Many years ago, some of my friends gave me a despedida in Caliraya but to save costs, one of them cooked a whole lot of adobo which we had for all our meals (dinner, breakfast and lunch). You can be sure I didn’t have adobo for the next so many years, I couldn’t even bear to look at it. We were but students then.
A few years back, I saw the following recipe in a book of recipes compiled by St. Scho Bacolod’s Batch 80 Read the rest of this entry »
1/2 c butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup white sugar
1/2 c flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1/2 c nuts
Cream butter and sugar. Add slightly beaten eggs. Mix dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture.
Pour into lightly greased and floured 8×8-inch pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Slice into squares.
Advice: Read the rest of this entry »
Finally, stepped into Mamou, a restaurant with one of the most gracious managers (Annie) and waiters. Later, we met the chef, nay “I prefer to call myself a cook” named Malou who was pretty as she was warm and charming.
Among the entrees recommended strongly was steak but at more than P1500 for a serving good for 2 or 3, I thought not Read the rest of this entry »
What a blissful feeling getting into the Royal Suite of Taal Vista Hotel gave. The huge window gave such a good view of the expanse beyond Taal Volcano that we were flabbergasted. And of course, the weather was so pleasantly cold Read the rest of this entry »
A few weeks ago, my husband who has lost some weight, had one polo shirt altered. It cost him a little over P1k. If my memory serves me right, the alteration cost was higher than the shirt’s price years back. Read the rest of this entry »
For a reason I cannot disclose lest someone reads this who shouldn’t, have been scouring the Net for a possible place to stay in Punta Fuego or nearby. So this morning (wrote this Wednesday night but will publish it today, Thursday), I rabidly looked for accommodations. Actually, I began the search yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Early tonight, hied off to Podium to have my mini “burger” Ipod speaker checked. The volume it emitted was near nil. I brought the receipt with me as advised by the clerk in Mobile 1. When he was checking it, I silently cheered, “don’t work, don’t work” so I wouldn’t be embarrassed. Luckily the speaker cooperated when it was tested. The clerk disconnected the cable and replaced it with that of the store’s and voila! Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday, my best friend in grade school and high school said she was coming over from Bacolod and hadn’t been to Serendra when I asked her if she had. So I thought of taking her out to Serendra this Saturday. As we’ve long been curious about Mamou (it gets considerable media mileage), I decided to call and reserve a table as I had read and witnessed how full the place always is. We always attempt to go in but the place is perpetually full.
When I called, a voice brimming with confidence answered Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday and Thursday nights, at close to 10 o’clock. these pests swarmed around the fluorescent light bulb (50 watts, so quite a long bulb) in the room. Wednesday night, I was reading when I could sense my son scratching his leg. After looking at it from a far, I happened to look up and wow, infestation, invasion. Husband took a while to assemble the weapons of mass destruction: a basin of water and some candles. I felt so helpless and frustrated because while he was assembling them, the lights were on and the invaders increased in number. The TV had to be turned off so for close to an hour, we couldn’t do anything but swat those that managed to creep down our arms, backs, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday, we were in Rustan’s Supermarket in Power Plant. As we were about to pay, the cashier advised that we do it in tranches of P1000 each. Why? The store has this promo where every single receipt of P1000 entitles you to a gift check worth P100 which you can use to buy Le Gourmet sausages or ham. So, if you buy P10,000 worth, you need 10 different credit cards or 10k cash and ask the cashier to cut off totaling your purchases as soon as you reach a thousand pesos worth. Fine if you have time for all those transactions. But pity the poor cashier Read the rest of this entry »
This pm we hied off to Globe in Shang to have the Nokia 2630 phone replaced, it possible. Initially, the man who attended to us said he’d have it evaluated, and this time I was no longer inclined to be patient. i said,”So I won’t have a phone for another week, sayang my load, etc.” He went in and checked if they had a service unit I could use and came back to say they had none. I asked to speak with the manager. I wanted the phone replaced. Read the rest of this entry »
What a surprise we were in for when we drove to CCP last night to view the exhibits of my husband’s former student, Jomike Tejido. We thought we were lost when we made a turn. In fact, my husband thought we’d have to drive further to get to CCP although we were in the reclaimed area. Why?
Where before (Imelda’s time) one saw mostly parking lots, right on the left side of the CCP were eating places, brightly lit ones. Then I saw a structure that looked familiar. I said, “Oh, I saw Tommy Abuel eating there before”, pointing to an outdoor concrete cafeteria, when lo and behold, my son saw “CCP parking”. Read the rest of this entry »
This update should have been posted 3 days ago when the barely a month old Nokia 2630 which came with Globe Plan 500 conked out after they reformatted it. Time to go back to Globe Shang. Will I be as patient? In this weather, I may not be. Why on earth is it so hot?
Years back, a classmate cum niece or a niece cum classmate teased, asking why my temper was so short. I laughingly told her, “ka init!” Yes, the weather definitely affects my temper…. hahaha.
Caleruega was the main reason we had hied off to Batangas, the Chapel on the Hill was a happy incidental. As we visited the Chapel on the Hill first, I’ll write about it prior to Caleruega.
The Chapel on the HIll is walking distance from Evercrest Hotel. It is owned by the Don Bosco fathers. Those in wheelchairs shouldn’t be disheartened. There’s a ramp that gives access to the chapel on the hill. Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone, please go eat at FIre Lake Grill in Cliff House Tagaytay. I’m so scared it won’t last much longer. Last night we had dinner there and there were only two tables taken (one with three of us, another with three ladies). Today, when we had lunch in Buon Giorno, the resto across it which was filled with guests with more coming, Fire Lake had not one customer. SO please, for its survival’s sake, do go and eat there. Read the rest of this entry »
Value for money- one certainly gets that from the Fish and Co buffet, Mondays to Fridays, lunch and dinner time at Shangrila only, for P550. Entrees include fresh fruits, juices, a choice between tom yum soup and miso soup stuffed with all kinds of fresh sea foods (tender squid, yummy; fresh shrimp, fish), chicken pastel, pork ribs, pot roast, pasta, fresh oysters (or you may have them baked with cheese), garlic tahong, broccoli au gratin, seafood paella, freshly fried fish and chips (on Mondays and Tuesdays only). Drinks have to be ordered and paid for. Read the rest of this entry »
In Lucasan, maybe some 20 minutes away from VE, we went to the place of Ugu Bigyan, the POTTER (but as my son and husband say, no relation to Harry… corny). The gates were wide open, anyone could simply walk in and get anything in sight, but happily no one did. I guess that’s how things are most of the time in the province. A healthy respect for the neighbor’s property and the neighbor’s trust in turn.
There were at least 3 structures that looked like houses, but the biggest also had an open side door through which we walked and saw antique furniture, used rather than simply displayed furniture. Place was very clean, no dust, no musty smell there. No one was around as we quietly looked Read the rest of this entry »
The trip was overall satisfying in terms of location, food and sights but what grated, somehow, was the fact that the personnel somehow seemed to be always wanting to be tipped. For example, when my husband was unloading stuff from the car to the cottage, I gave him money for tipping and when he came back, he said there were some 8 people carrying our luggage. And mind you, we were there for an overnight stay only. The bags we had weren’t that heavy at all so that the morning after, the maid simply made two trips to the car without any effort. It was a good thing she did this early because shortly after she was done, some 8 ladies came and asked if we were checking out. When we said yes, they asked where our bags were, adding you had a lot yesterday.
True, I understand how hard money is to come by these days but Read the rest of this entry »
Last Monday evening, our son had a debut to go to in Timog (or Morato? I’m eternally confused between the two), so after dropping him off, husband and I proceeded to Trinoma to have dinner at La Mesa Grill.
We chose to go deeper into the resto, a wise choice as the noise level thereat was considerably lower Read the rest of this entry »
