Jenn's Journalings

I decided to make a post about food – so this may not be a good one to read if you’re hungry. 🙂  I like to eat and I often take pictures of my food when I travel overseas.  I have included pictures of food I have had here in the Philippines and also some things I have made.  (YES, I am actually doing some cooking – and even enjoying it!)  I am enjoying cooking some things and learning how to adapt recipes based on what I have access to here in the Philippines.

This is my first trip to Jollibee since I returned to the Philippines.  It is a fast food place similar to McDonald’s.  The spaghetti you see on my plate is different than in the States though – it’s sweet, cold, and has tiny hotdog-type pieces cut up in it.  It’s not too bad as long as you aren’t expecting Italian spaghetti. 🙂

This is the first dish I cooked here in the Philippines – hamburger helper.  This is one of my favorite recipes from home.  It was a little drier than I’m used to, but turned out pretty well.  I’m going to try to improve it a little more in the next week or so.

The first Saturday after school started (August 3) Ruth (my housemate) and I decided to go out for lunch.  We went to Abreeza, one of the malls here, and found a restaurant called Mooon. (yes, the 3 letter o’s are intentional)  They had many choices including a few Mexican options.  I enjoyed the taco-type dish I ordered; I can’t remember the name now.

They also had some soda choices I haven’t seen before.  Ruth tried the Dalandan soda and I tried the Calamansi soda.  Dalandan was similar to an orange flavor, but maybe a little sour.  Calamansi is similar to a lemon or lime flavor.  I really liked the Calamansi soda.

We have had 2 long weekends in a row, which has been a nice break.  Our first Monday off I went to Paradise Island with a family from school.  (There will be another post with pictures from that trip).  While I was there I tried Halo Halo, which means mix mix.  It is ice, ice cream, and a mixture of fruit, cornflakes, red beans, corn, and whatever else you might happen to have.  This was the first time I have had this.  It’s a popular Filipino food, but I didn’t try it when I was here before.  You mix everything together and eat it.  It just doesn’t taste the same unless you mix all of the ingredients together.  I know some of the ingredients look like jell-o, but they’re really different types of fruit.

I also made a cheese ball – more like a cheese spread.  I tried it my first day in the Philippines since Becky’s mom sent it with us as a snack for school.  It was so good that I got the recipe.   I had a chance to make it this week and it turned out well!  The outside has parsley on it, which is why it looks green.  I am so thankful that I can buy cream cheese and other cheese here.