California Summer Rolls

California Summer Rolls
One day I happened to see a picture of this dish on a friend’s facebook page. I thought it looked good and easy to do. These are the results of my experiment.

I served them at our New Year’s Eve party and everyone like it. I don’t really know what this dish is called but I named it California summer rolls since it was just like California Maki without the rice. It’s very easy to make but a bit time consuming to make so many rolls.

California Summer Rolls Recipe
rice paper wrappers
good quality imitation crab stick
fresh mangoes or avocado
cucumber
iceberg lettuce
Japanese mayonnaise

Method
1. Cut the mangoes and cucumber into strips. Remove the plastic wrapper from the crab sticks.
California Summer Rolls

2. Be sure to buy rice paper for fresh spring roll. They also have rice paper for fried spring roll. I bought this in Unimart. For those not in the Philippines, Vietnamese rice paper should be available in Asian stores.
California Summer Rolls

3. Dip each side of the rice paper in water briefly. It will be easier to handle if the wrapper is still a little stiff. It will eventually soften on its own. Make sure not to let it soak for too long in the water.
California Summer Rolls

4. Place the wrapper on a plate and start to assemble the filling. Lay a piece of lettuce on the wrapper.
California Summer Rolls

5. Put the crab stick, cucumber and mangoes on top of the lettuce. I prefer using iceberg lettuce for the crunch it adds to the roll.
California Summer Rolls

6. Generously top with Japanese mayonnaise.
California Summer Rolls

7. Roll the wrapper around the filling as tight as you can.
California Summer Rolls

8. The ends will seal by itself because the rice paper is naturally sticky. There is no need to wet the edges.
California Summer Rolls

9. Cut off the ends of the roll for a more finished appearance.
California Summer Rolls

10.  Slice the roll into 4 even pieces.
California Summer Rolls

11. Arrange the rolls in a round serving dish.
California Summer Rolls

12. For a platter this size I used a entire pack of crab stick, 3 large mangoes, 1 cucumber and 1 head of lettuce. You can make as little or as much rolls as needed. You can make this a few hours before and keep it covered in the refrigerator until it’s time to be served.
California Summer Rolls

New Year’s Eve Celebration

New Year's Eve 2009
Happy New Year to everyone!!! How did you celebrate the arrival of the new year? Did you light up fireworks or just had a quiet dinner?

My family on my father’s side celebrate New Year’s Eve in our house every year. This year was extra special with the new additions to our family.

This was our first time to meet our precocious niece, Lian who came home from Taiwan for the first time. No one dared to talk to her for a long time since she spoke fluent Mandarin and we all ran out of things to say to her in Chinese. We later found out she speaks some Filipino.

Most of the people pictures were shot by my cousin Jim who it seems is a budding photographer. I think my new Panasonic GF1 helped a little.
New Year's Eve 2009-1

I love this picture of my cousin in law, Dr. Louie with his new baby, Bree.
New Year's Eve 2009-2

Baby Bree sleeping soundly while her dad wrote prescriptions for all his patients/relatives.
New Year's Eve 2009-3

Another niece, Callista in her cute Gap onesie.
New Year's Eve 2009-4

Some of the older kids were busy playing Wii after dinner.
New Year's Eve 2009-6

New Year's Eve 2009-5

We had dinner at the small garden behind our house. The small house in the picture is actually a tv/rec room.
New Year's Eve 2009-7

I prepared an International menu for dinner to accommodate the young and old guests. It was a mish mash of dishes that didn’t seem to go well with each other but everyone was happy and enjoyed all the food. That’s caesar salad in the wooden bowl below.
New Year's Eve 2009-8

I saw a picture of this dish on a friend’s facebook pics and I recreated it. The recipe and step by step procedure here.
California Summer Rolls
California summer rolls

These are a type of sushi called inarizhushi. The outer layer is made from fried tofu skin called aburaage. It’s stuffed with sushi rice and tuna corn salad. Watch out for the pictures on how I made this coming soon.

Inarizhushi
inarizhushi

I made this linguine with sun dried tomato pesto with luganega sausage from Santi’s.
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Linguine w/ Lughanege Sausage
linguine with sun dried tomato pesto

For those who don’t like pasta there was Chinese misua ordered from Lim’s Bakeshop.
Chinese Misua
Chinese misua

Baked Chicken
baked spiced chicken

We bought dried preserved duck and Chinese sausage (lap cheong) from Hong Kong. We put the duck and sausages on top of white rice that’s about 80% cooked and let it continue cooking til done. The flavors and fat from the duck and sausages drip on the rice to make it so flavorful. We added some soy sauce and sugar to the rice.
Preserved Duck & Chinese Sausage Rice
preserved duck and sausage rice

The highlight and mainstay of our annual dinner are the prawns and prime ribs cooked on our old teppanyaki grill.
New Year's Eve 2009-17

I ordered a whole US angus prime rib rack from Santi’s.
US Angus Prime Rib

US Angus Prime Rib

Garlic Prawns

New Year's Eve 2009-19

Dessert was mostly store bought except for these home baked chocolate chip cookies with walnuts.
Chocolate Chip Cookies

I played around with my camera and took these shots of the dessert we had. I bought my favorite apple pie from Sugarhouse.
Chocolate cake, Peachy peachy and Apple pie

The chocolate cake came from Hungrypac.
Chocolate cake, Peachy peachy and Apple pie

And my all time favorite peachy peachy from Arny and Dadeng’s newest branch in Gilmore extension which was a stone’s throw away from my house. Oh no!!!
Chocolate cake, Peachy peachy and Apple pie

Lim’s Bake shop
604 Gen. de Jesus St. Little Baguio,
San Juan
Metro Manila
telephone: 725-8851 ; 7252059

Santi’s Delicatessen
The Promenade Bldg., 198 Wilson Street Corner
P. Guevarra, San Juan City
telephone: 381-2926; 381-2934

San Antonio Plaza Arcade, Forbes Park
Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
telephone: 894-1293

Sugarhouse
Ground Flr. V-Mall
Greenhills Shopping Center
telephone: 584-9482


Hungrypac
Ash Creek Center
Madison Street corner Ortigas Ave

telephone: 736-0002, 0917-8360092

I just realized that Arny and Dadeng has numerous franchise groups. This group’s branches are the following. For the other group’s branches click here.

Arny Dadeng Peachy Peachy
Gilmore extension near Greenhills
telephone: 0905-2121580
38C C. Raymundo Ave. Pasig Blvd. Extension, Pasig City
telephone: 996-9944
306 Amang Rodriguez Ave, Manggahan Pasig City
telephone: 583-9232
547 Shaw Blvd. Mandaluyong City
telephone: 232-8408
Marcos Highway, Cainta Rizal
telephone: 432-1503
Corner Maries Village 2 Marcos Highway, Antipolo City
telephone: 996-8764
Km 16 Marcos Highway, Santolan, Pasig City

telephone: 257-5462

New Year’s Wish for Everyone

I don’t know who wrote this since I just received this from an email that was forwarded to me. I liked the message and I wanted to share it with all of you. Happy New Year to everyone!!

Health:
I wish you happiness, good health and peace as we close out the year
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others… You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don’t over do.. Keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously.. No one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come..
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Potluck Christmas Party

Merry Christmas to all my family, friends and readers around the world. May you have a joyous celebration this year. I hope everyone had a good year. I had a wonderful year with the creation of my blog in February, my trip to Perth, Australia and Singapore in May, and the highlight was our high school homecoming in November. There was also sad events like the disaster brought about by typhoon Ondoy but it also showed the admirable Filipino spirit when everyone joined forces and helped the victims in whatever way they can.

My friends and I had a little Christmas party a couple of weeks ago before everyone became too busy with all the parties they had to attend. We decided it would be another potluck party and we would have a simple exchange of gifts. As usual we got carried away. The food and dessert below was for 11 people only! Needless to say we took home a lot of leftovers.
Valerie’s salad with tropical fruits and cheese was a big hit. The combination of fruits went well with the saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of her homemade poppyseed dressing.

Salad greens w/ mixed fruit, cheese & poppy seed dressing
salad greens w/ grapes, mangoes, pomelo and poppyseed dressing

Cherry brought her own recipe for pork meatballs. They were yummy with Valerie’s Japanese rice. I loved the rice probably because of the mayonnaise in the rice and all the crab meat and scallops on top. It was very decadent. These two dishes were in my doggy bag.
meatballs & Japanese rice
homemade meatballs and Japanese rice

Pattie brought these 2 dishes she ordered from Dulcelin Gourmet. Yes she paid for them!! Sorry couldn’t resist the private joke. The Korean paella is a favorite of ours and has been present in a lot of our dinners. It’s actually similar to Val’s Japanese rice that it also had mayonnaise in the rice. It was topped with seared tuna slices and lettuce.
Korean Paella & Chap chae
Dulcelin’s Korean paella and chap chae

Deb’s cook prepared the super yummy chicken embotido and Deb prepared the crab herself. The crab was loaded with tons of garlic and butter and baked. It was the highlight of the entire dinner. The crabs were huge!
chicken embotido & baked garlic crabs
chicken embotido & baked garlic crabs
baked garlic crabs
baked garlic crabs
This was how it looked like in the kitchen before baking.
baked garlic crabs
crab shell w/ loads of fat and butter

Despite all the warnings that it’s high in cholesterol from all my well meaning friends, I took a shell and ate it with gusto. It was the best crab shell I’ve ever eaten. If they weren’t watching my every move I would have loved to eat another one or two or three.
baked garlic crabs
this is what it looks like after

This was another specialty of Deb. I loved the chicken meatballs with teriyaki and pineapple that she used in the pasta. Too bad it’s not available in the Philippines.
garlic pasta w/ sausage & chicken meatballs
garlic pasta w/ saussage & chicken meatballs

I brought fried chicken liver which was a specialty of my cook. It was crunchy and. spicy. Everyone said it was good.
fried chicken liver
fried chicken liver

P1080363
the spread

I’m very blessed to have such good friends and the addition of the K (kaladkarin) girls to our group made it even more wonderful. Thank you my friends for giving me so much happiness and pounds that won’t go away because of all our eating. Til our next eating session!
my friends
my wonderful and beautiful friends

There were 7 kinds of dessert for 11 people to eat. How great is that? Florence brought 2 treats from Karen’s Kitchen. First was the traditional British dessert, sticky toffee pudding. It sounds very sweet but the way Karen makes it it’s just right. It was soft, gooey and yummy!
Karen's sticky toffee pudding
Karen’s Kitchen‘s sticky toffee pudding

Karen's sticky toffee pudding
sticky toffee pudding instructions

Sorry Karen, we forgot to flip the sticky toffee pudding!
Karen's sticky toffee pudding
an inverted sticky toffee pudding

Next was the frozen strawberry brazo de mercedes. Traditionally brazo de mercedes is a cake made from soft meringue outer layer and a filling made from the egg yolks in the center and is presented in the shape of a roll. This was a relatively new twist that incorporates ice cream and strawberry sauce and is served frozen. Delicious!
frozen strawberry brazo de mercedes
Karen’s Kitchen’s frozen strawberry brazo de mercedes

The best dessert for me that night was Bizu’s strawberry shortcake which Cherry brought. It was my first time to try it and I was hooked. It had huge pieces of strawberries in between two layers of soft sponge cake and lots of cream. The only other strawberry shortcake I’ve tried only had tiny bits of chopped strawberries in the cake. This was the real deal. No wonder it’s Cherry’s favorite. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Bizu's strawberry cake
Bizu’s strawberry shortcake


from Bizu’s web site

Dulcelin's mango torte

Elisa brought this old time favorite, Dulcelin’s mango torte.
Dulcelin's mango torte
Dulcelin’s mango torte

Deb’s mom bought these Silvanas in Dumaguete City. We were excited to try it because their sans rival was one of the winners in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s top 24 desserts.
Silvanas from Dumaguete

It was just ok in my opinion. It lacked the crunch I was looking for. I want to try their sans rival if it can stand up to my favorite sans rivals.
Silvanas from Dumaguete
silvanas from Dumaguete city

In the foreground on the left in my favorite apple pie from Sugarhouse. Thanks a lot to Debbie Y. for sending it over even if she wasn’t able to go to dinner.
Dessert table - before
the dessert spread

On top of the mango torte is Estrel’s leche flan that Janet brought. It’s the best and creamiest leche flan I’ve ever eaten. And it’s not cloyingly sweet too.
Dessert table - after
after

Friends exchange gift
getting ready for our exchange gift raffle

Friends exchange gift
picking a stub to determine who gets what

Friends exchange gift
everyone was happy with their gift!

It was the first party for the Christmas season for most of us. What a wonderful way to start the holiday season. Good food, good conversation, plenty of laughter and great friends.

Dulcelin Gourmet (Korean paella, chap chae and mango torte)
36 Times St.
West Triangle, Q.C.
Philippines 1104
telephone: 374-2165 ; 374-2167


Karen’s Kitchen (sticky toffee pudding and frozen strawberry brazo de mercedes)
428 Adalla Street,
Palm Village,
Makati, Metro Manila
telephone 898-2280 Cell 0917-5394968
email: mykarenskitchen@yahoo.com
Bizu (strawberry shortcake)

The Promenade, Greenhills Shopping Center
telephone: 724-2498 • 726-2496

3/L Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati Citytelephone:: 757-2086

G/L Corte Delas Palmas, Alabang Towncenter, Muntinlupa City
telephone: 809-BIZU • 772-1917 • 772-1918
Estrel’s Caramel Cakes (leche flan)
54 Scout Tobias Corner Scout Limbaga
Laging Handa, QC
telephone: 372-2965


Incredible Math Lesson



This is a very amazing and encouraging lesson in math. Could this actually be a math lesson from God? Looks that way to me. Or maybe this is something that just evolved by a series of random, mindless accidents, mutations, and survivals of the fittest numbers. (Be sure to scroll all the way down to get the full message.) The Beauty of Mathematics and the Love of God! This is TOO cool!

The math part is good, but the end is even better.

I bet you will NOT be able to read it without sending it on to at least one other person!

1 x 8 + 1= 9
12 x 8 + 2= 98
123 x 8 + 3= 987
1234 x 8 + 4= 9876
12345 x 8 + 5= 98765
123456 x 8 + 6= 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7= 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8= 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9= 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn ‘ t it?

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
111 1111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 =12345678987654321

Mind Boggling…

Now, take a look at this…

101%

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they
are giving more than 100%?

We have all been in situations where someone wants you to

GIVE OVER 100%…

How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100%in life?

Here ‘ s a little mathematical formula that might help
answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K

8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%

And:

K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E

11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%

But:

A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E

1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, It ‘ s the Love of God that will put you over the top!

If you find this interesting share it with your friends & loved ones. Have a nice day & God bless you.

Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt

Tutti Frutti Yogurt
After our lunch at H.K. Choi, Deb wanted me to try Tutti Frutti yogurt. I’ve seen it before but it was my first time to try it. Tutti Frutti is a specialty frozen yogurt cafe based in the United States with branches all over the world. What makes them different from other yogurt stores is their offering of 50 flavors and over 30 topping varieties.


Tutti Frutti Yogurt

Tutti Frutti Yogurt
2 of my eating buddies

Tutti Frutti Yogurt

There was a wall with 4 self serve yogurt machines. There were 2 flavors per machine. When we were there the flavors were blueberry, peanut butter, guava, taro, green apple, original tart, chocolate raspberry and green tea. What I liked about this place was they allowed free samples. I first tried the chocolate raspberry but to my disappointment it tasted like cough syrup. I ended up choosing peanut butter which was so good and creamy. It was a low fat flavor but it tasted very peanut-ty.
Tutti Frutti Yogurt

These are all the flavors they have on rotation based on their web site. Most of the flavors are non-fat while some are low fat or 99.% fat free.
Creamy flavors
screen grab from tutti frutti’s site
Tart Flavors

After getting your own yogurt you head on to the toppings bar and choose whatever you want to put on your yogurt. I left my yogurt naked, bare and free of any toppings. I didn’t want anything to distract the flavor and smoothness of the yogurt.
Tutti Frutti Yogurt

Tutti Frutti Yogurt

Tutti Frutti Yogurt

Your yogurt creation is then weighed and you pay the price for your gluttony. At P19 per ounce my naked yogurt cost P77.22. I can just imagine over zealous kids filling their cups with different flavors of yogurt and loads of toppings and the bill can easily top P200.
Tutti Frutti Yogurt

So far I’ve tried Red Mango, White Hat, Yogurbud, Tutti Frutti and Pinkberry (in the US). They’re all similar and I like them all except for Pinkberry which I found way too tart. I like flavored yogurts better than plain ones. They’re also a healthy option but adding loads of toppings will easily make it calorific.

There are so many other brands of frozen yogurt shops in Manila trying to capture a limited market since these yogurts are not cheap. May the best one remain. We will see who that is in a year or two. What’s your favorite frozen yogurt? Tell me about it in the comments section below.

Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt4th level, the Atrium of SM Megamall
telephoner: 633-3642

Amazing rice fields of Japan

This is from an email I received. I liked it so much I’m sharing it with all of you.
Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan. But this is no alien creation – the designs have been cleverly planted.
Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead, different color’s of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.

As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.

A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants, the colors were created by using different varieties.

The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate, 600 miles north of Tokyo, where the tradition began in 1993.

The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and this year the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall.  Napolean on horseback can be seen from the skies, created by precision planting and months of planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate.

More than 150,000 vistors come to Inakadate, where just 8,700 people live, every summer to see the extraordinary murals. Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields.

And over the past few years, other villages have joined in with the plant designs. Another famous rice paddy art venue is in the town of Yonezawa in the Yamagata prefecture.

This year’s design shows the fictional 16th-century samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife, Osen, whose lives feature in television series Tenchijin.

Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of Doraemon and deer dancers.

The farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru roman variety to create the coloured patterns between planting and harvesting in September. The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square metres of paddy fields.

From ground level, the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work.

Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew out of meetings of the village committee.

Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen. The different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces

In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year. But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention.

In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art. A year later, organisers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.