Genki Sushi

January 25, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

We had another art tambay last Sunday. But before I get to that post, a few weeks ago we had another food trip with our friend. This time we tried Genki Sushi at UP Town Center.

They had a different way of ordering here. There are touch screens on every table with their complete menu. You can browse & order through the touch screen. It can even compute your total bill. Orders are then delivered via train:

4 orders per delivery.

Ohhhh my chirashi don. ♥

Sushiiii. ♥ Different colored plates mean different prices.

Our bill amounted to 3k php+! Their sashimi were certainly fresh. But I don’t think we’ll go back here again. Its too pricey.

Coffee was at Negative Space Cafe. Speaking of this cafe: this is currently one of our favorite cafes. I haven’t done a proper review yet of this place. Sooo many pending blog posts!

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Digital Walker x Recession Coffee

January 17, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

One random Saturday, Inggo & I met with a friend for a food trip at Eastwood. After eating at 2 restaurants (Ramen Kuroda & Beef Barn), we wanted coffee. I suggested we try this place because of its unique selling point. This is Recession Coffee, which is located inside the Digital Walker store in Eastwood mall.

VSCOcam goodness, lol.

The unique way of ordering. You pay what you want! I paid 150php for mine. Inggo paid 100php in coins.

Cute.

It was okay. But it didn’t satisfy our caffeine cravings. So we went to another coffee shop after this HAHA.

Facebook page | Menu from Zomato

Restaurant Roundups

January 2, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

If I did a Cafe Crawls post last time, what would this be called? Restaurant roundups? Yeah, that would do HAHAHA.

I’m not sure if I already mentioned it on this blog, but I used to do a food blog with Inggo back then. I would take photos of the food & he would write the reviews. Sadly, we don’t do that anymore due to time constraint. But we still go out for food adventures every week. Asides from taking photos of the food, I also take photos of the interiors. So here’s a compilation of restaurant & cafe photos for the year 2016.

Caffe Dolce Buffet, Banawe street.

Coco Ichibanya, Eastwood.

Happon, Maginhawa street.

Kitchen of Cakes & Coffee, SM North Sky Garden.

Vanilla Cupcake Bakery, Mother Ignacia street.

Not a restaurant or cafe. Just thought that it looked good after the Kitchen of Cakes & Coffee photo. Life After Breakfast‘s booth during Manila Fame.

Makansutra, SM Megamall.

Mongkok Bistro, NAIA 3 Terminal.

Starbucks, Eugenio Lopez street.

Same Starbucks branch during their Teavana drink promo.

St. Marc Cafe. Forgot which branch. Love the dramatic lighting.

Thaipan, Sct. Dr. Lazcano.

Most of the photos are edited in VSCO, tweaked a bit & watermarked in Photoshop.

2017

January 1, 20171 Comment

2016 was such an adventure. I think despite what my Chinese Zodiac predicted for my year, I did the best that I could. But the Chinese New Year is not yet over!

I did a lot of things that I’m happy & proud of this year.

I went to a lot of places with Inggo – local and international. We got to bond with my side of the family in Batangas, had an international adventure in Singapore, celebrated our anniversary in Davao, and feasted on seafood in Roxas City. We got to eat at a lot of new restaurants this year.

I’m improving my art and I’m enjoying the journey of it. I got to meet like-minded individuals with the same passion as me in watercolor and art. I had art tambays with old and new friends that we introduced watercolor to. I got to exchange artist trading cards with new people.

I maintained a blog for a year! With entries every month! I didn’t know that I had the drive to edit photos & think of blog posts every month. This is a HUGE accomplishment.

Overall, despite the many dramas in life, I got through it! And that makes me proud and swell in happiness. I’m sure that this is a hopeful year for me. Here’s to more Art & Adventures this 2017. ♥

Portraits (Nov-Dec 2016)

December 31, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

First of all- Happy New Year ! May 2017 bring more positive vibes to all. ♥

At my last job, I was known as the person who makes watercolor portraits as a birthday gift/farewell gift/good luck-for-board exams gift for my office mates. And, well, for the last time, I did portraits for my closest friends and colleagues there as my farewell gift to them. I also did some portrait practice during a get together with friends. ♥

The last time that I posted about my artworks was way back in October during the Just Add Water 2 event. So finally, here is the compilation post for November & December.

Left: Birthday gift for Gerard / Right: Farewell gift from me to Stephen. #TeamQuiet

Left: “I’m sorry for leaving all ID projects to you” gift to Badet / Right: Advanced happy birthday gift & farewell gift to Ruden.

Portrait practices.

Here’s to more art next year! ♥

Roxas – Palina River Cruise

December 26, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

During the research period for our trip, I found out that there were 3 river cruises in Roxas City. Since doing 3 river cruises seem too much, I only chose Palina River Cruise. Why this one? The shallow reason that it sounded similar to my name. (I’m so sorry).

Reserving for the river cruise was such a breeze. We just texted their number 0948 131 4147 for our registrations. We also informed them that we would like to have lunch there after the tour and their arranged our preferred seafood for us. During our visit, they were offering a weekend promo of a 1 hour river cruise with snack for only 100php per person. Travel time from plaza to Palina Greenbelt Ecopark is around 30 mins by tricycle. We paid 150php for the one way trip. I think thats expensive! But we don’t know the regulated price, sigh.

We enjoyed the relaxing river tour. The boatman told us the history of the place, their fishing methods, and their culture. I really felt that they were hospitable & accommodating to us. I felt bad that I didn’t get to eat as much for lunch because of food poisoning. This is a recommended tour for me. You are helping a community that’s doing good for the environment. Kudos also for the Capiz government for supporting this. If we were to visit again, I’d go back here because I heard you can opt for the floating bamboo raft to station at a sandbar for swimming.

And that ends our Roxas vacation. It was an okay experience. It was inexpensive, yes. But I felt that we should’ve gone to Olotayan island or visited Sta. Monica Church to see the largest bell. We attempted to do the day tour of Gigantes group of islands but a certain famous travel agency didn’t entertain us. They replied to our private message on Facebook, even called us through phone and promised to send out the tour details through email but no follow through. Why should I be the one to follow-up when I did that during the private messages? I’m the interested customer. Is it because we were only a couple? Oh well. If we’re going to do the Gigantes tour, we’ll go with another travel agency or go DIY.

Thanks for reading! Next post will be about my art works. I’m trying to catch up on pending blog posts. Whew!

Roxas City – Plaza

December 26, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

The second post for my Roxas series is about the city itself. For the first post about Roxas City’s food, click here. Since our hotel was near the plaza, we just walked there instead of hailing a tricycle. We don’t mind walking since the river is clean, there’s no funky smell here compared to Metro Manila. There were even fishermen in the morning fishing in the river for tilapia. Some of the houses here are old, which I appreciated since this is also a rare sight.

Daily walk to the plaza. The bridge there is around a century old!

As I’m not an architect, I’m so sorry I can’t describe in detail the houses in these photos. But I appreciate their design still. You could do a mini city tour by yourself since these areas are just a few steps away from each other.

City Hall with classic architecture improved with modern twists.

Immaculate Conception Cathedral.

Ang Panublion Museum. Entrance here is free – visit here to know more about Capiz & Roxas City.

Current exhibit featuring Jovita Fuentes.

We also attempted to visit President Manuel Roxas’ ancestral home. We thought it was closed so we texted the number at the door to see if we can visit the next day. Unfortunately, they replied too late. They were apparently open when we went – but we didn’t know because from the outside it looked like it was closed for the day. Maybe we should’ve shouted “Tao po?”.

Info.

And that’s it for the this entry. Next one would be the one & only tour that we got for this trip: The Palina River Tour!

Roxas City – Food

December 26, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

First of all, Happy Holidays! I finally had time to sit down & blog about our Roxas trip last month. While editing the photos, I thought maybe I should separate this entry into 3 posts. So the first one that I’ll do is about the food.

We bought our Roxas tickets just days after our Davao trip. It was a really good deal – around 1500php per person. That’s the price for a one-way ticket to Davao. Why here? Well, aside from being a good deal, we both love seafood and I researched that Roxas City is the Seafood Capital of the Philippines.

Once we arrived at Roxas airport. We took a tricycle to Baybay beach. Famous for their fresh seafood dishes.

One thing I didn’t like though, is that we took a tricycle outside the airport gates to go to Baybay beach. He charged us 50php per person each. In our future trips, it was only 50php for both of us. Maybe the city should enforce stricter regularization of prices? Sigh. The tricycle driver took us to his relatives’ restaurant instead of the famous seafood court. Since we’re there already, might as well eat here. Note to self, be firm with people.

Fresh oysters for 40php!

Meat comparison. HAHA.

Prawns for 240php

Lato salad for 80php. Lato is also called Sea Grapes.

Cat fish.

Our first lunch at Roxas was a pleasant experience. After that, we checked in our hotel. We chose Wallabies Hotel for our stay. It’s only a few minutes walking distance to the plaza. For dinner, we went to Cafe Terraza. It’s located at Pueblo de Panay, just a tricycle ride from Robinsons Place Roxas. After dinner, we learned that there’s a roundtrip jeep to Robinsons Place. I chose this place because we didn’t get to do a “dinner with a view/mountains/hills” at Davao.

This is the view. Not that nice in the photo. But it really pretty. With the fresh air & cool breeze lol.

Seafood karekare! 265php.

Baked scallops. 195php.

Iced mocha & blueberry cheesecake.

Inggo’s dessert. I forgot the name.

The next day, we woke up a bit late. We explored the plaza looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Spanggo – a Spanish+Ilocano restaurant just near our hotel. Apparently this place is famous for its pies.

Spanggo interior.

Dragon balls. 180php.

Palabok. 99php.

Beef Caldereta. 165php.

Bacon Meal. 110php.

The most delicious apple pie I’ve ever tasted! 55php.

Crumbly goodness.

Fried Halo-Halo. 85php.

After this huge lunch. We rested for a bit back at the hotel. After a while, we decided for some reason to walk to Baybay beach. Yes, walk. It took an hour, but we did it HAHA. It wasn’t tiring, since we got some refreshments at City Mall. And we enjoyed the scenery.

Baybay Beach at dusk.

For dinner, we decided to eat at Coco Veranda. It’s one of the top ranked restaurants on Trip Advisor. They have a huge board with the current prices of seafood, but I didn’t get to take a photo of that. Same with the other restaurants at Baybay, this one is also a cook as you order setting.

Clam soup.

Garlic crab.

Baybay at night. This is the seafood food court. We didn’t get a chance to eat there HAHA.

I got food poisoned the second night. I didn’t know from where though. So the third day was awful for me. Maybe it was from too much clams and oysters. They were so cheap here HAHA. Yes, they were fresh. It was too bad that we didn’t consider the season of other seafoods like the diwal – a native shellfish famous here, and crabs & shrimp we also not in season so they were not as cheap as we imagined.

But it was still a nice experience. Next post will be about the town.

Freedom

December 20, 2016Leave a comment

A lot of things happened within a month that I wasn’t able to keep track of. I’m so sorry, my blog!

We went to Roxas City last month (pending blog post for this). My grandfather died the same week as that. I filed my resignation a week after. Then I left my job last December 2 (after a year & 4 months there). No sadness, anger, or anything. Just… relief. “Finally!” and “I’m freeeeee!” came to mind. I went to the PIID Christmas Party, did some work for someone, bought a gaming laptop (partly for work also).

WHEW. So I was busy with life lol. BUT! Since this is supposed to be my “break month”. I need to do blog posts soon. Really soon. When I have the time. Sigh! Still so many things to do.

Sorry for the rambling.

Conrad Hotel

November 18, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

One of the things we did during the long weekend (Oct 29-Nov1) was celebrate my cousin’s birthday at the Conrad Hotel. It’s located behind the SMX Convention center. Well, we entered the hotel through a secret door from S Maison mall and ended up below:

Ground floor Main Lobby

This wasn’t the main lobby where you check-in. This is the receiving lobby I think. The main lobby is on the 3rd floor. But first lets admire the pretty sculptural focal point:

2016-11-conrad-lobby

Ballroom / Function room area. Pretty carpet!

That ceiling design.

Master bedroom T&B.

Cove light details.

One detail that I liked about this hotel is the curves of the interiors. The cove ceilings, walls, furniture all have curved edges which is rarely seen in interiors here in the Philippines. It’s also amazing to finally see the motorized curtain track in action. HAHA. This hotel has a good view of the sea. Perfect on weekends due to the fireworks display at MOA.