Kookie Kulasa: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Yes, this post is about a bag. Again. In my previous entry, I shared that I went to Davao City for work. Of course, I did find time to do a bit of thrift shopping while I was there ;) It was fate that led me to this lovely bag. You see, right after I did a bit of fieldwork I hailed for a tricycle and asked to be brought to wherever it would be easier for me to get a cab. It was a long trike ride, but the driver brought me to Ag-Dao market. While in the trike, I couldn't help but notice the ukay ukay stalls beside the market. I was quite torn if I should go down and check them out or go back to the hotel and start packing for my flight back to Manila. Decided to do the ultimate shopping sacrifice...I asked the trike driver to drop me off where the cabs were :| Thinking that I was being a responsible shopper by saying no to temptation, I was quite proud of myself. This didn't last, haha! I crossed the street since most of the cabs passed by the other side. As I hopped on the side walk (to dodge an approaching trike), of all the luck I'd see a sign saying "BAGS FOR SALE". I was in front of an ukay ukay store selling bags. Just bags. I took it as a sign that I really did need to buy something. Well, I was still trying to convince myself that I'd just look around. After just five minutes of browsing through bags of different colors, materials, and sizes, I found this....

I've been looking for a bag like this for sooooo long I just had to buy it the moment I saw it. I love the color, I love how simple it is, I love the price too :p I got it for Php 200 (roughly US$ 4). I was also able to buy another bag, but I'll post about that some other time. This baby is the star of this entry. I'm trying to keep my brother from getting this bag. He couldn't believe it that I bought this from a thrift store. He's been reminding me that his birthday is just 3 months away. Whatever. I told him he'll never get this bag and I'd just find him something similar in my next ukay trip. Crossing my fingers that I will find another one as nice as the one I got in Davao.

In case you didn't notice ze blingage on my shoes (haha!), the ballet flats I was wearing are blue, and fabulously sparkling! My aunt gave me those for Christmas and I've only worn them twice. They're really nice, yes? Yes! I'll try to get better shots of these fab shoes next time :)

sorry, I don't understand why it's sideways even if the original picture isn't :|

top: thrifted

pants: Giordano

bag: thrifted

ballet flats: gift from my aunt

Monday, January 24, 2011

Davao Food Trip (1)

I was at Davao City last week for three days, not for vacation though. Even if I was there for work, I made it a point to explore the city a bit. I decided to go on a mini food trip. On my first night, I searched the net for restaurants to try while in Davao. I was able to list down a few places I could go to, and considering I only had about a day to spare, I opted to keep my list simple.

First place on my list was the T'boli Weaving Center. Obviously it's not a restaurant, but I wanted to visit it to check out the products. It's a small shop, but I was blown away by how the products were beautifully made. The details were intricate, from the patterns to the beadings. I learned that the material used, tinalak, is actually abaca (also known as Manila hemp), but is called such because it's made by the T'bolis. Another cool thing about the store is that there's an actual tinalak loom! And there was a T'boli lady working on something. She was having lunch, though, so I wasn't able to ask her to demonstrate :p

After buying a few coin purses, wrapping paper, and other items (haha!), I decided to have lunch at Tiny Kitchen. When I got there, the place was packed. I decided to just come back after an hour but Donna, the owner of Tiny Kitchen who was working behind the counter, offered to set up a table for me. She told me they have an inside joke that a table would just suddenly appear on some random spot in the restaurant whenever a customer would walk in when the place is full :p

What I like about Tiny Kitchen is that the people who work there are so nice and accommodating. I sincerely enjoyed the short time I spent in Tiny Kitchen because Donna and her husband Vince were so nice, plus the food's awesome! I have to tell you, I rarely order seafood pasta because restaurants usually scrimp on the seafood. My experience in Tiny Kitchen was different. I love it that they didn't scrimp on the mussels! I finished my entire plate of Catalonia Penne. I could see that the red sauce wasn't made from store-bought tomato sauce, which is good. I love it when restaurant owners really invest in good, fresh ingredients so as not to sacrifice on the quality and taste. Donna treated me to dessert (yay, thanks so much Donna! :p), and she made me choose from their wide array of yummy sweets. I had so much to choose from, but she recommended I try their Frozen Chocolate Brazo de Mercedes. It was actually one of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's 25 Best Desserts of 2010, and I can understand why. I love brazo de mercedes, and I love chocolate. Both tend to be really sweet and if you combine the two one would think you'd end up having diabetes after eating a slice. Tiny Kitchen's Chocolate Brazo is so good because it's not overwhelmingly sweet. The chocolate ice cream's homemade, which is why I think they were able to control the sweetness. Chocolate Brazo is ♥. I wanted to take home an entire box, but by the time I'd arrive in Manila the cake would've melted already. I'd go back to Davao just for Tiny Kitchen's Chocolate Brazo! I'm so excited to go back because I want to try out the other items on their menu.

Another plus factor about Tiny Kitchen are the pasalubong items. I bought three jars of gourmet tuyo for my mom: garlic tuyo in olive oil, garlic and daing bits in corn oil, and maya maya in oil oil. ♥ ♥ ♥. My mom just arrived from Bukidnon last night and when she saw these, she wanted to eat them already. I could just imagine these served with hot rice. Mmmmmmmm :)

I highly recommend Tiny Kitchen to anyone visiting Davao City. If you're already from Davao but haven't tried it there, I encourage you to do so.

I actually tried two more restaurants that same day, but those will be for my next Davao entry :)