Two Sundays ago because we were going to visit Papa and Mama Gonzales( Marlene's parents) and Ting(no. 1 of Marlene's 3 brothers) graves at Himlayang Pilipino in the afternoon we went to the 10:30AM mass at Della Strada and got through the celebrant's sermon without too much pain.
Therefore the eating decision was where to go for lunch rather than the normal where do we go for dinner. Since we were going towards Tandang Sora the consensus was to head to T. Morato and have lunch at Alex III something we hadn't done for a while.
However Javier insisted that there was an Alex III closer to home in the Philippine Heart Center area and he was right. There was one and it had a wide and airy veranda that reminded Didi and myself of Sunday lunch in Pasay where we grew up. Since the Metro was less crowded then we always had a strong afternoon breeze that characterized our lunches and the mandatory siesta that came after it (drool and all).
We ordered our lunch which consisted of the Aristocrat standards, sotanghon soup, pork and chicken barbecue and for Javier the combo tempura chicken barbecue lunch. Then Mikey pointed out there was chicharon bulaklak and we asked for two orders. Again this evoked memories of childhood because Papa used to buy chicharon bulaklak for Sunday lunch.
The food was demolished in due time with everybody commenting that we had forgotten how good Aristocrat barbecue was.
And that led me to say that this lunch was an Ako'y Pilipino meal. Yes an Ako'y Pilipino meal because I think only a Filipino will feel what he/she really is while eating some version of the pork/chicken barbecue. Having grown up in the pre fast foods era eating out mainly meant two things Aristocrat or a Chinese panciteria. So for my generation the Pork/Chicken barbecue was the height.
Must end my post now Javier just told me Miong our dog bit Jomar the driver and must bring him to the ER for treatment am too upset to continue. EOP
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
midnight meals
i wonder if this is the reason why my family eats so much. or why i do. hahahaha.
but i like the fact that sometimes late at night --- the dogs are all sprawled in different portions of the dining room, the lights are actually off in the kitchen, dinner had been served earlier, the dishes have already been washed and put away ---- i'm getting a glass of milk and maybe a slice of cheddar cheese, and i hear footsteps.
and we're around the table talking. i guess it usually happens when we might have not had dinner together that night, or if some of us have work to do and need to refuel.
but it is these conversations that make the unhealthy habit worth it. it is like the way that my siblings and i find ourselves around the table past midnight on black saturday cooking bacon after a day of fasting. always the same laughter, the same wry smiles.
tonight was with papa and tita didi. and our voices were loud. there was sliced quezo de bola on the table, and miong was barking for attention.
obviously this doesn't only happen late at night. one thing i heard when i first taught was that i would gain weight because really, that was the only way to unwind when there were 120 term papers waiting to be checked. i always drag people from doing work by asking to be fed. hahahaha!
my lunch in styrofoam (!) led into a long conversation about the childhood i seem to have shared with the people in the cast of the thesis play i'm in (even if they're all students), and when i accompanied a friend to rustan's to buy a loaf of farmer's bread, we were giggling about a dream she had. kuya and i shared a fantastic meal of chickenjoy one tuesday this week, perhaps to celebrate the new toy cholo has bought for the house.
obviously no new thing. but this week i realized i missed people.
(i think that was actually my version of thanksgiving.)
but i like the fact that sometimes late at night --- the dogs are all sprawled in different portions of the dining room, the lights are actually off in the kitchen, dinner had been served earlier, the dishes have already been washed and put away ---- i'm getting a glass of milk and maybe a slice of cheddar cheese, and i hear footsteps.
and we're around the table talking. i guess it usually happens when we might have not had dinner together that night, or if some of us have work to do and need to refuel.
but it is these conversations that make the unhealthy habit worth it. it is like the way that my siblings and i find ourselves around the table past midnight on black saturday cooking bacon after a day of fasting. always the same laughter, the same wry smiles.
tonight was with papa and tita didi. and our voices were loud. there was sliced quezo de bola on the table, and miong was barking for attention.
obviously this doesn't only happen late at night. one thing i heard when i first taught was that i would gain weight because really, that was the only way to unwind when there were 120 term papers waiting to be checked. i always drag people from doing work by asking to be fed. hahahaha!
my lunch in styrofoam (!) led into a long conversation about the childhood i seem to have shared with the people in the cast of the thesis play i'm in (even if they're all students), and when i accompanied a friend to rustan's to buy a loaf of farmer's bread, we were giggling about a dream she had. kuya and i shared a fantastic meal of chickenjoy one tuesday this week, perhaps to celebrate the new toy cholo has bought for the house.
obviously no new thing. but this week i realized i missed people.
(i think that was actually my version of thanksgiving.)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Murray's New Orleans
Cholo and i had dinner at Murray's New Orleans last night (at Bonifacio Highstreet) I came from Sta Rosa Laguna and instead of getting driven home linked up with Cholo. We shared a full slab of Cajun barbecued ribs. (Cholo took a pix of it) which looked daunting but we demolished it in no time. I had more ribs than he did. He says it is because I eat too fast.(when you grow up with 8 siblings you have to) but it is also he had the bottom part which had more meat than ribs.
Better than your normal ribs. The soups were good too. I had three bean soup and Cholo had garlic and mushroom.
Only sour note cashier watched me add a tip to my credit card chit and then tells me they do not allow that. That sucks.
Then as requested by Unica Hija went to Sonja's Cupcakes to get her Peppermint Patty. That is really a gold mine there is always a line in the cupcake shop. I had to wait for the creme brulee tart as the pastry chef flamed it. I wonder who Sonja is.
EOP
Better than your normal ribs. The soups were good too. I had three bean soup and Cholo had garlic and mushroom.
Only sour note cashier watched me add a tip to my credit card chit and then tells me they do not allow that. That sucks.
Then as requested by Unica Hija went to Sonja's Cupcakes to get her Peppermint Patty. That is really a gold mine there is always a line in the cupcake shop. I had to wait for the creme brulee tart as the pastry chef flamed it. I wonder who Sonja is.
EOP
Monday, November 12, 2007
Murray's New Orleans, Boni High Street
I figured out why unfortunate things tend to happen to me in restaurants. It's simple really, it's just a matter of law of averages. For every bad experience you have, there is always one good one around the corner. After that Salpicado story (see first post of this blog, which is isn't really that bad at all), my bad experience investment paid dividends just two days after, in the form of an excellent meal with my Father in Murray's - New Orleans, Boni High Street.
I did not have enough sleep the night before (Actually close to none). I had two cups of coffee in the morning, had one strong cup in the afternoon, and a can of coke at dinner time, so I wasn't really surprised I was able to watch both the late evening and early morning screenings of Deadliest Weapons on Discovery Channel, plus snippets of several movies.
I manage through the Monday morning meeting, and an afternoon of buffet Excel and Powerpoint without much fanfare. Nevertheless, I was aching to head home when the clock hit seven (Monday is unfortunately my coding day).
On my way home, I give Papa a call. He asked me if I wanted to have dinner at the Fort. I've been wanting to eating at New Orleans, Boni High Street, for a few weeks already, after having seen an old-style jazz quarter playing there one Sunday night, and have already heard good things about the Baby Back Ribs from two of my workmates. Sleep could wait for a couple hours more, and off to High Street I go.
The afternoons and evenings have been quite pleasant lately, with the December breeze, starting to come around. While I was slowly traversing through the corridors of High Street, I thought to myself, this should be a nice evening and putting of sleep for a few more hours was the right thing to do.
I arrive first, and take the opportunity to take in the scenery. New Orleans, is not a really big place, it's dimly lit, and the dark wood furnishings do not aid the lack of illumination, which I guess is really the purpose of the design. The combination of a high ceiling, walls painted like old stone houses with cheezy colors, and strategically placed lamp fixtures, does the trick in nailing the ambience for this place. Finally, Papa arrives, and we place our orders.
Papa orders a three bean soup, while I order a roasted Garlic and almond soup. For appetizers, we choose Barbecue Shrimp with Garlic, and for our main course, we decide to share a full slab of Baby Back Ribs.
Having soup before any meal is an ingrained program in my Dad's operating system, so he devours his Bean Soup with his usual gusto. I was pleasantly surprised with my soup. It was thick, warm, filling, but not heavy. The garlic and almond did not overpower each other, and both were equally present (My adjectives for food are plagiarized from Iron Chef America). It did a great job to stretch my gastric muscles for the main game coming up.
My Father then points out to waiter that our soup already has arrived, but our appetizer hasn't yet, and appetizers always have to come first. (Just a few minutes later, I overhear a distinguished Chinese gentleman gently chide the waiter, our appetizers have already arrived, and the soup always has to come first. Poor waiter.) Promptly after that notice, the shrimp appetizer arrives.
We go through this dish with much ado. Not diminishing the value of this dish; the shrimp was fresh, it was grilled perfectly with olive oil and garlic, but our main agenda was really the baby back ribs.
I do not want to ruin this dish with contrived adjectives (I haven't seen baby back ribs in Iron Chef America yet), but instead, I would like to present some evidence of how good the ribs were.
1. Look at the Picture above.
2. My Father claims that he ate more ribs than me because he grew up with 8 siblings, but actually, when he deals with us kids, especially with food, he is always the generous one. This time, it was every man for himself.
3. When all that remained on the plate were a couple of stripped ribs, and a few grains of rice, a waiter passes-by, takes a quick glance at the plate, nods in satisfaction, as if he was saying 'good, we did it again'.
4. On a good day, I think I can finish this whole dish by myself.
5. I forgot to take a picture of the aftermath.
All in all, that was a pretty good evening. Needless to day, I slept like a baby that night.
stubbies
1. Misato at Metrowalk is a good place for a family meal. Just order the I LOVE TEMPURA (but be careful not to say I LOVE YOU to the waiter lest he drop the tray), crazy maki, the sukiyaki and the tofu ----- they're pretty big servings so GO.
2. I really like the priests who say mass at Sta. Maria Della Strada at 530 PM. Fr. Roche (Papa Joe Roche ---- heehee!) may sound like he's always angry, but he's so lucid. He gives you something to stand on so the jump (uy, hindi leap) towards faith isn't so scary. Fr. Bernas likes to make things quick and simple ---- but I do wonder why he was in a hurry last Sunday.
3. Sweet Inspirations, Katipunan has good mango cream pie but the salpicao --- not so good.
4. There's this tiny Chinese restaurant in Rockwell called Spring Moon which has siomai that's just packed. Yung wala kang makakagat na hangin. The manager can also recommend good dishes too.
5. I think being nice to your waiters is important, but telling them if they suck is vital too. And that goes for anyone who's doing something you can do for yourself, even if you are paying them to do it. I can't lift it to the point of nation, but hey i didn't try to teach Germans how to build a better bottling plant.
6. The Ateneo CAF still does good turon. And they sell this rum cake now which is just good. Damn it. i'm getting the freshman 20...uh....ewan.
7. The tea brand Dilmah is good. flavor rocks and it does keep you up without the shakes of coffee. the smiling bearded middle eastern man on the box is a plus too. I've tried the Moroccan Mint and the Vanilla Ceylon, they're both true to their names.
8. Mongkok is pretty good Chinese take-out. The branch outside la vista is bracing for the opening of the chowking at the petron. The Petron will open on the 16th of November.
so non sequiturs and such.
NING out.
2. I really like the priests who say mass at Sta. Maria Della Strada at 530 PM. Fr. Roche (Papa Joe Roche ---- heehee!) may sound like he's always angry, but he's so lucid. He gives you something to stand on so the jump (uy, hindi leap) towards faith isn't so scary. Fr. Bernas likes to make things quick and simple ---- but I do wonder why he was in a hurry last Sunday.
3. Sweet Inspirations, Katipunan has good mango cream pie but the salpicao --- not so good.
4. There's this tiny Chinese restaurant in Rockwell called Spring Moon which has siomai that's just packed. Yung wala kang makakagat na hangin. The manager can also recommend good dishes too.
5. I think being nice to your waiters is important, but telling them if they suck is vital too. And that goes for anyone who's doing something you can do for yourself, even if you are paying them to do it. I can't lift it to the point of nation, but hey i didn't try to teach Germans how to build a better bottling plant.
6. The Ateneo CAF still does good turon. And they sell this rum cake now which is just good. Damn it. i'm getting the freshman 20...uh....ewan.
7. The tea brand Dilmah is good. flavor rocks and it does keep you up without the shakes of coffee. the smiling bearded middle eastern man on the box is a plus too. I've tried the Moroccan Mint and the Vanilla Ceylon, they're both true to their names.
8. Mongkok is pretty good Chinese take-out. The branch outside la vista is bracing for the opening of the chowking at the petron. The Petron will open on the 16th of November.
so non sequiturs and such.
NING out.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
salpicado part two
11 November 2007
I did not realize blogging was this difficult. Today Anina was pressuring me to continue on my treatise of why not telling a customer his salpicado was not available well into the meal was an indication of why the Philippines could not be globally competitive.
My point is based on the following, we cannot compete because
First, we do not like checklists. Attention to details is not Filipino, we like to play by ear or oido.
Second, we do not have the discipline of a systems perspective. It seems we cannot connect how things affect each other. So in a restaurant where there is no system , poor training and no supervision you get no salpicado in the middle of the meal.
I believe Bayani Fernando is successful in doing something about traffic in Metro- Manila is because he has people who see from a systems perspective. I once heard Chiz Escudero chide Bayani Fernando about changing U-turn locations so often. Too me it is because there is constant learning about traffic patterns and one keeps trying until you find the right one.
A good example are the Uturn locations along the Libis stretch of C5. Today you only have one location at both ends and traffic flows. When you had several locations you kept on hitting bottlenecks which resulted in stop and go traffic in what is basically a thruway.
I know they will start building the UTurn flyovers (first one in the Kalayaan area of C5) similar to the ones they have in Thailand and traffic will be better.
Third, we accept Puede Na. Excellence is only for the Mayabang. In our salpicado story maybe the appropriate reaction was to stand and leave and cancel everything but as my only daughter pointed out the only guy that would suffer would probably be the waiter.
Of course these are not the only reasons why we cannot compete.
At the same time the Filipino will shine in difficult situations under a lot of time pressure where getting it done is the main objective. Early in my Coca Cola career we installed a bottling line in a building without a roof (during the summer) to meet market demands. My boss then who by the way is now Chairman of the Coca Cola Company brought a group of Coca Cola technical men from Germany to show them there were other ways of doing things.(not only the German Vay)Later we bottled Coca Cola in a brewery bottling line which was a nono in the Coke world.
I guess we are great at getting things done when we are breaking rules. End of post
I did not realize blogging was this difficult. Today Anina was pressuring me to continue on my treatise of why not telling a customer his salpicado was not available well into the meal was an indication of why the Philippines could not be globally competitive.
My point is based on the following, we cannot compete because
First, we do not like checklists. Attention to details is not Filipino, we like to play by ear or oido.
Second, we do not have the discipline of a systems perspective. It seems we cannot connect how things affect each other. So in a restaurant where there is no system , poor training and no supervision you get no salpicado in the middle of the meal.
I believe Bayani Fernando is successful in doing something about traffic in Metro- Manila is because he has people who see from a systems perspective. I once heard Chiz Escudero chide Bayani Fernando about changing U-turn locations so often. Too me it is because there is constant learning about traffic patterns and one keeps trying until you find the right one.
A good example are the Uturn locations along the Libis stretch of C5. Today you only have one location at both ends and traffic flows. When you had several locations you kept on hitting bottlenecks which resulted in stop and go traffic in what is basically a thruway.
I know they will start building the UTurn flyovers (first one in the Kalayaan area of C5) similar to the ones they have in Thailand and traffic will be better.
Third, we accept Puede Na. Excellence is only for the Mayabang. In our salpicado story maybe the appropriate reaction was to stand and leave and cancel everything but as my only daughter pointed out the only guy that would suffer would probably be the waiter.
Of course these are not the only reasons why we cannot compete.
At the same time the Filipino will shine in difficult situations under a lot of time pressure where getting it done is the main objective. Early in my Coca Cola career we installed a bottling line in a building without a roof (during the summer) to meet market demands. My boss then who by the way is now Chairman of the Coca Cola Company brought a group of Coca Cola technical men from Germany to show them there were other ways of doing things.(not only the German Vay)Later we bottled Coca Cola in a brewery bottling line which was a nono in the Coke world.
I guess we are great at getting things done when we are breaking rules. End of post
Saturday, November 10, 2007
start of a new journey
Saturday 10 November 2007
Because I egged Anina to start this blog going after so many months of talking about it I get the privilege of posting its first serious entry. I will turn 62 in a couple of months and this is my first attempt to ever write a blog.
We decided as a family to start this blog mainly so we can track the places where we go to eat when we have our Sunday dinner after Mass. I am a widower with four children who I describe as ALPS (adults living with parent),Javier, Cholo, Anina and Mikey. My wife Marlene died five years ago and I guess the Sunday mass and dinner have become a part of our family coping mechanism to deal with such an early loss.
A younger sister Didi who was widowed two years ago also lives with us and is part of this foodie group.
But today was not Sunday, it just happened that we went to visit Marlene's grave at Loyola Memorial in Marikina for All Saints Day, We finished the visit at half past twelve and everyone was quite hungry. The decision of where to go for a meal can be quite involved because each of us have our own preferences and we tend to talk a lot about things in this family particularly about Food.
I had wanted to go to Mario's Kitchen at Tiendesitas because I like their Sopa Buena. Anina had objections but she did not indicate a preference although she eventually said she wanted to go to Pho Hoa in Eastwood. The guys did not have any particular choice so the decision was to go to Mario's Kitchen.
On the way to Mario's Kitchen we got to talking about another restaurant in the same area called Forest House where we had eaten before but not as a complete family (Mikey and Cholo hadnt). The attraction with Forest House was its bagnet and its Baguio like ambiance. Exercising my father authority it was decided to go to Forest House.
It was almost one in the afternoon and we were the first customers for the day. Although more people came in after us (it is a general observation that when the family goes to an empty restaurant in a short while it gets full, sort of like the way flies are attracted to you know what)
The air conditioning was not on yet and the waiter was tying his necktie as he showed us to our table.
We ordered our food and as a rule I will not talk about the food we ordered
unless it is remarkable or it is extremely bad. We are not food critics we are just a family that like to eat good food adventurous enough to keep on looking for new places to try.
Our story for this restaurant is what happened to Cholo's salpicado. After going through the appetizers, soup and salad, almost an hour into the meal the waiter comes back with the menu and tells Cholo the salpicado was not available. For some reason things like this happen to Cholo in restaurants. Cholo was obviously upset and I tried to appease him by calling for the Manager who was not in, So we called the Chef who was quite apologetic and told him about our displeasure.
We were too hungry to get really upset about the situation so Cholo made his second choice,the baby back ribs. Our entrees came and we went about our meal (we were really hungry) noisily as usual. Anina was not happy with her fish and chips and I was telling her it was difficult to find good fish in Baguio restaurants.
The general consensus was the food was average and because of the salpicado incident the meal experience was rated to be slightly below average.We decided not to have dessert. After getting the bill the waiter came back with two plates of ice cream and rum cake compliments of the house. Suddenly we were going to have dessert. ( madali pala kaming makalimot)
I will end here because my mind is starting to fall asleep although I was toying with idea to use the salpicado incident as a point to explain why we us a country cannot compete in a global market. Good night folks.
Because I egged Anina to start this blog going after so many months of talking about it I get the privilege of posting its first serious entry. I will turn 62 in a couple of months and this is my first attempt to ever write a blog.
We decided as a family to start this blog mainly so we can track the places where we go to eat when we have our Sunday dinner after Mass. I am a widower with four children who I describe as ALPS (adults living with parent),Javier, Cholo, Anina and Mikey. My wife Marlene died five years ago and I guess the Sunday mass and dinner have become a part of our family coping mechanism to deal with such an early loss.
A younger sister Didi who was widowed two years ago also lives with us and is part of this foodie group.
But today was not Sunday, it just happened that we went to visit Marlene's grave at Loyola Memorial in Marikina for All Saints Day, We finished the visit at half past twelve and everyone was quite hungry. The decision of where to go for a meal can be quite involved because each of us have our own preferences and we tend to talk a lot about things in this family particularly about Food.
I had wanted to go to Mario's Kitchen at Tiendesitas because I like their Sopa Buena. Anina had objections but she did not indicate a preference although she eventually said she wanted to go to Pho Hoa in Eastwood. The guys did not have any particular choice so the decision was to go to Mario's Kitchen.
On the way to Mario's Kitchen we got to talking about another restaurant in the same area called Forest House where we had eaten before but not as a complete family (Mikey and Cholo hadnt). The attraction with Forest House was its bagnet and its Baguio like ambiance. Exercising my father authority it was decided to go to Forest House.
It was almost one in the afternoon and we were the first customers for the day. Although more people came in after us (it is a general observation that when the family goes to an empty restaurant in a short while it gets full, sort of like the way flies are attracted to you know what)
The air conditioning was not on yet and the waiter was tying his necktie as he showed us to our table.
We ordered our food and as a rule I will not talk about the food we ordered
unless it is remarkable or it is extremely bad. We are not food critics we are just a family that like to eat good food adventurous enough to keep on looking for new places to try.
Our story for this restaurant is what happened to Cholo's salpicado. After going through the appetizers, soup and salad, almost an hour into the meal the waiter comes back with the menu and tells Cholo the salpicado was not available. For some reason things like this happen to Cholo in restaurants. Cholo was obviously upset and I tried to appease him by calling for the Manager who was not in, So we called the Chef who was quite apologetic and told him about our displeasure.
We were too hungry to get really upset about the situation so Cholo made his second choice,the baby back ribs. Our entrees came and we went about our meal (we were really hungry) noisily as usual. Anina was not happy with her fish and chips and I was telling her it was difficult to find good fish in Baguio restaurants.
The general consensus was the food was average and because of the salpicado incident the meal experience was rated to be slightly below average.We decided not to have dessert. After getting the bill the waiter came back with two plates of ice cream and rum cake compliments of the house. Suddenly we were going to have dessert. ( madali pala kaming makalimot)
I will end here because my mind is starting to fall asleep although I was toying with idea to use the salpicado incident as a point to explain why we us a country cannot compete in a global market. Good night folks.
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