Kia ora!

It's been three months since I landed here in Auckland, New Zealand but unfortunately never got the chance to update my blog. 

Thing is, I had two weeks of free time before classes started but I spent that time setting up my flat, doing paperwork for my enrolment at the university, attending orientation activities and meeting friends old and new. When classes commenced-- BOOM. I was bombarded with readings and essays. My schedule is not particularly insane but whenever I had free time, I just preferred taking walks when it's sunny or cooking and reading when it's rainy. 

Auckland

Auckland is actually a volcanic field with 48 volcanic cones. Below is a photo taken from the summit of Mt. Eden, the highest volcano in Auckland, where you can see a 360-degree view of the city. On the foreground is the crater. It was actually a 2.5-km walk from my flat to the Mt. Eden summit so yes, I live veeeeery close to volcanoes. And I should really go back to this place.

This photo makes me miss summer.

Walking home from uni. You can see Rangitoto Volcano in the background.

Tofu and mushroom adobo, roast vege, and blueberries

Breakfast. Don't get the wrong idea. I only had this kind of breakfast when I didn't have classes.
Nowadays, my breakfast mainly consists of coffee and grilled cheese sandwich or cereal when I'm in a hurry.

Peach pie

Potato hash with egg and cheese

Burgers!

I guess it's pretty evident that I've been having fun cooking in New Zealand. 

Harry Potter: The Exhibition in Tokyo

A few days before my 2013 trip to Tokyo, I learned that the Harry Potter: The Exhibition was there. It's an international traveling exhibition featuring props, costumes, and sets from the Harry Potter movies. I actually first heard about that exhibition when it was about to move out of Singapore in September 2012. To be honest, I was so tempted to book last-minute tickets to Singapore that time. However, I didn't push through that impulsive plan because even if I had money, it was around the end of the semester and I was really busy with academics and [teaching] work that time so I had to prioritize.

Needless to say, I was really happy that my trip to Tokyo coincided with the Harry Potter exhibition. I mean, what are the chances, right?

The day after I landed in Tokyo, I went to Lawson with my friend Kyle (who is also a fan of Harry Potter) to buy tickets. 

On the day itself, Kyle and I were so excited lol.

Pictures were not allowed inside the exhibit but I was able to snap some photos at the shop (nothing said it wasn't allowed). However, it was really crowded (again, because of the holiday) so I gave up trying to take photos lol. Plus, I was really distracted by all the merchandise.

I seriously wanted a LOT of stuff there like the Marauder's Map, a wand, some Ravenclaw merchandise, and Hermione's necklace during Bill and Fleur's wedding but I had to control myself because I had spent too much on the trip already. However, I still ended up with these:

A postcard set for JPY1100 (around PhP495.00 at that time)

JPY9000 (around PhP4050.00 at that time)

So much for control, I guess. That Time Turner was friggin expensive for something I'm just putting on display but... come on, it's a Time Turner! Kyle, on the other hand, got a wand for JPY5000.

The view from Mori Arts Center in Roppongi where the exhibit was located.

Afterwards, we went back to the Kichijoji area to eat omurice. I had omurice with curry katsu.

After lunch, went around Kichijoji as it's one of Kyle's favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo and I also did some shopping hehe. I guess I enjoyed a lot that I didn't bother taking any photos. Afterwards, Kyle had to go to his part-time job and I went around Inokashira Park but didn't stick around much because it was really hot and humid.

All those trees by the river are sakura trees so they turn pink during spring.
I only know this because I have a few Filipino friends living near Inokashira Park who post photos of this place during spring.

I walked back to Kyle's house and then went out again to visit a local supermarket. For dinner, instead of going out, I made this Japanese-style chicken adobo rice bowl. I paired it with a slightly alcoholic peach drink I found at the supermarket.

Amazing day, I say!

June

Wow, it's already July tomorrow. Pretty crazy how the first half of the year just flew by.

This month, I experimented in the kitchen often.

Vegan adobo: shiitake mushrooms and tofu

Tableya hot chocolate with cinnamon, vanilla and chili powder.

My brother went to Finland (for business) and brought home some blueberries.
We also had ripe mangoes at that time so I made a pie!

Binagoongan rice with green mango and egg

baked potato wedges in butter-sriracha sauce

lettuce, tomatoes, sauteed mixed mushrooms, caramelized balsamic onions,
burger buns, and beef-malunggay patties with cheese

Yay burger!

zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles in dipping sauce)

This month, sadly, I only made one painting. It is, however, my most detailed painting so far.

This month, I visited a third-wave coffee shop in West Avenue called Coffee Empire.

So much equipment, it looks like a laboratory!

They have a room for storing coffee beans and a roasting area as well.

I ordered a light-bodied capuccino. It was very good and it didn't need sugar.

A mango-bavarian which was good but too sweet for my taste.

This month, I went to Boracay (first trip to the beach this year yay!) with my friends to relax. We mostly just ate, walked, slept and played in the water. Hurray to getting a tan!

Wind turbines! Hurray for renewable energy!

This month, my computer finally crashed and I had to have it formatted. Thankfully, I decided to buy an external hard disk drive last April (by then, my computer has been exhibiting some problems already) so most of my files are backed up.

This month, my news feed has been bombarded with graduation photos, mostly of my former students, and even though it kind of makes me feel old, I'm actually very happy looking at them.

Paint, Cook, Brew

Made a few paintings over the long weekend:

yay galaxy!

I call this the watercolor sushi series. On another note, I need to practice my hiragana.

Because I've been seeing too much sakuras in my news feed

Last Saturday, I didn't have enough time to bake but I wanted to whip up something a bit more special than usual. Since I still had some leftover homemade anko (sweetened red bean paste), I looked for a dorayaki recipe and made some. The cakes didn't end up evenly-colored like the ones I've tried in Japan but they tasted good nonetheless

Dorayaki: Doraemon's favorite

I also bought a box of chai tea so hurray for homemade chai lattes!

Yesterday, I bought some Monterey Jack cheese to use for grilled cheese sandwiches. This morning, breakfast was grilled cheese with caramelized balsamic onions. Yum! I'll be experimenting with more grilled cheese sandwich variations over the next days.

Finally, a painting that Agents of SHIELD fans will understand:

Baked Buffalo Cauliflower

Here is a healthier take on buffalo wings (because come on, who doesn't like buffalo wings?): BUFFALO CAULIFLOWER! This is the recipe I used but here are some of my notes on the recipe: 

• I was left with quite a lot of batter (what a waste) so perhaps you can decrease the flour and milk to 3/4 cups. By the way, I used whole milk and all-purpose flour.
• 1 cup of buffalo sauce was too much for me too. 1/2 cup sufficed.
• I didn't have garlic powder and I ran out of garlic too so I omitted that.
• I made homemade buffalo sauce by whisking together equal parts of sriracha and melted butter. Any kind of hot sauce should work but also be sure to adjust the hot sauce-to-butter ratio depending on your tolerance and on your hot sauce.
• I baked the battered cauliflower for 20 minutes and then another 10 minutes with the buffalo sauce. My cauliflower turned out mushy which I really like because I'm not into crunchy vegetables so decrease baking time if you want crunchy veggies 

I ate half of it for lunch with some beef and rice while I had the other half for afternoon snack. It's really good, I swear! Now, I'm thinking of other things that I can bake or cook with homemade buffalo sauce and since I still have a lot of potatoes, maybe I'll try potato wedges this week.

Things I Make Sometimes

Sometimes, I make crowns.

This floral crown is made from scratch. I created the flowers by hand from lace, ribbons and crochet thread. I gave it to a friend who's currently living in Australia and visited the Philippines for vacation last Christmas.

This crown, on the other hand, is not yet finished but it's supposed to be an elvish crown and it's made of armature wire. Have you seen The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies yet? Don't you think Lee Pace rocked Thranduil?? I mean, I never liked Thranduil in the book because he's such a douche but Lee Pace is just too amazing so I can't bring myself to totally hate Thranduil. Don't you agree?

Anyway, I really need to practice my wire-bending skills before I finish this.

Sometimes I make pies.

I learned how to make pies in Home Economics class in high school and I even made buko (coconut) pie and egg pie at home back then to show my parents what I learned in school haha. However, I found the pastry pie crust-making process a bit difficult and time-consuming so I didn't make pie again until recently. However, I recently wanted to challenge myself to make pies again.

And no, it has nothing to do with Pushing Daisies and Lee Pace making pies in that TV Show. Yeah, I watched it over the holidays and it's just absolutely adorable.

...

Fine, maybe a little haha. But hey, even before watching Pushing Daisies, I've already decided on making pies again! I guess Pushing Daisies just reinforced that decision.

And guess what, I'm enjoying it! I guess the only difficult part is cutting in the cold butter with the flour for the pastry crust because I don't have a food processor but otherwise, I like making pies! I'm actually thinking about buying a food processor so that I can make pies with more ease. One more thing I love about pies is that I can make use of more local fruits for baking.

Sometimes, I make boiled eggs for ramen. 

I'm just practicing how to boil eggs for ramen topping because I found a recipe for miso ramen and the ingredients are readily available in my pantry so I'm gonna give it a try this weekend. I will give an update on that!

Savory and Sweet

Just a couple things I made in the kitchen recently.

These are meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting. I've been meaning to make this for the longest time since I saw the recipe on Pinterest. 

I usually find myself looking for ingredients that we don't commonly have here in the Philippines (and are obviously more expensive), like strawberries, blueberries, almonds, peaches, matcha, etc. However, I realized, why not use local ingredients and local produce instead? I mean, they're pretty good anyway. I've managed to make some tablea brownies and tablea cheesecake recently with tablea I got from Cebu. Maybe next time I'll try baking with ube and perhaps durian if I manage to get my hands on some. (And yes, I like durian lol.)

Also, since it's mango season right now, I decided that I will use mangoes for my baking. Here's a mango cheesecake that I made for my co-worker's birthday. I made something similar for Father's Day too.