Food & Fashion

This is morning as I was cooking, I was thinking of what to wear to work. I was trying to think and think until my thoughts of shopping popped out like a thought balloon with this "ting" sound. I thought its a good idea to write something about it.

Have you ever been to the mall to shop for new clothing? Don't answer that. Ever been to the grocery store to shop for ingredients for your day or week long meals? Don't answer that either!

Well, here's my answer: it is really hard to know what your going to buy at the mall. Its really hard to choose which of the type of clothes I would want to buy.

I am not a fashionista. But still struggling to decide on what to buy! Will it be that classic shirt or that shirt with lots of snips and holes that sometimes I wonder, has fashion come to this? Rip off a shirt or jeans, make sure you put the designer label on it and people will accept and buy it!

The good thing is, people don't actually buy stabbed red tomatoes and apples. Even bananas with dark spots tend to be left out at the fruit stands.

So what are the similarities of fashion and cooking? I buy clothes that I want to wear. Same as cooking, I want to buy it if I want to eat it.

Fashion depends on the season. So as cooking. Its like I don't want to sip a hot cocoa on a summer day or maybe have something like a slushie or Popsicle on the winter days.

Choosing and pairing on what to wear has its own sense. I wouldn't wear a striped shirt with a plaid shorts or wear too much neon bright colors. The same thing with cooking. I need to make sure everything has the right amount of ingredients. The right amount of salt, sugar, the right balance. Not too spicy, not too sour.

We want to wear something that we want. Sometimes comfort doesn't even count. We don't care that the shoes is so tight but looks good! We don''t care on what we eat even if there's too much fat or high in sodium but it really taste good!

So, I have to end my thoughts of comparing food and fashion. I just wanted to share my thoughts about it. One of my favorite culinary expert and chef Andrew Zimmern always say "If it looks good, eat it!" So is what to wear i guess. If it looks good, wear it! We are what we eat and we are what we wear.

Beach Blog

I woke up early last Wednesday and saw an e-mail that I was approved by Google Adsense.

I was really excited but couldn't get it working on my site. Its like there are is no ads appearing on my screen.  So I called my website host and they were trying to figure out on what was wrong. By the way, I am using Godaddy's GoCentral Website Builder. I find it easy to use than me using a wordpress which I tried but I just don't have the patience to learn and add those tools, I dunno. I'll continue the story later.

Anyway, there was a bit of a problem in adding the adsense to the website builder so I got a little bit frustrated and I thought, well, its a bright sunny day so I might as well start the day nice. So I told my wife that I'll just go to the beach with my daughter. 

We had a quick breakfast and prepared to go to the beach. Sunscreen (Check) / Goggles (Check) / Water & Snacks (Check) / Beach Toys and Beach umbrella (Check)(Check) oh and a gallon of water to wash our feet. (Check)!

So we drop off my wife at her work. Then headed off to the beach. One thing about here in the Turks & Caicos Islands is every place is near from each other. Even the beach is only about 10-15 mins far.

We went to the public beach access between the Sands Hotel & Point Grace. They have a nice parking area up there. 

 We headed to the water first and swim for a couple of minutes then my daughter asked me if she can make a sand castle. So I set up the umbrella so we have some shade while we make the castle. We were trying to make a castle but at the middle of making it she said. "How about a mermaid?" There you go! As you can see we did a mermaid!

Its the little mermaid! Yeah! This was my first time making a sand mermaid and it looks ok. I'm happy with it. Most important is my daughter is very happy about it too.

We saw some small fish while we were swimming. They were surrounding us. They seem to be the friendly fish i guess? Lol.

We spend almost two hours on the beach. We were there around 9 until 11 which the sun is getting really hot already at that time. I decided to call it a day, and head home and get cleaned up.

Well, back at home, we had lunch and then I let her watch a bit of tv while I'm back on my website support problem. Finally, after a few drop calls and internet connection losses, the tech guy found a brilliant solution to my problem. I wasn't seeing the added function for my google adsense to work because I was on the wrong country of the website. I was at the .uk I'm supposed to use the .us in order for it to work. So that's it. I added my google adsense, went to the beach, had fun. Great day!

Play Land Monday

Most Mondays are the same as every Monday. Waking up early, preparing breakfast and lunch at the same time when its a work week. But this Monday is a vacation Monday for me. This is my second week of my short two weeks vacation. 

I still woke up early at around six, made some coffee and made some updates to my websites. Then I hopped on to my stationary bike and watched inspirational how to grow your food blogging website traffic vlogs.

There was a lot to choose from so it took me about 5mins for preview until I decided to watch Melyssa Griffin's channel. I played the how to do your email marketing video and continue striding. 

After a quick 15 mins and only 120 calories burned, I prepared breakfast. 7:00, finally my wife woke up and made me coffee (I brew the coffee but not make it) coffee tastes better when my wife makes it!

After breakfast, I fed our kitten Alley. I named her Alley as she looks like the Alley Cat, cat food. About 8:00 my daughter woke up and I prepared her breakfast. Some milk, toast and scrambled eggs. I let her eat while watching her favorite toon Peppa Pig. 

8:45am time for my wife to go to work. We brought her to work, then headed back home. Me and my daughter spent the whole morning playing with her ice cream cart, took turns on being the customer and the seller. Lunch was the left over dirty fries from last Sunday. After watching a little bit TV. I let her have her nap time. I went back on working on my website. Still in progress.

Then when my daughter woke up, she immediately told me that we are going the PlayLand. Its an indoor playground here on the island.

 She had lots of fun! After an hour. We went to get mommy and went straight home. I then prepared dinner which is Smoked turkey flakes on fried aubergine. After dinner. I did my food photography and wrote the recipe, then post it on my website.

It was a very productive Monday.

Somewhere Sunday

Last Sunday, my wife suggested that we are going to have dinner outside, her treat! Upon flipping through the pages of Providenciales Dining Guide and looking where and what to eat for both of us and our daughter, we finally agreed to go Somewhere! Somewhere Café & Lounge.

Somewhere Café & Lounge is a beach front restaurant, nice and breezy location island feel. Its about a 10 min drive from our place. When we got there, the restaurant was a bit full. We manage to get a table right away though. There was a local band playing some island tunes.

The server gave us their menu, which we quickly scroll our eyes on the appetizer section and chose between their nachos and dirty fries. Dirty fries won! For the mains, two cheese burgers, one with regular fries and the other with yucca fries. Drinks are two regular cokes for my wife and daughter and one Presidente beer for me.

While waiting for the food to arrive, we took the opportunity to take some selfies.

Dirty Fries

It didn't last long as they served the Dirty Fries quickly. The fries had its share of photos too! Now the taste test. Taste so good! A heap of french fries, chipotle molasses bbq pulled pork, sautéed peppers, onions, fresh jalapeño and filled with lots of cheddar and jack cheeses that my daughter thought its pizza!

Half way to our appetizer, the mains were served. We immediately tried the yucca fries. Its crispy and it has a different good taste than that of a potato fries. 

We proceeded with the burgers. I was not expecting that the burgers would be a little plain, and not with a heavenly tune inside your head presentation.

Cheese Burger & Yucca Fries

The burger has angus beef patty on a fresh bun, lettuce, tomato, and onions. I would suggest for them to at least also season the meat a little bit more. My burger was a little bit bitter probably from the burnt edges. A little bit dry too, but I ordered a medium well.

The tomatoes have a lot of seeds i them as well. I hope I am not ranting but I just want to let them try to improve what already is good.

 After a few minutes, I gave out a loud burp! My daughter was laughing at me hysterically! Well, a good meal ended and still have a few left overs so we asked for a leftover container. They gave us an earth friendly recycled card container, similar shape with the styrofoam but eco-friendly. We stood up and walk slowly due to our super full bellies. 

Plasma Car

On our way home, my daughter asked us if she could go to the park and drive her Plasma Car. We went to the parking lot of the track and field.

We stayed for about 20 mins and waited until the sun set and head home. It was a nice Sunday fun day!

DIY Food photography backgounds

I've been busy for the last couple of days. Been busy doing my website zestytasty.com its still on the 1st phase which lacks a lot of content. I think I have a lot of banners and advertisers than the actual contents of my site. I have to really overhaul the site a bit.  So if anybody who's kind enough to make some suggestions, please feel free and send me a message. I'll be really grateful for your help.

I have to cook, take photos, write recipes, manage social media accounts and all. Wow! Its a lot of work. I hope my site will be stable soon and be more like a normal website.

Moving on, last Tuesday, the 10th, me and my daughter went to the hardware store to get some paint for my DIY food photography backgrounds.

She said "This is the sky!"

Our friend who works there assisted us kindly for me to get the most basic kit I needed for my project.

I got 3 colors of paint. White, blue and brown. My plan is to make it a weathered wood texture so I bought a sandpaper also. I hope my plan will work.

I have watched a lot of youtube videos diy food photography hacks. I already planned to do my lightbox, i have all the materials that I need, but I think painting is more appealing than cutting a whole on a box, putting tape on the backlit material and those kind of stuff like cleaning afterwards.

The paint that we bought was safe and water based so its going to be easy to remove just in case it gets messy.

She said:"Now this is the ocean!'

When we got home, my daughter was really excited to paint. I told her that she has to eat lunch first then we can paint. While waiting for her to finish eating, I was preparing the piece of thin plywood, about a quarter inch thick. I think it came from a back of a cabinet so I had to clean it a bit, remove some adhesives and sand it to smoothen out the surface.


I grab something to eat also before we start the project. Painting time! We are going to use the blue paint first. My daughter wants to paint and me to squeeze the bottle while she brushed the paint on the surface of the wood. Then she would give me the brush and her squeezing the bottle. We took turns of who is going to paint and to pour in the paint.

After awhile, (it didn't take long, only about 10 mins) we finished painting it blue. I told her that we have to wait for a little bit for the paint to dry before we add the white paint. Fast forward, we manage to finish painting both sides of the board. The first side is the blue and white, and the other side is the brown and white.
Well, its done!

DIY Background done!

North & Middle Caicos

Me & my family

Hi everyone! Sunday was really amazing! Its the kick-off of my vacation! We spent the whole day at North Caicos. Its another island here in Turks and Caicos Islands. 
We woke up early and went to the dock and catch the 2nd morning trip which is about 8:30am. But before that we had to go to the grocery to buy some snacks and something for our friends at the other island.

Travel time here around the island usually takes you from point A to point B for about 10-20 minutes only (when obeying the speed limit which is about 40 mph.)
Oh, about speed limit, I had a share of scare with speed limits, I got caught speeding and learned my lesson after that. I was speeding because I was reaaaally hungry that I didn't really notice how fast I was going. Well what a reason on my part.

North Caicos Dock

When we arrived at the dock, we bought a round trip ticket which will cost less than a one-way ticket then we boarded the ferry. The ferry boat ride is only about half an hour to get there. It was a smooth ride going to North, there wasn't any waves big waves to battle with. We arrived safely at the North Caicos dock.

When we arrived there,  Our friends we're cooking land crab which they caught a few weeks ago. They sauteed it with butter with just garlic, salt, pepper. I once experience catching land crabs. You just need to be fast when you see them and should wear thick gloves. Once you see them, either you step on them gently on their back and then get it then put it inside a covered container.



After we had an early breakfast brunch. We drove to the other Island which is Middle Caicos. It is connected with a causeway. It's a little bit far and a little bit uninhibited. You would see literally any people on the road especially on a Sunday. They would be inside their homes or church.

We had a small picnic by the beach we grilled some sausages for lunch. We only use those dried up branches or roots for our firepower.

The trip is so awesome it was really relaxing and peaceful.I felt really tired from the trip but it was worth it!
You'll have a different experience. Imagine that you and your family are the only ones who are at the beach. Just the sound of the rustling wind and the waves.

One of the best beach location at Middle Caicos

Sunday Fun Day

Hey everyone! I just finished updating my website. There's still a ton of work to be done though.
I just noticed that the title of this blog is 1st Blog? I'll try to learn how to use this blogger system. I think I had to create a page? Anyway, I had updated this blog site also, as you can see, I changed the background, some fonts, and theme. I also added a link back to the zestytasty.com website as my cousin Erik suggested. Thanks KE.

Oh I remember now. I am going to introduce myself. My name is Earl Espiritu. I am past the mid-thirties but not on the forties. I have a wife and daughter. I am from the Philippines. I am currently working and residing here at the Turks and Caicos Islands. I've been here since 2006, went back to the Philippines on 2009. Went back here again on 2011 and still here on this Island.


I love cooking! I would avoid all the house chores but not cooking. Even if I am in a bad mood I would still cook! I remember back home when I used to come home very late, I would still cook and eat at home, instead of buying something at a fast food restaurant. Oh but there's this one time that I was really craving for Siopao (Steamed bun).

Jumbo Pao (Photo courtesy of pitbull@ pinoyexchange.com)

So on my way home, I had to stop at Kowloon House and buy 2 Jumbo Pao Siopao. It has Pork, Chicken, Sausage and salted egg and I always eat it with their hot sauce.  Their hot sauce taste like a diluted Sriracha hot sauce. 

I bought a soda (coca-cola) which is really good to pair up with the Siopao. I would eat one while walking home and the other one when I get home and eat it while watching a late night tv show.



Ok, so this blog was almost about Siopao. I feel really sleepy now anyway. I can't think of anything to tell you. Probably tomorrow I'll have something. This coming Monday, I am officially on vacation! Woohoo! I had planned out my vacation (most of it). Half of it is for "Me Time" the other half is "Family Time". I hope I can really have HALF of the time, coz I might just have like a quarter of my "Me Time", but I'll still take it.

I am going to try to cook with some new recipes for the whole two weeks so I can post something on my website. I have to ask my customers (my wife and daughter) first on what would they want to eat.
I really have to do that you know. If I don't, well they still would have to eat whatever I cook anyway! Haha!

I am going to sign off now. I think I made progress on trying to tell you about something about me. I hope I didn't waste your time and got you hooked on reading. Thanks for the time though. Peace out!✌☮️😉

So Tired and Sleepy

I thought I was going to upload a new recipe today but I am really tired and sleepy. I only slept for about 4 hours today as I was trying to do my 1st blog. Well its worth it! Its was my first step in blogging.

...Oh no, I keep on closing my eyes right now and I almost fell asleep! Lol. It's like I am typing while my eyes are closed. By the way while I'm writing this post, I am listening to Enya's So I could find my way. So beautiful, calming.

Anyway, before I completely sleep on my keyboard, I think the best thing to do is just call it a day. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Before I forget, I am going to introduce myself on my next post. Which by the way I should have done on my first post. I don't know about you but I love mysteries & suspense.

Tomorrow eh!

Let me try to start "blogging"

Let me try to start "blogging". I have to think of something to talk about right? Well, I wanted to do Vlogging but I am just camera shy (For now). But I did practiced a bit tried different angles, tried modulating my voice and then got tongue-tied. But don't be surprised if I suddenly stop blogging here coz I might be on YouTube! Lol.

So this is it. This is how I am starting my blog. I did a couple of research on blogging. Well I have one but I am not sure if it is a blog. I am posting recipes for about 2 weeks now. Oh wait! Snap, I really need to sleep its about 1:30 am, gotta work early tomorrow. Notes to myself: Continue blogging tomorrow | write about my website and that my website don't have multiple blog as yet (but they are gonna have it soon). Ok, I guess that's it for now. I'll continue where I left off tomorrow.

...Is someone actually reading this? Like right now? We should have something like a Voice-blog like those back in the days, record on a cassette tape, record and pause. But would anyone listen to it? Unless my voice sounded like David Attenborough or Morgan Freeman, you would be interested right?

I listened to some audio books back in the days. I think I can still remember the 1st and last audio book I listened to. It was Timeline. The movie came out 2003 and I listened to it like on Y2K.
Loved the movie. Paul Walker (we missed you bro..), Gerard Butler and lots of other cast who wears medieval clothing. Coz its mostly set in the medieval period duh.

Oh well, I thought I was gonna blog about food & recipes. You thought so too? Well, thank you. But right now, right at this moment. There is no turning back. I decided that this blog should be like not related to cooking. Or maybe it will. I can't promise though. I like movies, music, lots of things I can blog about so you won't get bored and close your browser and call it a day!

If you have time, just visit my website at zestytasty.com, add me on instagram, facebook, pinterest, (links on the website, just click it please) that's it I think I only have those social media platforms.
Ok, tomorrow eh!