Pit Stop in Macau~

Sorry for the delay with this post!  As mentioned in my last post, I went on vacation to the Philippines and Hong Kong with my best friend, and we made a stop in Macau during our trip.  There are two parts of Macau: Macau and Taipa.  We ended up taking the ferry to the Taipa side of Macau first. You can also get there by air (plane or helicopter).

After we went through immigration (if you go, you need to bring your passport!), we took a free shuttle to the Ventian hotel.  Yes, the Venetian...just like in Las Vegas. ^^;  I think Macau is known as the Las Vegas of Asia, with many, many casinos...though the Venetian is kind of by itself.  Most of the other casinos are on the Macau side of Macau.  Anyway, we wandered around the Venetian a bit, which was also decorated for Chinese New Year, looking for a place to eat.  We ended up at a delicious buffet, which led to us wandering around the Venetian some more, to try and digest all the food we ate, lol.

at the buffet: the food was delicious! especially the desserts!

around the venetian: chinese new year decor

At around 3 PM, we decided that we should actually go and see the rest of Macau, so we hopped on another free shuttle from the Venetian to the Macau ferry terminal (not to be mistaken with the Taipa ferry terminal).  From there, we took another free shuttle (courtesy of another hotel) to get to the main city area, where all the hotels and casinos are out.  Once there, we hopped off the bus and went looking for the history of Macau!  And we found it!  Well, some of it at least...all just a walk away from the hustle and bustle of the casinos...

Ruins of St. Paul's

Monte Forte

As it grew dark, we left the historical sites to do some souvenir shopping and even tried a porkchop bun, which is one of the most popular snacks in Macau.  It was pretty good!  I recommend trying one. :)

Macau was fun and I'd like to go back and explore more.  But for now, I leave you with one of my favorite picture of this trip~

Chinese New Year in Hong Kong?!

Hello~ Sorry for being MIA!  I actually took a little vacation and went to Hong Kong with my best friend.  We also went to the Philippines, because we both have relatives there.  Actually we had decided to go to the Philippines first, because we thought it would be cool to be there at the same time, since we had never been able to meet up there.  Hong Kong was our side trip...and we just happened to be there a few days before Chinese New Year so it was totally decked out in decorations!

In addition to pretty decorations, Hong Kong has yummy food! We had HK Cafe food, Chinese food, Thai food, and even McD's (because nothing else was open...)

baked porkchop from a hong kong cafe gets an A+ from the bestie

hole in the wall thai place my cousin took us to...really good food!
tom yum was especially delicious!

When we weren't eating, we were doing touristy things.  It wasn't my first time to Hong Kong, but it was my first time seeing all the tourist sites, and it was a lot of fun~!  Stuff like...

Watching the Symphony of Lights!

HK island at night

Going to the Peak!

ride the tram...

...to reach this gorgeous view!

Riding a Cable Car to Ngong Ping!

there is a trail to hike instead of taking the cable car...but it's a pretty long hike...

and at the end, you reach ngong ping village...

...where you can see the big buddha!

And going to Hong Kong Disneyland!

disney also decorates for chinese new year! :)

red envelopes!

a cute display window on main street~

even the mtr line to disneyland is disneyfied! ^^

In addition to Hong Kong, we also set aside a day for Macau.  I had never been, so it was a nice experience. We did more touristy stuff, and I took quite a few pictures, so I'll do a whole separate post for Macau.

And of course, can't forget a haul post! I did do some shopping at Sasa.  Can't stop by Hong Kong without going to Sasa!  Literally.  It is on EVERY corner! lol

So, I didn't actually celebrate Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.  Actually, it would be kind of hard, because I think everything is closed there on CNY since it's a holiday.  I celebrated it in the Philippines instead.  It was interesting to experience Chinese New Year there!  My first time!  Lots of noise, with all the firecrackers being set off and lion dancing on the streets.  But my family didn't actually do anything special, lol.  I did get a red envelope from my grandpa though. :D (And if you are wondering, my family is Chinese, but from the Philippines! ^^ There is actually quite a large Chinese community in the Philippines. However, we don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese...we speak Hokkien/Fukien. :])

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any pictures in the Philippines, because I kept forgetting to bring my camera out with me. =.=;;  Sorry~ I'm not really in tourist mode when I'm there, so I forget to bring it...

Alrighty~ See you in my next post!  Either a Sasa haul or Macau post~ Whichever pictures get edited first, lol.

FOODIE FILES: Birthday, Round 2 & 3!

The birthday celebrations continue!  I had dinner with my two friends that I previously mentioned in my other birthday post.  It was a birthday dinner for us to could celebrate together, just the three of us.  But one thing that always happens when we're together...we never know where to go.  xD  We just start driving and decide from there.  We're pretty much "go with the flow" kinda girls.  So it was up to me to decide this time, and I chose Korean.  My friends chose the restaurant, and it was one I hadn't been to before.  They had though, so I pretty much let them pick the food, lol.

ddeokbokki with the banchan

my favorite banchan! in my opinion, it's pretty hard to get this one wrong...

close up of the ddeokbokki

forgot what this one was called, but it's pork & kimchi with tofu on the side

doenjang jjigae

and our dessert: shaved ice! underneath all the ice and condensed milk goodness is mango pudding, lychee, and almond jelly. yummm!

Then, this past Sunday, we celebrated some more with some other friends.  I didn't decide anything this time...all I had to do was show up, lol.  We went to a place called Father's Office, which I hadn't heard of until now.  They're known for their burger, so that's what I got!

the burger was delicious!

their sweet potato fries were great too!

And, as it is a bar, I did get a drink:

Lindemans Framboise - my first time trying it! it was very good, too!

After this early dinner, we went bowling.  I...did not do so well, lol.  But it's all for fun, and we had a great time filled with many laughs.  And to continue our laughter filled fun, we decide to hang out at a boba place.  I got what has become my usual: honey green milk tea.  Usually, I don't get it with boba, but this time I did, because their boba is PINK!  Had to try it!

it's pink!

The last week has been a lot of fun!  But now I'm back in school...And August is ending, which means summer is almost ending too.  I'm gonna miss the longer, lazy days of summer, but I'm ready for fall and winter to come.  Can't wait for the weather to start cooling down, so I can break out my scarves and boots, and start wearing trendy fall colors. ^^

P.S. Hope to have my August favorites up soon~

FOODIE FILES: The Grilled Cheese Truck

Last night I was watching an episode of Unwrapped, on the Food Network, and the topic was midnight snacks. The Grilled Cheese truck was featured on it, and I knew I just had to try it!  So I looked up their schedule, and found out where they would be tonight.  Then, I went truck chasing!  Found the Grilled Cheese Truck with a pretty long line, at Cal Tech.

Didn't keep track of how long we waited, but it was a while.  We ended up ordering and sharing the Fully Loaded, a Brie Melt, a S'Mores Melt, and tater tots.

The Fully Loaded, also known as the Mac and Rib Melt, was the best out of all the things we ordered.  It's Mac and Cheese with pulled pork.  I thought the pulled pork was really yummy and the best part of the sandwich. ^^

The next sandwich is the Brie Melt with smoked turkey.  It has brie, a fig paste, almonds, and of course, the turkey.  Honestly, I didn't really like this one.  I usually love brie, so thought I'd love this...but something about it just didn't mesh to me.  Having the fig paste in it was interesting though.  It gave the sandwich a little sweetness that makes it something unique.

The last sandwich we got was a dessert one, the S'Mores Melt with bacon.  It's made of marshmallow cream, nutella, crumbled graham cracker, and bacon.  For those who have never tried bacon with something sweet, you must!  It's actually really good.  Next time you're having bacon for breakfast, try dipping it in maple syrup.  Super yummy!  Anyway, back to the sandwich...this one was okay.  You could mostly taste the nutella and the bacon...there was lots of bacon.  But it was still good.

Overall, this was okay.  I liked the Fully Loaded, but could live without the other two.  Also, I just feel like...it's grilled cheese, and I could make that, lol.  So, I probably won't be chasing this truck again...