New Discoveries and Rediscoveries

The last couple of months gave me an opportunity to try and discover new places. One of these was Grifoni's at The Podium. Apparently, this is a popular pizza place in Siargao that has made its way to Metro Manila. My ex-teammates and I had dinner here one night after work. What I loved about this place is that they have gnocchi on their menu! So we ordered the Baked Four Cheese Gnocchi...

Gnocchi from Grifoni's in Podium

...along with another pasta dish and pizza. We also had some dessert. The food was pretty good - and I really do love the fact that they have gnocchi! - so I'm sure I will visit this place again in the future.

Choco Lava Cake from Grifoni's in Podium

Another place in the Ortigas area that I got to try is Satchmi. I had seen this place a few times before but I only just recently got to try it when I was in Megamall and was looking for a place to have coffee and some food. My original plan was to have souffle pancakes at Gram but it seems Gram in Megamall has closed. I then saw Satchmi, I realized I had always been interested to try this place, and decided to go here instead. I ordered the sausage and waffles along with some coffee. It wasn't the best sausage and waffle dish I've ever had but it is quite inexpensive when compared to similar dishes in other restaurants and cafes so I thought it was pretty good value for money.

Sausage and Waffles from Satchmi in Megallam

A new favorite dessert of mine is the Chocolate Strawberry Pancake. I discovered while I was in Greenbelt 5. I passed by what was previously TLJ but is now Infinity Taste. I went in to look for a cake or dessert I could take home and I saw the Chocolate Strawberry Pancake, which immediately appealed to me. At almost P500, it is really expensive but I really wanted to try it so I did. As soon as I ate it at home, I realized this is now probably my favorite dessert. The pancake seems to have a consistency and density somewhere between a pancake and a cake and the cream was thick but still light. It was just a really good combination of flavors and textures and an absolute pleasure to eat! I loved it so much that I visited this place again soon after and I ordered it again.

Chocolate Strawberry Pancake from Infinity Taste in Greenbelt

I also revisited Shanghai Hand-Pulled Noodles in N.S. Amoranto Street (near the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes). The last time I was here was more than a decade ago so getting to dine here again after so long was like a wonderful rediscovery.

Shanghai Hand-pulled Noodles in N.S. Amoranto

I love hand-pulled noodles so it was a no-brainer for me to order the House Special Beef (Dry) Noodles. I also got a side of Special Kikiam (it has also been a long time since I had kikiam). I really enjoyed this meal and I need to visit this place again soon!

House Special Beef Noodles and Kikiam from Shanghai Hand-Pulled Noodles

And since we're talking about new discoveries, I guess this one counts too: Nissin Irvins Salted Egg Noodles! A friend of mine visited Singapore and gave me a pack as her pasalubong to me.

Nissin Irvin's Salted Egg Noodles

It was good but I have to say that I couldn't taste the salted egg flavor as much as I do when having the Irvins chips. Still, I'm happy I got to try something new!

Remembering Nanay

My family just commemorated my grandmother Nanay's 1st year death anniversary. It was the middle of the week so I filed a personal leave so I could spend the day with my family. We started with a 6AM mass that we offered for Nanay. After mass, we headed to the cemetery to visit her resting place and say some prayers.

Early morning mass

It was still early morning when we left the cemetery and we wanted to have breakfast so I took my family to Dylan Patisserie in the Tomas Morato area. It was one of the few non-fastfood places that was open at 8am and we wanted a place that was comfortable and where we could enjoy good food and catch up. Dylan was also one of the last few restaurants where we were able to take Nanay before she passed away. We stayed there for a few hours, enjoying the food and the coffee as we shared stories about Nanay and caught up with each other. It was close to noon when we left.

Classic Full English Breakfast at Dylan Patisserie

Before heading home, I suggested to my mom that we have a late lunch at Italianni's in Ayala Fairview Terraces. I was notified via SMS that Bistro card holders could enjoy 50% off at Italianni's as a special soft opening discount. It was quite some distance away from Dylan but the discount was really appealing and I was already  on leave so we decided to go. The discount could only be applied when dining in but the staff said that we could over-order and they could pack and take home whatever we didn't consume. My mom and I had some pasta and salad but we did order a lot of other dishes that we took home to the rest of my family. (This meal meant I already got a return on investment on my Bistro card just a few months after I got it. Cool!)

Lunch at Italianni's in Ayala Fairview Terraces

It was a simple but really good day spent with loved ones that allowed me and my family to remember Nanay and celebrate her amazing life before she passed on. We love you and we miss you, Nanay!

Summer Lovin'

Temperatures in Metro Manila have been soaring these last several weeks, which is to be expected I guess given that it is the Philippine summer. I thought I should revisit one of my favorite places that I haven't been to since the pandemic - Hobing. After all, it was a perfect time for bingsu! The flavor I used to order all the time - the one that had red beans - was no longer on the menu. I can't recall what I ordered - I think it was injeolme - but there was an option to add red beans so I did. I really do love bingsu and this trip made me realize that I need to visit Hobing more often in the future.

Hobing bingsu

My good friend Mari who has been based abroad for the last several years came home this summer so that her son could celebrate his first birthday with her family.

Marcus' birthday celebration

It was Mari's family in Manila who organized the celebration and they decided to throw a party at Jollibee. I can't recall the last time I went to a Jollibee party so I had a lot of fun, even if I didn't participate in any of the games haha. More importantly, it was really wonderful catching up with Mari again after not seeing her in person for years and getting to see her son for the first time.

Jollibee party

That wasn't my only get-together this summer. I also met up with some ex-colleagues for a board game night. I had played Champions of Midgard with them before and they were quite familiar with it already so this time, I learned and taught them the Valhalla Expansion. I actually really love this expansion since it reduces the luck factor of die rolls. In fact, part of your strategy can be to have your warriors die in battle so that they go to Valhalla and gain more rewards (and points). I gotta say, Champions of Midgard is fast becoming one of my favorite board games.

Champions of Midgard Valhalla Expansion

I also met up wit my high school and college circle of friends. One of my friends suggested that we have dinner at The Patio in UP Diliman and it turned out to be the perfect place for us. Not only was it a bit nostalgic because we all graduated from UP but also because The Patio has a very chill and relaxed vibe and the food was pretty good. They serve Pinoy dishes and aside from the the many menu items we ordered, I also got a bowl of lomi for myself. Kinda doesn't make sense to have hot soup during summer but it wasn't that hot when we met up for dinner and I hadn't had lomi in ages.

Lomi from The Patio

Of course, no month would be complete without quality time with my family. For Mother's Day, I got my mom the Classy Blush Cake from Dylan Patisserie. It's a strawberry shortcake with a vanilla almond sponge base, vanilla whipped ganache, and strawberry compote. It was pretty good!

Classy Blush Cake from Dylan Patisserie for Mother's Day

Also, after we watched Miss Saigon, I took my family to Uptown Mall for dinner. My plan was to take them to the shared area of Watami and Texas Roadhouse at the top floor of Uptown Mall so people could choose to order from either restaurant but we all decided to just order food from Texas Roadhouse. I then suggested that we walk to Mitsukoshi Mall in BGC, which is only about a block away from Uptown Mall, for coffee and dessert. I bought some cream puffs from Beard Papa to take home and we ended up having coffee at Key Coffee.

Key Coffee at Mitsukoshi Mall BGC

Considering that we had just watched an amazing show that everyone enjoyed, getting to have good food and try new things and have my family visit new places was a really amazing way to end the day.

A Surprise Star Wars Encounter at Uniqlo

I just had an amazing photo op with Star Wars characters at the Uniqlo Global Flagship Store in Glorietta 5!

Photo with Star Wars characters at the Uniqlo Global Flagship Store at Glorietta 5

It was a series of fortunate events that put me in a position to get this photo taken. It all started when I saw a Monster Hunter shirt in Uniqlo in SM Makati. I thought that my nephew, the Monster Hunter fan, might actually like to have that shirt. However, strangely enough, I didn't get it yet. Instead, I decided I would just go back on Sunday (which was just a few days later) to get it.

Fast forward to Sunday. I was driving to Glorietta and my initial plan was to go back to that Uniqlo store in SM Makati because that's where I saw the shirt. However, I decided to go to the flagship store in Glorietta 5 instead. I figured it was bigger and probably had more stocks of that shirt. As it turned out, my guess was right. I decided to get one for my nephew.

Since I was already there, I decided to also get a Star Wars Return of the Jedi shirt for myself. (After all, I am a Star Wars fan.) It was then that I noticed a couple of people dressed as stormtroopers in the store. They were going around, having their photos taken. I figured it must be to market their Star Wars merchandise. I picked up the shirt I wanted but then I kinda tried to see if I could find an opportunity to have my photo taken with the stormtroopers. I wasn't sure there would be since they looked busy with their photoshoot so I decided to take a photo of them. A woman who was part of the Uniqlo Star Wars campaign must have seen the look on my face as I did because she asked me if I wanted to have my photo taken with them. Naturally, I said yes!

Photo of Stormtroopers

The really cool thing though is that it started out with just me, two scout troopers, and a storm trooper. The woman took a photo of me with them when suddenly, more people in costume arrived, including an ewok! The woman then very nicely took a photo of me with the whole gang. When I saw the picture, I was really happy. And by the time I was done with my photo op, a short line had formed of people who also wanted to have their pictures taken.

My first photo, with two scout troopers and a stormtrooper

As it turned out, Uniqlo Philippines announced this store visit of Star Wars character on their social media pages. I just lucked out that I was at the right store at the right time.

Miss Saigon!

For the second time in my life, I got to watch Miss Saigon. And I'm glad I saw it again because it was amazing!!!

Miss Saigon is such an important musical on so many levels for Filipinos, or at least those who were already alive back in the late 80s. The producers of the show were looking for the right people to join the cast and they came to the Philippines to hold auditions. Lea Salonga became the very first person to play Kim, the lead role (or well the lead female role). This was the break that Lea needed to become a global theater star as she won a Laurence Olivier award and a Tony. She was also joined in the cast by many other Filipinos, including Monique Wilson, Isay Alvarez, and Pinky Amador. Music from the show became immensely popular in the Philippines. Many of us knew a lot of the songs by heart and we had cassette tapes of the original London West End or Broadway recordings.

I first watched Miss Saigon back in 2000 at the CCP. I was with my family back then, including my grandparents. We were lucky that we got to see Lea Salonga reprise her role as Kim. As such, when news came that Miss Saigon would be staged again in the Philippines, we weren't as excited to see it as we were with other shows because most of my family had already seen it. However, my nephews hadn't. I asked them if they wanted to see it and after thinking about it for a while, they decided they did. I thought I'd get my mom a ticket as well.

As it turned out, this decision to watch the show again was a superb one because we ended up enjoying the show immensely. I guess it isn't a surprise because it's an amazing musical. It's also been more than 20 years my mom and I last saw it was almost like a new experience for us again. Actually, I guess you could say it was a new experience for us on some level because we got to see the show with the updated lyrics. (I was a bit sad that the song "It's her or me" which I love is no longer part of the show; apparently, it suppposedly made Ellen look too much like the villain so she now sings a different song during that same part.) Seeing the huge helicopter appear on stage during The Fall of Saigon actually took my breath away, even if I knew it was coming and even if I had seen it before.

Our cast included Louisa Vilinne as Kim, Seann Miley Moore as The Engineer, and Nigel Huckle as Chris and they were all great! Louisa was the alternate Kim but she was still amazing (which is as expected because there is no way you could be cast for such a big role if you didn't have the skill and the talent for it). I also never realized until now how difficult Kim's role is because it's such a heavy role. She's going through so much pain, heartbreak, and struggle for most of the show and that has to be so emotionally exhausting to portray, especially while singing live. I also have to mention to Lewis Francis who played John. He belted out the last part of Bui Doi an octave higher. Wow! Needless to say, he got massive applause.

I have to say that for some reason, I was a lot more emotionally connected to the musical this time around. The first time I watched it, I was impressed with the production and enamored by Lea Salonga and her incredible voice. This time, I ended up being more engrossed in the story, witnessing the trials and challenges the characters faced and going on the same journey with them. Maybe it's the fact that I'm older with a lot more life experience, making me relate a lot more to the loss and the sacrifice. Whatever the reason, I found myself very deeply moved by the musical and I had either goosebumps or a lump in my throat (or both) in so many scenes, including the finale.

I'm really happy that well-renowned and award-winning musicals continue to be staged here in the Philippines. I'm also really happy that I got to watch Miss Saigon again.

Visiting the University of Santo Tomas

Because of the 34th Sampung Mga Daliri concert, I got to visit the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for the first time in decades, and the first time as an adult.

The University of Santo Tomas (UST)

I vaguely remember going to UST as a kid. I feel like I was in my grandfather's car and we might have been picking someone up or dropping someone off inside the school grounds and I recall seeing the arch. As such, this trip to UST felt new to me so I decided to walk around the campus and take a few photos right before the show.

UST was founded in 1611

UST is the oldest university in Asia. It was founded by Miguel de Benavides on April 28, 1611 which means it is now 415 years old as of this writing. Wow! The Benavides Monument was built to commemorate this founder of UST. 

Benavides Monument

Plaza Mayor is the central square. In front of it is the main building, which looks elegantly imposing with its Renaissance Revival-style architecture (source: wikipedia). It was a bright and beautiful day when I was there and the windows looked stunning as they reflected the magnificent blue sky.

UST Main Building

I naturally had to take a photo of the Arch of the Centuries, which stands right inside the main gate of UST. It was declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum in 2010.

Arch of the Centuries

There was so much more to see but not enough time and since the Sampung Mga Daliri show was free-seating, I decided to head in to make sure my family got good seats. I decided, however, to take a few more photos of the grounds in the evening after the show. There are two fountains next to the Arch of the Centuries: the Fountain of Knowledge and the Fountain of Wisdom. I believe this photo I took is of the Fountain of Wisdom because the woman at the center is holding a bible and is surrounded by four deer.

Fountain of Wisdom

Understandably, UST and its school grounds are filled with rich history. I've barely scratched the surface of the significance of the different points of interest I've shared in this blog post as there is a lot more to share. The Museum of Arts and Sciences can also be found inside the Main Building. I would surely love to visit this university again in the near future.

34th Sampung Mga Daliri by the UST Conservatory of Music

I just got to watch 34th Sampung Mga Daliri, a concert organized and performed by the UST Conservatory of Music. It features their students, alumni, and faculty as well as the UST Symphony Orchestra, the UST Jazz Band, other ensembles, musical theater, voice faculty, and even music technology.

34th Sampung Mga Daliri

My nephew studies here and this was the second time he was part of the show so my family and I made sure we were there. The first time, he was still a freshman and I think the standard is that all freshmen join the chorale first. This time, he was one of the musicians performing on stage. Amazing!

Aside from the amazing music and the incredible performers, what I love about these shows is that they always have a wonderfully vibrant and eclectic combination of classical music and more contemporary fare. They played Eine Kleine Nachtmusik from Mozart to open the night (well, after the National Anthem that they also performed of course). I loved the amazing piano performances in Rachmaninoff's Tarantella. They also played three pieces from Carnival of the Animals, two of which I was very familiar with: the Swan and Aquarium. While the orchestra was performing pieces from this musical suite by Camille Saint-Saëns, animal images were also projected on the big screen behind the orchestra.

Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns

There was also a special guest cellist who performed during the Swan. The program didn't have this name so unfortunately, I cannot credit him for his powerful and moving performance.

Lead cellist playing The Swan

The show had segments that featured music from the Final Fantasy video game and from Studio Ghibli movies. My nephew was part of the Final Fantasy ensemble and I was so proud to see him performing music from this very popular video game and media franchise.

My nephew performing on stage for the Final Fantasy number

For the Studio Ghibli performance, the conductor and the musicians wore outfits that represented characters from different Ghibli movies. I can't recall now if it was the conductor who came as No Face from Spirited Away then just took his mask off before they performed but I did see Chihiro (also from Spirited Away) in her green and white shirt. (Can you spot her in this next pic?)

Music from Studio Ghibli

There were several more segments performed throughout the evening that featured a wide array of music, including jazz, OPM, and broadway. (For The Phantom of the Opera number, the chorale put on masks, so cool!)

Chorale in masks The Phantom of the Opera

The grand finale featured music from Puccini and they closed with an astounding performance of arguably Puccini's most popular aria "Nessun Dorma" which brought the house down.

Music from Puccini to end the evening

It's great that UST organizes this event, which I believe is supposed to be annual. Because of the pandemic, UST stopped organizing it for several years and thankfully, they got to resume it this year. I also think that UST tries to hold this event at the CCP Main Theater which is under renovation so they held it instead at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.

Beautiful displays inside the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion

I'm really happy that I got to see this show and I'm also very proud that my nephew has gotten to perform in the last two concerts. Congratulations to the UST Conservatory of Music and to all the people who made the 34th Sampung Mga Daliri concert a smashing success!

More Movie-Watching

Kung Fu Panda 4

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I'm a fan of the Kung Fu Panda series so I made sure to see this movie when it came out. As expected, it was fun, light, and easy to watch. That said, I have to say that it is my least favorite of the four Kung Fu Panda films. The thing that made me enjoy the first three movies was how Po's learning became the key revelation on how he would be able to defeat his key opponent. In the first film, the dragon scroll being empty was a lesson on how one needs to believe they are special to be special and that helped him defeat Tai Lung. In the second movie, the theme was inner peace achieved through balance (as represented by yin and yang) and Po was able to use that to throw Lord Shen's cannonballs back at him. In the third movie, General Kai was stealing people's chi (or their life force) and it delved into the question of one's identity. In the end, it was this understanding of identity - not only of himself but also enabling other's to know who they are - that enabled Po to prevent his chi from being taken and inevitably defeat General Kai. However, in this fourth movie, it kind felt like Po and his new protege Zhen just managed to beat the Chameleon. I was hoping for better a-ha moment, similar to what we had in the previous three films haha. That said, it was still good entertainment and something that certainly helped me destress.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

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I'm also a fan of Godzilla, King Kong, and all these other monsters and kaiju (I have been since I was a kid). That said, this movie probably wasn't my favorite one in the recent MonsterVerse films. I think the series peaked at Godzilla: King of the Monsters which I absolutely loved and everything after that just hasn't been as good (in my opinion). I am a bit weirded out by this love-hate relationship between Kong and Godzilla, where Godzilla always seems to want to kill Kong but then they team up (in this case, to fight against the ape-like creatures led by Skar King and the ice-age dragon Shimo). In these last two Godzilla-Kong films, it almost feels like Godzilla doesn't particularly care if thousands of people are killed. There was that battle in the previous film that destroyed in Hong Kong and in this movie, Godzilla destroyed Rome and a French nuclear power plant. He also killed Tiamat who was minding her owned business in the Arctic when Godzilla sought her out. In previous films leading up to King of the Monsters, it kinda felt like Godzilla was protecting man from other threats and monsters while trying to minimize damage. That hasn't been the case in these last two movies where Godzilla kinda feels like a bit of a jerk, making it a bit hard for me to like him as like an antihero. It's kinda weird though because On the plus side, I do love that Mothra is present again in this film. Also, at the end of the day, I watched this to see epic battles among giant monsters and I did. So it was still a positive viewing experience.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter display at the Peninsula Manila lobby

Every Lent, I try to follow the traditional practices of sacrifice - abstaining from land-based meat every Friday and fasting on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday. As such, Easter does tend to be quite the feast for us. I ordered lots of good food for my family (we didn't want to go to a restaurant and try to compete with so many other people trying to get a table so we opted to celebrate at home). I also bought some Easter-themed donuts from Krispy Kreme.

Easter-themed Krispy Kreme donuts

Easter-themed mini-donuts from Krispy Kreme

Before Holy Week, an ad for Paul popped up in my socmed feed. They had Lenten All-Day Breakfast specials for P599. These included a main dish, coffee, and a fancy dessert. That's a really good deal! I decided to have a meal there while the promo was still available and I ended up getting the Salmon Benedict.

Salmon Benedict Lenten set meal at Paul

It also came with an Easter Chocolate Tart.

Chocolate Tart with Easter egg-shaped chocolates

I still can't believe that the whole meal cost me only P599 + service charge. If I total the prices of the individual items, it would be a lot more than the cost of the set. Thankfully, I was able to enjoy it during its limited promo run.

March Madness

March was a wonderfully packed month, with a lot of quality time spent with family and friends. For my brother's milestone birthday, I took my family to Mamou. I thought this would be a great place for us to celebrate given that the food here is great and some members of my family had never eaten here before, including my brother. Mamou is well-known for its steak so I ordered two of them for us to share: Porterhouse Steak...

Mamou's Porterhouse Steak

...and Angus Ribeye. Both were good although I do think I liked the porterhouse better (which is surprising because my normal go-to steak cut is the ribeye). My family enjoyed our lunch; in fact, we over-ordered haha. The thing about us though is that we don't mind eating leftovers so anything we didn't fully consume there, we took home.

Mamou's Angus Ribeye

My college friend Maileen was also in town so my college friends and I met up with her while she was here. We decided to have dinner at Tomatito at Estancia Mall. My college friends and I have known each other for more than half our lives so it's always a great and very comfortable time with them. Mai now lives abroad so it's great that she still comes home every so often and that we get to catch up whenever she does.

Tomatito at Estancia Mall

I also met up with some of my ex-teammates from my previous company. We had been talking about a reunion for a while. The original plan was for us to meet in December for the holidays and then in January but both times, we couldn't find a schedule that worked. So thankfully, we got around to meeting up. We decided to have lunch in Watami in Uptown Mall. My friends who are familiar with that area recommended it because it is quite spacious and you can actually also order from Texas Roadhouse which was right next to it. None of us had a Bistro Frequent Foodie Card so I decided to get one. It gives a 20% discount at Bistro restaurants such as Watami and Texas Roadhouse among many others and it's valid for a year. Hopefully I can get a return-on-investment on my new Bistro card before it expires.

My first-ever Bistro Card

As a board game enthusiast, I'm really happy that I continue to find time to play board games with my friends. Sometimes I play with friends who are bigger aficionados than me and sometimes I play games with my more casual gaming friends. I am happy though that I was able to reduce my shelf of shame just a bit this March. (The proverbial shelf of shame is a set of games that one has purchased that just sits on their shelf and hasn't been played yet haha.) I was able to play a new game that I own - Guillotine - which is a relatively quick and easy game. I played it a few times over different weekends and I won one time haha.

Guillotine card game

I'm also quite happy that I was able to watch a couple of movies on HBO Go and Disney+ with my mom. She usually just watches movies and shows on her phone because she finds it too complicated to turn on and launch these apps on our TV so when we're both home and she isn't too tired, I try to play a movie that we can both watch on our living room TV. On separate weekends, we watched Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning on HBO Go and A Haunting in Venice on Disney+. I actually really liked both movies. Dead Reckoning is actually the first of two parts, with the second planned for release in May of next year. A Haunting in Venice may very well be my favorite among the three movies that have come out featuring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot. My mom also told me that she watched this Korean Drama movie Always on Netflix and suggested that I watch it so I did. It was a nice, chill movie for the most part with a bit of a surprising twist close to the end. There are still a lot of Kdramas in my Watch List so hopefully I can start watching more of them soon.

Prince's Purple Rain performed by Sainted on AGT

This video of Sainted performing Prince's Purple Rain on America's Got Talent popped up in my feed. They are amazing! I'm not surprised they got the Golden Buzzer. Check it out:

video uploaded in YouTube by America's Got Talent

Purple Rain is one of my all-time favorite songs. I've seen/heard this song covered a lot, especially shortly after Prince passed away. For me though, nothing really comes close to Prince, whether we are talking about the original album version or his legendary live performances. (I personally think his live performances of this song are just some of the absolute best live performances I've ever seen from any artist of any song.) But if we are talking about Purple Rain covers, this one by Sainted is one of my favorites. They are a very talented group and it will be interesting to see how well they do in the competition and in the future.