Year of the Soup: Week 50

My soup making skills finally came in handy.  Last week John and I attended an Iron Chef Party at a friend’s house.  Basically two teams of four show up, learn the secret ingredient, and have 90 minutes to prepare an appetizer, entree and dessert that features that ingredient.  The secret ingredient was ginger: it was soup time.  You aren’t allowed to use the internet or get recipes, so I had to whip up a soup completely from scratch.  I sauteed onions and garlic, added mushrooms, fresh ginger, sliced carrots, cubed sweet potatoes, vegetable broth and some soy sauce to taste.  Viola, Sweet Potato and Mushroom Soup in Ginger Broth (or something like that.)  Of course John was on the opposing team, and he conjured up what he could remember of this soup from earlier this year.  So I suppose we both benefited from me making so many soups (although I think I win on creativity points.)  I’m quite proud that all of this soup making has paid off for something, even if it was only to get me a little praise at a cooking party :) Continue reading »

Year of the Soup: Week 49

I had a dream about this soup the night before I made it.  In my dream, I felt so excited to make this soup for some reason – apparently because of the dumplings.  Just as I started to make the soup, someone informed me that I was disqualified because I had already made a Chinese dumpling soup earlier in the year.  (I have not made Chinese dumpling soup, just fyi.)  This upset me thoroughly, until I woke up and thought, “Disqualified?  From what?!?”  Perhaps my subconscious is taking this whole Year of the Soup thing a bit too seriously.  Like when I used to dream about failing finals the night before the test.  Is it finals time for my soup project?  I have to stop looking at recipes late at night…

As for this recipe, it certainly wasn’t worth losing any sleep over.  There are a lot of flavors in this soup, but the corn overpowers them all – particularly because the dumplings also contain corn.  Continue reading »

San Fernando is the surf city of the Philippines.  After our surf adventure in Panama, I was super excited to try it again (only without the wicked sunburn this time.)  Unfortunately, whatever was wreaking havoc on my body had other plans.

By the time we rolled into San Fernando from Sagada, we were exhausted.  A full day of riding buses from city to city had worn us down.  But it wasn’t until the next day when we both became violently ill that we realized how much.  I have no idea what made us sick – water, bad food, a bug caught in transit, who knows.  But we were both terribly terribly ill.  Stomachs were not happy.  Fortunately, John is awesome.  He trekked out and found us a super swank beachside resort to stay at while we recovered.  We don’t normally splurge on beachfront places (with the exception of Boracay), but with the intensity of the previous two weeks and the illness that was draining us both, a seaside haven seemed like perfection.  And it was.  Normally lounging by the pool all day isn’t my thing, but when you’ve been wretching for two days and unable to eat anything solid, it sounds like the best idea ever.  And our fantastic cabana right off the infinity pool overlooking the ocean was only a splurge of about $100 US a night.  Score.

Sadly, I couldn’t enjoy the super steady waves that so many novice surfers were learning on.  But I did enjoy watching them for most of the day, and into the spectacularly orange sunset.  Come on, it’s our honeymoon photos – you didn’t think you’d get out without seeing a sunset, did you?

After three days recovering in San Fernando, we made one more pass through Manila and flew back home.  And so that brings us to the end of our honeymoon photos and stories.  Hope you’ve enjoyed them :)

Manila had little to offer.  Our first impression of the city reminded me heavily of Panama City, only far crazier.  People everywhere, abhorrent air quality, and masses of fast food restaurants that blew me away (a McDonalds, KFC and Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner.  Literally.)  So when our flight from Boracay landed in Manila, I had no interest in staying 2 or 3 days in the hectic capitol city as we had initially thought.  Instead, we went straight from the airport to the bus station and high-tailed it to the mountains.  Tagaytay sits on the ridge above Taal Lake, which is home to Taal volcano.  Most of what this small city boasts is incredible views of the lake below, and after one night here we opted to visit the smaller community of Talisay, right on the lake.

During our two day visit, we hiked Taal Volcano to enjoy the beautiful views of its sulfurous crater lake and the surrounding lake area.  Excellent views.

Taal Lake has consistent winds and warm water, which made it perfect for taking sailing lessons, which we did.  The area truly was stunning – the light had a quality I’ve not seen before that made everything look pastel blue.

Because of the lack of tourists, however (we saw none), food in Tagaytay and Talisay was truly Filipino.  Apparently, we don’t enjoy Filipino food much.  Nearly everything has tons of sugar in it – even the butter.  As a vegetarian, I had an especially difficult time finding good food, or even food at all.  At one restaurant a dish specified as vegetarian turned out to be noodles with liver.  Another restaurant brought me a “vegetarian” dish full of chicken.  (Keep in mind that English is one of the official languages in the Philippines and every menu was in English – this was not the result of a language barrier.)  Good thing John was willing to taste my food first to identify meat products so that I wouldn’t get sick :)

The one food we did enjoy was the Buko Pie, pictured above, which we only found in the Taal Lake region.  It’s essentially a flaky pastry full of tender coconut meat and a light custard, and it quickly became John’s new favorite dessert.  Before we left Tagaytay he bought 3 pies for the road, and enjoyed them for the remainder of our trip, often on long bus rides.  He’s such a nerd (and I totally love it :))

After another hop through Manila, we headed further north into the Cordillera Mountains.  More on that next!

Travel books often call Boracay the “Pearl of the Philippines,” and I can certainly understand why.  Perfectly soft white sand, crystal clear warm water that’s as calm as a swimming pool, beautiful sunsets, and lots of cocktails.  It’s island paradise.

We spent the first three days of our honeymoon just relaxing in Boracay, splurging for a change on a nice beachfront resort.  (Ok, really the first three days of our honeymoon were spent in transit as we followed this path: 2.5 hour flight to LA, 4 hour layover, 13.5 hour flight to Seoul, 2 hour layover, 4 hour flight to Manila, overnight stay in Manila, 1 hour flight to Caticlan, 20 minute boat ride to Boracay.  We left Denver on Tuesday night and arrived in paradise at noon on Friday.  But the three days after that were spent in Boracay :) )

Here I went scuba diving for the first time (I’ll own up to being pretty freaked out – my Italian dive master had to hold my hand through most of it), enjoyed super cheap massages ($8 for an hour long amazing massage on the beach), and watched the boats sail by at sunset with a couple of beers.  By far the most relaxing part of our trip, and quite enjoyable.  Boracay is easily one of the most spectacular beaches I’ve ever visited (and I’ve seen a lot), but it’s quite a bear to get to (see the itinerary above.)  However, if you happen to be in Southeast Asia, I’d recommend making a stop :)  I didn’t take too many photos in Boracay simply because I was too busy relaxing.  Trust me, it’s gorgeous.

Paradise is lovely, but after three days our adventurous sides longed to explore.  Boracay hardly felt like the Philippines, so John and I transitioned into backpacker mode and hit the road to explore the less touristy side of the country.   But more on that to come!