Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Come in, Krispy Kreme, Come in

Last December 15, 2006, Lilia called me on the phone after a Christmas get together with her officemates and said

"Guess where we're heading."

I can almost see her big grin and only one thing came to mind

"You're going to Krispy Kreme?!" I said.

And I was right!

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That night, Lilia brought home our first ever Krispy Kreme take out from the first ever Krispy Kreme store in the Philippines that opened last November 30, 2006 in Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila. The store is open from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily. A second store will open in SM Megamall this month.

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She bought home a dozen Original Glazed and a dozen of assorted varieties for 550 pesos.

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Let's meet them one by one.

Original Glazed - a yeast-raised doughnut made from a still secret recipe dating from the 1930s.

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Chocolate Iced (custard or kreme) Filled - the one in the center is a yeast-raised doughnut shell hand filled with rich Bavarian custard or rich, smooth white kreme and then carefully topped off with a coating of chocolate icing.

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Chocolate Iced Glazed - Original Glazed doughnut taken one step further by hand dipping the top in smooth chocolate icing.

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Glazed Sour Cream - a rich and moist cake doughnut flavored with sour cream and coated from top to bottom with glaze.

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Caramel Kreme Crunch - a yeast-raised doughnut jam-packed with caramel kreme, hand dipped in smooth chocolate icing and topped off with toffee crunch.

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Glazed Cruller - a cake doughnut made in a cruller shape and finished off with a layer of glaze.

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Chocolate Iced With Sprinkles - The nose of this delicious monster is a Chocolate Iced doughnut dipped in colorful candy sprinkles. The eyes are made of Glazed Cruller.

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Powdered (Strawberry or Blueberry) Filled - a yeast raised doughnut jam-packed with straberry or blueberry filling and coated with a dusting of powdered sugar.

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New York Cheesecake - a yeast-raised doughnut with cheesecake filling and topped with cream cheese icing and a dusting of graham cracker crunch.

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Glazed (Raspberry or Lemon) Filled - a glazed yeast-raised doughnut shell bursting with raspberry or lemon filling.

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The doughnuts are softer than what Go Nuts Donuts have and stays soft even if eaten directly after a night of storage inside a refrigerator. You can heat it in a microwave oven for 8 minutes if you want that fresh hot doughnut experience at home. Our favorites are Original Glazed, Chocolate Iced Glazed, Glazed Sour Cream, Caramel Kreme Crunch and New York Cheese Cake.
Here are the Fun Facts displayed in the store.

  1. Stores across North America produce more than 7.5 million doughnuts a day and more than 2.7 billion doughnuts a year.
  2. Krispy Kreme roasts and blends approximately 1.5 million pounds of coffee a year - three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
  3. Krispy Kreme produces enough doughnuts in about a week to make a line of doughnuts from New York City to Los Angeles. Now that's glazing the trail.
  4. In about 22 seconds Krispy Kreme stores can produce enough doughnuts to make a stack the height of the Empire State Building.
  5. A typical Krispy Kreme store produces more than 3,000 doughnuts per hour, but larger stores can produce up to 12,000 doughnuts per hour.
  6. Doughnuts trace their history to Dutch cakes. The cakes had nuts embedded in the centres, and early Dutch-American settlers combined ‘dough’ and ‘nut’ to make the word ‘doughnut’.
  7. The hole in the centre of the doughnut is credited to a young boy named Hanson Gregory, who in 1847, suggested to his mother that she put a hole in the middle of her cake to ensure it was fully cooked in the middle.
  8. What’s the latest craze for doughnuts? Serving Krispy Kreme doughnuts at weddings. After a story ran in InStyle magazine’s special Weddings issue (Spring 2002), couples began to place doughnut orders for wedding receptions.
  9. Krispy Kreme doughnuts are formed from dough extruded by air pressure to form a perfect doughnut shape. The infamous doughnut “hole” actually doesn’t exist at Krispy Kreme.
  10. Krispy Kreme uses enough chocolate each year to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools and a million pounds of sprinkles, equivalent to the weight of 145 elephants.
Related Post

Monday, December 11, 2006

Heavenly Trip - Thrilling Trip

Our daughter's first school field trip was scheduled on December 1, 2006. Lilia and I decided to come along with her. The part of the trip that I was excited most was the tour inside the Gardenia Bread Plant in Laguna. There they produce bread virtually untouched by human hands. I saw their facility once on TV and the enormous cooling tower that bridges the baking process ang packing process amazed me. I want to see it live! But with the threat of typhoon Reming doing a typhoon Milenyo act moved the field trip to December 9, a Saturday, and Gardenia does not accept plant tours on weekends. The great cooling tower, conveyors lined with hot bread and the fragrance of freshly baked bread - I won't experience it anymore, waaah!
Mental note: join a future field trip wherein Gardenia is one of the stops.

The bus left school at 7:00 AM and we headed for Tagaytay. The first stop was the Adoration Convent of Divine Mercy more commonly known as the Pink Sisters Convent. The whole compound was calm, cool and silent. Places like this always make me feel relaxed and as if my prayers become more powerful and reaches heaven faster. It's like being in the SLEX or NLEX of prayers to heaven.

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The sisters of the convent wear rose colored habits (thus the name pink sisters) in honor of the Holy Spirit and symbolizes their dedication to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. They adore the Blessed Sacrament by praying 24 hours a day - everyday. They have convents in the Philippines, United States, Europe, South America, Africa, India and Indonesia and accepts intercessory prayer for the needs of all. Prayer requests can also be submitted in their website. Hi-tech diba?

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This is where former president Corazon Aquino prayed with the sisters and finally decided to run for president. GMA also frequents this place.

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Jesus Christ

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Mama Mary

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These tree stumps surround Mama Mary and can be used to sit down and pray

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Beside the Pink Sisters Convent is the Angels' Hills Retreat and Formation Center. They can accommodate 400 to 450 participants at one time. Convention halls and conference rooms with seminar equipment are available.

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Next stop was Residence Inn to see their mini zoo.

This super cute creature was there to welcome us with open hands.

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Hannah was terrified with snakes and she was crying really hard when we had this picture taken.

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From the left: Joznic, Katrina, James, Yona and Hannah

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Aha! Finally, a civet, an Alamid. Now I know what its poop looks like (see the yellow thingy with black center in the inset). Why do I want to know what its poop looks like? Hehehe, brace yourself and read this.


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Other animals they have are snakes, pythons, rodents, rabbits, monkeys, flying fox, goats, llamas, tigers, peacocks, chickens, deers, crocodiles, ostrich, bear and more I can't remember. But no elephant or giraffe.

But for our daughter and her classmates, nothing beats a big play pen situated in the cool Tagaytay ridge overlooking the beautiful Taal Volcano.

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By noon we headed to Enchanted Kingdom as the final stop of their field trip (waaah, really no Gardenia Bread Plant tour). They just kept running and running, hand in hand, without waiting for us grownups. No thrill ride or hi-tech rides like Rialto, Rio Grande Rapids, 4D theater, Wheel of Fate, Flying Fiesta, Anchors Away and Space Shuttle. Just them running around and around and a lot of Santa Claus.

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This was Hannah and Yona's thrill ride. They held hands all throughout with our daughter giving strength and assurance to her dear classmate.

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Happy faces: Our daughter Hannah and her friend Katrina

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Milk break after kilometers of running

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A picture with Bobby Andrews, the celebrity story-teller of the day.

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People waiting in line for the Jungle Log Jam. This ride was also a no-no so all I did was take creative shots of the flowing water.

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We stayed in Enchanted Kingdom up to 8:00 PM

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A ride in an adrenalized Grand Carousel. Grabe! My eyes popped out. Great thrill!

Hyper go round

'Eto pa o, the Flying Fiesta in normal mode and in hyper-drive at night.

Flying Fiesta

Bye!

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Friday, December 08, 2006

Potpot And The New Chick in Town

There's a new chick in our town. Chick - short for chicken - chicken inasal to be exact.I first fell in love with it in Bacolod Chicken Inasal when they opened a branch in Paseo de Santa Rosa near Laguna Technopark. “Inasal” translates to “inihaw” in Tagalog and “grilled” in English. They then opened a branch a few kilometers away from our village. Unfortunately the volume of poeple eating there was not enough to sustain the franchise so it closed. The closest chicken joint is KFC. Jollibee and Mc Donalds are also there with their own chicken (kanya kanyang manok). But I want my neighborhood chicken inasal! Then came the newest chicken joint in our town. From across the shores of Bacolod and over the northern-most tip of the land of Guimaras - Mang Inasal of Iloilo. Google! este Yahoo! pala, pwede ring Yehey!

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Mang Inasal is the famous barbeque fast-food chain from Iloilo.Their tag line: "Laging mabilis, laging masarap, laging abot kaya." Their mission: "To be the number 1 barbeque fast food chain in the Philippines."

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Paa (grilled chicken thigh) with plain rice wrapped in banana leaves

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Paa with garlic rice

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Does anyone know why chicken inasal have yellow juice coming out of it?

Sizzling sisig with mayonnaise and kalamansi.

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Open wide!

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Atay (grilled chicken liver)

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Sarap!

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What about Potpot? Well, Potpot's full name is PotDog.

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If you like fish balls, try what PotDog offers. My family became aquainted with PotDog when we attended Negosyong Pinoy in SM Megamall last month. Their balls are no ordinary balls. No fish balls here. They have crab claw, lobster ball, potato slice, hotdog puff, crab egg, prawn ball, crispy siomai, crablet, seafood veggie, shark's fin siomai, cuttlefish ball and squid nugget. Oks di ba!

Chewy yummy lobster balls

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We bought one frozen pack and enjoyed more of it at home.

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Fried siomai and seafood veggie are also yummy. We'll try the others next time.