There's No Cooking Like Mom's Cooking

My mom's cooking is the best in the world! She's the original domestic goddess and I'm just a wannabe. Hehe! One of her specialties is her morcon which is absolutely to die for! Sarsa pa lang, ulam na talaga. No family party is complete without it. I also love her lumpiang ubod. It's a dish that I can eat everyday and I will never get sawa. Everything that mom cooks is sure to be a winner. My siblings and I always look forward to the holidays because that's when mom whips her fabulous meals.

Before they flew to Bangkok, I asked mom if she can cook dinuguan for me here. I wasn't really a big fan of dinuguan before, but thanks to my husband (it's one of Richard's favorites), I learned to love it. Unfortunately, we couldn't find pork blood here. They only have the solid kind (much like liver) and I think the recipe needs the liquid kind. Trying to explain it to the staff at the supermarket is frustrating too. They probably think we're vampires for wanting liquid blood. Haha! So dinuguan is out, pero ok lang because mom has other yummy recipes up her sleeve.

We went to Tesco Lotus yesterday and mom gave me a refresher course on choosing meat, chicken and fish. I always thought that the fish that they have in the supermarket was not fresh enough so my poor husband and daughter have to no choice but to eat on pork and chicken since we got here. We only get to eat fish and seafood in the restaurants. But now, thanks to mom's expertise, I can include fish and seafood in our weekly menu.

At the lobby waiting for the "pimp my ride" shuttle bus going to Tesco Lotus.

The original domestic goddess in action.

Lola will cook fish! Yey!

Mom and dad went crazy over the mangosteen because it was super cheap and super sweet. Better than the ones that they buy in Tagaytay -- to think a lot of people back home troop to Tagaytay to buy fruits.

For the first time, napuno ang freezer namin. Mom is really gearing up for a major cookfest and I can't wait! Wherever in the world I may be, I will always be yearning for mom's cooking. And no matter how well I consider my cooking to be, I will never beat my mom's fantastic cooking.

Our First Grocery Shopping Day (+ rant about our delayed package)

Our package hasn't arrived yet (no thanks to Nippon Express!) so there's nothing to unpack, nothing to cook and nothing to eat! We survived our first day mainly on room service and food delivery (which is a lot harder than we thought because the person who answers the phone does not speak english). Thank God we brought enough clothes + one set of Richard's uniform (thanks to the domestic goddess in me!).

But that doesn't mean Nippon Express is off the hook. This kind of delay is unacceptable! We were supposed to schedule our sea freight on the first week of March but they said it's too early because it only takes two weeks to ship the items to Thailand. So it was moved to the third week. We were expecting to see our package in our room when we arrive but when we got here, not a single box was in sight.

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Same thing with our air freight. They picked up our stuff four days before we left Manila and it's still not here. Richard called Nippon Express directly and asked his boys over at TMP to call their Manila Office and we were told that the earliest that we can get our package is on Thursday. We can't order room service forever because it's too expensive and getting delivery is such a hassle! We were left with no choice but to head to the nearest supermarket to buy supplies. Richard and I need retail therapy to relieve the stress that our shipper gave us.

So off we went to Tesco Lotus. It's only a couple of minutes away and the good thing is, Oakwood provides a shuttle that can bring their guests to Tesco Lotus, Central Mall and the BTS Sky Train Station.

Tesco Lotus is like SM Supermarket - from the items that they sell (the usual grocery items + clothes + appliances) and the number of people that go here. Back home, a lot of people were telling me that "masarap mag shopping dito sa Bangkok kasi mas mura kesa Manila". And they're right! I found Colgate toothbrush for only 8 baht. When converted, that's like 10 pesos! They also have nice storage items for as low as 30 baht. I also saw shrimp at 148 baht per kilo!

But there's a catch - most of the items that they sell there are written in Thai so we just relied on logos that looked familiar to be able to identify them.

We tried to stick to the basics or stuff that we needed immediately, but the longer that we stayed there, the more items we placed in our push cart! Our only relief was we did not spend much even if it was a cartful.

Inside the lobby waiting for the shuttle. We're taking the 2:30pm trip.

The shuttle should be here anytime now. I wonder what it looks like...

It looks normal from the outside, but inside -- whoa! Pimp my ride!

Check out the screen and speakers on the ceiling!

On the cab on way back to Oakwood.

Alyannah's pasalubong for Becky!

Look! I bought Barbie toothpaste and Hello Kitty toothbrush!

We scream for ice cream!