Calderon at Kapitolyo

June 6, 2015. So after a tiring day going around Yexel's Toy Musem in Ocean Park and the first certified Lego Store in BGC, Chea and I, along with a sleeping Thirdy, headed off to have an early dinner at Calderon in Kapitolyo, Pasig.

Chea knows the owner and has been planning to try out the place, but only had the time now since we will be passing by the area.

looks nice.

When we arrived, there was a car parked out front. The parking slot was for two cars, but there was a scooter near the other slot, which will be blocked if we parked there. So Chea went inside the resto and asked how we could go about parking. We were told to park along the street in front of the other car. Oh well.

the menu

not a fan of the plates, but it's big though

When we went inside, there were just a couple sitting and chatting at a table. Thirdy was asleep so we went with the table with the bench.

thirdy was asleep the entire time. poor kiddo

window view

The outside is quite rustic, which extended to the interiors. Lots of iron and wood. It's a little small as well, although there's a second floor, which I didn't get to explore. I'm timid that way.

those are pretty expensive

We looked at the menu and they're a bit expensive. They're famous for paella, but there's just the two of us so we couldn't eat all of that. Most of the paellas were upwards of 800 pesos and got pricier as the servings got bigger.

shot of the inside. 

They were also known for their chicken dish, Pollo Iberico that cost 1,000 pesos, but you had to order that a day ahead.

The other dishes were upwards of 300 pesos.

We ended up ordering the Salpicao (450 pesos), which was good enough for two people, or one very hungry person.

It doesn't come with rice, so Chea ordered her plain, while I ordered the garlic variant (both 50 pesos each). I also ordered a bottomless iced tea (80 pesos)

mi te helado

Thirdy was still asleep so Chea was having second thoughts of buying pasta for him to eat. I told her to just order one, and have it to go if he doesn't wake up before we finish eating. So Chea ordered the Pasta de Chorizo (320 pesos).

We got the iced tea first, which tasted like plain iced tea. It wasn't too strong, so that's a plus.

beef salpicao. very tasty

nice rice

The salpicao arrived first. We were hungry so we got into it immediately.

so good, you need another shot

It smelled really good. But it tasted even better. The beef was so soft, and the cooked garlic made it taste really good. It came with a lot of olive oil, so it wasn't dry.

The garlic rice was great too. It wasn't too oily. It made me comment to Chea that this is how garlic rice should be done by Krazy Garlik. lol.

Chea and I liked the Salpicao so much, we even ended up eating the few bits of garlic left on the clay pot.

first time i saw an egg on top of a serving of pasta

A bit later, the pasta arrived. It had red sauce with ground meat, some thin slivers of cheese, and a sunny side up fried egg, which I thought was kinda weird.

pretty good. pasta's one reason to go back to this place

But weird or not, this dish is superb. Whenever I hear the word chorizo, I kinda cringe a bit, because those things are too salty even for me.

I thought hotdogs in spaghettis were a weird combination even when I was growing up, but chorizos?

But this dish by Calderon convinced me it could be done. There were chunks of chorizos and they were still salty, but they weren't enough to offend. Even the sauce hinted of chorizo but it was just that, a hint.

Our only complaint was that it did not come with bread. We'd probably choose the bread over the egg. This would be perfect with focaccia.

Chea couldn't help herself so she practically ate half of the dish (with my help), but that's ok since Thirdy wouldn't be able to finish the entire thing on his own.

We ended up paying about 1,100 pesos with VAT and all.

The food is really good, although the parking is severely limited. I can't imagine how parking would be on a busy night.

We'll probably drop by another day and try out their paella.

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Changing the CR's skylight, and visiting Yexel's Toy Museum at Ocean Park and the Lego Store at BGC

June 6, 2015. It's the first Saturday since Thirdy got back from his two week stay at Antipolo, so Chea wanted to take Thirdy to this place she saw mentioned at Facebook: Yexel's Toy Museum at Ocean Park.

But during the morning, I finally got the motivation to fix the skylight at our bathroom. I already bought the folding ladder I've been wanting for years, and I also got a cordless power drill since I have seemingly lost my corded Black & Decker power drill.

So Chea, Thirdy and myself, got into the car, and drove to a hardware store somewhere in Talipapa, QC. I could've gone to Wilcon which was nearer, but I already saw the price of the UPVC roofing sheets there which were priced at around 900 pesos per piece. I wanted to check how much it costs at other places.

When we got to the store I saw the other day along with my mom and dad, I went down while Chea and Thirdy stayed in the car. They were selling an 8 foot long sheet for only 200 pesos. It's way cheaper than Wilcon's but the quality is also different. But I decided to get it since I might have to fix the entire roof in the near future. So no reason to spending too much.

I bought 2 sheets, along with some roof sealant, and a piece of multi purpose cutter (around 450 pesos). I had the sheets cut so I can roll it up and place it in the trunk.

We drove back home and I went straight to fixing the roof. I had Chea help me set up the ladder, and handing me some of the materials I needed such as the Tek screws for my drill. I opted to use Tek screws and a power drill since I don't want to hammer nails on old timber trusses.

It's good that I bought the cutter as well since the sheets were still too big. I ended up using two of the four cut up pieces of sheets I bought.

After ripping up the pieces of the old sheet that were still left on the roof, I placed the two sheets to overlap and drilled them into place and covered the screws with sealants.

After about 30 minutes, I was finished and spent the remainder of the morning assembling a Batman and Joker lego set with Thirdy.

Thirdy's legs

Thirdy messing around with the bricks

Completed sets

After lunch, we took our baths and got into the car and drove to Ocean Park. We got there at about 2pm.

Yexel's Toy Museum is at the 2nd floor of the building. You'd have to turn left once you hit the center of the building from the main entrances. You go straight that way, turn right at the bazaar, until you see the escalator.

By the entrance

Ticket booth

You go up the escalator, and you'll see the main entrance of the museum. The ticket counter is to the left.

After buying 3 tickets for 250 pesos each (I kinda felt ripped off, actually), we started the tour.

No discounts for kids

Thirdy holding his ticket

First up: Minions!

Eco race cars!

First up, is a gaggle of Minion Statues to the left, and a pair of eco race cars to the right. Of course, most of the people, including Thirdy spent more time with the minion statues.

After that, there was an upside down room, with the furnitures glued to the ceiling. There were a lot of people taking pictures inside so we went to the next display which had Spiderman stooping on what was supposed to be the side of a building.

Again, a lot of people still taking pictures so we barely had chance to have Thirdy take pictures.

The fourth chipmunk. Sounds like them too.

Thirdy knows who Superman is now

Next were some wall pictures of spiders, along the way to a few statues that included Batman, Spider, Superman, Alvin, Simon and Theodore.

Thirdy was really enjoying himself as he kept jumping up and down besides the statues. It was hard getting him to stand still.

Around the corner was where the displays for the Lord of Rings were located.

Where are the other fellows?

First was the setting for the Council of Elrond at Rivendell. The seats were empty though.

That is an, uhm, anatomically correct horse

Thirdy wasn't scared of Gollum. Must be all that Monster movies he's been watching

Right in front of it was a statue of Gandalf riding Shadowfax. Right behind him was Gollum in a cave.

Oooh. Statues

A beheaded balrog

Sauron

Oooh! Weapons!

Swords!

Looks like dwarven weapons

In the next room was a display of several Lord of the Rings artifacts such as swords, helmets, axes, shields, and several statues.

Wall mural

This is Manila!

Thirdy paid the iron price to sit on this throne. About 250 pesos!

I don't know what Cinderella's doing here

In the next room over was several displays such as the Iron throne from the Game of Thrones franchise, an armor of a Spartan from the 300 franchise and the glass slipper from Cinderella.

Clone troopers. Thirdy was jumping around all the time, the entire tour. He's such a blur

Thirdy shooting down rebel forces. Die Jedi!

One long wall had some consoles and faux windows showing outer space scenes with Star Wars ships. Directly fronting that was a hallway filled with Clone troopers.

First display when you enter the Hall of Armor. Thirdy managed to get a picture standing beside War Machine

Iron Man bust

Thirdy still a blur 

Keeps on jumping

Posing among the armors

Running around and touching all of them

After that, it was a big room full of Iron Man goodies, which included the Hall of Armour, which stands as the museum's main highlight. At the center of the room was a pedestal where Tony Stark would usually stand. But in this museum, it's the patrons who get to stand there and have their pictures taken.

Chest piece

The scale model of the gantry

War machine bust

You can have your picture taken and printed by their staff for 100 pesos. Otherwise, you can snap your own photos with your own devices. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in here so you would have to wait your turn.

We were able to take a few pictures of Thirdy but it was a bit dark and Thirdy was hardly still so we ended up with blurry shots.

The wall crawler

With Batman, Spiderman and Superman

In the upside down room

Having fun with his mom

Since it's the last of the displays, Chea wanted to start at the beginning again and take pictures. So we ended up going back to the places where we didn't get enough pictures like the upside down room and the Spiderman on the wall display.

When we got back to Iron Man, it was still full, so we ended up just going outside.

By the exit

We took a break at the ground floor of the building and had a few drinks since it was exceptionally warm. When we stayed at H2O hotel a while back, it wasn't this hot, especially inside the building.

We got in the car and I checked our time, it was barely 3pm.

Since it was still early, I asked Chea if we can drop by the Lego Store in Bonifacio Global City. It opened a few weeks back and I've wanted to visit it ever since.

So we drove to BGC and looked for 11th Street. It's at the same building with Kidzana (which is not open yet). There were a few cars arriving and leaving as well. When we parked, got off, and headed up stairs, we found that there were barely any open shops except for a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and an Animaland.

Looks like everyone had the same idea as ours to check out the Lego Store.

Thirdy with Emmet

Ninjago

Outside, there were a few brick statues. I'm only familiar with Emmet from The Lego Movie.

The first certified Lego store in the Philippines

Sweet

I want to build these!

Is this Rizal or Bonifacio?

Inside, there were a lot of people going around, with kids mostly huddled near some chairs playing with Duplo legos.

The Tumbler. I think this is around 9,000 pesos?

Mindstorm and Technic sets

Thirdy was already there, since Chea and him went inside while I was taking pictures outside.

Thirdy playing with Duplos

City sets

Simpsons!

Sandcrawler. 20,000 pesos!

Thirdy was enjoying himself since he was running around looking at all the boxes of the lego sets and yelling out some words of excitement.

I took my time taking a few pictures as well.

I want this one but it's too expensive

I'm really in the superheroes set so I took my time looking at a few. I didn't notice if there was the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier which costs 350usd! I did manage to find the Avengers Towers set, but it was about 7,000 pesos.

There was the Star wars Jawa Sandcrawler on display which cost something like 20,000 pesos. Eek.

Super heroes sets!

After a few minutes, we practically had to drag Thirdy out of the store and back into the car. Well, just outside of the store really. He was more cooperative after that.

It was already past 4pm and Chea and I were debating on having a merienda somewhere near or have dinner already.

Chea wanted to try out Calderon, in Kapitolyo. She knows the owner but hasn't had the time to try it out. So we headed off to Kapitolyo. I'll blog about it on my next entry.

After that, we headed home.

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