My Grocery List

I had typed the draft of this post while waiting for my husband inside the Gaisano Ilustre Mall to pick me up along with my grocery bags filled with stuff for our next week’s consumption at home. My bags contain my daughter’s can of milk, diapers, her jellies and crackers, shampoo, detergent soap in bars and in powder, teabags in boxes, brown sugar, two dozens of eggs, powder juice in foils, my favorite Nature’s Bread Wheat Bread, a few cans of sardines and beef loaf, my sanitary napkins, liniments, bleach, vegetable cooking oil and a whole lot more! 

Before, I did my grocery without a list or if there was, I seldom or I rarely stick to it. And my impulsive buying had cost me so much waste on the figures I am entrusted to budget. There would be things and foods I bought that were being thrown in the garbage sacks because I would just realize after a month or so they were unwanted in my household, my family won’t eat or use them or they are at most unnecessary. Always after discarding, I’d feel guilty. After so much REALIZATION on my part, I began and started making my grocery list. I’m doing this good step for a year and a few months now and gladly it made a good outcome. Saturday is my grocery and market day and every Monday is my start-to-make-a-list-day. I also had instructed my helper at home to tell me whenever we are already running out of soap, cooking oil, Gasul, sugar, spices and rice which are the basic commodities at home so I can immediately go downtown to refill our counters and containers.

Forty percent of our household income goes to the supermarket and twenty percent goes to the local market and for our health expenses and benefits, ten percent is our tithes, another ten percent is divided for miscellaneous and our house helper’s salary and the last ten percent goes to our savings accounts in banks. Somehow we have managed to make both ends meet. And as what I’m blurting out in frequent, there will always be blessings. We see to it what we get from our work goes to its designated envelopes and what we get from our sidelines, people around and some of our etcera will still be kept in their proper folders, to be used for good investments, to be of help and to assist people in need, to be spent wisely and to be used for  the future and present use that are necessary.

Mashfa on Chocolates

I grew up knowing that chocolates are bad for my body. It’ll destroy my teeth and will cause me toothaches and cavities. It’ll give me diabetes and too much cholesterol and bad fats. All were negative notions from adults who dislike sweets in form of candies & of this famous concoction in different colors & sizes & shapes to be eaten by kids.

Numerous beauty products today contain cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is good for skin softening. Nowadays, chocolate is being used in Body & Facial Spas and Derma Clinics and the like for beauty & body treatments probably because it can exfoliate the dead skin cells and regenerate new ones. Study shows an ample dosage of chocolates in a diet can prevent the free and harmful radicals from causing damage to the skin’s elasticity because of the anti-oxidants found as one of it’s components. Also, chocolates are rich in flavanoids that maintain the skin’s collagen and fight against sun damage. It doesn't hurt to eat a bar of chocolate a day. 

My aunt’s seaman husband, Uncle Joenel came back from his 1 year trip over the sea a month ago and he brought a lot of imported chocolates from his work-travel. My loving aunt hid a portion for me so I was still able to have sumptuous bites of one of my favorite foods before 2010 turned to an end. My all time favorite brand – Toblerone, Cadbury, M&Ms and Hershey’s Kisses & Mini Bars. And because I’m a mother of all times I had to share my bag of goodies to the twins & Reese (though they also have their own pasalubong from their Daddy-lo. You know – kids, they love to get anything from your hand most likely when it’s food, you know). ^_^

A few days before we packed our bags to travel back to Davao City, I remembered visiting a family just a few blocks away from my parents’ house. They had sent me home with a plastic bag full of cacao beans. One of our house helper voluntarily roasted the beans in a large pan & right after I delivered it to a “Bukbukan” (a store in the Philippines known to shred coconut meats out from their shells, to grind nuts, grains & beans). In a few minutes I saw my first ever chocolate sauce (‘my’ first? Eh, just let me think it was). We don't have small tins so I used my mother’s ‘puto’ molders to shape the very sticky form of paste I had in a once-filled of ice cream container. The three kids at home were so delighted to see my muffin-like cacao tablets. Filipinos fondly call it ‘tabliya’ or ‘tsukwati’. Best for champorado & a morning treat for a chocolate lover like me – a cup or cups of choco drink before ringing the day’s bell.

Mashfa on Master Siomai

Just this afternoon I needed to go to downtown to see the city at day (my first sight of Davao City's center of commerce for the year 2011. I just came back from my almost 3-week vacation in Bukidnon last two days ago).   I also needed to check with the Postal Office regarding the transactions I had with them the past year and to update my EON Account at Unionbank (which are all located at the most crowded places in the city).

It was past 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I had thought of convincing my husband to eat slices of my favorite Greenwich Pepperoni Pizza or maybe try some pizza somewhere since office hours were already up. But we ended up going to Gaisano South (JS Ilustre) and spotted ourselves ordering two servings of siomai at Master Siomai's stall inside the mall. Mine was beef siomai, Rex had combo siomai. We paired it then with their cold gulaman. After the last bites, though not hungry we ordered for another two servings. I got pork & shrimp siomai while Rex vigorously devoured the japanese siomai. I do my grocery shopping at JS for almost 6 months now, Mr. Siomai as I remember was visible inside the place on the last quarter of the previous year (can't recall the exact date) but I was one of those who struggled to order for their siomai in a rustling crowd during their first few days.

 Siomai Combo (2 pieces beef siomai & 2 pieces japanese siomai)

Beef Siomai

Upper Plate: Pork & Shrimp Siomai

Lower Plate: Japanese Siomai

A serving consists of four siomai of your choice (Beef, Japanese, Pork & Shrimp and Combo) at 28 PhP. A cup of their gulaman is at 10 PhP. I've seen a cart of Master Siomai at the First Floor of NCCC Mall (near the entrance and the exit door of the said mall facing Maa Road).

I've eaten too many siomai before from different food carts, food chains & fine restaurants but to only a few I'd make a thumbs up. Master Siomai provides one of the best tasting Asian food I've ever eaten in my 24 year of existence. It's worth the try & another try & another try & another...

A Night of Experience

I've been longing to have a whole body massage in a spa last December and it was granted when my husband treated me to Body Bliss Spa last night. I was once their customer before and my previous taste with their service was a good one so when my hubby asked me where I'd like to have our first massage date for this year, my immediate answer was Body Bliss.

I like their amenities: the place itself, the stillness & the silence, friendly attendants & masseurs, a cup of tea on or before the massage, cozy beds, their choice of background music, the kind of massage service plus the cleanliness of the place & their essentials like face & body towels, the likable smell of their perfumed oils without the sticky feeling and most of all I find Body Bliss affordable. Well, my husband and I indulges ourselves in stuffs like these once a month or once every two months.

Rex & me chose their Aromatherapy Massage (a 60-minute whole body massage) for 200 PhP (this was always my choice) and we also tried first time their 30-minute Stone Massage for 100 PhP.

For Body Bliss Massage List of Services here's their main menu:

For Contact Numbers and their locations/branches (within & near the city of Davao):