Reunions Galore

I've had a few reunions and get-togethers with good friends over the last few weeks. The first was with my English friend (and ex-colleague) David. He messaged me recently saying he would be in Manila and wanted to meet up. It had been a few years since I last saw him so I definitely made sure I blocked off one evening for him. He was staying in BGC and wanted to have Asian food for dinner so I suggested Mango Tree. He also wanted to catch up with some of our other ex-colleagues. I messaged a few of them and the ones who were in Manila joined us. It turned out to be bit of a reunion for me as well since I also hadn't seen some of those folks in years. Over dinner, David said that he wanted to try Bank Bar, the hidden bar behind the 7-Eleven at RCBC so after our meal, we walked over to RCBC to have a few (many?) drinks there. Interestingly enough, most of us had never been to Bank Bar before so it turned out to be a first for most of us.

Bank Bar

Shortly after that, my Jay was in town. He started working out of the country right before the pandmic struck so it's been maybe two and a half years since I last saw him in person. We had dinner at Bistro Madrid in Estancia. Most of our friends couldn't join us but a few of us made it. I am familiar with a couple of good wines at this place because I had dinner there a few months ago and my friends ordered wine - Simonsig Pinotage - that I really liked. Wines here are sold at 15% off every Sunday so when I know I need good wine, I would pass by this place on Sunday evenings to buy some. I've tried a few bottles, including Fabre Montmayou which I also really liked. I recommended these wines to my friends that night and thankfully, they enjoyed them too.

Later that week, I met up with Mai and several of our college friends. Mai has been based in the US for a while now so it had also been many years since I last caught up with her. Our friend Mitch suggested that we just have our get-together at her place so that it would be more comfortable and private. We definitely did a lot of catching up that night and our conversation went from the intellectual to the inane haha.

We had more of those crazy conversations a week later when our other college friend Val was in Manila. It's too bad that she and Mai weren't here at the same time. The last time I saw Val was about 10 years ago! She said that she wanted Filipino food for dinner so I suggested a few places where we could order local dishes. Based on the menu options, my friends went with FoodTray2Go, which is one of my go-to places when buying food for my family during weekends.

While a lot of my get-togethers were reunions with people I hadn't seen in years, I also met up with a couple of sets of friends for birthday celebrations. My ex-colleagues Joh and Pia celebrated their birthdays together and treated the group for lunch at A Mano in Rockwell. I had eaten there once before. My favorite dish is the Cacio E Pepe. For Joyce's birthday, we celebrated by ordering food from The Creamery, which is one of the places I order food for special occasions. The Braised Beef Shortribs with Hungarian Sausage in Garlic Paprika Sauce was a big hit. In fact, the people enjoyed it so much that they said we should order it again in our next get-together. Cool!