Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 19, 2009
Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant
101 N.S. Amoranto Corner Speaker Perez St., Quezon City, Philippines
(02) 711-2248
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A friend of mine kept mentioning Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant to me. Beni said I should try it out & blog about it. The food is good, he said. I really thought that he was one of the owners or something! hahahaha!
Last night, I finally found my way to Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant. I must say, I’m impressed. The restaurant was well-lit. It has this calming effect. You’ll notice all my pictures are greenish lolz — That’s because of the green & yellow theme, which I’m sure helped give a calming ambiance.
Here are what we ordered:
- Bibimpop Fish Fillet (Php 175)
Of the two rice toppings we ordered, I like the Korean Bibimpop w/ Fish Fillet best. Everything just went well together. If you like traditional Korean dishes, then you would love this rice topping!
- Creamy Bibimpop (Php 175)
This is rice topped with seafood white sauce. The idea of putting the rice toppings in a stone bowl is genius. It makes the dish more appealing to customers. I’m not a cream person, but those who love cream would enjoy this. I prefer the Bibimpop Fish fillet (see above menu item).
- Seafood Chapchee (Php 175)
We ordered Korean glass noodles (sotanghon, some might call it) with shrimps, squid, kani, cream dory, button mushrooms, spinach and beansprout. This tasted just normal for me. It might be better if they had put in a little more sauce to make it tastier.
- Korean Beef BBQ (Php 225)
I just love this one! I can’t help but mention it over, and over that this is dellliiiiciiiiooooouuuuuussss!!!! It was just overly tasty and yummy. It was cooked perfectly. Wrapping the beef with lettuce is perfection. I definitely recommend this dish.
- Buko Juice (Php 55)
It has a good amount of fresh juice inside. It is cold too! I really hope there is an unlimited version for this, i know, i’m dreaming but hey, a girl can dream right? hehehe.
I told you earlier that my friend recommended Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant. The story goes that two restaurants had already closed at the same location. My friend really liked the food at Asian Twist and he felt so much pity for the establishment and doesn’t want it to close down. Asian Twist Fusion Restaurant must be doing something right with such interest and loyalty their customer is giving.
Photo Album can be found here.
ä¸æ£ç´€å¿µå ‚ (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall)
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 18, 2009
ä¸æ£ç´€å¿µå ‚ (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall)
21 Zhongshan S. Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
886 (02) 2343-1100-3
Admission: FREE
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My mom accompanied me to CKSC Memorial Hall & at that time, the weather was unbearably HOT! You can’t even open your eyes that well as the sun was shining soooo brightly. We arrived at around ten thirty in the morning but found out that the Theater & Concert Hall where the restaurants & coffee shops were would open at around eleven thirty in the morning.
Mom sat around the corner, she was hiding in the shade! hahaha! While I bravely embraced the sunny weather and took some pictures of the amazing CKSC Memorial Park.
Chiang-kai Shek was a leader who strived for modernizing the Republic of China. When he died in 1975, the Taiwan nation grieved when they lost such a great leader. The citizens proposed to establish a memorial hall for Chiang-kai Shek to show their utmost respect to the leader they missed.
In order to reach the statue, you will need to climb up 89-step stairs. The number of steps signifies Chiang Kai-shek’s age when he died.
The bronze sculpture of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. If you noticed, there are inscriptions on the wall behind the statue. Those 3 words are the 3 principles of the people and of Chiang Kai-shek’s political thinking.
- Ethics – Principle of Minzu (the People’s Connection/Relation, Government of the People or Nationalism)
- Democracy – Principle of Minquan (the People’s Power of Government by the People)
- Science – Principle of Minsheng (the People’s Welfare/Livelihood or Government for the People)
There are also inscriptions on each side of the walls. They say:
- the purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity.
- the meaning of life is to create & sustain subsequent lives in the universe.
On the ground floor, you’ll find a museum dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek’s life. It has paintings, medals, uniforms, manuscripts, etc.
The 250,000 sq. meter ground also includes the National Theater (where we had our brunch) & National Theater Hall w/c I found sooo astounding!
National Theater Hall
National Concert Hall
National Theater Hall even have a section where we can see what’s in store for the month. They provide LCDs in the walkway and there’s a preview for every upcoming show! Coolness. Here’s one:
The rest of the pictures can be found here.
A Visit to Gawad Kalinga Sunshineville
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 18, 2009
Nuffnang invited us to visit GK Sunshineville. It is a village situated in Las Pinas.
This neighborhood came out as a result of some people’s good intention to uplift the lives of poor families all over the Philippines.
Gawad Kalinga is a foundation that started 1995 with the purpose of “advancing & upholding an integrated, holistic and sustainable community development program, especially in the depressed areas, addressing shelter, livelihood, education and health issues in the spirit of nation building, to strengthen the development and improvement of human and spiritual formation of couples and their children and to foster cooperation with others in the pursuit and realization of the objectives for which GK has been established.”
Take this neighborhood for example that the foundation is helping out. The people who are now living there used to live in the squatter’s area.
Because of this project, these people now can live comfortably in houses the foundation built. The houses are built for free, however, people have to pay for the lot (Php 500 per month).
Aside from providing them better shelter, the foundation with the help of some corporations, organized a livelihood program that provide additional income to residents in the community as well as sustaining their livelihood.
Do you want to see how many good people our country has? You can see a list of partners of Gawad Kalinga in helping the community.
You can also help the GK Sunshineville community by supporting and/or buying their products. Details can be found on my blog post re: Bayong ng Kabuyanan here.
Thanks again to Nuffnang & HSBC for inviting bloggers to this eye-opening event 🙂
You can see the rest of the pictures here.
Bayong ng Kabuhayan
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 17, 2009
Today, I was lucky to experience first-hand the project of Gawad Kalinga Sunshineville, Bayong ng Kabuhayan.
Bayong ng Kabuhayan is a livelihood program where community members create eco-trendy & stylish products such as bags & home/office accessories from doypack materials. The project provides opportunities for its residents and has potential to grow into a permanent & profitable business.
I was able to meet to meet the people behind the project and ofcourse, the community members who are part of the program. I was also able to see how the bags were made.
Here are the instructions they showed us on how to prepare the bag:
- Cut doypack sheets into strips.
Doypack is the packaging that ready to drink beverages use. The ones that Zest-O sent to GK Sunshineville are their overruns or rejects. Rejects include ones that were printed wrongly or the packaging isn’t acceptable for commercial use. Just to clarify, the ones Zest-O sent are new and have not been used.
- Fold doypack strips one by one.
Milagros showed us how to fold strips. It isn’t an easy task to do! They are paid 25 centavos per doypack strip folded.
- Weave the folded doypack strips.
This is the most tedious task of them all. I was able to try it out. It was fun, but I bet if you do this everyday, it won’t feel like fun anymore! hehehe! I really appreciate their materials because they are done with care and with personal touch. In a day, the manangs can make approximately 3-4 bags.
- Attach Handle to handweaven bags.
In this video, they showed us how they attached the handle to the bag. We were shown 2 types of handles, first the wooden one and an abaca one. The handle is attached by sewing. I bet doing this the whole will really make your fingers tired especially holding that long needle and sewing it to a hard material.
Finished bags look like these:
The bags are beautiful & affordable, promise! They sell between Php 395 to Php 450.
They also have other products like the ones below:
In their beautiful product brochure, you’d be able to see the products on sale.
They are divided into 2 sections namely:
- Bags – Silver Bags, Colored Bags
- Home – Serving Trays, Placemats, Envelope cases, File Holders, Utility Boxes
I hope you do support this cause and buy the products. By purchasing, you will not only help them by sustaining the business, you will also get good quality products.
If you have any questions about the products or would like to order, you can contact:
Thess Barameda of GKonomics
Tel: (02) 718-1738
E-Mail Address: gkoncepts.info@gmail.com
Address: 4/F Pro-Friends Building, 55 Tinio Street, Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee)
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 17, 2009
哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee)
å°åŒ—市ä¸æ£å€ä¸å±±å—è·¯21-1號
886-(02)2351-2035
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I had brunch at 哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee) w/ my mom. It is located inside the Eslite Bookstore located at the ground floor of CKSC National Theater Hall.
哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee) was established in 1999 & it now has 12 branches in Taiwan. I really like this place. They have free wifi available and their food is good!
Service was impressive! I noticed that the servers were young & I think they are still studying and working part-time. They were very fast, smart and soooooo accommodating & nice. I don’t know what kind of training the company does but it surely worked real well!
We ordered their set menu worth 180NT that included the ff.:
- choice of main dish
- choice of drink
- soup of the day
We were served the soup first. Honestly, it was sooooo delicious. It was spicy but it was made just right. See how happy I was in the picture?
My mom ordered Beef Pasta & Orange Juice. My mom was able to finish it all up so I guess, she was satisfied. I can see how happy she was since she could browse the web. hahaha! I guess mom and daughter are really alike as we are both addicted to the internet!
I, on the other hand, ordered Spaghetti w/ Sausage & Iced Coffee. I’m not fond of pasta but I definitely like 哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee)’s version. It was tasty. I didn’t like the sausage that much though, but the pasta was good! How I wish we have this restaurant here in Manila. It definitely give Starbucks a run for their money.
Rest of the pictures here.
My mom opted to stay at the coffee shop while I toured around CKSC Memorial Hall (I will post later). When I came back 2 hours later, she was still smiling because she was able to finish all the things she needed to do online. The ambience of the place is really good, you will feel relaxed when you’re there. I also saw a musician on the other table trying to compose some songs. We could even hear him humming!