Hong Kong Wanderlust 4 of 4

Somewhere in our blog is a series on Hong Kong (1,2,3) and I realized, it's supposedly four parts... with the fourth entry languishing in the Drafts folder not knowing when it'll be published. Well, today's the day as I noticed that we haven't had a food post for a long while.

Food is definitely out of the question in every travel. For our Hong Kong trip, isa lang ang binalik-balikan namin na restaurant. We always go to Cafe de Coral, the largest Chinese fast food restaurant group in Hong Kong whose chain caters to over 300,000 people on an average day. Cafe de Coral has over 100 branches in Hong Kong alone! We're assured of good quality meals in budget prices.

Free macaroni soup (very tasty broth and pasta's al dente)

Hokkaido Milk Scrambled Egg with Ham

Hokkaido Milk Scrambled Egg with Minute Steak

These sets come with free slices of thick toast and butter (seen here with the sausage and luncheon meat).

But this toast is what I like best: Toast with Condensed Milk

Shanghai Spare Ribs with cold shredded vegetables and marinated egg

Vegetable Rice

Barbecued Combo with Rice

Love the meat cuts (chicken wings, crispy pork, cuttlefish, pink sausages, salted egg).
They're marinated with sugar, salt, spices, and rose sweet rice wine.

Tofu Dish
This is the our least fave viand.

Chicken in Thick Sauce

Comes with free iced milk tea (or coffee)

Unfortunately, we always missed out on the Hot Pot Gemini, a shabu-shabu style of dish that looks so delicious in their wall photo. We were so looking forward to eating it but alas! Our timing has always been off. Go and visit their website and be enticed with their mouthwatering food. Seriously, this fastfood alone is enough reason to go to Hong Kong (or mainland China)!

We also ventured out on two other restaurants, one that is familiar and one that is hawker. We tried KFC in Hong Kong and found out that they have different offering from the KFC in the Philippines:

Mushroom Rice

Egg Tarts and Chicken

The chicken is smothered with a sweet, tangy sauce... like our version of chicken BBQ. It was delicious! The egg tart is creamy. Every bite is heaven. It's the only egg tart I truly enjoyed so far (in my 25 years of existence). The original recipe and hot&spicy chicken are also available.

Hawker stalls offering noodles and dimsum abound and we tried one that is near the building we were staying. Can't rememeber the name because I can't read it! :) It wasn't that crowded, when we hauled our tired asses inside the canteen-type eatery, maybe because it was already past 10 in the evening (this is after our Disneyland adventure). The service was fast. I ate this:

Beef Noodles

Shrimp Dimsum

Nothing too great but filling enough to satisfy our stomach. Sipping the broth was perfect for the very cold weather. If I had more opportunity, I should have eaten more kinds of dimsum! Matakaw na kung matakaw! :P

On our last day in HK, we had ample time to wander in SOHO mall in Causeway Bay before we go back to the hotel to get our luggage and go to the airport on our last day in HK. We ate at this tiny Japanese restaurant (name to be typed later while I try to remember it). The portions are too small and they're expensive!

Pork tonkatsu (breaded pork chop)

Breaded chicken gizzard

Chicken barbecue

Japanese pork curry

Photos of the dishes were angled so they appear to be bigger than reality. Lol. I didn't have the time to take a photo of my aunt's veggie tonkatsu (okoy) because it arrived in our table so late. We planned on eating dinner at the airport but by the time we checked in, almost all restos are closed. Except for Burger King. We wolfed down our burgers immediately, thus no photos of 'em ever existed.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed my Hong Kong series. If ever you're thinking of going outside the Philippines for a much-needed R&R, then Hong Kong is for you. It's the perfect beginning to an international wanderlust.

Q&A Portion

If you have questions you'd like the Pink Tarha to answer, formspring us! Please use this link:
http://www.formspring.me/thepinktarha

We'd be glad to answer your queries on life in Saudi Arabia, or just life in general.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Oops, to those who are in Saudi Arabia that is. ;)

Slackers, Not!

We're not slackers, promise. Forget the fact that entries on the blog are trickling like raindrops on a hot summer day (we couldn't use Saudi Arabia's random drizzle anymore as a simile because it has been raining in the city for the past few days!) or that we still haven't mailed Mr. Desertaquaforce and Nebz the prizes they won from our anniversary draws (so sorry!). They might even have forgotten we're supposed to send them something. Lol. We do not want to use the term 'busy' anymore. It sounds so cliche and we hate hearing it as other people's reason too. No one should be busy enough so we're not gonna dish out alibis. We're just gonna fill this blog with entries. Promise.

Okay, so we have all unveiled. We've set aside the pink black tarha (veil) and shown you our faces. Hope you weren't disappointed, hahaha! We enjoyed making the photo shoots; feel na feel ang pagiging celebrity kahit isang saglit lang (weh, drama?). Sundrenched would like a proper photo shoot too but time is immensely unavailable these days (or we are). Another alibi, hmn... Her premature unveiling will suffice for now. Besides, we'd like to do a photo shoot that involves us four. Complete. So we can change the four cartoon ladies in our header above. They're just too anorexic to represent us. Hahaha! Anyway, for those who haven't seen us unveil and those who did but can't remember what we look like now, here's a recap: Sundrenched, Maryhadalittlehump, Shoegarfreeruby, and Eyecandy.

Moving on, remember our post on Petal Attraction? Well, that party is over... and we congratulate the birthday girl for throwing such a successful and happy event. It was titled "Slay It With A Flower" (bawal nang kumontra, tapos na eh!). Almost everyone went garbed in their floral ensemble. Yes, even the gays guys! Even PT ladies Sundrenched and Eyecandy managed to finally get a dose of flower power to settle on their outfits. S, though, made a last-minute costume change. Lol.

M and R couldn't make it due to prior commitments. Also, it was raining hard that night! Imagine, flooded streets in Riyadh. Unbelievable! S' dad was making a threat that he'll make the girls push the car once it gets stuck in floodwater. Well, that didn't happen but what happened was S and the other lady guests ran under the rain in their abaya and heels to make it to the door. What a sight! But it was all worth it. Just one of 'em days of a Pink Tarha lady.

Here's S and E:


FLOWER GIRLS: On Sundrenched: Beige blazer, white tank top, and head dress H&M Floral skirt ZARA Red high heels F&F (not seen) On Eyecandy: Floral dress DOROTHY PERKINS Hair flower PARFOIS Silver flats DEBENHAMS Red Herring (not seen)

Okay, so that's not exactly the photo we wanted to show you but we had so much fun in the party we forgot to take a full body shot. Haha! Now that we've unveiled, it's so much easy to post photos now. No more blurs! Unless, you wanted the blurs, then you can request. :P Coincidentally, if you go back to the unveiling of M and R, they wore floral outfits there too! Woot!

Have a sweet-smelling day!

The Unveiling of Eyecandy (Finally!)

It's been a long time coming. And as the saying goes, "Save the best for last." I do hope this does justice to all the waiting readers, may it indeed be the best or not. Regardless, you are about to see what I finally look like.

The idea behind this photoshoot was a hodge-podge of themes. Primarily, I thought of taking a cue from the hit teleseryes of ABS-CBN, particularly "Agua Bendita" and "Rubi". Having the colors red and blue in mind, I then realized to why not just incorporate all the colors of the Philippine flag? I am a PROUD PINAY after all. So, here goes.

AGUA

Seen here is the character AGUA from the show "Agua Bendita". JOKE! (The camera added 40 lbs).

Hello WORLD, this is me, Eyecandy, with no make up and fancy outfits whatsoever. As you can see, I am a chubby-lita, and a chinita. At talagang inuna ko ang pool scene devah! Haha. Well, I figured it's better to first see me in my rawest form before I go ahead and project in the next photos. And there you go. (grabe, I'm so nervous right now) I'm not entirely like the character "Agua" in the hit TV show. But I am kind and humble as needed. Otherwise, I then turn to....

RUBI

Fierce. Sultry. HOT.

With my friends, I am all smiles and gay. But I also have a fierce side made up of high heels, eyeliners, mascarra and a pout. Red is my favorite color and I am addicted to having my eyebrow make-up perfect since I believe that our eyebrows frame the windows to our souls (I am great fan of beauty therapist, Damone Roberts). However, of all that days that I should forget to bring my make-up brushes, it was during this photoshoot day! Ugh.

How do I fare with "Rubi"? Well, friends say that I have a knack for being seductive and having indeed a sultry side. But that is actually reserved for the "right guy" who will be very, VERY lucky. LOL.

"THE 10th MUSE"

Greek Goddess.

(The outfit is a Zara gown purchased fro Haraj at 5SAR. and the silver necklace is an ALDO sale item at 10SAR.)

I happen to love literature and arts, the Earth and all of our human experiences. I took up AB Communication Arts in UP Los Banos, Majoring in Speech and Minor in Theater Arts. Twirls of prose and heaps of histrionic endeavors are my cup of tea. I like the idea that a thought or an experience can be expressed in a colorful manner and that despite the realities of life being black and white, people of all sorts can paint it otherwise. I have been known to make people smile with my sharing of little life lessons and have inspired/helped them in one way or another. It is in that light that I can see myself as a Greek Muse. I would consider myself as Melpomene (muse of tragedy) for if it were not for tragedies, people would have no will to triumph. Chos!

RAY of SUNSHINE

Can you guess why I'm called "Eyecandy"?

We're in the final stretch folks. And there goes the last set. A spring/summer ensemble matched with a perfect accessory: a smile. That's why I've dubbed myself as "Eyecandy." I'm an "eyecandy" because of my smile. I smile at most people I meet, old or new. I make it a point to smile at strangers too, especially kabayans, no matter what their social status. I am a firm believer that it doesn't matter whether a person is tall or short, fat or thin, if he or she does not SMILE and smiles for others, he/she is not beautiful at all. I am beautiful, therefore I smile. And besides, a smile is the universal symbol for peace, love and happiness and I think we should carry it and share it wherever we go.

That's it! I'm finally done unveiling! Now we can publish the rest of our draft posts! Hahaha. Our Editor-in-Chief wanted me to finish this pronto since I've been holding it off for the longest time evar. I've been a very busy girl kasi lately eh. But I hope you enjoyed this post. :)

The Pink Tarha Team are now all unveiled!

The Pink Tarha Team

(Taken last August 2009)

Cheers!

-ec-

Petal Attraction

A friend of the Pink Tarha ladies will celebrate her birthday this weekend. The party's theme is floral. It was pegged as "Petal Attraction" at first but Eyecandy groaned at the title. Petal might be mispronounced as "pei-tal" over and over. Irritating, lol.

Most of the girls invited to the party are having a hard time looking for a floral ensemble that will not make them look like walking curtains and tabletops. Most floral fabrics look old and vintage after all. Not that vintage is bad (Shoegarfreeruby loves vintage!).

Sundrenched is having a hard time completing her get-up while Eyecandy has already chosen a dress she bought on a whim last year (one of the SR250-worth of clothes that was bought in less than 10 minutes... record time?!).

In lieu of our Collage Week, here's a Polyvore mish-mash that will bring a spring in the ladies' step:

Peaches and cream.

Edgy pinks.

Also, S envisioned her ensemble through Looklet, a site suggested by the birthday girl. Here's what she initially wanted to wear:

But while looking at several photos, S realized she already wore this style in a party (her own!). She might just change some items but she'll eventually end up with this style again. The headband looks the same to what E is wearing today... only in purple, and very much floral (a gift from R). :P

Anyway we'll be featuring what we wore to that birthday party next week. We'll muster up enough flower power! Stay tuned for E's unveiling too. She's wearing a floral dress. ;) See yah!

Riyadh Today

When I was a new kid in town the city, I was paranoid whenever I go out. I know that I'm pretty much good with directions (even though I was convinced at first that I'll probably have a hard time memorizing the pasikot-sikot of Riyadh's streets) but I want to be prepared and I do want to know where I'm going first. I hate being lost in Riyadh because it's not a good idea to be lost in Riyadh (or anywhere in the Kingdom) because street signs are written in Arabic (although thank God most major thoroughfares now have English translation) and people on the streets are Arabic-speaking. And with all the scary stories I hear from some kabayans, I do not want to trust other people fully.

One thing that helped me ease into the Riyadh life painlessly effortlessly during my first few months is the RIYADH TODAY 2008. It was one of my first purchases in Jarir Bookstore. I found it very helpful and I brought it everyday everywhere. And even though I know most streets now and where most stores are, I still need help from time to time. I was at Jarir last week and I ended up buying RIYADH TODAY 2010 for SR20.

My written guide.

It contains A LOT! It has general information on Saudi Arabia, international calling codes, arriving in Riyadh, and a survival guide for expats (working visas, residential compunds, schools for the kids, etc.). It has hotel and restaurant guides. It even has my favorite shopping guide wherein major shopping streets are highlighted. It's easier to look for a certain shop. (The PT ladies have no prolem with the malls though; we know where they are even if our eyes are closed, hehe!). Of course there's a directory of shops and services with addresses and telephone numbers. There's even a folded map attached at the back.

I love the new size of this guide too. It's more compact and handy than 2008's. It's also more chockful of info with new articles featuring the Janadriyah Festival and other tourist places in the Kingdom. I didn't buy the 2009 edition because it's probably more or less the same with 2008. And 2009 has been the discovery year for the me and the Pink Tarha ladies. We didn't need a guide, we just go where we want to... shop and eat!

I think there's Jeddah Today. So, if you want some handy guide to the cities of Saudi Arabia, go and grab one now! (I do read like an advertisement, hehe!)

Happy Easter!

In life, there is no condemnation—only the operation of redemption.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

How was your holy week everyone? We hope you did not just go to the beach and swam! We wished your holy week became fruitful and meaningful. In our desert, the Lenten season, as usual, was not recognized Kingdom-wide but we know that most Filipinos reflected in our own ways. Now, it's time to celebrate! Christ has risen! We wish everyone a blessed Easter. May all be blessed with peace and happiness. Let's rejoice this miracle and its graces with our friends and families.

Speaking of celebration, we're one with the Kablogs community in welcoming their new online magazine! Their maiden issue is in its soft launch and is an ongoing effort among OFW and expat bloggers. We bet it's a little bit kikay and tainted with pink too. *wink!*

Visit it at THEKABLOGSJOURNAL.BLOGSPOT.COM.