Brighten Up Your Day with Red Ribbon

One of my fondest memories in college was when my friends and I went to Makati City to check out a library for communications related books. I told my friends that my father worked near where we were, and we could drop by his office to ask for help regarding certain aspects of our project. My father couldn't help us, but in his efforts not to really break our spirits, he treated us to Red Ribbon. I remember I had their spaghetti and their Black Forest Cake.

Fast forward to 12 years... although daddy could no longer treat me to Red Ribbon (as he's in heaven now), this place has always been our family's choice when it comes to cakes and pastries. My top 5 food items from them? Rocky Road Cake, Black Forest Cake, Cinnamon Roll, Silvanas, and Palabok. For nearly half of Red Ribbon's existence, we've been big fans, and we still are.





Last night, I was one of the lucky people who was able to taste Red Ribbon's new cake. Actually, it has been in their stands for a few days already, but the actual launch was today. The name of the cake? The Cookies and Cream with Oreo cake. Hmmmm... sounds great, huh? Imagine... delectable chocolate cookie layer, layers of creamy cookies and cream filling, moist vanilla chiffon cake, heavenly chocolate chiffon cake, luscious white creamy icing, topped with the delightful Oreo cookie we all just love. Uh umm, indeed!

It really sounded great, but it actually tasted way much greater than it sounded. Although it may sound very sweet given the anatomy of the cake, it wasn't really sweet at all. It was such a pleasure to eat - perfect when cold and served with a hot cup of coffee or tea. Cookie has always been many people's comfort food and one of the best loved foods of all ages, and now.. with this cake, we can no longer just enjoy cookies from the foil it comes in or from the jar where we store them.

I took home one junior sized Cookies and Cream cake and let my family and friends taste it. They, too, took delight in eating the cake.



I guess this picture of my sister sums it all up.

Next time you crave for cake, try this one, you'll love it, too!

*** Jenn ***

O = Oysters

My mom's hometown Bolinao, in the province of Pangasinan has been blessed with wonderful marine life. When the people in the town started salt water milkfish farming, it attracted other marine animals such as oysters and mussels. My mom's brother-in-law works as a caretaker of some fish cages, and because his main job was to watch over the milkfishes, he can certainly do anything he wants to the other marine animals he could collect.

July of last year, my mom and I together with some relatives went to Bolinao because one of my uncles will be migrating to the US with his family. He wanted the family to be together one last time before they leave the Philippines. On our first morning there, we were served some dried fish and oysters for breakfast - much to my mom's delight. I don't really eat oysters, so I just delight in taking pictures of my mom. =)

*** Jenn ***

EBaliwan with the Litratistang Pinoys

Before we embarked ourselves in the tiring Aliwan Festival, brother and I met up with our co-photo bloggers at Dencio's in Harbor Square to eat lunch. At first we wanted to have their "good for 10" meal, but we were only 7 present (Buge was still on her way), so we opted to just have different dishes and all of us would just share it.




My favorite calamares!


Crispy Kangkong


My brother and Marian taking a picture of the pork sisig.

Sharing a meal with people sharing the same passions has been great. Whenever I am with other friends and relatives, it's difficult for me to ask them if I could take pictures first before we eat, but in this instance, no more reasons to ask because all of us were taking pictures of our food before we eat it! Nowadays, it's way easy to spot a food blogger. If the person is taking pictures of the food before eating it, there's a probability that the person is a food blogger. =)

*** Jenn ***

Swirls and Twirls

I was supposed to share the ice cream we had one time, but I think I already made a post about that, so I guess I will just share this.

This was taken last February, when the family went to eat out. We passed this pastry shop and was amazed at the yummy looking cupcake icings, so I stopped by and took a picture. I am not sure if the colors suggest different flavors, but if I am to buy one, I think I will go for the blue one as I am not sure what sort of flavor goes with blue icing.

*** Jenn ***

Calamares

If there's one food that I really crave, it will have to be this. I don't know what's in this food that I just love it so much! What's funny was that whenever I'd eat this, I suddenly become this uber annoying, or someone who just had a shot of Jolt cola (in reference to that character in the animated movie, "Over the Hedge"). My sister would always say that no one should ever feed me calamares anymore because she's the one suffering from my annoyance - I'd hug her and shake her and annoy her to the max. =) But, that annoyance do give us time to laugh out loud.

I make my own calamares in simple ways. I'd coat it with those fried chicken coating mix, added with a little cornstarch so it won't be too salty. I guess the fact that this food was just way too easy to cook made me want to cook and eat it over and over.

*** Jenn ***

N = Noodles

In September of 2008, I met up with my friend DeeJay. He has traveled from his hometown in Pangasinan to here in Manila for the bar exams. It was the eve of the last part of the exams, and he has invited me for some talks, motivations, prayers, and everything. He was busy reviewing during the whole time we were together, but every once in a while we would eat something. Near midnight, he asked if I wanted to have some midnight snacks. He said that his co-barristers said that the congee served in the hotel was really awesome, and he wanted me to taste it, too. Just to give us more to taste, he ordered the chicken congee for me, and he ordered this bowl of noodles for him.

Wasn't nicely photographed, but believe me, this bowl of noodles tasted great.

*** Jenn ***