Luk Yuen

Maidette had some purchases to make at Babyland, hence, our choice of lunch place came back to Glorietta. After going through the list of places to eat, where Mimi voted off the suggestion of Wok Inn, we settled on having lunch at Luk Yuen.

Luk Yuen is one of those chinese noodle houses that started way back in the early 80s. Its quite known for its noodle dishes, congee, taro puff and some dimsum. However, it was not able to differiate a lot its offers from other noddle places like Hap Chan, North Park or Mann Hann. While North Park continued its expansion and re-invention, Luk Yuen seemed on the verge of folding up with only few dining places that's left in operation.

Mimi did not want to order for the group today. She wanted to have her own food, that of her liking. She was traumatized by the kind of pasta that was served the other day in Pizza Hut Bistro, which was not to her liking.

Me, I ordered for myself the lapu-lapu fillet in bitter gourd rice. While for dessert, I had momo chacha, some kind of sweetened rice porridge with lots of yams, tapioca and coconut milk.

The lapu-lapu fillet was cooked crisp and served with generous amount of rice, slices of bitter gourd with black bean sauce. The black bean sauce lent a lot of its flavor to the fish and the rice. In no time, I was able to consume it all. Maybe, I was hungry as well. Maidette had offered her siopao - asado to the group, as well as her taro puff. But I was excited to have my momo chacha more than anything. It came hot from the kitchen this time. The porridge was thick with lots of purple and sweet yam. The ground rice which we call "galapong" in the local dialect, was rolled in egg shapes and colored red, green and yellow. When Maidette saw it, she asked for asked to get one. I am not a fun of "galapongs", especially when its rolled into shapes, I liked it added as is in the porridge, unprocessed. Maidette loved it a lot and Gentley was tempted to get the other "galapong". In the end, Gentley had the other one that left on my plate.

We paid Php200.00 each, as well for this meal today. Still, really cheap. Maidette went out to Babyland to shop for some blankets, diapers and flanel sheets for her sister in Canada who is about to deliver her baby. I went to scour the shops for a decent desktop picture holder for a gift to Allan. He will celebrate his birthday this coming Friday, September 7th, and I have not thought of anything better to give. I know, he was building up his picture frame collection, I might as well add a piece. Hopefully, it gets his appreciation.

We were driven by Alvin today to Glorietta, me, Chay, Mimi, Gentley and Maidette.

Pizza Hut Bistro

We could not agree where to eat to today. Although, Gentley was kind enough to drive us to Glorietta as Mimi and Chay have some shopping to do at Shoemart.

Along the way, we settled to come back to Pizza Hut Bistro. Well, it has only been me and Gentley who had tried the place. Mimi, Chay and Maidette have seen place but did not have the opportunity to actually try out the new Pizza Hut concept restaurant.

Maidette had only begun her reading of the Harry Potter book - the Deathly Hallows. She's tugging along the book, and would continue to read even in the hallways, in the car and even in the restaurant. She was oblivious of the noise, the conversations in the table but would only stop and ask about what's the thing we laughed about when she couldn't resist the temptation. I know, the true Harry Potter fanatic would even postpone sleep just to get to the last part of the book and these people refused to listen or read about the reviews and spoilers that came out. Good thing, the mania had started to wane.

We went through the entire menu of Pizza Hut, and Mimi and Chay have some favorites. However, I chanced upon the promo of group dining, where a certain menu of Ceasar salad, pasta, Pizza and soda - good for a group of 4 people can be had for Php699.00. It was glad to know from Marilyn, our waitress, that we can actually substitute the pizza flavor by anything that we choose from the menu. It was not a hard sell to the group, we settled for the group menu offering.

Gentley suggested to change the cheesy pops pizza to a seafood pizza. No one objected. I wanted to try out their steak french fries, as an additional appetizer and we had it. The fries came in some mustard, ranch flavored dip and everyone liked it. The Ceasar salad was not as good. The dressing was a little bit too much while the lettuce was not fresh anymore. The cheesy pops seafood pizza came. Oh, I love the cheesy pops. It came with two cheeses, the mozzarella and cheddar and it literally pops in your mouth when you take a bite off it. The seafood flavor though wasn't a hit. The pizza tasted more sweet and flavorful. I think it was the shrimp and crabstick that lend more its flavor than the cheese base. Besides, the pizza wasn't prepared with the usual tomato sauce base. Other than its sweet taste, the pizza was ok.

What came out most disappointing was the spaghetti pasta. It just didn't taste right. Since there were two platefuls of pasta, barely less than one half of one plate was touched. We have to have it wrapped, the leftover pasta, as no one cared to touch it anymore.

We contemplated on having our dessert. We joked about how much our bill would be. We often see on the computer screen a very similar amount of billing to what we think our food should cost, and this made us hesitant to buy any more dessert. In the end, no one objected as I ordered the dessert sampler. The dessert sampler is a combination of panna cotta, the lava cake and brownie ala mode. Every one had their opinion on the lava cake and we agreed this lava cake could not hold a candle flame to Global Cafe's lava cake that oozes with chocolate and melts in your month texture.

Nonetheless, the panna cotta had some mixed reviews. Maidette loved it while most of the group did not like the idea the the panna cotta was not a jello like. It bordered on being a harder refrigator cake, more ice cream like than soft and gelatinous. The brownie ala mode was more ice cream and it melted as no one cared to try it that much.

Anyways, we only paid Php200.00 each for this meal. Really cheap lunch indeed.

Marina Seafood Restaurant

Although its midnight madness sale in Glorietta, we braved the flock of shoppers that normally trooped to the malls at this time. Indeed, people came in droves and it became a happy please to be.

We never had a plan for a restaurant today. Along the way, Mimi suggested to try out the Isabella's Chicken at Chicken Inasal. This chicken is a product of a telenovela (soap opera) on local television about a certain chicken recipe that's stolen from its rightful creator and marketed in a successful chain of restaurant by the stealer. That's how powerful television is in the Philippines, it can prompt people to do things, even try out some chicken preparation. I was glad Chay was not happy at all with Chicken Inasal. She prefers the other Bacolodian chain, Chicken Bacolod. Apparently, these two chains have different recipes for their flame broiled chicken in yellow sauce.

We compromised on Marina Seafood Restaurant. This is a filipino restaurant that serves seafood like yellow fin tuna, squid, shrimps, crabs, clams and others. Of course, one can still order such food as chicken, pork or beef in various preparations. Marina is a great place for value for money dining and its seafood is always fresh.

We ordered the sinigang na ulo ng maya-maya (stew of fish head - soured with tamarind), grilled tuna belly, grilled aubergrine salad, and adobong kangkong (water spinach). The sinigang na maya-maya was soured to perfection. The soup was steamy hot where leeks of string beans, slices of raddish, aubergrine, onions and tomatoes. The fish tasted good and fresh. The tuna belly was truly a headliner. It was juicy on the inside that came great with the local lime dip with soy sauce and lots and lots of hot, hot chili peppers. The salad was as appetizing as it looked on their menu. Grilling the aubergrine lends it a distint aroma that sizzles in the mouth when combined with julienned tomatoes and white, sweet onions. The fish sauce that came with it was a delight as well.

We had a wonderful lunch and we paid Php210.00 each for our meal. We lingered for a couple of minutes inside Glorietta trying to window shop on the on-going sale of midnight madness. If clothes where a need, a lot of choices can be had scowering through the shops that priced down its goods to as much as 70% reduction. Me, Gentley, Mimi and Chay all went back to the office thereafter with Alvin driving the van.

The Soup Kitchen

It was a late lunch and Maidette wanted to hit the department stores of Shoemart and Landmark to shop for her choir outfit. This decided it all, we need to be in Glorietta for our lunch.

Maidette is a member of Couples for Christ and they have a planned "Praise and Worship" this coming Friday in a church in BF Homes. She has been practicing with the choir as one of the participants who will lead the service that night. She was kind enough to extend an invitation to all of us in the office to come and witness and have fun and the praise and worship service. They are not calling it concert, for it it lose its banality in being in communion with God, but rather a service wherein, it not only the choir that sings, but rather the entire congregation as well, in glorifying God.

I begged off from going to the south on a Friday, as traffic will be terrible and I believe, Mimi will not be able to make it as well. Chay does live in the same village as Maidette, but she is sure to miss it as well. Gentley is not positioned to be there either, more so with Rene who lives in the opposite director, way up north in Marikina. We talked about what sort of shirt does Maidette hunt for as a costume. She mentioned some shade of orange, be it Ponkan, salmon, crimsom, afternoon sky or oranged orange. As color blind as a cow, I cannot seem to fathom the depth of the discussion on color shades of orange.

Maidette decided to skip lunch altogether to devout more time for shopping on the right outfit. That leaved me, Mimi and Chay to go on for lunch. As I was on a healthy diet nowadays, we settled for The Soup Kitchen, instead. The Soup Kitchen serves nothing but soup. Of course, an assortments of bread with butter, or sandwiches in ham, chicken or tuna go with it. Dessert fares like tiramisu, pastries and fresh fruits also are a staple.

I got myself a Clam Chowder soup and a tuna sandwich. Clam Chowder is always a heartly meal and it was a cold day, I needed something comforting. The Soup Kitchen have better than ordinary soups. You can never go wrong on any of their soups, be it the Mexican, Italian or pure western type of soup, it sure will delight the diner in you. As a simple meal, I paid Php135.00 for my half soup and sandwich. Really as steal for lunch.

Alvin did the driving to and from the mall for us.

Inihaw

It was just like one of those days, it started slow and easy. Maybe because it was a Friday.

Before I came into the office, I went out to check some houses at Greenwoods in Pasig City. I meet up with my realty agent, Eva, inside the village. The first house we checked out was located in Durian Street in Phase 7. It was an old house, that used to be occupied by a some lady married to a foreigner. There were 3 rooms in the second floor, while another room was constructed downstairs for the house maid. What I didn't like in the house, was it looked pretty cramped. All the rooms in the second floor were like attic rooms, where the ceiling would slant on one corner, anyone can get hurt hitting it. The master's bath was terribly designed where the shower can be used as only by a toddler because of the really low, slanting ceiling. It was delapitated and all, I can't see myself occupying that place.

We went to another house, this time, its a bungalow type and for sale. It was poorly designed, with no room for air ventilation, I didn't even care to get in to check it out. We went to another house for sale, this time, it was duplex house. There can't be any garden left, however, the three rooms were decent and large enough, I almost liked it. It was on the brink of completion, and the fresh paints were so inviting knowing you will be the first ever occupant whose gonna spoil the place. But I resolved to myself, I need a house with a garden, even though it would just be a small garden. Nearly accross the duplex house was another bungalow type, also for sale. When the owner came with the keys, we went in to check out this newly built, ready for occupancy house. Everything was clean and nicely done, the sala and the dining area were well appointed, the house even provided for a dirty kitchen and laundry area near the back of the house. The maids room was spectacular, I must say, with its own bath and 2 entrances. Eva even joked that the maid might overwhelmed with her accommodation she will not ask for a single salary increase thereafter. I like the coziness of the house, its small garden with blue grass landscaping and those white-flowered plants, these all looked dainty.

Everything was a good thing, except when we check out the 2 appointed bedrooms. The master's bedroom was really small, a king sized bed could not even fit in its designated corner. If I say the master's bedroom was small, the other room must be more midget in size. That really cut-off the whole deal.

I drove off to the office thereafter. Before I know it, it was lunch time already and Mimi has asked that we now have to go for lunch. Chay and Rene joined us to Glorietta 4. We hit Food Choices again as we were on budget.

I went to see Inihaw and ordered the stuffed grilled squid. Inihaw means grilled, so most of its menu are grilled stuff, like seafood, pork ribs, ang barbecue and the like. The squid was a bit big in size, stuffed with cubed tomatoes and onions. It was topped with roasted garlic and served on special soy sauce dip with green lime (or calamansi). The squid was tender and nicely cooked, I was totally satisfied with my meal. With a glass of soda, I paid some Php137.00 or US$3.00 for my meal. Though I was full, I craved for ice cream to wash off the fishy taste in my pallet, I went to get a double dutch ice cream from Selecta. I paid Php20.00 for a single scoop of ice cream. That was my lunch escapade for the day.

After window shopping, the group meet up and Alvin brought us back to the office. As it was the promised day for the camera to get fixed, I asked Alvin to drive me to Canon's Service Center in Pasong Tamo. It took a while to fetch my camera, but I was more than happy to see it finally fixed. I took a couple of test shots and was satisfied that indeed, it's back to its normal operating mode.

I went back to the office with Alvin.

Tuna Town

We left earlier than usual for lunch today. Gentley was prodding on taking a quick lunch but was suggesting to hit Glorietta. This was kinda ironic, considering that the Glorietta's not a destination for quick lunches. Anyways, it's just that Gentley had some errands at Glorietta, hence, a good lunch destination choice.

It could not be decided where to eat, hence, it was decided we pick the Food Choices in G4, instead. I saw a new outlet towards the end of the Food Choices stretch named Tuna Town. I thought, this place must be specializing in tuna cuisine. I decided to try it out, no harm there, I liked tuna very much. Tuna Town claims to have grilled seafood and sizzling plates. One can order the sinigang sa miso tuna (miso stew blue marlin), all sorts of the tuna fish, be it grilled, sizzling or whether it's the tuna belly, tuna head or the jaw. Other orders can be had for squid, pork barbecue and other a la carte menus.

I ordered the grilled tuna panga (blue marlin jaw) with a side order of garlic kangkong (water spinach), a cup of rice and some soda. The price was pretty cheap, I paid Php136.00 or about $3.00 only. The tuna jaw was grilled just right, although, it wasn't as freshly cooked as I want it to be. I believe, it can't be called fastfood center if you can't have a faster service, hence, most outlets tend to pre-cook their fares and just re-heat it when a customer orders. Hence, my tuna jaw was not a perfect as I envisioned it to be. Nonetheless, I thought it was some fresh tuna indeed. I was able to sample their miso stew and it paled in taste when compared with Sizzler's (another joint offering a pretty similar menu). The water spinach was a welcome side dish though, it's garlic toppings are superb to counteract the tuna taste. Tuna Town is just an ordinary joint, nothing spectacular about the food they offer. I doubt very much if they thrive for long in the competitive food section at Glorietta.

In the end, I was longer for a dessert. It's been two days straight where I have fish for lunch. I decided to get some funnel cake at The Funnel Cake Factory. For Php70.00 or US$1.56, one can have an order of Chocoloco Funnel Cake. It's basically, cake butter funneled into some super hot cooking oil. When cooked, it gets a sprinkling of some confectioner's sugar then drizzling of black chocolate, then some slivered almonds and another round of the black chocolate syrup. It smelled good and tasted even better.

I shared the funnel cake with Maidette, Mimi and Chay. It was one perfect ending to an ordinary lunch I hade. Gentley had scrambled ahead to do his errand. We parted ways as Mimi and Chay proceeded to Shoe Mart for some shopping, while Maidette went on her own and me had to visit Sanry's for money changing. While waiting for the troop, I walked around the appliance exhibit in the activity center for some refrigerator hunting. I also saw LCD TVs made by Syntax, a china company that retails their TVs at only Php50,000.00. Prices for flat screen TVs have continually dropped significantly and the resolution have grown better and brighter. I wonder, when can I buy my own. hmmmmp.

We converged at the lobby of G4 where Jimmy once again picked us up and drove us back to the office.

Burger King

It was raining hard this morning. The storm "Egay" was making its wrath felt in Metro Manila causing a lot of flooding and the suspension of classes. However, the call to suspend classes came in too late and the students were in school already. I was early too, as my wife was scheduled to have an early morning meeting at work. Driving our way to Ortigas, we felt the storm winds get stronger, with a heavy downpour and scary thunderstorm this early morning. Visibity was reduced to less than 5 feet while we drove slowly in the Rockwell area. It took us longer to reach Ortigas as motorists were cautious with the driving speed and as streets got flooded faster than the clogged drainage could empty.

I took me more than 3 hours to reach my Makati office. And that's because, I was caught in a traffic jam at the Saint Paul College - Pasig when students where scrambling to get to their school service vehicles as classes were called off too late. It was only me, Chay and Gentley from among the managers who were able to brave the flooded metropolis. Rene was circling a couple of times his Marikina neighborhood and eventually gave up when flood waters reached non-passable levels. Maidette was on the Skyway ramp but was forced to turn-back as the exit was flooded. No vehicle was allowed to exit and all traffic eventually counterflowed back to Paranaque. Mimi was the last to venture out from the comforts of her home. She waited for the flood waters to subside in her neighborhood until about 10 am. Traffic was getting to a stand still that she change routes a couple of times until she reached the San Juan area. She eventually gave up, when at around 2pm, she was still in the vicinity of Shaw Boulevard. Feeling hungry, she stopped by Chow King to get a fix of hot noodle soup.

That left me and Chay as lunch buddies for the day as Gentley begged off as he needed to check out his car at Honda. Having paid a bigger lunch bill the day before, I suggested to Chay that we hit Burger King this time. She readily agreed as she needed to drop by Shoe Mart and Burger King is situated near SM Makati.

I ordered a double burger with bacon and mushroom. It was a set meal with drinks and french fries. Chay ordered a Whopper Meal that came with drinks, fries and sundae. She was not interested to get the sundae but was rudely told by the counter food server, that she has to take it or leave it. Huh!

I gladly accepted Chay's sundae and I had a great meal indeed. The double burger was good, but I liked BigMac better. The bacon and mushroom, I believe, could not even save Burger King's version. But at Php155.00 for the meal, why should I be complaining.

Kaya

Nobody seemed to ask where's lunch today not until it was close to 1pm when Mimi finally came to my room. I was talking to my sister, Grace, on the phone as we tried to catch up on news about what's happening with our families. Grace finally hung up and I called up Rene to join Mimi and meet up with Jimmy at the back entrance of our building.

We asked Rene on what he feels like eating today. He suggested Yoshinoya, a Japanese fastfood joint at Parksquare. Mimi wasn't too excited about eating at Yoshinoya. Rene was restricted into thinking that Mimi would insist on a foodie place with salad on their menu for which Mimi promptly disputed. Rene suggested Marina but I told him, we would be paying more since, there were only 3 of us whose gonna share the bill. We ended up picking Kaya, a korean resto at G4 at the suggestion of Mimi.

We ordered the spicy squid, japchae and kalbi jim. We also had a side order for a kimchi. Spicy squid has been the group's favorite, though this was Rene's first brush with Kaya. The squid was always cooked to perfection and it's neither too hot nor too bland in its taste. Japchae or potato noodles was crystal in color with sprinkling of sesame seeds on top and chicken bits and shallots. I loved Kaya's japchae as its neither sweet nor too salty in its taste. Kalbi jim or beef stew is also another winner from Kaya. Its presentation was enhanced by the scrambled egg strips on top while its taste and texture have remained immaculately consistent every time we order this dish. The beef was so tender the meat literally separate from its bone and the stew was so good, I could soak my rice in it.

I had a fix of mountain dew to accompany my meal and I paid Php266.00 or (US$5.91) for this lunch escapade.

We went on our separate ways as Mimi went to the money changer and quick stop by Rustan's for some shopping. Me and Rene went around the mall, browsed through marked-down books on display and window-shopped for a new car model from Mitsubishi. This model was named Fuzion, Mitsubishi's answer to Toyota's family car Innova. Fuzion came in two variants, the jazzed up model with dashboard TV screen, eletronic gauges for tire pressure, climate temperature and such and the provision of the much needed safety feature, air bags. Can you imagine, the low end model does not have a single air bag at all? I really thought car airbags are a standard feature of todays cars, apparently not. Rene related that his new car does not have the airbag feature as well. He said, the next model from his newly purchased Honda City car was prized at Php100,000 more for an additional car feature of airbags and a bigger car engine difference of about 0.2 in displacement.

Well, Fuzion looked better than the Innova. It resembled a lot like the Pajero when seen from the front and it features bucket seating for its first two rows of seats. The high end model costs Php1.15 million, while the other model costs Php950,000. Rene joked that the Fuzion was more of a Daddy's car as opposed to the Innova, that's more known to be a mom mobile.

Jimmy drove us back to the office thereafter.