Grapevine Manila

I got to try a new restaurant: Grapevine Manila along Katipunan Avenue.

Grapevine Manila

Earlier this year, some of my friends met up at Grapevine. I couldn't join them due to a conflict but when I saw their photos, I thought that this place looked really nice and I wanted to go there myself. So when another set of friends started planning a get-together in the QC area, I suggested Grapevine and everyone agreed.

Lush and cozy interior

They have a pretty good selection of all-day breakfast items but as soon as I saw Potato Roesti Bacon with Swiss Cheese on their menu, my decision was made. It's not often that I see roesti in a menu so when I do, I almost always order it. At P389, it's a pretty good price given that the only two other roestis I've had in Metro Manila are a bit, if not a lot, more expensive than this. It was also really good. I was really happy with this choice.

Potato Roesti Bacon with Swiss Cheese

My friends and I stayed there for a few hours because we hadn't seen each other in ages so there was a lot to catch up on so after a while, I decided to order Cannolis (P140) for dessert. I'm not a cannoli expert but what I had was pretty good.

Cannolis

I enjoyed my meal and the ambiance of Grapevine so much that when I had another opportunity to visit, I did. While I really wanted to have the potato roesti again, I decided to try something else on the menu. This time, I ordered the Buttermilk Waffle & Crispy Fried Chicken (P499). I had been craving chicken and waffles recently and it was definitely satisfied by this meal.

Buttermilk Waffle and Crispy Fried Chicken

I really do like Grapevine Manila. Probably the best thing about it for me is the ambiance. It just looks really lush and cozy inside and I can imagine myself spending a lot of time here catching up with friends or just chilling.

Grapevine lets a lot of natural light in

Even their restroom looks pretty chic and snazzy (I took this photo when there was no one else inside).

Men's room at Grapevine

While I have stuck to their breakfast menu items when ordering food here, they do have lots of other dishes on the menu. I also love the fact that their Americano is only P98, which is a lot cheaper if I compare it to coffee in most other restaurants. They also have a good selection of cakes and pastries (though so far, the only dessert I've had is their cannoli).

Display of cakes and pastries

Hopefully I get to visit Grapevine Manila again soon. Among the new restaurants I've gotten to try, this is now one of my favorites.

Grapevine Manila
https://www.instagram.com/grapevinemanila
Address: Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City, Metro Manila
Phone: 0960 834 2470

Movies, Netflix, and Disney+

Wicked

I absolutely love the musical so I wasn't sure whether the movie version would do it justice. Thankfully, it absolutely did! It is such a fantastic film. Its run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes long and it's only the first act so one could think that it might be dragging or too long but it didn't feel that way. It was fast-paced and incredibly engaging. People had all been talking about the "Dancing through life" scene which was explored more here in the movie and I have to agree, it was very powerful. I had written about how much I love Wicked before and all that still holds in the film version. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande both killed it in their respective roles as Elphaba and Glinda and I am definitely looking forward to part 2.

The Wild Robot

This was an enjoyable movie and a good way to relax and get away from the daily stress of work. I kinda like how the Wild Robot becomes a part of island that it finds itself in and builds relationships with the animals there, including one goose in particular. It was a good film with a lot of positives. While I somehow didn't connect with the characters in a way that I do with some of my other favorite animated films, there were quite a few scenes there that did make me cheer.

On Netflix, I finally watched my first k-drama: Itaewon Class. I decided to watch this because a couple of my friends said that they actually prefer this show to Crash Landing on You, which is like the gold standard among k-dramas. As it turns out, I am NOT the target market of Itaewon Class haha. I like the permise, the story, and the many twists and turns for the most part but there is one particular character in it - a protagonist at that - that I strongly disliked. I think my dislike for that character soured my enjoyment of the show haha. I now need to find time to watch Crash Landing on You.

On Disney+, I am finally caught up on 9-1-1, which is one of my favorite shows. I'm quite happy that on its current 8th season, the latest episodes become available on Disney+ almost immediately after they are released in the US. Cool! The show is on a winter break right now and the second half of season 8 will start in March. I can't wait!

I also finally finished all eight seasons of Castle. I started watching this show because I knew it was a light and fun crime-fighting show so it would be easy to watch and help me relax. That said, I am now in my Criminal Minds phase, a show which is certainly not light and fun haha. I used to watch Criminal Minds when it was still being shown on cable - it hasn't in a long time - so now that I have access to its first 17 seasons, I thought I would start watching it. I am now in season 9 and I still love this show.

My recent trip to Kenya also reminded me that Disney+ includes National Geographic so I started watching animal and wildlife shows. One series I had just completed is a show called Savage Kingdom. As its name suggests, it shows the brutal war that predators in Africa wage against each other. It can be tough to watch but it is really well made and watching this show really reminded me of my family's safari adventure in Kenya.

Rafa Nadal Retires

It's the end of an era. Rafa Nadal, my favorite male tennis player of all time, played his last professional tennis match at the Davis Cup.

Gracias Rafa, for everything ❤️💛#DavisCup #GraciasRafa #Rafa pic.twitter.com/zpoenLcXel

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 19, 2024

To be honest, I didn't feel too sad about his retirement, probably because I kinda knew it was coming. He's been dealing with really injuries his entire career but recently, it has taken much longer for him to return after getting injured and matches and wins were fewer and further between. In fact, he barely played in 2024.

While I wish Nadal won more majors (including a 15th French Open), I kinda love the fact that my two favorite tennis players - him and Steffi Graf - both ended their career with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Cool!

I do wonder wonder if there will be some special tribute for him at Roland Garros in 2025. I read that he was asked about being given one when he competed at the French Open but apparently he declined, saying that there would be an opportunity for this some other time. I don't know if this was because Rafa was still thinking of competing in 2025 or not. Nevertheless, I'm hoping they invite him back this year even as a retired player and thy do something really special for him.

Farewell Rafa! May you have a good life after your retirement. Vamos!

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe (with a side trip to Half Saints)

My friends and I were going to meet up for lunch in some other resto in the Tomas Morato area. But Morato is notorious for its difficult parking situation. I was first to arrive at the restaurant but there were absolutely no parking slots available anywhere nearby and if I had difficulty looking for parking, then so would my other friends. I did remember one of my friends in that group recommend Talabar Kitchen and Cafe so I decided to check that place out. When I arrived, there were a lot of available parking spaces. I decided to switch our lunch venue to Talabar and told my friends.

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe

While this wasn't our original plan, it turned out extremely well. They serve really Filipino food, sometimes with a unique twist to it. We ordered several dishes including Sizzling Beef Sinigang (P650),

Sizzling Beef Sinigang

Black Calamari (P340),

Black Calamari

Crispy Pata (P1,450) which is so tender that you can cut through it with a popsicle stick (I think Livestock popularized the use of a popsicle stick to cut into crispy pata to demonstrate its tenderness),

Crispy Pata

and Vegetable Binagoongan (P370).

Vegetable Binagoongan

The food was really good and very flavorful so I understand why one of my friends recommended it. It's also decently priced when compared to other similar Filipino restaurants. Apparently they market themselves as "The First Premium Oyster Bar in Quezon City" but since no one in our group was a big fan of oysters, we didn't order them. Talabar also has an extensive drinks menu and they are open until 1 AM on most days (until 3AM on Fridays and Saturday), this could be an ideal place to hang out and unwind in the evening. The big bonus for me is that they have lost of parking space in the complex. If you run out of parking, I think you can also park along the road.

Oyster display

If you are looking for good Filipino food in the QC area where parking is not going to be a big problem, I recommend Talabar Kitchen and Cafe.

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe
https://www.facebook.com/talabar.ph
Address: Grandia Place, Mother Ignacia Brgy, Diliman, Quezon City, 1103 Metro Manila
Phone: 0962 046 4914

*****

After lunch, we moved to Half Saints to have dessert and coffee. It's only a block away and we thought it would be nice to try two different places that afternoon. Here, we ordered the Ruby Chocolate Pistachio Tart (P300),

the Merci Buko Cream Puff (P285),

and the 64% Dark Chocolate Tart with Himalayan Pink Salt (P290).

I had eaten here before but this was the first visit for some of my friends so I was happy they got to try it. I will say that I was a bit gutted that they no longer have the Queso de Bola and Paprika Lava Tart on their menu. I had that in my last two visits to Half Saints and it was my absolute favorite item here.

Trip to the Beach

For the first time since I went to Cebu back in 2022, I found myself at the beach. This time around, it was for an office team building event which was held at Acuaverde Beach Resort in Batangas. It's been ages since I last went to a Batangas beach and this was my first time in Acuaverde. Thankfully, the weather was great when we were there.

My first trip to the beach in more than two years

I actually haven't been on an out-of-town team building in a long time. We obviously didn't have face-to-face team buildings during the pandemic and we had our first face-to-face one last year. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend that because I had a personal emergency. It was good spending time with colleagues who are also friends in a non-work setting.

Acuaverde Beach Resort

One of the highlights for me was that our team was declared overall champion of the games, much to my surprise because none of us in our team were feeling competitive and we actually played the first game very badly, ending up in last place haha. I guess you could say it was a come-from-behind victory for us because we started in last place and ended up in first. The evening socials were a lot of fun too with lot of food and drinks and a crazy karaoke night. At some point, it felt like it was my concert because I probably sang half of all songs that night haha. Please note though that it wasn't my choice. Many times, someone would put a song in the queue but they wouldn't sing it and I ended up singing all those songs that no one wanted to sing haha.

I was originally not a fan of having our team building event in a beach, 3 hours away from Metro Manila but in the end, I was happy we did especially given how stressful things have been at work. There's really something relaxing and restorative about being at the beach.

 

Paraiso by the Philippine Madrigals

Check out this video of the Philippine Madrigals performing Paraiso. It is absolutely sublime.

Video uploaded on YouTube by Philippine Madrigals

I discovered this when I saw a reel of a short part of this performance in my social media feed. Philippine Madrigals is my favorite choir - I've seen them perform live twice and I have one of their albums - so naturally, I watched the reel and was immediately blown away. So much so that I wanted to see the full version. Thankfully, it was posted on the official YouTube account of Philippine Madrigals. I don't know how many times I ended up playing and replaying this video. They truly are outstanding! Someone commented that this is the music and the performance that you would want to hear welcoming you into heaven and I agree.

I also really love this song that is originally by Smokey Mountain and written by National Artist Ryan Cayabyab. In fact, this arrangement, or at least its build-up in the finale, is similar to the arrangement that Smokey Mountain used when they competed at and won the Tokyo Music Festival in 1992.

This performance makes we wish I could watch the Philippine Madrigals in concert again. Hopefully I will get that chance soon.

Watches, Old and New

I purchased a new watch: a Seiko Alpinist with a green dial. I know from many watch enthusiast friends that Seiko is a really good brand and a friend told me many years ago about how the Alpinist is a really good Seiko watch. He shared a sample photo of one with a green dial and I really liked it. Since then, it's been on my radar. In each of the last two years, Alpinist watches became available in the Seiko store near me but it is an expensive watch so I didn't buy it back then. Still, I noticed that in both those years, the Alpinists were sold out quite quickly. Clearly, this watch was really popular which proved what my friend said that it is a good watch. When it appeared in the Seiko store for the third year in a row, I realized that I was still thinking of getting it 5 years after seeing its photo so I decided to finally get it. It's my most expensive watch to date but I did get it at 20% off, making it a bit more affordable. I also really love looking at it when I wear it.

My new Seiko Alpinist watch

I also "sorted out" a couple of my older watches. The first one had a damaged strap. I really liked its strap so I didn't want to replace it and I hoped that I could have it repaired instead.

Damanged strap of my watch

Another friend at work is an avid watch fan so I asked him if he knew a place where I could have a watch strap repaired and he suggested Hunter Tradition. They have four branches and I visited their branch in Century City Mall. I'm happy I did because the guy there was able to repair my watch strap quite quickly using a combination of adhesive and stitching. I think their stock in trade is selling custom leather watch straps. If you need a new leather strap or you need strap repair, I highly recommend Hunter Tradition.

Hunter Tradition at Century City Mall

The other watch I sorted out was my G-Shock, which ran out of batteries a really long time ago. The thing is, most places that replace watch batteries don't seem to be able to replace the batteries of a G-Shock. I visited a G-Shock store and they told me that the service center is located in One Corporate Center at the corner of Meralco Avenue and Julia Vargas in Ortigas, which is not the most convenient place to visit. Still, I really wanted to finally use my G-shock again so during a trip to the Ortigas area, I decided to swing by One Corporate Center to have the batteries replaced. The unfortunate thing is that they couldn't replace the batteries immediately and told me I had to come back after about a week. It was such a hassle but at least now my G-Shock is working again.

Finally replaced the batteries of my G-Shock

I'm happy that I have a new watch that I really like and that I can finally wear two of my watches that I hadn't been able to use in a while.

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.

Things That Make Me Smile

I recently acquired several pre-loved books. My friend Lala, who is an avid reader, was trying to find new owners for many of her books. I took a look at her collection and quite a few of them piqued my interest. I ended up getting six of them. Hopefully, I can find time to read them all in the next few years.

My new pre-loved books

You know you're adulting when purchasing new pillow cases makes you really happy haha. I realized some of my pillow cases were already torn and frayed. Which is not surprising given that I've had them for a really long time now. I tried to look for good pillow cases online but I wasn't able to find ones with designs and colors that appealed to me. I decided to just go to SM Department Store and thankfully, I found ones that I really liked.

My new pillow cases

One recent discovery I've made is this Choco Chip Hokkaido bread from Bread Talk. I've been a regular patron of this shop ever since it came to the Philippines many years ago but it is only in the last couple of months that I saw this item. It is really good! At P108, it's also quite affordable. Needless to say, I have purchased it a few times already since I discovered it haha.

Choco Chip Hokkaido from Breadtalk

Speaking of, I passed by the Itadaki Food Court in Mitsukoshi Mall recently and while I was there, I saw a Hokkaido Fair selling a wide variety of food items. Hokkaido is known for its dairy products so I decided to get something.

Hokkaido Fair in Mitsukoshi Mall

I purchased a couple of boxes of the Hokkaido Premium Pudding so I could share it with my family.

Hokkaido Premium Pudding

It was quite good!

Each box of Hokkaido Premium Pudding contains three of these cups

I now also have Landers membership. I decided to become a member because I saw that the Milka Strawberry Cheesecake, which I discovered in the Dubai Duty Free during my trip to Kenya, is sometimes sold here. However, it wasn't in stock when I went there for the first time.

My new Landers membership card

That said, my favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, was on sale with a 50% discount. Naturally, I got several pints haha.

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food on sale in Landers

My colleague had a business trip to Australia earlier in the month and came home with lots of packs of Tim Tams, including several flavors that are not available in the Philippines. I really love Tim Tams and I'm happy I got to try this new flavor. I got to try the Cafe Latte flavor and it really did taste like Cafe Latte. (Clearly, I've been consuming way too much sugar recently...)

Tim Tam Cafe Latte

Of course, the thing that makes me smile more than anything is quality time with loved ones. My friend Joyce celebrated her birthday at Fika, a Filipino restaurant in Capitol Hills. It was my first time eating here and I enjoyed the food.

Fika Restaurant at Capitol Hills

I also attended a few family reunions. Tita Susan came home for the firt time in a while and my family and I joined her and her brother Tito Raul for lunch at Romulo's. I met up with my relatives on my mom's side for my uncle Jorge's reunion dinner (his dad and my grandmother are siblings but I don't call him uncle because we are practically the same age haha). We had buffet dinner at Cabalen in West Avenue. I also joined my Tita Florence at her home for her birthday celebration. It was a weeknight and she lives quite far from me but it was a double celebration because her son and my cousin Fr. John was also in town so I decided I would go.

It really has been an amazing last few months and I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to go on safari, watch Giselle, and enjoy a lot of experiences and things that have made me smile.