146/365: Exposé, part 2

146/365: Exposé, part 1

144/365: Priorities

145/365: Summer BBQ

143/365: Standing tall

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Vancouver website consulting for restaurants, food service, and hospitality

Tiny Bites 2008: a year in review

4 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 31, 2008

A summer BBQ with Butter on the Endive

The end of the year is fast upon us, so I’d like to say farewell to 2008 by taking a look back at my favourite dining experiences of the year.

Dining Out in Vancouver

Boneta: tuna nicoise salad

Events Around Town

Karen during Blogathon Vancouver 2008

Home Cooking

Operation 'Operation'

Culinary Travel

Bacchanalia: storefront

Favourite Visuals

Some of these were featured on the blog, and some were hidden gems in my Flickr photostream, so here they are again for your viewing pleasure.

Face to face with a BC spot prawn

Favourite Online Discoveries

These folks were new finds in 2008 and I am so glad that they have graced the Vancouver virtual community.  Please check them out.

The Brave Bull: Raul and Karen on location

Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Culinary Resources, Events, Food, Going Green, Miscellany, Recipes, Restaurants, Travel

Bites of Asia Series: memories of Pagsanjan

1 Comment Karen HamiltonDecember 30, 2008

This post is part of the Bites of Asia series – a set of posts I wrote in December 2008 before we left for 27 days of exploring the Philippines, Macau, and Hong Kong. If you’d like updates of our trip as it happens in real time, subscribe to my Twitter feed or better yet, follow me on Twitter.

Since I left Manila as a 4-year-old, I haven’t been back much.  The last visit before this one was when I was eight, and the highlight of that trip for me was Pagsanjan Falls.

The waterfall at Pagsanjan

This is where I hope we are headed to today.

I was surprised that my husband recognized the name when I suggested Pagsanjan.  Apparently, this was where the river scenes of Apocalypse Now were filmed. Can you see the similarity between art and life?

Pagsanjan River

I’ll try to obtain photos of this beautiful landscape, but with my SLR packed away from all that nasty water, you may have to accept humble images from my point-and-shoot.  That is, if it survives the pressure of passing through a massive waterfall and all the splashing it’ll see as we descend the rapids…

Categories: Asia, Beyond Vancouver, Food, Philippines, Restaurants, Travel

Bites of Asia Series: things you must eat in Manila

2 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 27, 2008

This post is part of the Bites of Asia series – a set of posts I wrote in December 2008 before we left for 27 days of exploring the Philippines, Macau, and Hong Kong. If you’d like updates of our trip as it happens in real time, subscribe to my Twitter feed or better yet, follow me on Twitter.

I would be remiss to make no mention of my high school pal Zia, who has been feeding us so many ideas for Philippine food and activity that I wish we could have stowed her away in our luggage and taken her with us as our personal guide.

Pulutan at Pananghalian, originally uploaded by ~MVI~.

Like Cheryll, Zia sent me a comprehensive list of her favourite places to eat in Manila, ranging from the economical to the extravagant.  I have no idea how we’re going to run through all of these, but I sure as heck am going to try!

EkspoSining (Central Luzon State University), originally uploaded by ~MVI~.

Okay, I’m kind of obsessed with food…and seriously, I think some of the best eating can be done in the Philippines and for relatively cheap. Here are my suggestions:

  1. Reyes Barbecue: the chicken is awesome. You can find this at almost every mall food court and it’s really cheap; ~$2 for a full meal.
  2. Cibo: really good, authentic italian food.
  3. Cafe Bola: this is in Greenbelt in Makati. They have really great adobo flakes with tomato and goat cheese on top.  OMG SO GOOD.  Modern Filipino cuisine.
  4. Sentro: Filipino fusion cuisine, also at Greenbelt. They have corned beef sinigang. SO GOOD.
  5. Seryna: they have lunch specials for P320, which give you a boatload of fresh sashimi, chicken, rice, soup, salad, and dessert. This is my favourite thing on the planet. It’s in Makati Cinema Square, Little Tokyo. You *must* go here for lunch if you like Japanese food.
  6. Chocolate Kiss: this is a restaurant in Quezon City. They have really good sans rival (buttery cake). I once bought an entire one for myself! [Zia - I would have done that too!]
  7. Cyma: in Greenbelt. Good Greek food.
  8. Sugi: in Greenbelt. Good but fairly expensive Japanese food.
  9. Dampa: this is in Paranaque, quite a ways away from everything. It’s a market place where you go buy whatever fresh fish you want (tuna, clams, oysters, whatever) and go next door and have them cook it up for you according to your specifications. Cheap and AWESOME.
  10. Taho: they sell this on the street. It is soy with brown sugar syrup and tapioca.  It’s my fave. They also sell a cleaner version in the malls.

Categories: Asia, Beyond Vancouver, Food, Philippines, Restaurants, Travel

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