Feeling Like A Princess at Sonya’s Bed & Breakfast
(above photo features my bed at the Fennel cottage)
I spent the weekend before Christmas with my family at Sonya’s Bed & Breakfast, a tucked away section at Sonya’s Garden. :)
My brother and sister-in-law decided to gift us full body massages for my parents, and foot spa for all of us “kids”, including the brothers. My mom said that her massage was one of the best she’s had, and that says a lot because she’s quite particular about her massages. But the more notable part of this story is how obviously extremely uncomfortable (fearful, even) my dad was with the idea of getting a massage, so much so that he was offering that my brother take it instead. He refused, of course, forcing my dad to go through his ordeal. When we saw our dad again after our foot spa, he looked so relaxed and only had good things to say about the massage and was already planning our next stay at Sonya’s. :D
Honestly, I sometimes dread family vacations because well, it can be quite stressful traveling with one’s family, with one member wanting to do this, the other wanting to do that, and people just rubbing each other the wrong way - the way that families usually do. But for some reason, there was none of that on this trip, and it was one of the most pleasant family vacations I’ve been on. :)
Read more about my experience and Tita Sonya’s beautiful B&B here.
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 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.
![Deconstructing The Lotus Seed: My Cheap Cambodian Thrill
I find joy in the simple things, and I hope my boyfriend agrees with me when I say I’m a cheap date. And while eating a lotus seed might not seem exciting to most people (particularly to Cambodians), I feel it is deserving of its own blog post.
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July 18
After my first encounter of lotus flowers / pods with seeds being sold on the street while on my arts and crafts walk, I hadn’t seen them again. It didn’t help that I left town for Hariharalaya for close to 2 weeks. But when Hanne and I went back into Siem Reap, I finally got my chance. :)
Hanne purchased 4 flowers / pods for 2000 riel, I think. Or half a dollar. Super cheap thrill! :P
After running an errand, we then picked a spot by the river to rest and partake of the much anticipated lotus seed, but not before camwhoring with the flower / pod for a bit.
Those are just cement elephants behind Hanne, by the way, just in case you were wondering. :)
[Posing Koreana-style]
Step #1: Rip the lotus pod open and take the seeds out.
Step #2: Peel the seed. Hanne ate her first one with the skin on. Not advisable. Hehe.
You might notice that there’s a rather bitter taste to the seeds. If you are bothered by this, which I was, you may deconstruct the seed even further and proceed to the next step in my process.
Step #3: Half the seed (with your teeth), and take out the green shoot in the middle. In my scientific study, I have found that that is what makes it bitter.
Ta-dah! And that concludes Lotus Seed-Eating 101. Bow.
I’ll have a more substantial next post, but humor me on this one. :P
La-la-la-lotus-loving,Jen
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Deconstructing The Lotus Seed: My Cheap Cambodian Thrill
I find joy in the simple things, and I hope my boyfriend agrees with me when I say I’m a cheap date. And while eating a lotus seed might not seem exciting to most people (particularly to Cambodians), I feel it is deserving of its own blog post.
Hariharalaya Retreat Centre: Getting Comfortable Outside My Comfort Zone
It’s not my proudest moment when I say that I’m a city girl.
I don’t like dirt, but it’s something you can’t avoid forever (something you can’t avoid ever, actually) at Hariharalaya. Dirt is omnipresent, on the soles of my feet - people walk barefoot indoors and outdoors, underneath my fingernails, and the constant film of soil or sand or clay on my skin.
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of bugs either. Let me rephrase. I hate bugs, and the mere thought of some of them is enough to give me goose bumps.
Although I’ve explored yoga more in the Philippines 3 months before I left for my trip, and had 1 meditation session at White Space, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about being surrounded by what in my head would be hardcore hippie yogis, compounded by being away from home, and not knowing anyone, and not really having internet access.
