Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

Our Office Chinese New Year Celebration

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On February 12, 2010

This year, February 14, 2010 will not be just about Valentine’s Day but we will also be welcoming Chinese New Year! Earlier, we celebrated Chinese New Year at our office. The Filipino-Chinese employees at the 23rd floor organized this simple party for our colleagues.

We prepared Chinese food like Tikoy, Radish Cake, Dumplings & Hopia. We allotted 1 hour as everyone was busy with work. I hope we were able to bring some joy to our colleagues & hope we were able to impart some Chinese tradition as well. It was a nice way to welcome the Year of the Tiger! I can say that the event was definitely a success! 🙂

food chinese new year

Apart from the yummy food, we also prepared games for our non-chinese colleagues. Of course, the games had something to do with chinese tradition 😛 Here are the games:

Tikoy Eating Contest

Tikoy or å¹´ç³• is the official chinese new year cake. It can be eaten all year around but is most popular during chinese new year. This is food prepared with glutinous rice thus can be known as sticky cake.

tikoy

We asked 4 of our colleagues to eat a big piece of tikoy. Whoever finished their Tikoy first would win the game! It was real fun seeing them eat tikoy, which is sticky and not to mention, there was time pressure. Ted Chua won the game and finished his piece of tikoy in 2 minutes! Here’s a video of the fun, fun game 🙂

Chopstick Game

Chopsticks or ç·å are utensils chinese use for eating. It is made of 2 sticks with equal length, you can see this in chinese restaurants all over the metro. This is also the utensils used by countries such as Japan, Vietnam & Korea.

The challenge for this game was for players to be able to transfer marbles from one bowl to another using only chopsticks.

chopstick balls

This game is perfectly hard especially for people who are not used to chopsticks.

So we grouped our colleagues into two teams. They needed to completely transfer all five marbles. If a marble dropped, they will have to start from the beginning. Naturally, the first group to finish, wins!

chopstick game

It was really fun seeing my colleagues be so ready to play in this contest. Apparently, the group with a Korean member won! hahahaha! Well, we forgot to take note that Koreans use chopsticks to eat too.

Over the Generation

This is similar to pass the message but this time, our non-chinese colleagues had to communicate a chinese phrase. The host would 1st say a chinese phrase to the chinese players (we decided to use: æ–°å¹´å¿«æ¨‚,æå–œç™¼è²¡! which means Best Wishes for a Happy New Year). The chinese player must then communicate the same message to 1 non-chinese player, which in turn will pass it to the next player. The last player must raise his/her hand then shout the phrase correctly (w/ proper intonations) & accurately. The 1st group who finished would win the game.

over the generation

I love this game! hahaha! One group even ended up pronouncing it in cantonese LOLz! Of course, the group who pronounced it in Mandarin won!

Fun, fun, fun! 🙂 I hope everyone enjoyed the party & the games! Thanks as well to my fellow Filipino-Chinese colleagues for a successful chinese new year celebration. Here’s a picture of us, the organizers, not complete though as the others are camera-shy or already stepped out for meeting/work.

organizers chinese new year

The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Mister Kabab

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On February 11, 2010

Mister Kabab
2nd Level, U.P. Ayala Land Technohub, Commonwealth Ave., Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila
(02) 332-3935

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If you have been following my blog for awhile now, you would know that I love Persian food. I don’t know why but kebab is definitely something I always crave for. So when we visited Avilon Zoo & since I parked near UP, we decided to drop by UP Technohub.

When we were asked which restaurant to try out, I immediately said, “Mister Kabab!” I’ve tried Mister Kabab but not at UP Technohub branch. Wow!!! The ambiance was just waaayyy better than their other branches! It was very clean and it looked very classy. The view was superb!

On the other hand, Mister Kabab’s West Avenue branch didn’t have aircon and you had to sit in an uncomfortable chair. Not only that, you couldn’t stay too long because there is usually line outside of people waiting to get in to be seated. So after eating, you really got to leave.

We ordered the ff.:

Shrimp & Mushroom (Php 95)

This was good! I always order their Chelo kabab. I’m glad that I was able to try the other dishes at Mister Kabab. This one was shrimps fried with mushrooms with some sauce, garnished with tomato and cucumber.

Beef Chelo Kabab (Php 135)

They really call this Special Chelo Kebab! This is tenderloin kebab and beef kebab. I’m not really fond of tenderloin so I requested if I can just have two beef kebabs. They gave it to me for the same price. So it is possible. They called it beef chelo kebab. Can I tell you that this is my favorite when coupled with rice and butter? Perfect!

Fresh Fruit Shake (Php 40)

You know before their fruit shakes were just priced at php25. But their cups were a bit small. I can say that they’ve improved! They now put their shakes in a bigger cup. The price got raised a little to Php40 but still affordable. 🙂 🙂

Rice (Php 25) & Butter (Php 10)

Rice with butter just puuurrfeecctt! We should do this at home too!

Shawarma in Plate (Php 85)

Shawarma is usually wrapped in bread but Mister Kabab offered this Shawarma in Plate. You’d see shawarma then the sidings (onions, tomatoes) put in a plate. So you can either just order a bread or rice to go with it. According to my friend, it was just okay. She preferred this dish to be crispy.

Bread (Php 15)

Keema (Php 60)

This is actually not our order but this is minced beef served with calamansi. I tried this and it was actually good too! My favorite though is still the beef kebab! 🙂

Hahaha! So I just finished writing this and to be honest, I just wanna drive and go to Mister Kabab and eat again! You can find the rest of the pictures from our lunch here.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Show your love via Island Rose this Valentines Day

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On February 8, 2010

Valentines Day is Coming! It’s already this week! Have you thought of what to give to your loved ones? Fret not! Wherever you are, you can always send your love via gifts c/o Island Rose!

I remember feeling a bit down the other week. One of my friends knew this and thought of sending me flowers to cheer me up. Hey! It worked like a charm! The roses really made my day! Guess where it was ordered from? Yep, Island Rose!

flowers

The packaging was impressive. The roses were wrapped with non-woven wrappers with matching ribbons. We can choose between six different colors to match with the roses: burgundy red, olive green, royal blue, rustic orange, luscious pink and mustard yellow. My friend chose Burgundy Red for me as red is my favorite color (well you already know this). Aside from that, Island Rose has their own shipping box where they put the rose bouquet. It was truly elegant and classy.

Now that Valentines Day is just around the corner, why not send your loved ones something to show your love and care? Island Rose delivers flowers to the Philippines but you can also send other gifts like chocolates, teddy bears, accessories and fragrances. Believe me that small gesture can really make a lot of difference. 🙂 Ordering will just take you a short time as you just need to visit Island Rose’s website. Wherever you are in the world, you can send gifts to the Philippines with Island Rose.

islandrose

So have you decided yet? Anyway, you have until February 12 to order flowers at Island Rose for Valentine’s Day! They also have this ongoing promo until February 20 wherein you can use this code: VDAY022010 to avail of a 10% discount.

Hope this helps! Advance Happy Valentines Day to all! 🙂

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

The Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On February 5, 2010

The Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak
Level M1 Trinoma Mall, Edsa corner North Avenue, Quezon City, Metro Manila
(02) 916-7040

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My friend Stef and I had dinner before I went to Malaysia for vacation. She knows I blog so she let me decide where to eat. Anyway, we decided to eat at Sizzlin Pepper Steak, I could have chosen a different restaurant but Stef wasn’t in the mood to eat Filipino food.

I’ve always known that Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak is an imitation of Pepper Steak. Obviously, Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak’s dishes are a bit cheaper. The style, the menu were kinda the same though.

Maybe I just didn’t see it when I last ate at Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak. But it seemed to me that there was a change with how we ordered in Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak. So we are given like an order slip, we checked the items in the menu then write down our orders in the piece of paper. I personally think this is great, more efficient and we, the customers, have ample time to choose our orders without any pressure whatsoever.

Here are what we ordered:

Creamy Corn Soup (Php 55)

This dish had corn kernels in rich, creamy corn soup. I’m not really a fan of creamy soups but Stef ordered this and said that it was just fine. So I’ll take her word for it.

Mushroom Gravy Hamburg (Php 160)

I loved this better than their famous pepper rice. It is their own version of burger topped with mushroom gravy. Served w/ yummy yummy vegetables. I just love this! So juicy & so tasty!

Orange Juice (Php 75)

This was not freshly squeezed orange juice. I think this orange juice was too expensive for something that was not prepared fresh.

Beef Pepper Rice (Php 195)

The ever-famous beef pepper rice is the best seller in Sizzlin’ Pepper steak. They even have a video that they play over and over again on the monitors at the restaurant. Basically, this is just thinly sliced beef sukiyaki marinated in their special sauce. Served in a sizzling plate. One tip, once served, turn the beef upside down so it gets cooked then put the sauce and mixed everything together (including the rice). 🙂

Iced Tea (Php 55)

Usual bottomless iced tea that people order 🙂 Nothing special.

This was another thing that I liked that Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak did recently. They had this sign in every table. They call it “Moo Flips”. So you just flip it either Red Stop or Green Moo-oove! Stop if you don’t need anything & Moo-oove! if you need any assistance. Pretty cool, no need to keep calling for servers!

stop move

More pictures from our dinner here.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Malaysia, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Guesting at DZRH for Blogwatch

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On February 4, 2010

Last saturday, Blogwatch was featured in the radio show, Batas Barangay. The radio show was aired at DZRH w/hosts Henry Uri, Christine & Atty. Ramon Barredo. Batas Barangay is run by Batas Barangay Development Foundation. It is a non-government organization that aims to educate the people regarding their rights and obligations towards the achievement of peace and development.

It was an honor to be one of the bloggers asked to represent Blogwatch in the radio guesting. We were there to share with listeners what blogwatch is about, who blogs and why we write for the site.

It was my first time to be in a radio studio. Can I just say that it was sooooo cool to actually sit in on the room (which was good for five people). There were microphones and headphones ready. Inside the room were some monitors like what we could see on television. It is really popular that radio shows are now on Television too.

It’s funny that wherever I go, certainly there’ll always be bloopers that I make. One big mistake I made was when they asked me who the presidentiables we interviewed were. I answered: Villar, Gibo, Gordon, Perlas, Villanueva then… JC de Vera instead of JC delos Reyes! On national radio and on TV!!! It was so embarassing! To think that JC de Vera is an actor and not a politician and definitely NOT a presidentiable! So if both JCs are reading this entry, I apologize for the mixup. 🙂

Here are some information we shared during the 6:30-7:30pm show:
blogwatch_logo

Objective: The aim of Blog Watch is to give Filipinos, especially the youth, exactly what they need when they need it, and to try to produce a better-educated voter body in time for the 2010 elections through the use of new media and social media software applications.
BlogWatch is a bloggers’ initiative aiming to cover underplayed stories that traditional media cannot cover due to limited resources and time.
How the bloggers were selected: Their passion for writing was not just for a personal engagement but for a higher end. Referrals & word of mouth were mainly the instruments as to how the bloggers were selected.
Demographics of Bloggers: Age: 21-66 yrs old; Gender: M-17, F-8; Metro Manila-20, Provincial-5
Profile of Personal Blogs: Personal, food, politics, photoblog, internet marketing
Difference between Blog Watch & Traditional Media:
1) Traditional media – provides the medium for discussion. It is Blog Watch, in new media where discussion takes place -twitter, plurk, facebook comments.
2) Traditional media – tends to focus on Personality- or celebrity-centered coverage, He said, she said, Party Politics, reactionary. Blogwatch – platforms, Issues, Campaign Finance, Automated Election, Voters Ed, Commentaries.
3) What traditional media prints out or shows on TV passes through rigorous editing. Sometimes long speeches and discussions need to be trimmed down to just a few minutes due to precious airtime. Blog Watch – has almost no limit. Interviews of candidates are hardly edited and are posted in full on our sites (only chopped up in YouTube due to the latter’s 10-minute per video limit.
Categories: Voterâ€™s Education (emphasis on relevant COMELEC laws), Automated Elections, Commentaries, Features & Campaign Finances.
Format of interview: Casual ambiance (sometimes in internet cafes); interviewee is surrounded by bloggers in a warm setting; Blog Watch gets one question each, followed by Vibal, guest bloggers. Questions from the online viewers via Twitter or the chatroom are also asked. Bloggers end with photo ops (a trademark of bloggers as these pics are often used in their own blogs as well as on social networking sites and the actual Blog Watch articles they write).
Interviews done: Manny Villar, Bro. Eddie, Kapatiran (JC de los Reyes/Jun Chipeco), Nick Perlas, Gilbert Teodoro, Gordon/Fernando and some senatoriables

dzrh guesting

One important point I want to call out (it was discussed briefly during the show) is how blogwatch is non-partisan. I myself believe that there’s no such thing as being neutral. While blogwatch is non-partisan, the bloggers in the group have their own choices when it comes to who to support. We balance each other out.

To be honest, I am still undecided but based on who we met, I am already leaning towards supporting some candidates. I’ll definitely share my choices once Blogwatch has finished all interviews with the candidates most probably a few weeks before election.

Rest of the pictures of our radio guesting can be found in my flickr page.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.