There were days when I had buckets full of cherry tomatoes while watching a movie back in the States. Those days are gone because it is so hard to find fresh and sweet cherry tomatoes for a good deal here in Bangkok, until 2 days ago when I found them at Grossi!
I took the photo of these cherry tomatoes during a photo shoot of Guy Grossi, the famous chef from Melbourne. It was amazing to be at the set during the shoot because I got to learn so many photographing techniques. Anyway, I was carried away taking pictures of the props at the set but after looking thru all of my photos taken that day (2 days ago) I found this picture, the cherry tomatoes resting on a marble table of the Grossi Trattoria & Wine Bar at Intercontinental Bangkok to be very refreshing.
I got to admit that… half of those cherry tomatoes disappeared… but I really don’t know what happened to them!
Yumm… Sweet… Juicy… Refreshing!..
After the visit at the Wat Pra Kaew in the Grand Palace area, we ended up walking until late evening and that was when we start driving to Yaowarat for dinner. Yaowarat is famous or being the Chinatown of Bangkok. The district is filled with all varieties of Asian food! Another reason for people to go visit is Yaowarat is gold. That’s right, the majority of the chain jewelry shops have had their beginnings here in this very district, Yaowarat!
All the signs are the advertisements are from jewelry shops! I wasn’t staying late enough to wait and took the picture when it was all lit at night. We had to leave because it was starting to rain and there were no places to stay dry!
A week has passed since the start of work, and now I must admit that it is quite exhausting to be up 5 am and get home by midnight. Traffic is just beyond words. How can Bangkok turn a normal 20 mins trip into a 2 hours trip?! I just don’t get it.
For now… rest! for the next 7 hours before getting back to work Saturday morning!
It was pouring rain outside and as you can see, many people were standing below outside the window with umbrellas waiting for a concert to start. What concert? I had no idea. That evening, I didn’t bring an umbrella so I went to walk in the mall, Siam Paragon, and explore some parts of it. Siam Paragon is huge, unlike those malls in the States like Macys. Malls in Thailand have at least 5 floors! That was one of the biggest sources of confusion that my professors faced when I was doing my Thesis at SCI-Arc. They think that no one would ever walk in the mall any higher than the 2nd floor (because that was typically the maximum we had in the States). In order to convince them, I had to provide so many example and show them the cultural differences, so that I can move to the next stage of my design. I learned that in order to have a successful design, it is wise to know the cultural difference of each location to make the design work. The same can be applied to our lives.
First is to know who we really are (not whom other want you to be)… Secondly…there is no second. Because… YOU, yourself… will show yourself the way. ^_^
I have no idea how that related to the picture I posted today, just a random thought that came to my mind after I started to blog. But anyway, I think one day I am going to try some desserts at the restaurant. Sweet!
Today, I will be heading out for interview for an internship in Bangkok. Wish me luck! Other news is that I will be servicing my computer with AppleCare. There fore I won’t have my computer to work with for at least 10 days! that is what they told me. 10 days without my laptop… that is going to be hard! But hey! it’s not that bad. I’ll figure something out so that I can continue blogging. Actually I already figured it out ^_^
So just before I go to the interview and have my computer service, I would like to blog this one. I took this photo the first time I visit Madrid but it was the 2nd time that I visit Madrid that I get to enjoy a meal there. As you can see the whole line of seats in front of the building, they all belong to one restaurant, Cafe de Oriente. They separate in sections according to menu. And that cause a bit of confusion when we wanted to sit at another location.
In the end we sat right at the corner right behind where the boy in the yellow shirt is standing. It was a really sunny day, so hot that I remember the camera became really hot as I left it in the sun and the table was also so hot that I couldn’t lean my arm on it! The food was great as was the mist of water. I remember how we were waiting for the mist to turn on… it was really that hot. We kept having one orange juice after another. It was really refreshing. So refreshing that it was gone just seconds after it was served!
It took us about an hour to walk around the city centre of Orgiva, Spain to find a tapas place. This is one of the restaurant that we ran into, however, Simon didn’t seem to be satisfied with the menu, hence we didn’t get to eat there. However, I love the simplicity of the restaurant with the use of primary color to decorate the table, simple white chairs, roofing and street sign. It is amazing how they have turned an alley into outdoor dining and well greening of the area.
The potted-plant and the use of simply chair probably made the customer feel at home while dining there. It must have been a great experience for a simply dine out of an evening. Good Evening, indeed!
Last Saturday was cloudy, gloomy, and cold because of that I stayed in. Yet, I looked for an alternative way of traveling. I watched Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum. Yes, I did watch 3 of them continuously and it wasn’t just the story I was watching, it was the cities the movies were in. Most of the locations are in Europe and are very near Malaga, however, I won’t have the time to travel to any of those places. The classes were just as busy as it could get and the breaks are not long enough for me to plan a decent trip.
So from watching all the Bourne movies, I noticed that the ending has to do with him going to see his girl at a very cozy shop by a beach where she owned and operated the place by herself. And that just made me wonder, how life would be like if I were to have a little cozy shop somewhere that I owned and operated along the beach. Just sit there and do nothing, waiting for customers, relaxing in the sun, feeling the breeze, and just wasting my days away day after day. And for that, it reminded me of this shop that I walked by in Puerto Banus. It wasn’t open when I was there but it must have been nice to own something like this, where every day work is a vacation.
Day dreaming is my job… haha (or jaja in Spanish) Well, I am not exactly day dreaming, I am planning my future toward it. The concern isn’t how but “when”. When???… Soon !!!
I don’t get to experience this type of view much. I remember there was only “this” one, in Seattle, Washington. On top of the Space Needle… Freezing COLD and WINDY !! This one was on December 30, 2008. Hans, Heather and I had dinner here, fortunately enough, they had a table available for walk-in. We weren’t planning to eat here, it was just that after we arrived at the hotel in Seattle, as usual, they decided to stay in the room for a while. Mean while, I went out and started walking and that is when I spoted the ALIEN space craft and start walking toward it. By the time I got there, a half hour later, (and it was around 7pm, freezing cold), H2 called me, so I invited them over to the Space Needle for the restaurant. The food was amazing, the server was great, the view … just amazingly crazy, especially when the restaurant rotates while you are dining there, The Sky City. We got to see the entirety of Seattle by just sitting there. It was A la carte’ style, with full silver service. The cost??? Let’s not mention it. Haha. Let’s say that, it was an experience that I will never forget…
Another one was actually on December of 2007, but it was on top of the City of Angels. It was at the Tallest building in Thailand, Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Bangkok. The restaurant here doesn’t rotate like the one in Seattle. However they have an out door balcony that rotates, much faster than the one in Seattle. It was amazing memory, an unforgettable one, none the less, they have a live singer, by a Lady and a Gentleman with a guitar that walks around the restaurant and sings songs around the restaurant. And woah… they walked to our table and I still remember the song, very clearly and the moment was just… unexplainable.
“This is the best cultural night we’ve had in Les Roches thus far” said one of the students in the reception. “Woww, I really feel like I am in Japan and the lounge looks amazing” said another student. “The dinner experience and the restaurant decoration is awesome” said a student waiting in a line for his meal. “I can definitely go for another Nakata brouchette” a student compliment on one of our special disk that was name after “what they called me at school, Nakata” So yea, I represented that dish !! haha.
We started to organized things since noon and it promptly started at 7:00 pm. Everyone has their drinks, food, games, more drinks and is entertained by a fashion show. It wasn’t over until 11:00 pm, or somewhere around there. After all the clean up, we went out for a drink at “small world” to celebrate our completion of the event, which resulted in the picture show to you below.
We have learned so many things, in so little time. Most of the thing we learn, in my opinion, are the things that we shouldn’t do again next time. We all make mistakes but let us not concentrate on the mistakes, let us think about how do we not repeat the same mistake again, or how to make things better the next time around.
First of all, before I blog any further today, I would like to say that… the internet at the campus is beyond!!!!! words!!! I am way too upset to even start writing. For the internet, there are 2 choices, connected but slow… way slower than dial-up… and another choice is… not connected at all! It is just depends on the routers mood. My mood right now is… !@#$!@#$!$#
Okay… that was unprofessional, but I just wanted to share this experience to the world. Anyways, while the router still in good mood, I am trying to blog as fast as I can before the router goes out on me again.
For today, it is Asti Ristorante Cucina Italiana in San Diego, California. hours of driving from Los Angeles to San Diego, we craved Italian food, so we went to this restaurant for dinner after checking in at U.S. Grant, San Diego. Because we didn’t make a reservation, it took us about 20 minutes wait before we get a table.
The food here was superb, we ordered Lasagna and Panni because we felt like something really CHEESY. Starting off with bread and butter, we ended up with an extra order bread and butter because they were so good!!!
Well, I choose this picture today because we have a project to start our own restaurant that has to have a marketing plan, menu, theme and kitchen plan, so the asti restaurant inspired me to wanted to open one that is as successful as this, with people lining up waiting for tables, providing great food and service.
Now… I just want some of that Lasagna and Panni!!!!
I noticed regarding my patterns, that I am likely to post photos that are related to some source of activities that I did during the day. Today is no exception. We had a Stage Fair in the lobby area and in the Bristol bar. The event consisted of students presenting their experiences during their internships around the world. The way the table was organized reminded me of the moment I took this picture at Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant which I remember as being in the middle of nowhere; check out the map here.
Because it is in the middle of nowhere, I wasn’t really prepared for what it would be inside. To my surprise… it is nicely decorated. It feel nice and cozy in the restaurant. As for the food, I tried the “Mediterranean Omelet”, a really interesting meal for breakfast because the omelet is sweet and sour in the same time.
This is a bad idea, blogging about food at night… makes me really want to eat something right now. Well, the food here are way too oily / unhealthy for me. Because of that, I am on no-meat diet… again!!! But I still eat seafood, just no more beef, chicken, pork or lamb. I have enough of those for a while.
So what do they call people who only eat seafood? Seafoodarain???
I noticed regarding my patterns, that I am likely to post photos that are related to some source of activities that I did during the day. Today is no exception. We had a Stage Fair in the lobby area and in the Bristol bar. The event consisted of students presenting their experiences during their internships around the world. The way the table was organized reminded me of the moment I took this picture at 