Philippines 2015: Day 3 (Shangri-la Mall, Epicurious, Wicked, Arya, Craft Coffee Revolution)

Day 3: Dec. 28 (Monday)

I met with my group of friends from UP EURO. Whenever we’d meet, we’d usually go to Shang because it’s the most convenient for EVERYONE to go to (I think?). Since I was the first one to get there, I went to Beauty Bar to see if the tweezers Jackie wanted were there. I was able to get it, and then met up with Hope and Mitch after. We were aimlessly walking around chatting and thinking of where to eat. Eventually, we ended up at Epicurious because none of us had been there before, and apparently, Mitch or Hope had been wanting to try it.

The way it works is that you choose what you want to eat – there’s a wide selection of delicatessen, raw meat and fish, ready-made food (pastas and salads), dessert, and drinks. For the raw food products, you tell the chef how you want it cooked but if you don’t have any preference, they’ll decide for you. You can also order plain rice, paella rice, mashed potatoes, and French fries. The food will come to your table after it is cooked, and when you’re done eating, you just go to the cashier and pay the bill. We ordered the rosemary chicken, ribs, pork, and I forgot what else. I just remember that we were all in agreement that the chicken was dry. The ribs and the pork were delicious. I also liked the mashed potatoes because it was creamy but not overly creamy that would make you want to puke it out (TMI?).

After lunch, we went to Wicked because we wanted to try their signature dessert – chocolate barks. I don’t know when it first came out, but I had heard of chocolate barks (which are basically like deconstructed smores, if you can call it that). The chefs in Wicked were/are students of CCA, this culinary school in Manila. We ordered the milk chocolate chocolate barks and the dark chocolate chocolate barks. Aside from those, we also ordered drinks. I chose the chai tea latte because I’d been missing it, but it wasn’t super good. Oh well, I’ll stick to CBTL’s because theirs is better. We stayed there for another couple of hours until Teej and Hope had to leave for work. Before going our separate ways, Hope spontaneously decided to have an additional ear hole (cartilage?) pierced. Hahaha! Brave girl. Mitch and I stayed behind to walk around a bit before we had to leave. I walked to the cab stop and waited for a cab home. There wasn’t much traffic so I was home in less than half an hour.

Had another appointment for dinner but since it was still early, I was able to take a nap. When I woke up, mom drove me to Robinson’s Magnolia where my dinner meet-up was. I met up with Monica and Clare, both I haven’t seen in so long. I think I saw Clare here in Taipei in 2013, but I haven’t seen Monica in maybe over 7 years. Wow, time flies. We decided to have Persian food so we went to Arya. We shared orders of kabab and koubideh (?). I also ordered the Yogurt Smoothie because it’s something my sister and I would always get whenever we’d have Persian food (Mister Kabab, yo! We spent the next few hours catching up with each other’s lives. Can’t believe how much time has passed, yet at the same time it felt as if nothing much has changed between us. We can still talk about random stuff and I didn’t feel uncomfortable even if we hadn’t seen in each other in so long.

After dinner, we were supposed to go to either Starbucks or CBTL, but for some reason Clare suggested Cafe Breton and so we drove there looking forward to eating crepes for dessert. When we got there, they were already closed. Boohoo! We decided to go to Craft Coffee Revolution (which was located beside) for dessert instead. We ordered a macadamia nut cake (? I forgot what it’s called), a Flat White (mine), and Hot Chocolate (Clare’s). We continued talking until the place closed and we had to leave.

All in all a fun day!

Philippines 2015: Day 2 (Roots Market Bistro, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Legend HK Restaurant)

Day 2: Dec. 27 (Sunday)

We were supposed to go out of town, but my parents (mostly dad) were lazy, citing that traffic would be severe and we’d waste lots of hours on the road. I think he just didn’t wanna get out of the house. Mom and I decided to go to Greenhills instead. I was trying to see if there was anything worth buying – clothes, shoes, or accessories, but I didn’t find stuff I wanted to buy. Huhuhu, failed shopping trip. Mom and I also couldn’t find the stores we went to last year, so we decided to just call it a day. We walked to Promenade and had lunch at Roots Market Bistro because I wanted to try their food. It’s pretty good. We ordered their signature pork chop dish, and we also ordered a prawn pasta dish.

After that, we decided to go to Robinson’s Magnolia to see if we could buy anything from the sales. I ended up with nothing, while mom got a top from Cotton On. After walking around the mall and going into different stores, we bought Popcorners from Healthy Options before settling into The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for afternoon tea. Mom had the Matcha tea latte, and I had the African Sunrise tea latte. I don’t know if it’s because of my modified taste buds (HAHA) or because of the way the barista made it that day, but I found my drink to be reallyyy sweet. I was thinking of buying a can of either the African Sunrise tea or the Chai tea leaves but you get a free drink if you buy a can so mom and I decided to just go back next time to buy the can and enjoy the free drink. We also ordered a Triple Decker Cheesecake to go along with our drinks. We read Good Housekeeping while drinking and eating our desserts.

After maybe more than an hour, it was time to go. We had dinner plans with our family friends from Coron. We went to Legend HK restaurant, and dad was the one who picked the dishes to order. I really liked the food because they were all delicious. I just didn’t like the lady who took our orders because she was rude. Tsk, tsk. We pretty much just caught up with each other’s lives but we didn’t talk that much either because P and J are more on the shy type. That and also because we didn’t know what to talk about. Once we had finished talking about our lives, we talked about other people’s lives. Hahahaha, typical. After dinner, we went home and just watched TV for the rest of the night.

Philippines 2015: Day 1 (Yabu, Burger Connection, H2O Spa, My Kitchen by Chef Chris)

On the last week of December 2015, I went back home to the Philippines for the holidays. I was supposed to go back for Christmas but due to some office-related stuff, I wasn’t able to. It’s all right though, at least I was able to spend my birthday and New Year in the Philippines.

Every time I go home, I feel like time is never enough and that I’ve missed out on a lot of things and happenings with the lives of my family and friends. However, as my friend clearly puts it, “You’ve made that decision.” Yes I did. I don’t regret coming here and trying out how it is to work and live abroad, and I do know that all of our decisions have their trade-offs so I’m not going to dwell on that anymore.

This post is to remember the things I did and the places (mostly restaurants) I went to on this specific trip:

Day 1: Dec 26 (Saturday)

I got out of the airport at around 4AM. My parents picked me up, and since we were hungry, and because it was our tradition, we headed to Aristocrat in Roxas Boulevard for breakfast/post airport pick-up meal. We ordered sinigang na tiyan ng bangus (tamarind soup with milkfish belly), chicken barbeque, and stuffed squid. Yum! The servings are much smaller now though, I feel like. After eating, we headed home and went to sleep!

Woke up and got ready for lunch. Austin picked me up and we went to Robinson’s Magnolia. We didn’t really know where to eat so we ended up in Yabu because he wanted unlimited rice and salad. Hahaha I ordered the salmon because I was craving for salmon. Admittedly, I don’t eat a lot of fish in Taiwan. Mostly, I just eat meat and vegetables.

After lunch, Austin dropped me off at Burger Connection. My friends and I were supposed to go to Ludo for food and board games, but we found out that they open at 4PM and I had to leave by around 5PM for another appointment. Burger Connection is this small board game burger restaurant located at Sct. Rallos, Tomas Morato. I was the only customer when I got there, but as the day went along, the place became packed. Wow, I didn’t expect that. They have a minimum fee of PhP150 per person (consumable), and so we ordered nachos, fries, and iced tea. Bry also ordered a burger because he was hungry. They had a variety of games to choose from, and we ended up playing the following: Love Letters, Walk the Plank, Geistes Blitz 2.0, Exploding Kittens, etc.

Since I had to meet mom at H2O Spa for our body massage appointment, we left at around 5:30PM. I hitched a ride with Kimbies and in the car, we talked about her future plans (she wants to study abroad!) and current ongoings in her life.

I had a full body massage at H2O spa because mom had gift certificates. Massages are more expensive in Taiwan and so I make it a priority to get a body massage each time I go back home. We laid on the hot bed after the massage and it was really relaxing. After that, we went to Makan restaurant to claim our free drinks. I had the carrot pineapple juice while mom had the carrot orange juice.

Then, we met up with dad for dinner. We were supposed to go to Greeka Kouzina because I was craving for their fig walnut salad, but they were already closed at that time so we ended up going to My Kitchen by Chef Chris. We ordered his signature dish – panizza. It’s this pizza divided into thin strips that you roll together with arugula and olive oil. Yummy! We also ordered a shrimp pasta dish that was also delicious. Dad liked the food so that’s good.

I’ll write about Day 2 in a separate post!