Vizco's Strawberry Shortcake

I have a new favorite: Vizco's Strawberry Shortcake!

Vizco's Strawberry Shortcake

I first learned about this cake (and Vizco's) because of the IWanT TFC film Glorious. I then read about it again on social media when someone was asking for strawberry shortcake recommendations and some netizens swore by it. Since Vizco's is based in Baguio, I didn't really have an opportunity to try it. That is, until I started seeing Manila-based resellers of cakes from Vizco's as well as other Baguio shops. I'm guessing these resellers started sprouting up during the pandemic to help stores in Baguio survive; these stores must have been losing a lot of income because people couldn't visit anymore. Since people couldn't go to them, the resellers would bring their products to the people.

When I saw ads for the Vizco's Strawberry Shortcake, I asked my friends if any of them had tried it before. One of them did and she said that while buying it from a reseller is expensive - after all, they do come from Baguio - she thought it was worth it. The margins that these resellers add are quite substantial but if you compare the Vizco's cake price with other Strawberry Shortcakes in Manila, it's in the same range. As such, I decided to give it a try.

And I'm so glad I did.

This is now my favorite strawberry shortcake and one of my favorite cakes of any kind. The cake itself is light and fluffy and I think they infuse it with strawberry syrup because it's pink and has a lot of flavor. The icing is delicious and not too sweet . There is also a generous serving of strawberries on top and the strawberry syrup ties everything together really well. If I wasn't concerned about eating too much sugar, I could probably eat several slices - or heck, maybe even the whole cake! - in one sitting. My family and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to order it again soon after we tried it the first time. I also ordered one as a gift for one of my friends who has been extra generous to me.

There are a couple of resellers that I have been in contact with for my Vizco's Strawberry Shortcake orders in Manila: Love, Strawberry and Gelikdrei Store. I communicated with both via messenger and they are both pretty responsive. They also provide delivery services. Gelikdrei Store offers a lower price but Love, Strawberry often has promos.

If you're looking for really good strawberry shortcake, I highly recommended this one from Vizco's.

Quarantine Stories Part 7

I recently discovered Kimchi Bake Race from Gochu-Gang. They have two varieties: Beef Bulgogi and Army Style (which is inspired by Budae-Jjigae, or a Korean army stew that has beef sausage, spam, bacon and egg). You can also order a combo tray, with both Beef Bulgogi and Army Style. I decided to go with the combo so that I could try both and I actually enjoy it. For my appetite, one tray (at P1,190) is good for four meals so I can make it last over four meals. It's actually quite good and I've already had it a couple of times over the last few weeks. 

Another new thing I got to try recently is Rosalie's Suman. A neighbor was selling it and I hadn't had suman in a long time so I decided to try it. It's stickier and sweeter than normal suman but it's still good. Because it is on the sweeter side, it is perfect to eat while having some coffee.

 I also made several purchases during the Lazada 11.11 sale. It's only recently that I installed the app - I used to order only through their website via a browser - so I am now getting better at finding vouchers that offer discounts or free shipping. I also wrote my first Lazada reviews this month. Some of my purchases and reviews include coffee filters and gifts that I plan to give to my family during Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas gifts, this is the first time in decades that I wrapped Christmas gifts again. Usually, when I would buy gifts at the mall or in a shop, I would have them wrapped at the place where I bought them but I didn't have that option now. (Makes me wonder though, does Lazada offer a gift-wrapping service?) I had to search for instructional videos on youtube, especially for that one item I bought that was irregularly shaped, but in the end I think I did a decent job.)

I also finally got an Easytrip RFID. I didn't until just a few weeks ago that the NLEX and SLEX tollways would only accept Easytrip and Autosweep RFID payments and not cash as they have in the past. Because of the pandemic, it wasn't exactly urgent for me to get this sorted out immediately because I didn't have any plans to go out of Metro Manila in the future. But when the building I live in organized Easytrip installation in our community, I decided to sign up. Luckily, I was able to get a slot. It's just too bad that I missed the announcement for the Autosweep installation. I guess I just need to worry about that when I plan to go to the South.

I'm one of the few remaining people I know who still doesn't have a Netflix account so I still watch cable. (Yes, I know, what a shock haha.) As such, I don't get to watch a lot of new movies. In the last few weeks however, I did get to see a couple of films that I hadn't seen before. One of them was
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. So many people I know feel that this is the best Spider-man film so far and it did win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film so I was really excited to see this. Unfortunately for me, I think the massive hype about this movie set the bar so high that I think it didn't quite meet my exceedingly high expectations. Still, I did enjoy it.

The other movie that I got to see was Inferno. I believe this is the third movie that features Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon (the first two were The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons). I didn't have any expectations about this movie so maybe that helped in my viewing experience because I really liked it. The opening sequence alone was really intense and riveting and I was fully engaged until the end. The location of the climax was really interesting and it makes me want to visit it at some point in my life (click here if you want to know what location that was, I'm not mentioning it here so that I don't post any spoilers, even if this movie is 4 years old haha). Hopefully, I can get to watch more movies I haven't seen yet in the near future (I reckon I will already subscribe to Netflix before the year ends).