Recipe: Chopped Thai Salad with Green Papaya

I love this salad, all the crunchy chopped produce in it make for a refreshing bite! I especially love that it has shredded green papaya in it, a fruit that I don't know many ways to use. And, the dressing this salad is paired with gives it the perfect flavor (thanks to the peanut butter and calamansi), as well as the perfect zing (thanks to the little red chili in it).

The recipe is from the Pinch of Yum blog. Lindsey is a food blogger who has lived in the Philippines, and she created this salad while living here. Take a look:

http://pinchofyum.com/chopped-thai-chicken-salad

We need some green: Arroceros Forest Park

Thanks to an Earth day celebration held at this park, we discovered this bit of green in the city a few weeks ago. It would make for a good little outing when you just need to let your kids run and be who they are. It’s a place of gathering sticks, throwing leaves in the air, and finding organic corners to hide in. These are things that used to be right outside our apartment building when we lived in Switzerland, but now take a lot more effort to find. This place has the rewards for the effort because the kids had the time of their lives running around.

Arroceros Forest Park is located in Ermita, Manila near the Central Station LRT stop (address is Antonio Villegas Street, 659A). This is about a 25-minute drive from Makati on a good Saturday. There is parking inside the gates of the park. The description of this park on the Earth day ad was: “This little forest park was created in 1994 by a bunch of women (mostly in their 70s). They proved that an empty lot (filled with debris) could be transformed into a dense forest which has attracted over 20 kinds of birds. “  And yes, it’s a little, wild forest in the middle of Manila City, and yes it makes me want to thank those women for creating it for the good of the city and for the happiness of my kids. 

Why we loved it:

1) For starters, this tree at the entrance of the park. 

2) The park is well-maintained (hardly any litter) and well-loved. It is maintained by the Manila City Government and a private environmental group of mostly senior citizen women called Winner Foundation. Check out this wall of upcycled planters:

This forest is cared for. On Earth day, Winner Foundation arranged for more trees to be planted:

3) The forest shares the compound with the Manila Division of City Schools, in this pretty building. The added plus: clean CRs! (But no toilet paper).

Between the building and the forest, there is some cemented space for events, or maybe for kicking a ball around or playing hopscotch? 

A storytelling event during the Earth day celebration

Street performer during the Earth day celebration.

4) It is 22,000 square meters of tall trees, layers of fallen leaves left on the ground rather than swept up, and meandering paths through the forest. So natural, and yet so hard to find in the city! Note that there are clearings where a blanket could be laid out for a picnic.

My daughter came running around a corner, yelling excitedly, "Mom, this is like Switzerland...where the leaves....are like SNOW!" 

And, there's interesting vegetation to explore. 

5) The forest was a world for the kids where they could have spent hours playing and imagining. 

My kids asked me, "Mom, how come you have never brought us here before?!" I definitely would have brought them here long ago had I known about it!

Recipe: All-Filipino Granola

In a big bowl, mix together:

6 cups rolled oats (I used Quaker brand)

2 cups freshly shredded coconut

1/2 cup cashew nuts, crushed

1/2 cup peanuts, crushed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small bowl, mix together:

1/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add contents of small bowl to big bowl and stir together. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes, but stir half-way through cooking time.

Remove from oven and let cool. Add 3/4 cup dried mango cut-up in pieces, and stir. Store in airtight container. 

Can also add:

1 Tablespoon flax or sesame seeds

1/2 cup banana chips or raisins

Enjoyed plain, with milk or yogurt, or as topping on a smoothie or ice cream. 

San Antonio, Zamabales with kids

The beautiful thing about Zambales? Gorgeous beaches just 3 1/2 hours drive away from Manila. Think: just an hour further than Subic. Gorgeous in that they are also unique-looking since they are back-dropped by breathtaking mountains.

Pundaquit beach, San Antonio. View from the boat.

Where we stayed:

In an airbnb house in the town of San Antonio recommended to me by a fellow school mother. It turned out to be perfect. Upon researching hotels in the area, they seemed overpriced for what they offered. This 2-bedroom house was just a little bit less than PHP4000/night for up to 5 adults (kids are free). But, there are abundant mattresses around so up to 10 adults can be accommodated. This house is modern, clean and fully equipped and had everything we needed for a comfortable stay: great kitchen, air-conditioning, generator (we experienced a brown out), patio for eating outdoors, and washer/dryer (it was great to be able to do laundry after a grimy day at the beach). Also, staying in a house was perfect for this not-yet-super-developed area in that there aren't a lot of restaurant choices around, so we ate most meals at home. And it was also perfect because it was located in the countryside, so when not at the beach, we could take in the gorgeous landscape of Zambales. Here's a photo of the house and a view from it:

The house can be viewed and reserved here.

As you can see from all the reviews on airbnb, Analyn and her husband (the caretakers of the house) were wonderful hosts- responded to questions I had promptly, made sure we had everything we needed, and arranged our island hopping tour. FYI, there is another 3-bedroom house on the same compound that is also available on airbnb if you are going with a large group, it's just not as well- equipped.

The best part about the house was the view, and the land all around it. There are also fruit trees, cattle, pigs, goats and a carabao in the compound for the kids to enjoy. One more plus of the house: there's a roof-level lanai for stargazing at night, which was pretty amazing.

Fruit tree, carabao, fields, eggplant tree, pig

What we did:

We spent one afternoon attempting to surf at Crystal Beach resort in the next town over, called San Narciso. But, there were no waves so we weren't able to. FYI, rental of surfboard at Crystal Beach is PHP400/hour. We had lunch here and it was fine. Kids enjoyed fish and chips and BBQ chicken. Their menu is pretty extensive with many Filipino dishes.

Crystal Beach

When Crystal beach didn't work out, instead of paying their day tour rate of PHP195 per person, we thought we'd try the free public beach next door to it (the one behind the town's children's playground). It did the job beautifully!

The public beach at San Narciso. At dusk we got to watch the fishermen go out on their boats.

We did one day of island hopping to Camara Island, Capones Island and Anawangin Cove. The jump- off point to all of these is Pundaquit beach in San Antonio (10 min drive from the house). Analyn accompanied us to Kristel's beach resort (the owner is a friend of theirs) and helped us secure our boat for the day. For the 6 of us, it was PHP2000 for a medium-sized boat with two staff members to take us to all three islands. 10-minute ride to Camara (it's a small island so only stayed about 30 minutes), another 10 minutes to Capones (views were breathtaking here and snorkeling great so stayed about an hour), then a 20 minute boat-ride to Anawangin Cove. Here, we enjoyed a picnic lunch under the pine trees.

Anawangin Cove is divided into about 6 resorts where you can pay a fee to enter to use their picnic tables and CRs. Or you can rent hut for varying prices (PHP100 to PHP1500 for a really nice Nipa hut for the day). Or you can pay to camp for the night (which we didn't do). My only recommendation is to not go to the resort that's right in the middle of the cove called Mansayon beach resort. It seems to be the party campsite (lots of alcohol bottles lying around) and also the least maintained (garbage everywhere). It's the one we walked into not knowing there was more than one resort, and we were disheartened by the excessive littering. I was relieved to see later that the other resorts were better maintained and kinder to nature. We brought our picnic and water on the boat as there are only limited sari-sari stores at Anawangin Cove. Annalyn had brought us to the market in San Antonio to get everything we needed before heading to Pundaquit beach. After lunch, we played at the the beach. There is also some good snorkeling. If you have your back to the water, there is good snorkeling at the left of the cove where the rocks are. Here are pictures from our island hopping:

Camara Island

Capones Island

Views from Capones Island. Note that apparently the Navy doesn't allow people 

to climb up the lighthouse on the island anymore. 

Setting for a picnic at Anawangin cove. Memorable.

Panoramic shot at Anawangin cove

Other things to do:
- There is a mango farm in the area which you can visit. My friend Amber of A Momma Abroad went there and loved it. See her blogpost here.
- There is a short, kid-friendly hike to a waterfall from Pundaquit beach too, but we didn't do it as it's not recommended in the dry season. You can read about on Bantog Backpackers' blog.
- Visit Nagsasa Cove, which is about another hour further than Anawangin Cove by boat.

- Visit Casa San Miguel in San Antonio. It's an art gallery, a music school, a bed and breakfast and a cafe. Us and Casa San Miguel just weren't meant to be as the first time we went it was booked out for a wedding, and the second time, brown out! But look how pretty the cafe is, and more information about Casa San Miguel is on wheninmanila's website.

Cafe at Casa San Miguel

Finally, another blogpost that helped me plan our trip: Two Monkeys Travel Group (look under destination #5 Zambales). And it seems the boat fares are pretty standard at Pundaquit, but if you need a recommendation, we really liked Kristel's resort for hiring our boat for island hopping (which our hostess Analyn brought us too). The owner, Florante, is organized and efficient, and his staff are all friendly and kind. When we brought our friends back two days later to get them settled with a boat, he organized everything for them too. Here's Florante's info and rates:

Recipe: Malunggay Pesto

I love being able to use local produce, and I love it even more when it's something the whole family (i.e. the kids) will eat. And even better when that local produce is highly nutritious. I have enjoyed discovering malunggay and it's amazing nutritional properties. Some examples: it has 2 times the protein than yoghurt, 4 times more vitamin A than carrots, 7 times more vitamin C than oranges, 3 times more iron than spinach, double the calcium than in milk, and 3 times more potassium than bananas. I love that is is available so abundantly and so inexpensively in the Philippines. We even have a malunggay tree in our yard. I found this book at National Bookstore that encourages people to make use of the benefits of malunggay by incorporating it into more of our meals. Apart from in Tinola and Munggo stew, I've also thrown it into smoothies and pureed it into pancakes, with varying success as to the palates of my kids depending on their mood that day! But one way that they enjoy it for sure, is in pesto sauce! So, here we go, posting the recipe.

Recipe from "The Malunggay Book" by Day Salonga and Mon Urbano

Makes about 2 cups

2 garlic cloves
2 cups fresh malunggay leaves
1/2 cup basil
1/2 cup cashew nuts, unsalted and toasted
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Puree until it turns to a paste. Season with salt and pepper.

From a tree in our yard, to the blender, to the pasta. 

We need some green: Bangkong Kahoy Valley

Just got back from a fabulous 2-day, 1-night trip to Bangkong Kahoy Valley in Dolores, Quezon Province. 2 1/2 hours away from Manila.

It was just the outdoor, nature experience we were in need of. 

Why we loved it: 

1) You can PICK WILD RASPBERRIES there!!! Called Sapinit in Tagalog. Season is from Jan-March. The temperatures here are as cool as Baguio. The low at night was 21C and the high during the day was 26C (in Feb). It was so exciting to come across a blogpost a few months ago about these berries, and then to go and find them at BK Valley, and even better, to find that they weren't out of stock! Lots of berries for the kids to pick. If you're just picking handfuls, it's free. If you're picking a lot, it's PHP400 for 1 1kg. (Note: sapinit bushes are found near the parking lot of the villas, and in another area. When you leave restaurant as if you are exiting BK valley, it's the second left where the "cement yurts" are, pass the sayote squash gardens and the raspberries are in the field on your left. Sapinit are also found higher up in the mountains, the workers of the farm go up there, they said it was too far away for us to go. I saw a man come back with two grocery bagfuls of raspberries from there!). The wild raspberries have a tougher skin than normal raspberries, are a little crunchier, more seedy and not as sweet. They are a glorious red color and were such a delight to pick and eat! 

2) Nature, nature, nature. Bangkong Kahoy Valley is located between Mount Banahaw and Mount Cristobal. This farm is huge! So much space to be free! The kids got to run in an open field, ride a horse, run in open soccer fields (equal to 4 of them, in fact), dink around at a pond, and hang in hammocks scattered around the farm. We also enjoyed the views and went on a great trek in the jungle. (Note: while there were a lot of signs for trails, it was hard to get the info on where they really started. We found a great trail that starts at a lodge a bit lower down from the restaurant, you hike down to thick, mossy jungle. When you leave restaurant as if exiting BK valley, it's your first left. There's a parking for ATVs and a black gate to a lodge. At the very right of the black gate, there are stairs going down.... follow these stairs down the ravine. We loved the thick vegetation and listening to the sounds of birds. Rocks and moss are slippery, recommend long pants because of thorny bushes.)

The flora and fauna of BK valley

3) It was a perfect balance of being out in nature, and yet having the amenities we needed at hand. We felt completely free at the farm. We went on a Friday-Saturday. Friday there weren't any other guests. While it takes a lot of people to run the farm, and while we did encounter workers who were all so nice and helpful, we felt on our own and free to roam enjoy the grounds of the whole farm. As meals were taken care of and at a set price (see below), I didn't have to worry about what food we were going to eat next. We met the caretaker of BK valley, Dion Pullan. He is an environmentalist at heart and genuinely wants people to take care of and enjoy the benefits of nature. And that's what we felt at BK Valley, a place to enjoy nature freely, and yet have the amenities close by. At BK Valley, you can camp in a tent that you bring, stay in an open cottage (I wish we were adventurous enough to stay here- they looked really fun and airy), stay in a  basic, but clean, villa which sleeps 4-6 people, or stay in a lodge room that has TV, hot water, wifi and a more comfortable set-up. Photos and prices below. We stayed in a villa, and the rusticity of it was just right to match our outdoorsy experience at BK Valley.

Open cottages range from PHP 2000-3000 depending on the size. The one in the two photos at the top are of Antonio's cottage which has a bed in the loft as well, for PHP2800. We stayed in a villa (Dio's villa. pictures in the two photos at the bottom) which cost PHP3500 for a queen bed and 2 sets of bunk beds.

There are also comfortable lodge rooms for PHP6000.

See BK valley's website for more info on the rooms, and you can book by texting Elena at 0929 819 8537.

4) The food set-up and the food itself. All meals are at an open, airy Robinson Crusoe-type structure. Before coming to BK valley, you can pre-arrange which meals you will be eating there. We had lunch, afternoon merienda, dinner, breakfast the next morning, and morning merienda at BK valley. Before coming, they asked us what kinds of meals we might be wanting (I told them adobo, pancit and vegetable dishes, as I had heard these were their specialties). When we did arrive, they had a lunch ready for us. They also asked us what we might want for the kids for dinner- they offered fried chicken and rice, which sounded great. For the meals and meriendas, they charged us a flat rate per person (see price breakdown below) and served all the food family-style. The food was simple but diverse and plentiful, and very much based on vegetables that are grown on the farm (organically). Here's a list of what we ate. If you go, I recommend giving them an idea of which meals and what you would like to eat, because they need to know beforehand to prepare. All of the food was fresh and tasted amazing in the outdoors. 

-Lunch (PHP1000 for 4 people, that's what they charged us for our family of 6): Vegetable nilaga (broth w/ sayote and string beans), breaded fried fish (two kinds), shitake mushrooms and carrot dish, rice, and watermelon. 

-Afternoon merienda (PHP360 for 4): mushroom burgers (their specialty, they were good! Maybe ask to be able to put on your own mayo and mustard), kamote (sweet potato) fries, and hot chocolate.

-Dinner (PHP1000 for 4): Chopsuey, fried chicken, corn and carrot soup, coleslaw (which was delicious), fried oyster mushrooms (another farm specialty), and fruit cocktail. 

-Breakfast (PHP800 for 4): Fried eggs, longanisa, hot dogs, cabbage omelets, rice, fried rice, and hot chocolate. 

-Morning merienda (ended up being complimentary): Taro pizza (more like a pancake), fried sweet potato slices, and fried plantains. And beautiful dishes of wild raspberries!

Next  to the restaurant, there is an honesty store which sells produce from the farm and you choose your produce, weigh it, calculate how much you owe and leave your money in a box. They also sell other products there like wild raspberry jam. 

Mealtime at the canteen

BK valley specialties

 Morning merienda

5) The staff family. They were all so cheerful and helpful, and happy when serving our meals, arranging for us to ride horses, or finding raspberries for us to pick. 

 Here are the ladies who worked the kitchen- chopping mushrooms for their mushroom burgers.

All in all, Bangkong Kahoy Valley was a wonderful place to go as a family and to be free in nature. We went with family friends and this is a great place to enjoy in a group as there is lots accommodation (and for all budgets), food is taken care of, and there is so much space and so much to enjoy in the outdoors. It could be done as a daytrip or as an overnight trip. Who knew there was a place with cool temperatures just 2 1/2 hours away!

Here are the two blogposts where I learned about BK valley:

Guiltless Getaways

Mommy Writes 

And here is an article about the wild raspberries of Quezon province:

Choose Philippines

We need some green: Fort Santiago and San Diego Gardens, Intramuros

First of all, to get to know Intramuros, I highly recommend Carlos Celdran's walking tour. He does an amazing job of going over Manila's history from Chinese to post-WWII times in a theatrical tour. He passionately gives his audience an appreciation and understanding of how Manila came to be the way it is today. See his blog for tour dates/rates:
https://carlosceldranwalks.wordpress.com/

Two places in Intramuros that are particularly kid-friendly below. If you need a place to dine, we love Ristorante delle Mitre which is like an old Spanish bistro, for it's quaintness and old spanish/filipino food at very reasonable prices (we like the pancit, the fresh lumpia, the kangkong and okra dishes... and any pasta and the fried chicken for the kids. Their desserts/tarts are good too!)

1) Fort Santiago: Old fort with manicured lawns. Kids can enjoy the grass and greenery, climb on old ruins, and walk the steps of Jose Rizal. Entrance fee is PHP75 for adults, 50PHP for kids. Open daily 8am to 5pm.

2) San Diego Gardens: Gardens connected to one of the baluartes (bastions) of Intramuros. The remains of the bastion itself are impressive and surrounded by an area of green where kids can run around and balance on ruins. In what felt like a hidden garden, kids can explore: potted plants, flowers, leafy archways, bonsai trees, and the walls of Intramuros. We went at 9am on a weekday and had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was quiet and fun to explore this rudimentary secret garden with a backdrop dripping with history. Entrance fee is PHP75 for adults, 50PHP for kids. Open daily 8am to 5pm.