Last 2007, I blogged an article about my precious princesses: my three female mini-kangaroo rats. I got them just a few months after my mother’s passing in October 2006, and I did it because I had felt so lonely and I was told that a pet would help calm me down. Unfortunately, due to space and condo rules against pets, I was limited to very few pets I can get. Birds and fish were out of the question, so were exotic pets.

It was when the local pet shop introduced some new type of rodent pets: mini-kangaroo rats. They were perfect.

They were intelligent enough, at least more so than the average white mice but a little less than the big rats, they were also not as rabid biting machines as hamsters were. It also helped that one of their cutest features was their furred tail, and mine had white tips that reminded me a lot of calligraphy pens.

As pets they were perfect, and I loved them all.

This morning, one of my princesses’, Yukiru or Yuki-Roo the tiniest of the three roos I keep, had shown signs of being ill. She was isolated in the third floor of the cage away from her two roo-sisters. Unusual in itself as they don’t normally sleep too far away from each other. I had thought they were all just tired from the move between apartments just two days ago and didn’t think too much of it. It wasn’t until I realized she was responding weakly to any stimuli, and refused or perhaps couldn’t open her eyes that something was very very wrong.

That being a Sunday where everything is closed, I started to fret. In the first place I lived in a country where a great majority still see pets as status symbols rather than actual companions. There was also the idea that rodent type pets were undeserving of veterinary care, or rather were not as important as say cats and dogs, and for some insane reason their ‘normal’ vets can’t handle a rodent.

I wanted to shout at the woman who answered the call for telling me I had to wait for Monday, even when I said it might be too late for my pet then. Her reply was a mildly cheery, “yun nga lang, pero siya lang yung naghahandle ng small animals eh.”

As much as I wanted to pick a fight with her, I knew I didn’t have time. I scoured the directory and tried calling up the clinics. Most of them weren’t answering and could not be reached, one other place apparently moved long ago. In my desperation, I decided to take Yuki-Roo to a vet clinic in Tiendesitas. It was a little further away where I lived and it was the only place I know where real pet lovers  could be. I had hoped that I’d find a vet who can find a way to help Yuki.

On the way I got lost, my fretting and panic had led me to make bad decisions on the route I took. It took me longer and by then I’d notice that Yuki’s breathing became labored and just about I entered into Tiendesitas and parked my car, I realized that my precious princess had already passed away.

I was too late.

I burst into tears, my precious darling, my little excitable bundle of energetic fluff was gone. She had been the tiniest of them, I still remember the first time seeing her. She had been so tiny, and fragile but when I took her home and she began to adapt she shone with much energy and enthusiasm. Yuki was always the first one to explore new places, the first one not to be scared when handled. She did things first before her sisters did and took their power grooming with serenity. She may not been head-roo but she didn’t seem to mind.

And she was gone.

My beloved pointyman2000, met up with me Tiendesitas after hearing that Yuki was ill, and I’m so grateful for him being there for me. Together, we visited the Plants Store in and bought a rectangular planter and potting soil. I live in a high-rise so having a garden to bury her was not an option and callously throwing her body on the trash was OUT OF THE DAMN QUESTION.

I wanted to say good-bye to one of my friends, who kept me company and gave me more than comfort and company when my mother passed away. I buried her in the planter with fresh soil and marked it. It was a morbid thought but I wanted it big enough to accommodate her two remaining sisters in the future.

And when one day–and it’s a day I do not look forward to–when all of my princesses are gone, I’d use the soil where they were buried to one day plant flowers.

Littlest Yuki, your roo-sisters and I will miss you so much, I already miss you now. You were tiniest of the bunch but you lived your life with enough energy for two. I love you and miss you.

If there’s anything I’ve always found frustrating when it came to looking for good Chinese food places, and I’m not talking about those Chinese restaurants here in Makati who keep on adapting “pinoy-nizing” their food. When I go to a Chinese (Japanese, Indian, Thai, whatever) restaurant to sample Chinese fare, and not something that has been altered and bastardized to taste -nothing- like what it is supposed to taste like.

Rant aside, it’s surprisingly hard for me to find good authentic Chinese restaurants that isn’t part of a hotel’s list of restaurants or in Binondo (China town) so it was some surprise when my beloved Pointyman2000 and I were going around SM Mega Mall and we spotted this place right beside Tong Yang (the hot pot place we were supposed to go).

Meylin Pot and Noodle House gave us pause. For one it was rainy and wet and we were gunning for some soup (hence Tong Yang) but the temptation of trying some place new well…it appealed to us, that and the last time I’ve had hand-pulled noodles was in Singapore in one of those Chinese noodle houses in China Town five years ago.

So we gave it a go and we weren’t disappointed. For starters we had some radish cake, which was for once not deep fried to hash brown crisp. The center was still soft and I can taste the radish in the cake. So that was promising.

As you can tell we got some house tea and some soy milk. I just love soy milk, although I’ll admit Le Ching has better soy milk, lighter and less cream, not to mention less expensive.

Second to arrive were the steamed shrimp dumplings, we had thought it would the usual hakao, with it’s paper thin delicate wrapping and was instead greeted with the same hand made dumpling wrapper used instead. No complaints on my end though, it still tasted very good, if not better than the hakaw that I usually order. Plus it was neater to eat as well, the wrapping doesn’t tear easily.

My beloved then also ordered this cute little dimsum darlings. They’re called siaolung pao (Xialongbao), are also known as soup dumpling. From what my beloved says, the character translates to ‘little dragon’  but apparently Xiaolong also translates to “small steaming basket”.

They resemble miniaturized siopao or meat buns, but once you bite into it the resemblance ends there. For one, it’s not as bread-ish as siopao are usually.

Then come the noodles. Beloved and I both ordered the dinner sized bowls. Big mistake on my part. For one thing, I’ve have way too many dimsum in case you haven’t noticed, that and the dinner sized bowls are bowls the size of my head!

Beloved ordered the Ansio beef noodles as shown here.

If there’s one thing I would describe how their noodle soups taste like is that it’s “smooth”.

There is surprisingly very little after-taste even in my own spicy version of beloved’s beef noodle soup. The noodles being hand-pulled and made on that same day don’t have that chemically after taste that I usually get from other restaurants–it’s actually one of my pet peeves, I loathe the taste of chemically bleh noodles.

Of course the noodle soups taste wonderfully, although I should have gotten the ’snack’ version of the noodle soup since I didn’t get to finish this one–it was way, way too much for my poor tummy to take.

Other than that I’d say our trip to Meylin was a success and will most definately visit the restaurant again in the near future.

I did it! After god knows how long I’ve had these bento items in my cabinet and a few weeks of practice, I finally did it. I made a bento that actually looks like a bento. I’m not exactly what you’d call a prolific cook–given someone else does do the cooking here (which I seldom butt in because conflict usually arises)–and my initial attempts at bento making always ending up looking boring.

But not this time! For the first time I was able to make something that actually looked good enough for me.

I’m actually putting my bento collection to use, the manly bento (the big rectangular one) belongs to my boyfriend, my sakura one (the roundish one) is mine, and the third one in the red plastic bento is for our friend (who we sort of consider our little brother).

As you can tell I got a little too fond with red. The upper bento has some tofu wrapped in bacon, Japanese rolled egg (tamagoyaki), stir fried mixed vegetables. The lower tier has the  tomato pesto.

I know it’s a little red themed and I realized that far too late. I should have probably gone for the basil pesto for the pasta instead, but still there were no regrets! The tomato pesto was delish~!

All ingredients I got from Landmark Supermarket in Makati–you can get bottles of ready to serve pasta sauces in one of the specialty food aisles there. The grocery is undergoing some renovation so there has been a lot of rearranging of the stalls and can get a little confusing. If you have the time I suggest buying the stuff during lunch or in the early mornings (the grocery opens at 8:30am) to avoid the crowds.

That’s it for now. Next time (hopefully) I can post more bento adventures in the future.

It’s been a wet and cold day today. I don’t think I remember seeing the sun much today. The skies are cloudy, it’s raining cats and dogs, and cold. At least cold for this tropical girl’s standards.

And on days like this I can’t help but crave for something warm and well soupy. Usually it’s Clam Chowder or Chili Soup from Soup Kitchen or some Pho at Pho Hua, but I’m not exactly raking in the dough plus those two places I mentioned don’t deliver (and there was no way in HELL were you going to convince me to trudge the rain just for soup).

So I rooted around the kitchen for something to make and found some freezer staples to go make soup with. Some opened bag of Mushroom balls, frozen mixed veggies, rice noodles and other stuff. I put them all together and came up with some warm delectable soup in just a few minutes.

Recipe for this soup is fairly simple that you can alter whatever way you like it to suit your taste. This one was a bit more Japanese inspired since I had these on hand and I wanted to make use of them as much as possible.

Mushroom Ball & Sotanghon Soup:

• Mushroom balls
• Mixed veggies
• Sotanghon
• 1 or 1/2 Knorr Chicken Cube (or you can just use Chicken Stock)
• 1 tsp of Dashi
• 1 Tbsp of Soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp Mirin
• 1 Tbsp Sake

Now just simply get water to boil in a pot, dump the knorr cubes and let it dissolve in the water. Then add the Dashi, Soy Sauce, Mirin and Sake and mix into the broth. Add the Mushroom Balls, Sotanghon, and Mixed Veggies. Cover the pot then let it simmer for maybe 10 minutes or until the balls are done. Just a warning: since I’ve used both Knorr cube and dashi, it’s important that you don’t add any more salt!

If you find the broth a little salty, just add more water. I would have added some spring onions or leeks but we were out. ;_;

For the curious, I got my Dashi from Sakura Grocery, located in Glorietta. They are thankfully packed in manageable servings in individual packets because the Dashinomoto usually comes in a huge box that unless you run a Japanese restaurant or cook Japanese food everyday, I highly doubt you’d finish. Another alternative is this Japanese grocery in Waltermart Makati, it’s in the second floor by the supermarket area near the escalator. Their dashi and other Japanese ingredients are a lot less expensive than Sakura (and the grocery surprisingly, their ebiko was a lot less cheaper than Cold Storage), so give it a twirl if you guys are ever there.

Wow it’s been a year since I last blogged, and I feel a tad bad being negelectful of not blogging in a long time. Who am I kidding? Of course I don’t feel bad! It’s not like I have hordes of readers waiting to read the latest tidbits about my life!

Well anyway, rant aside I was able to procure some interesting and what I’d call lucky finds. My roo princesses, are all bigger now and in need of space. Unfortunately finding big enough cages for them and a pen is hard to find in this part of the third world.

So I consider it much luck when I found all I need in Tiendesitas, a place I’ve scoured more times than my allergies would have appreciated when I found this.

It’s a three story hamster cage that I knew my princesses would enjoy, along with a multi-colored pen in which they can run around in when they aren’t inside the cage. Both items, I found out were the last in their stock.

I’m very happy to actually get my hands on them. Ever since they were banned from my bedroom due to my asthma (that came back, dammit!) they didn’t have other oppurtunities to go out, except for times I let them run around the shower stall.  So everyday, they now enjoy a bit of running space.

My second shopping oppurtunity came in the form of a surprise from my beloved Pointyman2000 when he brought me to Robinsons Galleria to visit Saizen, a distributor of Daiso. All items were priced around Php 85 which is both a good and bad thing as even a bento strap could cost that much when I know it can be bought for less.

Here are some of the stuff I was able to get from Saizen: Vegetable cutters, two (2) cat shaped chopstick rests, a felt pencil bag, underarm sweat pads (squee! no more using pantyliners to line the underarms of my shirts!), and two (2) sets of silicon bento cups and a bento strap.

The eight (8) items cost me a total of Php680 bucks. Yikes! So best be careful, considering there was so much I want to get there! Like the Hime (princess) cake forks, baking utensils, garlic peelers, etc. My only disappointment is the lacking of kitchen supplies and bento and bento accessories. I was hoping to find a better omelette pan here but apparently wasn’t going to be the case.

I just wish they would open a bigger branch closer to Makati instead. As much as I like Japan Home, all the stores sell the same thing with very little variety. You visit one, you’ve visited all and still not enough bento and bento accessories. Food seperators, food cups, onigiri makers, nada! It’s fairly disappointing. I’m still at a loss on where to find them without going through J-list.

Well here’s to hoping to better Japan living stores in the future.

I know I should have listened to a friend when she suggested I curb my penchant to buying stuff online, but course like any collector I chose to heed not said advise. (¬_¬)

Here is the picture of my last shopping spree. The ones I got from J-list is a traditional, medium sized, lacquered Jyubako (which had no plastic parts, or an elastic band to keep it together), bento sticks and soy sauce plastic bottles. The rest were bought locally thanks to kaoko (it was nice meeting you, I wish we had more time to chat), were the veggie cutters and clickity-clacks.

There are pitfalls in buying stuff online, most of which is that you can’t really be sure that what your buying will be as good as the photo, and half the times it’s not. (¬.¬) You take those risks since, lets face it…one of the major reasons why people shop online is that these things aren’t available locally.

Unfortunately, mine was that my particular Jyubako had a lot of smears. Like this one on it’s side. There’s one on top of the lid itself but the picture came out too blurry for me to post.

It’s not too much of a disappointment but I wish it could have been better.

Over all I wouldn’t call it a “great shopping experience,” I’ll probably peg it as moderately successful. If I could, I would have bought the Retro Trading Mark 2 Tier Bento instead.

Unfortunately due to prices going up, this would be the last time I’ll ever be able to shop online for a long while, and perhaps that would be the best My wallet needs a break anyway and there are other things I need to prioritize before I spend again for my collection. But for now, I’ll just have to mark stuff off J-list into my wish list, and pray that I could afford to shop again.

When I first heard about “remake” of Slayers, I’ve had mixed feelings. For one I’m a huge, HUGE fan of Slayers, if there was a doctorate studies of Slayers, I would probably take it. I knew more about the Slayers history than I did actual history which is very sad.

Anyway when I heard about the news of new Slayers coming out, I was torn. For one, a new series made me all giggly and squealy on the other hand I dread that my most beloved series might get “butchered”. Sad to say, there’s not a lot of memorable anime right right now (as compared 10 years ago), half of which are either pretentious, emo, a ninja or trying to pass as “hentai light”. No.

So I “ignored” the news of a new Slayers anime, at least not until I could get more details.

Then Bear, a good friend of mine, showed me this link.

It was the manga of the first chapter of Slayers’ Revolution. It took me by surprise since it’s actually very good. The art was clean and the characters seemed to have matured over the years (sans Lina…). Much care has been kept it seems to keep that humor that made Slayers popular alive. I look forward to further scanlations (and the future of buying said translated manga).

Then just today, my Beloved sent me a youtube link to the Slayers TV intro and I felt all my worries and misgivings disappear and went on a nostalgia trip. According to some news blog  (or wherever, I’m too lazy to google it right now), they’re apparently keeping most of the original voice actors, in itself was fairly awesome and a good enough reason for me to get the whole series when it comes out.

Upon seeing the intro, I noted a few art changes. For one, the art style is cleaner, but otherwise kept truthful to the previous series. Slayers Revolution seems to pick up directly after from Slayers Try. As the focus for this series seems to involve the return of Gorun Nova (aka Sword of Light), previously wielded by Gourry Gabriev before it was surrendered to Sirius to return to it’s original world. What’s it doing back is a mystery that will be solved when Slayers Revolution begins~!

Just wanted to share this youtube video, which I unearthed while randomly finding interesting things. This is a video of a male figure skater from Japan named Takahashi Daisuke, and I will admit his SP here is nothing short of gorgeous. He’s chosen music piece is from Swan Lake (HipHop Version, anyone who knows where this music is from please tell me). Awesome music…

The two “B”s that arrived yesterday.

The first “B” stood for books.

The second “B” stood for Bento Boxes.

Let’s first gush about the books…I was able to order at Noble Knights a couple of months back, two books to feed my (and my boyfriend’s)  gaming addiction. One was “Masters of War” Legend of the Five Rings Companion (I’m a big fan of the L5R’s rich setting) to add to my growing L5R collection. And the second was Changeling’s companion book: Rite of Spring, to add to my growing collection of Changeling books (I’m a big fan of the Fae, and no, I’m not talking about Tolkien’s prissy elves).

The books came just in time as we’ll be playing L5R in the next few weekends and the companion books are going to be helpful.

I’d give a review, but I’d rather not? So instead just wait for my beloved Pointyman2000 for his take on the books in his blog. He can give more insight on them than me.

~ ♥ ~

Second purchase were several bento boxes that had me “oohing” and “ahhing” when I visited J-list. Now I did try to order them before the Christmas season but for reasons unknown it…didn’t push through.

But now using Paypal, I was able to successfully buy and continue my collection of kawaii bento boxes.

I was able to purchase several bentos, including the entire sakura in black mini bento boxes. And they weren’t kidding when they said “mini.” These things are teeny tiny! So tiny in fact that if my dietician ever saw them, she would force me to measure my eating portions using it.

It wasn’t so bad, at the very least  they were purty~! No regrets there!

One other bento I bought was the one in what looked to be in wood print with butterflies. Size wise it’s also tiny and it doesn’t come with an elastic or a pair of chopsticks. However it is very pretty and god knows I love butterflies.

The plus is that the above two bento boxes described are microwave safe. Just take off the lids though.

Third bento was what I call a “man’s bento.” It’s the bigger 2-tier bento with a weave (like a mat weave) design. It’s so beautiful and classy looking that it actually outshone my more girly sakura bento. Once J-list restocks, I might buy another one for myself, as this one is reserved for my beloved Pointyman.

The set comes with it’s own elastic and set of chopsticks so it’s a guaranteed good buy.

The last two red and plasticky bento boxes at the back were bought from Japanese Express when it was still open in Walter Mart. One of them, came with it’s own bag, elastic and chopsticks. The other one, I had to buy each part separately and since the store closed, never got the opportunity to complete the set.

I didn’t even get to buy my soy sauce fish bottles and mayo cups!

Anyway now that I have my bento boxes ready, it’ll give me an excuse to try and experiment on cooking bento lunches~! Which is great since I bought a cookbook in Fully Booked last year called “Bento Boxes, Japanese Meals on the Go,” by Naomi Kijima.

Well eventually, I’ll be able to give it a try if ever I find any of the ingredients mentioned.

What’s surprising is that I did a similar meme in my personal blog last year. Which I guess this means I need to update But seriously, this is sort of a test post for my new blog as I plan to transfer all my posts from my previous Livejournal blog to here. I’ll probably post my fanfics here too since opening another personal website for one is far too troublesome.

The rules?
1- Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2 – People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3 – At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4 – Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Yu-chan Fact 1: I do not enjoy the company of women very much. I tend to be selective of my female friends than I do with my male friends. There’s something about hanging about women that grates on my nerves. Women of today tend to be plastic, manipulative, backstabbing little insects. Absolutely lacking in grace, dignity and honesty. Men despite their sometimes more primitive behavior are more forthright and honest. I have no need to impress on the latest fashions and showbiz talk, they don’t care if the shirt I’ve been wearing was “totally last season.” I can be me without fear.

I can only be with women who are like minded and are down to earth.

Yu-chan Fact 2: I love writing fanfiction (under the alias Silver Countess). I am and always will be a AeriSeph fangirl at heart. Not as rabid as I used to be ten years ago, as I’ve mellowed out greatly. It’s also a known fact I haven’t finished my bloody AeriSeph fanfic.

Yu-chan Fact 3: I’m a “Weeabo,” a degoratory term from 4chan that describes Japanophiles. I love a lot of things from Japan. Now if only the cost of living wasn’t so expensive and have more english speakers, I’d probably would have migrated there already. Additional sub fact is that even “Yuri” is my nickname. It was a nickname I earned in Highschool during the prime of my Weeabo days. Yuri means “lily” in Japanese, my favorite flower back then.

Yu-chan Fact 4: I collect Bento Boxes. I love to cook if only I had a better kitchen with handy Japanese/Thai ingredients available and people to cook for that isn’t my dad (who is critical with everything). J-list is my best friend in moments like these.

Yu-chan Fact 5: I love exploring and experimenting on places to eat and dine. I go on a couples double-date with my bestfriend (and his girlfriend) on occasion and we enjoy hanging out sampling the latest in restaurants, cafes, etc. Just last Saturday, we got to experienced going to Claw Daddy in Serendra’s High Street and at a chocolate place called “Xocolat”. We had the most sumptous seafood dishes and topped it off with Xocolat Chai (mint tea with chocolate).

Yu-chan Fact 6: I’m actually very shy. I’m an introvert, I have difficulty with mingling with other people who I’m not close to. This applies to even online communities where I shy away from events or gathering that requires more than 2-3 people (in SL’s case) and declining invitations from pick-up groups in WoW. It takes a lot to drag me to a party. It’s probably why I don’t host events myself as these tax me. Well technically the planning, doesn’t..it’s the people that do tax me.

Yu-chan Fact 7: I have bizarre spending habits. Normally I’m a cheap-ass or err in the more practical side of shopping. I see no reason to purchase an entire island if I can make do with rented lot. But at the same time I wont hesitate to splurge on shoes and facial products.

Yu-chan Fact 8: I sympathize with animals more than people. I can watch a person get injured and feel less bad about it than seeing say, a limping cat. The sight alone is enough to break my heart and make me feel bad for the rest of the day out of guilt.

List of people to tag: Will update later since this is technically a test post