One of my recent gastronomic pursuits happened on a rainy Saturday. Sarie picked me up after class and I’d suggested Wooden Spoon a few weekends ago, because I’d seen Dan Matutina sharing pictures of what looked like a great meal. We were famished so we ended up ordering an appetizer and three main courses (vegetable, chicken, pork), as well as a rather large plate of rice.

Wooden Spoon can be found along Katipunan Ave., and is owned by chef Sandy Daza of Cooking with the Dazas fame. Having practically resided in Katipunan for nearly my whole academic life (and now teaching there), I would have to say that it’s a welcome addition to what I seems to be a flourishing culinary hub. It’s a feat to run a restaurant that can cater to students and faculty, as well as the throng of residents in the area, so I personally always welcome the great new additions and options that break the monotony of daily lunch breaks.

For starters, we had Wansoy Shrimp Balls. This is a deep fried concoction made of shrimp and wansoy (what else!), but the kick of the gorgeous wansoy sauce that it comes with rounds out the dish. It is the stuff that dreams are made of. At just Php 145 a pop (you get five pieces per order), it’s enough for me to come back and go out of my way for the occasional snack.

Next up is the Stuffed Pechay. It reminded me of rice parcels, except you actually eat the pechay leaves. The stuffing is basically a tinapa concoction mixed with a bit of ground pork, which is good in itself. The coconut milk it swims in is really good, too, with the sort of flavor that rolls around on your tongue. These are a little bigger than bite-sized pieces, so I cut them in half. Each order is Php 155 for seven pieces.

Because we were planning on getting two entrees, we broke our rice fast and decided to get Garlic Rice (Php 100), because who can say no to garlic rice, when you’re faced with so many delicious entrees to choose from? They said it would be good for two people, but their enormous serving could easily have fed three people, especially people like us who enjoy feasting on a smörgåsbord.

Sarie was avoiding pork, so she opted for Wooden Spoon Crispy Chicken (Php 195). It was okay, but I wouldn’t come back for it. The taste was had a pleasant, slight spiciness, but the lack of the glaze didn’t go well with the texture of the chicken and made it appear a little dry. I was expecting something like kung pao or General Tso’s chicken, but it wasn’t horrible. We still ate most of it, but we want more glaze!

I was thinking of getting the Tostadong Adobo, but I’m a sucker for Adobo Flakes (Php 195), so that was what I ended up getting. Wooden Spoon’s version comes with garlic mayo dip (aioli?) instead of the usual vinegar. I have a strong aversion to mayonnaise, but I decided to try it with its original sauce, and that was another good decision I made that day!

The serving is rather large, and when it came out, Sarie asked if we could ever possibly finish it, given the other things we ordered. I told her it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s really hard to get adobo flakes wrong, and Wooden Spoon’s is exceptionally tasty.

For refreshments, I decided to get the Wooden Spoon Iced Tea (Php 45), thinking it was a special sort of brew. It wasn’t anything special; it tasted a lot like Lipton.

When the food first came out and we first saw our spread, we were a little worried, but I guess you can tell that we enjoyed every last bit of that meal. The staff was very accomodating as well, even agreeing to reheat some of the dishes because we took a while savoring it all.

Despite eating so much food, we left feeling stuffed but not too full. It was a pleasant sort of feeling that didn’t leave us feeling drowsy at all, and it lasted up until our later-than-usual dinner. I feel like it’s sort of perfect for students, because I hated that after-meal drowsiness I get, especially when I had some sort of deadline I couldn’t miss.

A part of me wishes I was still studying so that I would have an excuse to eat here more often. Thankfully, it’s only closed on Mondays.

Wooden Spoon
329 Katipunan Ave
Loyola Heights, Quezon City
(02) 426-0044
Tues-Sun: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Today, I had lunch with Raymond, but first! I dropped by the AMP bench to see if I still knew people. I was pretty certain that I would feel like a lola when I got there, but alas! People I still knew. I think I will make it a point to drop by and befriend lowerclassmen just so I will be able to sit with them in case I need to drop by Ateneo in the future.

This is a horrible photo, but it’s the only one I have of people at the bench.

Then, then, then! I have heard of this famed drink being sold in school. So, I have always thought, “I MUST TRY IT!” But I never really go to school, but I did today. Anyway! It’s really good. I think I want to drink it forever. (Play the song to find out what it is!)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(LOLJK. I have apparently put a clue (i.e., the actual answer) as the post title.)

Then, we looked at Leeroy New’s installation. He was pretty excited about it, but I’ve only gotten to see it now. Franny has a blog post of when he was still setting up. The piece is called “Balete.”

Look, a bug!

Also in this post, loot from his recent trip to Singapore: Rhodia notebook (LOL he bought a lot and said he didn’t like the paper, so he gave me one), MUJI notebook (!), and Battlestar Galactica postcards.

He also returned my copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” and on the way home, I was re-reading the parts that I had highlighted, and this one is pretty relevant to me right now:

“I think about all of the things I’ve done, Oskar. And all of the things I didn’t do. The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did.”

You might be on to something, Universe.

P.S. In case you are a proper geek and want to see the BSG postcards up close, pictures are under the cut. :) Continue reading Horchatas in August & Leeroy New….

Dear Batch 2010,

Here’s a video of the Blue Roast.

We had a time, didn’t we?

Love,
Carina

Ministry Work (and Wood Textures)

I don’t get to do a lot of ministry work anymore, so when someone contacted me to design something for CCF, I got excited. After a bit of bumps, I was able to layout a few pages and I made a cover for the materials. This isn’t the final design, though, but I’m posting it because I’m kinda liking the pretty lightbulb (c/o Jeanine Garcia!) with that wood texture.

 
Television: Watching and Writing About It
Currently spazzing over LOST and a few comedies (e.g. Community, Modern Family, Parks & Recreation). Also getting into animated series (e.g. Ugly Americans, Archer) and this HBO series called How To Make It In America. I know, I’m a little bit crazy but I really can’t say ‘no’ to good T.V.! Sometimes, I can’t even say it to bad T.V. but that’s beside the point.

However, I still do love my old favorites, so I wrote a piece on New Slang about Jordan Catalano and Brian Krakow. Please read it, if you please!

 
Blue Roast
To be honest, the whole thing kind of felt a little exclusive (as in… excluding a lot of us, LOL. Just kidding. But I felt a little alienated is all, I guess), but I was with great people, and there was great music, and there were great films. So more or less, I had an O.K. time. :)

Making a Blue Roast video… Or trying to. Stay tuned for it!

 
Sribbler Too!

I already posted one over here, but it’s so fun to use to write or draw with. Try it!

 
Gifts!
My friend Carla found this little gem and gave it to me. I was super happy because I’ve never seen a license plate with my name on it (I usually end up getting ‘Samantha,’ which is my second name). So, thanks, Carla! I really love it so much, I could cry.

Recent posts to Nothing Spaces will probably lead you to believe that all I care about is television. This is not entirely true. Last Tuesday, I went to the beach with a couple of friends and strangers to shoot a video for Ateneo’s graduating batch, aka ours. So here’s a Things I Love Thursday, concerning the beach and pretty cool people and things in between.

Convenience stores & gas stations.

Sunrises.

Sunsets.

Talented friends. (Hi, Jan!)

Gorgeous views.

Soy milk.

Pretty jewelry.

Happy people.

Funny car rides.

Wading.

Throwing rocks and fistfuls of sand into the ocean.

Ripples.

Good music.

Good literature.

The ocean.

I have some more photos here & here, although the video that Jan & Co. shot will be shown during the Blue Roast program. This excites me, as I haven’t seen it yet.

To close, here’s a video of the day, set to another Thing I Love, a song called “The Next Time Around” by Little Joy.

Unforeseen hiatus due to the sudden onslaught of requirements our teachers needed to compute our grades. But I digress.

Dearest you,

Whoever you are, if you are reading this, and if you have stood by me, and persevered through all the molehills and mountains with me, these past four years. If we’ve stayed up late nights, exchanging frantic messages, whining about ungodly deadlines. If we’ve celebrated victories, cried over losses and hoped for something greater and more beautiful than we could ever have imagined. If we’ve shared stories and laughter, music and things dear to our hearts. If we’ve given each other a piece of ourselves, and if we’ve kept pieces of each other to make us really, completely whole. If we loved life enough to go on, even if the going got really, really tough—

Thank you.

It’s been a great ride. I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss this, but I’m kind of glad it’s mostly over. The world has been so good to me, and God has blessed me so much. I’m so grateful for everything that has happened, because I got hurt and I loved and I learned.

Thank you so much for believing in me.

Love,
Carina

The indescribable moments of your life tonight
The impossible is possible tonight
Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight