Photohunt: Sad

(click to enlarge)

One evening by the road near the PICC I chanced upon this poor kid just slumped there dead tired from working all day. I imagine kids his age sitting down spent from playing all day, not selling sampaguita flowers to make sure they get to eat dinner.

PhotoHunt

Rethinking Pizza: A CPK Experience

About a month ago, I got an invite to the California Pizza Kitchen's "Make Your Own Pizza" party at the Glorietta 3. I really didn't know what to expect. See I'm not really a fan of pizza. I'm not likely to choose it over hamburger or pasta. Sure I've tasted a few good ones, but to me pizza's just bread. Strange looking bread to be sure, but they're no more fun to eat than say a Floss Bread in Bread Talk.

Yes, call me strange but a slice of pizza holds no more excitement for me than a day in the mall. But not being one to shy away from food, I went anyway. Little did I know how the way I perceive pizza is about to change.

It was a cold rainy evening when I went to CPK. It's been raining for days in fact.

It's a good thing that we were warmly greeted by the following appetizers!

Garlic Cheese Foccacia with Checca

Sesame Ginger Chicken Dumplings

The concept for the event was that each blogger gets to choose and make one pizza from a selection of delectable delights. I've seen this one TV, I'm not sure I'm up to the task of spinning pizza doughs, chopping ingredients and all that stuff. It was a good thing they took out all the work in the process and just left us to use our hands to add art to their pizza.

Here's Archie Rodriguez (Philippine CPK Franchise Owner) showing us how easy-to-do and fun it is!

I chose the Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza because I like to Reggae!

First, spread the Carribean sauce on the dough

Then the mozarella cheese... make sure to spread it evenly though, not like the mountain I made right there.

Then throw in the rest of the ingredients! (sorry, couldn't very well take photos while making pizza right?) Anyway, here's the recipe if you want to know.

Next they cook it in this large flaming oven.


And no matter how silly I was making it, it still came out perfect! (Or so I'd like to think!)

Now while waiting for your turn, they had this contest where you get to decorate a pizza box and think up a creative pick up line to entice the ladies (or guys) to take you home.

That's me with RJ Ledesma (the host) and my little inside joke.


Taran! Surely you didn't think that did ya?

Needless to say, I did not walk out with the MP3 Player. She did.

"Don't stop topping me up.


Although Liz might have given her a run for her money.

All in all it was a fun evening. I love the pizza. I think that thin crust is the only way to go. The flavors were unique and satisfing--not the run of the mill flavors one gets used to ordering. I went home full and happy. Now, I can't say I'm a pizza fan, but I'm sure a CPK fan now!

Bong with his Tri-colore Salad Pizza


Jeff (and Arpee) with his Greek Pizza (he says the name Greek Salad Pizza sounds more wicked though)

AJ who incidentally was celebrating his birthday that night with his Santa Fe Chicken Pizza


I shared a table with Regnard, his girlfriend and his Mango Tandoori Pizza


Also on the table was Sha and her Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza


And Karla with her Goat Cheese Pizza.


Arpee who was kind enough to share with me a slice of his Thai Chicken Pizza.


And that's Mica with her Tostado Pizza.

NB If you want to see the rest of the photos, feel free to head on over to my multiply site and check them out.

Happy Hearts Day!

No, this is not an old post nor an entry for Valentines Day (though I know of a funny one here). Why the odd greeting? Because it really is Heart Day!

World Heart Day that is!

And I'm not talking about these cutesy hearts either...

but this one, the real one...

To be accurate, yesterday was World Heart Day, but what's one day for something so important? The theme this year, as you can see above, is knowing our risk factors. The thing with heart disease is it's largely preventable. Most of the risk factors, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and lack of exercise can easily be prevented or treated. The cost of which is nothing compared to the effect.

Anyhow, there's nothing I'd love more than to bore you with details, but there's no such thing as too early to start thinking about risk factors. Let me leave you with these short clips that will amuse you and hopefully provoke you into action.

NB If you'd like to know more about cardiac disease risk factors, prevention or cardiac rehabilitation, please feel free to message me or just leave a comment.

Photohunt: View

I've been reduced to a mere specter in the blogosphere for the last 2 weeks. No substantial entry not even a photo entry for Photohunt! I must say, it feels strange not being able to blog or even comment on other people's blog. During the break, I have a change of views--literally!

This used to be the view that greets me each morning


Not anymore! This is the view from my new home.


Ok, so not exactly that. That was taken from the hole where the Air-conditioning unit should be. Still this one's not bad at all!

Yeah, we moved 2weeks to the date today. We're not quite settled in yet, but it was surprisingly easy to get used to. I love the view that greets me each morning. It's astonishingly calm and serene which is a big bonus being right smack in the middle of the metropolis.

Let me leave you with a few other views I see on a regular basis.

A view from my office.


This one's at the other end of the building.


For some reason our rehab center is 8 stories up. Tough for wheelchairs, but excellent view.


Here's the view from up front. The the Philippine Central Bank where our currency is minted. It sure has a fortress-like feel to it, heck it even has a moat!

Whew! It's good to be back. Thanks for viewing!

PhotoHunt

Blogging Break

Yeah yeah, I know I'm too new at this to be taking a break now, but it can't be helped. We moved a couple of days ago. It went fine, the house is nice--it takes some getting used too but it's much much easier than I initially expected. We still don't have a phone yet nor any sort of internet connection to speak off. Right now I'm renting a unit at a computer shop during my break just to post this. I can still be reached via email and ym, but only during office hours. I can't blog from there because blogger is blocked. I still get to read blogs using my reader but I'm unable to comment so to the blogs I'm following, I have not dropped of the earth. All that said, I guess I'll be taking a break for now. I hope to be back soon. Meanwhile, you know the drill, head on over to chickenmafia.com (if you don't already go there hehe...).