Starry starry nights

Ayala Triangle Gardens = L.O.V.E.

At night, at this time of the year, it turns into a magical kaleidiscope of lights.

The lights are just stunning and amazing...

tantalizing...

and hypnotizing


















Thank you Ayala for giving us this Christmas treat.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Gulliver's

Whenever J craves for a steak dinner, he always insists that we have it at Gulliver's for its reasonable price and proximity to our home. But I always resist because i don't like the dark lighting of the restaurant, I don't like walking in that part of Makati Av. and I am not that loco with their steak. I only love their corn pudding.

But last week I finally said yes because I misunderstoond J's invitation when he said Great Eastern. My brain processed it as Hossein's. Oh well.

Gulliver's was as usual dark but the mood was livened up by the Christmas decors and the live piano playing. Everything was lovely that night.

We ordered the following:

Salmon

Steak


















Our orders came with corn pudding, vegetables and potatoes. This time I enyoyed the steak that we ordered. It was thick, juicy and delicious. As for the salmon, it was fresh and the sauce added to the overall delightfulness of the meal.

For this wonderful dinner, I am now willing to eat at Gulliver's anytime J wants a steak. 

Paris-Delice

A newly-opened French store that sells bread, salad, soups, patisserie and coffee. It is located along Makati Avenue corner Juno St.

Although this store in our neighborhood, our first taste of their bread was not in this store but at the food stall in the International Bazaar at the PICClast 21 November 2010. Their flier boasts of the breads being flown directly from Paris! J and I bought the pain au chocolat and the chocolate donut. It was love at first bite! The pain au chocolat is a croissant with drizzles of chocolate sauce. The croissant was perfect, it was fresh, delicate and delicious. It was delicate that the flakes keep on falling in our every bite. The donut, on the other hand, was chocolate heaven. The soft bread and chocolate that kept on oozing out blended so well. It balanced each other's goodness.

After our first taste of Paris-Delice's  "delights", J and I vowed to vist their store. Thus, after a few days, we went to Makati Av. for a late dinner. The store is relatively small without the stifling effect, spacious and well-lighted. At that tiem, it was full of French expats just hanging around, which made the whole french experience more authentic. We wanted something light, so we had the following:

Soup of the day with baguette

Sandwich

Pain au chocolat and chocolate donut (again!)  and capuccino

Everything was perfect. But this was a guilt-laden dinner because J and I do not eat carbohydrates for medical reasons (I have PCOS) during dinner. Every bite was filled with thoughts of our diet being broken. Thus, we made another vow, that is, to go back to Paris-Delice for breakfast.

Last Saturday, we went back for breakfast and ordered two breakfast sets, P130, which consists of one hot drink or juice, a choice of croissant, patisserie or half baguette with butter and jam.

Although a little bit pricey for our pockets, J and I are happy to have an authentic French cafe in our neighborhood. Welcome Paris-Delice to [this side of] Makati.

A year of musicals

This is a wonderful year for us in terms of watching of record number of Broadway musicals. You see, for budget considerations we try to limit watching a musicial to two in a year here in Manila. But so far this year, we have exceeded our quota thanks to our trips abroad. It would have been a shame not to watch any Broadway shows there.

The Lion King, Minskoff Theatre

Wicked, The Orpheum Theatre


 

Aladdin, Disneyland Anaheim

Cats, CCP

and Festival of the Lion King, HK Disneyland.

We love the theatre and hope to see more shows here and abroad.

Craving for empanada

I did not know that there are two kinds of Ilocos empanda: Vigan and Ilocos empanada found in Ilocos Norte. Anyways, eating empanda from Ilocos is a rare treat for us since the ones sold in Manila are poor copycats. Empanadas are made from rice flour wrapper, grated green papaya, longganisa and egg. I particularly like its crispy crust, the runny egg yolk inside and vinegar dip. The yum!

I tried to capture how it is made but I failed to take a photo when the egg is laid in the empanda.

A weekend in Ilocos

J and I brought my mom to Ilocos Sur and Norte two weekends ago. It was a whirlwind tour of the heritage sites. Short but sweet.  When I first went to Ilocos years ago, I was immediately enchanted and awed by its architecture, the old houses and churches, food and the old world ambiance, and I'm glad that I still had the same feeling when I went back.

Our travel time was approximately 9 hours from Makati to Ilocos Sur. Our itinerary:

1. Breakfast at Grandpa's Inn, Vigan, 9am

2. Check in at Villa Angela, Vigan

3. Proceed to Juan Luna Shrine, Bagoc (almost an hour away from Vigan)

4. After Bagoc, we went to Paoay to visit Marcos Mausoleum, Photo Gallery, Paoay Church, ate pinakbet and dinuguan pizza at Herencia Cafe, Malacanan of the North

5. Back to Vigan by 7pm, ate Ilocos Empanada at the Plaza

The next day, we went around Vigan, shop at the public market for Abel Iloco, visited 3 museums: Crisologo, Syquia, Father Burgos, photo op at Calle Crisologo, and lunch at Cafe Leona. By 1pm, we were on the road to home, with a quick stop at Santa Maria Church, Ilocos Sur and Agoo Church in La Union.

1. Breakfast at Grandpa's Inn. Their breakfast meal was pricey.Throughout our trip, we were amazed on how "red" the egg yolks were in Ilocos and finally we learned that the said color indicates that the eggs are fresh. Hmm, makes me cringe at the thought here in Manila, all the eggs that I ate have yellowish yolks.

Beef tapa

Dinuguan and Pinakbet Pizza, Herencia Cafe. Strangely delicious. It tastes like your average pizza with just a dinuguan and pinaket flavor.

Poqui-poqui, Herencia Cafe. Egg omelet with grilled eggplant. This dish was a bit salty for us.

Special Ilocos empanda. Sinfully delicious and filling.

Pinakbet, Cafe Leona, Vigan

Spicy Squid, Cafe Leona

Chili's

J and I went back to our old favorite Chili's after almost two years.

Guiltless Grilled Salmon

Blue cheese porterhouse steak

Gurts

Pancake House's very own yoghurt dessert: GURT'S.

Blueberry cheesecake and white chocolate yoghurt P155. It is delicious as that of Red Mango's, the yohgurt is tangy and sweet and 95% fat free. We love that they have a generous serving of the toppings.

Cafe Amadeo

Forgettable coffee and cheesecake at Cafe Amadeo, the cafe at Manila Doctor's Medical Tower.

Iced coffee and kapeng barako

Strawberry cheesecake

Charlie's Grind and Grill

Cheesesteak

Angus Burger

BreadTalk

I like Breadtalk's baked products because they are unique and tasty but I seldom buy there because I feel uncomfortable on how they display their bread in the open, expose to all kinds of elements in the air. I find it unhygeinic. I do not know if I am just paranoid but in the few times that I have eaten their bread, I get sick with colds after.

Anyways, I wanted to get rid of the bad feeling and taste of the cream puff and croissant that I forced myself to buy something from Breadtalk. I got these:

1. Tomato Sausage, P39. It is like a pig in a blanket sandwich. I like it.

2. Hot Chic Floss, P54. I ate this just now and I love it!. I love its spicy taste

30 pesos down the drain

Tsk, tsk, tsk

I thought that I found a winner in the desserts I ordered because they were cheap and from bakery famous for its De Los Reyes Torte, which tastes heavenly. Alas, I was proven wrong.

1. Mini Peach Croissant, P19. This croissant was worse than the one I had at  Delifrance. Its texture was almost similar to a pandesal and had a bland taste.

2. Mini Choco Cream Puff, P11. Same forgettable taste as the croissant.

Add caption

favorite words du jour

1. ILL-ADVISED. Perfect excuse for an obvious gaffe.

2. WALANG BASAGAN NG TRIP. Believe it or not, I discovered this line just today in a blog, and encountered it again a few minutes ago.

3. THERMAGE AND BOTOX. It worked on Charice, and I want one too!

The other cafe in our building

This cafe has bad service, bad food, and mosquitoes. No wonder it is almost always deserted.

Rubbery and bland waffle, P100 with free coffee

still tasted awful even with blueberry

Hot Chocolate, P80. This tasted like Swiss Miss, diluted version.

The only winner in this cafe are the mosquitoes. They had quite a feast courtesy of my legs.

La Maison

J was pestering me all weekend on how he was hankering for steak but I did not share his craving because we just had one that week at Myron's, plus this steak hang-up is becoming an expensive fixation.

For unknown reasons, I finally indulge in J's request (maybe because we watched the Man vs. Food steak challenge episode last weekend and the idea of eating steak was planted in our subconsciousness, aha INCEPTION much?!).

We scouted the GB5 area and we were about to settle in this restaurant besie Chateau 1551 (I don't remember the name) but as we entered teh resto I noticed that the the atmosphere was full of smoke and the smell of the food was all over the restaurant like you were in a sizzling house. The smell would surely stick in our clothes and I hate that when it happens. So J and I ended up at La Maison.

It's only our second time dining here. The first time was like years ago and it was the birthday treat of our friend, thus, we were not familiar with the costs of dining here (which we later found out to be costly!, hehe). I don't what happened to this restaurant but it used to be full but now it is almost deserted (is it because of the location? it's located at the 3rd level of GB5, away from the rest of the dining scene at the ground level).

So-so complimentary bread.


















Love their ceiling decorations with "salakot" lamps


















I had filet mignon, medium. Tender, succulent and delicious.

J's order, Rib-eye Steak. It was also delicious.

After this happy and heavy meal, we watched Inception again at our best-kept secret cinema.