lonely. Once they started changing color (and thereby exhibiting the desired emotion), a robot would come and give them a... massage.

stay away from the light
Posted at 09:44 PM

the movie half light has got to be one of the worst things ever filmed. bad acting, horrible writing, poor directing...

the only redeeming factor was the yummy cheese popcorn at the shang (and that's the food bit).

yeah, that's it for this entry. at least i was direct to the point unlike that... that... movie.

but final destination 3 is coming up. now THAT'S cool!