Puerto Rico For The Foodie

Traveling is never complete without satisfying the foodie in me. Although I feast my eyes with the sights and scenery when I travel, majority of the time I also make sure the foodie in me gets its rightful share to experience the host country's food specialties. Puerto Rico did not disappoint. Anywhere I looked at the Old San Juan port, there's a stall, a tent, and colorful street food signs beckoning to be tasted, to be tried and to be enjoyed.

The Puerto Rican version of "ice cone" or what we call "shave ice" in Hawaii.

Pinchos or kabobs are made of either pork or chicken served with a slice of bread. Our dinner on our first night in Old San Juan. It was a warm, balmy night and we ate our dinner at a park.

Puerto Rican native sweets made of coconut, milk and nuts. I'd say very similar to our Peanut Brittle.

Street food sign - pick your favorite. I like the Bacalaitos and the Empanadillas, which are similar to our Empanadas in the Philippines.

La Muralla is a great place for snack after exploring El Yunque Rainforest. We enjoyed our snacks while that cute dog watched. I kept coaxing the dog to jump but the cutie just looked at me.

A closer look. She or he melts my heart.

Great menu for an inexpensive meal.

The hotdog looking one is called Sorullito made of corn bread with a cheese filling. Next to it is the the Empanadilla de Pizza, sort of a pizza turned over.

These are the famous Pan de Mallorca, Puerto Rico's version of the Danish.

I went for the simple Pan de Mallorca and found it similar to Enseymada without the margarine and the sugar. This one was warm, soft, buttery, sweet, simple in taste, but absolutely a mouth's delight. We bought this at the La Bombonera, a bakery featured on Rachel Ray's TV show.

Apple/Strawberry Danish pastries (left), Bread Pudding (middle), Pastelillos de Queso (right). The Pastelillos de Queso is my favorite and for the duration of my stay in Puerto Rico, I had to have them every single day.

La Lechonera and oh yes, there's a pig roasting in there.

My ever first real Lechon meal since moving to the US. The meat was succulent and that skin was so crispy I was in heaven.

I ordered my Lechon with Mofongo also called as Fufu. Mofongo is made with plantains or yucca, fried, mashed and seasoned with garlic and olive oil. I heard there are several versions of how to make a Mofongo. My order came with a Chimichurri Sauce, which you drizzle over the Mofongo. I like the Mofongo just plain without the Chimichurri Sauce. It was an adventure to actually finally taste this after reading about it on travel books. Verdict? I like it.

Puerto Rico's Fort San Cristobal

One of the reasons why I wanted to visit Puerto Rico was because of the historical Old San Juan and to understand what the island's role in the Spanish-American War (1898). On our first day, we visited Fort San Cristobal.

This huge fortress, begun in 1634 and reengineered in the 1770's, is one of the largest ever built in the America's by Spain. Its walls rise more than 150 feet above the sea - a marvel military engineering. San Cristobal protected San Juan against attackers coming by land as a partner to El Morro (post coming soon about El Morro), to which it is linked by a half-mile of monumental walls and bastions filled with cannon-firing positions. A complex system of tunnels and dry moats connects the center of San Cristobal to its "outworks," defensive elements arranged layer after layer over 27-acre site. (John Marino, Frommer's Puerto Rico, 160)

A part of history merges with the everyday life

Fort San Cristobal

A former strategic battle fortress, now a historical monument

Entrance to San Cristobal

Peeking into history

The Puerto Rican flag (middle)

If you're a watch soldier now, this is your view inside from one of the bunkers

Another view from the same bunker (above)

Walls that have witnessed war, history and time

A tunnel of tunnels

A cannon used to be here

San Cristobal peeking into Old San Juan

Leaving San Cristobal

Fort San Cristobal is a historian's delight. Experiencing and walking through history is one way to spend the warm, balmy afternoons in Old San Juan. Believe me, it's worth the sweat and achy feet.

In 1898 the first shots of the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico were fired by cannons on top of San Cristobal during an artillery duel with a U.S. Navy fleet. (Marino, 160)

A Winter Album: Feb 2010

It's another snow day meaning I get a paid leave. Today, my office is closed, which gives me time to recuperate from all that shoveling I did yesterday. My body is so sore and I could barely get up this morning. I'm just worried about this Tuesday as we are expecting another snow storm. I took more photos yesterday, and I've compiled a few more photos just to show what it's like out here.

 

Icicles

  

My car

  

Light or Icicles?

  

Snow covered rooftops and buried cars

  

Who would have thought there's a car in there?

  

Not going anywhere

  

There goes the neighborhood

  

The red house stands out 

Snowed In

I think that these photos will speak for themselves. We've gotten so much snow for the past two days that I've just spent the last two hours shoveling. While I warm up and rest my back a little, enjoy the photos.

 

Outlined

  

It was just starting

  

More is coming

  

Humility

  

Backyard flooded

Awaiting relief

Eminent Eight

I saw this meme at Kero's Celebration, and I thought it's a good way to put things in perspective for 2010. If you feel like doing it, feel free to snag. 

8 Movies I Recently Watched:

1. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
4. Click
5. Envy
6. School of Rock
7. The Good Girl
8. Friends With Money
   

 8 Places To Eat and Drink:

1. Ceiba (their ceviche is great)
   
2. DC Coast (great seafood)
   
3. Pho 75 (nothing beats their Pho)
   
4. Prime Rib (steak is the word)
   
5. Bonefish Grill (Bang Bang Shrimp rules!)
6. Shilla's Bakery (great cakes)
7. Ba Le (great banh mi)
   
8. Elephant and Castle ("fish and chips" rocks but order sweet potato chips instead)
   

8+ Things I Look Forward To:

1. Overcoming or managing better my aplastic anemia
   
2. Trip to Puerto Rico (February)
3. The 2010 National Cherry Blossom's Festival (late March or early April)
   
4. Planning this year's long vacation and a possible trip to Las Vegas
5. Starting a flower and vegetable garden in spring
6. House renovation around spring and summer time
7. Increasing my savings
8. Weekend or day trips during the summer
   
9. Becoming credit card debt free
10. Riding my bike during the spring and summer
    

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

1. Feasted on Fish and Chips at Bonefish Grill
2. Submitted documents for the annual meeting
3. Received package from Hawaii (Thank you, Mom and Dad.)
   
4. Birthday greetings and presents from family and friends
5. Paid bills
6. Laundry
7. New, fresh and clean bed sheets
8. Cooked noodles for dinner
   

8 Things I Love About Winter:

1. Snow can be so pretty to photograph
2. I love the crunching sound when I step on the snow
   
3. A great time for anything hot - soup, apple cider, tea, cocoa, and coffee
4. Sleeping is better especially when it's snowing or raining
5. More work holidays
6. Wearing coats, mittens, and boots
7. Eating spicy food 
8. Staying indoors can be so much fun
   

8 Things I Learned In The Past:

1. Each day must be lived to the fullest
2. Always tell family and friends that you love them
3. Appreciate people and always be grateful
4. Travel, travel and travel is better than education
5. Being independent is a blessing and a wonderful thing
6. Forgive and let go
7. Always keep an emergency fund
8. We create our lives (The Secret)
   

Turning Thirty-Two

Today, I turn thirty-two and I intend to:

1. be at work for eight hours
2. pick up a cake on my way home
3. make dinner or eat at a restaurant
   
4. watch cable or DVD - probably a comedy movie
   
5. indulge with that cake I just bought with tea
6. go to bed around 11:00ish PM
7. next day, repeat process but substitute cake with chocolate for non-birthday days
   

My birthdays are no fuss days except that I am thankful for the wonderful 32 years of adventure and I am looking forward for more.

Commuting

Today, Metro commute was a madhouse again. Sounds familiar? Right around the same time last year, I had a similar hell-like commute (Read my entry here). Why I'm making a big fuss about this? It's because it seems to happen around my birthday. Coincidence? Perhaps and I'm just hoping it's just coincidence. I really don't want to spend my birthdays commuting for two hours and having to deal with sardine-packed shuttles or buses. In the center of it all, my heart goes to the two Metro track workers who got into an accident early morning today. (You can read their story here.) Really, DC Metro has to do better in ensuring the overall safety of their system, workers and riders. Last year, DC Metro was front news due to a big accident and lost of lives. Although I feel confident riding the Metro most of the time, sometimes I can't help but wonder if I'm really safe at all.

Changes

I have unpacked the boxes, vacuumed the carpet, and dusted most corners. Although it's been rather frigid in Maryland, my house is starting to warm up like a home. Moving from a one-bedroom apartment to a two-story house was at first intimidating. I only needed a few things to fill up my former limited one-bedroom apartment. Now, there's definitely room to fill and even grow.

So many things have changed since becoming a homeowner. I am budget conscious all the time, and my brain would go into this arduous debate before I purchase something or anything. I no longer stalk the malls and that shopping for myself has come to a halt. My shopping list has evolved and that all items are for the house and a necessity label on each item is a must. I have a growing list of things to do and things I need, but for the moment, the most important things are the "necessities" to run my house properly. So far, it is running smoothly.

At times, I still can't believe that I do own a house, and at the end of each work day and it's time to go home, it's a wonderful feeling and realization that I am truly heading home. To think back, 2009 was filled with life changing events but I have no wish (actually lazy) to enumerate each trials and triumphs. This time, I am more inclined to list a few things I am looking forward to in the next few weeks:

• trip to Puerto Rico
• celebrating my birthday
• DC restaurant week - going to DC Coast and Prime Rib this week
• Baltimore restaurant week - still deciding where to go but definitely at the harbor area
  
• going to see Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center

As far as New Year's resolutions are concerned, I have only one - to live a good life and a full life.

Yearning For Normalcy

On my way home last night, I stopped by the Filipino restaurant to eat a quick dinner. I was famished and thought I couldn't handle being hungry while driving home at the same time. Besides, I'm too lazy to cook at home. Since I moved to my house, I have a longer commute to work. It's a give and take situation. I live further now and my commute has increased, but I love having my own place and enjoying absolute privacy. For now, I am going through the adjustment phase.

My holidays were spent moving to the new place. I did manage to spend Christmas Day at my aunt's place and ate some good Filipino food. Although my cousins were all in merriment and presents were being unwrapped, all I wanted was to sleep at my aunt's lovely couch. I was at that point exhausted. Blame it on carrying boxes and driving back and forth a couple of days before Christmas Day.

Days before the New Year were spent unpacking and arranging furniture at my house. Of course, I had a few mishaps at the new place like the heat pump's blades freezing, the water heater spewing water all over the basement, and those gosh darn it, awful, leaky toilet and pipes. So, I had repair guys coming in and out of the house even on one snow stormy night. Oh yes, the joys of home ownership. I thought I'd die right there and then because of stress. Adding to the stressful situation is the uncooperative frigid weather the DC area is going through at the moment. Moving boxes in this type of snowy, cold weather is absolutely no fun. I kid you not; I heard this morning that we have 11 days to go of this arctic blast and snow is expected again tomorrow.

SERIOUSLY, I am in dire need of sun. And if you're asking what I did to welcome New Year's Eve, I did put on my red shirt and polka dot pjs for luck, but when 2010 ushered in, I was curled warmly on my bed sleeping - probably snoring. I even forgot to call my parents to greet them a Happy New Year. I did get the guilt trip call on January 2nd, and please note that I have admitted to my forgetfulness and I have apologized to my parents.

I am now back working, and I'm glad the moving phase is over. It is just a matter of adjusting now and to start looking at my monthly budget and get things in order at my home. As of now, I'm still trying to gauge how much my monthly expenses will be. I am rather feeling restless and that I am yearning for that feeling of  normalcy again. I hope that 2010 will bring that back to me. For goodness sake, I even have a hard time finding my TV remote these days.

Happy Holidays

To All,

Smile

Give a hug

Be nice

Be extra nice

Every single day.

I think that's what Christmas is all about - spreading cheer!

After all, Christmas is not about you or me.

It's about making love ones and others happy.

Love and alohas,

Kayni