Category Archives: Friends

Kuse

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A dear friend came over to Manila, so we decided to have dinner on a Thursday night. Another friend suggested that we try going to McKinley Hill, because of good words we heard. When we got there, the place is like a campus with the plaza complex just like Alabang Town Center. Restaurants and bar mushroomed the spaces near the center of the plaza. They copy the architecture of Venice, minus the water and pigeons.

We decided to eat Pinoy foods, so we prefer Kuse. Ordered for bulalo, seaweeds, sisig and pancit. Yes, the sinful Pinoy foods. It was another good night of fun, catch up, and yes, picture taking.

@Abe

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Our dear friends, Joy and Rommel, are here in Manila. One just came from the province, and the other is on a vacation mode after months in the high seas. As friendly rule dictates, we just have to meet and catch up on so many things, even if the stories are recycled. Trust me, we just don’t get tired of laughing at the same old funny anecdotes and punchline from things past.

We meet at Trinoma around dinner time. We decided to eat at Abe, with my moral persuasion, because the crispy pata is just to die-for! And I want to eat it again. So off we go to the restaurant.

Good thing, the restaurant is not full compared to other dining establishments nearby where people just overflow to the brim. It makes the occasion special, and laid back. Perfect for story telling and a fistful of laughs. Check some wonderful pictures below. I don’t have to elaborate further how special the night is. Just notice our smiles.

Lunch date @ Fely J’s

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It has been awhile since my high school friends had a get-together, meaning, dine out in a nice restaurant in the metropolis. Most of them went home in the province during the Christmas break, and I was stuck in Manila because of work, so there was no chance of a get-together. I have to find a way for us to sit down and talk to each other, catch up on each other, especially what is happening around them. Not to mention, the latest gossips and rumours from our other friends who are not here, and batchmates from high school. Bad, but we are all guilty of this.

I chose a good restaurant for the get together. I had been hearing good news for Fely J’s, a restaurant in the upscale Greenbelt 5 in Ayala Center, Makati. I had been to Abe, which is owned by the same group who operates Fely J’s. I look for their contact number and specialties on the net, and I think I made the right choice of venue. We have not yet decided when to held the get-together. But because one of our friend is about to celebrate her birthday, we decided to do it on the same date. The celebrant is not joining the get-together, she is in the province. Usually, our get together is set at dinner time. But to make a difference, we agreed to have it over lunch. I made a reservation one day ahead just to make sure we don’t wait and we have seats ready for us.

It was a Sunday, January 24, 2010 at exactly 12 noon, the get together finally push through at Fely J’s Greenbelt.

The restaurant is named after the mother of Larry Cruz, the owner of the restaurant group, and her specialties. The setting is like your old Spanish-inspired house, complete with wooden ceiling fan. We decided to order sinigang in classic flavor (as opposed to the guava flavor), fried tilapia drench in sweet local spices, sisig, squid, broccoli, and adobo. A serving of one menu is good for 2 to 3 person, with a price range of P300 – P550. The price is a bit steep, so we are expecting something good once the food order arrived. It was a Sunday, so there are a lot of customers eating their lunch. Family and family in one long table. This might be the reason why our order came too late. We were pang with hunger already.

Once the food came, there was a collective salivation from the group. The tilapia really look nice. And the aroma of the sinigang reminds you of homemade version in the province. The tilapia is so crispy and flavorful. It must be from the spices and special sauce it was dip into. Highly recommended.

Mix this with good, funny stories thrown against each other, and the equation becomes perfect. It is one of those moment where you just have to laugh hard from the joke exchanges, and heightened by the nice, Pinoy foods of Fely J’s. Maybe the next time I go there, I will order their crispy pata. It looks like it is inviting as well.

After the heavy lunch, we troop to Seattle’s Best to take dessert and coffee. After all the food intake, coffee will surely help in the digestion.

What a fun day it was. I fervently hope that this will be repeated anytime soon. In a different restaurant already!

Merlion visits the Philippines.

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My super friend, Meg, is in the country for a weeklong break from work in Singapore. It was a Thursday, and the activities for that night has been set since a month ago. We will have a full body massage at The Spa, a thing which she said is muchly deserve. I made the online reservation three days before Thursday at their Greenbelt branch.

I finally saw her Thursday afternoon, with Bimboy. I last saw her May of this year when I visited her on her birthday in Singapore. After the one hour full body massage, we waited for some of our friends to join us at a Spanish-inspired dinner at Casa Armas in Greenbelt 3.

casa armas

It was a dinner of paella valenciana, gambas and Spanish chorizo, and a lot of fun, fun, stories that laster two hours. And because Meg has not been in the Philippines for a year, she just missed Miggy.

Miggy is San Mig Light. Off we go to a nearby watering hole to see Miggy. A bucket of Miggy!

krocodile

And some pork ears to accompany us. The last hurrah of Oktoberfest!

sisig

meg

Welcome home, Meg.

…and Raining!

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It’s been four days of overcast sky, cloudy afternoon, and scattered rainshowers from time to time. That means three days of “house arrest”, staying indoors due to bad weather. But not really.

The other night I was in a friend’s house for dinner. It was their barangay fiesta. Some of my high school friends are there. It was jovial because some of the faces I have not seen in a long time.

Guia

And because it is raining, everyone was in a rainy getup as reflected from the picture above. Hector, Dennis and Venice are in jacket and caps. Most are donning shorts because going to Guia (the barangay) is like going to a Motocross competition complete with muddy, wet and bumpy road.

As always, the sinful foods are present. Predominantly meat. And scattered vegetables on the sides. And after gluttony comes the great equalizer: booze.

Inom

San Mig Light for the waistline conscious, and Generoso Brandy for those who don’t like the bitter aftertaste of beer.

The contagious laughing was override by the chill factor of the weather. Rain and the cold breeze are to be blame for the subdued atmosphere of the get together. Everyone’s curling up a bit, we are not as noisy as we want it to be, we have gobbled up not enough bottles as we want it, and the noticeable lethargy is just evident. See the proof below:

Ian

Ian is texting, maybe to kill time and the cold?

Mae

Mae is sleepy and not in the mood. May LQ daw ba?

Joy

Pointy and skinny.

downward sloping

Everybody’s face is downward sloping. Please, can somebody stop the rain? And this gloomy weather.