Gone Flip

 I’ve always wanted a Flip phone. That’s why the ex gave me a Sony Z600 before. And what I lowkey looked for when we visited Japan. 

So when I heard that Samsung will have a flip phone, I got excited. Then I saw its ad in Youtube (the one with 2 ladies showing the features of the phone), I really watched it and became convinced. 

For the first time, I pre-ordered a gadget. And it has been a month since I got my phone.

So how is the phone? I am enjoying it! Especially the cover screen. Every week, I change it to a gif of my celebrity crushes. When I feel stressed at work, I would just double tap the screen and then I would smile. 😊

Also, I felt excited when it fit my jeans pocket. It’s a big deal for me! I’ve been using iPhone 7Plus covered with Otterbox defender so just imagine how big it is. And my flip is a tiny baby compared to that. Hehe.

And in meetings, people do not notice that I’m checking my messages coz it’s small and i’ve covered it with a black Otterbox (yeah, I’m a fan of Otterbox.. might blog about it next time), so it doesn’t look like a phone. They would think I’m just tapping something. Hehe. But sad thing is I can’t reply to the messages.

After using only an iPhone for 8 years (and a Blackberry prior to that), I only got confused for a day but later on I’m totally comfortable already and using it with ease.

But I’m still bestfriends with Siri. Coz Okay, Google is slower in responding and is totally quiet that I don’t know if she heard/understood me. Unlike with Siri who responds with “let me listen” if I ask for a title of a song, letting me know that she understood my request.

I also love how you can have 2 apps/tabs open simultaneously.

And even if there’s the fold in the middle, you can still watch clearly your shows. It won’t be a bother.

So do I love it? You bet I do.💙

By the way, this is not a paid ad. I just want to post about my phone but I can’t post it in Twitter coz I don’t know why but I don’t want friends to know I bought a new phone. Let them know when we see each other (I wonder when would that be). So I’ll just blog about it. I haven’t posted for a year anyway.

Edit: i also posted portions of this on Twitter coz blogspot is messing up the photos😞

Don't Get Lost in Shanghai

I love watching Chinese movies, but i don't know how to speak Chinese. i also don't understand Chinese. The only Chinese i know is "xie xie". This also goes for my sister and friend. So how did we survive Shanghai? Of course by the ever reliable internet! Yeah, we're technology-dependent. hehe. 

In other words, iVideo wifi saved our lives.

Though we still could not access Google and other Google-related sites, it still had been very helpful.

I discovered that my iPhone map can work very well, and it's just like Google map. thanks to the iVideo wifi, we were able to use the map of our iPhones and found the locations very well.

Famous SNS sites, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is not really accessible also. But it's okay, at least we really get to bond and talk to each other. I learned about my friend, Joyce's Englishing skills. Hehe. And she got to hear me talk more. hahaha. But if you are already dying coz of withdrawal symptoms from SNS, you can go to big hotels (ex. Park Hyatt), their wifi is fast and you can access all your SNS.

But chat apps like Whatsapp, WeChat and Kakaotalk, and also iMessage work perfectly well. Though sometimes I had difficulty using Viber and Line app (even if we were in the Line Cafe).

As mentioned, we cannot access Google-related sites with the iVideo wifi.. meaning we also cannot access Google Translate. Good thing my sister has translators powered by Naver, a Korean site. We used that translator and we were able to communicate more easily to the locals.

A downside though of the iVideo wifi is that the battery drains easily. Good thing they have 2 batteries provided. But still you need to have a powerbank ready. What we do is we would turn off the wifi coz there's no SNS sites accessible, and we just turned it on if we need the maps or need the chat apps.

But another great thing with them is that they deliver it fast. We ordered it weekend before our trip and we got it just right before our trip.

Oh well.. I have to admit.. the wifi had been a big factor for us to have an enjoyable and hassle-free trip.

Binondo Food Walk

for her birthday, my friend Son wanted to go around binondo and have a food trip. eating and trying out their specialties. so we did just that. but we started late (after lunch) coz i still had some errands. we tried out different dishes and they were all good. and they're not expensive. there were four of us, tried out 10 food i think and spent only around P1,000. coz we started late and we were really full, we were not able to go to some other places so there'll be round 2 (hopefully). but here are the food that we tried:

Tasty Dumplings - Porkchop Noodles, Spareribs Noodles

Porkchop Noodles

 they're really tasty. i think they're really known for their porkchop coz every table has an order of porkchop, but some has rice with it. we had noodles with it. the porkchop was separated from the noodles unlike the spareribs noodles. i know why their porkchop is famous. it's yummy.
but if i have to choose between porkchop noodles and spareribs noodles, i choose spareribs noodles. for me, it's tastier.
each noodle costs P115

Sincerity Restaurant - Sincerity Fried Chicken

sincerity fried chicken

for us, it tasted like chowking's chinese-style chicken. but since that's one of my favorites in chowking, then i also like this chicken. hehe
sincerity fried chicken: half - P150; whole - P300

Shanghai Fried Siopao

 

obviously, we bought fried siopao. but they also have other goods to sell. for just P16, it has full of meat. it's worth your money. this is the only take-out i bought, and when i brought it home and heated it with oven toaster, it still tastes good

Dong Bei Dumpling

of course, when you talk about chinese food, dumplings should be included. this store offers different kinds of dumplings but basically the ingredients are the same. hehe.
you would also see how your dumplings are made

basically that's our food trip and also halo=halo somewhere. hehe

what's also nice about binondo is that you can find cheap gigantic vegtables on the road. here's an example of a giant ginger that my friend bought

at least now, my memories of binondo is not only the dentist (that was there my dentist was before) & my dad's office before but now also foodtripping in binondo :)

Pipino

i 'm not a good friend. trust me. example.. i have a friend who is vegetarian. but i always forget and will order meaty food. it will be my sister who will remind me that my friend is vegetarian.

so when this friend invited us to eat in a vegetarian restaurant. i said okay even if i'm not a fan of vegetables. and the other reason is to be able to try a restaurant in maginhawa st. oh well, it's not really in maginhawa, but at least close to that. hehe.

surprisingly, even if they're composed of vegetables. it's yummy! and it doesn't taste like vegetables, not even veggie meat.


let's start with Taro Chips. my sister loved it. she even bought some to take home, and still craved for it afterwards. it is also served with soy-mirin sauce (like kikoman). for chip lovers, you would love this. try it, at least this is healthy.

Mango Tango (with mango vinaigrette)



Tofu Lemongrass Skewers (with chili-garlic sauce & alfalfa)

Stuffed Semi-dried Tomatoes (with brown rice, mushroom salpicao & orange leek salad)

Vegetable Kare-kare with Vegan Bagoong Brown Rice



the restaurant


the very nice staff. really nice



the pastries that they sell

chocolate chip cookies


ice cream

sorry, i need to post the pictures already. and i have a headache & i'm not good in describing things so i'll just end here.

anyway, in summary, it's a good restaurant. warm ambience, nice staff, delicious food, not expensive, it's worth your money. and remember, it's healthy food :)

and if you've tried the restaurant, you can write your opinion in the comment section. and if you have any questions, just message me.

Korean Food

a lot of korean restaurants are opening up in the philippines. i guess it's because there are lots of koreans who are coming here to study english, and also for filipinos being into the korean wave. i have done some posts about korean wave, so i'll not post about it anymore. i'll just post about korean food.

i like korean food. they are healthy. not that expensive (coz lots of serving), and because of the free side dish! hahaha. and it's beneficial for me to eat korean food coz it's one of the rare moments i eat vegetables

here are some of the korean food that i know. sorry, i suck in describing things

TTEOBOKKI



most of the time this is seen in the streets of korea at night. sweet and sour flavored rice cake. but for some, it is spicy. it's a good snack.

ODENG


my favorite street food! it's a korean fish cake in a stick that is dipped in a hot broth. and the broth is also delicious! while eating odeng, you can drink the broth and it will give you a nice, warm feeling. sauce is a soysauce, but even without the sauce, it is already yummy.

CHUNGMU GIMBAP

spicy! but really good. those are squid. i think the gimbap is to control the spiciness.

BIBIMBAP

mixed rice. yes, that's what bibimbap literally means. sorry for the picture. it's been mixed already. i was excited to eat. hahaha.

RED BEAN BREAD

the bread is filled with red-bean paste. most popular is the goldenfish-shaped. but here in the picture is a poop-shape. hehe. it's okay but it is a great snack for a cold weather. and i don't know why but it made me want a waffle

PAJEON


like an omelette, but they call it a pancake. hehe. actually, i think if it's pajeon, it's more on the green onions inside. but i'm calling everythign that looks like it pajeon. hehe

SU JE BI

it's a soup with dough flakes with wheat powder and the soup is made from shellfish. it tastes nice. sorry, i can't describe it much. hehe. but honestly i thought it was chicken soup. hehe

JJIMDAK


steamed/simmered chicken. i love this. this is good with rice. some serve it spicy, some not. it tastes good because the flavor of the chicken, the leaves and the sauce blend together.

SAMGYEOPSAL

my favorite korean dish. it is grilled pork belly. then you wrap it in leaves and eat it. i really love this. i remember me & my friends were going to eat in korean restaurant (their first time), i asked to change venue coz the first resto didn't have samgyeopsal. and my friends also liked it!

SEOLLONGTANG

soup made of beef. i really didn't like this coz it tasted bland so you have to put pepper, soysauce, to give it a taste

SOONDAE

first of the three pig intestine food to be discussed here. also a popular street food in korea. (for me) it somewhat tastes like a sausage at first, then later on i can really taste that it's the intestine. since i'm not a fan of intestines, i was not able to finish it

BULGOGI

barbequed (marinated) beef. one of the most famous korean food. i like korean beef. if you want to play it safe with food, you can eat this.

BULGOGI BURGER

yup, they have a burger for it. this is common in korean fastfood chains. it's a burger with bulgogi sauce. i like it. it's a little on the sweet taste.

GOPCHANG



grilled pork or cattle intestine. you can eat it like noodles or samgyeopsal-stlye (wrapping it in leaves). because it is mixed with other ingredients, you cannot taste the intestine that much unlike soondae, but you can still taste it being an intestine one way or another.

KONGBUL


yummy but spicy. made of bean sprouts and beef, thus the name kongbul. i think this is more popular to the younger ones (students)

KALGUKSU NOODLE

wheat-flour noodles. for me, it's like an ordinary chinese noodle soup. sorry about that. but i prefer this more than seollongtang

SUGAR COOKIES



hardened pure sugar so imagine how sweet it is. they will just put a molder for you to see the shape but the interesting part is, you are the one who should remove it from the circle to its molded shape by the use of a pin. the above pictures are those who are trying it

MAKCHANG


grilled pork large intestines. among the three intestines that i've tried this is my favorite. coz it doesn't taste line intestine but barbecue. hehe. and you eat it samgyupsal style. i told you my favorite is samgyupsal. hehe. in the picture, the makchang are the rounded ones (ones like squid).


DONGDONGJU

alcoholic drink. like a rice wine. you can't really taste the alcohol so it can betray you. what's stronger, soju or this? in terms of taste, soju. but alcohol impact, am not sure.


SIDE DISH


they serve lots of side dish. the most popular one is of course kimchi. and most of the time they give refills. so just from the side dish, you can already get full.

RAMYUN

the korean instant noodles. spicy. but when you get used to it, it will not be that spicy anymore. honestly, after getting used to this, i found the local instant noodles to be salty

ICE CREAM SANDWICH

i don't know why they like golden fish. and another of their favorite is the red beans. yup this ice cream contains red bean. this is yummy. and my brother also likes this. so see, it's really delicious. hehe