The Great Adobo Challenge

For those who read my previous entry.. this is the adobo story that I promised to write..

Kung may isang ulam na dati rati ay proud na proud akong lutuin, yun ay ang adobo. Grade 3 ata ako nung una ko siyang natutunan lutuin. At sa dinamidami ng versions na alam ko, kahit nakapikit maluluto ko ito (hep! wala munang kokontra!). Until today. Sabi ko nga ke neighbor, ilang milyong beses ko na siguro niluto ang adobo and kanina ko lang nakuha ang tanging reklamo (o siya maliban dun sa time nakalimutan ko siya at nasunog ito) about my ever favorite pinoy dish.

Maalat ang adobo. See I told you, walang kokontra... Promise di ko talaga malasahan ang alat (hmm my tastebuds must be haywire?). Pero sabi ng aking food critic, maalat daw. Plus minasaker ko daw ang pakpak ng manok at namukhang minced chicken siya (they just crumbled you know! haha). A for effort ang grade ko but S for Salty sa taste. May kanta pa yang katumbas (pano nga uli yun? basta asa tune ng london bridge.. kanina LSS ko yun eh).

My self confidence went down the drain (o sige table ng Nando's). Sama mo pa diyan ang blooper ng itlog na pula (Itlog na maalat) na di lang kulay itim dito sa malaysia eh kelangan pa palang lutuin (malay ko bang may option pala sa malaysia na fried salted egg or scrambled salted egg..Sa tin naman iisa lang ang pulang itlog.. at siya ay luto). Parang bigla tuloy akong napaisip--Marunong pa ba akong magluto? (Lasagna will be my redemption!) Sabi ni Food Critic may saving grace naman daw ako-- masarap daw ang garlic fried rice.

But in fairness, the criticism was constructive (with a lot of pang-aasar on the side). Di tayo pikon so we should learn to take criticism with a grain of salt (hep! maalat again!). Although ilang beses ko din siyang muntik masaksak ng tinidor and nabatukan, I must admit, nabusog ako agad sa kakatawa (hmm.. bagong diet tip ito). Saka nainsulto man ng husto ang aking formerly world famous adobo, naubos din naman nila (kasi gutom daw sila.. sige na nga!). So all's well ends well.

So now there is a challenge- My food critic told me that he would cook me an adobo that would cause me to forget my name in the process (talaga lang ha!). Papakita daw niya kung pano ang tunay na pagluto ng adobo. Sige na nga, payag na ako.ng malaman ang katotohanan (mataas ang standards ko!). basta aabangan ko yan.. Teka kelan ba yon? For my part, I will be making my famous lasagna again (so lets rename this as the adobo vs lasagna challenge) and I promise to redeem m myself.

at sisiguraduhin ko ng luto ang itlog na maalat.

Sana may application na ganito sa facebook.. ang saya siguro nun.. :P

Hangover

I finally knew what a real hangover felt like last Sunday. For the first time in my life I actually got drunk. I had a drinking session with the boys (hanggang dito ba naman one of the boys pa din ako?) last Saturday night until 3am of sunday. It was an all guys session with me being the lone girl in the group. It actually reminded me of our Ilocos trip last September and my inumans with Witart in Provident. Nakakamiss din yon.

We played badminton at 7pm first. Almost three hours of non stop laughter. Charles kept us playing till we died of fatigue. It was fun and was quite tiring especially when I played against the men's doubles of bambang and jessie/jet. Nakakapagod tumawa! My play was still way below my usual play but I was amazed at some of my newfound abilities to run and get the ball. Nagkakabackhand na ako! hahaha. We ended play at 10 pm just in time to force rajah to cook for us the last order for dinner. We were all so hungry then. I think I wiped out my food in less than 10 minutes.

After dinner we went back to the condo to wait for our kainumans--glenn and don obet. Glenn and Obet brought vodka home after work and when that was wiped out, they went out again to get beer. They made this concoction of regular beer with dark beer. I don't know what hit me-- whether it was too much alcohol, hunger, fatigue, too much laughter (i swear my tummy ached from all that laughing trips) or all of the above. I don't actually recall how many shots I had but I knew it was way too many to mention as my head was spinning na! hahaha. We were all laughing all night. Asaran and kwentuhan. I was on my kulit mode din kasi. We listened to Obet's new Ipod and his collection of cheesy christmas carols. Being here abroad gives new sentimental meaning to the song Pasko na Sinta ko and Sana ngayong pasko. Namoody tuloy ako. Napakwento pa tuloy ako ng drama ng buhay kay cong! hahaha.. Pero promise last na yon. ibabaon na sa nakaraan ang nakaraan.

And of course we still had our regular dose of kailan. Talk about kajologan. But hey! It was fun! There's something about being far from the Philippines that makes all those jologs songs a lot nicer to listen to.

After consuming all the beer the 6 of us decided to have an early morning snack at the mamak stall. I couldnt eat when we got there coz I was so bloated already. I was sleepy and quiet. Okay naman pala akong malasing. After a few minutes I decided to go to the cr and throw up. YUCK!

Jessie went with me to the toilet to witness my first ever drunken state in life. How embarrassing. Finally I think nakarmi ako from all that "i never get drunk statements" of mine. Imagine 7 red horse bottles sa ilocos and I didnt go down. I thought I was well trained by witart george and lolo mark na. Kulang pa pala! hahaha. Dito lang sa Malaysia pala ang katapat ko. I told the guys yesterday that they are the lucky ones who witnessed my first lasing state in life. Divina couldn't believe it herself when I texted her yesterday morning.

I woke up at 8am yesterday in Ann's room and my head was still spinning. I was so dying to take a shower so I forced myself to get up and go to my new sleeping quarters in the next block. For about one hour there I was telling myself that I'd never drink again (hahaha! tingnan natin!).

So that was how a hangover felt like. It was bad. My headache finally subsided at around 4pm already. I was supposed to go out and do some shopping yesterday but I ended up crashing in Ann's, Obet's and Charles' unit to bum around. Charles and I had lunch at 2pm in carrefour before I headed out to meet marisa for mass. My shopping expedition was completely forgotten. kaya pag umuwi akong walang pasalubong, yon ang dahilan non. hehehe.

So that was how my weekend went. Drinking expeditions. I got to play again last night with my friend Marisa and her group. I was the lone pinoy there so it was kind of a weird feeling. I couldn't say all the things I used to blurt out when I play (like my favorite, "siomai!" and "shet" and "bakal!") coz no one is bound to understand a thing I was saying. After the play I went home and had late dinner with au, obet and jessie sa bakuteh. We watched Star Wars Episode 1 after.

I got home around 1230 am I think. Finally I slept in my new room. It's not yet home to me but sana it will be soon. I don't feel I'm jelling well with my housemates. But I guess it's because were still new. Let's just wait and see.

6 more days and I'm going home!!!! Can't wait! There's a rumor that our salaries will come this week. SANA!!!

The Despedida Nights..

Here are pics from my despedida nights back in Manila last week. I can't believe that it's been almost a week since I said goodbye to the folks back home. And that it has been a week since I got to play my beloved sport of badminton. I miss home and I miss playing most of all. But I'm learning to just count the days till I go home again. 20 more days and I'll be back-- well at least even for a week..


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I went to several goodbyes over the course of 4 days-- from the P10 dinner at Cafe bola to the pamilya badminton despedida dinner at my place, to anthony's breakfast trip last monday and the two wakes of the dads of my two good friends.

It feels like only yesterday when we had that final queing at GBC. I played 5 matches in all (mixed with marlo, 2 ladies with joy, mixed with luis, and mixed with sir rey). Luis and I replayed the rush semis against tito morris and tita connie. It was so much fun. After the games Tita connie practiced parking and I nearly died laughing at willy's instructions. He was so funny parang announcer sa sta ana race park!!We took a lot of goodbye pics before I finally said my final goodbye to my newfound friends. The GBC folks have been so kind to me all these weeks especially when things were pretty rough. They taught me a lot about hope and moving on.

After queing luis and I went to Loyola memorial park to visit Grace's dad. He passed away the previous day along with Honey's own dad. Nagtatakutan pa kami sa loob ng loyola. Afterwards, I brought Luis home for one final time. I'm gonna miss our hatiran nights. I'm gonna miss the "text mo ko pag uwi mo" reminders from my makulit na partner.

Maybe someday I'll get to do those things again.. I hope so..