If you are planning to learn cooking Asian cuisine, it is important that you buy the ingredients that are fresh from the market. Herbs and spices are often part of Asian dishes. In ages past, people do not even need to purchase most of these ingredients. People usually have a garden at their backyards and they just pick the fruits and vegetables that they need for a certain recipe. The great thing about today’s technology is that learning how to cook Asian dishes is easy. You can simply access the internet and browse over countless recipes available in various websites. Just remember that when you are cooking something for the first time, it is better to put the spices pinch by pinch. This will keep the food from tasting too salty or bitter. At the same time, if you think that it lacks flavor then you could always add more until you get the right taste. You should also learn how to taste what you are cooking.

Overall, looking for exquisite Asian cooking recipes is not a difficult task. Just do your assignment and you will be fine. Preparing an Asian cuisine will always be a rewarding experience.

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Raven and I will be back to Manila later. For now, we are enjoying our stay with my family. Lots of foods, great greenery and soft breeze! Ideal and romantic. Lol.

As much as I wanted to blog about the entire New Year experience in Batangas, we’re so busy right now. Just making the most of our day away from the city. And I was not able to take more pictures of the dessert and other food. Super overwhelmed to do so! I love sweets!

To discuss more about this car rental service, it is operating their service with Germany as its headquarters and working mainly to reach up to the requirements of their customers regarding their traveling needs. This is something amazing that a car rental company is working towards people to help them to make their holiday trip so fabulous under the budget which is a great thing. I truly support the service of mietwagen which is doing an outstanding job like no other car hire company in Germany or perhaps in entire Europe. It is very easy to book a car through this car hire service as you just need to enter the website www.carrentals.de, provide the details required by the site and choose the packages offered by the service. The packages are so attractive that you will never want to miss those packages. Hence please choose the carrentals.de and avail the benefits that you never had.

I’m not after the food, anyway.  But more of their company. I just love to see my team once again. Still, I had a great time with them!

And as the title says, I’ll visit Thai Pan back to check out more of their signature dishes. Probably with my boyfriend by then. Thai Pan is located at 120 Scout Dr. Lazcano, Tomas Morato Quezon City.

Anyway, I am actually not here to give a recount of my day to day experience during those depressing moments. Rather, I am here to share a neat experience I had with my girl in those gloomy days. As I have mentioned prior, I did not bother eating much during those times but whenever I get back home, I invite my girl to eat out in a nearby dining place. At first glance, the place where we eat appears to be a small eatery which serves your usual tapsilog. The dining area is actually set outside with just a couple of tables available for customers. Looking at the signboard, the place introduces itself as “Ichiban Da Ne”. For those who do not know what it means, it actually means “We are number one!” It actually has the translation printed just underneath the name of the eatery saying “Number 1 di ba?” which almost means the same thing. Now, I would not normally write something about just any place where I have eaten unless it was really a neat and decent place.

Ichi Ban Da Ne

But that is the thing here. Though the food is quite decent, nothing really spectacular, I cannot help myself but admire the customer service that the staff provides their customers. I mean, look at this. There was this time where a customer totally forgot to get their change. You know what happened? The manager, or so me and my girl think he is, went out of his way to chase those people. Unfortunately, he was not able to catch up to them but hey, you actually do not see those kind of things everyday especially at the kind of place where we ate. I would not be surprised if it was done by a manager in fastfood chains or fine dining restaurants. But in the place where I live in?
Furthermore, the staff was cordial enough to offer my girl free soup during our first visit. Yes, it is offered by most fine dining but they only do that towards their customers. At that time, I was the only one who ate there since my girl was still full. But she was still offered free soup. There was also this time wherein I asked if they sell ice since the refrigerator at home is dysfunctional (Courtesy of Ondoy). The manager said yes, they do sell ice and asked me how much do I need. I just said a few since it was already past midnight. I just wanted to drink some cold water when I get home. And you know what the manager did? He just dug up a lot of ice and gave it to us for free saying that he will not need those since it was already past midnight!

And these things happened in a span of what, a week or less? I told my girlfriend that it would be a sin on my part if I did not blog about that experience or the place so here it is. I just cannot help myself but admire the customer service. It was one of the best customer service experiences and I just could not help but smile whenever I remember those moments. I hope that they continue to do those simple, but great gestures. I am pretty confident that in due time, more customers will visit that place and appreciate it the way I did.

*Reviewed by Raven Knives

Ingredients:
1/2 kg pork, thinly sliced
4 cups green jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced
1 pc bell pepper, sliced
2 pcs Knorr shrimp cubes
2 cups thick coconut milk
2 cups think coconut milk
1 large onion, minced
1/2 head of garlic, minced
2 tbsp cooking oil

Procedure:
1. In a frying pan, heat the cooking oil and brown pork for few minutes then set aside.
2. In the same pan, saute onion then garlic until golden brown.
3. Add the shrimp cubes for a complete seasoning mix.
4. Add the pork, jalapeno peppers and bell pepper.
5. Pour in thin coconut milk until the dish gets dry.
6. Add the coconut cream (thick coconut milk).
7. Simmer until the sauce thickens.

Cooking Bicol Express - Step 6

Optional: Add more jalapeno peppers or red chili peppers (cayenne) for extra hot serving .

It was a success! He loved it so much and he’s craving for more. I’ve eaten lots, too! Perfect spices!

I really enjoyed this cooking experience and I’ve also learned several things:
1. Take more pictures.
2. Learn how to garnish.
3. Focus.

And next time, I’ll work on my timing so as not to overcook it.

Bicol Express on my plate - tasted better than how it looks...

Here are a few very romantic courses you could include in your meal. They are sure to make an impact, whether you just met Cambridge dating at eHarmony.co.uk or at last year’s Christmas party.

Oysters on Ice

A cliché of romance, this seafood starter is a great way to start the meal – sophisticated, delicious and one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs in the world. It’s essential that these are as fresh as you can possibly buy them to enrich the flavour. Also, make sure to check with your date for an aversion to sea food, as it is a common allergy.

Fajitas

Go Mexican and serve up fajitas as a main. The DIY element of constructing your own wraps has many advantages here, especially for a first date. Firstly, your guest can help themself to match their own taste, thus passing over any problems with serving sizes. Also, the process is rather fun and informal, breaking the ice so that you’re eating companionably with your hands.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Just saying this out loud in an Italian accent can make someone weak at the knees. Maybe it’s the famous Disney scene from Lady and the Tramp, maybe it’s the Italian origin or maybe it’s simply because it always tastes delicious. Whatever the reason, Spag Bol is a failsafe and extremely romantic course to serve.

Fondue

This can be a starter, a main a dessert – or even all three. Start with a cheese fondue, dipping vegetables and bread into melted cheese. Next move on to a meat main, cooking pieces of meat on a hot plate in the centre of the table with various accompaniments. Then, for dessert prepare a bowl of melted chocolate, with assorted fruit and marshmallows to skewer and cover in the creamy liquid. The DIY element will again break any formality and ease the atmosphere.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Continuing with the chocolate theme, why not make a delicious Chocolate fudge cake for your dessert with an accompanying sauce? There are few singles out there that could resist this. Chocolate has been proven to trigger the production of endorphins, boosting happiness and enhancing amorous feelings.

Choosing a romantic menu isn’t easy. Make your dinner date perfect by cooking a selection of these truly romantic dishes.

Get unlimited servings of pizza, pasta, salad and soup!

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Chef d' Angelo Eat All You Can Schedule

Also a heads up, we paid P175 per head since there’s additional fish fillet dish in the buffet. So the new package includes pizza, pasta, salad, soup, rice and main dish. Then just add P50 for bottomless drinks!

The Important Rule: No Sharing, No Left-Over, No Take Out or You’ll be charged double the price!

You know for a fact that celebrating the coming holidays will not be complete if there isn’t a feast on your table. If you are one of those of people who love to eat chicken then maybe the first thing that you should do is to search for some chicken recipes.

Patak's Roast Spiced Chicken with Indian Style Gravy

The great thing about today’s technology is that you can easily look up recipes online. No longer do you need to go to a mall to purchase a recipe book. The only problem is that there are countless chicken dishes to choose from and it is down to you to choose which one you prefer to cook. Sometime there is just too much to choose from.

An important thing to remember is that various chicken dishes have different effects on your health. Some dishes have too many calories that, when eaten regularly, can cause you to gain some weight, while some are nice and healthy.

If you are conscious of your health and diet, you can try and learn chicken recipes which involve steaming instead of deep frying. This kind of cooking promotes low calories. Barbecue chicken is a good option since it eliminates oil and does not take much time to prepare. Chicken soup is also a good dish to cook during the coming winter season.

On the other hand, if you are looking into cooking something new for the weekends, you can try cooking a roast spiced chicken with an Indian style. It tastes sublime mixed with Balti paste!

There are so many kinds of chicken dishes that listing everything here would consume too much space. The important thing is that you know where to look for recipes and to check the feedback of people who have tried them. This will help you figure out what to cook this coming Christmas season.