Eventscapade: Dasma Boho Bazaar & FOX Asia Pop Comic Convention 2015

You guys may not know this but I am absolutely mad about bazaars. I'm not so keen on online shopping so when I hear that a certain online store will have a booth in a bazaar, I'll definitely be going. It reminds me of the days, when I was a kid, when I would follow my mom around the Greenhills tiangges. The most valuable lesson that I learned, in those times, is haggling. Coming from a chinese family (no racism here, please. ), we have this certain mentality that the cheaper it is, the better. My family would do anything for a cheaper price, thus mastering the art of haggling. It's actually pretty useful especially when we travel to dominantly Chinese countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore (which I'll be flying to on Nov 18-22!)

Last week, my grandma, aunt Badj, and I (yes. Grandma. She loves bazaars too) went to one of the Bazaars in Dasmarinas village (my apologies. I don't remember the name of the bazaar. Boho Bazaar?). It was just a tiny bazaar located in the village clubhouse. WHen I say tiny, I mean tiny. There were probably about 20 small stalls? Which was fine. I mean, this isn't like one of those Rockwell bazaars where you have to pay 200 bucks for entrance fee.

See what I mean? tiny. But the stalls were interesting, though. If I'm not mistaken, I bought at least one item from each stall. Even the food stall. HAHA.

For a tiny bazaar, it was pretty jam packed at 9 in the morning. I was scared that the nice items would go out of stock. Big mistake. These stall owners are veterans in the field of bazaars.

"Do you have this in Medium?"

"Oh why yes. We have it in 4 different prints as well". 

"Is this still available?"

"Yes. in what color? Blue? Black? Pink? Grey? Oh Olive green matches your skin tone"

Veterans, I tell you. Veterans.

There were 2 food stalls that day. One selling pastas and quiches. The other, (as seen in the picture) sold imported confectionaries and food items. I bought 2 boxes of Twinkies since S&R basically lied to everyone saying that they sold Twinkies (what I found at S&R COngressional were twinkies of a different brand and tasted less, well, less twinkly.

OKAY. OKAY. THIS STALL WAS MY FAVORITE. Their items may have been export overruns but, GOD DAMN I ALMOST BOUGHT THE WHOLE RACK. I can't say that I'm proud for having spent so much money in one stall, let alone it being the first stall that I went to, but I am more than happy with all of the items that I bought here. [Except for that gorgeous black drop cardigan that apparently stretches when you wash it. I gave it to my mom instead]

Many many thanks to my highschool classmate, Micki Olaguer of Emblem.PH, for this indubitably elegand and beautifully handcrafted citrine ring. It's Sterling silver dipped in 24 Karat (I'm not sure if it's 24 karats) gold.   

So anyway. Fast forward to that next Saturday: My mom, sisters, and I went to World Trade Center to visit the FOX Asia Pop Comic Convention. As an avid DC fan (YEAH BITCHES, GREEN LANTERN FO'LYF]

Me: MOM MAY I HAVE ONE IN MY ROOM?

Mom: Fine Arts ka diba? Make your own!

huhu~ 

Mom and sister with the Hulk. Speaking of hulk, we were'nt able to get a photo with Ironman's Hulk Buster because the line was sooooo long and we were soooo impatient!

Doodle Art Enthusiasts and the SG based group Band of Doodlers "doodled" on 2 MINI Coopers. Don't worry, the cars were covered in white  stickers (the stame sticker used for those School Car stickers.

The first love of my life. :(

Oh and did I mention the amazing Star Wars figurines being showcased by Filbar's. I preordered the 2015 First Order Stormtroopers

.

They didn't allow us to take photos of Paul Bettany during his autograph signing so I took a photo of the screen instead.

Okay this part I hate the most. No no, not the interview with the Filipino comic book artists. The part where we went to the Stage area early to get seats for the Captain America Civil WAR trailer screening and were asked to leave and fall in line only to be shooed away because the venue was already full.

Fuck you, organizers. You could have given us a heads up that we had to fall in line somewere.

The human Foosball area.

Us with a storm trooper. Minutes after this photo was shot, an old lady grabbed me and said "BILISAN NIYO KAMI NA MAGPAPAPICTURE". I fell to the floor. This Storm Trooper was so nice. He refused to take a photo with her for being such a bitch. The Imperial Officer that he was with (aka the lady who guides him to places) said "Maam. Sorry but we don't entertain such violence here in the Comic Con". It was ironic since they were soldiers, get it? Cuz she's an Imperial Officer and he's a-- nevermind...

CHICO GARCIA OF MONSTER RX 93.1'S THE MORNING RUSH. Mom and I would listen to them everyday since I was in my freshman year of College.

Okay there was one stall that really caught my attention. They were selling prints of the artworks of 5 different artists. My batchmate in the fraternity was one of them! Hello Tristan!!

The New Era South Park Caps. I wanted to buy one for kuya but I bought myself a batman one instead.

Koji and his Spiderman with the Spidermen.

I've got a suggestion for the organizers of the Comicon, please do not hold your Food and Drinks area outside under the blazing sun. And please have a separate area for drinks. I had to buy in the Jollibee across the street because all of the food stalls were out of drinks and food. Think about your clients. I didn't even see an ambulance nor first aid nearby. What if someone had a heat stroke or  fainted because of the heat? Negligence, I say!

I would definitely go to next years comic con if there will be any but I think one day's pass is enough.

FOOD: Oriental Ribs and Some Kansi-ish-but-not-really Soup

As you all may know, I love food so much that I decided to dedicate a year of my life to studying the damn thing. I cook for my family and boyfriend everyday. I make time to look for awesome recipes and tweak them a little. I've made time to make recipes faster, from what takes an hour takes 20 mins instead.

SO I'M INTRODUCING A NEW SECTION OF THE BLOG DEDICATED TO RECIPES THAT I ALWAYS USE YEHEY.

FIRST RECIPE EVER GOES TOOOOO:

ORIENTAL RIBS and  KANSI-ISH SOUP

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2-3 lbs of pork ribs
• 1/4 c white vinegar
• 3 tbsp salt

MARINADE:

• 1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1/2 Tomato ketchup (DO NOT USE BANANA KETCHUP PLEASE)
• 1/8 cup lemon juice + 1/8 cup orange juice (FRESHLY SQUEEZED NOT POWDER)
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 1 tbsp Ginger (minced)
• 1 tbsp Garlic (minced)
• 2 whole star anises (its the star looking spice that smells and like black licorice)
• 4 tbsp rice wine

1. Fill a large pot 3/4 the way up and bring to a boil. Add the vinegar and salt. Boil (At maximum 120 °C) for another 30 seconds while stirring then add the ribs. Boil for 20 minutes.

2. Remove the ribs from the pot and let cool in a pan. Do not throw away the water! Skim the bubble foam thing at the top. Throw that shit away. Add onions, 2 stalks of lemongrass, 2 green chilis (siling haba), garlic, and diced beef shanks, a tablespoon of knorr sinigang mix if you want, and chives. simmer at low for a good 30 minutes or until beef is cooked. Then yehey. Soup. HAHA.

3. Then in a separate bowl, mix in all of the marinade ingredients.

4. Once the ribs have cooled, put all of the ingredients in a ziplock bag or tupperware and marinate for 24 hours or a minimum of 2 hours.

TRIVIA: MARINATE VS. MARINADE

ANSWER: MARINATE (verb) means to soak. MARINADE (noun) is the sauce.

5. Here's the fun part. You can either grill your ribs, throw them in an oven, or do what I did---TURBO FUCKIN COOK THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR RIBS.

For the oven: preheat oven at 150 °C. Brush leftover sauce on the ribs and cook for 10 minutes. Flip the ribs, coat with marinade, and cook for another 10 minutes. Do this 3 times per side.

For the Turbo cooker: Same procedure as the oven one but instead of 10 minutes, flip and coat every 5 minutes.

Some stupid plating. I used Orange and dalandan zest to add color and fragrance. With the leftover marinade, I simmered it until it was thicker in consistency. Once the ribs were don cooking, I brushed some sauce on the plate drowned the ribs with it.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT. Oriental Ribs and Some sort of Kansi-ish soup.

And a glass of Mais con Yelo for dessert! Yum!

I'm so wawa

Omg wawa Zoe.

BAHAHAHA. Shit. It's stuff like this that make my day.

Okay enough. Back to work. <3 p="">

Eventscapade: This Means War

No. No. NO. I'm not trying to start an altercation with anyone this time. "This Means War" is actually a game night curated by DJ Euric and DJ Cmart at Rye every Wednesdays.

Poster care of yours truly. I'll also be the resident photographer every Wednesday so please, feel free to drop by!

Rye is located at 2F, Antel 2000 Bldg, Valero St., Makati City. 

Basically, from EDSA, take a right turn to Ayala Ave, go straight then turn right at Valero street, then immediately turn right again then right again. The building to your right (ang daming right, ano ba) should be Antel 2000 already.

The two bosses LMPK-ing as usual. 

Ah my favorite new drinking game! It's called the tower of Power, invented by DJ Euric himself. To know the mechanics, you have to go to This Means War on wednesdays so that DJ Euric can explain it to you himself.

The usual Karaoke round thats so damn funny to watch.

Oh hey! It's Wednesday today. Did I mention that the winning team for tonight gets Open bar for tonight? Drop Bye Rye later! I'll see you there!