Ijo Bakery in Molito, Alabang

I learned about Ijo Bakery a few years ago through a friend who said that this place makes the best croissants in the Philippines (at least from what she's tried). The thing is, it's located in Batangas and I never really get to visit Batangas. Still, as a fan of croissants, it's been in my radar every since. Then recently, I saw a post on social media about Ijo Bakery opening in Molito Lifestyle Center in Alabang. It was now a lot closer but still not close enough to me. That is, until I had a few recent errands that brought me to Alabang a couple of times. Since I was already in the area, I decided to visit the Ijo branch there.

Ijo Bakery in Molito Lifestyle Center, Alabang

The croissants here are pretty big and there's a good variety of them, both sweet and savory. I was almost like a kid in a candy store, wanting to try everything I saw haha.

On my first visit, I decided to order a plain croissant, a chocolate croissant, and a ham and cheese croissant. I mean, of course I had to have the plain croissant, right? I gotta say, it is very good: crunchy and flaky outside and very soft and pillowy inside. Actually, everything I bought was great. I can understand why my friend says that this is the best croissant she's had in the country. I may have to agree with that (or if it's not the best, it's definitely up there). 

Plain croissant, chocolate croissant, and ham and cheese croissant

On my next trip to Ijo, I got to try a few more items. I'm a sucker for ham and cheese croissants so I had to order that again - I love how the square of cheese is is placed on top of the croissant rather than inside, together with the ham. It makes it look interesting. On this trip, I also tried their Garlic Danish and Creme Catalana Danish. Both were delicious. The Garlic Danish in particular was sensational.

Clockwise from top: Ham and cheese croissant, Creme Catalana Danish, Garlic Danish

Now that I've had a few of their croissants and breads, I will say that for me, the hype is real. Everything I had was really good. Also, for the size and the quality, it's fantastic value for money. Their plain croissant is P105, which is cheaper than plain croissants in many other really good bakeries in Metro Manila.

I wish Ijo Bakery was a lot closer to where I live so I could buy croissants from this place more frequently. I would also love to be able to bring a few boxes of their baked goods to my family. Maybe one of these days, I can get up early on a weekend and head out to Alabang just to visit Ijo again.

Ijo Bakery
https://www.instagram.com/ijobakeryph/?hl=en
Molito Lifestyle Center, Madrigal Ave, Alabang, Muntinlupa
Opening hours: 9am to 8pm daily

My Decluttering Journey Part 6

If you've been reading my blog over the last several years, you will know that I've a huge board game fan who plays on average about once or twice a month. So over the last decade, I've amassed quite a collection of board games. Some of them I play regularly. However, many of my games aren't hitting the table anymore. I also have my very own shelf of shame - boardgames that are just sitting on my shelf that have never been played. I have these games that I've barely or never played for a variety of reasons: in some cases, my friends have those games as well so we just end up playing their copies and in some cases, the games are just not that interesting to other people (sometimes myself included). I've held on to these games all this time but I realized recently that maybe I need to start getting rid of some of them. And that's what I did.

I sold my Scythe board game

I prepared a list of my games that I wanted to let go of and shared them to my friends, along with discounted prices. My friends Jovan got the most games: Food Chain Magnate, Steampunk Rally, Tem-Purr-A, and Scythe. Scythe is actually one of my favorite games so one would think that I wouldn't let go of it. However, it isn't a popular game among my board game groups. One group doesn't really like it. In my other group, about half of them - including Jovan - are Scythe fans but the other half are the ones who host our game nights so the game doesn't his the table haha. As such, my Scythe and the two expansions I got have all just been sitting on my shelf gathering dust. (I probably played it three times, the last of which was before the pandemic.) 

A few of my other friends got a few more of my games. Mike got Clank, Ticket to Ride, and my unopened Spot It. I actually like Clank and Ticket to Ride but I do have other friends who have both games and neither of them have hit the table in years so I felt it was time to let them go. Myna got my previously unplayed Tiny Epic Dinosaurs and my Unlock! games that I had already played. The thing about Unlock! is that similar to an escape room, once you've played it once, you can't really play it again because you already know how to make it work. So it was time for me to let them go. Mitch got my Mint Works and Mint Delivery, two pocket-sized games that I probably played only once each.

I also gave a few of my games as gifts to my friends. My friend JP was asking me about Settlers of Catan because he said his kids were interested in that game and I ended up just giving my copy to them because I only played it once and my board game groups don't really seem keen on playing it again. I also gifted my copy of Splendor to my friend Randall for his milestone birthday. I actually love Splendor but because I have Pokémon Splendor now, I reckon I will always play Pokémon Splendor over the original Splendor. Also, a lot of my friends have Splendor so I can easily borrow one if I wanted to play it.

Despite letting go of several board games, my remaining ones still take up a lot of space at home. I've listed down about seven more games that I want to let go of. Hopefully, I can find buyers for these games too.

Offbeat at Ayala Triangle Gardens

It's always awesome when you spend quality time with friends you haven't seen in a while. That's exactly what happened when I met up with my friends Ching and John over dinner at Offbeat Bistro in Ayala Triangle Gardens. I've known Ching since high school and John since college and the fact that we all worked together for years and John and I were in a band together means we have a lot of awesome and memorable shared experiences together. Our friend Pia organized dinner with us and a few other ex-colleagues at Offbeat, which has gained quite a bit of fame recently because it's included in the Michelin Selected list.

Offbeat Bistro in Ayala Triangle Gardens

I gotta say, this was a great choice for our dinner venue. Ching and John live abroad so it made sense for us to have dinner at a restaurant that serves Filipino cuisine. But Offbeat isn't your usual Pinoy restaurant. It serves dishes you don't normally see in other restaurants such as Monghe, which is a classic dish from Rizal that is like a local version of meatloaf and is served with toyomansi cream.

Monghe

A lot of their other Filipino dishes are prepared with a unique twist. For instance, their Fried Chicken Inasal is, well, fried and breaded which isn't exactly traditional but it still tastes great.

Fried Chicken Inasal

Their Okoy also doesn't look like the popular Pinoy street food. Their version is actually a squash okoy with bagoong cream, kangkong stems and leaves, pechay, carrots and spring onions. It looks very appetizing and tastes pretty good too.

Okoy

Instead of steamed fish, Offbeat's Isda con Mayonesa has torched sea bream with patis mayonnaise, grated eggs, and vegetables.

Isda con Mayonesa

I really enjoyed the food we had that night. So when two more of my friends - Aries and Audrey - came to Manila recently and we were planning to have dinner near Greenbelt, more than a couple of us in our circle of friends suggested Offbeat.

I love the wooden spoon and fork decor!

In this second visit, we ordered a few dishes that I had the first time but we also ordered a few more. The big winner that evening was their Lechon de Carajay, which is roast pork belly with mushroom and toyo gastrique and served with papaya-carrot atchara. This dish was exceptionally good. I would absolutely love to have it again.

Lechon de Carajay

While most of the items on Offbeat's menu remains constant, they sometimes make a few temporary changes to feature seasonal dishes. On the night we were there, we ordered a couple of those dishes, including the Taba ng Talangka pansit.

Taba ng Talangka pansit

We also ordered many of their desserts. Their Mamon Tres Leches has mamon soaked in coconut and served with whipped cream, cereal crumble, and interestingly enough, patis caramel.

Mamon Tres Leches

The Cathedral Window Parfait is a unique spin on the more traditional cathedral window cake.

Cathedral Window Parfait

We also enjoyed their Toasted Pastillas ice cream which is served with polvoron, cereal crumbs, and citrus zest.

Toasted Pastillas ice cream

I really do love Offbeat Bistro. It's on the expensive side but the food is fantastic and the service is great. If you're looking for a venue in Makati for a special occasion and want to splurge a bit, this is the place for you.

Ayala Triangle Gardens at night

Offbeat Bistro
https://guide.michelin.com/ph/en/metro-manila/makati-city_2329358/restaurant/offbeat
Address: Second Floor, Ayala Triangle Gardens, Paseo De Roxas, cor Makati Ave, Makati City, Metro Manila
Phone: 0995 639 3672

LAZGOALEX and the Lazada 7.7 Sale

I had been meaning to get a car phone mount for a while now. Actually, I had one before, but after parking my car under the sun and in blazing heat several times over the last year, the adhesive seemed to lose it hold and my car phone mount fell off. As someone who relies quite a bit on Waze when driving, I needed to replace it, especially since the Philippines has an anti-distracted driving law that prohibits drivers from touching or handling their phones while driving. I decided to get my replacement during the Lazada 7.7 sale.

Car phone mount

The 7.7 sale comes with a lot of special discounts with different credit cards and even GCash, but unfortunately, the price of my car dash mount was less than the minimum amount required. However, because of Alex Eala's success at Wimbledon, Lazada started promoting the voucher code LAZGOALEX, which gives customers an extra P50 off for a minimum spend of P299. Now this was a discount that I could use. Cool! I made sure to use this voucher when I purchased my new car dash mount.

I now have my car phone mount. That I got it with a bit of a discount using a code created after Alex Eala makes this purchase even better and more satisfying.

Alex Eala makes waves at Wimbledon

I've been a tennis fan for a really long time now. And for the longest time, there weren't any Filipinos at the top echelon of this sport. That is, until Alex Eala. She achieved a lot of great success earlier this year, beating four top 10 players - Jasmine Paolini, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Elena Svitolina - leading up to this year's Wimbledon. In fact, it was just in the previous tournament - the Berlin Open - that Alex beat both #2 Rybakina and #6 Svitolina back-to-back en route to the semifinals. As if that wasn't enough, she also beat Donna Vekic in the round of 32. While Vekic was not seeded at that tournament, she did win the Olympic silver medal in 2024, the same year she reached the semifinals of Wimbledon, so she was a very strong and skillful player. Eala beating all three players consecutively and in straight sets shows just how far she has come in her young career.

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A post shared by Alexandra Eala (@alex.eala)

Her success in Berlin put her in everyone's radar at the start of Wimbledon and everyone in the Philippines started to dream of what Alex could achieve in the third Grand Slam event of the year. After all, she seems to play well on grass and she has a pretty good record against top 10 players.

And what a Wimbledon it turned out for her. She defeated Renata Zarazúa, Maya Joint, and defending champion and #3 seed Iga Swiatek to reach the fourth round, losing to ex-Wimbledon finalist Jasime Paolini in a hard-fought three-setter. This breakthrough allowed Alex set a handful of tennis Open era records at the All England Club. First, she became the first Filipino seeded at a Grand Slam event. Second, she  became the first Filipino in the Open era to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam event. (Felicismo Ampon reached the quarterfinals of the French Open twice, in 1952 and 1953, prior to the Open era which started in April 1968.) Third, she also became the first Filipino to defeat a reigning Wimbledon champion. That is just awesome!

While Alex may not have won Wimbledon, this was a truly great result for her. Prior to this, the deepest run she had made a major was the second round. she also moves up to world #28. Awesome! Hopefully, Alex can keep achieving great things and maybe even go higher in the rankings. Whatever the future holds for her, she really has made history for Philippine tennis. 

An 18th Birthday Celebration at Rockstar KTV

Aya, the eldest daughter of one of my dearest friends from high school, just turned 18. In the Philippines, many women celebrate their 18th birthday with a debut, which is often a somewhat formal or semi-formal party where people dress up and the debutante wears a formal or fancy gown. However, Aya decided to celebrate in a different way, by holding a party at Rockstar KTV in Greenhills Mall.

It's actually not surprising that this was how she chose to celebrate, given that she is into performance arts. She has a beautiful voice and that she loves to sing and we have in fact had quite a few karaoke nights together. It was also during this party that I discovered she can also dance. To open the party, she danced to K-Pop music together with a couple of her friends who I believe are members of a street dance crew. Awesome!

The night was obviously filled with a lot of music and singing. But an interesting highlight was the 18 shots segment of the program, in lieu of the more traditional 18 roses. 18 people were asked to do two things. First, all 18 people were asked to say three words to Aya that should encompass what they wish for her. Once everyone done was sharing their three words, all 18 people would take a shot together with her. I say that this was an interesting highlight because I was asked to join the 18 people, I guess as a representative of the old generation haha. My three words to Aya were: Achieve your dreams. And I really hope she does.

Happy 18th birthday Aya!

Nautica Sale

I found myself at Shangri-La Plaza one evening to do some errands when I happened to pass by a Nautica shop. I think it might actually have just opened. Nautica is on the expensive side but it's always been my favorite brand because the clothes fit me quite well, the fabrics are good quality, and I love the style and colors of this brand. As I passed by this shop, I also noticed a sign that said all items were on sale: 20% off for 1 item purchased, 30% for 2 items, and 50% for 3 or more items! Whoa. This just made everything significantly more affordable, especially if you buy three or more items.

I ended up getting three shirts, although the third one, I planned to give as a gift. As I made my purchase, I asked the salespeople there when the sale would end. They told me it would run for a while. So when my nephew told me that he needed new pants because he had gotten bigger from working out and his current pants no longer fit very well, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to take him to Nautica. I ended up getting my nephew a few pairs of pants. I also got a new pair of jeans for myself. We also got a black Nautica t-shirt for my other nephew although he is very picky when it comes to clothes and he didn't particularly like the shirt we got him. So in the end, that black t-shirt went to me haha.