Ina Tosca is a 19 year old Filipina residing in New York. Giggles her way through everything. Loves bacon and cheese; a firm believer that sandwiches tastes better cut diagonally. This blog is a work in progress just as she is.
Late blog post. My sister and I barely have the same day off so when we really get the chance, we make it to a point to at least go out and spend time together. That saturday was one of the few and we decided to go for a road trip at Brooklyn. The weather was so nice that day, we just had to wear skirts. Anyway, I know I mentioned last month in my to-do list that I want to check out Chip Shop and finally I was able to. First of all, how did I know about this fried food place? In one of the episodes of the Deep Fried Paradise on Travel Channel, they featured Chip Shop and right then on, I knew there had to be something deliciously sinful about this place. They will deep fry just about everything. Yes, everything. So, health nuts beware, this place is not for you. Obviously this is not somewhere that you want to eat often, but definitely a must try treat.
We were seated right away and I started off with the English Lemonade. It was actually a soda and it was sweet and not overwhelmingly tart. Then I ordered the battered cod with chips. It was a heap of fries topped with a slab of fish. It was good, but my only concern was that the chips seemed like they had been fresh an hour ago and just heated up again. The fried cod was delicious, flaky, and more fresh, plus they only gave an absurdly small cup of tartar with it. Even though the battering was relatively light, it got overwhelming after a while. My sister tried the fried twinkies and of course I had to save a room for my fried sneakers.
The deep fried sneakers was ooey gooey heaven in mouth. The batter created a yummy and crisp golden exterior that was not oily at all. The chocolate stayed intact, yet gooey enough when biting into it. Embarrassingly good. After having this, I already know what I’ll be coming back for.
After devouring on so much sweets, we just drove around Park slope. We were trying to look for parking space but look just how it works on some side streets. There’s no way we could park our car like those. So, we ended up going home since we weren’t lucky to find some space that day.
At least, I got to see Brooklyn Bridge before sunset. Such a well-spent day off with my sister :) ❤
I just had the most hilarious and meaningful conversation with my sisters and my cousins about our childhood memories. It all started with a picture of a jicama, which is one of my eldest cousin’s favorite fruits and she always peeled them for us. We would eat it with soy sauce and sugar, which is something that she came up with as well. I know it sounds weird but this is one of our all time favorite foods.
From there, we thought about other tropical fruits that we used to eat when we were younger. Among them were santol, green mangoes, aratilis, sineguelas, kamias, lychees, and rambutan. For some reason, all this talk about fruits led to our conversation about the childhood games that we used to play. These include playing house, ship, creating necklaces with flowers, collecting and playing with bugs (spiders, hantik, and salagubang), Dr. Quack-Quack and Chinese Garter, etc.
It made me realize how much I miss those times when we lived in the same house and did all sorts of things together. Life was so simple yet so joyful. Someday, I’d like to sit down with all of my siblings and my cousins and reminisce about all the fond memories we created while growing up.
There’s a phrase that goes “if only I could turn back time.” It’s a cliche but a part of me wish that I could go back and continue the life we had back home.
It’s been ten years since we’ve left home, but the memories will continue to live within us forever. I miss those times when we could just go upstairs and spend time with them, go to school together and eat dinner with my Mom and our grandparents. Things happened and we are now in different parts of the world. For now, all we can do is keep in touch with each other and cherish the memories we had. Hopefully someday it would be possible for everyone to be home at the same time.
After a month or so, I finally had the time to see my little brother Cenjay again. We have planned way too many times and it was only this week that it all came to happen. Its funny though, cos we live in the same borough but we barely see each other. Anyway, the weather was really bad that day but good thing I had the car with me. We decided to have lunch at Jolibee, a Filipino fast food chain at Woodside, since we’ve both been craving for their chicken and peach mango pie.
Chickenjoy with palabok and fries. For those who are not familiar with Palabok, its a Filipino noodle dish topped with shrimp, egg, flakes of bangus (milkfish) and crumbled pork cracklings.
This was how bad the rain is. Thanks to Cenjay’s new toy for keeping us company. We watched the first half of Hunger Games then took some funny videos and pictures. Our attempt for a Mary Poppins inspired mini-shoot didn’t turned out so well, so we’ll just try it again next time. Haha.
After our mini-shoot, we dropped by at Red Ribbon to get some siopao, mamon and this delish banana walnut. I also went grocery shopping at Phil-Am store which was just around the corner. Pretty much a good catching up day despite the rain. Satisfied with getting our Filipino fix ;)
“But frank put it best when he said, you can’t plan on the heart. Those words keep me on my feet when I think I might just fall apart.”
If there is one thing that I must tell about this artist and their album is that upon repeat listens it starts to lull you to sleep. Its a beautiful and elegant sleep with peace though. Klara and Johanna are two special girls who are blessed with such 50’s vibe with modern folk harmonies in their music. I splashed into my consciousness when they produced an amazing cover of a Fleet Foxes track. What even shocked me is that they are barely out of their teens but already can write songs of this depth. First Aid Kit, simply put is a duo backed by guitar; one is plain and the other pretty but both excel in harmony. I hope they make it huge and continue making such music.
