Margaret River Day 2 – Bushtucker Winery & Brewery Tour part 1

On our 2nd day in MR we joined Bushtucker Winery & Brewery Tour which costs A$80 for adults and A$30 for kids. We went to 4 wineries – Churchview, Knotting Hill, The Grove, Fermoy Estate – The Margaret River Dairy Co., Margaret River Chocolate Company, and the Duckstein Brewery/Saracen Estates. I’ll be breaking this down into 3 entries due to the numerous pictures.

First we had breakfast at home. Look at the cute eggs we bought at Coles.

We also had the super duper yummy scones we got the day before and some yogurt, soy milk and coffee. Healthy so far. Well it’s just the 2nd day right?

On the left is a fruit scone and on the right is the chocolate scone. Both were very good but the chocolate scone was just to die for! It tasted more like a brownie that’s light and flaky. These were so good that it didn’t need any butter, jam or cream. They cost A$1.70 each or A$5.80 for four.

This is our funny, informative and nice driver/tour guide from Bushtucker Tours. He greets everyone who gets in the bus with a jolly “Silvano is my name” and proceeds to introduce newcomers to the whole group. There were a total of 15 people and 1 kid in our tour group.
Churchview is the first winery we went to. It was around 11:00 am by the time we got there. All the wineries we went to were beautiful and each one had their own charm. Churchview used to be a private home so it’s the smallest and coziest of all.
The guy on the left is the owner of Churchview. He left it up to Silvano to do all the talking. Silvano taught us how to hold the wine glass, how to taste wine and introduced us to different kinds of white and red wines. None of us were wine connoisseurs. All 3 of us were more partial to a lighter, sweeter wine.

the ‘whites’

a description of the white wines we tasted


the ‘reds’

description of the ‘reds’

Knotting Hill is the next vineyard on the list. This is where we had lunch prepared by Silvano. This winery is on the water and has a gorgeous view.



Silvano busy preparing the lunch he brought

This plate is Silvano’s creation. A slice of ciabatta, mixed greens topped with a slice of Australian Cheddar with a Wild Hibiscus Rosella Flower in Syrup on top. The hibiscus flower was very sour so I didn’t eat it. Everything else was fantastic. I suspect everything we ate was store bought but nevertheless it was all good. I think it’s the cool air that whetted our apetite and all the wine we tasted made everything taste so good.

The two green pieces on the top left of the bread is bush lime. It’s eaten to freshen your breath.

I like the aboriginal wood plates used for the breads.

tomato pumpkin herb bread

cold turkey and roast beef

The kangaroo meat was smokey and juicy. It had a meatier texture than ham. Silvano had a sweetish chutney to go with the kangaroo.

cheddar cheese and kangaroo meat


bread spread and chutney
The sundried tomato pesto was my favorite. Except when you bite into a very hot tasmanian peppercorn.

marinated mushrooms & sundried tomato pesto
w/ cashew nuts & hot tasmanian bush peppercorn


my plate


our tour group

silvano’s masterpiece

Silvano said he had a surprise for us after lunch. I thought it was dessert instead he brings out this worm. He said only 3 lucky people can get to try this. Oh joy! Fear Factor Aussie edition.

Silvano and his worm
Guess what? Chris is one of the lucky volunteers chosen.

the other lucky one


Chris’ share of the bounty

Look at her contented face! She said it tasted like cashew and it was very creamy. She loved it! Why o why?

Margaret River Day 1 – Rooftop Apartment

When we decided to go to Perth Rochelle and Chris did some research on where else we can go. They stumbled onto Margaret River. I’m glad they did. Margaret River is surrounded by beautiful beaches, caves, wineries and so many other natural and man made sights.

We did an exhaustive search on where to stay with the help of this site. There were all kinds of accomodations available in MR like farmstays, serviced apartments and motels. We decided to rent a self-contained apartment in the middle of the city called Rooftop Apartment. It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

There’s an Asian take out place just below us that opens just for dinner.

The place was very roomy and modern.

This is the reason we needed a Camry. We had to fit all these luggages in the trunk.

The kitchen had a microwave, dishwasher, cooktop and oven. There were pots and pans, serveware and everything we needed to cook breakfast and dinner.


Too bad there wasn’t a dryer. We had to hang our clothes on the clothes rack.
The master bedroom had an en suite bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. Chris and I lost a coin toss so Roch and P got to stay in this room.
This is where Chris and I slept. The bathroom was down the hall.
We were ecstatic to find Coles right in front of our apartment.

We walked a block to the restaurants which were still opened. All the stores close at 4 pm.
Since Rochelle’s son P wanted to eat fish we all shared an order of fish n chips.

It was a one Asian operation.

The fish was fresh and the chips were yummy!
Next we went to Kappadokia Kebabs and ordered a doner (lamb) kebab. This was a two Asian operation. We noticed that most of the restaurants were operated by Asians except for Chow which served Asian cuisine had caucasian chefs and staff. Weird huh?
We also had a baklava.

baklava

baklava lady finger


Turkish delight

the unraveled doner kebab

Rooftop Apartment
Unit 2/29 Fearn Avenue,
Margaret River, WA

Singapore Airlines food- Manila to Perth

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All the pictures starting today were taken with my new toy, the Panasonic G1. It was heavy to lug it at times but the pictures were worth it.

We took flight SQ 917 from Manila to Singapore. The plane was a BOEING 777-300 which had a seating configuration of 3-4-3. The plane was a bit dated and the inflight entertainment system wasn’t the kind that you could start and stop the movie you were watching. I found out too late when I watched Marley & Me 30 minutes after it started.

The food wasn’t very good but I still ate it all because I didn’t eat lunch and was ravenous by then.

braised noodles w/ char siew


ube (purple yam) ice cream

When we arrived in Singapore we just walked to the next gate and immediately boarded the plane for flight SQ 215 to Perth. The plane was a new Airbus A330-300. It was so beautiful! Check out the screen and stuff in front of me. The seating configuration was 2-4-2. Eliminating the middle seat was a smart idea.

The Krisworld inflight entertainment was great! This time you can choose any movie and start watching when you want to. You can pause it too if you need a bathroom break. I watched Bride Wars. I didn’t feel like watching any drama or action movies in case I fell asleep.

Check out all the plugs! You can connect your dvd player to the av input. There’s also a usb hub. I don’t get the ipod connector though. It isn’t a standard ipod connector.
My favorite was this small area to put the most important things I need during a flight – water and my lip balm.

Beneath the arm rest is an AC plug that’s 110v and it accepts US and UK plugs. I even brought my ipod charger but never got to use it because of all the nice movies I watched. Who had time for sleep and music?

They thought of every detail when designing this plane. Who would think of putting a mirror on the tray?

The bathroom was pretty spiffy too!

I loved the waste receptacle that opens with a push of the foot pedal.

I wanted to order the chicken but they ran out of both the chicken and fish by the time they got to me. I found that strange since the flight wasn’t even full.
The uber nice male flight attendant offered me beef cheek. Since I’ve never tried that before I said yes. I wonder where he got that since it wasn’t on the menu.
The beef cheeks were a cross between ox tongue and beef. It was ok but it wasn’t very tasty. The uber nice FA kept coming back to ask if everything was ok. I just kept saying yes since he was so nice and apologetic.

I didn’t eat the beef cheeks and rice.Instead I took this hearty piece of ham and stuck inside the roll and had myself a nice ham sandwich.
The cheese and crackers were yummy! Rochelle and Chris decided to bring the cheese and crackers with them in case they got hungry in the hotel. Aussie immigration confiscated it. No one was allowed to bring in food from the plane.
I forgot to take a picture of dessert which I consummed way too fast luckily Rochelle still had ice cream bar whole.

Perth to Margaret River Day 1

We arrived in Perth at 12:30 am so we decided to stay in a hotel overnight before we drive to Margaret River. We stayed in Comfort Hotel Perth City‘s family room for A$180 including free airport transfer. That’s Rochelle’s son, P in the picture.

It had a slight motel smell but it was very clean and the beds were comfy. The location was on Hay St. so it’s very convenient to the Perth Mint and several restaurants.

We rented a mid size Toyota Camry with a GPS that proved invaluable during the whole trip. That’s our fabulous driver Christina, Rochelle’s sister. Other than getting confused with the wiper, turn signal and mind boggling roundabouts she was a great driver.

Our beloved GPS which we named Margie.

A word about roundabouts. When we encountered our first roundabout and Margie, the GPS, yelled “take 2nd exit at the roundabout”. We didn’t know which was the 2nd exit! Naturally we tried each and every exit until Margie said we were on the right direction. We wasted a lot of time with these roundabouts. We later understood what Margie meant and Chris became a roundabout expert. The extreme left is considered the 1st exit and you count clockwise. Driving from Perth to MR (Margaret River) normally takes 4 hours. But with our roundabout errors, shopping detours it took us about 6 hours.


a typical roundabout

We stopped in the town of Madura for a quick lunch and some shopping at Coles supermarket for some neccessities. Since we’ve passed a lot of Red Rooster we decided to give it a try.

They specialize in roast chicken.

The four of us shared a rippa chicken sub with chili & garlic aoli.
The sub contained a breaded chicken fillet, some lettuce and the chili & garlic aoli. The sandwich was your average fastfood sandwich which was saved by the yummy sauce.
We then went next door to the mall that had Coles supermarket. We stopped at this bakery to buy scones for our breakfast the next morning.

bff Rochelle and her sister Chris

We liked the packaging of the Bundaberg sarsaparilla so we got 1 bottle to try.

I was so happy when my 2 skinny friends told me we need to buy potato chips. I almost fainted with joy. Red Rock Deli potato chips are now my favorite chips in the world. It surpassed Kettle chips and Oishi in my book. We specially loved the sea salt & rosemary chips cooked in olive oil. It was thick, crunchy, no strong olive oil taste, not greasy and spiced just right.


Red Rock Deli potato chips in sea salt & rosemary flavor

What I like about Aussie chips are their unusual flavors which hit the spot. They even had honey soy chicken and Moroccan chicken but we passed on those.

lime and black pepper potato chips

sweet chili and sour cream potato chips
I was amazed when Chris showed me this giant roll of fresh dog food. They do love their pets in Australia. I wish they had this in Manila.

Next 4 pictures are more varieties of fresh dog food.

Chris’ eagle eye spotted a sign on the road for The Old Cheddar Cheese company. We took a detour and was in luck that the store was still open.

We bought a few varieties but the vintage cheddar was the best.

Tomorrow’s post will continue with day 1. I will show you the apartment we rented in MR and our first dinner.

Comfort Hotel Perth City
200-202 Hay Street,
EAST PERTH WA 6004
telephone: (08) 9220 7000

The Old Cheddar Cheese Company
31 Glendon Rd, Ludlow, WA 6280
telephone: (08) 97532424

I’m back!

I just got home tonight from Singapore. The Singapore airlines flight was great as usual. When we stepped out of the plane into the Ninoy Aquino International Airport I was happy that the aircon was cold. But the elation I felt was immediately squashed when I saw hordes of people in the middle of the hall just standing still busy filling up yellow forms. It was a health declaration form that you have to fill up on the spot before you will be allowed to go through. Why don’t they give the form on the plane just like they did with the immigration form? It’s so stupid!

After that fiasco I was happy to see the immigration line for Philippine passport holders was short. I immediately stepped up to the counter and was handed a NEW immigration form. WHAT?!? The lady said they started the new form today and I had to fill that up and I can’t use the one I already filled up on the plane. Grrr what will all the tourists think? Thank goodness everything was smooth sailing after that.

Enough with the rant. I took 2,800 pictures on my 2 week trip. All I can say is the food in Australia is good and the dessert fabulous. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures up by tomorrow.

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen

After watching Angels and Demons last Friday we went to CPK for dinner. For me it’s the best, albeit expensive pizza in Manila.

These pictures were taken by my trusty assistant Wilson using my new Panasonic G1 camera.

We ordered this neapolitan pizza which had an ultra thin crust. This was truly fabulous. All the ingredients were top quality and gave the pizza a full flavor. We told them to skip the crushed chilis.

CPK pizzas are never oily. I never need to blot the top of the pizzza to remove the excess oil like what I do with all other pizzas. No matter how many slices of pizza you eat you’ll notice that your hands remain dry and oil free. That’s another reason I love CPK pizzas.


Rustica
Made with imported Italian tomatoes,
fresh Mozzarella, garlic, crushed chilies, capers,
Mediterranean olives and Parmesan cheese. P325
With pepperoni P395


Buffalo Chicken
Grilled chicken marinated in spicy buffalo sauce
w/ Mozzarella cheese, carrots, celery &
crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.
Served w/ Gorgonzola ranch dressing P435

Vivian who actually complains better than me got us this free dessert when she complained that half of the Rustica pizza’s edges were burnt. Go Vivian! Thanks to the nice and generous manager.


hot fudge brownie sundae P255

CPK menu

California Pizza Kitchen
AF-8 L-8 G/F Promenade Mall
Greenhills Shopping Center,
San Juan, Metro Manila
telephone: 725-7377

Dinner at Via Mare

We had an impromptu girls night out the other day. The venue was Rockwell and the only choice to eat at was Via Mare. Well Pat requested it since she still craved for Filipino food. I didn’t mind since I always crave for Via Mare’s bibingka.

Their pancit luglog was a big disappointment. It didn’t have any taste. I had to drown it with patis (fish sauce) and calamansi unlike the uber yummy pancit malabon I had at Deb’s house.
By the way, these are the first pictures taken with my new camera the Panasonic G1. Any improvement? I noticed the pictures came out brighter even though the lighting in the restaurant was a bit muted.

pancit luglog P185

arroz caldo goto P130/ chicken 160


crispy binagoongan P275


pasta with walnuts

The following are a showcase of the best Filipino desserts. Via Mare does it best. Bibingka is a rice cake cooked over charcoal and topped with either salted eggs or in this case cheese. It’s also served with freshly grated coconut. This is a dense, slightly chewy, sweet cake. Think pancake with the density of a bagel and you have bibingka.

bibingka w/ queso de bola P120

Puto bumbong is made from ground rice and steamed in special tubes. It is then topped with butter and served with a special kind of brown sugar and cheese. You may have noticed we like mixing sweet and salty elements in our desserts.

puto bumbong w/ cheddar cheese P77

The white mound in the middle is glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk and sweetened with some sugar. Add some mangoes and you have another rice based dessert. Hmm did we just eat an entire carb based meal???


puto maya P126

Palitaw definitely tastes better than it looks. It’s another dessert made from sweet rice flour and topped with grated coconut, sugar and sesame seeds.

palitaw P38


A note to the readers. We’ve tried several Via Mare outlets around town and have come to a conclusion that the franchise stores like the ones in Mall of Asia and Serendra don’t serve the same quality of food specially the bibingka. It was really yucky compared to the ones served in Rockwell and Greenhills which are consistently good. So I suggest if you need to get your bibingka fix head on to Rockwell, Greenhills and Landmark Makati only.



Via Mare

Ground Floor Rockwell Center
Rockwell Drive cor. Estrella St.,
Makati City Metro Manila
telephone: 898-1305
Greenhills Promenade
Greenhills Shopping Center
San Juan, Metro Manila
telephone: 726-8931

My New Toy – Panasonic Lumix G1

I was obsessed about the Panasonic Lumix G1 for months. I’ve never considered getting a dslr before because of the weight until I saw this gorgeous, red, petite dslr that’s not a dslr. But that’s a long story. So I finally gave in and ordered it from B&H photo. Ariel brought it home for me from San Francisco.

I’m bringing this camera on my trip to Perth, Margaret River and Singapore. I hope I get used to it by then. The pictures below were taken with my Panasonic LX3.


with LUMIX G VARIO HD 14-45 mm lens

The first thing I bought was this Optech classic camera strap from Vet Specialists, Inc. the local distributor of Optech and Lowepro. When I use this strap the weight of the camera disappears. It’s made of neoprene and is really comfortable to use.

Optech classic strap P1,350

I wanted a very light case for my camera. I didn’t want a separate camera bag. So I ordered this neoprene Zing standard case. It looks funny but it suits my purpose. It’s also reversible to all black.


Zing standard case US$17.95

Here’s a comparison in size between the LX3 and the G1. This was taken with my Fuji f100fd camera. No manual white balance.

Interesting Fast Food at Robinson’s Galleria

Robinson’s Galleria is another mall in Ortigas Center that’s even nearer to my store. We are lucky or unlucky to have 3 big malls- SM Megamall, Robinson’s Galleria and Shangri-la Plaza and 1 small one- The Podium in the area. Imagine the traffic jam when all these malls go on sale at the same time.I went to Galleria’s food court recently and was surprised to see that they have renovated. It’s a welcome change. There were also several new and unique kiosks that opened.Sisig is a popular dish in the Philippines. It’s made of pig’s cheeks, nose, ear and liver. It’s usually served on a sizzling plate. It’s a mainstay in menus of bars because it’s fantastic when eaten with iced cold beer. That’s what everyone says. It sounds gross but even Anthony Bourdain proclaimed it delcious and wonderful.

Sisig Hooray sells made to order pork, chicken and bangus (milkfish) sisig. I’d like to try the bangus sisig one of these days. It sounds interesting and not gross at all.

Robinson's Galleria

Robinson's Galleria-1
Robinson's Galleria-2

Some of Eggstacy’s products look like it comes straight from Fear Factor. Balut is an incubated duck egg with 16 to 18 day old embryo, while Penoy is an infertile incubated duck egg or with dead embryo. Whatever- they still have EMBRYO in them! Coating them in a heavy batter and frying them is supposed to make it yummier? But that’s just me. A lot of Filipinos actually like eating balut and penoy.

The only thing in their menu that I’ll go for is the salted eggs. Salted eggs are yummy with chopped tomatoes as a salad. It’s also used as topping on congee like the one I ate here.

Robinson's Galleria-5
Robinson's Galleria-6
fried balut, quail eggs
Robinson's Galleria-7
Coconut Republic sells fresh coconuts still in the shell and filled with different toppings. They also have coconut juice and shakes. Everything on the menu looks yummy.
Robinson's Galleria-3
click on the picture to see the menu
Food Court
Level 1
Robinson’s Galleria
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue,
Quezon City