Espasol Recipe (Filipino Rice Cake Originated From Laguna Philippines)

3 cups coconut milk

1 1/2 cups roasted grated coconut

3 cups roasted glutinous rice flour

1/2 cup roasted rice flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Bring the coconut milk to boil. Upon boiling add sugar, mix it until sugar is dissolved. Make sure your stove is in low heat only to avoid the mixture to burn.

Then add the grated coconut and vanilla extract, and let it simmer.

Lastly, add the glutinous rice flour.

This is the hardest part: Mix it until the all ingredients were incorporated well.

Dust a plate with rice flour and put the dough in it and let it cool. Cut it to appropriate size and dip each slice to rice flour to avoid them sticking together.

VERDICT
WILL: Every time my mom goes to Laguna I always asked her to get me some espasol. Of course she never failed to do that. She always bought for me that sweet delicacy from that town. 

Abbey knew me a lot, I am so surprised when having a dinner with his colleagues he asked them if his right shoulder is same size with left. We asked why. He told us that he made espasol for me. 

I taste-test one when we got home and the judgement..terrific! Same as the one in Pansol and Tagaytay that I used to buy. I went to office the following day and shared it to my colleagues. They love it too. 

Thanks Abbey for the continuous surprises.

Coffeemin - Singapore's Time Cafe

ABBEY: From time to time, it would be nice to not go directly home after a day's work. Maybe go to a place with a homey ambiance; as they say a home away from home.

We visited Coffeemin at Clarke Quay. It is a per-hour coffee shop. For 6 SGD an hour, you can enjoy unlimited coffee, sodas, and biscuits. Just present your IC or pay 30SGD which is refundable. 

Upon arrival, we sat down on the couch and started to play Xbox. Oh my, we don't know how to load a game :) After giving up for not knowing what would be the goal of the game we chose, we took over the billiard table. 8-ball? Grace won. 9-ball, I got a bad shot while putting the last ball in the corner pocket. It was fun. Short chit-chat on what are our plans in the future while munching on butter cookies and then we left. 

I'll tell you now, an hour is very short to spend time with your friend and loved ones.

WILL: Aren’t you tired of your usual coffee place? Or you just want to take a sip of unlimited coffee with your friends? Or you just want to spend an hour talking with all of your friends but your home cannot accommodate them all? Coffeeminion is a great place for you to check out.

How I came up to this place? While browsing the Groupon and Deal.Com.Sg I saw a half priced of this. I got a 3 vouchers for $3.00 each per hour. Imagine, you can have your unlimited cappuccino / latte / milo / soda / cookies + play your favourite board games, billiards, books/magazines and Xbox games. Good deal right?

After office, Abbey, Grace and I went there to check them out. The place is serene. There we merrily drank our dose of caffeine, played nine balls, and talked.. talked.. and talked. I love this place. Now me and my colleagues are scheduling a visit in their Suntec City branch.

Thanks Coffemin for this very good homey concept. Oh, please do check out their schedule because they were always hired for private function.

Sentosa Buskers Festival 2014

ABBEY: Another year has passed and Sentosa Buskers Festival is back. We only have one goal; to see Grumpy Queen Vic and have a snap with her. Upon arriving in Beach Station, Les Dudes is already performing. They are one of the wacky duo who does torch juggling, riding unicycle and acrobatics. After their act, I heard a loud whistle that sends a signal of urgency. It was Tuto Tul; a mime calling out his audience. He made his funny head stands and antics with audience participation. The show turned out to be good as the volunteers were game.

After that, we went to Palawan beach to see the "Queen". She was really grumpy :) Even the sound of violin from Singaporean artist Dan cannot put a smile across her face. Maybe because she was placed in the farthest part of the Buskers' Festival area. It would be better to place her in the area near iFly. We were about to leave as our mission was accomplished.

It was a good thing that we stayed. A few minutes later Aerial Manx of Australia started his act. He did lit up a whip and extinguished the flames by striking it. Each sonicboom was matched with a fireball. The sight was awesome. The last act is a dangerous one. So unique that he was logged into Guiness World record. He swallowed a 42-inch sword, did a cartwheel and then backflipped. That's how you end a performance.

WILL: Have you been to any of Sentosa’s Buskers Festival? No? Whyyyy? Tell me why?!

This season, I laughed a lot, my jaw-dropped a lot and I spend a lot for the tips. Haha!

Sentosa squeeze in the performances to the a smaller vicinity of the island, it is a good thing, viewers can jumped in to one act simultaneously. First we saw the Les Dudes from Canada. Unicycle is their forte. Tuto Tul got our attention when he blew his whistle. He is really amazing. He is a mime, clown and a magician. He make his audiences participate on his show.

We ran to The Garden to check out The Grumpy Queen from United Kingdom. Well she is the reason why we chose to go on Monday. Haha! I tried to make her smile, but efforts are futile. She is really a grumpiest off all grumpy queen in the whole wide world.

We were about to go home when we saw Aerial Manx from Australia fixing his stuffs, when I read on the pamphlet that he is a Guinness World Record holder, Winner of Apollo Bay Buskers Competition and performed on almost all of the famous city, we decided to stay, sit and enjoy his antics. Well, a breathtaking, tongue-swallowing and heartbeat-stopper performance Aerial Manx showed to us.

This weekend please visit them at Sentosa.. The State of Fun. Its free but please give some tips to the buskers if you enjoyed their shows. J