Food blog: ZenTea

Yesterday, I went with my parents to the ABAP Gym 'cause I figured there would be nothing better to do here at home. Thankfully, I got a chance to meet-up with one of my best friends, Hannah and I finally got to taste ZenTea! Guys, this is the fourth milk tea place I've been to. My very first and number one favorite is Bubble Tea, then my second was Happy Lemon, then Moon Leaf, then ZenTea. I'm not kidding, I think my sister and I really are trying to taste all the milk teas in town. I wouldn't mind though.

So anyway, Hannah told me ZenTea has more than one branch in Taft but she took me to the one in the EGI Tower 'cause she said the one behind DLS-CSB is always full of people and she only mentioned the one near St. Paul Manila when we had our drinks already. It made no difference though 'cause when we got to the tea shop, it was full of people and the baristas were really busy. I didn't get to take photos of the place 'cause I was too busy looking around and talking to Hannah. I was surprised to see the prices were REALLY cheap though. Plus, the place itself shouts "STUDENT-FRIENDLY"!

Hannah and I both got the ChocTea, large and hallelujah, we only paid P65.00 (each)!!! By the way, to save you from the little embarrassment I had yesterday, it already has pearls, you don't have to order. Haha! The baristas were pretty quick though, 'cause the place was packed and yet we only waited for around 5 minutes! So again, the place didn't have seats left for us so we walked back to McDonalds to hang-out there.

The drink was very good, but not as chocolatey as Bubble Tea's Chocolate Milk Tea. Plus points though because the large was actually large, and not a rip 0ff at all! They were very generous with the pearls, too. Milk Tea without pearls bore me and kind of make you a bit sick of it right away. I wouldn't mind going back to ZenTea at all! Especially when I crave for milk tea when I'm in ABAP, I would definitely think of walking all the way there.

I haven't seen Hannah since her party two weeks ago so we had a lot to talk about. Especially since we didn't get to talk much during the party. We laughed, talked, and she got mad a little for personal reasons. Ah, reminds me of high school.

Ain't she super duper purrdy???

Food blog: Carbonara and Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yesterday night was quite eventful for me. My parents are still in China and my sister had a sleepover at her high school friend's condo so I was all alone last night. Perfect timing 'cause my friend Ana and I have been wanting to hang and shoot for a very long time now so since we were running late, we decided to just cook and bake the night away! According to her, there was massive traffic on her way to my house from the South so I had a lot of time to spare:

☑ Plaid polo: Old Navy

☑ Denim shorts: Landmark, Trinoma

☑ Slippers: Havaianas

I really wanted to do an outfit of the night/day thing but no one was here to take my photo and our helper wasn't getting the hang of the camera, but I really loved my get-up yesterday. Haha!

So around 8 in the evening, Ana and her guy Migs finally picked me up from the house and we headed to the grocery to buy some ingredients that we lacked then to Hannah's house 'cause we didn't have cupcake cups then finallehhh Ana's house!

We cooked the Carbonara first 'cause it was almost 9:30 and we still haven't eaten dinner. I chopped mushrooms, she cooked the sauce (it was actually the instant Del Monte Carbonara sauce, but she had to add some stuff) then we put it all together with the pasta and it was awesome. It was really yummy, we couldn't believe it. Haha!

After that, we finally started baking and that was already around 10PM. It was all good 'cause we were having fun and I didn't care much for the time.

I don't think anyone has buttermilk so thankfully Red Velvet Cupcake recipes always include the alternative: Lemon/distilled white vinegar then add milk 'til it gets to one cup then let it sit for five minutes. It was perfect! We used lemon since the thought of vinegar with milk was not sounding too good for us than the lemon with milk. While we were adding it into the batter, we were scared 'cause they were forming chunks but I guess it was from the lemon.

Madyik!

Madyik #2!

Madyik #3!

Madyik #4!

Funny story: Like I said, we had to pass by my friend Hannah's house to get cupcake cups. We went to the grocery before that and the grocery only had those mini cups. We only got 25 cups from Hannah so we had to settle for these mini cups. Aren't they super cute though???

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take photos of the cupcakes with the icing 'cause I was the one who applied the frosting. The frosting was really good, too! Cream Cheese frosting is definitely the one that makes the Red Velvet Cupcakes perfect. Here are Ana's shots though:

From Ana's iPhone! This was the first cupcake I put icing on.

I put a heart 'cause Ana was giving it to Migs.

Either Ana or Migs took this shot, haha!

The cupcakes were amazing and I'm so proud of ourselves. We've been friends for a little over five years and this is the first time we actually ate something that we successfully cooked and baked! Haha! We're so proud. We're thinking of doing rainbow cupcakes soon, I'll update you guys.

Thanks for the awesome night, Ana and Migs! :)

Food blog: Wicked Oreos/Oreos in Pancakes

So last Saturday (April 30), my sister and I had our own experiments in the kitchen. The day before, she went to this tea shop in Teachers Village called Moon Leaf 'cause I went there the day before she did and told her that it was really good. She said she wanted to try and make the exact same drink here at home. Anyway, we went to the grocery in the morning to buy food for lunch and for our experiments.

So she bought hers, and I bought mine. After lunch, she started with her experiment and it turned out PERFECT. It was good and exactly like the drink she bought from Moon Leaf! So hooray to my sister for being good in experimenting!

So after she did her experiment, I started mine! I've been hearing about Flaming Wings' Wicked Oreos from so many people already, saying how good they are. So I tried to make my own Wicked Oreos! I haven't been to Flaming Wings, so no, I haven't tried their Wicked Oreos.

My mom and my sister bought whole wheat pancake mix and it was surprisingly really good.

I never searched online for the instructions, 'cause they seemed very obvious. So I dipped the Oreos in the pancake batter then dropped them into the oil. Since there were pancake batter droppings, my sister had to clean them out and then suddenly oil dripped on her then more spilled on the floor. There wasn't any bad damage, except she got a wound from the heat, of course.

Anyway, when I got the Oreos out of the oil, I placed them on a strainer since they were REALLY oily and didn't look so appetizing like that.

Let me just remind you that I used WHOLE WHEAT pancake batter mix so that's why they're brown. But if my sister would read this, she'd tell me I was lying to you guys. To be fair, yes, I did burn (of course not intentionally) some of them, but the others are originally brown because of the wheat!

I don't know if my friends who've done this in their own houses had the same result but my Oreos became soggy in the inside because of the oil.

So like I said, I haven't tasted the original Wicked Oreos so I don't know if mine came out as a success for all you Wicked Oreos lovers. Personally though, I liked it. But it's not something I'd crave for, I think. It's a little too sweet and like I said, really oily.

Anyway, there was a lot of batter left so what else was there to do but make pancakes out of them?

So, there. I finally tried making and tasting Wicked Oreos. If you haven't tried making it, it's REALLY easy and a little messy. For the ones who haven't tasted it, it's something worth trying! :)