This traditional Basque stew of tuna, potatoes, pepper, and onions was created over a tiny burner on a fishing boat. It features the beautiful bonito tuna (caught in the north of Spain) plus one or two ingredients that could survive a sailing trip. For my situation, i had to use the normal kind of tuna we can easily get at convenience stores. There’s a saying in the Basque country that no marmitako is better than the one your mother makes at home. So the next time you are there, don’t look for a restaurant. Go to a bar, make a new friend, and ask him to take you home – - – to eat his mother’s tuna stew!

This is a fashion post that is not a fashion post. It is not as complicated as it sounds, simply because i crafted this like every other fashion posts, but its outfit standards might not be on par to what a fashion post should be. i decided (with full intention) on this casual pairings of a Chang beer singlet that i got from Thailand, together with my trusty pair of old denim shorts. Everything else comes naturally after to fit the frame. Pictures were shot at gramps’ on a faithful swing that exists before me by my favorite photographer – mi hermano. This time i played back the role too and captured a couple of pictures for him making use of the ancient rock walls.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers (and grandmothers) out there! Here’s a silly picture of me and my gorgeous mum taken at gramp’s garden. We played around with a few shots wearing nerdy Nobita glasses and even ‘forced’ it on granny (pictures below)! She was too kind to refuse her mischievous grandchildren. i was about to do a Mother’s Day Gift post, when i came across the I ♡ Tablet fair 2012 (today is the last day). i hope i’m just in time to share this with you as i personally think a tablet would be a great gift for Mother’s Day.

The I LOVE TABLET FAIR 2012 is here again at GoMobile 2012, and Celcom is rewarding you with special rebates, unbeatable discounts, exciting freebies, and more rewards. Enjoy rebates of up to RM120 on smartphones and tablets, plus get 5% OFF your monthly bill when you sign up with auto-billing, and FREE volume quota for 6 months!

Venue         : KL Convention Centre, Hall 1 & 2 (Booth 91)

Date            : 11 – 13 May 2012

Time            : 11.00am – 9.00pm

For outstation readers, the I LOVE TABLET FAIR 2012 is coming to a location near you soon too :

Gurney Plaza, Penang                        17^th – 20^th May 12

One Borneo, Kota Kinabalu                 8^th – 10^th Jun 12

Spring Mall, Kuching                          22^nd – 24^th Jun 12

KSL City Mall, Johor Bahru                 29^th Jun – 1^st Jul 12

p.s. remember to activate the FREE Musicube App on your Android / iPhone for unlimited music downloads at GoMobile 2012, because you can stand a chance to win:

• a shopping spree of up to RM1,500 and shop along with Pixie Lott at Ted Baker (KL) on 27 May 2012
• 40 pairs of passes to the Pixie Lott showcase in KL (26 May)
• awesome Beats audio headphones!

i hope you have a fun and wonderful celebration with the woman of your life today.

{link to previous post here}

They say if you’re not afraid of your dreams, perhaps they are not big enough. So dream BIG! However, dreams are like shadows without some sparkle. There are many ways you can add sparks, but i think the most sparkling kind is the one that comes from love. As mentioned here, Yuna has a new song named Sparkle, and she needs more suggestions on this week’s theme (beauty / dreams) for The Sparkle Project by Samsung.

All you gotta do is submit your ideas and feature them within your blogs or how you would interpret the themes, and share it with us at the cool project site here. Selected suggestions will be featured in the MTV (the first music video in Malaysia made with Samsung GALAXY Note)! i digested the lyrics of the song and here’s my idea:

Yuna’s Samsung GALAXY Note is ringing… but she hesitates to pick up. Instead, she dances to the ringtone in her room and plays with the cool features on her phone to distract her attention, until she (accidentally) sees a picture of herself and a guy in her phone’s photo album. Flashback of the story begins:

Yuna’s spark happened when she met a guy at a vintage guitar shop. They both wanted the same guitar (sort of thing) so they decided that no one buys it. The moment Yuna left the shop, the guy immediately bought the guitar, dashed into the crowd to look for her, spotted her colorful turban, and presented her with the guitar. From then on they hung out, composed music together, fell in love. In the end, Yuna chose to pursue her dreams in LA instead of love. Using her guitar, she composed a song named Sparkle, dedicated to the guy who added sparks to the dreams she is chasing.

One day back in Malaysia when Yuna is performing ‘their’ song at a gig by Samsung GALAXY note (on her vintage guitar), she sees him in the middle of the crowd, smiling at her. Blackout – THE END.

How do you like my cheesy love story? haha! On a side note, here is a special message from Yuna to you:

For more love and sparkle, click on http://www.sparkleproject.my

In Catalonia, special holidays were often celebrated with a huge barbeque in the town square. Just imagine hundreds and hundreds of sausages sizzling on the grills! According to my cook book, Catalans love mushrooms almost as much as they love butifarra. Having that said, there’s no better combination than these two great Catalan ingredients married together. Since i couldn’t find any butifarra at the local supermarkets, i used mild pork sausages as substitute. The aroma as the fat starts crackling in the sizzling pan is insanely overwhelming. They were the best hot dogs ever!