Great Start to the Year

It's only been a month since the new year started but I'm extremely thankful that a lot of great and wonderful things have already happened. First, the holiday get-togethers have continued. My high school friends and I met up early in the month at Mitch's place. We wanted something different so we agreed to have Korean food. Mitch set up a grill at the middle of her dining table so we could have a samgyup experience. We also ordered other dishes such as Korean fried chicken and fish cakes. It was a really good lunch but we all enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take a photo of our wonderful table spread! I was inspired by this meal that soon after that, I decided to order Korean food for lunch with my family one weekend. I ordered beef bulgogi and fish cakes (plus mixed vegetables, which isn't really Korean) from FoodTray2Go, chicken from 24 Chicken, and a tub of Kimchi that I bought from a Korean store. My family enjoyed it! This time, I made sure to take a photo.

Korean lunch at home

I also met up with my ex-teammates for our post-Christmas dinner at Sichu Malatang at The Podium. It was my first time eating at this hotpot restaurant where you select the ingredients of your dish, the level of spiciness, and thy prepare it for you. I quite enjoyed my food, which was very flavorful, and I wouldn't mind eating here again in the future.

Dinner at Sichu Malatang

I also got a couple of packs of Honey Butter Almonds from Korea. My friend went to Korea in December and I asked him if he could buy me some packs of honey butter almond and he said he could. I got this pack, with the brand BT21 (which according to BT21 Wiki "is a brand project of LINE Friends Corporation in collaboration with BTS".) The packaging is pretty cute and honey butter almonds can be quite addictive. While I originally planned on paying for it, my friend said that he was just giving it to me as a Christmas gift. Cool!

BT21 Honey Butter Almond

I also had a couple of board game nights this month. The first one was with FGTC to celebrate Jovan's birthday. I brought my Champions of Midgard game and the more I play this game, the more I enjoy it. I think it's in my top 5 favorite games right now. Rocky and Tobie also brought their Buffet Boss game, which is a dexterity game which requires you to place food-shaped pieces on top of each other. My set-up toppled over at some point so I didn't have a very tall structure in the end but while this game can be quite stressful haha, it was still enjoyable.

Buffet Boss

Shortly after that, I met up with my other group where we got to play another new game, Fit to Print. This game does tend to be a bit stressful as well when you end up getting too many articles, photos, and ads that don't fit on your newspaper page or if you didn't get enough of them and you end up with so much blank space. I didn't do very well at this game either haha.

Fit to Print

My family also celebrated my nephew's birthday at Vertis North. I was thinking he might enjoy Botejyu with its wide variety of Japanese food options but we ended up having lunch at Dean and Deluca instead. My nephew didn't really have a cake preference so I decided to get a crepe cake from Papermoon because aside from my mom, I don't think anyone else in my family has tried this delicious cake before. It was quite expensive but it was also a special occasion.

Papermoon Crepe Cake

Finally, I finished watching all 56 episodes of Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. What a ride that was! It really has been a great year so far. Hopefully, my good fortune continues and January sets the stage for an amazing 2024.

Jannik Sinner Wins His First Grand Slam Title

Congratulations to Jannik Sinner for winning his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. He defeated Daniil Medvedev in a hard-fought 5-set match where he came from behind after being down two sets to love (the score: 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3). Jannik has been the in-form player of the ATP tour recently so winning his first major isn't that surprising. He's always been a superb player, with many touting him early in his career as the next big thing, but something seems to have clicked in his head in the last couple of months because instead of being "just" a regular top 10 player, he now seems to be challenging for the top spot in tennis. If he maintains this level of play and stays consistent, I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes ATP #1.

I have to say though that I felt bad for Daniil Medvedev. This is the second time he lost a Grand Slam championship after being up 2 sets to none. In fact, it's the second time it's happened in the last three years. However, this time, he seemed less dejected about the loss. I think he knew that his best chance would be to close out the match as quickly as possible because he had spent an average of four hours per match leading to the final. After the final, Daniil emerged with the record for the most time played at a single Grand Slam event: 24 hours and 17 minutes. He played four 5-setters - including three consecutive ones in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the finals - and two 4-setters. His plan to win quickly looked like it was going to work as he controlled the first two sets but Sinner eventually found his footing and his game and Daniil seemed to eventually run out of gas.

Back to Sinner, another one of the highlights in his path to the finals was his semifinal win over Novak Djokovic. I have to mention this because prior to 2024, Novak had never lost the Australian Open after getting to the semifinals. The previous ten times that he made it to the semis, he went on to win the tournament. While Novak's semifinal win-streak has been broken, he still hasn't lost an Australian Open final.

On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her title, making this her second Australian Open trophy and her second Grand Slam championship. She achieved this without dropping a set the entire tournament, which is the first time this has happened here since Serena Williams did it in 2007. Aryna's successful title defense also makes this the first time it has happened since Victoria Azarenka won back-to-back titles 11 years ago. This really is an incredible result for Aryna and if she can remain consistent, it will be interesting to see how many more majors she can win.

I also can't blog about a Grand Slam event these days without writing about my current tennis idol, Diede De Groot. Once again, she added to her staggeringly impressive achievements by winning the women's wheelchair singles. Again. This is her fourth consecutive Australian Open title and her sixth one in seven years. It is also her 14th major title in a row, with her last loss coming at the French Open 2020. I'm not even counting her wheelchair doubles results yet! I will run out of space if I keep writing about this so please check this link to see her astounding career statistics. She truly is a legend!

Congratulations to Jannik, Aryna, and Diede!

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

I finished reading Rules of Civility at the end of 2023, making it the second book I read last year. It was given to me as a gift two Christmases ago after I put it in my Secret Santa wishlist. I requested it because I enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow, written by the same author Amor Towles.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Rules of Civility tells the story of Katey Kontent, a bold, street-smart, and ambitious woman who gets thurst into the political and manipulative world of upper class society in New York in the 1930s. It's not hard to root for Katey, who relies on her good sense and astute ability to read people (for the most part) to find her way. Along her journey, she encounters many compelling characters, including Tinker Grey, a wealthy and charming banker whom she meets by chance at a bar on New Year's Eve.

It's a really engaging book, partly because the characters are fleshed out very well and partly because Katey's path is full of unexpected twists and turns, made even more complicated by the relationships she has with the people around her. Arguably the biggest plot twist comes in a bit earlier than I anticipated, mainly because in most plots, these revelations usually come close to the end. There's a moment in the book that I found to be quite heartbreaking and the ending left me with a bit of a lingering sadness, but I always find these evocative stories to be the best and most memorable ones.

I really do enjoy the books of Amor Towles that I read because he creates such interesting characters and weaves riveting stories. I have one more of his books - The Lincoln Highway - which I hope I get to read some time this year.

Welcome 2024!

Happy New Year! As is our family tradition, we celebrated New Year at home. I brought lots of food and my family heard mass together.

New Year Mass

Looking back, I have to say that 2023 was for the most part an amazing year. The highlight was me being able to take my mom and my nephews to Japan. We visited Osaka (with side trips to Kyoto and Nara) and Tokyo. It was my first international trip since the pandemic started and it was also the first time my nephews traveled abroad as adults. It was a fantastic and very memorable trip.

I also got to enjoy many restaurants, a lot of them for the first time and many of them with my family, including La Spezia, Half Saints, Escolta, Azadore, and Old Manila. I finally got to try Toyo Eatery with my friends. I discovered St. Louis Cafe, which I ended up visiting multiple times throughout the year. I also revisited many of my favorite restaurants, such as Old Swiss Inn and Bizu.

More highlights: I watched Hamilton with my family. At work, I got two new Scrum Certifications: Professional Scrum Master and Professional Agile Leadership: Evidence-Based Management. I had a bit of Swedish nostalgia as I visited Ikea Philippines and remembered my short stint in Sweden many years ago. I had a very efficient and pleasant car registration experience at QCIS. I got to play more of my previously unplayed board games. I read two books: Under the Whispering Door and Rules of Civility (which I still have to write about about).

I also finished the personal project that I started during the pandemic: writing throwback posts about trips I took before I started my blog. I finally got to write about my travels to Mt. Pulag, Tuguegarao, and Mexico. Cool!

Of course, it wasn't all positive. I lost some really important people in my life last year, including my grandmother whom we fondly call Nanay. Two of my cousins also passed on: Maricel and Via.

Still, I am very thankful that I continue to have wonderfully amazing and enriching moments with my family and friends. Hopefully, 2024 will be another great year. Cheers!

Amazing Christmas Light Show and Fireworks Display by Tom BetGeorge

I subscribed to Tom BetGeorge on YouTube a while back and I always look forward to the dazzling light shows he puts on display every year at his house during Halloween and Christmas. This video he published this Christmas - a lights and fireworks display programmed to Noel (He is Born) by Tommee Profitt (with Stanaj on vocals) - just absolutely blew me away! Check it out:

 

video uploaded in youtube by Tom BetGeorge

Tom's shows have always been incredible but while the ones I had previously seen always impressed the heck out of me and pumped me up, none of them moved me in the way that this video did. It starts out solemnly and poignantly then in the second half, it builds up into a scintillating and inspiring finale. Maybe it's the combination of the music, the lights, and the fireworks - I think this is his first show that involved fireworks - that did it for me. Someone commented that this show made him ugly cry and I can understand that. It is just so powerful. 

Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. Happy Holidays everyone!

Holiday Hodgepodge

Merry Christmas everyone! It's been a great season that I have very fortunately gotten to spend with a lot of my family and friends. Of course, Christmas was spent with my family. This was our first Christmas without Nanay so I thought it would be good to celebrate with some food that she would normally prepare when she was younger: molo and lumpiang shanghai with its special sauce. Nanay shared her recipe for these dishes with our family friends who are excellent cooks (in fact, they have a catering business) so I ordered these dishes from them. They told me not to pay for it anymore so I instead gave them some Bake Cheese tarts. I added a few more dishes from House of Lasagna and Dulcelin. I also decided to try their 10" Cacao Con Leche Cake, which is a chiffon and chocolate cake enrobed with Callebaut chocolate ganache, Dulce de Leche and Crispy choco pearls. I really liked this cake!

Cacao Con Leche cake from Dulcelin

I also got to celebrate with many of my colleagues and friends. My ex-team at work had dinner at Caerus in Podium. My current team had lunch at Mary Grace. Our entire department had our Christmas party at The Giving Cafe. My FGTC board game group had a game night at Linden. I also had brunch with some high school friends at SA Southbank at Estancia Mall. That was my first time to eat at SA Southbank and I ordered their Chicken and Waffles. It was really good! 

Chicken and Waffles from SA Southbank at Estancia

Christmas is also the time when many people fly back to Manila to celebrate the holidays with their families. Marj arrived from Australia and I joined her, Karla, and Ian for lunch at Din Tai Fung in Uptown Mall. Ian suggested a coffee place in Mistukoshi but it was full so we instead had our caffeine fix at Bizu. It's been a while since I had dessert at Bizu and one of my favorites - Roca - wasn't available (not sure if it's no longer on the menu) so I opted instead for their Samba cake. It was still good.

Samba solo cake from Bizu

I also met up with my friend Che, who flew in from Singapore in Prologue Greenhills. I had just had their Croque Madame a few weeks ago so this time, I decided to order two items from the menu: Buttermilk Fried Chicken...

Buttermilk Chicken from Prologue

...and Potato Gnocchi. That was a lot of food so I didn't order dessert anymore and I took home half of my chicken dish. It was great catching up with Che it was really great to know what she's been up to since I saw her last. 

Gnocchi from Prologue

I also started watching Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia on Christmas Eve and I've been sort of binging it the last few days. This show has been in My List for a while now and I'm happy that I finally started it because I'm really enjoying it. There are 56 episodes and I might just finish everything in early January. That said, to complete my Trollhunters viewing experience, I want to watch the 3Below: Tales of Arcadia and Wizards: Tales of Arcadia series after that then wrap things up with Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. Cool. At least I am getting to watch more shows on Netflix now.

For the first time, I purchased Bath and Body Works items online. Ads about the Bath and Body Works Christmas sale kept popping up on my feed and many of their items had a 60% discount, which was huge. Shipping was free for a minimum purchase of P1500. I had been meaning to get some candle so I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to get a few. I ended up buying four, which meant that I qualified free shipping. Cool!

Three-wick candles from Bath and Body Works

Christmas parties weren't the only celebrations I attended. I was asked by Cha (she's technically my aunt but I'm several years older so I never call her tita hahah; instead, she calls me 'kuya') if I could be the ninong of her son Pio and I naturally agreed. For his Christening, I got him a seahorse stuffed toy that glows and plays relaxing lullabies and soothing ocean sounds. Cha told me later on that it became Pio's favorite toy. Cool!

Finally, I got my Spotify Wrapped results. My top song for 2023 was Megalovania by Toby Fox. My top artist was Beyonce. My Spotify profile is Vampire, which means that I like to embrace a little darkness in the music I listen to. Apparently, I listen to emotional, atmospheric music more than most.

My Spotify Wrapped

I took some time off from work to end the year so while the weeks leading up to Christmas were extremely hectic, I'm glad I was able to wind down and chill out in the last few days. I'm also really happy that I got to meet up and spend quality time with my family and friends.

Another Scrum Certification!

After getting certified as a Professional Scrum Product Owner and then a Professional Scrum Master, I am now also certified in Professional Agile Leadership: Evidence-Based Management.

This certification came unexpectedly, right before the end of the year. The agile group at work organized Evidence-based training for employees that included certification and there was still an extra seat in the class. The Agile lead asked me if I was interested in this training. Fortunately for me, it was scheduled on a day that I surprisingly had no meetings which is an absolute rarity so I immediately jumped at the chance to get more training.

I tend to get stressed out (or pumped up? LOL) when I know that a test is coming up so as soon as it became available, I took it immediately. Thankfully, I passed! The next step now is for me to apply what I learned to the work I do, especially in relation to strategizing and managing my team.

The Christmas Celebrations Have Begun

It's still a few weeks before Christmas but I already attended a few Christmas parties and get-togethers. The first one was held on the last Saturday of November, when I met up with one of my board gaming groups. We realized that most of us already had full weekends in December so we agreed to meet up as close to Christmas as possible. We got to play a few games but one new game that I got to try was Mille Fiori, which Cla really wanted us to try. It was fun to play, but maybe what added to my enjoyment was the fact that I won haha. 

Mille Fiori board game

Shortly after, we had our company-wide Christmas party. Maybe because it's hard to find an available venue that can fit us all in December but for the second year in a row, our Yuletide celebration was held in late November. It was a costume party and different departments were encouraged to have a theme. Our department decided to come in minions attire. I decided to buy a costume from Lazada a couple of weeks before the event and while I was worried that it might not arrive on time, it did. The challenge though was that it was a jumpsuit with a zipper at the back. I had to ask colleagues to help me zip it up everytime I had to use the toilet hahaha. Maybe the next time I wear it, I will attach a string or something to the end of the zipper to make it easy for me to zip myself up or down.

My Minions Costume

I met up with my friends Martin, Jane, and Mike on December 8, which was a holiday so we agreed to make the most of the extra day off. I made some suggestions and everyone agreed to meet up at Breakfast at Antonio's (Robinsons Magnolia branch). I had just eaten there a few weeks ago but I didn't mind eating there again. This time, I had the Housemade Bacon Roesti. This dish has changed since I enjoyed it the first time several years ago. While I enjoyed the previous recipe more, this one is still good.

Housemade Bacon Roesti at Breakfast at Antonio's

The next day, I met up with my ex-colleagues at Prologue in Rockwell. I had eaten there before and I really liked their Croque Madame so I decided to have that one again. I also ordered dessert. Their Banana Pumpkin cake called out to me, mainly because I don't think I've ever had that kind of a cake before (and I actually do like pumpkin-flavored desserts). I gotta say, I quite enjoyed it.

Banana Pumpkin cake at Prologue

I'm really happy that I have already gotten to celebrate the holiday season with a lot of really important people in my life. I'm certainly looking forward to more get-togethers and reunions in the coming weeks.

Old Manila at the Peninsula

Old Manila is a fancy restaurant at the Peninsula Manila. I've been told the food here is really good but it is on the expensive side so I hadn't been able to try it. That is, until recently. Because of my Manila Pen membership, I had a voucher that gave me 50% off on their set menus for a group of exactly four people. I decided to take my family there one night.

Old Manila

The requirement to use this voucher is that all four people in the party have to select from the same set menu (there are three). Each set menu has two options each for an appetizer and a main course. We decided to go with the third menu because the main courses of this option were the ones that appealed to us the most. Before dinner was served, we were given an amuse-bouche. Because this wasn't on the menu, I can't remember exactly what we had. All I can say is that we really liked what we were served.

amuse-bouche

They also served us some bread. The wait staff said that they are famous for their olive tapenade bread so that's what we have and OMG it was amazing! I can completely understand why it is so popular. We loved it so much that when the wait staff offered us more bread, we each took one more.

Bread selection

There were two choices for appetizer: Crab and Green Bell Pepper Ravioli served in a bisque with peas, espuma, and roasted peanuts...

Crab and Green Bell Pepper Ravioli

...and Seared Duck Foie Gras with vegetables julienne, red cabbage, and a pepper beef consomme.

Seared Duck Foie Gras

For our main courses, our choices were Atlantic Turbot with prawns, oyster mushrooms, bok choi, potato, and ginger beurre blanc...

Atlantic Turbot

...and Australian Lamb Rack with a French potato puree, grilled green asparagus, and red wine sauce.

Australian Lamb Rack

For dessert, we were all served a unique dessert called Banana & Toffee which is served with tuille, cremeux, and rum raisin ice cream.

Banana & Toffee dessert

Our dinner included coffee (or tea, but we all got coffee). We were pleasantly surprised when we were also served some petit fours.

petit-fours served with our coffee

By the end of dinner, we were once again offered some bread. I had to tell our wait staff that we actually would have wanted to have more olive tapenade because it was so good but we were already too full. 

Olive tapenade bread

Even with our discount, the bill was still quite expensive. That said, It was a tremendously good meal and I feel that it was worth what we paid. The service was also exceptional, quite possibly the best service I've even been given in any restaurant I've been to in the world. I would need to save up for it of course but I'm pretty sure I will eat here again in the future. (I also need to find out if they sell their olive tapenade bread seaprately...)

Old Manila at the Peninsula
https://www.peninsula.com/en/manila/hotel-fine-dining/old-manila
Address: The Peninsula Manila Corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues Ground Level Makati, 1226 Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 8887 2888

My Fitbit Broke

Very sad news for me: my Fitbit conked out. It started acting up while I was in Japan. The screen started going crazy, switching from one view to another, which resulted in the battery running out even if I just charged it fully the previous evening. I was thinking if I maybe accidentally dropped some sun screen on it. Interestingly enough, after I charged it again, it sort of started working. I say sort of because tapping on my Fitbit to switch screens wasn't really working anymore. However, it was still tracking everything like my steps, my heartrate, and my sleep, which I could see on my smartphone app.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, my Fitbit stopped working completely. It was my fault. Fitbits are supposed to be waterproof and you should be able to wear it even while in a swimming pool. So I kept it on when I went swimming. Unfortunately, after just a couple of minutes in the pool, my Fitbit screen blacked out. I thought it might have run out of battery but even after charging it and trying to reset it, I couldn't get it to turn on. I guess maybe because it already had a problem to begin with, submerging it in the pool water completely broke it.

I messaged Fitbit support and they gave me some clear instructions that I followed to a tee but still, it wouldn't turn on. It was no longer covered by warranty so Fitbit wouldn't replace it anymore.

To make matters worse, Fitbit pulled out of South East Asia recently so it's no longer available here. I could ask someone in the US to buy it for me (or maybe even try buying it on Amazon) but if it's not supported in the region anymore, I decided I wouldn't make too much sense to get one anymore. (I also considered the fact that Fitbits are quite expensive.) I now need to figure out if I want to replace it with another fitness monitor, and if so, which one.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

It took a while but I finally got to read my first book in 2023: Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune.

I saw it on display in Fully Booked and the cover art (or I guess particularly the bright colors) caught my eye. I then checked the blurb at the back and this is what it said:

"When a Reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he's definitely dead. But even in death he's not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days."

It sounded really interesting so I kept it in my radar. Then last Christmas, when my friends and I organized our annual Kris Kringle activity, I included this book in my wishlist and my Secret Santa got it for me. Cool!

Under the Whispering Door is a beautiful story about redemption and love amidst despair and death. I will say that for me, it came with quite a few pleasant surprises that made my reading experience even better. 

SPOILER ALERT: skip the next paragraph if you want to read the book and still want to be surprised. 

First, its a love story. I didn't pick up on that from the blurb. I don't really remember when the last time was that I read a novel that was primarily a love story - I think it must have been when I was still in high school - but I do know it's been a while. Also, it's also an LGBTQIA+ story; in fact, it's my very first LGBTQIA++ book. Once again, I couldn't really tell that from the blurb. As a result, once I started to realize that this was an LGBTQIA++ love story, it was like a plot twist I wasn't expecting and it made the storytelling even more engaging and compelling than it already was.

***** END OF SPOILERS *****

I really enjoyed Under the Whispering Door and I'm happy that it is my first LGBTQIA+ book and my first love story in decades. Author TJ Klune has another book, House in the Cerulean Sea, that also has a very interesting, fantastical premise as well. I'm now thinking of getting that book too.

Hamilton!

I finally watched Hamilton during its Philippine run at The Theatre at Solaire.

I will admit that I was not expecting to like it all that much. In fact, I wasn't originally planning to watch it. That's because I watched a clip of Hamilton a couple of years ago and the segment I saw involved some rapping, which is really innovative because it's not common for musicals to involve rapping (in fact, I don't know any other musicals that feature rap). However, I felt like it wasn't my cup of tea, at least not when it comes to musicals. However, my family said they were interested to see Hamilton so I decided to get tickets so we could all watch.

I knew that tickets were extremely difficult to get and on top of that, many people also struggled to get multiple seats that were all next to each other, especially for those who purchased the day tickets went on sale on April 24. I bought mine in early July, more than two months later. As such, I wasn't expecting to get good seats, much less adjacent ones. However, I lucked out. On the day I made my purchase, I somehow found six adjacent seats, with one of them being an aisle seat, on the second row of the balcony on a Saturday matinee. Wow! I couldn't believe it! How was that possible? I figured that someone must've cancelled their booking shortly before I went online. Naturally, I snatched those seats up immediately.

Now that I've gotten to see the show, I have to say I'm really happy that I did. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, maybe because I wasn't expecting to like it. I can understand how this musical won 11 Tony Awards. It was an amazing production, with inventive storytelling, catchy songs, great costumes, and excellent performances. I also really liked the rotating stage. As it turns out, one of the rap songs - My Shot - ended up being one of my favorites (despite my original negative bias against rap in musicals).

I have since watched the Broadway version on Disney+ and the cast in the Manila show were equally good (and in my opinion, in some cases, even better). My favorites from the cast were Darnell Abraham (George Washington), Brent Hill (King George), Jason Arrow (Hamilton), and Deaundre' Woods (Aaron Burr). Darnell's performance of One Last Time was absolutely superb! Brent's performance of You'll be Back was incredibly entertaining and I especially loved how he sang it, will all his nuance and dynamics. It was also great having Rachelle Ann Go in the cast, playing Eliza.

It's great that Hamilton made its way to the Philippines and that I was able to take my family to see it.

A Good Week

The November 1 and 2 holidays gave me an opportunity to relax and unwind. I decided to spend All Saints Day in Robinsons Magnolia. The main goal: have brunch at Breakfast at Antonios, which opened there earlier this year. Breakfast at Antonio's is one of my favorite restaurants in Tagaytay so when I learned that it opened in Robinsons Magnolia, I wanted to go. And what better time to visit than on a holiday? I arrived there in the late morning but since I was dining alone, they were quickly able to get me a table. I can't recall the name of the dish I ordered but it bacon, longganisa, scrambled eggs, a hash brown, and a waffle. This was quite a heavy meal! (Edited: the dish is called Big Waffle Breakfast.)

Breakfast at Antonio's in Robinsons Magnolia

For merienda, I went to Cafe Breton. It's been a while since I ate here so when I saw this restaurant in the mall, I knew I wanted to have my afternoon snack and coffee here. I ordered the Blueberries and Cream crepe, one of my favorite items on their menu.

Blueberries and Cream Crepe at Cafe Breton

For dinner, I finally got to try Texas Roadhouse. I had been hearing from many people that the bread here is really good and that was actually the main reason why I chose this place to have dinner haha. I ordered the Prime Set, which included Cowboy Roast Beef, Potato Soup, and Iced Tea.

Prime Set at Texas Roadhouse

Naturally, their famous bread was served on the side. I gotta say, I really loved my food and the bread certainly lived up to the hype! I wasn't able to eat all the bread for dinner so I took home the rest with me haha. (They were just going to throw it away anyways so taking them home with me meant less food waste.)

Texas Roadhouse bread

The next day, I met up with my ex-colleagues from my first job because Raych was in town. She asked if we could meet in Vertis and she wanted Japanese food so Bett suggested we have lunch at Yabu. It was Raych's first time eating there and she enjoyed it, as did we all.

Hire Tonkatsu set at Yabu

After lunch, we moved to Katherine's Cafe for coffee and dessert. We ordered a variety of cake slices. 

Cakes at Katherine's Cafe

I spotted a Ramen Nagi in Robinsons Magnolia while I was there and I realized it had been ages since I last ate there. That made me crave Ramen Nagi so I naturally ended up having dinner there that same week. I ordered the Green King, which has basil, olive oil, grated parmesan, and marbles chasu. I almost always order gyoza to go with my ramen and that evening was no exception. Gotta say, I quite liked this Green King even if the parmesan cheese is certainly not authentic Japanese.

Green King and Gyoza at Ramen Nagi

To wrap up the first week of November, I met up with my friends Gabbie and Marie in St. Louis. (Yes, I was the one who suggested the venue.) Both of them had dinner plans that night so we decided to meet for merienda. While my original plan was to have ice cream there, Gabbie said I should try the Hokkaido Soft Serve at Kiwami, which was just right next to St. Louis. It was really good!

Hokkaido Soft Serve at Kiwami

The first week of November was a pretty good one, although maybe not necessarily the healthiest for me as I ate way too much haha. That said, I'm glad that I found time to visit some restaurants I hadn't been to in a while and try a couple of places for the first time.

Azadore

My family and I got recently got to enjoy a wonderful lunch at Azadore, a relatively new restaurant in the Tomas Morato area. It is owned by Chef Tatung, who has many restaurants all over the Metro and has even won an award for his cookbook Simpol Dishkarte. I drove by this restaurant recently and saw that it was pretty big, with a bit more parking space than the average restaurant in the area. As such, I told my family that we should try this place for our weekend lunch out.

Azadore Restaurant

Azadore serves Hispanic, American, and local dishes. We were a big group so we got to try many items on their menu. As I mentioned in my previous post, no dinner at a Spanish-inspired resto is complete without paella so we ordered the Paella Mixta, which has Chicken, Shrimp, Clam, and Chorizo. (Yes, in the Philippines, paella is served with chorizo haha.) 

Paella Mixta

Their Salpicao...

Salpicao

...and Gambas con Chorizo were both really good.

Gambas con Chorizo

We also got the Croquettes which had smoked bacon and cheese.

Croquettes

We did try some other non-Spanish dishes, such as the Bacon Wrapped Prawns...

Bacon Wrapped Prawns

...and the Seafood Aglio Olio. 

Seafood Aglio Olio

Azadore was originally a house that was then converted into a restaurant and I think some of the rooms in the house have been turned into private dining area. I enjoyed the food here and I also loved the design and the ambiance.

Azadore indoor dining area

They have indoor and al fresco dining, and the lush greenery in the garden feels very relaxing and inviting.

Azadore al fresco dining area

All in all, my family and I had a wonderful dining experience here. 

Azadore
https://www.azadore.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AzadoreQuezonCity/
Address: 111 Scout Fernandez, Corner Scout Torillo Street, Sacred Heart, Quezon City
Contact: 0917-101-0070
Email: info@azadore.com