Amber's Super Affordable Meals

I remember the time a friend of mine invited us to her birthday party in Amber - the bar in The Fort Strip. Then another friend of mine approached me with a weird look on his face and said "Paano siya magpaparty dun?" I replied by saying "Huh?! Edi paparty lang! Anong paano?" then he suddenly said "Diba masarap pancit dun?" 

I had this "ang labo mo" look on my face then I said "Ewan! May pancit ba dun even?" 

It was the first time this evening that I understood what he was saying! During our Halloween Party at work, I was looking at the food they ordered - pancit, chicken lollipop and barbecue. The packaging says Amber Golden Chain of Restaurants. 

"Ah!!! Eto pala yun!!" 

When we started eating, I got chicken lollipop, pancit and pichi-pichi and everything was sooooooooo good! It's also very affordable. 

Amber has a lot on their menu. You can contact them for catering services or just have food delivered to wherever during house parties, food trip, whenever! :) They also have packed food combinations good for events, picnics, etc.

Check these out: 
Amber Take out and Delivery Menu

QC Branch: 175 Tomas Morato corner Scout Castor Brgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City 

HOTLINE: 372-2222 / 738-2529 
Fax: 372-5555 
Mobile: 0917-5689589 / 0917-5689615 

Simple Cooking: Omu Rice

Whenever I'm bored at home, I check out our refrigerator and see what I can cook with what we have at home. I decided to make Omu Rice for dinner since it was an easy recipe with very simple ingredients needed. 

Omurice or omu-rice (オムライス Omu-raisu) is an example of modern Japanese cuisine that consists of rice, chicken, various meats, veggies and a thin sheet of fried egg. 

It's basically like an omelette! It is very popular in western style restaurants in Japan and South Korea.

Here's my own version of Omu-Rice

Ingredients:

4 medium/large sized eggs

5 cloves of garlic 

1 onion bulb (red/white)

1 carrot

1 bell pepper

4 cups of rice

5 tbsps Soy sauce

A dash of salt and pepper

2 Chicken Fillets

3 slices of Spam

3 slices of Bacon

Cooking oil

Mince the onion and garlic. 

(set aside)

Cut the carrots, bellpepper, chicken spam in bacon into little cubes/squares.

(set aside)

Put the bacon in the pan first. As soon as you can see the oils ooze out, add the chicken and the spam. Add salt and Pepper.

(set aside)

Put oil in the pan, add the carrots, bell pepper, garlic and onion respectively. this is because carrots take more time to cook than the others. 

Add the cooked plain rice, drizzle with soy sauce (it's up to you to adjust the amt of soy sauce). Mix all the ingredients. As soon as the white rice is brown (because of the soy), add in all the meat and mix together. 

Scramble 1 egg at a time in a bowl and fry it on a separate pan. it should look like crepe. :) 

After everything is cooked, use a cup/bowl to shape the rice on your plate, then just cover it with the egg. Top with tomato ketchup and Japanese mayo to finish. 

*You have the option to change the ingredients used, I also cooked Omu Rice using fish tofu instead of Spam and bacon. :) 


 

Try it out! Let me know what ingredients you used!

The Ateneo Way

The UST Growling Tigers ended the Blue Eagles' 5-year dynasty last September 18. It was heartbreaking for us, yes. But when values and integrity of an Atenean were shown even after the end of the game, the moment was priceless. Off cam, the Blue Eagles went back on court to face their audience who cheered their hearts out to show gratitude. It was a heartwarming event.

Read the full story here: 
Miguel Lizada's OVERHEARD AT THE ATENEO GALLERY: PUSO

Thank you, Blue Eagles! It was a great experience supporting a school that has won FIVE straight championships. A 5-year reign, is a 5-YEAR REIGN. And as the UAAP theme this year goes, GREATNESS NEVER ENDS.

P.S. 

To all Ateneo haters, oh please! sssshhhh... See you next year! We'll show you!


Reminder: 

Thanksgiving mass will be on Sunday, Sept 22, 4PM at the Church of the Gesu.

It will also serve as a send-off for those who have played their last year for the team:

Juami Tiongson

Frank Golla

Ryan Buenafe

JP Erram

Celebrating my Birthday in Batangas

Since my birthday, June 18, was on a week day this year, I decided to celebrate it the weekend before that. I treated my friends on a vacation trip to a beach that is within driving range from Manila -- Nasugbu, Batangas.

Well, honestly Nasugbu wasn't the first choice, Laiya was. But since most of my friends like hanging out super late at night along the shore while drinking beer and grilling our pulutan, I opted for Nasugbu. 

I brought our own van and driver since Nasugbu was only about 3-4 hours away from Manila. There were 7 of us. We met at Carlo's place along Commonwealth Ave. at around 6 am. After making sure everything was packed, we drove straight to Batangas.

We arrived at Marlou's Beach Resort at 11 am. That was a 5-hour travel time including stop overs for bathroom and snack breaks.

Marlou Beach Resort is a very simple place to stay in. They have very affordable rooms too. It has a beachfront with a beach volleyball court. Its shoreline has dark sand though. but nonetheless the rooms where nice and the beds were comfy. Plus, they offer a boat ride to the what they call the white sand beach. Unfortunately for us, we weren't able to go since the waves were so strong during that time. 

We cooked our own lunch, brought our own food. No corkage fees, so yehey! We were charged a small fee for borrowing their cookware and gas stove though. 

There wasn't much to do on our first day, so we decided to just chill and drink. :p (alcoholic?!)

The following day, we swam on the beach and played volleyball. We met fishermen selling their catch for that day. I bought 2 kilos of Tanigue and paid only P400 for everything. Not bad right?! It's Tanigue! 

We had 3 fishes - we fried one, the other grilled, the other kinilaw. Yummy! 

After dinner, the drinking began (again). Of course an inuman session would not be complete without Videoke! they charged 5 pesos per song. It was an honesty basis system. Just tell them how many songs you sang. :) 

It was so much fun. 

Carlo surprised me with fireworks, he knows how much I loooooove fireworks. That was the time he told me he loved me.. Yup before my birthday! (Nagtitipid yata, gusto isa nalang gift for birthday and anniversary. LOL)

It was a super exciting trip with my close friends, unforgettable to be exact. We'll surely go back there soon! 

Notes:

Expenses for 3D/2N stay

Marlou Beach Resort 

email: dondonchuaii@yahoo.com.ph

mobile: 09155761566 or 043-740-0459

Look for Tita Lourdes Chua, she's really very nice and approachable. 

Room Rates: 

Cookingware/Gas Stove: P400

Boat ride going to white beach: P1000 per boat

(room rates to follow)

Food and Drinks (brought our own), but grocery costs P5,000

All in all we spent  P13,000 for 7 people for # days and 2 nights. That's like 1,800 per person for 3 days and 2 nights! Not bad at all! 

Takas Nights

Tada! Yehey! My very first blog! (Late bloomer?) Well it's been a really long time that I have been planning to start my own blog, it's just that I don't know what to write about. But after reading various lifestyle blogs, travel blogs, food blogs, etc. I realized, hey why don't I start my own? 

Just to explain why my blog is called Takas Nights. Takas is to escape or to run away in English. This is the term my friends and I used in high school (10 plus years ago) when we would sneak out of our houses and go wherever. (bad kid!) Of course I don't do that anymore. Our Takas Nights or what we call TNs were really very memorable. We went to different places around Quezon City, talked about ANYTHING under the sun... or stars since it's night time. And since we're growing older, our world getting bigger, we were also able to experience more than what we used to in high school. 

A Neoprint of us (TN people year 2002): Carlo (who is now my boy friend), his brother Marlou, Mico my "insan" and Chezca

Here is where I'll share tips on where to go, what to eat and what to do during breaks and free time. This blog will be about my simple life experiences being a middle class working girl, 

a daughter and sister, a best friend, 

Meet my family! Carlo (yes, my brother's name is also Carlo), my mom and my dad
before watching Les Miserables in Eastwood Mall

 a girl friend, 

A picture of me and Carlo in Nasugbu, Batangas during my birthday

a pet lover,

This is Aki! She's my 2 year old pet Chowchow

a Blue Eagles fan, 

Some of my friends from Ateneo

a foodie/cook, 

My very own version of Veggie Gratin

 and a wanderlust. 

Punta Bulata

...Just like what we used to talk about during Takas Nights.


Enjoy reading!