Top Inspiration Links

Entrance of VVG Something in Taipei - another inspiring space

Personal collection

When I need to be inspired and have a glimpse of the rest of the world, I visit a few websites that never fail. A few for travel, food, music, and some in between.  Enjoy browsing!

Working Class Foodies

My dear blogger-friend recommended Working Class Foodies over the weekend and now I am addicted! "Siblings Rebecca and Max Lando, her dogs, and friends and family, on a quest to find the best local and seasonal ingredients the city has to offer, and turn them into delicious meals - all while keeping the budget under $8/person." Check out this video.



I'd do the same from time to time and if only I have a video cam of sorts. Maybe a little project D and I can do at home. And we've got a dog too, Chewie. :)

Food Blogs

Here's a drawing from a new discovery: Lobstersquad. If only I can be back in Madrid savouring the joys of food!

On a typhoon-stricken weekend like this, it's best to stay home. The telly was on while I was preparing a quick lunch: sauteed Hungarian sausages with garlic, paprika and olive oil spaghetti. By the time I was done cooking, my surfing ended at the National Geographic Channel. Food Lovers Guide to the Planet featured how essential bread is in a variety of cultures like France, Italy and India. Aaaaah. The passion for bread. The show featured an American baking fresh baguettes daily in Paris, an American guest in a Tuscan kitchen learning how to prepare the traditional bread salad with unsalted bread, and a devoted American learning the art of French bread in mainland U.S.

But what caught my attention most was the next segment on food blogs. Four bloggers were featured: Sticky Rice from Vietnam, Chez Pim from San Franciso, Cha Xin Bao from Hong Kong, and David Lebovitz from Paris. One medium, different reasons, all about food from different corners of the world.

Visiting their pages, led from one blog to another, and one article to another. I eventually stumbled upon an article at the Times UK giving a glimpse of remarkable food bloggers from all over the world. Read more on Meet the Food Bloggers. Suffice to say, I am inspired and have heaps to read during my idle moments. I've also updated my food and travel links on the righthand side of the page for easy reference to blogs I find interesting.

Happy reading!

Kitchen Travel

I'm such an Asian Food Travel addict (Discovery Travel & Living on weekends, and Diane knows this!) that when I saw the trailer for French Food at Home, I was hooked. Key words: Kitchen Travel.
To be honest, I've only seen two episodes because most nights, I'm also watching my telenovelas. Haha! But since watching an episode one Saturday morning with mom, I knew I liked the show. I like the way the chef made fancy French stuff seem easy to prepare that in the end, you wish you had all the ingredients to try it yourself - regardless of whether you know how to cook or not. She made me want to do that with Turkish food but that was just a thought.
And tonight, I decided to google the show, and now I know the chef's name: Laura Calder. The more I learn about her, the more I'm falling and the more I'm getting excited! You see, I've been a secret admirer of Muccia Prada simply because she was a former communist and has a PhD in Political Science, and she put all of that behind her to be a fashion designer. I've got no secret fashion aspirations but as early as I knew I wanted to join the UN, I knew I wanted to cook, and be a chef.
The nerd and wanderer in me was delighted to find out she spent so much time studying, gallavanting and getting lost while loving food the whole time. Imagine, masters from London School of Economics and a dream to be a diplomat? The pillar behind politics, philosophy and economics of pol eco! She left her job, her fiance, and her life to study cooking.
I'm not yet in the dire situation of leaving everything behind but food, oh food! Time stops when it comes to food. :)
I'm still reading her blog, some articles and I leave you with some quotes that I absolutely like!

"So much in life seems permanent when we’re in the thick of it (our childhood homes, friendships, stages of our lives) that it can be a real shock when we realize that, in fact, nothing is forever – everything moves on."

"Big deal, you may say, but I think seemingly insignificant moves like this in life must be a sign of something deeper at work, no? Just like when people suddenly get transformative haircuts… I just got one of those too, actually, (not pictured here), so who knows what’s in the wind." "It made me consider how much lies dormant and ignored in the world until the right person comes along and breathes life into it. Like delicious forgotten recipes, like old toys locked in a trunk, like aspects of our personalities that hide in the shadows until someone comes along and shines a flashlight on them…"

"My resolutions are to be very loyal to yoga (not hard, because I’m addicted) and also to listen to my gut and trust it, always. " - I like this because I started my belly dancing and yoga bit at home but things got in the way and now, I stopped again.
"
The trick is to find the interesting people: that’s what makes any place come alive."
"As my instructor said the other day: "Generally, if something feels difficult, it's wrong, and what feels easy is right." Apply that little tip to work and relationships for a second… She's right."

"sometimes life steps in and forces our minds to change"

And my favorite because it's so timely:
"It never ceases to amaze me how the things we imagine to be permanent or certain in life never stay put or turn out as we expect."

There are still heaps of things I want to do before I make the big bold move; It just feels good to know that despite one's age, one can leave it all behind and pursue one's "dormant passions." :)

You can more from here, here, and here. But this is the juiciest article of all: Laura talks about men and food. :)

Inspired

Rogue Magazine on Chef Gaita Fores and Pepato

It's been exactly a year since I browsed a local foodblog. Over the weekend, I remembered there's more to Manila's food scene than clickthecity.com and random citations in Preview magazine and High Life.
I clicked on Dessert Comes First and remembered what it was like to breathe, eat, and shit gastronomy. All of a sudden, I remembered who I was and what I have always wanted to be - a chef/food writer/gourmet nomad. And I also remembered Our Awesome Planet. I joined their Pampanga tour last February and had the best and most memorable breakfast spread yet: Italian sausages, smoked salmon, steak, fritatas, yogurt, cereal and fruits, capuccino and fresh fruit juices. Well, those are the only ones I can remember tonight.
I'm sure there are more Pinoy blogs like those of MarketMan but I haven't had the chance to browse them yet. I've seen enough to be reminded. I am glued to AFC and the Travel and Living Channel but I guess, I've become a passive viewer.
Anyway, as stated in my previous post, I've decided to take a short culinary course next year. So far, I've found two schools in Manila: ISCAHM and CIA. International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management along Katipunan Avenue has a longer history than the Culinary Institute of Aristocrat along Roxas Boulevard. Both offer the short course I'm interested to take: weekend classes spread through 2-3 months providing basic culinary training. Right now, I've got a biased preference for ISCAHM. :)
It feels good to be inspired. Tomorrow, I'm getting copies of Rogue Magazine (because Lori Baltazar of Dessert Comes First is featured this month) and Travelife (because I must get my travel writing act together and it has features on Buenos Aires and Macau- two places I want to visit).
This weekend is the beginning of something good. I love the fire of inspiration!

Travel Books

When I have time to kill in a mall, you'd normally find me cruising through food shops checking out what's on offer, or in front of a book shelf, figuring out a new book to read.

A few weeks back, I found myself waiting again, so I went to Fully Booked. This time, I was sold on getting Lonely Planet's Travel Writing book.

I've been wanting to write about my trips but always hesitated. I had so many issues. First, it was choosing what to write about. Second, how public do I want to go with personal experiences. Third, what can I offer that guidebooks have not? And, everybody's doing it so what would make my chronicles special? Add to the fact that I think I don't write prose well, at all. I can write policy papers, but travel articles, I struggle.

Somehow though, all those vivid memories selectively captured in pictures will be replaced by new memories and its impact would be different. (Read Milan Kundera's Laughter and Forgetting to understand what I am talking about.) So it is better to write as soon as possible. Not necessarily as it happens, but probably as soon as you hit the shake down - some relative peace. Start writing.

So finding LP's book was such a blessing in disguise! That's why I like waiting in book shops. I wander around like a child in a toy store looking at books without the intention to buy, yet I leave like a child with a candy cane on Christmas. Oh so happy!

To add on the joyous discovery of the book, Fully Booked had a promo of getting their discount card for free for a minimum purchase of PhP 2000.00 Since the LP book only costs PhP 950.00 I was on the search for add-ons. I intended to charge it on the office account so I was looking for another travel book.

Although published in 2003, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die will always be handy for anyone who aspires to travel. Hoping no natural or man-made disaster happens, god-willing, Machu Pichu or the Iguazu Falls will still be there - waiting for us to have a chance and visit them.

Still, I did not need the book. I skimmed the book to convince myself I needed it. All it took was a random page, the one on the Czech Republic no less! Call it divine intervention for me. Haha!

Adding to my amusement, I've been to all the places listed for the Czech Republic. Perhaps anyone reading this who knows me personally would say, of course it would be natural for me to have been there given my circumstances. But yeah, I have been. Knowing that convinced me that I shoud get that too. Since the bill was still under PhP 2,000.00, I added a tiny seafood cookbook and a pen. Et voila, total:Php 2,001.00

Seven places were listed under the Czech Republic in the book. Honestly, I was able to visit all those place in a span of almost nine years. According to the book, the places to visit in the Czech Republic are the following:

1. Karlovy Vary - a royal spa town in eastern Bohemia.
2. Cesky Krumlov - a living medieval town in southern Bohemia, and is very close to Ceske Budejovice and Hluboka.
3. Hradcany - the Prague Castle complex.
4. Karluv Most - More popularly known as the Charles Bridge.
5. Estates Theater - Right in the center of the Old Town, this is where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni.
6. Stareometska Namesti - In English, it's the Old Town Square. Here, you'll find the Astronomical Clock, Orloj in Czech.
7. U Fleku - It has had the license to make beer since 1499.

I think there are more, and better places to see in the Czech Republic than the ones listed above. But, I can only say this because I have been there. Oh well!

I'll definitely write about the seven places and more about the Czech Republic in separate detailed entries in the future. Each destination deserves its own post, especially the interesting circumstances of my visits.