Breakfast at the Westin Manila

Recently, a post appeared on social media about the buffet breakfast at the Westin Manila having a 50% discount for parties of 2 to 10 people. My two friends and I had been meaning to meet up for a while and since they are morning people, I suggested that we meet up for buffet breakfast at the Westin Manila. They both agreed.

I ended up eating here twice in two months. The first time was in August. My friends and I first planned to meet up in August but one of us, Irish, ended up having car trouble on the morning of our meet-up. As such, it was just Michelle and I who met up. Since we weren't complete, we decided to meet up again in September. This time around, everyone made it. Cool!

A lot of the standard items are offered, including international far such as bacon and sausages and local breakfast dishes such as longganisa and tapa. There's a variety of breads and sweet breakfast items. They also have an omelet station where you can request an omelet to be made with the ingredients of your choice.

That said, there are a few things that stand out at the Westin Manila breakfast buffet. First, they offer special dishes that require a bit of preparation. I took a photo of the selection during my first visit but I forgot to take a photo of their descriptions.

Special menu at the Westin Manila breakfast buffet

On my first visit, I got what I think was a version of Eggs Benedicts with tocino and maybe pork floss on pan de sal.

Special menu item I got on my first visit

On my next visit, I think I got another version of Eggs Benedict (I can't recall what the "caviar" on the dish is made of). Clearly, I have an affinity for this dish haha.

Special menu item I got on my second visit

They also have a taho station. I don't get to eat taho very often so when I see it, I tend to have it.

They also have croiffles, which are waffles made of croissant dough. I did try this as well.

The croiffles are the less even waffles on the right tray

The discounted buffet breakfast costs "only" P999. When I eat at other brunch places and I order their version of a big breakfast and get coffee, I usually spend about P800 or more. As such, the discounted Westin Manila breakfast becomes a steal, considering that I can get as much coffee as I want and have a wide variety of dishes.

Beautiful green wall at the Westin Manila

We were told that this promo had been going on since the start of the year and it keeps getting extended. I hope it gets extended even further so I can try it again in the future.

New Scrum Certification: Product Discovery and Validation

For the fourth time in less than two years, I achieved my fourth Scrum certification: Product Discovery and Validation!

According to the Scrum website, the purpose of Product Discovery and Validation is to "enhance value creation through practical application of discovery and validation techniques". When this training was made available to employees in our company, I thought it would very relevant to the work I do and that maybe I may possibly be able to apply what I learn so I signed up for it. Thankfully, I was given a slot.

Of all my Scrum certifications, this is the one I am most proud of mainly because at the time I took it, it was still Beta training. That means it was so new and still being tested that there were no sample exams available. When I achieved my three previous Scrum certifications, I took the sample exams provided at the Scrum website until I could get a perfect score consistently. This time around, I couldn't do that. Also, no one else had any idea what the test would be like and what kinds of questions would be asked. Even our trainer hadn't taken the exam yet. I also took this certification more than a month after the training, so my memory of the topics, concepts, and the material was not as fresh as I would have liked. Finally, the exam only had 20 questions and the passing score is 85%. That means only three mistakes are allowed. That's not a lot of room for error considering that I felt very unprepared.

In the end, I successfully passed the exam. I believe I got the same score as my trainer (cool!) and I was the first student who passed. I'm really proud of this achievement! Hopefully, I can apply a lot of what I learned at work and maybe use it to help build the skills of my team.

Revisiting (More) Old Favorites

I guess this still ties into my previous post about things that make me smile but over the last few months, I got to revisit many restaurants that I really enjoy but hadn't been to in a while or maybe try dishes that I haven't had in a long time. The first is Cafe Breton. It's been almost a year since I last ate here because there aren't a lot of Cafe Breton branches anymore. Two of the ones I used the visit a lot - the one in the Tomas Morato area and the one in UP Technohub - closed a while back. So when I found myself in Ayala the 30th one Saturday, I made sure to have my crepe fix here. I ordered their Fantastic Pinay crepe, which has mango, chocohazelnut spread, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

Cafe Breton Fantastic Pinay dessert Crepe

I also ordered their La Primavera Veggie Scramble for the first time. I knew I wanted a dessert crepe but I wanted to have something savory as well. It was pretty good.

Cafe Breton La Primavera Veggie Scramble

Another place I used to go to a lot was Almon Marina but it must be more than a decade since I last ate there. When I found myself in Megamall doing errands one night, I passed by Almon Marina and thought, I should eat here again. I ordered their Garlic Sausage, Pasta, and Salad combo. It felt quite nostalgic having this meal again after so long.

Almon Marina Pastalicious Combination

Going with the theme of combo meals, I also ordered the House Specials Set B at Pancake House. I used to really like their tacos and their spaghetti and it's been a while since I had those so when I found myself in Pancake House one evening, I got the combo that includes a hamburger, spaghetti, and a taco. I know that in Mexico, tacos have soft shell tortillas which I prefer. But I actually do like the hard shell of the Pancake House - among hard taco shells I've had in my life, theirs is the best by a large margin. This is a good comfort food meal.

Pancake House Specials Set B

I used to go to Bo's Coffee a lot because I regularly passed by one on my way home before but I haven't been there since I moved jobs several years ago. I had been planning to have brunch somewhere in the Glorietta area but then I passed by Bo's Coffee. I changed my plans and decided to eat here instead. I ordered Bo's Platter, which has corned beef, bacon, eggs, and toast. Naturally, I ordered coffee along with it. I can't recall how much this dish costs but it's definitely not as expensive as similar dishes in other fancier restaurants. I need to visit Bo's Coffee again in the future.

Bo's Platter at Bo's Coffee

I also got to revisit Cafe Mediterranean. I have two go-to dishes here. One of them is the Chicken Kebab. The other, which I ordered on this visit, is their Grilled Beef Gyro Plate, which is served with Tzatziki, tabbouleh, and moutabal. While it normally comes with pita bread, I opted to change it with buttered rice. After all these years, the quality of the food at Cafe Med continues to be really good.

Grilled Beef Gyro Plate at Cafe Mediterranean

The last time I was in Old Swiss Inn was about a year ago - which I wrote about in my previous 'Revisiting Old Favorites' post - but it remains to be one of my favorite restaurants. Not a favorite in terms of how often I eat there which isn't a lot but a favorite in the sense that I always enjoy my food there. While they have a few dishes that I normally order such as the Zurich Geschnetzeltes, this time I decided to choose something I hadn't had before: the Peppersteak Swiss Inn. It's a decent-sized steak and I really liked it! In the future, if I am craving good steak but I don't want to spend more than P1000 on it before service charge (it costs P979), I will have this one again.

Peppersteak Swiss Inn from Old Swiss Inn

The next restaurants are all relatively new in the Philippines but I do like their food a lot so I'm happy that I got to visit them all recently. These include Mendokoro (still my favorite ramen restaurant in the Philippines),

Mendokoro Shoyu Ramen with Aji Tamago and 3-piece Gyoza

Katherine's Cafe (their Bacon and Cheese Macaroni with Cereal Chicken is in the Kid's Favorite section of their menu but adults can order these as well and I was really in the mood for chicken and mac and cheese on that visit),

Katherine's Cafe Bacon and Cheese Macaroni with Cereal Chicken

and Texas Roadhouse (gotta use my BFF card haha but while I had always previously ordered their roast beef set, I decided to order their ribs set). Of course, their amazing complimentary bread makes Texas Roadhouse a current favorite of mine.

Texas Roadhouse Ribs set

I have to say, I'm really lucky and privileged that I have the opportunity to eat at so many different restaurants. I'm not exactly a foodie because I don't have a sophisticated palate but I do love to eat. Maybe that's also why I've been gaining weight slowly but steadily over the last year or so haha argh. If I continue to eat this much, I really need to start exercising.