New 2015 planned

Here's the look of the new Coffee bean And Tea Leaf planner for 2015.

                          Outside cover

                      I chose orange

                           There's sticker inside

          First page, personal info

               Brew Your Best Year

                     About the pretty journal

              Should start making my bucket list 

                   My fave part, trip planner

             Coupons for the year, one each month

           January, my birthday month

                 Monthly view

        Weekly view. More space to write on

       Back pocket inside to store momentos

Love, Mark

Macarons, macarons macarons

Baking French macarons for Monday's delivery 

Tim Ho(ho ho) Wan

Earlier today, my brother, neice and I went to Megamall. They accompanied me to a client meeting for a wedding cake this July 2015 (looking forward to that 😁). After the meeting, my brother wants to eat in a new restaurant they haven't tried. I suggested Tim Ho Wan since this is not available in Kuwait (where hencurrently resides together with his family) and for them to try their famous pork buns.

This is my 2nd time to eat at their megamall branch and still queue is pretty long. We waited about 30mins before we got our table.

We orderd beef and egg rice topping, pork ribs rice topping, pork buns, pork dimsum, shrimp dimsum, pork vermicelli, ice tea and cold barley. Service is good, food were brought to our table staggard as they were cooked to order. We were so full that we were not able to finish our food and brought them home.

Our total bill is P17++ (includes 10% service charge)

SERVICE: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

FOOD: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

AMBIANCE: 🌟🌟🌟

PRICE: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

                                                           With neice, Zoe and brother, Arj

                                                     People in queue

                                                     Menu

          Rice topped with beef and egg

       Pork ribs rice topping

          Our food

         Pork dimsum

       Famous  Pork Buns

PS. Photos were taken by my brother using his Samsung s4

Hello 2015

Fun Food Meet at Figaro Coffee

I was invited by my friend, who works for Figaro as an R&D chef to try their new dishes that came out recently in some of their corporate stores. 
I was excited because of two things, first, I'll get to try their new creations and second, I'll get to interact with other bloggers and Instagrammers.
The event started at around 230pm, with a handful of social media addicts present, taking pictures away, as plates of food were ushered on the table in front of us. Ms. Joan, and Mr. Mark from Figaro's marketing group introduced Figaro, their milestones and their concept behind the new food creations. 

Good thing, my lunch at another new restaurant wasn't that grand to even remember, I have so much space on my stomach to place all these food. LOL

Food tasting, started off with their Buon Lite Meal, Buon meaning good. So they're saying its lite on your tummy but still yummy.

Basil Penne Insalata, P150

This dish is served cold, pasta is covered in basil pesto dressing topped with sliced olives, crumbled feta cheese, ham and sun dried tomato. All the ingredients on this plate compliments each other. Its a great appetizer.

Tilapia en Papillote, P239

I am amazed with this entre, it was well-thought-of. Food pairing - fish and pasta is a good combination, not to mention the serving portion. The fish was cooked well, there's no fishy taste because of the lemon, capers and herbs that were used to cook it with. Pasta was al dente, choose your pasta to go along with the fish. You can choose with a variety of sauces available in store. 

Tilapia exposed

If you love interacting with food, then this will not fail you. This dish will come to you smoking hot, literally, steam coming out of the 'fish in parchment'. The parchment has a small opening, just tear it open and enjoy the yummy tilapia.

The third dish offered to us is a Filipino classic, Pancit Luglug.

Figaro's Pancit Luglog, P155

I have tried so many Pancit Luglog but this is one of the best I've eaten. The sauce was creamy and delicious, spritz of calamansi will balance it. Shrimp, sliced eggs and chicharon bits makes this ordinary dish, extraordinary.
 

For an additional of P15, The Pancit Luglog can turn into a meal, choose from Lemonade, Ice Tea or Ice Coffee in a 12oz cup and a slice of mango caramel.

Figaro also launched two cakes that day, The Blue Velvet Cake and Tablea Blackout Cake. 

The Cakes

I personally don't like purple in food, like ube (purple yam), their blue velvet cake somehow looks purple from a far. Probably with lightening around the mall, has changed its color (LOL). 

Blue Velvet Cake

But despite its color, I tried it anyway, and boy, was I wrong! This cake is good, the blueberry cream cheese frosting gave contrast to the moist blue sponge. This is best paired with tea or coffee. 

Blue Velvet Cake, interior

The other cake that was presented to us is the Tablea Blackout Cake. This is another personal favorite because of the use tablea in their cake. I love tablea because of the deeper chocolate taste which was so evident on this cake. 

Tablea Blackout Cake

 Figaro also introduced their new coffee, inspired from the coffee making technique in Vietnam, called Kape Indochine. Using Figaro's barako coffee, they brew their coffee Vietnamese style and serve it with condensed milk.

Kape Indochine (hot)

Iced Kape Indochine

And of course, the day wont end without a group picture. 

Figaro Marketing Group with social media experts

You may try all these fantastic dishes at all Figaro Stores in Metro Manila and soon nationwide. You may also visit Figaro's website at www.figarocoffee.com. Find them on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Jux...what??

I have been a member of blogger for many years, but with so many changes going on the web, there are a lot of new blogging platform. 

Introducing, JUX.com

What I like about Jux is its easy to use interface. It showing many ways to blog like write an article which is blogging basic, then there's the BlockQuote, where your entries are on quotes. There's also the slideshow where you show pictures and a lot more.

They are new and indeed they're not perfect, there's so much room for more developments. I cant wait to use jux.com 

so...

check marklesaca.jux.com 

Toast Box Breakfast

When in Singapore, my trip is never complete if I dont eat in one of those kopi tiam (coffeeshop) and my favorite meal is their Kaya Toast and Tea. Luckily, Toast Box (a Singaporean brand) is here in Manila and I can enjoy this singaporean breakfast staple anytime.

Kaya Toast is a toasted bread with Kaya spread and butter. Kaya is a thick spread which is made with coconut, sugar with pandan flavor.

I prefer my eggs soft, LOL! that's 2 mins in boiling water. Dont worry about Salmonela, water temperature is more than 100C. And it will give you this runny egg texture. Add pepper and soy to taste. 

How to eat this meal? Dip your kaya toast in the egg and take a bite. The taste is unbelievably yummy, its sweet, salty, crispy, soft. Thats a lot of flavor and texture in every bite.

I am not a coffee drinker, lets say I prefer tea over coffee. Toast box here in the Philippines doesn't show how they brew their tea or tea-pulling, the visual art of brewing tea, which was usually done in Singapore kopi tiams. Despite the lack of the visual tea/coffee technique, they're tea with condensed milk still tastes great. 

Kaya Toast + Soft Boiled Egg + Teh = Perfect breakfast food. 

Breakfast Enchiladas

Here's one of my favorite breakfast food... Enchiladas.

Its so easy to make and customizing it the way you want it.

Ingredients

First, with little olive oil, saute the onion, mushroom, bell pepper

and ham for a few mins until ham is cooked.

Add the scrambled and and cheese. I cook this untouched until the egg is almost set at the bottom of the pan. Then I put the pan inside the oven to cook the top. Baking it for about 10 mins, 325F.

I usually pair this with bread but since I have available tortilla  in the fridge, Im going to use this.

Tadaa.... 

You can also add spinach to this dish if you have them.

Blog to remember

As I ate breakfast alone today, It kept me thinking what should I do with my blog?
Should I continue writing? Or just completely ignore and just write whenever I feel like it.
I know I have so much going on with my life that I want to document. My memory is poor in remembering things but I try to remember as many events and things.
I think the purpose of this blog is for me not to forget things.

I'll do just that.

Yummy Singapore

1. Lau Pa Sat

When visiting Singapore, you must dine at Lau Pa Sat on Boomtat rd. beside Telok Ayer Market. They serve the best satay in the island. Knowing Singapore's law on food sanitation and hygiene, these street food are completely safe to eat. 

Satay are marinated, skewered and grilled meat served with sauce. Meat can be chicken, pork, beef, mutton or shrimp. The popular sauce partnered with these deletable grill meat is peanut sauce.

When you arrive at Lau Pa Sat, you'll be approached by sellers from various satay food stalls, but its still upto you where you want to seat. Usually food stalls serve tables on their area. We usually dine in at satay food stall 7 because they received The Best Satay Award couple of years ago.

Best Satay stall 7

Satay sampler: beef and chicken

2. Just Acia

Another favorite restaurant that I always go to every time in Singapore is Just Acia. I have a weakness for soft shell crabs, they are not prepared extraordinaryly but just fried until crispy. Another great thing about this restaurant, is every diners get unlimited drinks at their soda station and ice cream. They have about 10 flavors of ice cream to try. You can make your own float, since they have soda fountain.

Chicken teriyaki and soft shell crabs

3. Kaya Toast

This is one of my favorite Singaporean/Malaysian snack. Its widely available throughout the island. I usually go to Ya Kun Kaya Toast that made business since 1940s.

Kaya is a spread made with eggs, sugar, coconut milk and pandan flavor. Kaya is spread on toasted bread on one side and butter on the other. Its best eaten with soft boiled egg with soy and pepper.

Kaya Toast, soft boiled eggs and tea

4. Garrett Popcorn

One of the Best popcorn Ive eaten. This shop originally started in Chicago and Singapore is their only franchise in Asia. Garrett's popcorn have big corn kernels and without the presence of the hull. Its always pleasing to bite into it. The flavors I love is the Chicago Mix - popcorn in Caramel and Cheese flavor. They have other flavors some of them have almonds, pecan and macadamia nuts.

Did I mention, Garrett Popcorn was listed in Oprah's Favorite Things twice?

Garrett popcorn bag

Store front

Chicago Mix in instagram filter

5. Chocolate Research Facility

For chocoholics like me, you shouldn't miss this shop when in Singapore. They have over 100 flavors to choose from. And when you want bubble gum flavor, you will indeed have that flavor without the gum sticking on your teeth. Their flavor combinations are amazing and they really made the chocolate taste like the real thing.

Nice packaging

Lychee Martini and Peach Melba