More Get-Togethers

I had another reunion with college friends when we met up with Val and Louie before they returned to the US. A few weeks ago, we had dinner with Val but Louie was unable to join us. Since Louie and Val were staying in the Rockwell area, we decided to have dinner at Refinery since this place served both coffee and drinks, catering to the preferences of everyone in the group. After dinner, Val and Louie invited us to their room for more drinks. Louie served us a mix of port wine and tonic water with a slice of lemon. It was pretty good! Lala also brought a bottle of Matsu wine while I brought a bottle of Ube Cream Liqueur. It was my first time to try this award-winning drink by Agimat at Ugat and it is actually pretty good.

Ube Liqueur Cream by Agimat at Ugat

I also went on a BGC pub crawl with some high school friends. Erick was in town and Mitch wanted to take him out. We started the night having hotdogs and drinks at the Hotel Bar at Pink's. We then moved to Bank Bar. It's interesting how Bank Bar has been around for years and it was only recently that I was able to go and now, just a few months later, I was able to go back. Our final stop that night was Elbert's Upstairs, a bar above Mendokoro Ramenba in BGC. The good thing about BGC is that it's very walkable so it was quite easy for us to move from one place to the next.

The "secret" 7-Eleven entrance to Bank Bar

I visited Wildflour a couple of times in the last month. This was because Wildflour has an ongoing promo with certain BPI cards. Guests who use their BPI card can get 30-50% discount (depending on the card) for a minimum purchase of P5,000 (and with a maximum discount of P3,000). First, I took my family to Wildflour Podium for lunch. I had wanted to order the Bone-in Prime Rib Eye Steak for the benefit of my nephew who missed our lunch at Raging Bull but sadly, Wildflour had run out of that steak by the time we had our late lunch. Despite that, my family still enjoyed our meal there and we even took home several of their pastries. A few weeks later, I met up with my ex-colleagues at Wildflour Rockwell. Interestingly enough, I ordered the same dish both times - Chicken and Biscuits. I love biscuits (the bread, not the cracker) and Wildflour is only one of a few places I know that sell them so I figured I would order the same dish to maximize my enjoyment.

I organized a board game night with my friends Pat and Carlo. The last time I played board games with them was before the pandemic. I invited a couple of other friends to join us and we played a few casual games that night, including Istanbul (which we played twice), Herbaceous Sprouts, Splendor, and Roll For It. We ended the night talking about scheduling another game night.

I also had a few get-togethers with current colleagues and ex-colleagues. I met up with Mia, Ian, and Karla in TGI Friday's in Venice Piazza. I had dinner and drinks at Terry's Bistro in Salcedo Village with my colleagues Ysa, Caloy, and Sab with whom I had been working very closely for the last couple of years. Then, I returned to Dylan Patisserie to have dinner with my teammates Irish and Michelle. Irish requested that we meet up in QC so I suggested Dylan. Michelle ordered the De Hazelnut Praline which I got to try...

De Hazelnut Praline from Dylan Patisserie

...while I tried the Raspberry Mango Opera and a Blueberry Macaron. (The other French pastry in the photo below is the Chocolate Marcarpone Delight that Irish ordered).

More desserts from Dylan Patisserie

Finally, I had one more college reunion as my friend Nemboy and his family were in town for a few weeks. Nemboy hadn't been to the Philippines in a while so we decided to have dinner at Manam in Greenbelt so he could enjoy more Pinoy food before leaving the country again. I'm really happy and thankful that I continue to have opportunities to spend more face-to-face time with friends and that I am now able to take my family out for meals again.