Yaku Japanese Grill

A friend at work is migrating to Canada and our lunch group had it's farewell lunch for her at Yaku Japanese Grill at the 3rd floor of the Podium. It was a happy affair with lots of reminiscing and laughter. This was my first time to dine at Yaku and I was pleasantly surprised that the food was good and the prices reasonable. The servings were small but there was enough for everyone to have a taste. The best thing is we felt full but not stuffed after.

Enoki Bacon

Yakiniku

Aspara Bacon

  Ebi Tempura

Ankake Tofu

Rice with beef toppings (I forgot what it's called in the menu)

Yakimeshi Rice

Yasay Itame

Butabara

Negima

A photo to remember our farewell lunch taken at Segafredo where we had our coffee and dessert. We all had identical orders: Coffee with Frozen Braso de Mercedes.

Read more...

2011 Starbucks Diary

Started collecting stickers for my 2011 Starbucks Diary today. I got the Peppermint Mocha (love it!) and my friends, who donated their stickers got, Americano and another Peppermint Mocha. I don't have pictures of the diaries but they were on display. I like the one with the red velvet cover. I hope I get more sticker donations. There's a Starbucks in the library at work and if I hang around there I just might complete my sticker requirement with minimal cashout  :)

Read more...

Toddlers, The Great Imitators

Toddlers learn a lot by imitating and trying out new things and it's amusing to see. I found these photos on my mobile while deleting files. They made me smile.

Playing doctor to her stuffed dog Chao Pai.

Buying groceries with Mommy.

Looking all grown up.

Children like playing pretend. Since their social circle is limited at this point, they mostly imitate Mommy, Daddy and other people in the household. It  forces the adults to be on their best behavior by being good role models. The child's personality is becoming more evident as she learns more of the world she lives in. Providing a good example at this stage will make it easier for the child to be disciplined later on in life and grown ups get to learn from their children as well.

Read more...

It's All in the Accent

I work in an organization where employees are of different nationalities. It's fun and interesting because it's not the usual workplace. Although English is the language used at work, the different accents of people make it very interesting if sometimes challenging.

A consultant from New Zealand once asked me, "Are you hippy today?" I replied that I was not a hippy. Then he said that he would like to take a picture with me because it was his last day. Ohhhh....I realized then he was asking if I was HAPPY that day.

Then there's the boss from mainland China who was asking me to change some data in an excel spreadsheet. He kept saying, "vanish it, vanish it." Huh? It took a while for me to figure it out. He wanted me to use the VALUE SHEET.

It's been especially challenging to take minutes of meetings. Hard enough that sometimes attendees have already discussed issues by email before the meeting and seem to continue the email discussion at the meeting, but to deal with the different accents (Indian, French, Australian, Italian, Singaporean, etc.) really drives me nuts.

It all just makes each day interesting.

Read more...

Beef Rendang

Been trying to learn Indonesian dishes for P so he wouldn't be too homesick for food. He's been subsisting mostly on fried chicken, KFC, Jollibee, McDonald's, Inasal, etc. He's tried them all. Most of my experiments have not been too successful though. Either the recipes were not good or I wasn't following it correctly or I did not have the right ingredients. Still, I keep on trying. My friend Karen got a Singaporean cookbook which had a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian dishes in it. I decided to try out the Beef Rendang although the recipe confused me a bit because it was not specific enough. I had to look up other recipes on the internet. So this is a combination of many recipes.

1/2 kilo beef brisket cut into cubes
1 cup grated coconut, lightly toasted
1 cup thick coconut milk
3 pieces dried tamarind, sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pieces kaffir lime leaves
1 piece turmeric leaf
1 piece salam leaf
1 cup cooking oil


Blend the following into a paste:
1 medium onion
6 pieces large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon minced ginger
a handful candlenuts (I used almonds as candlenuts were not available)
1 piece shallot


Add these to the blended paste:
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon chili paste
2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric poweder


Season beef cubes with salt and pepper and marinate for at least an hour.


Heat 1 cup cooking oil (in medium heat) in a large wok and fry the blended paste. Add the kaffir lime leaves, turmeric leaf and salam leaf and continue stirring until brown.


Add the sliced tamarind. Once the oil separates from the paste, add the marinated beef and cook in slow fire for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Stir once in a while and add a little water if the paste starts to dry up.


Add the grated coconut when the beef is almost tender and stir until well mixed. When the beef is tender, add the coconut milk. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once oil starts to float on top, it is ready.


Serve with steamed rice.


This time my experiment worked out well. P said it was good and I brought leftovers to work to have my friends taste it and they liked it too.

Read more...