Raging Bull Chophouse & Bar

I've been wanting to have some really good steak recently so when my friends and I agreed to have a fancy dinner somewhere, I started searching for the best steak places in Metro Manila. Raging Bull Chophouse & Bar came up in many lists so I suggested that to my friends and we all agreed to have dinner there.

 Steak was the main reason for our visit here so we ordered the 1824 grain-fed Queensland 350g Ribeye. My photo isn't really the best - it's a tad out of focus - but trust me, this steak was superb. The beef was very tender and well-seasoned. Each bite was an absolute delight. At P3420, it is not cheap but I personally felt it was worth it. I mean, even while I was eating eat, I was already thinking of saving up for a return trip to try it again (or maybe some of their other steaks). :)

1824 grain-fed Queensland 350g Ribeye

We also ordered a few other things, including the Maryland Crab Cakes (P520)...

Maryland Crab Cakes

...and the Herb Brined Slow Roasted Free Range Chicken (P895).

Herb Brined Slow Roasted Free Range Chicken

I thought the crab cakes and the chicken were just okay. It was the steak that really left its mark on me. The service is fast, friendly, and very professional. I also like the fact that we get to "choose our weapon" from a variety of knives from different parts of the world. The ambiance is elegant and luxurious without being stuffy or uptight and the lighting gives a sense of privacy even as you sit amidst a packed restaurant. Given my experience that night, I would recommend making a reservation to ensure that you get a table when you choose to dine here. While it may take some time for me to save up for a return visit, I am definitely looking forward to enjoying their steak again.

Raging Bull Chophouse & Bar
https://www.ragingbullchophouse-fort.com/
Level 3 Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila 30th Street corner 5th Avenue,
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig 1634 Metro Manila

Board Gaming is Life

The last month and a half have been filled with board game nights. Normally, I get to play only once a month, sometimes twice. However, due to an interesting series of events, one of my board game groups ended up scheduling two game nights in both August and September. Toss in one more session with my other group and the result is three consecutive weeks of board gaming in September and five out of six consecutive weeks with a game weekend. Cool. :)

This gave me an opportunity to play many games for the first time and many other games I had played before. One of the most fun games I got to play is Wacky Races. This game, which is based on the cartoon of the same name, pits players against each other to try and finish the race first, amidst a plethora of traps set by Dick Dastardly. It has a simple game mechanic and while it does rely to some degree on luck, it is pretty tight and both times I played it, many folks were close to the finish line and there was no way to predict who would win. While it's ranked quite low on Boardgamegeek, it plays quickly, it is easy to teach, it has some really cool figures (the detail is pretty awesome), and up to 6 players can play. My friends and I really enjoyed it both times we played (and someone else in our group is now thinking of getting his own copy).

I won my first Wacky Races game playing Private Meekly and Sergeant Blast

I also got to play two board games set in outer space: The Expanse and Horizons. While both are area control games, they have different game plays. The Expanse is based on a TV series which I had never seen before but my lack of knowledge of it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game. I definitely wouldn't mind playing both again.

Horizons

There were a handful of other games I got to play for the first time in the last month and a half. In Cryptid, you try to figure out where the mysterious Cryptid creature is through the clues you get from your opponents while they try to guess its location based on clues they get from you. I thought this was enjoyable enough to play.  The Mind is kinda like The Game; as a group, everyone needs to successfully play all their cards following the rule that you can only play a card after a card with a lower value. I know this is very highly rated but I didn't quite like it. Between this and The Game, I like The Game more. Also, I got to play Tash-Kalar which is an abstract game where players try to place their tokens in specific patterns to beat their opponents and achieve the game objectives. It is really hard to figure out how to place the tokens to achieve the objectives, especially when your opponents disrupt you, but I really liked this game.

The game I have played the most is Grand Austria Hotel, which is a game I acquired last year. This Euro game is quite difficult to navigate since it gets tough to do everything you want to do in the 7 rounds that the game is played so when I played it with Denise, Katco, and Tegz last July, they said we should organize another game night soon so they could play it again. I brought it in our September session and that night, I got to play it twice. The week after, I played it with Myna and Mai and after the game, they both said they wanted to play it again. So I once again brought it last weekend and we got to play it again, this time with Karen. That's a total of 5 times in less than three months. I have to say, I'm really liking this game and I'm not surprised it is currently in the top 100 overall in Boardgamegeek.

Finally, I got to play Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle again. I played this co-op game once before and we completed Book 2. Someone suggested we play it again so two weekends ago, we did and we managed to tough out wins in Books 3 and 4 (we really almost lost Book 3). We all agreed to play it again last weekend, and thankfully, we managed to win Book 5. Two more books and we would have successfully finished the game. (Then it would be time to try out the expansions. :))

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (we beat Voldemort in Book 5!)

I might not be able to play this October because of scheduling conflicts so I'm glad that I had a lot of game nights over the last several weeks. I also planned a session in November where I will finally try one of the games I bought two years ago but haven't had the chance to play yet so I'm really looking forward to that.

Majoy Baron is the Best Blocker in the ASEAN Grand Prix

This is about week late but congratulations to Majoy Baron who was awarded Best Blocker in the first leg of the ASEAN Grand Prix in Thailand last week.

MAJOY, DOMINANT 💪

After averaging 12.3 ppg, Majoy Baron brought home Best Middle Blocker in the ASEAN GP 1st leg 👐 » https://t.co/THiLnbnk39 pic.twitter.com/LUCygpv32x

— ABS-CBN Sports (@abscbnsports) September 23, 2019

This is Majoy Baron's first international award. That she achieved this feat while playing against well renowned blockers like Pleumjit makes it even more impressive. In the last game of the Philippines. Majoy scored 13 points including a whopping 6 blocks to help the Philippine National Team overcome Vietnam in five sets and land the bronze medal. The second leg of the ASEAN Grand Prix will be played in the Philippines next week so hopefully Majoy and the rest of the National Team can continue to play competitively against our South East Asian neighbors.

Congratulations, Majoy!

Busy in a good way

My social calendar has been pretty full recently, but that's a positive thing and I'm certainly not complaining. Interestingly enough, in these last couple of months, I got to catch up with many of my ex-colleagues on separate occasions. First, I had lunch with Migs, Diann, and Maan in Shangri-La Mall. There was a lot for us to catch up on but the other reason that we were meeting up was because Maan and I were asked to be principal sponsors in Migs and Diann's upcoming wedding. Cool!

I also met up with Mickee, Chelle, and Marge in Glorietta. I was happy that Marge was able to join us because I hadn't seen her since she got married late last year. We wanted to have dinner in Mad Mark's but it was full when we got there so we ended up enjoying dimsum in Tim Ho Wan. Marge couldn't join us for coffee so it was just Chelle and Mickee who joined me in UCC Cafe. Oh and Chelle officially asked me to be a principal sponsor in her wedding with Mon too.

I also had caught up with Eric over coffee in Starbucks. I was near his office one night and since he works Europe shift, I asked him if he could take a quick break so we could meet up briefly and he said he could. I hadn't seen him since he joined a game night early last year and even then, we were playing games so I couldn't really ask him a lot of questions about what was going on in his life. This time around, we were able to have a more in-depth conversation and I was very pleased to hear about all the things going on in his life, both personally and career-wise.

I was near Eric's office that evening because I was invited to Jason's birthday party at his recording studio. Also there were some ex-colleagues who enjoy playing music. Most of the people there are people I hadn't seen in ages since almost all of us there had moved on to new opportunities since the time that we all worked in the same place. Amazing how time flies. Naturally, I also got to sing a few songs that evening, including U2's With or Without You and Radiohead's Creep.

There are several more get-togethers planned with friends over the course of the next month. I'm definitely looking forward to those.

US Open 2019: Nadal wins Grand Slam #19!

I am so happy! Rafael Nadal won his 4th US Open title and his 19th Grand Slam title overall! Vamos Rafa!

🏆🏆🏆🏆@RafaelNadal | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/uWbUqigwFl

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2019

It wasn't straightforward, though. While he didn't have to face either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic in the tournament, he had to battle against Daniil Medvedev, the most in-form player in the American summer who started the US Open ranked #5 and moved up one place to #4 after the tournament. The final went the distance and even if Nadal was up 2 sets to love, by the time the 5th set kicked in, Medvedev looked like he would score the upset. I have to say, this was the first match of Medvedev's I've seen and I'm a a believer. Among the younger players, he's the only one I've seen who has shown the grit and tenacity to become a future champion. He has it in him to become #1 in the world and win many major titles in the future. Given Medvedev's late match resurgence in the final, I'm not sure how Nadal summoned the will to redirect the course of the match. But he did, gutting out a tremendously hard-fought 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4 win in 4 hours and 51 minutes, the fifth longest men's Grand Slam final. There was a whole lot of drama and momentum shifts to keep tennis fans entertained - and Nadal and Medvedev fans on edge - but in the end, it was Nadal who found just that little extra to help him take home the title. A montage of Rafa's 19 Grand Slam title wins was shown during the closing ceremony and Nadal became very emotional, weeping openly and showing the world just how important this and all his other wins are to him.

Witnessing history, from 1 to 19....@RafaelNadal | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/33kDYn4kwf

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2019

This win means that only three other players in the Open Era - Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer, all of whom won five - have won more US Open singles titles than Rafa (his four wins tie him with John McEnroe). He now also has just one major title less than Roger who has 20. Even as a Rafa fan, I have to admit that I didn't think he would ever come this close to Roger's Grand Slam count. The thing for me though is, even if he doesn't tie or break Roger's total haul (Federer can of course still win more) or if Novak passes them both, I will still be very happy. As Rafa said, "All the things that I achieved in my career are much more than what I ever thought and what I ever dream. I would love to be the one who has more, yes. But I really believe that I will not be happier or less happy if that happens or not happen." And this applies to me as his fan too. :)

The women's final also featured a tennis legend playing against an up-and-coming player who also had success during the summer and was also playing in her first Grand Slam final, Bianca Andreescu. However, the results were different. Andreescu edged out Williams in two tight sets. This marks the first time that someone playing in the main draw of the US Open for the first time won the championship. Bianca also becomes the first Canadian player to win a Grand Slam title. Wow! That she achieved this against one of the greatest players of all time while playing in front of a crowd that was very pro-Williams shows how much guts, self-belief, and mental strength she has. As for Serena, this is the fourth time she reached the final of a Grand Slam only to lose in straight sets. While it must be terribly disappointing for her and her fans, she is still arguably the best player when she's at her best, as evidenced by her 63 61 rout of #5 Elina Svitolina in the semifinals.She's gotten to four Grand Slam finals now and while the last three were not very close, this one was. I reckon she will still tie and break Margaret Court's record before she calls it a career.

8-0 👏

Bianca Andreescu remains undefeated against top 10 players in 2019.#USOpen | #WomenWorthWatching pic.twitter.com/zRlOVGnIqD

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2019

Back to Nadal, he ends the year with two of the four Grand Slams, matching Djokovic who also won two. That said, Rafa has had greater success overall and while Novak is still ranked #1, Nadal has won more points this year and is in a good position to challenge for the #1 ranking as the year comes to a close. I'm not sure if that will happen though since I think Nadal will be getting married soon but even if Rafa doesn't get back to #1 this year (or even ever), I will still be a very happy and grateful fan. Congratulations, Rafa!