Happy Lemon: The HK Starbucks of Bubble Teas

There is and always will be, that moment in childhood, where we drank a bottle of Yakult. Then we wanted more. So we drank another one. Only to feel that we still have not enough. And we cursed the shrewed Japanese for not producing bigger sizes of Yakult. From then on, we swore to open a 5-pack Yakult, accumulate them altogether in a drinking glass, and gulp the Go!Large cultured milk.

But ever since Chris Tiu and his Xavier pals brought Happy Lemon to the Philippines, I say, there are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived fully, as the children these days. (Hint: I am talking about Lemon Yakult, yes, they have ice blended Yakult in a tall cup now! x_x)



Happy Lemon is a brightly-lit bubble tea shop from Hong Kong. Its cozy feel and hip vibe, teamed up with creativity-infused drinks expects to reproduce the cheering influence exhilaration of good conversations, over the finest organic suspensions.



They have such a diverse list of teas (lemon series, fresh tea, milk tea, specialty tea, mousse spin) and coffee drinks that it would really take you forever to make your choice.

The cashier would first and foremost suggest you try (the one on the first three photos) Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese. I like this one a lot, no wonder it is the signature Happy Lemon drink. It's like some liquid Green Tea Cheesecake. It smells like Sampaguita, and perhaps, it's the only drink I've ever had that's a perfect combination of salty, sweet, and bitter. Very addicting, I must say. Though you should drink it without the straw, so that you could devour the goodness of freshly brewed green tea running through the saltiness of the cheese froth.

I know, it's quite weird to have cheese and salt on your green tea. At first sip, your face might possibly contort various sensations: joy, confusion, unease, pleasure? But no one would understand the truth until they drink of Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese's frothy goodness.




And my personal favorite (the one on the rightmost photo) and apparently, the one I have been raving about all-day long, Lemon Yakult. Waaah! A giant ice-blended cup -- shake style -- of tiny bits of ice and lemon zest which I owe my identifiable personality.

No kidding -- this drink falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Thoughts arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters.

For the love of Yakult, it's just pure pleasure, I tell you.




So there. A vibrant new place to go after your bargain shopping :)
Would you mind going with me to try out other drinks on my next visit?



Happy Lemon
The Promenade, Greenhills Shopping Center
Lemon Drinks
Estimated Budget: ~80 per drink




BTW, if you're wondering why Yakult is sold in small bottles, I give you three operative words: hygiene, health, and cost.

The Lantern Parade (or my Brother Should Be a Model)

The University of the Philippines held its annual Lantern Parade last week. Hoards of people flocked to the campus grounds to be part of the event including myself, my brother and my mom.

The lanterns weren't that spectacular, in fact some of them looked kind of pathetic (sorry but that's the truth). This made for a less enthusiastic photographing so I took to taking pictures of my brother instead, whom I've recently noticed is a natural in front of the camera. It takes no effort for him at all! He's such a good-looking dude.;)

Christmas is almost here!

Bibingka and Puto Bumbong: Special Rice for the Holidays!

There has been a slight change in our weather, don't you think? The daylights getting shorter, the wind gets colder, but more importantly, the aroma of native delicacies fill the air -- aah, holidays are just around the corner (or along the streets among nearby Catholic churches).

Without doubt, Catholic churches across the country are overflowing with the faithfuls as they religiously follow this well-cherished tradition called Simbang Gabi. I think it's a nine-day novena mass in anticipation of the much-coveted December 25 holiday. Although I'm not really sure, I'm not Catholic.

Hence, speak to me of Simbang Gabi, and two things come to my mind: Bibingka and Puto Bumbong.

Both are made from ground rice flour.



Only that, Bibingka, or the local sticky pancakes, is baked on a clay pot, topped with slices of kesong puti and itlog na maalat, then spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, and later served with niyog.




While Puto Bumbong, on the other hand, is cooked on a special steamer-cooker bamboo tubes, then spread with margarine and later served with muscovado sugar and niyog.


Hmm, random thought: only now have I realized how very Filipino these two local fares are. I mean, I've read from somewhere that in Italy, they never throw out bread -- like bread is some sort of manna from heaven that should never go to waste, hence, they find all kind of ways to use and reuse bread -- and bread flour at that. And so, IDK, it just somehow feels that if bread is to Italy, then rice is to Philippines. Does that even make sense? Haha Whatever, all hail Carbohydrates!

Anyway, even if they are actually available all-year round (in Via Mare/Mangan/Ferino's), I share this sacred tradition with my tummy, that come December holidays, I must get my hands on these yellow and purple treasures.

Hats off to ate-tindera-beside-Claret-parish this morning for a very theatrical chow. Happy holidays :)

Ten Days of D.I.Y. (and Changes to Come)

Have you noticed our spankin' new layout yet?
It is so totally cute and girly. I adore it! I think I just might be a closet girly girl...hmmm.

This layout has been one of my projects for the Christmas break. There are actually ten of them (or more if I find something else to do), which would be done in ten days. It's a bit of a challenge for myself. Although I think it's pretty darn hard to actually do them all in ten days. I might give myself some allowance; I wouldn't count the weekends and Christmas.

Here is a not-so-good illustration of the ten:

I've done four of them already (which is right on schedule because it is day four); the bow hair tie, the tiered blouse that I turned into a skirt, turned my boots into booties and this blog's new design. The drawings, by the way, are not made by me. I scoured the internet for them.

So now I still have the peter pan collar to do, and the flower crown, a tulle skirt, finish the bow shorts that I've cast aside for some time now, make that cute bag and color my hair brown. I'm not so sure about coloring my own hair, maybe I'll let a pro do it or something.

Here are photos of what I've done so far:

I will be blogging about the progress or result of the others. Wish me luck!

P.S. About the changes that I mentioned at the last post...I was referring to the design, and more importantly, to the content of the blog. During very busy weeks or even months, Janelle and I really find it hard to commit time to composing content for this blog. It's because we take this blog seriously and usually a post takes hours to make. So we agreed that we can have posts of only photographs. We'll be likely to post outfit pictures, photos that inspire us, photos that we took that you may or may not consider to be photography, or just photos that we think are special. We still are going to write of course. That's if and when we have the time (which we will sometimes).

P.P.S. Janelle is having blogger's block. She'll be resuming as soon as she gets over it, although I told her that she can just post pictures. You can check to see how she's doing here.

Anyhow, here's to a kind-of new and improved fterritory!
Cheers!

Do a Little Distressing on Your Jeans

Hello there. It has been quite a while. We've both been pretty busy and might do some changes with the blog once the holidays starts. It's because we've been finding it very hard to squeeze in time to post..more on that next time.

For the mean time here is something to try your hands on: distressing your jeans.
(Yes, I always find time to DIY. It's kind of a passion of mine.)

Grab a pair of jeans that you're not very fond of, one that you wouldn't mind experimenting on, or maybe one that looks pretty worn out already that it looks like it's going in that direction anyway. You're just helping it get there faster.

The tools you will need are a nail file or a sandpaper, and a pair of your trusty scissors. Oh and some patience and a little muscle will be helpful too.

Snip on the part of the jeans where your knees go - which is always the best part to distress. Make another cut parallel to this one a few inches (or according to your liking) above it.

With both hands hold the cut-up area and pull with all your might or just enough to soften the material until the threads come apart.

Pull a few of the threads at a time.

After removing the blue threads, using your nail file, pick at the edges then sand it. This is to make it look somewhat authentically worn.

You can then move on to create other patches or whateveryoucallems. I limited mine to just the upper part of the jeans. For the smaller patches you can choose to sand the whole thing. This may take some time and determination though.

For the bigger ones, you can pull the white threads out using the nail file. This helps it to look more natural.

You will have something like this

So there. Add a little grunge to your look. Because we don't have to look properly put together all the time.:))