CRAFT COFFEE WORKSHOP (with The Manila Review)
A Homey, Creativity-inspiring Hangout for Coffee Connoisseurs, Nomad Managers & Friends :)
I first visited Craft Coffee Workshop last December 15, for the launch of The Manila Review, an independent publication that aims to promote critical thinking on today’s culture and issues, catapulted by Leloy Claudio and Mara Coson. Check it out here. Yes, December 15. Backlog, I know.
As a sucker for aesthetic (and gender neutral) rustic design and great ambiance, I instantly fell in love with the place without having sampled the coffee yet.
The Cheapest Round-The-World Trip for P1,500
November 9, 2012
Our minds are our greatest travel benefactors. It allows us to sail seas and cross continents with mere visual, olfactory or gustatory suggestions. And that’s the experience that the Lifestyle Network and Nestle’s Around The World In Small Plates benefit dinner for I Can Serve Foundation at Rockwell Tent attempted to give to its guests.
![Japanese-style Black Sesame Okra Salad :)
Because of my kitchen deprivation for the past 2.5 months, I created this on the same day I made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream and my Coco Loco Vegan Waffles.
I felt a shortage of vegetables, particularly of the green, and relatively un-greasy variety, while I was in Sri Lanka. So, I attacked all green and/or leafy vegetables in sight. One of my first tasty victims was the Okra in this ridiculously easy, surprisingly tasty, simple and fresh salad, which some of its early doubters now claims could rival movie food and/or pulutan. Simply:
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Boil the okra until desired crispness / sogginess. I prefer for it to be a little al dente vs. limp and impotent.
Toast black sesame seeds.
Crush them slightly with a fork, just enough to release its wonderful addictive aroma. (I love black sesame.)
Add 1-2 parts Kikkoman soy sauce for every 3 parts of mirin.
Toss everything together.
Enjoy!
Crazy easy. Just like cooking up a batch of instant pancit canton sans the packeted oil and wax-coated noodles, which while delicious and addictive in its own right, provides a lot less nutrients than the above dish.
I love simple yet tasty food.
Hoo-ha,Jen
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Japanese-style Black Sesame Okra Salad :)
Because of my kitchen deprivation for the past 2.5 months, I created this on the same day I made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream and my Coco Loco Vegan Waffles.
I felt a shortage of vegetables, particularly of the green, and relatively un-greasy variety, while I was in Sri Lanka. So, I attacked all green and/or leafy vegetables in sight. One of my first tasty victims was the Okra in this ridiculously easy, surprisingly tasty, simple and fresh salad, which some of its early doubters now claims could rival movie food and/or pulutan. Simply:
![COCO LOCO: Vegan Waffles with Coconut Meat and Home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream!My take on one of my most favorite breakfasts in life ever (from Hariharalaya Retreat Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia). :D
I’ve been away from the kitchen for so long since my 2.5-month trip around Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka, that cooking was the activity I immediately sought out as soon as I had time away from sleep and get-togethers.
A week before leaving, the ice cream maker I had ordered had just come in and I only had 2 chances to experiment with it then. This time, I made some rather delightful home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream, which I later decided would go well with this waffle. :)
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Still need to fine tune the recipe for my ice cream and vegan waffles, but so far, I think the first attempt was already a success!
Will resume my Sri Lanka posts when I’ve finished all my pending work, and satisfied the itch to play in the kitchen some more! :P
Coco-nutty,Jen
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COCO LOCO: Vegan Waffles with Coconut Meat and Home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream!
My take on one of my most favorite breakfasts in life ever (from Hariharalaya Retreat Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia). :D
I’ve been away from the kitchen for so long since my 2.5-month trip around Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka, that cooking was the activity I immediately sought out as soon as I had time away from sleep and get-togethers.
A week before leaving, the ice cream maker I had ordered had just come in and I only had 2 chances to experiment with it then. This time, I made some rather delightful home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream, which I later decided would go well with this waffle. :)
![Cheap Food Tripping / Carbo-loading in Sri LankaAugust 31 - September 2, 2012 - Ella, Sri Lanka (or Sri Lanka in general)
As mentioned in my post on the epic clouds at Little Adam’s Peak, I was pleased to find a little town in which it was relatively inexpensive to stay and eat. And my did I eat well in Ella. Let me count the ways. :)
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1) Breakfast of curd & honey & fruit
That scrumptious-looking photo above? That’s it. Curd is basically some sort of buffalo’s milk byproduct that tastes like a sourer version of cottage cheese. Mixed with honey, banana, papaya, and if you’re lucky, pineapple, it’s divine.
Score this at the Curd Shop at the Ella bus stop for only 160 rupees or $1.40.
2) Mid-morning / mid-afternoon / mid-anything snack / dessert of lemon cake
Moist, light and lemony, I could have this all day. Seriously.
Get it for 125 rupees or $1 at Little Folly.
3) Vegetable kottu rotti
Okay, so this may not be the most appetizing-looking photo, but my first taste of kottu in Sri Lanka made it a really memorable dish for me. You’ll definitely know if kottu is being made because of the loud clacking against the cooking surface. It’s made with rotti dough but chopped up to resemble noodles.
You’ll find many variations of this around Sri Lanka, but Down Town Rotti Hut’s version was quite good. 250 rupees + 10% service charge = 275 rupees or roughly $2.1. We also found 175 rupee vegetable kottu in Kandy, FYI. So while this was quite cheap, you can still find cheaper versions. :)
While there’s a wealth of great eats / bakeries / restos in Nuwara Eliya and Kandy as well, I wasn’t able to document them properly. :P
Needless to say though, with all the buns, rotis and rice and curries in Sri Lanka, you’re sure to get more than your fair share of carbs and grease. When that happens, a healthier chop suey is a good option as well, with Chinese food being surprisingly not unpopular in Sri Lanka.
Going on a fast now,Jen
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Cheap Food Tripping / Carbo-loading in Sri Lanka
August 31 - September 2, 2012 - Ella, Sri Lanka (or Sri Lanka in general)
As mentioned in my post on the epic clouds at Little Adam’s Peak, I was pleased to find a little town in which it was relatively inexpensive to stay and eat. And my did I eat well in Ella. Let me count the ways. :)
![Utopia in Luang Prabang, LaosAugust 2012 - Luang Prabang, Laos
Tucked away somewhere inside the small and narrow streets from Phomma That Road is this dreamy, almost surreal, hidden (yet popular) Eden in Luang Prabang aptly called Utopia, a peaceful and inviting environment for everyone, whether you’re into yoga, reading, writing, having alone time, enjoying good food and drinks, or hanging out with friends and playing board games.
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At 7:30 a.m., you can join a yoga class c/o Luang Prabang Yoga in the morning. for 30,000 kip ~ $3.75. set against this beautiful backdrop of the Nam Khan River.
I had gotten in touch with yoga teacher Julie initially, but took a class under Khoun. View their profiles here, and see their class schedules here.
After yoga, you can chill out with a fruit shake (I highly recommend the Saffron Robe [15,000kip ~ $1.88] - mango tamarind shake with a touch of cinnamon — it’s as good as it sounds, maybe even better) and read a book here.
Or enjoy your breakfast over here.
Come back again at dinner time, and Utopia looks quite different but still as chill and laid back. So glad Yasuko and some new friends wanted to go to Utopia too (because I don’t think I’d want to come back at night alone, just because that’s a bit sad :P).
[By the deck / lounge area after enjoying our dinner — I had a delicious tofu green curry! :) Sorry, food blogger instincts aren’t very strong in me so I didn’t really take a good photo before digging in.]
[At the main area near the entrance]
See more Utopia pics here, and maybe consider that ooooh heaven is a place on Earth. :D
Yoga in the morning, delicious food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and cocktails, and BOARD GAMES (♥) in this laid back hangout spot will make you want to come back again and hang out even longer. I’d have hung out here more often if I had more money too. :P Definitely one of the places you’d want to visit while in Luang Prabang.
Jen
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Utopia in Luang Prabang, Laos
August 2012 - Luang Prabang, Laos
Tucked away somewhere inside the small and narrow streets from Phomma That Road is this dreamy, almost surreal, hidden (yet popular) Eden in Luang Prabang aptly called Utopia, a peaceful and inviting environment for everyone, whether you’re into yoga, reading, writing, having alone time, enjoying good food and drinks, or hanging out with friends and playing board games.
![Cheap Vegetarian Eats in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A pleasant surprise I’ve come to realize on this trip is that it really isn’t that hard to maintain a vegetarian diet while traveling. You can always find yummy vegetable dishes or salads, and you can always ask people to omit the meat in your Phad Thai or replace it with veg-friendly tofu.
I’ve also found that vegetarian dining can be the easiest to your pocket, and that was especially true for me in Chiang Mai.
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Clean food, dirt cheap
As mentioned in my post about my guesthouse in Chiang Mai, there was a ridiculously cheap Chinese vegetarian resto located literally a minute away (along Prapokklao Rd.), selling real cheap food.
How cheap?20THB - 1 viand + 1 rice ~ yep, that’s $0.66 or 26PHP25THB - 2 viands + 1 rice ~ WTF
But even before I found that, I actually accidentally discovered this other Chinese vegetarian resto (located along Rachadamnoen Rd.) right before meditation with Tiko at Wat Sri Gerd.
And yup, they sell their food at the same price as Tein Seng (resto in 1st photo). And both establishments provide free water to diners. Honestly, I don’t know how they still make money.
Clever take on salad
When you’re feeling a little fancy, you can also shuffle on down to Nimmanhaemin Rd. on the west side of Chiang Mai and pay a visit to Salad Concept.
For only 50THB - 65PHP or $1.66 (and this is also relatively cheap in Thai standards considering the ambiance of the place), you get a base of greens along with 5 free toppings and your choice of salad dressing. They also have more premium toppings that you have to pay a little extra for, but still.
It was hard to decide but I wound up getting a salad of 1) tomato, 2) broccoli, 3) asparagus, 4) grilled mushroom (yum!), 5) red bean (for protein), and got and add-on of tofu (20THB ~ 26PHP or $0.66), all to be enjoyed with my delicious tamarind sesame dressing (though I would have loved to try the passion fruit dressing too!).
I also decided to go all out and order a shiitake mushroom soup (69THB ~ 91PHP or $2.33 - ironically more expensive than the salad), which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Stevie approved of my order too. It really wasn’t one of those tiny, tiny salads you might get in the Philippines for the same price.
I loved the restaurant design as well, both indoors…
…and outdoors.
It always adds extra pogi points when a business cares about the earth, and uses funky wall decals too.
I was later joined by Ro, the Thai guy I met on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and his friend Jane, who would both unexpectedly take me to one of the prettiest places near Chiang Mai. But more on that in a succeeding post.
But yeah, bottom line, traveling as a vegetarian is fun! :)
Leafy greens,Jen
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Cheap Vegetarian Eats in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A pleasant surprise I’ve come to realize on this trip is that it really isn’t that hard to maintain a vegetarian diet while traveling. You can always find yummy vegetable dishes or salads, and you can always ask people to omit the meat in your Phad Thai or replace it with veg-friendly tofu.
I’ve also found that vegetarian dining can be the easiest to your pocket, and that was especially true for me in Chiang Mai.
![Magic Bread Bakeshop: Cheap Vegetarian Food & TVP Source
After my often referenced vegetarian food cooking session, I went on a quest for the “strange” vegetarian ingredients, the first one being TVP or Textured Vegetable Protein. Alessa referred me to the Magic Bread Bakeshop, which I later found out also offered some cheap vegetarian eats. Not being of burgers, veggie or non-veggie ones, I didn’t find the food particularly compelling, specially since I went there with one goal in mind: to buy TVP. What’s TVP?
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They had 3 variants available, chunks (P45), regular crumbles (P30), and red crumbles (P45 - usually used for vegetarian corned beef).
So far, I’ve experimented with making “corned beef”, salpicao and lasagna. I thought my salpicao was a fail, though my brother preferred it over my “corned beef”. But I thought the “corned beef” wasn’t too shabby.
Being a soy product, TVP would naturally have a soy sort of taste about it versus regular meat, and the chunks were kind of soft and chewy and mushroomy in texture. I say if you plan to do any experimentation, try working with the crumbles first.
In the long run, I’m rethinking my use of TVP though, as they seem like a highly processed meat substitute, which kind of goes against my desire to go veg for the planet. Although it’s a few steps less processed than other veg options, it is processed nonetheless. If I seem to be rambling nonsensically, this will better explain why going vegetarian this way is bad for the planet.
Buuuut yeah, I’ll let you weigh your own options. :PWhat your take on TVP?
Jen
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Magic Bread Bakeshop: Vegetarian Food & Restaurant25 Gil Puyat Ave. cor. Bautista Sts. Palanan, Makati City887-7921](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4zjupssMH1r0u81eo1_1280.jpg)
Magic Bread Bakeshop: Cheap Vegetarian Food & TVP Source
After my often referenced vegetarian food cooking session, I went on a quest for the “strange” vegetarian ingredients, the first one being TVP or Textured Vegetable Protein. Alessa referred me to the Magic Bread Bakeshop, which I later found out also offered some cheap vegetarian eats. Not being of burgers, veggie or non-veggie ones, I didn’t find the food particularly compelling, specially since I went there with one goal in mind: to buy TVP. What’s TVP?
