I Smell Something Fishy

Last weekend was a long weekend, Monday was a holiday. We decided to go to Manila Ocean Park. The park was newly built, and I told my wife that we will not go there during the time where everybody wanted to go there. So last Monday was the perfect day to visit the park.

I already heard that the park is not yet complete in a sense that some marine life are not there. Turtles and Octopus where the obvious one.

Nevertheless, we still enjoyed our weekend together at the park.

Check the pics.



My family and I :)














After visiting the park, we ate at The Aristocrat restaurant along Roxas Blvd.

Here are some pictures of the most interesting sea creatures. Read more!

Biryani Rice

Biryani Rice for weekend match with meat barbecue. I tasted my first Biryani rice in a Persian resto in Makati and fell in love with it right away.

I introduced it to my wife and kids and they love it too. Cooking Biryani rice is almost the same with Chinese or Japanese fried rice but Biryani has this ingredients that are so exotic than the usual oriental fried rice.


The usual rice used is the Basmati rice from Pakistan but any rice will do. Basmati rice is so expensive check it out in your favorite supermarket. So last weekend, we made our home cooked Biryani rice (our own version).














The ingredients are:

1. Rice (of course :P )
2. Cashew
3. Raisin
4. Cinnamon
5. Onions
6. Garlic
7. Salt

For some, you might want to add these;

1. Curry
2. Cloves

For some, shortcut is to buy Biryani paste in your favorite supermarket. :)

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Laughing Out Loud

Last Friday was my partner's birthday and his sons and daughters gave him a different party. They invited several stand up comedians and they performed after dinner. My partner's son asked me to bring my family, my wife and my kids. Although, we decided that we won't bring the kids, it was raining hard and we know hat the party will be past bedtime.



Actually, everyone enjoyed the party, where I and wife had good laugh. One comedian was actually done a opening act for the famous FilAm comedian Mr. Rex Navarrete. As shown in the picture was one of the comedian, Stanley.

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My Weekend Cooking

I love Gindara with Teriyaki Sauce. Last Saturday we bought Gindara fish in South Supermarket. It's been a while since I cooked my favorite fish and weekend is the perfect day to cook it. Check out my Gindara Recipe. :)

I wasn't able to get the best Gindara slice but for me any part of the fish will do. Maybe next time I will get lucky. My first taste of this delicious fish is from a Japanese Restaurant in Makati and the cost was very expensive for a small piece of fish. I said to myself, I'll cook this one for me and my family. My first try is not bad at all although my ingredients are not complete but just the same my love ones ate my Gindara with gusto. The second try was great! So for those who like to cook fish, here's how I cook my Gindara.

Ingredients:

Gindara Fish Slice
Teriyaki Sauce

How to make Teriyaki sauce

Ingredients

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup beef broth
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup white wine

Mixing the ingredients here is my way:

1. Dissolve the sugar and ginger in the broth and soy sauce.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Blend the cornstarch in the wine. Add to the broth.
4. Simmer until thickened.

The recipe of Teriyaki Sauce was pulled from the Internet, I can no longer remember where.

Enjoy! :)

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Go Fly a Kite!

Last weekend, I had done something old and new to me. I made a kite for my little tyke. It brought me back to memory ville, when I was young I used to make different types of kite and flew successfully some of them. I can not ask my father to build me one, he was a busy man so I have to be resourceful that I have to build my own to the envy of seeing beautiful and expensive kites I see flown by my other kids.


My little boy was asking me to buy him a kite, I said no need to buy I will build your own. He was amazed that I can build one. He's familiar of already ready made kites available in toy stores and hearing that I will build his kite excites him.

There so many types of kite, and one kind of kite that I wasn't able to build and make it fly is the "Filipino Kite" a tail-less one. Yes, it is named after us Pinoys. This type of kite in colloquial word is "borador" its big cousin is called "guryon". I am not a Kite expert so correct me if I am wrong.




This type of kite really fascinated me because when I was a kid I see how graceful this kite flies, it has commanding presence as compared to diamond shape kite with long tail. It resembles like fighter plane in the sky.

So it was a challenge to build this one for the kiddo and of course for me. This type of kite is very difficult to build as a kid, it requires good perspective and getting the right materials. From the frame to building it, string is attached to both end of the bows, this string controls the shape of the wings.

It was still a challenge for me, even I thought that I have grown and my artistic faculty is greater than when I was a kid. This stage was the hardest part of building this kite.

Skinning the kite was much easier (I thought it was, not!) but I noticed that the paper that I used to use to make a kite is very much gone thinned these days. This "papel de hapon" was so fragile that just a small amount of paste applied to it will basically ruin it. So I have to apply the paste very carefully.

By this time, the kid was so amazed and keeps on saying "kite" every 5 minutes or so. After 20 minutes of skinning the kite, time for it to get dry.

My big reward, a big smile from the little guy. :)

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