Kare kare: Favorite Filipino Dish

I am not picky when it comes to foods that I eat but I'm not the adventurous type of foodie either. I may try different cuisines but if there's something that my tastebuds never get tired of tasting, it's kare kare.

Kare kare is a traditional Filipino dish of meat stewed in savory peanut sauce. It is always complemented with shrimp paste on the side. Believe me, kare-kare is not complete without shrimp paste.

A wide variety of meats can be used in kare kare. The common ones are ox tail, tripe, and pork leg. Sometimes, goat and chicken meat are also used. However, my personal preference is beef.

My fandom with kare kare pushed me to want to learn how to cook one. When I googled for the ingredients and the steps in cooking kare kare, I was overwhelmed with the list of steps and various ingredients. Anyway, I was able to find a simple way to cook it, thanks to Lutong Pang Pamilya's video tutorial. I used beef cubes instead of ox tail or tripe or beef pata. And as per a friend's recommendation, I used Lily's peanut butter and Bario Fiesta shrimp paste.


Another thing that I like about kare kare is it has a lot of vegetables. I love veggies! I don't think I can survive a week without eating vegetables. Kare kare has bok choi, green beans, eggplant and banana blossom or puso ng saging. Yummy and healthy, isn't it? Perfect!


Icebox Cake: Favorite Filipino Dessert

Filipino Icebox Cake is easy to make without compromising the deliciously sweet taste that a dessert should offer.


It is my favorite not only because it is made of three main ingredients -- condensed milk, whipped cream and graham crackers -- but also because it is so flexible. If you want to change the flavor, just change the toppings. For instance:

If you want mango-flavored icebox cake, just add ripe mango strips on top or in between layers.
Use oreo if you want cookies and cream.
For a chocolate flavor, just sprinkle the top with chocolate bars or cover it with chocolate syrup.
If you want cheese, sprinkle the top with grated cheese.
For a coffee flavor, you can add coffee to the mixture of condensed milk and whipped cream.
Oh and if you are on a tight budget, don't worry. You can just keep it plain and it still tastes great.

You can enjoy a yummy cake even without an oven in two to three hours. That's why it's my favorite.


Turon: Favorite Filipino Snack

As a proud probinsyana and a proud Bicolana, I will never say no to turon for merienda. Oh that rhymes. Lol.


I grew up in a place surrounded by farmlands and animals and green things. My mother loves to plant basically anything that bears fruits and flowers in our backyard. A plate of sweetened turon for merienda and a nice view of the green field are everything you need to relax after a long, tiring day. Plus it gives you enough energy to fuel your day. And it's healthy. It's banana after all.


OPPO F1s: Best Camera Phone for #Foodstagram


I love to keep tabs of my diet and the food adventures that I have had in a virtual food diary. However, I have encountered these annoying problems along the way and I'm sure some of you have been through these too. But not to worry. OPPO F1s is here to the rescue.

Clear, vibrant images. When it comes to food photography, capturing a clear and vibrant image is important. Readers and viewers might get disappointed if the photo and the original dish don't look alike at all. Who wouldn't get annoyed when the photo you have taken is nowhere near the original image? With OPPO F1s' 13MP rear camera, you will have a worry-free foodstagram experience. It is guaranteed that  your photos will have a vivid depth and exceptionally clear details perfect for food photography.
Security feature. You will never want your treasured photos and selfies to be accessible to just anyone. OPPO knows exactly what you need, that's why for added security, F1s has a fingerprint scanner that is snappy and sensitive. Also, with its watermarking feature, you can protect your photo from web credit grabbers. No need to upload your images in your computer to put the watermark. Awesome!
Fast and smooth multitasking. The last thing that you want when taking photos of your food is for your phone to lag, especially when you want to eat so badly but you just really need to take that photo for your food diary. You will never experience that with OPPO F1s. With its 3GB RAM and octa-core 64-bit processor, you are in for a seamless camera phone experience.
Large memory capacity. With its 32GB ROM, you have plenty of rooms to store your photos. Goodbye to wait-I-have-to-delete-some-photos-first moments.
Be a selfie expert! Most restaurants have dim lights and I've had problems with taking photos and selfies in low-light conditions because the resulting image has a lot of noise and has low quality. Well, OPPO F1s is not called the selfie expert for nothing. It comes with a whooping 16MP front beauty camera (imagine that) with a 1/3.1-inch sensor and an F/2.0 aperture. It allows more light to enter the camera that enhances its sensitivity so you can produce natural-looking selfies even in low-light conditions. 
Share great moments. Imagine discovering an awesome food park you want to share with your friends but you don't have a decent camera phone with you so you just have to describe the place to them. F1s is a handy, intelligent gadget you can use to connect to your friends and share your experience in the web while enjoying a smooth smartphone experience.