Nothingness...

If I can only wake up each morning and go to bed each night and thoughts of that person will not cross my mind, then that would probably be my most triumphant moment.

Sometimes, I really just need someone to slap me on the head (?) to wake me up. There are times when I get really depressed about what's happening, or not happening, with my life. No matter how hard I try, the past always calls for me and I get sadder when memories come to mind.

No, I don't regret what happened, nor do I regret meeting the person. I just really miss the times, terribly. I want to say, "Thank you for teaching me that I could feel this much about somebody, that I could actually go totally crazy over someone." It scared me. It still does.

It was good while it lasted though, even if it hurt a lot. I'm not masochistic, but I think I am one when this person is involved. This made me feel so pathetic, and it still does.

I would fight for the person, even with myself. But, in the end, I realized that if I continue to fight alone, there really is no point in going on with it.

* * * * *

I found this online a few weeks ago and I've been reading it a lot. It's something I need, and it's something I should live by. However, as always, everything's easier said than done.

Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you.  You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot.  Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.  And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
(http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself/)

Sotanghon (Vermicelli) Soup

I used to never understand the difference between sotanghon (vermicelli) and bihon (rice noodles) until I started to cook them myself. Well, after a few months of cooking did I only get to know the difference between the two--note though that I seldom use these noodles for cooking. Sotanghon is made from green beans (or mung beans) and bihon is made from, well, rice. Okay, what exactly does that mean? I still did not know and would just buy the noodles that I felt like buying.

After cooking, I would complain to myself why my dish was not the same as the previous one. After using both noodles a few more times, I realized that one seems slimier than the other. So again, what does that mean?

So last week, I made my second successful pancit guisado (). I made the first successful one about 2 years ago, yes, it was that long. I didn't make the dish for a long time because I couldn't seem to get it right.

So today, I wanted to make soup that used noodles that looks like sotanghon or bihon. Since I only have sotanghon left, that's the one I used. And voila! I finally understood the difference between the two. Sotanghon is slimier than bihon, which, to me, makes bihon a better noodle for pancit guisado and sotanghon, a better noodle for soups. *sigh* As if this needs somebody with the brain of a rocket scientist to figure out. *embarrassed*

Anyway, let's start. Below are the ingredients and procedure I followed.

Sotanghon Soup

Ingredients:

100g Ground Chicken

100g Sotanghon (Vermicelli)

1 pc Carrot, sliced thinly

3 pcs Tenga ng Daga (Wood Ear Mushrooms), sliced thinly

1/2 of small Cabbage

8 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium onion, sliced

Few leaves of wansui (Chinese Parsley), chopped

1 pc Chicken Cube

5-6 cups Water

5 tbsp Canola Oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Season ground chicken with salt and pepper, mix well

2. Heat 3 tbsp canola oil in a pan

3. Once heated, add the ground chicken

4. Try to "squash" the chicken into the pan and try to separate the clumps (you wouldn't have this problem if you use sliced chicken meat instead)

5. Once chicken has changed color, remove from heat

6. Add 3/4 of the onion and garlic, cook until onion changes color

7. Add carrots, cook for about a minute

8. Add cabbage and tenga ng daga, cook for another 2 minutes

9. Remove from heat

10. Pour the rest of the canola oil

11. Add the remaining onion and garlic, cook until garlic changes color

12. Add water and chicken cube, bring to a boil

13. Add the dry sotanghon

14. Cook until sotanghon strands look completely transparent

15.Test if sotanghon is done

16. Once done, add the vegetables and chicken. Mix well

17. Serve immediately

Notes:

- Sotanghon noodles can absorb liquid pretty quickly, so this soup must be served immediately

- If you need to serve it later, remove the sotanghon prior to adding vegetables and chicken

- Once the noodles are away from the liquid, they will start to clump up, don't worry, they will de-clump (?) once you put them in the water again

- I think I had too much noodles in this recipe because my soup disappeared in a flash lol

- I guess I need to add more water or use less noodles next time

Have you tried making sotanghon soup before? How was it?

 

Clark/Angeles City - Take 1 - My Pet Peeve

Clark/Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines

I have been living here for the past 3 years. No matter how much I complain about this place, I'm still here--well, mainly because of my job.

Now that I think about it, the only thing I really hate about Clark/Angeles is the lack of metered taxis around. So, the main mode of transport are jeepneys and trikes only. There are taxis, but since these aren't metered, the flag down rate is dependent upon the operator, and for now, it's 250 pesos, which is absurd. Actually, these taxis have taxi meters but they never use them. Trike fees are somewhat equivalent to metered taxis you'll find in most urbanized Philippine cities. Although metered taxis aren't exactly cheap compared to jeepneys, these are the more comfortable way of getting anywhere under the sweltering Philippine weather. Not to mention when it's raining and it's just wet everywhere and the air becomes all the more humid.

I have absolutely no idea why the provincial or city government has done nothing about this (or maybe they have, who knows..). Transportation plays a very important role in the development of a city/town, everybody knows that. The government, I assume, is also aware of that. But why isn't anybody taking any action?

There are many, many foreigners in this place--both Asians and Caucasians--and I think that this may be one of the reasons why these taxis are still existing and making money. It's very sad that most Filipinos living in the area are unable to afford this simple comfort. Well, "afford" may be too strong a word because I believe quite plenty are able to. It's just that operators charge an absurdly high rate that people find it totally impractical to ride them unless you have no other choice, or are in an emergency.

I come from an urbanized city that, I think, is actually lesser developed than Clark. Well, not really lesser developed, but has, many times over, lesser multinational companies than Clark. But we have taxis, and loads of them, which makes it very convenient to go around. Trikes are unheard of, but we have our own version of it, a way cheaper one. The operators here are saying that the locals (meaning Filipinos, not necessarily local to this province) will not ride taxis because there are jeepneys and trikes, so they wouldn't earn much if they use their taxi meters. What a logic. I'm not the only one complaining, so I don't think that is the case. Doesn't the local government find it strange that there is nothing registered in the taxi meters every single month? Well, silly me. Of course, the operators are doing something about that.

After more than 3 years of being here, I still have not been able to get over this transportation nightmare of mine. I'm reminded of it each time the rain is pouring like crazy, each time I take the jeepney and the driver or the passenger next to the driver, or both, are smoking their hearts out. Each time I take the trike cursing myself that for the money that I'll be paying the driver, I would have been sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned taxi somewhere else. It seems like the only solution for me is to get my own car. However, since that's totally out of the question for now, I'll just have to deal with the situation and just suck it up.

Zucchini and Potato Fritters

Ingredients:

1 pc Zucchini, sliced thinly

1 pc Potato, medium-sized, sliced thinly and boiled

8-10 tbsp Flour

2 Eggs

1/3 cup Canola Oil

Salt and pepper to taste


Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix zucchini, potato flour, eggs, salt, and pepper

2. Heat oil in a pan

3. Drop mixture into the hot oil (my mixture looked like a burger patty, you can shape it however you want it to look)

4. Brown both sides of the "patty"

6. Once done, drain patties with paper towels

7. Serve with your choice of sauces


Notes:
1. Sauce. I used sweet chili sauce, yum!
2. You can also add chopped greens into the mixture. I forgot to add my favorite Chinese parsley, so I decorated it with one instead =D

3. This is nice to snack on, albeit a bit oily. One may be able to bake it though. My oven here is a toaster-oven-griller all rolled into one. However, it doesn't really do a good job of baking anything.

Do you have any fritter recipes you'd like to share?

Pancit Guisado/Pancit Bihon

Pancit Guisado/Pancit Bihon

Ingredients:

200g Dry Bihon (Rice Noodles)

100g Chicken, sliced into strips and seasoned with salt and pepper

1/3 of Small Cabbage, chopped

1 pc Carrot, sliced into strips

2-3 tbsp chopped Chinese parsley

1 pc Onion, sliced finely

5 cloves Garlic, minced

6-7 tbsp Canola Oil

1/2 Chicken Cube

5 tbsp Soy Sauce

4 tbsp Patis (Fish Sauce)

1 tbsp Knorr Seasoning

 

2 1/2 cups Water

Salt and Pepper to taste


Procedure:

1. "Melt" the chicken cube in 2 1/2 cups water (I used hot water and it was very easy to "melt" it)

2. In a heated wok (not high heat in my case), put in around 3 tbsp canola oil

3. When the oil is relatively hot, saute the chicken

4. When the chicken has changed color, add the carrots

5. After about a minute, add the cabbage

6. Saute until the cabbage looks a bit tender, about 2-3 minutes

7. Remove from heat and set aside

8. Add the rest of the canola oil

9. Saute garlic and onions until onions are fragrant

10. Add dry noodles and the 2 cups of water with melted chicken cube

11. Add soy sauce, patis, and knorr seasoning

12. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed, stirring often

13. Test noodles by biting into it (lol, Ms. Connie's version on how to test this should be better, link to her website will be posted below)

14. If noodles is still a bit difficult to bite, add the rest of the water (with melted chicken cube)

15. Continue cooking until dry

16. Add more seasoning, soy sauce, patis, or all of them if the noodles is still a bit too bland

17. Put in the cooked chicken and vegetables and chopped wansui (Chinese parsley)

18. Mix well

19. Serve hot!


Notes:
1. Recipe is my own version of Ms. Connie (http://casaveneracion.com) and Panlasang Pinoy's (http://panlasangpinoy.com) pancit bihon recipe
2. These two websites are my go-to recipe websites, they're both awesome!
3. You can probably use less oil if you use a non-stick pan
4. Now that I've written this recipe down, it seems like it's very complicated to make, but don't worry, it really isn't
5. Have fun!

Have you done your version of Pancit Guisado/Pancit Bihon lately?

Garlic Fried Rice, with not just garlic

Garlic Fried Rice, with not just garlic

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice, this was about 1.5cups

12 pcs Chili Leaves, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, minced

2 tbsp Canola Oil

3 tbsp Sesame Oil

1 tsp Seasoned Soybean Paste (from a Korean grocery)

Salt and Pepper to taste


Procedure:

1. In a heated wok (not high heat in my case), put in the canola oil

2. When the oil is relatively hot, put the garlic

3. When some of the garlic has turned brown, put in the chopped chili leaves

4. Mix the garlic and chili leaves

5. After about a minute, put in the seasoned soybean paste

6. Mix well and after about 30 seconds, put in the sesame oil

7. Mix well, try to make sure to separate the garlic and chili leaves coz they tend to clump up

8. When they're not that clumpy anymore, you can now add the rice

9. Add salt and garlic to taste

10. Since everything  is cooked, I only use this stage to both heat up the rice and mixed the ingredients together

11. Once you see that everything's mixed pretty well, you can turn off the heat and serve!


Notes:
1. There are usually plenty of selections of soybean pastes in Korean grocery stores, I usually just get the one that I feel like using during the time I shopped for it
2. The one used in this recipe is in a small rectangular green container (I know, I'm very helpful). It's a bit salty and is mild to medium spicy (for me)
3. I added chili leaves because I wanted to add greens, and it's the only leafy veggie I have on the fridge
4. The end product looks too oily. It is a bit oily, but not much. The canola oil was totally absorbed by the garlic and chili leaves, so the oil that's on the rice is basically sesame oil only

Have you also experimented making fried rice? Care to share?

Diode Laser or IPL for Underarms?

It's been years since I've been toying with the idea of doing laser procedures to get rid of unwanted hair. But since they are so expensive, I haven't had the chance to try them. Nowadays though, I see a lot of salons offering really cheap IPL procedures through groupons. Should I buy or not?

A friend of mine who's been doing IPL treatments say that IPL does it's job although she's still left with few unwanted hairs. The catch is, she's done, I think, more than 12 sessions of IPL to get this result. She still goes to salons for treatment every now and then.

I've read mixed reviews on both procedures online. It seems like IPL is okay although it takes more sessions for it to get the results most people wanted, which is exactly what my friend is experiencing. With Laser, depending on one's hair type, some say they are satisfied with the results after only 2 sessions.

As for the disadvantages, I've read in www.hairremovalforum.com that IPL can put patients at higher risk for burns, especially those with darker skin. This is because IPLs, unlike Lasers, produce a wide bandwidth of light, which means that it also affects the tissues that were not targeted for hair removal. Laser hair removal, on the other hand, produces selective bandwidth of light that will only affect the area targeted.

The disadvantages I found for Lasers don't seem to be bad enough (I'm talking medically or physically here) to make one want to say, "No way!" Mainly, it's just that people experience some degree of pain (depending on how one tolerates pain) or the machine being too hot during the procedure. Although I did read that there are also very rare occurrences of burning with Laser. Aside from that, one would probably also consider the cost a disadvantage as Laser is about 10 times more expensive than IPL, at least in my part of the world.

When I asked my derm about the differences between the two, she only said that there's risk for burning with IPL. I haven't really asked her for more information other than that. I should, in my next visit.

Would anyone have any say on this?

---
My unwanted hair remedy as of the moment is waxing. I used to shave until I discovered that waxing is better for my skin. Once I tried underarm waxing, I never went back to shaving. What I don't like about waxing, though, is that I need to wear clothes that can cover my underarms, at least partially, by the 2nd week and something with a fuller coverage by the 3rd week and until I go for my next session. I do this procedure once a month and it gets tiresome to wait for the hair to grow enough.