Rain Rain Go Away

Many of you may wonder what I do to amuse myself on those long rainy hours, days, weeks that hits Manila sometimes.

 
Well I’m glad you asked.  There’s a lot of amusing myself really. I have to be pretty resourceful.
 
 
Luckily I have friends to pass the time with.

 
 
 
I spend a lot of time driving my car.
 
 
No, not that car! This one.
 
 

What you don’t take your pants off to drive?

I sometimes help mommy cook but mostly I just help with the eating.

We go to school, which I guess isn’t all bad.

If I’m lucky mommy breaks out the clay. 

 
If I’m really lucky mommy or daddy take me to the coffee shop. 
 
 
And if I’m really really lucky, we get to go here.
 

 
 
So, rain in Manila. Sometimes you’re not so bad!

 

 

Bake Sale Brownies

The embassy had a bake sale today to help the local embassies employees that lost their homes and belongings in the recent typhoon.  Such a worthy cause I decided I had to pull out the big guns. 

Of course our building decided to try and thwart my every move – first by turning off all electricity in the building from  9-5 which means the stove and oven both didn’t work and then by eating my extra bag of chocolate chips…ok that may have been us. But despite all the obstacles the brownies were made.  To quote Randy, these are the tastiest things he’s ever tried.  They are super rich and thick and full of yummy chocolate.  I used hersheys semi-sweet chocolate chips and Ghirardelli‘s bittersweet chocolate. 

Here is the recipe.  These are defintiely on the easier side so go and make these!  I left the nuts out but they’re probably even better with the nuts!

Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Browines
Ingredients

1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.

For the birds

We’re always looking for fun toddler friendly stuff to do around Manila, especially now that Grandma’s gone and we’re looking for something to fill the hours.

So my friend Allison told me about this awesome bird feeding that they have every morning near our house.  I was picturing a yard full of doves with maybe some parrots around saying hello.

We pulled up and walked over to a square in the middle of a strip mall.  We were looking for the birds when all of a sudden a couple pigeons flew over.  We pulled out some crackers and a bunch more flew over.   While it wasn’t what we were expecting it went over amazingly.  Adam, animal lover of all sorts, was so happy. 

 

   

 
I asked Adam to hold hands with Victoria.  He put the two cars down that he’s been holding in his hands every waking moment these days and all the birds flew away.  It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
 
 
 
 
This might be my favourite picture ever!  

 
 
They were so shocked and a little nervous after that but they still wanted to be near the birds and keep feeding them. So they went in together.  Power in numbers kids.
 
 

 

 
All in all it was a great morning.  We’ll definitely be going back. 
 

 
We even squeezed in some playground time!
 

 
 

 

Singapore with Grandma Gretch

Grandma arrived just an hour after Randy left so I had little time to miss him.  The best part about having two different people to see Singapore with was by the second time I could streamline our sightseeing and see all the parts that were the best and skip some of the rest.  Also with Randy I know his heart is in trying new foods and Gretch’s is in shopping so I got to spend two days eating and two days shopping.  Pretty perfect if you ask me.

I decided to start Gretchen off on the right food. Chili Crab!  Our good foodie friend Erika had recommended Long Beach restaurant.  So we got dressed for dinner and headed over.  Second time in a row, I wasn’t disappointed.  The crab was just as good as the night before (also slightly more expensive so maybe Newton Hawker stand 11 is the way to go).  But we had a great time opening up every inch of that crab.  The service left a lot to be desired (which for Singapore is surprising) but the crab was so good I would still go back!

Tuesday we had a lot of sightseeing to cover so we headed off to China town.  I knew Gretchen would love it and since it had rained that first day I hadn’t really gotten to see much of it.  It was great and had lots of fun finds.  We found some adorable Christmas ornaments (not pictured because a certain little boy already accidentally broke mommys), a little poster with Adam’s Chinese sign- the rabbit and lots of little knickknacks.  It was a really fun morning and there were tons more I would have bought if a certain husband hadn’t already mentioned that we have quite enough little things to frame and hang around the house that are still not framed and hanged around the house. Noted husband.  With the same husband missing to lug around our heavy camera here is the one Iphone pic from our morning.  Enjoy 🙂

After China town is was back to Haji lane and Arab quarter.  I thought Gretchen would like it and I may have had an ulterior motive. I had seen a little rabbit for Adam the day before and hesitated to get it. So….I went back and bought it!  Another reason repeating sight seeing is great, you can think about things you want to buy and if you still want it in a couple days, well then it must have been meant to be. 

Hello little bunny!

Back to the amazing textiles that were just mocking my hesitation to have clothes made.
After all that shopping we were ready for some lunch…so I took Gretchen to the soup dumpling place we had gone to the day before.  This was partly just me wanting those soup dumplings again but mostly because I thought Gretchen had to try them!
We had big plans to head to the night zoo that night, but after some research we realized it would be almost an hour each way.  Without Adam, we opted for a quite night in at the hotel instead where there was free wine and food in the Club room.  We met some Americans there for a training and spent the night chatting and eating. Pretty perfect night.
We missed Adam but it was nice to have a couple days with just Gretchen and me.  When Gretchen first told me she was coming for a whole month, I have to admit I was a little nervous.  After all a month is a mighty long time to spend with anyone.  But the month really flew by and we had a great time.  Adam was in heaven the whole month and spent a couple heart breaking days after Grandma left looking all around the house for ‘Andama’.  It was amazing having my mom around to cook her yummy food, go to lunch with, come shopping with me, sightsee or just do nothing with.  We miss her around here tons.  It’s boring to go to the grocery store alone 🙂
When asked what Grandma’s top three were about Manila here they were:
1.  Swimming in the pool with Adam, whenever we could. Wish we had more days of good weather!!!!

2. Having Michelle to wash, iron and clean after all of us.

3. Giving Adam his baths and reading him good night books with Fo and Randy.

We miss you Andama!

Gardens and more

The Botanical Gardens in Singapore. This deserves an entire post by itself. I went twice and I could go every day. It’s called Gardens but it’s really a beautiful large park, with different gardens inside, like the Orchard Garden.

It was such a beautiful park and on my first step inside made me miss Regent Park, Central Park and Lincoln Park all at once. It made me realize with an ache that Manila is missing a green space so much. The Botanical Gardens were full of people walking, jogging, strolling with their babies, doing yoga, having picnics. I didn’t realize until that moment how much I miss parks. If this park was near me I would take Adam every day. We would go for walks, have picnics, meet friends and talk and snack while our kids played in the grass. People, don’t take your parks for granted!!

It made me think of Regent Park in London where we would spend all our sunny days in London and even some snowy ones. It’s where we wrote our wedding vows and where we spent our first Fourth of July as a married couple with all our friends. We would spend hours having picnics there with just cheese and snacks bought from La Formagerie, the amazing cheese shop on Marlyebone High that was right on our way to the part.

Why yes, that is the famous truffle brie that used to bring all our friends over for parties 🙂 Gavin, I’m looking at you.

It made me think of Central Park, which Daphne and I once decided to walk across diagonally thinking- how large could it possibly be…turns out pretty large for two girls with no water and no snacks and no cash on us to buy either. This was the place we took Adam at six months to take pictures so we could remember New York after all our travels. This is where Randy and I a million years ago (ok maybe 9) went to a party together at Central Park Zoo for his summer internship at a law firm only to leave separately. What a difference a year makes 🙂

This park made me ache for Lincoln Park, the little park up the block from us in DC, where we took pictures of Adam before we even knew who was in there. This is where we spent our first mothers day and Adam took some of his first steps and where we first played in a playground with all our friends and laid on a blanket together under the shade and enjoyed just being out of the house, which as everyone knows sometimes with a baby is no easy feat.
 
 
 
 
Singapore Botanical Gardens was such a beautiful, calm, serene park it’s hard to imagine being anything but happy here. The trees and landscaping are amazing. There’s a rain forest section, a ginger garden, a beautiful stage where you can picture classical music playing at sunset while you sit on a blanket.
Just when you think it can’t get better you see there’s an orchid garden. Orchids are my favorite. Even though I can’t keep them alive for more than a couple of months I love having them in my house. I currently have three which have long lost their flowers but I’m hoping someday I can get them to reflower.
The orchids were amazing. There were flowers in every color.
So,as I see it there are two options, either we move to Singapore so I can go to the Gardens every day or I buy enough plants to fill my apartment and make me feel like I’m living in the park. Votes please?

Singapore – food, food and more food.

Two weeks ago we headed off the Singapore.  Randy and I went for two nights while Grandma watched Adam and then Randy flew back and Grandma came to Singapore.  I got the best end of this deal because I got to spend five days in Singapore.  I basically chose the best of what we had seen and eaten the first two days and do it again with my mom.

I missed seeing this face for five days but I do think it’s nice every once in a while to travel without Adam.  It’s a different experience and it was great for Randy and me to have a couple days alone and for my mom and me to have a couple days alone.

 
 
Grandma loved her time alone with Adam.  Randy was looking forward to his days alone with Adam too but unfortunately Adam got sick and there was a typhoon in Manila.  So…Randy was stuck in the house for three days with a very cranky little boy.  Is it wrong to say I was a little bit happy to miss the typhoon and a sick and cranky, albeit cute, little boy?
 
 
 

Back to Singapore, Randy and I left early Saturday morning and we got to our hotel around noon.  In typical Ali fashion we decided to get right to some sightseeing, as we were in Singapore this meant right to some eating.  We headed over to the Hawker stands in Maxwell right near China town. 

This is basically Randy’s dream.  Stalls and stalls of food in Singapore, where food is amazing.  Tons of stuff to try and everything is super inexpensive!  All the stalls have to meet strict Singapore food standards and are even rated.  This made me feel better since my stomach is nowhere near as strong as Randy’s when it comes to street food. 

We were about three feet into the Hawker stalls when Randy saw this ridiculous line.  Keep in mind NO OTHER stall had a line.  So of course Randy decides this must be the best stall and we need to wait on this line.

 
Luckily we had some snacks on the way.  Like this fried oyster cake.  This was in Randy’s top three things he ate in Singapore.

Hey if it’s good enough for Bourdain (although I’m pretty sure he didn’t have to wait on two long lines – one to order your food and one to wait for them to cook it…actually, maybe there wasn’t a long line before Bourdain reviewed this stand??) it’s good enough for the Alis.  This stall is the most famous chicken and rice stall in Maxwell and it was delicious.

They have a whole bunch of shared tables in the middle of all the stalls to sit and eat at.  This older couple came and sat down with us and we started talking to them.  It was great because they told us all about the stalls and even got some yummy seafood noodles for us to try.  They also explained how the famous chicken in chicken and rice is made.  It’s boiled first, then dunked in cold water, then back in hot water to reheat.  It keeps the chicken super moist and soft.  This was in Randy’s top three favourite foods he ate in Singapore. 

After all that food we decided to walk around China Town which was right across the street, but it started to rain so we took it as a sign to head back to the hotel and rest up before dinner.

We decided for dinner to go to Ku De Ta.  We had gone to this restaurant in Bali and the one in Singapore has an amazing view of the whole city.  We were still pretty full from our huge lunch (hey if dishes are only three bucks we may as well have 5…right?) so we just ordered a couple of appetizers.  The food was good but definitely not as good as Bali and not as good as the Hawker stands.  But the view made it all worth it. 

After our three hour nap, we still had energy after dinner so we headed over to Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. This hotel opened in 1887 and was where the Singapore Sling started. Also our friend Erika recommended it so we have to go where she sends us as she likes good food and drinks even more than us (and anyone who knows us knows we like those things a lot).  The hotel was stunning.   Also it’s just amazing to think that Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Hitchcock all stayed there and wrote about this hotel.

 
The bar was definitely not at all like I pictured it.  It sort of reminded me of a Binghamton Bar (in the best possible way) although this could be due to the fact that the band was playing mostly Bruce Springstein.  There were peanuts galore to eat and everyone had a pink Singapore Sling in hand.  (Side note- this bar is NOT cheap, but we were paying for the experience and since our lunch was so cheap we felt ok paying that much for a drink).

After our full and fun day we headed home and passed out. The next morning we were up and out at a decent hour and started a full day of sightseeing and shopping.  We started off in Burgis, a big shopping center full of stalls.  We did manage to snag Adam a spiderman watch for a dollar but besides that there wasn’t much to buy.  So we walked over to the Arab quarter.  Randy had read about Haji Lane which was the cutest little block I’ve seen since my London days probable.  I should have know a lane is always going to be cuter than a street, block or avenue. Maybe not a mews, but just about everything else.  Most of the stores were closed but it was nice just to look in the windows.

 
There was even an adorable coffee shop where we stopped to have some coffee and a snack.
 

I can’t decide which of these pictures are cuter so I’m posting all four.
 
Then we walked over to Arab street which was full of textile stores.  If I only had more knowledge about having clothes made I would have bought tons of material but I’m still scared of this unknown.  I need to learn because it’s so cheap and worthwhile, especially in Asia.  In Manila, you can have someone sew anything for you for a great price but the fabrics aren’t always the best.  Maybe next time Singapore.
 
 
 
In the center of the Arab quarter was a beautiful mosque and even a wedding!
 
 
 
 
After all that walking we were hungry so we headed over to the Gardens by the Bay to have some lunch and see the Gardens.  I had heard so much about the Botanical Gardens before I went to Manila but I hadn’t heard much about the Gardens By the Bay which were new.  We grabbed lunch there and it was definitely our least favourite meal in Singapore but it was the only thing nearby. 
 
Then we headed to the gardens.  This place was definitely different.  There were all these tall ‘trees’ full of plants.  You could take an elevator to the tallest one and walk across a bridge that connects them all.  It was a nice view but I have to say I liked the Botanical Gardens (more on that later) much, much better. 
 
But the Gardens by the Bay were definitely interesting and did have some pretty views.
 
 

 
For dinner that night we headed to Newton, another group of famous Hawker stands. 
 
 
I liked Newton better than Maxwell, but I think this can be summed up in two words- Chili Crab.  I AM ADDICTED.  This was by far my first, second and third favourite thing I ate the whole time I was in Singapore.  It was also on Randy’s top three list.  It’s a whole crab cooked in this delicious spicy tomato sauce.  It’s the messiest thing in the world to eat and I could care less. I ate every since bite of that crab!
 
 
 
We also got some carrot cake….but I think I was expecting something sweet so when this egg, potato dish came out I was a bit disappointed.  It was delicious but I also think I was craving more chili crab.

 
 
The next day we only had a couple hours before Randy’s flight so we walked around the Botanical Gardens and then headed to the yummy lunch!
 
We found this amazing soup dumpling place a couple blocks away from our hotel in the Ion Center.  It’s called Paradise Destiny and never has a name been so fitting.  Paradise indeed! These soup dumplings were amazing.  The chili crab stole my heart but I will crave these soup dumplings for the rest of my life.  They came out piping hot and were served with a vinegar soy sauce and man, were they delicious.  And, only a couple dollars for a half dozen. 
 
You know you’re in for a treat when you can see them making their own noodles and dumplings.
 

 
Soup dumplings in the back, garlic cukes on the left and yummy dumpling soup front and center.  All delicious. The original soup dumplings (not pictured, like the pink ones below but white) were in Randy’s top three..this makes four but who’s counting right?

 
 
Poor Randy didn’t want to leave after all of this but alas his time was up.  He was supposed to go back to work on Tues, but the office ended up being closed Monday and Tuesday due to the typhoon, so he could have stayed.  But someone needed to go home and take care of our baby so Grandma could come! 
 
Singapore,  we will definitely be back.  Keep some chili crab and soup dumplings on the back burner please 🙂
 


 

Showing Grandma around

Grandma has been visiting me in Manila for a whole month! It went so fast and she’s already on a plane back to New York.  I miss her already but we had loads of fun while she was here.

I introduced her to all of my friends.

I took her to school.

We played.

 
I showed her how Daddy and I amuse ourselves while we wait for our pizza on Sundays at Aria.
 

 
I took her to my favourite spots like Fully Booked.  And since she’s my grandma she got me lots of cake and doughnuts while she was here 🙂

 
I showed her my musical talents.
 
 

We celebrated my nanny Maria’s birthday.

And I showed her my other friends (the ones mommy’s afraid of)

 
I showed her all Manila had to offer, even two typhoons and lots and lots of rain.
 

 

 
But with this face and all the playing we had to do we hardly minded.  

 
I miss you Grandma Gretch! Come back soon please!!
 
 

Aquarium – Take two

Ever since our last trip to the aquarium, which ended in tears at the gift shop for at least two of us, we haven’t been back.  With Grandma Gretch visiting I felt brave enough to try again.

I’m so glad I went back.  Adam, even the animal lover, has a soft spot in his heart for fish and loves them so it was great to see him enjoying all there was to see.  I’m going to have to get this boy a fish tank. 

First we went to see the sea lion show.  This was a big hit.  I was worried about sitting there for the full show but Adam was enthralled.  He loved watching the sea lions play with the balls and jump and swim in the water.

 
Then we walked around inside.  It was a lot more enjoyable this time that Adam wasn’t sick and in a MUCH better mood.  It was nice walking around and showing Grandma the aquarium.
 

 
 
After the aquarium we hit up the gift shop where Grandma got Adam some toy fishes and we stopped to have a snack and watch the boats in the Manila Bay.  All in all a great day.  It’s always great to have visitors that force us to step out of our normal routine and see things that we normally wouldn’t.