Conti's resto

A promise fulfilled: Ma and Twinx got their bonus and decided to treat us to lunch at palaisdaan and dinner at Conti's!!! Sorry, no pictures!
Sunday night is a busy one for the BF branch. We had to wait a while and ogle at the yummy cakes in their pastry room. We finally got seated around 8pm and Pa ordered the fried chicken which was very flavorful. Ma got the baked salmon, also wonderful. Twinx got the pesto pasta which she liked but I didn't bother to taste as Jon and I were too engrossed with our shared 260-gram rib eye steak(P210 per 100 grams) which was so good it's surely unhealthy!
The funny thing was that Twinx was deadset on getting the mango bravo and she was afraid they might run out so we ordered our dessert in advance. I ordered the turtle cake but minutes later, I was told they were all out of turtle so I tried the strawberry shortcake which the waiter checked this time before I ordered. Minutes later, the manager came to tell me sorry, they just ran out of the shortcake and I just had to laugh as it seemed that our waiter was afraid I'd blow my top but I told them it was fine and that the 3 cake slices were enough as I was already quite full.
Overall a great food experience and I understand why BF folks continue to patronize their homegrown resto. But the clincher was when the bill came. The management was nice enough to use my Pa's senior citizen discount on the steak so the bill for a family of 5 was less that P1,500! And a thought formed in our minds: We must return again and again!

My materialistic Xmas list

Dear Santa,

I have really tried to be a good boy this year. To help you decide what to bring me for abovementioned statement,

Pls consider any or all of the following:

Adidas Kansas track jacket

32" Sony Bravia HD TV

Canon Powershot 7 megapixel camera

Nokia N series cellphone

a portable LCD screen dvd player

A macbook

and...

sige na nga, World Peace.

Early All Saints Day visit

We decided to go to Lucena before Nov.1 to avoid the horrendous holiday traffic jams that would surely clog all roads to the provinces. Tita Gina prepared a sumptuous feast for us at her home. We had steamed crabs, shrimps, mussels, grilled fish and buko pandan, too!

I gave Dana the much delayed DVD of her 16th birthday celebration which she liked, even though there were scenes which she said she didn't want to see again! Ah, young love!heehee!We also brought a cake from Conti's, a mini-Mango Bravo which almost melted as it couldn't fit inside the freezer. It was still delicious, though.

Oh, and we also got the pasalubong that Tito Nonong and Tito Alan sent us. Got a cool pair of adidas sneakers and a Clark Kent/Superman figure! Yay!

Everybody:You can stand under my umbrella-ella-ella-ella...

After merienda, we went to Wowo's grave to pray although we were shivering from the rain and the chilly wind that blew through the cemetery. Brrr!

Then we were on our way home and instead of going to our usual dinner place, Leslie's, we tried out Rose and Grace, a cafeteria-style resto that also had a kiosk inside. We ordered the bulalo and fried tawilis and loved how quick the service was and more importantly, how cheap the food was(Around P500+ for a hungry family of 5!) And we could have all the bulalo soup we wanted ! Sorry, Leslie's, Rose and Grace resto is our new go-to place.

Sarap!

Amici delivers!

Public service announcement: Amici now delivers! Whoopee! Just call 818 4444 for pizza, pasta and yes, desserts too! I had a problem getting the menu by fax so here's a virtual file for all of you. Mojacko recommends the Montanara pasta(P165) and Spaghetti Vongole e gamberetti(P180) and the Cannelloni (P165)for vegetarians.

Warning: Delivery may take longer than expected depending on the number of dine-in customers, which is a major turn-off I hope they can fix. Instead of the promised 1 hour waiting time, we got our food after an hour AND 30 minutes. Good thing the tiramisu (P50 per slice)was heavenly. Too bad they only deliver gelato by the kilo at a whopping P400 per.

Step by step

My cousins abroad will be happy to know that little by little, the Philippines is starting to care about the environment. Shopwise supermarkets sell canvas bags which shoppers can use instead of plastic bags. As an added incentive, canvas bag users double their shopping points when they use the bag. Good job, Shopwise!

SM, the mall my cousins are most familiar with, introduced a green bag for their supermarket too but when I inquired about it, the salesgirl said they didn't offer the bags in the Bicutan branch anymore. What? How can they encourage a generation of shoppers to switch to a green bag when they don't even push it for more than a month? Better shape up SM! When we went to Corregidor last summer, the water on the side of the island facing Manila was full of ugly SM bags! Booo!

Conti's cakes

Mango Bravo: It's huge!

I wanted to buy a really good cake for Ma's birthday like maybe a mango torte but when we went to Cuerva's on Pasay Road, they were closed on Sundays! I bought an utterly forgettable tiramisu from Max's. Next Sunday, all the cake shops in Alabang were too plain or too expensive for my taste so we just bought some Red Ribbon slices. Then my sister remembered Conti's and we begged to pass by BF Homes and we were delighted to find that a) we could by per slice and b) they were all available! Wheee! The Mango Bravo(85 pesos) is one of their signature slices and it's really too tall to eat all the layers in one bite. But the one I loved was the peaches and cream cake (P75) which reminded me of another BF cakehouse we frequented in the 90's called Dates & Nuts. They've stopped making their version of peaches & cream but Conti's version is delectably similar though I suspect they freeze their cakes to preserve them. Nevertheless, I saw some promising items on their resto menu so we must ,must, must return another day!

Why hello, my lovely...

2 birthday lunches

Here are pics from Ma's birthday which took place on 2 Sundays.


We first had lunch at old reliable Italianni's and ordered the usual salad, artichoke formagio, risotto and bottomless dalandan juice but I was surprised at the bill. Last year, we spent just around P2000 but this year it amounted to P3200! Fortunately, an officemate gave me a P500 discount coupon.

Ang puti nyo ngayon a!

I noticed something wrong with my videocamera, though. The flash is unusually strong. My ma and sis' faces were almost washed out. I actually had to cover the flash a bit with my hand so I didn't blind my family.



Second Sunday was the promised return to Makati Supermart's coffee shop.

It would turn out to be a disappointment. First, the lobster tail was unavailable. We ordered the steak and the other meals that came with rice but none of them were worth writing about, not even the hamburger steak which was supposed to be a house specialty along with their spaghetti. Well, next time, just order their merienda meals like the pancit, spaghetti and burgers. This is the exact same table we ate at on our first visit!

The hamburger---nothing to blog about

wonder women

I can finally say I have worked with 2 of Asia's heroes as cited by Time Magazine. This week aside from working for Ms. Letty, I had the pleasure of making an ad for Ms. Eggie Apostol, two of the women who faced down the dictator and brought down a jueteng president. I felt so honored I could do something for Ms. Eggie who at 80+ years old is tirelessly reminding this amnesiac nation that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. While everyone else is going pragmatic or flying out, a true hero/heroine's ideals cannot be compromised. I am inspired and hope I can say the same many years from now.

Masahe

Here's a cartoon I made for my sister's school poster.

Re-imagining Zuma

With all the remakes of Darna, Panday and Capt. Barbell these days, I was thinking what about big green baddie Zuma? But instead of the sappy soap routine, I think Zuma should be remade into a sitcom!

In my story, Zuma has repented his evil ways and has mellowed thanks to marriage and fatherhood. His wife, Ghirlie, has forbidden him from eating virgins' hearts and is now a nurse working abroad. Zuma must now raise teenage daughter Galema alone. Jobless, overweight and addicted to junk food, Zuma finds out that even immortals can face a mid-life crisis.

His only friends are the snakes on his shoulders the evil Tuklaw and the dimwitted Tukmol.

Galema("call me Gayle"!) is a typical teenager rebelling against parental authority. She has twin anorexic snakes in her hair, the party animal Ashley and the bookworm, Mary Kate.

O-ha! Special guest stars could be Tita Valentina, Gayle's aunt and Robinson, the twin snake of a Chinese mall tycoon.

UPDATE!!!!check out my first zuma strip here