The Day My Food Photographs Won Me a New Phone

When I read that NomNomClub was giving away a brand new Samsung Galaxy Mega phone, I hoped to win it. Luck wasn't at all a big factor in the giveaway as it wasn't a raffle - it was a photography contest, wherein people who wanted to join the giveaway had to submit a collection of three images. There were three ways to join, either post the pictures on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram... or on all three platforms. Upon seeing the TVC of the Samsung Galaxy Mega, I craved of owning it and decided to submit images on all platforms, giving me three chances of winning the gadget. Since this wasn't a raffle, I knew I had to be selective in what images to submit. Knowing that I can submit old images, the only thing to do was select which images to submit.


First set of images I uploaded on Instagram. These images were good, but I admit this wasn't really a strong set as there wasn't something that connects all three images. The final step of this giveaway was to create a Facebook Note indicating the links to the images with the option of writing a little something about it. Nothing linked these three images, so I knew upon submission that this won't win me the smartphone/phablet.


For Facebook and Twitter, I submitted the images by the end of the giveaway (last three days). Taking the lessons from my Instagram entry, I carefully planned which images to submit and the inspiration hit me on the last day. This set was my Facebook entry, and the thing that links all three images was that these came from the three major island groups of the Philippines - the Sundot Kulangot of Benguet (Luzon), the Mangoes of Guimaras (Visayas), and the Pastel of Camiguin (Mindanao).


This was the set I submitted using Twitter. I already posted the first image (Pocky) and the second image (Gummi Bears), and because it was on the last day that I got the inspiration how to present the images, I decided to switch the last images and uploaded the Hard Boiled Egg instead of the Pastel for this one. This set I named "Play With Food, Unleash Your Creativity," and this set won me the challenge!

I wanted to win this gadget that I actually joined three giveaways giving the same phone (I think there were about five or seven bloggers that gave away a brand new Samsung Galaxy Mega). There were still no winners for the other two giveaway I joined, but of course it's okay if I don't win.


Last week, I finally got my new gadget. It was so big compared to my old phone, and owning this made me let go of the dreams of owning a tablet because this phone is already big enough for me to enjoy the eBooks I want to read as well as capture everyday images - including food.

I started using this the day after I received it, even took it with me on my Boracay weekend with my mom and sister... images I took using this phone I will share tomorrow.

All nine pictures I submitted were taken using a Point and Shoot camera. If there's one thing I would like to share to the people reading this post... please to don't let your camera hinder you from discovering the wonderful world of photography. Of course we all dream of owning a DSLR Camera (I have been dreaming of owning one since I started knowing about it), but while we're still waiting for that dream to realize, let's use the time to learn bits of knowledge that could help us capture better images once we finally have our dream camera in our hands.

I still have so many things to learn, and I am buying myself a ticket to ride into the wonderful world of foodography!

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Rai-Rai Ken (SM Iloilo)

Rai-Rai Ken
Upper Ground Flr., SM City Iloilo
Diversion Road - Mandurriao, Iloilo City
Philippines
(033) 336-1985

After a very fulfilling breakfast at Madge Cafe and Deco's, it was time for K and I to hit the road and explore Iloilo. I was having mixed feelings - happy to be able to see new places, sad and disappointed to be using my cell phone to take pictures. I have no problems with using my cell phone for I started my photography / traveling / blogging journeys with my cell phone, what pains me was that I was running on my phone's memory (which wasn't that big), so in order to have pictures from every stop, I had to minimize the size of pictures to 640x480. Well, a light at this dark tunnel - I asked brother to send me my cell phone's cord as well as sister's extra M2 memory card, so I can take pictures with big resolutions and upload it right away on my netbook so I could start each day with fresh space from my cell phone.

We visited different churches that day and we ate breads from this bakery fronting Miag-Ao Church. With pictures not worthy for blogging, I will now share what we had for dinner.

We went to SM Iloilo to buy things we needed - water, some toiletries, some junk food. We were lucky because there was SM Iloilo Culinary Festival happening that time, and were just in time to have pictures taken before they wrapped the event up.


Choosing where to eat dinner was an easy thing to answer for me because there weren't much food places in SM Iloilo, and most I have already dined at here in Manila. The only place there that I haven't dined at was Rai-Rai Ken, so we went there. :)


The place was still bare as it was around 5pm when we entered...but a few minutes after, diners started coming in. The staff were so friendly and accommodating... and K and I liked their uniforms! :)


Beef Yakiniku Teppan. Thinly sliced beef with special Yakiniku sauce. K's choice of meal. Well, compared to Beef Teriyaki, I found this dish much better because it was a little saltier. :)


Ebi Tempura. Tiger Prawns in crispy batter. K ordered a side dish of 3 pieces Ebi Tempura just so he could test his skills in using the chopsticks. Well, he needed some practice, so we were both laughing while eating dinner.


Rai-Rai Ken Bento. Beef, Chicken Lollipop, Deep Fried Gyoza, and Shrimp Tempura. I am a person who would love to try different dishes at once, so I went for their bento. The beef was the same as what K had, so I was teasing him that he should've just went for the same order. Anyway, the chicken lollipop I loved, but the gyoza not that much because it was a bit chewy. I still prefer my gyoza steamed and fried at the base.


Miso Soup. All bento dishes are served with Miso Soup, and I liked that there weren't really much soup on my bowl. I do love soup, but not that much, so this was just enough for me. I loved slurping it while chewing the Shrimp Tempura. Weird, yes. :)


Salmon Balls.  Salmon with Potatoes. It didn't have much salmon so it was more of Potatoes with Salmon for me. My main meal was already heavy, so I only got to eat two of these.

For this trip, K and I have been eating dishes from different countries. We've had Filipino, Thai, Italian, Korean, and Japanese. It was just awesome that we can taste different flavors without really leaving the country.

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Recipe | Tocinokatsu with Cheese Scrambled Eggs

I have a lot of things going on in my head lately that I neglected my fitness routines, I am eating irregular - I'd have breakfast at 11am, lunch at 4pm, and eat dinner before I sleep at night. I feel bad at many things that I am starting to lose focus on things I need to concentrate on. With that I have a confession to make: I lost track of many things that I forgot today's Friday - a "no meat" day supposedly, but I woke up real early to prepare this breakfast for my family.

My main reason of serving this is because my sister has been waking up real early everyday to get to work on time, but because she gets home late and would like to sleep longer, she would use a little more extra time catching up on sleep rather than cook herself some breakfast. I felt a little guilty and worried about it, so I decided to wake up and cook all of us breakfast, just so sis and mom would take a break from eating cheese sandwiches.

This recipe I am about to share is taken from YUMMY Magazine March 2012 issue.


Tocinokatsu with Cheese Scrambled Eggs
{Serves 4}

Ingredients - Tocinokatsu:

• 1 (500-gram) pack ready-to-cook tocino
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 to 2 cups Japanese bread crumbs
• oil for frying

Ingredients - Scrambled Eggs:

• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 to 2 tablespoons butter

How to Cook:

• Make the Tocinokatsu: Toss tocino with the beaten egg, then coat each piece with breadcrumbs. Heat oil to medium and pan fry coated tocino in batches. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.
• Cook the Cheesy Scrambled Eggs: Beat 5 eggs in a bowl then add cheese. Melt butter in a nonstick pan, add cheesy eggs. Cook to your desired doneness.

What I loved about cooking this dish is that coating the tocino with breadcrumbs actually made it easier to cook, as we know tocino can be a little messy to cook - because of its caramel. When I served this, brother exclaimed, "It did taste like katsu!" A great indication that he liked what I served.

As for the eggs, the addition of cheese was a nice change, but as we ate more and more of it we tend feel "suya." Good thing I garnished it with spring onions, it added a little bit of dimension to the taste.

According to the magazine, you can also use beef tapa to this recipe, or use a different kind of cheese for the eggs. They also recommended serving it with salted eggs and tomatoes, but I felt it was a little too much eggs for the day, but of course, it is something you can also serve - not everybody wants scrambled eggs anyway.

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My First Meal in Iloilo

RounDish Restaurant
2nd floor - Urban Inn
La Paz, Iloilo City
21 November 2010

Visiting a new place makes me happy. When K asked me one destination I would like to visit for this holiday, the only place in my mind was Iloilo, and I was so happy he considered it and made it part of our trip. It would be my first time there and I was extremely happy.

When my camera met an accident, I didn't cry just yet for I could still use it. However, during our flight to Iloilo, an article on Smile Magazine (Cebu Pacific's in flight magazine) caught my attention and made me take a picture of it just so I won't forget. With the magazine on my lap and my camera tilting downwards, it let go of a lot of sand - which by that time had dried up. For a minute it made me optimistic - that my camera would be much better because I was able to shake off sand, but sadly, the remaining sand caused my camera lens to get stuck and that was it: my camera just died.

It crushed me. There I was, about to set foot on a new location with a busted camera.


And as if the heavens sympathized with me, it was raining when we landed on Iloilo. I heard it has been raining since afternoon and getting a ride was difficult because parts of the area were flooded, causing major traffic jam. It took a while before K and I secured a taxi, but traveling to our destination made him upset and worried - what if the taxi ran out of gas while we were stuck in traffic... what if the driver decided he wouldn't take us to our destination... what if the inn canceled our booking and we had to find another place to stay at. For the first time during this holiday, I started feeling gloomy and hopeless.

We made it safe to Urban Inn in La Paz, Iloilo. Of all the affordable inns / hotels we listed, this place seemed to be the best choice and we were thankful that the staff of the inn were so friendly and accommodating. It was past 7pm when we arrived, and with weary hearts and tired spirits, we decided to settle for a moment, collect thoughts and think of what to do next.

We do have a lot of questions, but the one at the top of our list was, "Where to eat dinner?" I clearly didn't think about that while planning for this, and asking an online buddy based in Iloilo, she couldn't name a restaurant in La Paz and suggested we go to SM or to Smallville. K and I didn't have the energy to travel anymore, so we decided we would just walk around and see what we can eat to get through the night.




We surely were so focused on a different thing that we didn't notice there was actually a restaurant a few steps away from our room (we were at the third floor). It was a quick answered prayer, and we didn't think for one moment - we quickly got in and checked the menu.

RounDish Restaurant is a Korean Restaurant, but some items on their menu are somewhat Filipino, with a Korean twist. We had:


Chicken Katsu. Fried boneless chicken with Teriyaki Sauce. K's choice. I am sensing a little pattern on his choice of food - if he won't go for curry, he'd go for something like this. Anyway, we were a bit surprised when we were served this, the menu said "with Teriyaki Sauce," but it was served with coleslaw. We asked the staff about it and they quickly gave us a little bowl of teriyaki sauce apologizing that they just forgot to serve it. Okay.

It tasted like any other lightly breaded chicken meat, but I have to say the mayonnaise they served us tasted better than the one we use at home.




Korean Pork Ribs. Tender pork ribs with sweet soy sauce. They have two sizes for this dish, and I obviously took the smaller serving. This came with a cup of rice (yey), and I loved that the meat was really tender, yet it still held its shape. The sauce was a bit on the sweet side, but it's the kind of sweetness that wasn't really overpowering. Am not sure if I was being hungry, emotional, tired or maybe all... but I was able to eat all of it. Delish!


Sweet Beef Bulgogi. It was around 8:30pm when we had this dinner, so we were the only customers that time. Halfway through our dinner, two Korean men entered and one of them came to our table and asked us about our meal. We mentioned that this was our first meal in Iloilo and after that short exchange of messages, we were surprised when we were served this. The Korean man we were talking to was actually the owner of the restaurant, and he was just happy that our very first dining experience in Iloilo was at his restaurant. This was his welcome gift to us, wishing us to have a memorable stay in Iloilo. How sweet was that?

Anyway, this dish had a mix of sweetness and spice. It was seasoned well, and the beef had a great taste to it. Sadly, we weren't able to finish it because both of us were already stuffed.

All of these pictures were taken using my cell phone's camera. For a cell phone camera, I was thankful my phone allowed me to take okay pictures. We will be staying in Iloilo for four days (including this one). With three more days and lots of places listed on our itinerary, I was then faced with a big dilemma. My camera just died, my cell phone's running on its own memory. I decided to keep image sizes to be VGA (640x480) so that it won't eat a lot of space, but before calling it a night, I sent my siblings a message - for them to send me my cellphone's USB cord and if possible, sending me sister's cell phone's memory card just so I can still capture images of Iloilo even with my cell phone's camera. Thank goodness I brought my netbook and that the inn had a WiFi connection. My holiday's still not busted after all.

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