Cook and Brew.

Eating is something we do more than three times a day. It’s something that we do often but sometimes this causes social embarrassment because we fail to observe the proper dinner table etiquette:

DO’s:
1. Once seated, unfold the napkin and use it for occasionally wiping the lips or fingers. After eating, leave the napkin tidily on the place setting.
2. If the food presented is something you don’t like, it is polite to at least make some attempt to eat a tiny amount of it.
3. It is quite acceptable to leave some food to one side of your plate if you feel as though you have eaten enough. On the other hand, don’t attempt to leave your plate so squeaky clean that it looks as though you haven’t eaten in days!

DON’TS:
1. Do not start eating before the host’s signal.
2. Never talk about gross things over the table like murder, neck acne or cadavers.
3. The number one sin of dinner table etiquette is eating loudly through sounds of: slurping and burping.

Reference: gourmet-food-revolution.com’s compilation of table etiquette

I really do like the HP games that come with my laptop. I may not be a great cook in real life, I feel like I’m getting familiar with all the cooking terms and recipes I need to know in the cooking games that I play. There’s the Flo Diner Dash series and the Cooking Mania wherein the game involves “cooking” various recipes from different parts of the world. It also has interesting facts about the recipes origin and even seemingly coach how to properly cook the menu. Albeit time consuming sometimes, these games relieve my stress when I try to relax from a hard day’s online work. It’s also impressive that these games which are developed by various gaming companies can be consolidated and simulated by a main HP console. It’s as if they’re having a free directory submission because there’s no need for them to spend and work on the marketing of their gaming products.

It’s still a day early but I’m wishing you all now:

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

It’s the time of the year again when a Chinese food boxed in red is a common sight, not only in Binondo streets but in almost every non-Chinese household. We’re fortunate that we don’t have to storm the busy streets of Binondo just to taste this special tikoy delicacy because we’re always gifted by a Chinese neighbor (along with a few pieces of arcona products because they’re into beauty product distribution for business). We usually cook ours the most popular and easiest way..cut into strips, dip in an egg mixture before frying. I’m searching on the web now for other ways to cook this..anyone care to share their tikoy recipes?

I stumbled upon this photo while organizing my Flickr gallery. This was taken at hubby’s godson’s Christening last year. Instantly, it made me drool and now my tummy’s seemingly screaming “please feed me!”

I intended not to browse food and cooking blogs and checked out instead sites of varied topics from home blogs to web pages about long distance moving but the image is stuck in my head.

Yay! I finally have my Yummy 2010 Planner. It’s actually a prize I won for joining Yummy.ph’s Christmas Contest on their website last month. (I am one of the fortunate 5 selected winners). I love everything about this planner: the thick, slightly glossy paper; the simple yet charming design; the ample writing space and most especially, the recipes (with appetizing pictures) that goes along with it. There are 24 recipes, I think. It also has some more trinkets like stickers and tear-out lists: a shopping list, a list of restaurants to visit, and a list of recipes to try.

Actually, it also makes a good storage for receipts and insurance quotes while the weekly household budget is being calculated.

This is available for P250 in all newsstands, bookstores and supermarkets.