< Notes...

I just had the best Horsemade jajangmyeon. Granted, the black beans paste was purchased, as well as the noodles, but the pork cooking and flavouring, vegetables, the extra spiciness and flavours, and the timing and execution were all Horsie’s. Soooo delicious! It made true the saying “a barriga llena, corazón contento” (full belly, full heart), for sure!

When mum messages me, no matter what, I reply right away. Now, when the topic of the conversation is food—food that she cooked—I almost-literally fly.

And then an hour or so later, with a belly full, and a happy heart, and from the comfyness of our couch:

She says she is lucky to have me. I say it is the complete opposite: I am lucky to have her!

I walked into my workplace’s kitchen/break-area yesterday while someone was warming their lunch. “Woah, that smells amazing!”, I remarked. “Thanks! You will not like it though, it’s Filipino food”, he replied. Oh, Hector, man of little faith! 😂

I added a new recipe to my shared (with my wife and other family members) “Recipes” folder on Notes, which ruffled some feathers. My wife asked me, “Why do you keep adding recipes if you never make them? Are you waiting for me to cook them?” Secretly, between you and me, I am! 🤭

So far a lazy day today. No work (happy 4th!), so woke up at a luxurious 06:30 hours. Had coffee with mum, got coffee for Horsie, played a bit of Diablo IV (manning a Spiritborn this season), went to return some clothes, bought bánh mì, took some to mum, some to aunties, and now back home. All that, and is barely 14:30. Rain’s coming, which will make today even a better day. Couch bound!

Can’t wait to enjoy that extremely delightful—and nutritious—pumpkin soup that Horsie is cooking. I minced the garlic, and chopped the onions, and peeled the pumpkin, so we can say it’s a team effort, right? I will also eat it with pleasure! After all, what’s good food without a consumer? 🤭

Coffee at 07:30. Three small croissants around 11:00. Chicken and sausage gumbo soup bowl at 13:30. Three small chicken quesadillas at 16:30. I have eaten way too much, I feel. No more food for me today!

What to eat tonight? During the week I only have one meal a day. Sometimes, come evening, I really don’t feel like eating anything at all. Now Fridays, ah! Fridays are something else.

Fridays are just… different, just like Saturdays and Sundays. There are no other days like those. Mondays through Thursdays, they are all the same. You could put me in a hole for a few days, and make me forget which day of the week it was, then let me out. It will take me very little to figure out, with a high level of certainty, whether it’s a weekend or not.

Anyways, I digress. Macaroni and cheese with bacon bits? Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Update: 02 Oct 2025 @ 13:48:09

So much for macaroni and cheese with bacons bits. We—child and I—ended up having Pizza Hut (pepperoni thin and crispy). I think that the half of a pizza I ate is healthier than what I had planned. A win? 😅

Had pad Thai at Thai House restaurant today. It didn’t come with crushed peanuts in it. Is it only me, or crushed roasted peanuts are a must have for pad Thai? Also, the noodles where way too wet, to the point they were sticking, kind of lumpy. For me, another no no. Am I becoming too picky?!

And just like that our treasured weekend is gone. Other than some grocery shopping, and visiting mum for an early birthday phở, we didn’t do much. Well, there was Eurovision, and a few “Solo Levelling” episodes, yes. But other than that, not much else.

I have done badly to a promise I made to myself to walk 10,000 steps daily, no matter what. I could point out that the heat is extreme around here, but I can’t use that as an excuse. “None may atone for my actions but me, and only in me shall their stain live on”, so, “all I can be is sorry, and that is all that I am.”

Had luch at the Korean House restaurant with George. The food was really good, and I had a good time catching up with him. The waitress was very nice, and now I feel bad for having left that 15% tip. She sure deserved a 20%. Wife and I go there often, so I shall look for her in the future, and pay back what I believe I owe.

Robot chefs, LOL. They are as much chefs as our pressure cooker, microwave, or oven. I am sure they will get better.

“When a customer orders a bowl of dumpling ramen at a kiosk, a robot activates. A steel nozzle swirls boiling water and spicy broth paste into a pot. Dried noodles drop from a dispenser. Cradling heat and spice, the pot glides onto a burner. An overhead chute sprinkles dried vegetable flakes. The ramen simmers.”

“It’s always like this, says Yumiko Ukon, who has run this modest rice ball shop and restaurant in the Otsuka neighbourhood of Tokyo for almost half a century. “But we never run out of rice,” she adds, seated in her office near a wall clock in the shape of a rice ball with a bite taken out.”

Onigiri is awesome. Rice is everything. Rice is life.

I adore green olives, stuffed with pimento, and manzanilla. I love the smell of the rain, the sound doves, and cats make, and the occasional solitude. Holidays upcoming!

Base solely on how much I like to eat spam, I think I am Hawaiian, or Filipino. Need to go easy, though, as even the “25% less salt” is super salty.

Time spent looking for a public notary capable of handling a will: 5 hours. Some money spent on clothing. Craving for chili quenched (Steak and Shake’s one ain’t bad!). Saturday sunsets.

Just had a chè thái that mum made for me (because she knows I am sick, and that I like it), and I feel I had the entire month worth of sugar in just one drink. 😅

Third time’s a charm. I am not buying Tropicana Orange Juice ever again. For the third time in a row, their “Lots of Pulp” has none. That’s six bottles, two at a time. No more, moving on.

Friday has long sunsetted, but not over yet. What to do for the night? What to cook? Both important questions, for which I have nil answers. 😅

The Porch sells some mean (as in big), delicious hamburgers. After having one of those, with the two sides, and almost all of their humungous drink, I am ready for a nap 🤭. But… walk I shall.

Nothing better to bring delight to an otherwise secular night: Arroz con gandules. To that recipe we add diced ham. Kim cooks arroz con gandules in such way that makes me forget diet, measure, or restrain.

This blog post about making vegetable stock from scratch at home—that is, not at an enterprise scale—had me at the first paragraph:

“After learning how to season food correctly, homemade stock is the single best thing anyone can do for his cooking. A stock is a liquid extraction of complementary flavors, a broad palette upon which sharper splashes of color may be painted.”

My cravings for Jajangmyeon were fulfilled at Korea House in Colonial. That I know of, that’s the only restaurant in the surrounding area the serves them. I am good for a week, or two. 😂

I just got my chores handed to me, so I must hurry up to beat the rain and bike, and then rush home, shower, and get to chop, chop, chop!

If only I was a Horse, and not a Monkey! Damn you, opposable thumbs! 😂

Kim has a problem with the pace at which I eat. She thinks—kind of rightfully so—that I eat too fast. “Slow down, enjoy the food!”, she tells me. The truth is, I am enjoying it! That’s just the way I do it.

I have tried to slow down my pace, but she still thinks it is too fast. I like my meal hot. If I were to slow down and eat like she does, I would be eating cold food. Yuck! In social gatherings, though, I suffer a bit, and slow down to the group’s pace. After all, I truly am not a neanderthal!

This thing is delicious, and thus very habit forming. I can’t stop eating little pieces of it. The packing description reads “Cơm Cháy Nước Mắm Chà Bông” (Vietnamese), which translates to “Burnt Rice With Fish Sauce”.

Its ingredients are listed as “crispy rice, pork floss, fish sauce, sugar, soybean oil, and chilly”. All I read is yummy! 🤤

I like honey, of all kinds. I always have one or two jars of it at home, and I take—at least—one teaspoon of it each day in the morning. Yet, I always feel guilty that I am enjoying the labour of bees. Double guilty because I can’t help it. I really like honey!

Broccoli cheddar soup is my favourite soup. I like many soups, but no other brings more joy than the broccoli cheddar one. Having always had someone else’s, I am now ready to cook it on my own. I bet you can guess what’s on the menu this weekend.

The next big question for the day—and one that’s very important—is “what’s for dinner tonight?” The consensus of two seems to be pointing to, very strongly, Mexican food from “Don Julio’s”. What’s better to celebrate the advent of the 4th of July?

These pair of scissors are, pretty much, all you will need in your kitchen. Build to last, they will sure be enjoyed during your life time, and passed down as inheritance. Truly an amazingly functional, long lasting, work of art.

While I might buy a couple of sandwiches from KFC to get the goodies, I am 100% sure I will not eat them. They will be donated.

On caramelising onions, and the lies recipe writers tell:

In truth, the best time to caramelize onions is yesterday. Often enough, you need to have them ready before you can start on the rest of the dish.

That’s so true! Caramelising onions is also a test to anyone’s patience, for sure.

I have used chopsticks for almost 25 years now. I feel more comfortable eating, and cooking, with chopsticks than I do with forks and spoons. When a spoon is needed, I also favour the “Chinese spoon”. And yes, I use the “standard grip”. I find it far superior to any other but, there are ten thousands ways to use chopsticks.

After eating too many dishes with sticky rice yesterday, and feeling guilty about it, I decided to have a ham and cheese sandwich on black German bread, and a glass of naturally sweetened pineapple juice, as my only meal today.