Cyberzone - SM City North Edsa
18 October 2011
It's always amazing whenever I receive invitations from Nuffnang Philippines, and even if some of those events I wasn't able to attend, I still try my best to attend their events because it's my way of thanking then. Actually, the same principle applies to all invitations I receive... just receiving the invitation is reason enough to make me feel I am special.
When I received an invitation to attend the Canon Pixma Launch, I didn't hesitate to reply to it right away... afterall, I am a Canon Camera user, and knowing other Canon products (such as their printer) sounds like a wonderful chance for me to learn more about gadgets I would like to save on. One thing that made me happier: brother received an invitation, too. Sweet!
Brother and I arrived just in time for the event, and even if there were so many vacant seats (as most guests were either at the registration booth, or roaming around, or lining up for food), we chose to sit at the first row. During events, I try to sit at the second row (at least) so I won't be at the front, but often I regret doing so because it was sometimes difficult to take pictures with heads blocking my view. Anyway, seated at the front sure felt good, as we were able to watch the event without anything blocking our view. :)
photo grabbed from More Than I Can Chew
Before the actual program, we were given food and drink stubs, which we used to sample some good food by Las Paellas Cafe. Food served at the buffet table included:
Crispy Squid Tentacles. While traveling from our place to SM City, I saw a food cart selling fried calamari, and realized that it's been a while since we last ate that kind of food. I sure hoped we could eat it again, and I was just surprised to see this on the table. It came with a sauce that had a hint of garlic - which paired well with the food (super delicious, I wonder how they made it; however the garlic flavor sure left a lasting taste (and yes, smell) in my mouth. Good thing brother had gum! :)
Mozzarella Sticks. At first I thought these were 100% mozzarella cheese covered with breadcrumbs. Upon biting it, I realized the mozzarella cheese was inside the dough-like wrapper. It wasn't as gooey as I hoped it would be, but still a good appetizer. This had a tomato sauce on the side - perfect! Cheese and tomatoes sure make a great pair, don't you think?
Chicken Fingers. It tasted like regular breaded chicken strips, but I appreciated that the fingers didn't have skin. I normally don't like chicken breast, but this was a nice way to let me eat chicken meat from the breast. Also, even if the food were served a few minutes before the event (which can mean the food were cooked way before the event), the chicken fingers still had that crunch. It came with a cheese-like sauce; good, but I personally prefer the gravy more.
Chorizo Pasta. For some reason, I forgot to put some on my plate. Since they claim food stubs before one could get food, am not sure if the guests were allowed to get back to the buffet table, and since I already surrendered my food stub, I just thought it's much better if I didn't taste it - I am actually on a diet, and I thought what I had on my plate was enough for a meal.
Roast Beef Panini. Since I thought I had a lot to eat already, I didn't eat the bread anymore, I just ate the panini filling, and I loved that the roast beef was "real," and not those roast beef you can buy at the supermarket (those that looked like square sweet ham).
Canonigo. Am not a big fan of the leche flan, but since the base of this dessert looked a bit like brazo de mercedes, I decided to try it, as it was the first time I tasted such dessert. Good thing the canonigo was cut into two different sizes - the normal square cut (pictured above), and another cut half of the normal one. Of course, Miss "I-No-Longer-Live-To-Eat" (that's me) chose the smaller cut. It's true, this dessert was leche flan (because of the caramel) and brazo de mercedes (because of the custard - served separately) combined, and I liked how it tasted like. However, like what I always say about food like this - I don't quite like the fact that it had a lot of calories yet because of its airy texture, it felt like I didn't eat anything at all, yet I already put in a lot of calories into my system. Still, it sure tasted great.
For drinks, we were served Iced Tea, which tasted different than the usual iced tea drinks.
My Plate. I decided to just get two pieces each of the fried food, and a piece each of the panini and canonigo. I think the "Dietera" in me was okay that time, after all, I was able to satisfy myself by eating new food (new in the sense that this was my first time to try Las Paellas Cafe's food), without eating too much. I don't really restrict myself as far as dieting in concerned, but of course, I have to take control as to how much I eat.
Dieting and food blogging may be two opposing sides, yet somehow these two still have this tie that connects them together. As long as I am not going overboard, I know I can satisfy these two aspects of my persona. :)
Big thanks to Nuffnang Philippines for this invitation!
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my