It’s summer once again and most people are in search for inexpensive ways to cool down on these scorching months. If hitting the beach is far fetched for now, you need not worry because California Berry is able to save the day! This summer cool down the heat with California Berry’s newest offerings – a fun, new way to eat ice cream – Ice Ice Baby! It’s flavored shaved ice cream topped with mouth-watering, healthy fruits. Best of all, this cool summer offering is only  P65, easy on the budget right? Sure is!

Strawberry Ice

Mango Ice

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image taken from amazon.com

Last month, my uncle from the US and his wife, came home for a month-long visit. And of course we all know that “balikbayans” are known to bring home a lot of goodies for their relatives and families in the Philippines. Among my precious loot is the Loc Maria Chocolate crepes. We didn’t open it right away, as I have a tendency to stick to what we’ve grown accustomed to. So the usual chocolates that we all grew up with like M&Ms, Snickers, Three Musketeers were the first ones we ate. It was only later on that we decided to open the can and give it a try.

Lo and behold! Loc Maria Chocolate crepes did not disappoint! When I had my first bite, I met my new diet wrecker! It is made up of thin and crisp chocolate wafer perfectly folded, coated with fine semi-sweet chocolate. I have to restrain myself from finishing the entire can the time we tasted it. It was so good I have to tell everyone in the house not to get from it unless they tell me. Yeah, normally they can just get and eat anything that is in the fridge but this time, I told them to hands off on my chocolate crepes.

I hope the local supermarkets will start carrying this brand, although I understand why they aren’t at the moment since it’s rather expensive. Anyway, if you have relatives abroad, ask them to get you this brand the next time they come home in PH so that you can taste it yourself. After you do, or if you’ve tried it in the past, your comments will be much appreciated so the rest of the lurkers of this blog reads through your thoughts on just how good it is. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you when I said it’s hard to stop yourself from emptying the entire can of Loc Maria Chocolate crepes once you start eating it!

I’ve been craving for White Hat Yogurt Lover’s hat for almost three weeks now. When we were in Shangri-la Mall three weeks ago, I was told they don’t have cherries and cashews so Lover’s hat is not available. I was really disappointed, I don’t want to order another flavor, so off we went without my Lover’s hat.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to pass by Gateway Mall to get my yogurt fix, but lo and behold, I was disappointed to see a sign stating that there’s no yogurt available. So I ended up at Dairy Queen instead, which is another favorite of mine, but since it’s not what I’m craving for at the moment, I wasn’t satisfied.

Today, before going to the office, I went directly to White Hat and was ecstatic to find out that I can already order. I finally got my long awaited Lover’s Hat. It is a cup of healthy yogurt, of course, topped with yummy cherries and a lot of chocolate chips and cashew nuts! When I got my first spoonfull, it was absolutely divine! White Hat Lover’s hat is my heaven in a cup! And since I waited for three long weeks, I found myself heading back to White Hat three hours after to get another round of Lover’s Hat. 

Earlier I was going over my current cravings for ice cream, hmmm now I’m thinking of White Hat Frozen yogurt. Well, anyway, I remember a local brand of ice cream – Dan Eric’s Ice Cream, that I used to buy,  back when we were still living in Makati. It’s not as good as other high end brands but it is still good nonetheless. And with the tag price that goes along with it, I don’t think a lot of people could actually complain.

For those of you who may be interested in retailing Dan Eric’s Ice Cream, here’s what I found:

- you pay PhP3,500 (not sure if they’ve already increased the pricing. But the said comment in the forum I checked is dated January 6 of this year.) initially, for the freezer. Then there’s an installment plan.

- no franchise fees.

- text or call 09209140242 look for Belen Palmenco, who is a distributor in Paranaque area.

image taken from recipes.howstuffworks.com

Absolutely craving for ice cream right now. And yeah, diet is still suspended. It’s going to be a long night for me here at the office (yeah, bummer! I work nights!), I’m pulling a double shift tonight and so I may have to give in to my cravings for sweets, paticularly ice cream – to get me through the night. When you’re doing an extended shift you really have to an extra serving of sugar to keep you awake. The down side to it though, is that after your energy peaks up, it leaves you all the more tired and sleepy.

Right now I’m dreaming of tomorrow, of spending the night tucked up in bed tomorrow beside my little boy. Tonight, though I will be working and to keep me occupied every so often, I’m reading an interesting diet pill forum I chanced upon. Hopefully, that would be enough, well, along with my ice cream later on (how ironic!), to keep me from sleeping.

Last Christmas season, my boss gifted us with a pack of Pinky’s Goodies’ Butterscotch. I’m a certified chocoholic and am not really familiar with Butterscotch (yeah, I’m rather fixated with chocolate brownies!). So I just brought it home and tossed aside. My equally chocoholic husband merely looked at it and placed it back in the kitchen cupboard. It was only two days later when we finally decided to give it a try. And lo and behold, it was love at first bite!!!  It was chewy, just the right amount of sweetness, and absolutely yummy! Words actually fail me at this point. The hubby loved it as well, and then looked at the pack that we finished in as little as ten minutes.

We saw the contact details and the website at the packaging and immediately checked it out. I was disappointed to find out that the main store is at BF Paranaque, way too far from our Cainta residence. Fortunately, there are stores around the metro that carries their items, the closest to us is the Tinhoc Deli at the VMall in Greenhills. So I told myself, I’m definitely getting a bunch the next time we drop by the said mall. And yesterday, we finally managed to drop by Greenhills once more when we had our faithful MSI laptop repaired. And immediately after paying for my loot, I was gastronomically delighted with each sweet bite of  Food for the Gods and Butterscotch. Too bad I only got a pack of each, on the other hand, it’s better that way, otherwise, I’m going to be a few more pounds heavier again.

Hey I don’t know Pinky mind you! But I suggest you try her goodies. It’s definitely a wonderful treat! To check out their line of goodies or to order, you may check out their website, call them at (+632)4016649, (+632)7994044 or (+632)7033266 or email them at pinkysgoodies@gmail.com. Below are their outlets:

Tinhoc Deli at Vmall, Greenhills

Laguna Kiosk at market Market, Taguig

Lola Idangs branches, Metro Manila

Aling Nene Pasalubong Outlets at the Gasoline Stations along SLEX

Amira’s , Tagaytay

Edna’s House of Pasalubong, Binan, Laguna

Oh, and before I forgot, I just found out that they do deliver via Xend Xpress for a minimal fee. What are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and order.

Christmas is nearing, and so is the much awaited Noche Buena here in the Philippines.

Noche Buena is the Christmas dinner done here in the Philippines.  For my family, this is also the biggest feast of the year.  Everything that we love in on the table.  We have hams, chicken, pork, beef, fish, 3 kinds of desserts, and different kinds of Filipino sweets you can think of.  That only means one thing, most of us will be ten pounds heavier after the season is over.

So how do we shed off these excess pounds as easily as we got them.  Well you can try exercising everyday for one month.  Good luck with that.  You can also try fat burning supplements like Lipofuze which promises to help you burn fat faster.  For me, I think I will just watch what I eat.  It would be better to control the urge rather than pay for it later on.

The Manila Marriott Hotel recently added Thai cuisine to their already sumptuous buffet dinner and people from the blogging world were given this wonderful chance to have a taste. I consider myself lucky to receive such an invitation, so the gloomy weather did not stop me to go all the way to Marriott Hotel which is well totally far from our place of residence. Too bad my husband was too tired to come as well.

The dishes served did not disappoint! It was a complete explosion of flavor, filled with mouth-watering gastronomical delights that is absolutely Thai in taste – yeah spicy! But I wont complain because I love spicy foods.

The soup tasted totally new to me, it’s like having Sinigang mixed with coconut milk. I wanted to try a little bit of everything so I did not stuff myself too much with the first set of food I got to try and liked. Going back to the soup, Leirs said she felt her clogged nose cleared up after finishing a bowl of this soup, pretty much the same effect you get when you had too much wasabi on your sauce.

Now here comes my first plate for the night. Yep you read that right, first plate! And that’s why it’s called a buffet!

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Aside from having your favorite non-fat frozen yogurt flavor this scorching summer heat, Californiaberry is launching a cool promo which will make everyone’s eating pleasure more exciting.

Love taking crazy and cute photos of yourself? Now is the most thrilling time to be adventurous as you get the chance to be rewarded with your most-coveted dream gadget. Introducing the Californiaberry’s Cool Summer Give Aways Promo where all Californiaberry facebook Philippine resident fans get a chance to take home cool prizes. Simply take a photo of yourself, family, or friends with their most hilarious expression of craving Californiaberry yogurt, taken at any branches nationwide starting May 1 to May 31, 2010. To register, simply log on to www.californiaberry.net and input your contact details. After registration, you will be forwarded to the Californiaberry facebook page where you can start uploading photos. Submission and voting of photos is until May 31, 2010. Photo with the most number of likes from fans wins a Nintendo Wii as the grand prize. Other prizes include Sony PSP for the 2^nd place while 3^rd to 5^th places get an iPod shuffle. Be creative and snap a shot with your loved ones as you cool down with your favorite Californiaberry cup! Per DTI permit no. 2977 series of 2010.

For more details about the promo, check out posters, website, and the Californiaberry fan page in Facebook.

About a month ago, a fellow plurker and blogger blogged about the TRANSFORMERS – the actual vehicles used in the movie, being displayed here in Manila. I think at the World Trade Center, if I recall it right. Anyway, we really wanted to go, had it not been because of budget constraints. I would love to have a picture taken beside Optimus Prime and Bumble bee. Hubby is the one to blame for my fascination with cars, and well add to that my colleagues at my previous work, who got me more into cars.

I thought it was just usual, well by the word “it”, I’m actually referring to my fascination with cars; until another colleague at work looked at me completely baffled that I was able to tell that the SUV that went past us is a Nissan Murano. Me and my manly ways, she would say. That’s the time I thought it was, well, more than an average fascination.

And yeah, now that I’m watching the Transformers all over again, I like the scenes when they haven’t transformed yet. Those cars are just plain awesome! If I’m not mistaken there’s also a Dodge in there, one of the Autobots. I’m actually looking at Dodge challenger accessories now and wow! These things make the Dodge really fit to be called a steel stallion!

Oh well, I just hope they bring the Transformers exhibit back in Manila someday.