Lore at One Bonifacio

My ex-teammates and I had been planning to have dinner in BGC for a while now and our plans finally pushed through. For our venue, we picked Lore, a restaurant by renowned Chef Tatung Sarthou that serves Philippine cuisine. Two of my friends had dined here before and they highly recommended it so the venue was set.

Lore by Chef Tatung

We had a whole lot of food that evening, in part because we were all quite hungry and in part because we knew the food here was good and we wanted to try as many items as we could. After all, if we couldn't consume everything that we ordered, we could just always take it out. We ordered some interesting dishes that are not very common, such as the Piangang, which is a Tausug chicken dish stewed in burnt coconut sauce. I love Southeast Asian food cooked in coconut sauce and this was no different. I absolutely loved it!

Piangang, a Tausug chicken dish

A dish we enjoyed that evening that people don't normally order in fancy restaurants is Mechado. I actually can't recall the last time I had mechado before that evening. Their version was really good, with tender beef and quality ingredients that were prepared really well.

Mechado

Their version of sisig was also quite good.

Sisig

We wanted to have some soup so we picked their Kansi na Baka, an Ilonggo beef shank in batwan-soured broth with jackfruit. I had kansi the first time when I went to Bacolod in 2017 and I absolutely love this dish so I was quite happy to try it again.

Kansi na Baka

Their Ensaladang Talong is prepared quite uniquely, with battered eggplant rind that resembles onion rings.

Ensaladang Talong

We also had Baked Talaba. I don't normally like oysters but these ones - topped with garlic butter, cheddar, and mozzarella - were quite good.

Baked Talaba

As if we hadn't had enough to eat that evening, a couple of us also ordered dessert. My friend Irish had the Turon Ala Mode, which is a milk-feuille with banana mousse, langka-rum puree, and sesame seed gelato. I didn't get to try this dish because I was way too full and had my own dessert but I did take a photo because this deconstructed take on turon looked very photogenic.

Turon Ala Mode

The dessert I had looked very appetizing too. It's called Tibok-tibok, which is a coconut milk pudding from Pampanga with ube and langka, served with custard sauce and flaked with ube crumble and coconut curds. This one was delicious, especially when you enjoy it with good coffee.

Tibok-tibok

I really enjoyed our dinner here. I know a lot of restaurants that serve Filipino food these days offer fusion Pinoy dishes or local cuisine with a twist and I really enjoy those restaurants. But it's also such a treat when a restaurant serves high quality Filipino dishes that are prepared in a more traditional way. I'm surprised Lore made it to the Michelin Selected list and I would love to eat here again.

Beautifully designed interior

Lore
https://www.loremanila.com/
Address: 3rd floor One Bonifacio High Street Mall, 3rd Ave, Post Proper Northside, Makati City, 1630 Metro Manila
Phone: 0977-804-9888, 8804-4739
Opening Hours:
- Sunday – Thursday 11 AM – 10 PM (Last Call 9:30 PM)
- Friday – Saturday 11 AM – 11 PM

Ascott Makati

This is quite a late post but before my first day of work this year, to help me fully relax after the holiday rush and before work stress of the new year starts, I went on a staycation at Ascott Makati. I used to stay at Ascott quite a bit back in the day but I hadn't stayed there in a really long time so I figured it would be great for me to book a room here again.

Ascott Makati

I stayed at a Studio Deluxe room. It was quite spacious and elegant.

Studio Deluxe room

You can kinda tell that this building is quite old when you check the bathroom, what with its somewhat discolored tiles. That said, it was clean and it had good amenities.

Bathroom

With the Philippine holiday season reaching into the early or even middle part of the year, the hotel still had Christmas decorations up.

Ascott Christmas tree

What I love about Ascott Makati is its location. It is right next to Glorietta, making it very convenient. With SM Makati, One Ayala, Rustan's all right next to you, you won't run out of places to eat, get groceries or supplies, or do some shopping. Staying here for a night felt quite nostalgic since I did get to spend quite a few nights here, both with family and with friends, a couple of decades ago. It was definitely a great way for me to relax and unwind.

Ascott Makati
https://www.discoverasr.com/en/ascott-the-residence/philippines/ascott-makati
Address: Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati, Makati City, 1224 Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 8841 8888

My Decluttering Journey Part 2

Another big project of mine: decluttering my old Tennis magazines. For the longest time, I knew I wanted to get rid of them. However, there are many articles in these magazines that I wanted to keep, primarily those written about my all-time favorite player, Steffi Graf. The solution: save the articles I wanted to keep.

My old Tennis magazines

To do this, I bought a cutter, a ruler, and several clear books. I then went through all my magazines and I neatly cut out the pages I wanted to keep. I then slotted all these pages into the clear books. To be honest, the clear books didn't really save a significant amount of space. They might actually be taking up about third of the space that my magazines used up before. That said, I still get a few benefits from having gone through this exercise. First, I still save a bit of space, even if isn't that much. Second, the clear books are lighter compared to all the magazines I had before. Third, I now have only the articles that really interest me. I can easily read and re-read them now without having to go through an entire magazine just to look for them. I surely won't be bothered anymore by articles I don't care much for or even pages and pages worth of ads. The next step for me now is to find time to read these articles haha.

As I was getting rid of all these old magazines, I also dug up a ton of travel memorabilia that I kept over the decades in all my travels, including a ton of brochures, bulky city maps, and even travel magazines. I kept them all this time as souvenirs but I realized I didn't really need all of them. A lot of the brochures I had were ones I picked up at hotels, airports, and information centers. Most of these were from tour companies that shared the different packages they were offering, most of which I didn't take. I ended up tossing out most of them. I also went through my travel magazines and got rid of duplicates as well as those that I didn't want to keep. Finally, I threw out almost all my city maps, although I did cut out and save parts of some of them. Why keep these bits and pieces, you might ask? My idea: make scrapbooks out of all the travel memorabilia I have. Once I complete this project, I will definitely write about it as well.

Plumbing Problems

What a disaster. My water heater broke and it caused flooding in my kitchen and part of my dining area! Ugh...

My busted water heater

It happened late one evening. I took a hot shower to get ready for bed and when I stepped out of the bathroom, I noticed that there was a lot of water on my kitchen floor and a lot of it had already flowed into my dining area. Because of the decluttering I was doing, I had lots of stuff all over the floor and they unfortunately got soaked. The water seemed to be coming from underneath my kitchen sink. As I opened the cabinet underneath my kitchen sink, I saw that water was pouring out of what seemed to be a busted pipe in my water heater. I tried turning off the water valve but it seemed to be stuck. This was bad.

I got one of my buckets and placed it beneath the pouring water to prevent more flooding. I then called our building front desk and asked the guard on duty to help me reach out to someone from engineering. I told him my situation and that I needed help urgently. As soon as I placed the intercom down, I took a lot of towels to dry some of the wet items, absorb the water on my floors, and to try and control the flow of water and prevent it from spreading even further into my pad.

Thankfully, our building engineering team has a skeleton force even outside working hours and someone was able to go to my unit immediately and help me. Apparently, the valve wasn't stuck; it was just a bit hard to turn so the plumber was able to stop the flow of water. (How stupid was I to not try to shut off the valve just a bit harder?) After inspecting it, he said that my water heater was already broken and it was causing the problem. Thankfully, it was only the hot water pipe that was damaged. The plumber switched off my water heater and turned the valve back on. That seemed to work. However, he told me that I should not use hot water in my apartment until I get my water heater replaced. My shower and all the faucets in my unit had single levers, which meant that to turn the hot water on, you just had to turn the lever to the left. I had to actively remember that each time I turned the water on, that I should always twist the lever to the right.

Before leaving, the plumber also asked someone from building maintenance to help me clean up. Thankfully, building maintenance also has a skeleton force late at night. Having someone help me clean up the water from my floor and dry my wet items was such a big help. Still, this ordeal ruined my evening. Instead of being able to relax and go to bed, I ended up getting stressed out and losing a lot of time to deal with this mishap. I only managed to settle down a couple of hours later, a bit past midnight. The fact that I had to work the next morning made this whole situation worse, given how tired and agitated I was.

I got the contact number of the water heater supplier and I reached out to them early the next day. Thankfully, they could deliver and install it within the week. Of course, that meant that I would have to take cold showers and use only normal tap water up until then. Due to muscle memory, I actually absentmindedly switched my shower lever to the left a few times before remembering that I had to keep the lever on the right. This resulted in more water pouring out of my broken pipe. While I kept my bucket underneath the busted pipe, some water still dripped to the floor. Bummer.

When my water heater was finally replaced, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. And take a much-needed hot shower.

A Mexican Night at La Guada

My ex-colleagues and I had been thinking about getting together for a while now so we finally set a date this month. Rockwell seemed like the ideal spot to meet up for dinner because Auds lives in the far South and Makati was a bit central to everyone. After a few venue suggestions, we agreed on La Guada Mas, a Mexican restaurant at the ground floor of Joya building.

La Guada Mas in Rockwell

I ordered their classic chicken birria, primarily because I don't think I've ever had a birria at any other Mexican restaurants (or maybe I just haven't eaten at many Mexican restaurants in Manila in the last several years). I absolutely loved this dish! It looks like a taco, especially because it is served in a crispy tortilla. The difference is that a birria contains slow-braised stewed meat and melted cheese while tacos contain roasted meats and aren't traditionally served with cheese (although in the Philippines, some places add cheese to their tacos). The birria is served with a flavorful soup and you can dip your birria in it before you take a bite, which is what I did. Delicious!

Chicken birria

Our group also shared guacamole, which looked really fancy...

Guacamole

...and some cheese quesadillas.

Cheese quesadillas

Surprisingly, none of us ordered alcoholic beverages that evening, maybe because we had dinner on a Monday night and none of us wanted to have alcohol to start the work week haha. That said, La Guada Mas was quite a good discovery for us. If you are looking to have good Mexican food, I highly recommend this place. And if you do, try their birria!

La Guada Mas
https://www.facebook.com/LaGuadaMasRockwell/
https://www.instagram.com/laguada.mas/
Address: Joya Lofts & Towers, Plaza Dr, Makati City, 1200 Metro Manila
Phone: 0977 620 8735

Art Exhibits

February was an art-filled month for me. I got to see the Guhit, Bulilit, Guhit exhibit of Ang INK in Museo Pambata and I got to watch my nephew and the rest of the Sibol Guitar Octet perform in their concert at Varlez Pianos. On top of these, I also got to attend the artist's reception of two solo exhibits: A Sanctuary under the Cappadocian Rocks by Manuel Baldemor and The Roar After Silence by Angel Moreno.

Manuel Baldemor exhibit at Art Circle Gallery in Greenhills

I previously posted about how much of a fan I am of Manuel Baldemor and how the first two paintings I bought are his artworks that were part of an exhibit organized by Art Circle Gallery last year. Francis, my gallery consultant from Art Circle, knows I am a huge Baldemor fan so he invites me every time there is a Baldemor event. That included the vernissage of A Sanctuary under the Cappadocian Rocks which was held at Art Circle Gallery in Greenhills.

A Sanctuary under the Cappadocian Rocks by Manuel Baldemor

All the works in display at this exhibit were about Cappadocia, a famous region in Turkey that is known for its incredible rock formations and its many caves (some of which have been made into hotels). One of the most popular activities in Cappadocia is getting on a hot air balloon to enjoy spectacular views of the amazing landscapes. The paintings at this exhibit featured these iconic rock formations and some even showcased hot air balloons in flight.

Francis told me that the story behind this exhibit is that a patron of Mr. Baldemor seems to have asked him if he had paintings of Cappadocia. This gave him the idea of creating paintings of this region of Turkey which has been in my travel bucket list for a while now. Hopefully, I can visit soon.

Because Francis knows Mr. Baldemor (after all, Art Circle Gallery is one of only a few galleries that gets art directly from him), when there was an opportunity, he took aphoto of me with my favorite artist, which made my evening.

Photo op with Manuel Baldemor

Five days later, I attended the The Roar After Silence solo exhibit by Angel Moreno. This was held at the Art Center in SM Megamall.

The Roar After Silence exhibit by Angel Moreno

I met Angel when I purchased my Yeye Calderon painting from Artasia. He was there because his artworks were on exhibit at that time. I ended up having a long and very interesting conversation with him. I learned that he suffered a stroke and lost a lot of mobility and control on his right side. Somehow, he overcame that adversity by learning to paint with his non-dominant left hand. Wow! I was so blown away by that, especially when I saw his paintings. I couldn't imagine how anyone could paint something so artistic and so beautiful with their non-dominant hand. We ended up adding each other on Facebook and he invited me to his solo exhibit in Megamall Art Center that he said would happen in February. Thankfully, I was available that evening. The title - The Roar After Silence - was very appropriate given that this was Angel's roar back into his passion after suffering a life-threatening condition.

Photo op with Angel Moreno

Many master artists were present at the vernissage, including Tam Austria, Popoy Cusi, and Raul Isidro. I also had a chance to have my photo taken with Raul Isidro too.

Photo op with Raul Isidro

Arguably the most popular themes of Angel Moreno's paintings are koi ponds. You will see that many of the paintings in this exhibit were of these vividly colored fish.

I also learned during this artist's reception that he actually didn't use to paint tigers. One of his #1 patrons gave a speech that explained how it all started. He said that many years ago, he saw Angel's paintings and he really like Angel's style but he really wanted a painting of a tiger. He got Angel to agree to do a commission work. That was the first time he painted a tiger and since then, he's painted a lot more of them. This exhibit featured several paintings of tigers and even a lion, which made sense thematically given the exhibit title.

I really am thankful that I got to attend these two art events and be immersed in such beautiful pieces of work that tell great stories of the lives and experiences of their amazing artists.

 

Poly-Sonus Poly-Ritmus Polymorphe Concert of the Sibol Guitar Octet

Poly-Sonus Poly-Ritmus Polymorphe is a concert of the Sibol Guitar Octet from the UST Conservatory of Music. My nephew is part of this octet so my family and I were there to watch and support him. It was held at Varlez Pianos along Ortigas, just right across Greenhills Mall.

I believe this is the first solo concert of Sibol as their past performances were always part of a larger show. They played a few pieces that they had already performed before. They played Attic for Nine Guitars by Andrew York which they played during Natividad en Familia. They also performed all four pieces that they played during Kaliwa't Kanang Kalabitan: Introduction et Fandango from Quintet no. 4 in D, G, 445 by Luigi Boccherini and movements I, III, and VIII of Suite Polymorphe. The rest of my family was unable to see my nephew play during Kaliwa't Kanang Kalabitan because they got stuck in horrific traffic caused by a flash flood and they didn't make it in time so I'm happy they finally got to see Sibol perform these pieces.

Of course, they played a whole lot more music that evening. They opened the set with five movements of Danças Populares Brasileiras by Celso Machado. These pieces - I. Catira, II. Cantiga (Minar), III. Frevo, IV. Ciranda (Roda, Roda), and V. Ponteio - are all very lively and engaging. It was such a great way to open their show. They also played a trio of Filipino songs which I absolutely loved. These included Minamahal Kita by Miguel Verlarde Jr., Ang Pipit by Levi Celerio, and Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak by Leopoldo Silos. I told my mom after the concert that I wished my grandparents were still alive so they could have seen my nephew and his group perform this because Minamahal Kita was their theme song. And while I am quite familiar with Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak, I felt like I was discovering it for the first time because I found myself being absolutely moved it. I never realized how beautiful, haunting, and poignant it is. Maybe the exquisite arrangement by Assistant Professor Alberto Mesa and the exceptional and very evocative way that Sibol played it made me appreciate it more.

They also performed the entire Suite Polymorphe by Roland Dyens. This set of 8 movements is immensely difficult to play and it was such a joy to see my nephew perform it so well with the rest of the Sibol Guitar Octet. It seems logical that this suite served as the inspiration for the title of the concert: Poly-Sonus Poly-Ritmus Polymorphe. UST Conservatory of Music Assistant Professor Alberto Mesa explained to the audience that the title means that this concert showcased music of different sounds, different rhythms, and different forms.

One really cool thing about this event was that several posters were printed out for people to purchase. Being the supportive family that we were, we got one. Once the concert ended, Asst. Prof. Mesa suggested to the audience that we could have our posters signed by the members of the octet so we did. After this announcement, all remaining posters were sold very quickly. It was nice having our poster signed by everyone from Sibol, including their mentor Asst. Prof. Mesa and their guest performer who is also from the UST Conservatory of Music.

To celebrate the success of this event, my family and a few of my nephew's friends had dinner at Prologue right in front of Greenhills Mall. It was the first time for many (or maybe even all?) of them to eat at Prologue so I'm happy I got to give my family a new experience.

I really loved this concert for so many reasons. I loved seeing my nephew and the Sibol Guitar Octet perform together. I loved how they challenged themselves by playing difficult pieces. I loved how varied their repertoire was and how it allowed me to discover new music. And it makes me really proud that my nephew continues to live his passion and is part of such a talented group. They have another concert coming up next month and I am definitely looking forward to it.