Puerto Galera Escapade

This escapade is one of the funniest trip I ever had. It only took us a day to made a decision. Even though it was very sudden we had a lot of fun and good time. We left the next day after we made the final plan and invited some friends around after lunch, we took a bus to Batangas Pier and road a small motorized bangka (boat) to White Beach Resort via Father and Son. Total travel time from Manila : 4-5 hours including waiting time from the pier. Just to share when we were about to buy some tickets to the resort, someone approached us and gave us a very good deal, that's 10% off!! Wooohhh Lllucckkky Trip!!!!. Since this escapade was sudden we didn't had any reservation and took us 30 minutes to find a place and got another discount, well honestly the person that talked out those people was very good in asking for a cheap price! After we settled our things and had some shower we went for a nice dinner by the beach. We decided to relaxed for a while before we grab some drinks, we were having a good time while looking up the sky when the fire dance started, it's like a signal for us to start our night. We took pictures, a lot! We watched the the shows from one of the bars and enjoyed the place and dipped into the water. Some of our friends got drunk and just slept on the sand, some just ended their night by going back to the hotel and as for us, we went for a walk.

 

 

                                                

I woke up early the next day and two of my friends, it was a beautiful morning plus our room was facing the beach so it was a very good sight. Of course we had to wake up the others too and those who got drunk the other night, some went with us and some didn't even bother to look at us. Hahaha. We had a big breakfast with a very hot choco when someone from the resort approched my friend about activities that she talked us out to have at least one activity since we were schedule to go back to Manila around late afternoon, yes, that's the same person that got us a good deal from everything. Well, we all agreed even those people who hadn't yet taken their breakfast agreed to go with us, we all had our energy back for another sudden decision. We took the Island hopping and the Underground River, original plan was only the island hopping, you can guess what happened.

So we took a small motorized boat, it's much smaller compare to the boat that took us to the resort. We had a very good sight of the islands, took a swim and you can also see beautiful see corals. We had some sandwiches and bread with us so we also enjoyed fish feeding. We went for the underground river after some of us got bored swimming and playing with the fish, there are boats waiting for us for the next activity, the boats looked like the ones being used by the fisherman. It's only a 15 minute ride to the next destination and that's another beautiful view. This is very exciting, we had to enter a small space to enter the cave and it was an enjoyable sight plus the water was cold and clear. The water was so clear that you can see all under it, we had lots of pictures from the place and explore the cave, it was small but very beautiful. From inside the cave we climbed up to see the whole island, again was a nice scenery, my only dilemma was when we were about to leave the cave the exit was at the side of it from the top and the way was so narrow and lots of sharp stones, you're not gonna die though even if you fall but still!! Anyways, I survived it and was glad we had the chance to see the place. We went back to the resort tired and hungry that we had to asked the people there to extended our stay to our room (no discount anymore! LOL).

this is not the entrance I swear, I just want to take a picture (:

 

It was a very nice experienced although it was very sudden and we planned to go back the week after next with more friends.

Spicy Kimchi 매운 김치

Kimchi is one of the most popular dishes in Korea. You can actually see this on their every meal. It's a spicy food indeed but is so good. So I got this craziness about Korean dramas and got curious about their foods, to tell you honestly I even started learning Hangul. I talked to some friends about it and I found out that most of them eat kimchi. Then, I decided to make some Kimchi.

This recipe is inspired by Maangchi, I found her website while searching for the steps and ingredients I need to make spicy kimchi. Her site and videos are easy to follow plus she has lots of Korean food recipes and taste GOOD too! I love it actually! So are you ready to make your own Spicy kimchi? Well enjoy and 행복한 식사를!!!

Here's what we need:

• 10 pounds of cabbage (Baechu)
• Salt
• Sweet rice flour
• Sugar
• Water
• Garlic
• Ginger (optional)
• Onion
• Fish Sauce
• Hot pepper Flakes
• Squid (optional)
• Leek
• Green Onions
• Carrot
• Raddish

Steps to make Kimchi:

1. Cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters and remove the cores. Chop it up into bite size pieces.

2. Soak the pieces of cabbage in cold water and put the soaked cabbage into a large basin. Sprinkle salt.         *Tip: 1 cup of salt will be used  for 10 pounds of napa cabbage.

3. Every 30 minutes, turn the cabbage over to salt evenly (total salting time will be one and a half hours.)

4. 1 1/2 hours later, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 timer to clean thoroughly.

5. Drain the cabbage and set aside.

( you can eat the taste the cabbage if it's not too salty)

Make Porridge:

1. Put 3 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sweet rice flour (chapssal garu) in a pot and mix it well and bring to boil. Keep stirring until the porridge makes a bubble ( about 5 minutes).

2. Add 1/4 cup of sugar. Stir and cook for a few more minutes until it's translucent.

3. Cool it down.

Make Kimchi Paste:

1. Place the cold porridge into a large bowl. Now you will add all you ingredients one by one.

2. Add 1 cup of fish sauce, 2.5 cups of hot pepper flakes (depending on your taste), 1 cup of crushed garlic, 1-2 tbs of minced ginger, 1 cup of minced onion.

  *Tip: it is much easier to use a food processor or blender to mix the ingredients.

3. Wash and drain the salty squid. Chop it up and add it to kimchi.

    (this is optional and I skip this part. If you want to know how to do the salty squid you can go to this link: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ojingeojeot

4. Add 10 diagonally-sliced green onion, 2 cups amount of chopped leek, 2 cups of julienned korean radish and 1/4 cup of julienned carrot.

5. Mix all ingredients well and your kimchi paste is done.

Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste!

1. Put the kimchi paste in a large basin and add all the cabbage. Mix it by hand.

     *Tip: If your basin is not large enough to mix all ingredients at once, do it bit by bit.

2. Put the kimchi into an air-tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.

You can eat it fresh after making or wait until it's fermented.

Tip:

* For the hot pepper paste, 1 cup - mild, 2 cups - spicy and 2.5 cups - pretty spicy. I like my kimchi pretty spicy it's more yummy!

I made this recipe twice and my family and I and some friends can finish this within 2-3 days. It's supposed to be a side dish not a snack that's why the next time I'll make my kimchi I'll seal it tight!

Here's my kimchi the first time, sorry for the quality I used my phone's camera.

Here is Maangchi's video on how to do it.

Enjoy your Kimchi. Cheers!