DJ Bibingkahan

When it comes to Filipino food, its prepared differently no matter what Philippine region you go to even if its the same dish.  Same exact thing when it comes to Filipino restaurants, the same dishes are prepared slightly different wherever you go.  DJ Bibingkahan makes Filipino food just the way I like it because its similar to my family's style of cooking.  I love this restaurant so much that I made a screen name of mine close to the English translation of DJ Bibingkahan (I know that makes me sound like a dork).

Lately I've been coming here for breakfast.  They have a special on selected breakfast dishes for only 3 bucks including coffee!  Some of the dishes included in the special are Tocilog - a combo of fried rice, egg, and tocino (cured meat):

and Bangusilog - fried rice, egg, and bangus (milkfish):

These dishes may look plain, but its full of flavor and salt!

So if you're down to eat a Filipino breakfast, come to DJ Bibingkahan ;)

Aces & Ales

I've noticed every time I ask a friend who recently turned 21 (or close to it) if they like beer they say no in a disgusting matter! Its either they've a) drank only domestic beer or b) are stuck in that phase where they just want to get drunk fast. I wish I could get my young friends out of that phase by bringing them to Aces & Ales to enjoy the taste of beer. Its a great place for beer enthusiasts located on the east side of Las Vegas. A variety of craft beers are served here - basically beers that are made by small, independent brewers with only traditional brewing ingredients such as malt, hops, yeast and water, and brewed with traditional brewing methods (zooass.com/bar/glossary).

From the huge board that listed the craft beers offered, I chose the Dogfish Head Sah'tea - a modern update of ninth century Finnish proto-beer.  This smooth beer was marvelous! My taste buds could feel the chai, berries, spices, and beer blend well together.  I'm getting thirsty just thinking about it!

Food wise, I was impressed what was on their menu because there was also a variety of foods.  I wasn't really hungry, so I just sampled the sweet potatoes fries which were made perfectly crisp!  

Vacation with the Ohana

During the week of Christmas 2010, I went to Washington to spend the holiday with my future in-laws.  We ate homemade Hawaiian style foods everyday!

This was a nice airline food menu with a very welcoming introduction:

Kudos to Alaska Airlines for promoting healthy foods!

The rest of the gang was already there before my fiance and I arrived and were making rainbow cupcakes:

They look like lava on the outside...

But colorful inside!!

If you know anything about local Hawaiian grindz, it consist about 90% of MEAT (combined with starchy foods like rice and poi).  This vacation was a carnivore packed weekend.  For breakfast, we ate eggs and Portuguese sausages with rice everyday.  I ate other breakfast foods like oatmeal, cereal, toast, and then I cooked eggs right after.  I couldn't resist... I love eggs!

Here's my uncle grilling steaks:

I'm not a big meat eater, but I can pound some steak haha:

My aunty made coleslaw with apples.  This was my first time eating it with apples.  I was amazed how much this fruit enhanced the flavor of the salad!  I'll never eat coleslaw without apples again: 

We all went to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for a day to go site seeing.  We didn't eat anything there, only drank some coffee.  However, as we were walking around the town we passed by this tiny hamburger restaurant called, Hudson's Hamburgers.  This place was jam packed!  I couldn't even walk in just to check out the menu because people's backs were pressed against the only door for entering and exiting.  I know I could've waited to go in, but I get irritated easily when squished in a crowd.  Anyways we spoke to a local guy standing in front of the hamburger place.  He told us Hudson's is only place where he eats his hamburgers and its been around for almost 100 years.  If a restaurant has been around that long, then they are legit!  So if you happen to be in Idaho and not claustrophobic, check out Hudson's Hamburgers!

Another great thing about Coeur d'Alene are the plentiful gingerbread houses:

Imagine children eating all these ginger bread houses.  They'd be beyond hyper!

Back at Washington, Golden Corral was the only buffet where we ate American food.  This is the kind of buffet you go to when you're starving and too lazy to cook.  The quality of their food was subpar, but there were a few food items that were tasty like the sweet bread rolls!

When the nori (seaweed wrap) ran out when making spam musubis, my aunty made "poor man's musubi" instead.  It looks like fried rice, but not fried :

My "orange creamsicle" drink:

A "splash" of Pinnacle Vodka is what makes the orange creamsicle drinks creamy:

Onolicious Kalbi ribs:

Macaroni salad with olives and tuna:

Butter mochi is a soft, sticky rice dessert made mainly of of mochi flour and butter :

When it came out of the oven, the butter was boiling!

Ready to eat, topped off with coconut (optional):

Even though I didn't get to explore any restaurants in WA or ID, it was really nice to eat homemade foods everyday.  Having meals with my ohana definitely made part of my trip memorable!