Choosing to Eat Healthy Food

I am a foodie who enjoys cooking and coming up with different dishes.

Choosing to eat healthy is certainly good and with the high cost of medicines and medical treatments today, it is best to just stay healthy. One way to stay healthy is to consciously feed ourselves with good, natural and healthy food.

Here are some of the healthy stuff that I usually make and have at home.

Fresh fruit shake made with organic kale, pineapples and mangoes. 

Healthy Kale salad with mangoes, strawberries and walnuts. For the salad dressing,
I make and pair it with  a healthy balsamic vinaigrette.

Personally, I like making my food at home look like the way it is served in restaurants or hotels so I also enjoy to plating my home cooked meals. This way, my meals are not only delicious but they are pretty too.

Grilled Mediterranean chicken with side salad. 

With a little creativity, one can easily prepare and choose to eat healthy food at home. Cheers!

Fine Japanese Cuisine at Nobu Manila

One of the famous fine dining restaurants, Nobu, is now in Manila. It is named after the well-known Japanese chef, Nobu Matsuhisa, who currently owns 32 outlets of Nobu restaurants located in 28 different cities around the world with celebrity business partner, Robert De Niro.

Chef Nobu
(source: Nobu restaurants website)

Nobu restaurant is located inside the Nobu Hotel at City of Dreams, Manila. I tried it for dinner when I was around the area recently.

What you will notice once you go inside the restaurant is the beautiful ambience and lighting. 

Just like my experience in eating at Nobu in Hong Kong years ago, Nobu restaurant in Manila offers customers the high quality dishes and excellent service that Nobu is known for. Plus, the staff are well trained since they are able to describe and recommend to customers the various dishes that they offer.

I wanted to eat something light for dinner so I had the Toban-yaki seafood dish and some edamame. Honestly, I love eating edamame and I consider it as a healthy snack. Eating edamame together with a good Japanese dish certainly brings me satisfaction.

 Edamame and the Toban-yaki seafood which is a
combination of squid, prawns, clams and salmon

The staff at Nobu said that most of their customers usually order the freshly made sushi they offer and for dessert the popular one is the Chocolate bento box.

The sushi bar at Nobu in Manila

Chocolate bento box which includes a  lava chocolate cake and
 green tea ice cream

Colorful ceiling with beautiful prints

Floating cabana in the al fresco dining area

Bar area where they serve drinks such as Yamazaki, cocktails, etc.

Lounge area where customers can start with cocktails before diner

Nobu Manila main dining area

I will definitely go back to Nobu to try their other dishes. The place is a cool place for a Japanese dinner and the service is certainly good. 

Million Dollar Decorators Visits Manila

I am blessed to have been able to meet and talk to Mary McDonald and Nathan Turner, two outstanding interior designers known for their great works in renovating homes of celebrities in the United States. They are also part of the hit TV show called "Million Dollar Decorators".

During Mary and Nathan's recent Manila visit, both shared about home design and showed photos of their work during their talk at the PIFS(Philippine International Furniture Show) event held in Manila last 13th of March 2015. 

Mary McDonald and Nathan Turner 

Their TV show,  Million Dollar Decorators, is one of the most entertaining decorating shows today. It provides viewers good examples of how they can make beautiful homes. Their source of inspiration, ideas and tireless search for wonderful things are all shown in the TV show. It is simply wonderful seeing the creatively executed and cozy home improvements that they have done for their celebrity clients.

Some interesting information I learned about these two creative designers is that their lifestyle have certainly influenced their love for interior design.

Mary McDonald started in fashion and began her career as a milliner. She studied fashion at Parson’s  School of Design in New York.  Her first client was the PR person for shoe designer Robert Clergerie who asked her to decorate her apartment because she loved her glamorous home.  She is also someone who has been greatly influenced by her stylish mother and grandmother. These women supported her and encouraged her creativity. Mary simply finds inspiration being surrounded by things that make her feel like she is in an ultra-feminine petit salon. She continues to apply fastastic ideas from fashion to interiors that she makes. Today, Mary McDonald is an award winning, internationally published Los Angeles-based interior designer.

Mary McDonald's home foyer area which she
jokingly calls as "The Lobby" since it looks
like a lobby of a fine European hotel.

Nathan Turner, is a Californian whose growing up years included spending weekends with his family in a ranch in Northern California. His passions include design, travel and food. He has lived on the coast, in the city and in the mountains. Nathan’s approach to decorating and entertaining is all about finding new ways to live and celebrate with low effort and high style. Thus, many of his works include laid-back but highly stylish designed homes and one can easily relate to the “relaxed style” that is being conveyed.

Nathan Turner's Malibu home entrance which is
both nice and functional.

Nathan also made a DIY  bulletin board in his home where he posts photos of friends who have visited him in his Malibu home.

DIY wall by Nathan Turner in his home in Malibu

During the event, the two designers also selected some home furniture items that were tagged with their photos. Here are some of the interesting pieces that they tagged.

A basket made by Hacienda Crafts tagged by Mary McDonald.

One of the baskets on the right was tagged by Nathan Turner.

Vito Selma designed  furniture tagged by Mary McDonald.

A stool made of metal by Vico that was tagged by Mary McDonald

Chair made in Cebu tagged by Nathan Turner

Mirrors tagged by Mary (the mirror on the left) and Nathan (the mirror on the right)

I also went around looking at the other exhibitors' booths and below are some interesting ones.

Kenneth Cobonpue furniture

Vito Selma designed furniture

Industria's home stuff

Hacienda Crafts items handmade by a group of women in Negros

Cocoon looking lamp made from woven plastic by Hacienda Crafts

Woven abaca rugs made from Bicol

Vico's furniture made of iron and wood

Outdoor garden chairs made with iron

It was such an awesome day. I was able to learn more about home interior design from Mary and Nathan,  I also had the privilege of meeting and talking to them. To make the event even more memorable, I was able to get my books signed by them too.

Books by Nathan Turner and Mary McDonald

My book signed by Mary McDonald

My book  signed by Nathan Turner

The works of Mary and Nathan are truly inspiring. Their books are both visually delightful and are good sources of inspiration for people who appreciate beautiful interiors and design. In Manila, their books are being sold at National Bookstore and Fully Booked.

Kinfolk + coffee

Sometimes wrapping up a lovely day is as simple as having a good cup of slow brew and reading a copy of Kinfolk.

The articles in Kinfolk vol. 15 are simply inspiring as Entrepreneurs share their stories on how they were able to achieve success and work life balance.

The recipes included are good too. Cheers!

Italian Way of Cooking by Casa Artusi

Cooking is a fun activity.

Last 10th of March 2015,  I joined a cooking class by Casa Artusi in Manila. It was held at the recently opened Alta restaurant in Ascott hotel BGC(Bonifacio Global City). Two culinary experts, Margarita Fores and Carla Brigliadori, from Casa Artusi conducted the cooking class.

Casa Artusi, is a culinary cooking school that was named after Pellegrino Artusi, the father of modern Italian cooking. Artusi compiled recipes from the home cooks in Italy. 

During the class, Margarita Fores mentioned that Mr. Artusi even got an Italian woman to test the recipes that come from the home cooks of Italy and  the recipe was only included in the book if it passes their test and standards.  

Casa Artusi Philippines, was established by Margarita Fores, a successful restaurateur who has a passion for Italian cuisine. It is  her way of sharing the best home cook Italian recipes and techniques to both locals and foreigners based in the Philippines who enjoy Italian cuisine and want to learn how to cook delicious and traditional Italian dishes.

Margarita Fores talks about the places in Italy where the best
ingredients come from.

While the two chefs were cooking, we were given the chance to taste various dishes and see, smell, and touch some of the ingredients too. 

Piadina, fresh mango jam, and the coppa ham that was
brought by Chef Carla from Italy

Local fish roe also known as "bihod" locally.
This was included in the marinara pasta sauce.

The chefs cooked various dishes and one of the interesting parts of the class was seeing them make piadina and fresh pasta.

Freshly made dough for piadina made by Chef Carla.

The students viewed the actual cooking techniques on a TV screen
 placed at the left side of the open kitchen.

Freshly made piadina

This is the cooking pan made from clay that  is used by Italians to cook piadina

The chefs cooked a nice and tasty bean soup and several pasta dishes that everyone truly enjoyed.

The "Marie Louise" bean soup with pama coppa (air-cured meat from Italy)

Tripe alla Parmigiana

A tasting portion of the soft and tasty Tripe alla Parmigiana

 While we were tasting the dishes we also got to watch the chefs prepare various pasta shapes from freshly made pasta.

Various pasta shapes prepared by the chefs 

After getting so much inspiration it was time for us to make our own pasta from scratch. Each student got a chance to make their own pasta dough and make various pasta shapes.

My masterpiece... pasta dough that I made by hand. Not bad for a
first timer.

We tasted several freshly made pasta dishes.

Pasta made with some meat, tomatoes and fresh parmigiano

Black squid ink pasta with shrimps

Pasta marinara with clams, shrimps, fish roe, tuna and fresh tomatoes.

Fresh "chicharo" was used as a replacement for fresh peas

Fonduta pasta with  4 kinds of cheese: gorgonzola, fontina, parmigiano and asiago 

Really very good butter.

Apart from eating we also got to learn about wine pairing. Chef Carla is also a Sommelier and she was able to share the best wines to pair with the dishes made.

Red wine paired with the Tripe alla Parmigiana and pasta with meat

White chardonnay paired with marinara pasta, and the fonduta pasta

The nice table top decor  made from fresh veggies

It was certainly a good experience to see and learn from two passionate chefs who love to share their love for Italian cuisine. Two important things I learned from them is that there are 2 things that must not be brown when you are cooking: butter and garlic. Apparently, Italians use garlic more for the flavor and taste for their cooking and is not cooked until it becomes brown.

I am certainly looking forward to learning more Italian cooking techniques and dishes in the future. I will definitely join other Casa Artusi classes. Plus, Margarita Fores mentioned that she is also organizing a food tour in Italy so that's another interesting activity to consider.

The Italians certainly know the art of eating well. Now I must start cooking some of the recipes I learned which are certainly Buonissimo!