Restaurant: Takeru Japanese Cuisine (Sydney, Australia)

Had dinner at Takeru Japanese Cuisine three weeks ago on a Thursday night. After work, I decided to hung out at Chinatown but couldn't find any resto that I like. So the Husband suggested that we eat at Takeru, a Japanese Restaurant near Darling Harbour, which was recommended by his workmate. I wasn't surprised when he mentioned the name. I simply told him, "I've eaten there before with friends while you were still in Dubai." I planned on taking him there when he arrived here in Sydney but I guess I forgot.

Takeru Japanese Cuisine Restaurant is a small, homey and casual Japanese resto in the City. Lots of people go here after work or school. From 6:00pm onwards, the place is bustling with people, by 7:00pm you can expect to see a line that extends outside the resto. Which shows that the place is somehow popular so best to be early to avoid waiting up in queue.

On the night we had dinner, the Husband and I decided to order something different from the usual Japanese food we've eaten before.

We shared a plate of Kaisen Shio Yakisoba and Chicken Karaage. The Kaisen Shio Yakisoba is simply noodles with lots of seafood. The Husband devoured this and said it was good enough. It was alright for me but it tasted a bit bland.

Our second dish was the Chicken Karaage. This is deep fried chicken with a siding of rice, soup and salad. First time to try this and I'm quite satisfied. The chicken was crunchy outside but juicy and tender inside.

The best part is the generous serving of salad which i really really like.

Still in the spirit of trying something new, we ordered a scoop of Green Tea and Black Sesame Ice Cream for dessert. When it comes to taste, the ice cream really did taste like Green Tea and Black Sesame. As for liking it, it wasn't a hit to me. Eating green tea ice cream tasted like I was eating green tea leaves and I didn't like it. I guess for me, green tea is only meant to be drank as a hot beverage. The black sesame ice cream was more tolerable. As for the husband, he said the two ice cream were tolerable for him.

The best part of all was that UCC Coffee is available in this resto. I never noticed that they serve this coffee when I first ate here and I'm glad I did the second time around.

UCC or Ueshima Coffee Company Ltd, is a manufacturer of coffee and tea products in Japan. From manufacturing coffee, they have expanded to opening cafes in Asia and America. In the Philippines, we have several UCC Cafes already. When Chris and I worked in Makati, we used to have lunch or coffee dates in UCC Cafe Terrace in Paseo Center (Paseo de Roxas, Makati). It's one of the cafes and coffees we miss in Manila.

Finding a restaurant that serves UCC Coffee made us very happy. Finally, nakainom na rin kami uli ng kapeng ito! :) We both had iced UCC Coffee topped with Vanilla Ice Cream (I know, ice cream overload).

Takeru is the kind of restaurant that you won't mind coming back to. Delicious food, good service, convenient location, good ambiance and reasonable prices (main dishes costs from $9.00-$16.00). As for me and the Husband, not only will we come back for the food, will also come back to have UCC Coffee.

Visited Takeru Japanese Cuisine Restaurant on 6 August 2009. Located at Shop 10, 339 Sussex Street, Sydney.

31st Monthsary Breakfast at Cascade Cafe

Since the Husband started work last year, it was very seldom that we have breakfast dates as we both like arriving to work early so we can also go home early.

Last week, I attended training for two days in the City which fortunately coincided with our 31st monthsary on Thursday (20 August). So we grabbed the chance to have a breakfast date as a way of celebrating our special day of the month.

I initially thought we would just have coffee at Starbucks but the Husband took me to Cascade Cafe which is just located in the train station where he gets on and off. Nothing really spectacular about the Cafe, the only special thing about it is that it has this faux waterfalls.

I find it relaxing just hearing the sound of free-flowing water even if I know I'm in the CBD. I think I found another place where I can have my "Me" time.

Now, for the food....the Husband had a latte.

While I had a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. I love it!!! The price of the OJ, on the other, made me cringe--it was AUD$5.80. Really expensive but worth it. If ever you visit Sydney, you should never leave without having a taste of our freshly-squeezed OJ.

Main event. We shared a plate of their Big Breakfast. It had 1 big sausage (sliced in half), mushrooms, bacon, 2 eggs, big tomatoes, 2 toasts and chips.

With that serving, even if we already shared, it was difficult to finish it all off and we were both so full afterwards.

Cascade Cafe is located at 15-16 Town Hall Square, Sydney.

Filipino Overseas Voters Deadline on 31 August 2009

To my fellow kababayans in Sydney who are still qualified to vote, you still have a few days left before 31 August. Visit and register at the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney (Level 1, Philippine Center, 27-33 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000, see map here), weekdays from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Don't forget to bring your passport and a photocopy of your passport which will be attached to your registration. According to my Husband, the registration process only takes a few minutes.

To know more about it, please read below...

OVERSEAS VOTER REGISTRATION FOR 2010 PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS

06 January 2009 – The Philippine Consulate General in Sydney will conduct the registration of Filipino Overseas Absentee Voters (OAV) for the 2010 Philippine national elections for president, vice president, and senators. The OAV registration period is from 1 February 2009 to 31 August 2009. The registration schedule at the Philippine Consulate General will be from Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except declared public holidays.

The OAV registration is necessary for overseas Filipinos who are first-time overseas voters, have changed country or state of residence since the last Philippine elections, or did not vote in the last two national elections.

Filipino citizens and dual citizen Filipino-Australians domiciled in New South Wales will register at the Philippine Consulate in Sydney and those in the other states and territories of Australia at the Philippine Embassy in Canberra.

To qualify as an overseas voter, the Philippine citizen must be at least age 18 years old on 10 May 2010, and reside or work outside of the Philippines. Parties who are not eligible are those who lost or renounced their Filipino citizenship or declared excluded by Philippine courts for rebellion, insurrection, or violation of the Philippine firearms law, among other offenses.

The overseas voter must register at the Philippine foreign mission where he will vote in May 2010. Registration must be done in person, because the voter’s biometric data (facial features, fingerprints, and signature) must be digitally recorded. OAV registrants must present their Philippine passport or seaman’s book (in the case of seafarers) at the Consulate.

Filipino overseas voters in Australia will cast their votes during a one-month period from 10 April 2010 until 3:00 p.m. Philippine time of 10 May 2010. They may cast their ballot either personally at the Consulate or by mail.

An earlier statement of the Consulate announced that OAV registration would start on 1 December 2008, but the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) set the start to the new date. [source]

My Photo Featured in Erick Guerrero's Site

Check out Erick Guerrero's new website.

http://www.erickguerrero.com

Erick, a Filipino Photographer based in Sydney, does Portrait, Weddings, Prenups, Still Life, Food and Events Photography. He's a professional and a joy to work with. Check out his site to find more about him and his work.

The best surprise of the day was seeing my photograph featured in his site (salamat Erick!).

Grabbed the real photo from his site...

Aliw!

My Top 3s This Weekend

3 Things My Girlfriends and I did on Friday night:

1. Visited the Swarovski store
2. Coffee at Starbucks (I had hot chocolate and a vanilla cupcake courtesy of Hilda)
3. Dinner at Pepper Lunch

Lovely time with my girlfriends Hilda, Ara and Chloe. It's been awhile since we've had dinner and as always, it was nice to catch up and plan of more get-togethers in the future.

3 Rewards I Gave Myself:

1. A haircut
2. A pair of black jeans
3. A cute little red bag

I broke my own rule on Saturday when Husband and I went to the shops. Before going in, we both agree that we will only window shop--no buying. But I found these pair of black jeans at 70% off and this cute bag at 50%.

3 Afternoon Snacks My Husband and I Indulged In:

1. Turon
2. Karioca
3. Corn...as in Nilagang Mais

We bought Turon and Karioca at the Filo store priced at AUD$1.50/piece (mahal!!! so forget about converting to Peso hehe) and ate them on Saturday afternoon. We bought raw corn and cooked them for our Sunday afternoon tea.

3 New Dishes I Cooked:

1. Salmon Steak
2. Honey Soy Chicken
3. Buttered Prawns in Garlic

3 Networking Sites I will Regularly be Visible In:

1. Multiply
2. Plurk
3. Twitter

Multiply will always be home and Plurk is a fun environment, then I finally learned to love the simplicity of Twitter. I've decided to only visit Facebook once in awhile as FB is becoming "too noisy" for me--so many applications and games I'm really not interested in. Stressful to the eye.

3 Silly Things My Husband and I Did:

1. After we accomplished a certain goal we had for the past month on Saturday morning, we suddenly sang "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands..*clap clap*" like two foolish kids.
2. We jumped on top of our bed on Saturday night like two kids on a slumber party.
3. Danced inside the house to our favorite songs intermittently. Dunno why but dancing inside the house is becoming a habit---a very funny habit hehe.

3 Great Lessons Learned:

A recent happening in my life has once again revealed that life is indeed short. And so with this premise, I have learned that:

1. As long as I write in good faith, nothing or no one should stop me from writing about things I do, love and care about or restrain myself from sharing my thoughts.
2. As long as my conscience is clear, I don't want to care about what other people think. If people will react negatively to what I do or write and they don't have the guts to tell me upfront, then they can all go to hell.
3. Life is all about having fun...so I'm going to have fun.

This is the beauty of hanging out with girlfriends. We get to talk of things and they give me advices that make sense, one of which is a validation that I'm doing some things right.

Almost Spring

The sun's been shining for the past few days. Today, I wore shorts for the first time in a long awhile.

Hello Sun. Hello short legs. Hello cellulite hahaha.

Litratong Pinoy: Mirienda

Ito ang aking lahok para sa Litratong Pinoy ngayong Huwebes na may temang MIRIENDA.

Ang Vanilla Cupcake at Green Tea ay isa sa mga pagkain at inumin na minsan kong kinakain tuwing mirienda. Gusto ko ang kombinasyon nitong dalawang ito dahil sweet na sweet ang dating ng Vanilla Cupcake habang ang Green Tea naman ay refreshing kahit ito'y mainit.

Maligayang Huwebes!

Book: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A novel by Audrey Niffenegger, "The Time Traveler's Wife", will now be seen on the big screen. A love story about a man who time travels and a woman who waits for the love of her life until they are together again in real time.

I've been waiting for this movie to be shown since 2007, I'm glad it will finally be shown this year. Playdate here in Australia is on 5 November 2009.

Why I love the book

The plot is something different. When I learned that the main character is someone who time traveled involuntarily, I got very curious on the kind of life a time traveler would have.

The novel is a love story that explored the concept of waiting. I read this during the time when I was experiencing a long distance relationship and I related to how Clare (the female lead character) felt when she longed and worried for Henry (the male lead character) when he was away.

It is a story about marriage. It showcased how a couple can survive thru hardships and challenges in married life, how they were able find humour inspite of their odd situation. It also depicted the suffering they had to go thru in order to have a child.

The story is enchanting, imaginative, funny, and romantic. I can't put the book down until I finished it. It made me laugh and cry.

My Favorite Quotes from the Book

"It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he is okay. It's hard to be the one who stays." - Clare

"He vanishes unwillingly, without warning. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?" - Clare

"I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow." - Henry

"Clare, I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust."- Henry

"Time is nothing." - Henry

Recipe: Fat Burning Soup

What you need:
6 large onions
2 medium-sized green bell peppers or 1 large green bell pepper
6 large ripe tomatoes
1 bunch of celery with leaves
1/2 head white cabbage
4 carrots
1 litre Tomato Juice
Salt, Pepper to taste

What you need to do:

1. Chop vegetables and place inside a pot.

2. Pour in water and tomato juice. Add salt and pepper.

3. Boil for 10-15 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Notes/Tips:

1. For those wanting to lose weight, the diet calls to eat only this soup for seven days.

2. The recipe above is good for 20 servings. You can put smaller portions in containers and store them in your freezer.

3. A caution of warning: this soup makes one gassy.

4. Diet or not, this is a great tasting soup. I've never really went on a diet with just this--and I never really go on a diet per se (I think I'd really die if I only eat this or go on a diet hehe). But I love having this soup because of the yummy veggies in it and I've always been fond of eating tomato-based soups. I eat this together with any daily meal: as a compliment to our main dish during lunch or dinner. Or I sometimes have this soup during afternoon snack.

5. This is a very healthy soup as the veggies in it are good sources of antioxidants which aids in getting rid of toxins in the body. This is also good if you want to burn calories, hence the name "fat burning soup."

6. One of the things I notice whenever I eat this is that my skin has a healthy, rosy glow.

Thank you to Toni of Wifely Steps for sharing her Fat Burning Soup recipe and for letting me publish it here in my blog.

The Husband is Out Tonight So I'm Having Some "ME" Time

The Husband is dining out tonight with friends at work and so I have our home all to myself tonight (or at least til he arrives home). Since I didn't have any gimik of my own, I decided to just chill at home with Chinese take-away dinner and watch an episode or two of Lovers in Paris (I suddenly missed watching Koreanovela).

I love it when the Husband goes out with friends once in a while. He'd usually invite me to come but more often than not, I'd decline. I respect his time with his friends the way he respects my time with mine, so no problem at all. We believe that hanging out with friends separately is one of the things that make our relationship healthy and an exercise in giving each other some space even if we're already married.

Sometimes when he'd say he's going out with friends, I'd cheerfully say, "Really? Weeeee, I'll have the house to myself while you're gone!" And we'd just tease each other to death. The best part is when we'd have to say goodbye and I'd wish him "Enjoy, baby!!!", and he'll reply, "You too, babe."

Oh I definitely will.

My Weekend's Happy List

Most of us are not so eager to back to work on Mondays, especially when we had so much fun over the weekend. And to add to that, we almost always feel that weekends are never enough--I couldn't agree more. How I always wish that weekends would just go on forever.

So what do I do in order to start my week on a positive note and be more excited about it? Other than following my tips on 'How to Get Along with "Monday"', I make a list of all the good things I was grateful for the weekend that passed, I call it "My Weekend's Happy List".

Here are some of the happy moments I had over the weekend:

Friday afternoon tea with my friend Cathy. This was an overdue reunion and finally, we found the time to catch up. Like me, she moved here to start a new life and a family. I'm so grateful I have someone from my childhood who lives here too (we attended the same school from elementary to high school). And a great bonus is that we live in the same area--we're practically neighbors, yay!!!

It was great catching up with her...great to hear updates about our other friends from school and at the same time, there were a lot of remisning of the good old days. Made us miss our high school days *sigh*.

We had a chocolatey meryenda feast at Max Brenner and shared a plate of Tutti Frutti. I had my usual Max Brenner Cappuccino.

Breakfast with plurkmates/twitmates Jo and Pen on Saturday morning. Other than chitchatting via plurk and twitter and sharing stories via our blogs--yes, we never seem to get enough haha--we also enjoy hanging out in the flesh, even if it meant getting up early on a Saturday morning (instead of sleep in) to have breakfast together.

A trip to the park. Isn't it relaxing to hang out at the park and be surrounded by lovely green and blue sceneries? I love going to the park all the time but on some weekends, our schedule does not allow us to. This weekend, my husband and I were fortunate to be able to hang out with friends as well--double fun!

Sunny weather on a winter's day. So what do kids do when the sun is up? We play!!!! Other than play out in the sun, I'm always grateful for sunny weather on weekends because it is a big help to dry out the laundry.

Our laptop is now working!!!! After a year of "hibernation", thinking that our laptop is dead (and in need of serious repair), lo and behold, the husband tried turning it on on Sunday afternoon and it worked! Holy guacamole :)

So there, a few of the happy highlights of my weekend.

What my Weekend's Happy List does to me:

On days when I need cheering up, I open the pages of my journal and draw inspiration from my Happy Lists. I maintain a journal as well and it is there that I write down my Happy Lists--I have an Everyday Happy List and a Weekend's Happy List.

Thinking about the happy moments of my weekend makes me more enthused to go to work on Monday. Since I started cherishing my weekends more, I seldom go to work on Monday unhappy and "un-ready". It helped me overcome "Monday-itis syndrome".

It made me look forward to another weekend with a smile.

Sometimes, I still have unsatisfactory and challenging moments during my weekend. But when I start counting the more favorable blessings that I've encountered over the weekend, the good always outweighs the bad.

So what about you? What's in your Weekend's Happy List?

Litratong Pinoy: Almusal

Ito ang aking lahok para sa Litratong Pinoy ngayong Huwebes na may temang ALMUSAL.

Halika na pumikit limutin ang problema
Hihintayin ang umaga
Magpahinga, panaginip ang ikaliligaya
Darating din ang umaga

Chorus:
Basta't tayo'y magkasama
Laging mayro'ng umagang kay ganda
Pagsikat ng araw
May dalang liwanag
Sa ating pangarap, ooh...
haharapin natin (haharapin natin)

Magpahinga, panaginip ang ikaliligaya
Darating din ang umaga

Chorus:
Basta't tayo'y magkasama
Laging mayro'ng umagang kay ganda
Pagsikat ng araw
May dalang liwanag
Sa ating pangarap, ooh...
haharapin natin (haharapin natin)

Bridge:
Ang sikat ng araw
Na may dalang liwanag

Chorus:
Basta't tayo'y magkasama
Laging mayro'ng umagang kay ganda
Pagsikat ng araw
May dalang liwanag
Sa ating pangarap, ooh...
haharapin natin (haharapin natin)

Umagang Kay Ganda, OPM Song

Afternoon Delight at Starbucks

The plan was just to get caramel sundae at McDonald's but what was supposed to be just less than a 5-minute drive turned out to be more than an hour joyride that lead us to Starbucks, three suburbs away from where we live.

This Starbucks branch has a drive-thru...

During winter, I always order their Signature Hot Chocolate. The Husband ordered for the both of us and surprised me by requesting the barista to add marshmallows on top :) How sweet. He knows that I love marshmallows.

Then he added a dash of chocolate powder on top before handing it over to me. :)

I brought along baon for our afternoon snack--Hopia Combi (queso and ube). We were supposed to really eat these had we stayed home so I brought it with me.

Other than eat, we just hung out there for a bit, enjoyed our drinks and cam whored. We were both in the mood to practice taking shots using the 50mm lens. I haven't been using it lately as I primarily used the 18-55mm lens (that one I broke) for blogging. So now, I need to brush up my skills on the 50mm since I think I will be using this more often. Thru the use of this lens, I realized na lalo kong napa-practice ang pagtanggal ng camera shakes ko and for me, that's one of the most important things in order to achieve a good photograph. One may know the technicalities of photography but if you are prone to camera shakes, the photos you've captured could be useless. I've had so many photos that was put to waste just because it was blurry due to camera shakes. After two years of doing photography and a lot of pang-aasar from the Husband (my best and worst critic), thank goodness, I'm improving.

Anyway, we went home with more than a hundred photographs just by hanging out for 45 minutes at Starbucks. That is quite normal for us. Pag nasa cafe kami at kung nasa mood kami, sometimes wala kaming ginawa kungdi mag-pose at mag-picture. It's like a game to us--one becomes a photographer and the other a model. Pinagtri-tripan namin ang isa't-isa actually hehe. For example, if I'm the one holding the camera, I'd ask the Husband poses such as "galit", "masaya", "excited", "natatakot", "gigil", "nginig"...until the requests become weirder or funnier ("kunwari nakakita mo ang ex-girlfriend mo!")--pa-kwelahan ng utos at pose. And we'd end up laughing our hearts out when we review our photos. While reviewing the photos, pa-kwelahan naman ng captions hehe. Kababawan ever! :)