That long title basically explains the entire recipe. When I got home from Bacolod I brought with me a box of inasal, with it the addictive chicken oil, a recipe I can tell you as a side note. Another Ilonggo food item I brought with me is adobo flakes cooked with atsuete...it's also known as adobong pula. It's actually my favorite kind of adobo as it's one of my mom's specialty and it has a lighter flavor compared to the one made of soy sauce and vinegar.
*To make adobo flakes, simply simmer the adobo until it's so soft that the meat breaks apart when you flatten it with a fork. So you just shred the adobo until it looks like fibers, then there's two ways to make it...deep fry it or dry fry it on a non stick pan until it turns into a crisp brown substance resembling the floss-of-the-floss-bread-topping-part of Breadtalk.
**As for the chicken oil, you can either ask your local inasal place (like I did) to pack it on your take-out order or make one from scratch. There's the authentic version where you use the oil from the insol or chicken butt and infuse it with annatto, or my quick version of using vegetable oil and frying in the annatto and garlic then adding chicken bouillon until everything infuses then straining it in a glass container.
This fried rice recipe came together after I needed to consume the adobo flakes I made but got bored with it after eating it over white for three meals. The recipe is also great with kimchi on the side.
Some random conversations I had with the movie Me Before You:
Friend: Oh-ehm-gee! I can't wait for Me Before You!
Me: What's that?
Friend: A movie based on a novel that I'm reading.
Me: Ohhh~ (pretends to sound interested) Who's the actor?
Friend: Sam Claflin (with dreamy eyes and a wide smile)
Me: Who?
Friend: The guy from Love Rosie.
Me: Oh! Finnick!
Friend: YES! (shows movie poster)
Me: Nice! He got paired with the same girl from Love Rosie! They look good together.
Friend: No, that's not Lily Collins.
Me: Of course that's her!
Friend: Nope
Me: How can that not be her!?!
Friend: That's Emilia Clarke.
Me: Who?
Friend: You know, from the Game of Thrones?
Me: Noooooe...! (disbelief)
*watches trailer*
Me: Oh-ehm-gee! I can't wait for Me Before You!
Luang Prabang, more than anything, feels a lot like home. It was strange that the city felt so familiar despite me being there for the first time. No, it wasn't deja vu, rather, the atmosphere almost completely resembled that of the city I grew in. Low land-to-human population, lots of trees, fresh air, having a small town feel despite being called a city, residents practicing a narrowed down lifestyle, good food, and the slow-laid-back pace is how I would sum up my observation after staying there for three days...or was it four?
Although the view is without doubt miles better than my hometown; but if I closed my eyes, breathed the air and heard the gecko in the background, I could mistake the moment as being back home, aimlessly waiting for dinner to be served. Yep, it's the perfect contrast of a metropolitan life─the haven of those wanting to sit back and respite from any stress-related thoughts. Because how can you possibly think of work when you're hugged by sloping mountains and serenaded by happy chirps!? In a city two thousand kilometers away from home, I found my sanctuary.
A little over two years back I went on a Halong Bay cruise, two years later the memory that stood out the most is not the view, it's the food.
For a little over a hundred dollars to experience all that I did, it felt a more than a bargain. It was worth more than what I had assumed. We paid $155.00 for a 2D-1N stay on a small cruise ship around Halong Bay; this included hotel pick-up, accommodation, a tour, kayaking across one island to another, and food─THE FOOD─urgh, so so good. T-T It was one of the few occasions that I totally enjoyed eating more vegetables than meat.
Taken June 2, 2014. This was the sunrise I was seeing back then, almost exactly two years ago at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. I remember getting there still dark, yet the crowd had already taken all the good spots, so I just used them to my advantage, after all I had no plans of turning my photos into a postcard. They say it gets even more crowded during high-tourist season...so this is basically nothing compared to peak seasons.
Parts of my journal that day reads:
"I may have slept as late as 12am, but I woke up even before the alarm struck at 4:30am. We went out at dawn, just before day break to see the sun rise at Angkor Wat. The sun rose and it was splendid.... By the time we arrived at the hotel, I was limping from fatigue and from the blisters I've accumulated.... The day ended with a traditional Khemer massage, sort of like a Thai massage, but less brutal."
And I was not able to write then the terrible sunburn I got from touring the temples. I felt my skin burn the next day and I could see the tan line on my arms go from sort of normal-color-me to four-shades-darker-me just under my sleeves. It was one of the worst sunburns I got in my life, really, worst than some of my days on a beach.
