Korean Food in our City!

This is a photo of a dish I enjoyed at a Korean restaurant in our city. I have to confess I was skeptic about Korean food at first. I love Thai, it's my first love in other Asian food, the second one is Japanese, my roommate was the one who got me hooked on them. Finally, I got to taste Korean food and surprisingly I also liked it!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the quality of fine dining or restaurants where you can eat is what makes a city, a city or a place worth visiting. My non-biological twin before coming back home here in our city taught Koreans ESL (English as a Second Language). She worked in Baguio and at different academies. When she came here, one thing she said she really missed are Koreans and their food! She developed the taste when she got to know her students.

Luckily, last year, a Korean restaurant was opened in our little city. We finally got to get together to eat in the restaurant. I always let hubby get take out since the restaurant is near the school where he works.

Photographed above, is a Dolsot Bibimbap. Sizzling Bibimbap or Bibimbap served on a hot plate. Yum. Mixed toppings of veggies and some spice to add in it. Yummy. Eating dine in has its perks too. You get served with hot tea, a sampler size of kimchi and marbled potatoes. I like the marbled potatoes even it was sweet and I'm a diabetic. 

For more info and details, check out Brianne's Place's Facebook page. Their menu and more photos of their food are there.

My history with Bingo

I always looked forward to the times when my grandmother from California would come visit. She is an aunt of my mom who has lived in California for the longest time ever. I remember during my elementary years, she came and introduced a game to me which I've never heard of before. The game is called bingo.

She had her own complete set of cards and a little roulette for it. I had fun playing because I learned about alphabets and numbers at the same time. Plus, she made the game more enticing by sometimes using candies as prize. She came from California so imagine my delight at getting imported chocolates and candies.

The last time she was here, was the year I got pregnant with my daughter, around 2006. This time, Bingo has changed. She had her own machine that called out the numbers and showed which pattern would be the winning pattern this time. I got so amazed. My husband even enjoyed joining the game.

Fast forward to this year and she can't do what she usually does anymore because her husband got sick. She usually goes to bingo centers. She takes a bus and follows a religious schedule about it. How do I know? My mom went to the States and discovered that she still enjoys bingo days or bingo nights with her friends. Now, my grandmother with the help of her granddaughter now enjoys playing online bingo . She told us that she was taught by Marinella on how to play and she has a variety of bookmarked Bingo sites. So my grandfather and grandmother who taught me Bingo, now plays Bingo through the net and I think it's really great. They can do it at their own free time, have fun, at the comfort of their own homes!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Update

For a while, I thought I would never be able to blog again. I was in a panic mode when my account with Godaddy got locked. I wouldn't be able to renew this blog which is the only blog that I have been keeping for the longest time. I discovered that my godaddy account has been compromised which led to my other blog being  inaccessible and forwarded to an alien account.

I persistently contacted Godaddy support and got them to unlock my account. Thank goodness. I am also decided on blogging more often and reviving my cathartic meme. Letters That I'll Never Send. I hope to be able to do this starting February. So watch out folks!

I also bought a .info domain and followed the steps in this wonderfully informative blog. I will share them to you soon. I'm still looking for blog templates and thinking whether I should host them in wordpress or blogger. I still am not great at wordpress.

A New Discovery

Each Christmas vacation, my brothers-in-law come to visit. Last year, we went to the beach. Last May, we went to Alaminos. This time around, instead of the promised return to Manila Hotel, (my kids just like the bathtub), we were planning to go to Zoobic. Hubby had his field trip there a few months back so we thought it was time to bring the kids to the zoo.

The original plan was to go visit Zoobic Safari and Subic Ocean Adventure. While doing research, I changed my mind about it. I thought that Subic would tire the kids out even before they arrive even if we pass through SCTEX. Plus during my research of Zoobic, I found out about a different zoo which is nearer and perhaps more kid-friendly. I discovered Zoocobia and Paradise Ranch!

Paradise Ranch and Zoocobia became my first choice of alternative as places to visit. Included in the plan was a visit to Nayong Pilipino and El Kabayo but our real purpose was Zoocobia and if we could visit the other places that would be great too.

Zoocobia as my kids termed it, is a petting zoo. They got opportunities of close encounters with goats, birds,  a bearcat and other animals. They got to feed the goats with milk in baby bottles. They tried to feed lovebirds with birdseed but got scared and a little hurt by the claws of the birds that they ran screaming out of the bird cage. 

We got to Zoocobia first. The first thing we did was had lunch. We reached the place at 11 am. We left our house around 7:30. We had lunch at the restaurant in Zoocobia, and the food was great! Even my kids love the Breaded Chicken Fillet! They love breading, so that was my choice. For the guys in the photo, I chose the grilled pork chop. For my mom and I, we had breaded fish fillet which was served with a garden salad dressed with mustard and yummy potato fries. We ordered extra rice since it wasn't provided with the meal. The lunch was cheap, filling, and tasted great. My kids want to eat there everyday, so they tell me.

After lunch, we started the tour. A tour guide named Resty was our guide for our stay. We were told that we could watch a live animal show when we finished our tour. We got to see ostriches, an alpaca, Wagyu cow, greyhound dogs, love birds, owls, snakes, my kids enjoyed seeing a miniature horse and a Shetland horse.

1st photo at Zoocobia! We ate first before touring the place.

Horseback riding at Zoocobia

My Performing Kids with the Amazing Disney and the dog trainer.

Best of all , my kids loved being part of the show when they volunteered to help the dog do his tricks. In the photo above, my kids held the hoops as the dog jumped through each hoop. Then they held the hoop closer together so the dog could jump 2 hoops in a single jump.

I highly recommend that you visit Zoocobia if you want your kids to appreciate the animals.  Watch out for my next post where I talk about Paradise Ranch.

As for their rates, we got the P375, Paradise Ranch and Zoocobia tour.