Happy 10th birthday Fiji!

Last sunday, Feb 24, 2013, was my favorite nephew's 10th birthday. In honor of that momentous occasion, his ever loving parents treated the Mendoza and Galecio clans to eat-all-you-can dinner celebration at Sambo Kojin.

Yes, that is a paper napkin. My sony xperia mini pro phone started acting up and this was the only shot I was able to take for my first trip to Sambokojin. I pity myself.

So after getting my nephew a gift (it was a remote controlled flying ball, which was basically, the rotors of an RC helicopter, in a plastic ball cage, which was pretty cool), we headed to Sambo Kojin, West Avenue for the 6pm get-together.

I envy today's kids with their hi-tech toys.

It's my first time to eat at Sambo Kojin although I've eaten at their other sister companies.

Their branch at West Avenue had around 6-10 parking slots at front (can't remember), but they have valets that can park for you, so parking won't be an issue. Just drive along their small driveway up to the front doors, and their valets will do the rest.

Once inside, the interiors are pretty modern. It's very well lit, tables are adequately spaced for a person to walk between them, and the chairs are quite comforable.

At the middle of the table is a grill, which you can turn on just by flipping a switch on the side of the table.

You get a plate, chopsticks and a napkin (which is the only one I was able to take a picture off, thank you Sony for my buggy phone). A rectangular condiments dish with partitions so you can pour in the different marinades you can dip your meat before grilling. And then there are the jars that contains the different marinades and the sesame oil for cooking on the grill.

There were basically four food stations. One held the different japanese delicacies like sushi rolls, sashimi, maki, etc as well as some Korean items,  which I profess I do not know much of. But it's there, so that means it's edible, and that's good enough for me.

The other station has the meats for grilling (yakiniku), which has beef, fish, pork, chicken, and some vegetables as well.

They also had a dessert station which had some creme brulee, mini cake rolls, chocolate mousse, cream puffs, cup cakes, ice cream and others.

I never had the chance of going to the fourth station as most of the time I was at the tempura station and the yakiniku station. I do love me some grilled beef.

The only time I wandered away from these two stations was when I sauntered to the dessert station to grab an eclair, a creme brulee, and a few (but hard worked) scoops of mocha ice cream.

And since it was my nephew's birthday, the staff sang him a birthday song and gave him a cupcake with a candle to blow out. The staff are really accommodating: Almost all the tables had a 'birthday celebrant' among them, which made the staff doing the rounds and singing the same song over and over again, yet, they belted them out with the same vigor.

I'm not a big eater outside of home, so I rarely go to buffet restaurants. The only time that I do go is when I get invited, or when I treat my team to a very well earned dinner or lunch. My wife and I usually just go out for set meals, even with my parents since they're not big eaters as well. Most of the time we always end up taking food home since we're unable to finish them.

But as far as eat-all-you-can restaurants go, Sambo Kojin is pretty good. The price is affordable, the staff are very accommodating, the place is clean and everything looks in pretty good shape. If  I had any complaints, it would probably be that beverages are not included (Although I'm not sure since I didn't pay for the meal. I'll probably just ask my sister sometime).

All in all, a pretty good first time at Sambo Kojin.

Do you love desserts?

I'm not really big on desserts. I won't say no if you give them to me, but I really won't go out of my way for them. Nor would I order them along with meals.

But my wife loves them. And I love my wife.

She's been telling me about this place somewhere in Banawe that offered eat-all-you-can dessert menu called Love Desserts. A couple of weeks back, we managed to pass by it on our way to have lunch with my parents at Everything At Steak. We promised to go back there, and last weekend, we did, to see if they offered pastry catering for our son's birthday. Turns out they only did so in their shop. They don't do caterings outside.

Still, we decided to eat there since the wifey's always wanted to try it out.

Eat all you can desserts. Not for the faint of heart or a diabetic

The buffet starts at 199php, including drinks, which is a big plus. So if you're really into desserts, you'll find yourself in nirvana. We arrived around 3:40pm (the waitresses write it down on a piece of paper attached to your table's menu centerpiece), so the place is nearly full. We were lucky that there was a free table at the back, but we transferred to a larger table in front of the buffet set up when it freed up.

The cafe is really small and quaint. It can fit around 20 persons, but you'll bump into people maneuvering around the place. Parking up front is good for 3 cars, but there are other parking slots that are shared with the other establishments around the building.

Now onto the buffet itself. There were several pastries being offered, but I only managed to taste a few before I got my sugar-fill for the year. I tried my palates against cream puffs, eclairs, pork empanadas, silvanas, a shot glass filled with dessert I didn't know what it was called, and some cheese sticks.

I'm not sure what's in the shot glass. But it seemed like it had some kiwi in it. And to its right is a pork empanada. And at the bottom is a silvana. The crumbs are what remains of its twin I had murdered.

Cheese sticks! and mayo! Who'd thunk they're desserts?

Everything was good. I can't remember if anything stood out. But I really don't have a sweet tooth. I'm more into salty food, which is why I liked the cheese sticks.

I forgot what other pastries they served, so I'll just update this post after I ask my wife if she remembers the other desserts.

I do remember that they have halo halo, milk tea, ice tea, milk shakes, and ice cream as well, which includes a selection of toppings you can put on it.

They do serve sandwiches not included in the buffet. I saw a hamburger, but didn't bother to look at the rest of the menu as I was craving me some ramen at the time.

You're allowed to stay for around 2 hours, so we left by 6pm. At that time, there were still 3 groups of people waiting outside despite customers coming and going. I guess Love Desserts is pretty popular around the area, especially with the younger crowds. The price is just about right, great location and pretty warm staff.

The technologies that I love : Wireless Fidelity

I'm a fairly techie person. Having owned my first x86 PC back in 1996, and getting on the Internet around 1997, I have always tried to keep in touch with all the latest tech news and gadgets and if able, own some of them.

Ever since I got on the Internet, our main problem was that we could only access it from our PC. And since we only had one PC and one modem attached to it, we had to alternately use it. And with 2 other siblings sharing, it was such a pain waiting in line to get the chance to go online.

Back then, I didn't know anything about networking, and I never occurred to me to set up one at home. I always thought you only did that for businesses. Especially since most networking equipment you needed might have cost an arm and a leg during the early 2000s.

But after getting broadband internet at home around 2003 (geez, has it been that long? That means Ive been a loyal BayanDSL user for a decade!), my soon to be brother-in-law (who's a Network Engineer then) introduced me to the wonderful world of Home Networking.

He gave me a Linksys WRT54G and connected it with our dsl modem. It's a router that has 4-wired ports for use with ethernet cables, and wireless-G for use with wifi-enabled gadgets. And my life has never been the same.

Having wifi, allowed us mobility. We no longer needed to connect a wired cable from our laptops to the router just to be able to access the internet. Having wifi-enabled laptops allowed us access the internet all at the same time. I could bring my laptop from our living room, to my bedroom without having to disconnect and connect cables. When I cooked, I could bring the laptop to the kitchen and look up the recipes online.

And that was when you can only access the Internet on PCs. But with the introduction of wifi-enabled phones and tablets, it literally changed my world.

Now I can access my stored files on any of my PCs and laptops from my phone or my tablet. I can listen to music, look at pictures, watch movies that I stored on my media server, anywhere inside the house and even a few meters outside. I no longer need to sit in front of a PC. I could be lying on my side on my bed, stand outside the gate, or even inside the bathroom and still be able to do anything i want because of my wifi setup at home.

You were no longer tied to a router via a network cable. Everything's wireless. And my tech life is just getting better.

Finding that special place

So my kid's celebrating his first birthday on the 17th of April this year. At the same time, we're getting him baptized as among the billion strong Roman Catholics out there.

Naturally, we want to celebrate it with family and friends. So first we have to do is find a place where we can  hold that celebration.

One of the criteria we're looking for is the location. It needs to be very accessible as not all of our friends drive cars, so it's necessary that they can commute to the place using public transportation.

Another criteria, is that it needs to be near to the church we're having the baptism.

Another, the rent should be inexpensive, if not free altogether as long as they provided the catering services. And if that's the case, the food should be good enough, if not outstanding.

Finally, one that I'm particularly obsessed about, is that it should be as private as possible. A place that we can have for ourselves. So chinese restaurants or places subdivided into function rooms is definitely out of the question.

We did most of our searching online and relied heavily on fora, especially for parents.

There were quite a few places that would have been great, if it only met all three requirements:

• Dad's - They have two places that are great locations, one in Glorietta, and the other in Megamall. Accessible locations and are near to churches. Both locations offer Meryendads, an eat-all-you can promo for merienda time for less than 300php, which is perfect for the time we would be having the party as well as budgetary constraints. Unfortunately, you can't rent the entire place although you get a function room. 
• 500 Shaw Events Pavilion - This is a fairly new place, started around 2011, and we accidentally found it when we came from Ortigas on our way to Archbishop's Palace to inquire about having a baptism there. It's along Shaw Boulevard and it's very near the Archbishop's Palace. The place is very new, has a high ceiling and it's really perfect for events. It's inside 500 Shaw so you have covered parking, which is free. The rent is also free if you choose them as your caterer. It's not exactly cheap, but it's relatively inexpensive compared to other places. For around 58,000php for 120 adults, that's just 490php per person, which is definitely a bargain when you compare it to other events places.
• Prestige Towers - Hidden within the confines of Ortigas Center, is an events place in the penthouse level of Prestige Towers. They don't have an online presence, but do some serious online searching and you'll find out that they have been hosting events, especially birthdays, for quite a number of years.  Based on the reviews, food is good, and more importantly, very cheap. For around 30,000 php, you get the place for free and enough food for 100 guests. It's very accessible, and is just beside an open area parking. On weekends, there are barely any office workers in the building, so you practically have the entire place all to yourselves. The only drawback, is that it's a bit old, the lighting is gloomy. It's really a great place to have celebrations, except if you want it to be really, very special.

So, who's the winner for our kid's party venue? It's actually the first place my wife and her sister dropped by for an ocular visit. We found it in a local online buy and sell forum.

One Cafe Events Place - The venue is located at the 6th floor of One Corporate Center. If you're an Ortigas-based slave like me, you'll know that the building itself is fairly new (finished around 2009).  The function room isn't really sprawling, and the ceiling isn't that high. But the main function room along with a smaller adjacent one can fit 170pax easily. The design is modern, with floor to ceiling windows covered by blinders you can easily adjust to let more natural light in. The place is free but you'll have to make do with their in-house menu as the place is really a cafe foremost, with available function rooms for special events. But from what we've heard, the food isn't that bad, and they don't charge corkage fees for certain items. They have AV equipment you can use for free along with a projector. They have set-plate menus for full meals or meriendas, and buffet set-ups as low as 345php per person. Kiddie meals are priced at around 150php. 

It was a toss-up between Prestige Towers and One Cafe Events Place. I really wanted to go with 500 Shaw Events place, but after the initial excitement of seeing the place and I had sobered down a bit, you can see how it was a bit impractical for us. We wanted to have a great first birthday and baptism for our still only kid, but the 60k we'll be shelling out for the place, doesn't cover our other expenses such as the giveaways, invitations, and other miscellaneous expenditures. So our final costs might nearly reach 80-90k. We want the event to be special, but we don't want to get broke in the process.

Prestige Towers seemed like the one that offered most bang for your buck. You had the entire place to yourselves and it was a step up from celebrating birthdays at a fastfood or chinese restaurant. Not that we are averse to the idea, or seem too snotty. But the place really seemed gloomy to me with the lighting and rather old interiors.

So, after debating for a while, and having seen One Cafe for myself, my wife and I agreed to have the reception at One Cafe. Although it means we'll be tightening our belts for months to come, parenting does mean putting your kids first, before yourself. And even if our kid won't remember the party itself, I still have that old saying to ease my worrisome wallet: It's the thought that counts.