Apologies! Apologies! I know it's been terribly quiet down here. A short vacation back home and a series of activities have kept me away from blogging. We've just returned from our short but worthwhile visit to the Philippines.The kids were on a school holiday so we took the opportunity to travel. And what a perfect time it was to visit because summer has just started in the country! Wonderful sceneries and pristine beaches welcomed us!

This was the perfect lunch setting I've been missing so much and I was extremely delighted to have it again. The sun, the water plus comfort food - priceless!!

Every visit to our home country won't be complete without indulging into our favorite dishes and these were just some of them.

As cliche as it may sound, truly there's no place like home. The feeling of coming back to your roots is just beyond words. This, likewise transcends to enjoying habitual foods we grew up with. Hence, whenever we are in the Philippines we always make sure that we get to taste the foods we usually missed. We hopped from one restaurant to another to indulge into scrumptious, like no other fare. The photo above shows a typical breakfast plate of Pinoys. It has some of the most popular, uniquely Filipino breakfast items. You wouldn't go wrong with fried daing na bangus (milk fish marinated in vinegar, onion, garlic and pepper), cured meat like pork tapa and fried dried seafoods such as danggit and pusit (squid) for a morning fix. All these go well with a fried rice. Complement it with the famous kapeng barako (Filipino Coffee) and you're all set to start your day right.         

Come lunch time, we're heading for the best fried chicken in town. There might be a lot of fried chickens now in the market, but I would always vouch for the goodness of Max's Fried Chicken. Considering its staying power in the Philippines food scene for many generations, this is without a doubt a heritage name in its own right. Easily, I could trade off a 4 Fingers Bonchon Chicken for a Max's Fried Chicken. It's crispiness and soft meat character is second to none. The best accompaniment to its finger licking good character is the local favorite banana ketchup sans the typical sourish aftertaste of the more widely popular tomato ketchup. Trust me, it tastes better with the former.

It's been only a week since we came back from our short visit to the Philippines. And until  now I'm having dejavu on the much missed Filipino delicacies. The most popular among them are Puto Bumbong and Bibingka. No vacation to the Philippines will be complete without indulging on these local favorites. The former is a glutinous rice steamed in a bamboo tube. It's normally topped with melted butter served with grated coconut and palm sugar on the side. It's purple color makes it characteristically different from other form of rice cakes. Its gooey texture is something to look forward to. Bibingka on the other hand is another rice cake made with eggs and milk. It's usually cooked in a banana leaf and has its distinct charred surface that gives a very nice smokey flavor. The best place to try these heritage goodies is no other than Via Mare.

Now, if we talk about desserts, the most famous among them is Halo-halo. It's a mixture of shaved ice, fruits, and sweet treats (i.e. egg custard, ice cream, yam etc.) generously poured with evaporated milk. It's sweet, rich and creamy. The different ingredients provide a varying texture dimensions which makes it more enjoyable. Another popular one is Buko Pandan. A sweetened grated coconut with cubed jelly, sago, milk and pandan extract. It has a perfect blend of sweetness and creaminess that finishes your meal with much gusto.   

We each have our own definition of comfort food. But one thing is certain, it's something that roots back to home. When we went for a vacation last April in the Philippines, I made sure that I'll be able to relish some great old goodies. One of which is Starbucks' Banofee Pie. This pie is definitely sinful and rich, yet so comforting particularly with a glass of your favorite hot drink on the side. The look of this pie can be actually deceiving. You'd think that a forkful is more than enough to satiate you. But the truth is, its entirety will have you in complete sweet surrender. I can vouch for its goodness that you'd totally forget about calorie counters for a while. I'm currently craving for it and severely wishing that it's also available here in the lion city. Since that's quite far from reality at the moment; I can only head to the nearest supermarket, grab some ingredients and make my own version at home. Although I don't have the exact recipe of it, I'll try my best to capture the taste as far as my memory can recall.

Prepare the base by combining crushed graham crackers with melted butter and sugar. Layer on to the base some sliced bananas and tofee caramel or nutella spread. Top it with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and caramel.

Think of any tourist destination near your home and the likelihood of you not having visited it or did rarely visit the place is high. I would bet for this claim. It's surprising but it's true, sometimes we tend to miss an opportunity for too much familiarity. This holds true to my not having visited Villa Escudero despite being a native of San Pablo City, Laguna. My parent's home is roughly 15 minutes away from the place but I didn't have a single chance of visiting it while I'm still living there. To add more irony to it, my high school classmate belongs to the prominent family who owns the Hacienda. Many times I was invited by her for a day tour to which I will usually respond a procrastinating next time. Gladly, we finally found the luck to pop in.

General ambiance inside the Villa is relaxing, homey and serene. It's a typical laid back atmosphere to enjoy. If there's one thing that the Villa is highly commendable for, it's having maintained its distinctive "Filipino" offering. It could be one of the remaining few heritage sites to explore in the Philippines. This is one place to visit for Foreign and Balikbayan visitors. Among the must try are the carabao ride, lunch at the Labasin Falls and view of the cultural show.

Apart from the hits, of course we've likewise identified some misses. First, is the poor maintenance of the lake. The water is not clear and a lot of dried leaves and wastes made the overall look of the lake unsightly. The repertoire of the lunch buffet is less appetizing too. The meal selection is ok but the quality is far from what I have expected. It failed to meet the value of the day tour ( P1250). Overall, I feel that there's something missing in the experience. At any rate, it still is a must visit place. But it's not something you would miss every once in a while.

For quite a long time now, the post on Canyon Cove Residential Beach Resort proved to be one of the most popular posts in this blog. I constantly receive inquiries about the resort, and I apologize for not finding time to address those. So I'd like to do it now. We visited the resort last week to update ourselves on anything new. Apparently, only the rates were changed. The same facilities can be found except for some new added activities like the pedal boat. The day tour costs P500 per pax with P200 consumable for food and drinks. The buffet lunch is priced at P600 and the set meals range from P220 - P350. The set meals still feature the grilled foods like fish (tilapia and bangus), pork chop, barbecue, squid etc. For the buffet lunch, a chicken dish, pork, vegetables, seafood, soup, salad and other cold appetizers, pasta and desserts complete the meal repertoire. Honestly, it didn't impress much. It gave you that feeling of heaviness but incompletely satisfied. After the lunch, I'm craving for more delicious bites, it didn't delight me at all.

The same slow service is noted from the reception desk. I hope they will be able to find a faster, better system to manage all those paper works on issuing receipts and pass. All the more in the set meal area where hungry mouths are impatiently waiting from the queue. All the delays in the issuance of food definitely stirred a lot of complaints. I just couldn't over emphasize the importance of a better preparation and faster service for times like this. A valuable point made by one of the guests made me nod, the resort's management should have at least complemented the "no food allowed" policy by providing foods anytime, on the time it's needed.

If you intend to stay overnight, the minimum rate is P4700 per room per night with free breakfast for two. I still hold the same reservation for staying overnight though, unless you're staying with a lot of friends or barkadas. If there's one thing I'd like to commend the resort with, it's being able to maintain its cleanliness. Most of the facilities were still well kept. Will I go back again next year? Perhaps, yes! At any rate, it still is a nice place to spend summer at.

How to get there: From SLEX, take Sta. Rosa Exit then turn right from Coke tollgate and straight ahead all the way through Tagaytay - Sta. Rosa Highway. Upon passing through Tagaytay, turn right going to Nasugbu (after the archway, Lemery - Nasugbu intersection). Straight ahead, turn right at Balayan - Nasugbu intersection then turn right again at Lian/Calatagan - Nasugbu intersection (Shell Gasoline Station). Continue on until you pass by Jollibee and Nasugbu town proper. Canyon Cove is just a few minutes away from there. Found on the left side of the road after the small bridge.

For further queries:

Far East Road, Piloto, Wawa, Nasugbu, Batangas

Tel. No.: (632) 5206400, 09178836417, 09285060989

It's been a while since we last explored the north of Luzon. Now, that the kids can take relatively longer road trips, we brought them to Subic one weekend. Summer time is finally here. And during this season we talk about fun, sun, travel and more! So, it's but high time to finally experience Subic. It was great to say the least, adventurous and exciting. A close tiger encounter was the most thrilling feel we've ever had. It's a must activity inside Zoobic Safari. We had a day to spend so we settled for Zoobic Safari and Ocean Adventure. I would suggest a morning visit to the Safari and an afternoon to the Ocean Adventure. Here are some of the things to expect from these Subic hot spots:

A tour of animals

Personal feeding of some animals (baby goats - 2 wks old)

Animal Show (very entertaining)

Before the summer ends and the effects of global warming turn the already unpredictable weather even worse, we took the chance of splashing into the most raved resort in Nasugbu, Batangas today, Canyon Cove Residential Beach Resort. This resort was previously owned by the UCPB group and used to be known as White Cove. The resort went a complete renovation after it was taken by the Canyon Woods group, thus the change in the name as well. Except for the dilapidated buildings situated near the entrance gate of the resort, everything looked different from the time we first visited it in late 2003. The hotel is now fully constructed and there's a huge swimming pool to take pleasure in other than the beach. There's a restaurant where you can have a decent meal without going through the hassle of preparing and bringing your own food. The downside however, is that the food is overly priced! A buffet lunch costs around P450 with very limited food choices. A set meal of grilled foodstuffs (squid, tilapia, chicken) with a glass of iced tea costs P350. These are the only options you have since bringing in of food is prohibited. Unless you're too hungry, the grilled meal is already a good pick. It's just enough to fill your tummy but quite insufficient to satisfy your taste buds.

On the resort's facilities, it's generally clean. The overall landscape is a beauty but not something that will blow you away. The beach view is also nice and serene. When swimming, you have to be watchful of some jellyfish as they might be enjoying the water the same time you do. There's really not much to do inside the resort other than swimming and enjoying the company of family and friends. The only available activities are water sports such as jet ski and kayak. For the kids, there's a small playground to enjoy. The service of some staff was pretty slow specially in the reception area. Nonetheless, the warm and friendly accomodation of Batangueños was there to welcome us.

This was a long over due post (supposed to be up right after the holy week), but for another important reason my time for blogging is so hard to pin down these days. Finally, I had a whole day to spend with my family last holy week. We stayed at Hotel Kimberly, Tagaytay in Good Friday. We opted for this hotel for quite a number of reasons. First, it's very close to home yet, we can still have a relaxing "vacation ambiance" that Tagaytay never fails to offer. The hotel is very new (more or less two months old) and thus, you would expect the facilities to be clean which is an essential consideration if you have kids to bring with. It's not too small nor too big, just the right size to enjoy some privacy. Hotel room rates are mid range. With the size of the room and its amenities, I would say it's value for money.

Main Lobby

Reception Area

Room for Double Occupancy

Room for Single or Twin Occupancy

Room for Quadruple or Family