2015 Bisita Iglesia and Kopi Tiam

04/03/2015. It's Good Friday so we're up and early for the annual Bisita Iglesia. My parents are still at the province, and my sister's family had their Bisita Iglesia yesterday and are heading off to Pampanga today to spend time with Gerry's clan. So this year, it's me, Chea, Tita Fe and Thirdy.

It'll be Thirdy's first Bisita Iglesia as he's big enough to walk around.

Chea wants to just do 7 churches this year, with two stations per church. We used to do one station per church for a total of 14 churches, but the summer heat'll be too much for everyone, not to mention, Thirdy would be asleep before we even hit 8 churches.

Thirdy's first church for his first Bisita Iglesia.

Our first church is Parokya ng Pagkabuhay, as it's just a few meters from our place.

We decided to skip Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish as it's along Mindanao Avenue with no shaded parking. Plus the stations of the cross are at the basement around their columbarium which was hot when we there last year because of all the candles.

There are vendors selling fresh fruits nearby.

So our second church is the one behind Cherry Foodarama along Congressional Avenue: San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish. It has ample parking with some little shade at some spots. It's also a bit secluded so only the parishioners around the area visit it, so it won't be too crowded.

Big open area to run around

Third, is Our Lady of Consolation Parish inside Mira Nila Subdivision along Congressional Avenue. Before the extension of Congressional Avenue to connect it to Luzon Avenue, you had to go along Tandang Sora Avenue and through Tierra Pura Subdivision.

It's a big church with a lot of ample parking. It's mostly accessible by cars since it's in the far end of the subdivision. Usually when we arrive, there will be a lot of activity already in preparation for the 7 Last Words mass for the afternoon. But we might have arrived a bit early as there were only a few people there even inside the church.

That sun's really out today ahead of the typhoon hitting over the weekend

The yearly bisita iglesia wouldnt be complete without enjoying all that street food

Fourth is the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice inside the University of the Philippines. This is always the church we target for the midpoint of our Bisita Iglesia since it's very shady with trees all around so we can take a little break. There are also food vendors selling snacks such as fishballs, kikiam, karioka and the like. This year, it seems there are a bit more people visiting the church.

Inside the eagle's nest

A tiger cub inside the eagle's nest. Unless he decides on a different school when he grows up. Lol.

Chea wanted to try out the church inside Ateneo this year, so we went to Church of Gesu as our fifth church. It's my first time here as well. We spent some time looking around. Made me think of getting Thirdy a UST shirt.

Couldnt get a wider shot.

Sixth was where Chea and I got married, St. Ignatius Cathedral.

This place had a lot more cops than a police station. Lol.

And finally, Christ the King Parish in Green meadows. Chea actually wanted to try Saint Pio chapel in Libis. I remember the time we went there and we were given 4 feet high crosses to lug around while doing the stations of the cross. Unfortunately, when we passed by, the street going to the chapel was heavy with traffic. It was the same at Monasterio de Santa Clara and Santa Maria della Strada . The roads are packed with parked cars. Still, it's heartening to realize that more people are actually observing lenten traditions than frolicking in the beach.

We finished a little past 11am, so we decided to look for some food. We tried at Kapitolyo but most of the establishments were closed or parking was directly under the scorching sun. We tried San Juan as well, but still the same.

Placemat menu

We headed towards QC, and we passed by Kopi Tiam.  It was open, and there were overhead leaves covering the parking so it wasn't terribly hot. We parked and got in. We were told by the security guard that there were a lot of people earlier and we were lucky to arrive just in time that we had the place to ourselves. About three more families came in later while we were eating.

Thirdy fell asleep in the car a few minutes before we arrived at Kopi Tiam. Poor kid.

I think this is the third time we had our Good Friday lunch here. Or is it the fourth? I remember one of them with my parents and brother. Another one with Chea's cousins.

Thirdy was asleep when we got in, so we laid him on the wooden couch. He slept the entire time.

Iced tea. 

Chea ordered her favorite: Fried noodles. I wanted rice but saw a new dish, Boneless chicken curry noodles. I thought the noodles were sotanghon from the pictures but later saw them to be canton. Tita Fe ordered the fresh lumpia. Chea also ordered their signature halo halo, Storm, and I ordered Iced tea as well.

Fried noodles. Chea likes to mix it herself.

Their fried noodles are good as usual, so no complaints there.

Fresh lumpia.

I never got to taste the lumpia, but Tita Fe seemed to enjoy it especially the sauce.

Boneless chicken curry noodles. Mild. 

As for the chicken curry noodles? The chicken is in small chunks, breaded. A little bit salt but good. The dish also had some green pepper and potatos. The potatos were cut in small cubes and were soft. The noodles were canton, and it was kinda ok. The curry isn't too overpowering, but it was still spicy. I had to put some calamansi on my servings as I really like my canton noodles tasting a bit sour.

Storm. Sorry for the dirty plates. 

The Storm was ok. Chea had it separated into two glasses so Tita Fe could have some. A little bit later, I ordered their warm cholate tablea dessert as we were  whiling away the time. It was just around 1pm, and it was still hot outside.

Mmmm  chocolate

The dessert tasted like lava cake. The lower half of the dessert was chocolate sponge cake, while the upper half was dark oozing chocolate. They microwave it before serving so the chocolate is melted. It was really good.

Homey.

Total cost was around 800 pesos. But the servings for the noodles were good for 3 -5 persons each so we got to take home a lot of leftovers.

A bit later, we headed home but stopped by Mcdonald's at Centris first and bought Thirdy a spaghetti Happy meal so he can eat it at home, as well as get his fourth Oh toy, the bashful Oh.

That's one dirty wall.

We already have Oh's spinning cat, Shaking Oh, and Nervous Oh. Here's hoping to get the complete set.

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Sunday dinner at El Chupacabra

After going to the Pink Ribbon Sale at Bench Tower on October 26, 2014, Chea and I decided to have an early dinner.

I wanted to have some rice, but I was thinking more of java rice or some other flavorful variant. We drove from BGC to Makati CBD. Chea then mentioned about this new place near their office in Bel Air called El Chupacabra. It was always full so Chea and her office mates never got to try it out yet. Not to mention that it had been featured already on Kris TV, so getting a table was now near to impossible.

We got to the place, and even if it was just around 5pm, it looked packed already. We decided to try another place. We drove around Makati for a few minutes, but Chea wanted to really try it out, so we went back.

We drove by the place again, had our name listed, and went to park at Chea's office which was just around the corner.

We were still third on line, so we waited while looking at the menu. We had a chance to chat with a waitress and one of their grill cook.

Chalk board menu

I wanted some rice, but it wasn't on the menu. We were told that they sold mexican rice for 39 pesos, so I planned on going with that.

Most of the menu were priced 100 pesos and above. And most of them were either tacos or gringas (quesadillas I think). The only dishes that could be taken with the rice were pork barbecues (20 pesos each), chicken skewer (50 pesos), and the sisig I think. I opted for two pork barbecues and a chicken skewer. Chea and I could share that with two rice servings.

The grill

Their barbecues were one of the most popular so we were told that it usually takes about 20-30 minutes for the order to come through. I was a bit hungry already but it was ok.

Chea also ordered a taco, Carne Asada (95 pesos).

The frontage

El Chupacabra was directly beside a side street. It looked like a house refitted to be a small canteen. There were some space inside where the bar was located, with about 6 small tables. It could probably fit 12-20 persons with the mix of chairs and benches.

Wall scribblings

It was dimly lit, since it's a bar foremost, and the mood lighting was mostly tinted red, which is why most of pictures are dark and, uh, red.

Some decors

The place and the items are a mix of mexican and filipino (but mostly mexican). It's really a dive bar as their facebook page says, so it's mostly short dishes that matches well with alcoholic drinks. It's a bit al fresco, so you only have a smattering of wall mounted electric fans around the area. It was good that it was almost night and there was a short shower, so it was tolerably cool.

View of the grill from inside

The walls, benches and even the ceilings are covered with messages and scribbling of patrons. At that time, they were already in the Halloween spirit with cotton cobwebs already adorning the place.

Some of the patrons

Outside, you have the grill, and a long table filled with some Korean patrons. Since there were still some customers waiting to be seated, some of them being foreigners, that they had to bring out four more sets of plastic tables and chairs which they placed onto the street already.

Chea and I were lucky we arrived a bit early, and we were seated inside after just a few minutes of waiting.

This is probably how a menu looks to Cyclops

Inside, I ordered a bottomless Iced Tea. Unfortunately, they were out, and they offered me a Horchata instead. It's rice tea with some cinnamon. It came in 12 and 16oz. I chose the 16oz for 69 pesos. Basically, it felt like water you washed rice with, with cinnamon sprinkled in.

So red. No wonder Cyclops started getting crazy in X-men Last Stand. Kidding. It was a terrible movie so he willingly had Jean Grey kill him.

Horchata. Googled it. Yep, rice water with milk and some cinnamon. Some has sugar and some vanilla. Called it. Lol.

Chea's Carne Asada taco came first, along with the mexican rice. The taco came with two almost paper thin pita breads about 6 inches in diameter. The main meat of the dish looked like it was about four to five spoon fulls. We carefully separated the filling to the two breads, rolled it, and ate it with the garlic sauce. They also had the spicy sauce, which, if you didn't use too much of, wasn't that spicy.

Carne Asada taco. 95 pesos. Am debating with myself if it's cheap or not.

The pork barbecue and chicken skewers, as mentioned, took about 22 minutes (checking on my Swarm check-in, lol). There was supposed to be 2 sticks of pork barbecue but the other was still being cooked, and we managed to eat our food before it came, so we just took that one to go.

Chicken skewer (50 pesos) and Pork Barbecue (20 pesos)

The grilled pork tasted exactly like grilled meat. But unlike Filipino pork barbecues which are thin stips of meat, El Chupacabra's were chunks of meat. The nice part is that it wasn't dry and there weren't any fat on it. The grilled meat came with vinegar.

The chicken skewer tasted great. I don't know what spices they put in, but it tasted differently than your average chicken meat. It was also soft despite being grilled. It was a bit small, but bigger than what you think you'd get for 50 pesos especially when you compare it to a 100peso chicken meal at a fastfood joint.

Mexican rice

The mexican rice was subpar. There wasn't any stand out taste to it. It didn't taste plain, but it wasn't appealing either. I wish it had more spices to it, like dirty rice. And when we asked the waitress if they had plain rice, we were told that they didn't serve any. Although we heard someone yelling for an order of plain rice among the staff. Oh well.

During the wait, and when we were eating, we saw other dishes ordered by the other patrons. They were big orders and they varied from tacos, and nachos, meat dishes, and they look pretty delicious. So there's a pretty good reason that you'd want to come back and try those other dishes out. Cheap, no frills delicious food. Total bill for this meal? 365.20 pesos

If we're ever around the area on a Sunday afternoon again, I'd definitely go back here.

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Drop off at Araneta bus Terminal and Application at UP

03/25/2015. Chea and I went to the bus terminal in Cubao to meet someone. My mom wanted a few bottles of wine at home be brought to Samar by an acquaintance.

The place is crazy given that it's a Wednesday. Can't imagine it when everyone's heading to the provinces for the holidays. Well, I actually could since I see it sometimes on TV.

Anyway, took a while before we met my mom's acquaintance. Helped carry the box from our car to the waiting area. After that, we headed off to UP. The application for UP CDC starts today. We we're planning to go on Friday but since it's already late to report for half day of work today, we decided to do the application now.

UP CDC. Good thing it was a bit cloudy. 

We arrived at UP at 11am and we were already 114th in line. Wow. We did the same thing last year, unfortunately, Thirdy didn't get picked.

We waited a few minutes before the next batch go called (which included Chea) and then waited about 20 minutes more before she appeared from the building unscathed. I just playfully imagine the parents fighting tooth and nail for the very limited slots even during sign up. Lol.

We then went to the cashier's office at UP shopping center where we promptly got lost along the way. Thank God for Google maps though.

Waiting for our turn at the cashier.  I dont know who that guy is.

At the cashier, there were only a couple of people ahead of us so it took us less than 5 minutes to get paid. We then darted into the shopping center to get something photocopied and headed back to UP CDC to complete the application. We finished by 1 pm.

So now we're heading off for a late lunch.

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GUDO - Pasta Pizza Steak Periperi

03/27/2015. Chea and I met up at sm north to have dinner. Chea just came from up cdc where thirdy just got waitlisted for his batch. I came from sm novaliches after paying some bills.

We decided to eat elsewhere so we didn't have to pay for parking at sm. Cheapskates.

We drove along Visayas Ave towards Tandang Sora Avenue and we didn't find anything interesting so we decided to make a right at Congressional Avenue. We drove all the way to Chimes building where we had dinner a few weeks back, but decided to turn back since and try our luck with Gudo.

It was the steak that got my attention.

We saw that there was a free space for parking in front of Gudo so we decided to try it.

The signage

There was a group ahead of us, but since it was just Chea and myself, and there was a free table exactly for two by the road, we got seated immediately.

It was full inside so we were seated by the side of the road. You could probably seat just 15 pax inside.

We were given the menus and I was pleasantly suprised. All of the dishes were priced below 200 pesos. And here I thought they'd be around 250. No wonder it's always packed.

The only available steak was T-bone (175 pesos), so I opted for that. Chea was skipping meat since it was a Friday during Lent so she opted for the 3 cheese pizza (130 pesos). My order came with a side of either mashed potato or rice. I chose the mashed potato as suggested by Chea, and ordered an additional plate of rice, since it was cheaper (Rice is 15 pesos, while the mashed potato is 20).

I was really amused with the prices. They're relatively cheap. The Tbone steak at Everything at Steak, which I felt is already a bang-for-your-buck dish, is around 220 pesos.

People keep coming while we waited (mostly in cars). Some just bought take out since there wasn't any more available seats. Those who wanted to dine there, really had to wait.

Water

As for the food, we didn't have to wait at all. The pizza came and it looked like it was about 8" -10" across. Chea had a quick bite and she loved it.

130 pesos only. Any cheaper and I'd buy one everyday.

My steak came and I was even more surprised. The steak is freaking huge. All that for just 175 pesos? You've got to be kidding me.

See the spoon? That's your standard 7" spoon. That's how big the steak is.

The steak was ok. I asked for a medium well, but it wasn't dry as you can see from the picture with the meat glistening from what may be oil. The insides were about pale grey. It tastes pretty much like steak with a good amount of pepper.

The gravy was a bit of a miss. It kinda tasted like corn soup if you can imagine it.

The mashed potato tasted like oatmeal except that the texture is evenly smooth like your typical mashed potato.

I also sampled the pizza.  It was thin but not crisp. Although there's still a bit of crunch. Some burnt edges. It was definitely cheesy, so much so that it tasted like I was eating cheese curls. Lol.

Overall, it's a pretty awesome experience. Inexpensive, good sized dishes. I'll most likely return soon just for the steak, but maybe I'll try the chicken as well. You could certainly afford both at the same time. But eating all of that at the same time? That's a different question.

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Agape Pastries and Tartines

03/15/2015. After doing some groceries, Chea, Thirdy, Tita Fe and myself decided to eat out for dinner.

We decided to try out some restos along congressional avenue near Luzon avenue. There's a new building with a few establishments called Chimes. We parked fronting 711. We opted for Agape Pastries & Tartines since it was empty and we could have a quiet dinner.

The place is very new and clean. It looks roomy with a somewhat high ceiling. Most of everything's made of wood.

There are chairs outside for those who smoke or wants fresh air. You could probably fit 50 people at the ground floor. There're stairs to an upper floor but we didn't bother to check.

stairs to the upper floor

Chea ordered the four cheese pizza (320 pesos), seafood in squid ink pasta (250 pesos), alla carbonara pasta (220 pesos), beef tenderloin breakfast (120 pesos), and a coke zero in can.

Thirdy couldn't be bothered as he's busy with the chocolate egg treat we gave him

We only waited a few minutes before the orders arrived. While waiting, they gave us a basket of flat bread with a cream basil dip.

bread

4 cheese pizza. Two thumbs up from Thirdy.

The pizza is nice. It's thin and the edges of the pizza is crisp. The middle part is a bit chewy. There are spots on top cooked brown but it's mostly cheese. There's a lot of oil but it doesn't overwhelm the salty flavor of the cheese. Thirdy really liked the pizza and was able to finish an entire slice by himself. He's not a heavy eater.

Salty but delicious.

The squid ink pasta is amazing but it's a little salty for some, so it would be best if you eat with a lot of bread. Unfortunately, you only get a small slice of garlic bread which is a bit tough. The black ink is thick which really allows it to stick to the noodles, so the squid flavor is really there. Of course there are squid parts mixed in. Easily the the best of our orders.

Too creamy for my taste

The carbonara on the other hand is swimming in cream, so the sauce forms at the bottom of the plate. It's also a bit salty.

Tastes like corned beef. Lol.

The tenderloin breakfast is ok. The meat is cut into small bits. There's a few bits of garlic in there that it kinda starts to taste like corned beef. The egg has two yolks in it and the garlic rice is just what you'd expect.

Signages of the building.

We ended up paying 917 pesos for the 4 orders, with a senior citizen discount of about 90 pesos. The staff was pretty nice and attentive. We haven't tried the tartines, so there's a chance we might drop by again sometime.

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