For some reason, I've received a lot of flak in MBA class this week - mostly because I work for an oil company. It's not the first time I had educate people on how "Big Oil" is not synonymous to oil cartel and I have explained to more than one person how Shell is merely a transporter of products through the FPIC pipeline and is not responsible for its upkeep and maintenance. Oh, and with regard to the stockouts that are consequence to the unoperational pipeline, it's not because Shell is hoarding products so it can jack up the prices come holiday season! People, we simply cannot get enough products to the terminals and consequently the retail stations, hence the shortage! I hate ignorance.

Tsina Chinabank

It is quite serendipitous that my birthday month falls right after my hell quarter. After frying my brains bananas in August and September, I flew to China and decided to forget about work, schoolwork and the other stark realities of the Philippines

An ensuing super (take note: SUPER) typhoon was threatening to cancel my plane ride but after spending 6 hours in the airport and finishing half a Stieg Larsson novel, I finally boarded the plane bound for Beijing. A trip to China isn't exactly at the top of my bucket list (maybe not even at the bottom) but this is the first time I'm travelling with my parents, titos and titas - meaning there's a big chance for this trip to be a free ride, so what they hey, I was up for it!

The Chinese embassy made a huge deal with the fact that it's my first time to go to China and decided to reduce my validity to just 7 days. The nerve. Even though I have US, UK, AU and Japan visas, they still feared that I become an illegal alien in their country. Pfft. I had to miss the Guangzhou leg of the trip which should have been interesting because the older folks and I were supposed to visit the town where my grandfather was born and grew up in.

So anyway, I landed in Beijing on my actual birthday! Yahoo, my mom and dad woke up in the middle of the night when I arrived at the hotel just to greet me "Happy Birthday" and offer me Skyflakes. Hehe. I willed myself to sleep right away because the next day should be exciting - we were going the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

The following day, I froze my butt off in 6-degree Beijing ambient temp. I was ill-prepared for the cold. I camped in Pulag at the same temp with drizzle but I was wrapped like a spring roll then. I underestimated the nearing winter in China and did not even bring thermals. Yikes. But the Forbidden City was awesome and I was amazed at how the Chinese mastered the art of twisting tree trunks and branches into pretzel-like shapes that surely don't exist in nature.



On Day 2, we were bound for the Great Wall. This should be the highlight of the trip - I mean if you've gone to China and did not see the Great Wall, you ought to kick yourself. It was freezing again and we were in the mountains! However, the sun was shining really brightly that day, no clouds, no drizzle so it was a comfortable 9-dgerees that day. I made it to 4 or 5 towers before my tito, my fittest tita and I decided to hit home. My dad and the other ladies opted to stay behind and enjoy the view in a less strenuous manner. My dad actually has a chronic knee problem so the fact that he was even there - hats off! Hey moon man, can you see me now???



That night, my tito (a well-known restaurateur in Cebu) took us to Da Dong, a somewhat pricey restaurant in Beijing that boasts of the best Peking Duck. And true enough, the duck doesn't just melt, it disintegrates in your mouth! Oh, and Da Dong has these really cool interiors straight from a James Bond movie.

Our third day in Beijing was spent going around the Summer Palace and a Beijing Hutong (aboard a rickshaw).

Mom: So how do you find the trip so far?

Me: It's different when you're with older people. Relax lang. Not like when I travel with friends, we rush, try to cram in as many things as possible and we stay at the cheapest places. Unlike now, we're in a service apartment. So yeah, I'm having a good time!

I missed the Olympic Stadium leg of our Beijing trip (thanks to our friends at the Chinese Embassy in Manila) but the remainder of the trip almost made up for it. And so we're off to Shanghai.

Shanghai was more cosmopolitan than Beijing and with a friendlier temperature too. We arrived in our hotel a little before noon to dump our luggage, take quick showers and eat lunch. Now we've been gorging on Chinese food for days already so when my tito found out that there's an Italian restaurant in the hotel - I died and went to tomato heaven. The assistant manager was Pinay so we got a complimentary bottle of wine. Yeah!






Our first day in Shanghai took us to the TV Tower and to the museum at its base and of course, the requisite river cruise which I absolutely loved. I saw for myself that building which Tom Cruise scaled in M:I III. I've always found skyscrapers to be breathtaking so Shanghai was a dose of pure oxygen for me.



Our first dinner in Shanghai was in this upscale-ey restaurant called Din Tai Fung which, according to my tito, served the best xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and was well-renowned even in the West. Slurp. Yum.

The second day in Shanghai was spent in the World Expo. Guess what, the Pinoy expo won the Most Relaxing (or something like that) award - it offered massages. I wanted to go into the German expo but the queue was four hours long! I will not subject my parents to such torture (alright I tried, we stood in line for about 20 minutes then gave up) so we walked around instead, taking pictures of the exteriors. At this point, I've already had it with the Chinese people's bump car mode so I decided, "What the hell, I can play bump too!". And the World Expo was the perfect place to start haha! I probably walked 10 kilometers that day (in circles) with my parents so we congratulated ourselves with a nice Thai dinner in Xintiandi.



Our last day in Shanghai was spent - you guessed it, shopping! Alright, I'm merely mirroring the excitement of my titas since I'm not really a big shopper myself. I suddenly panicked when I realized that I have not bought any pasalubong yet (yup, obligatory). Thankfully, a half-day at Yuyuan Garden will fix everything. I grabbed a couple of stuff for myself and for my friends. I realized it's green tea palooza in this place! My dad, bought himself a mahjong set which spelled "excess baggage"! Heheh.

We left Shanghai amidst a raging storm - yup, that same typhoon that attempted to foil my trip followed me all the way to China!

My first trip to China was different in many ways. I was travelling with older folks so the pace was more relaxed. There was none of those eat-while-you-run scenes. Photo-taking was kept at the minimum (waaah!) and we stayed at really nice hotels, dined at the fancier restaurants and enlisted the services of tour guides (something which I've never done in my previous travels). In fact, I enjoyed it too much, I can't wait for the next time I'd travel with the oldies again!

Not Just Driving Through

I was starving when I got to Cafe Ysabel for a very, very late Palm Sunday lunch. It's good that I was there to eat this time, having driven past this joint a couple of times before when I lost my way in San Juan. From the outside, it looks like an old house from the Spanish colonial period and if not for the dozen or so cars parked outside, one wouldn't know that it's a restaurant. Needless to say, it's the place's exteriors that bear the "come hither" factor that a passerby's curiosity cannot help but be spiked (like me when I drove by a couple of times before).

There were a lot of diners at such a late lunch hour (2PM) so we made our way to our table by the big window. The interiors were very interesting - I was particularly thrown off by the frescoes on the ceiling - women who wore the traditonal baro't saya but drawn with, in my opinion, an Egyptian sway. I liked the dark, rainy-day-but-you-are-warm-inside atmosphere that the the place evoked.

Now having driven from Batangas with no breakfast, I devoured the bread which was absolutely piping hot. The bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar tated so good but I reckon that it's my ravenous (read: patay-gutom) state that made it such.

So anyway, here's what we ordered for lunch:



Appetizer: Jake & Christine's Crisp Smoked Fish (tinapa) Wantons in Salsa Verde. Now this one I loved. Fish and salsa went so well together.



Main Course: Spicy Lamb Kebab. I was a bit disappointed. When I order lamb, I expect that "lamb smell" in my meat but there was hardly any trace of it. I'm not sure if this dish was calibrated to fit the not-too-adventurous Pinoy palate but I would've wanted lamb in my lamb. Also, when the menu says "spicy", it ought to end up with sweat on my brows after eating. Again, if there was any hint of spiciness, I did not get any of it - and I did not have a cold that day.



Add-On: Longganisa Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Risotto. My bad- my brain did not process that there's actually longganisa in it so when the dish ended up as a "sweet" surprise, I was unpleasantly surprised.

If there's anything that I would rave about, it's the price. For a place that has a fancy menu and is oozing with ambience, you will definitely get your money's worth.

The place is also known for it's eclectic coffee concoctions and someday, I might go back for them AND for the desserts that we haven't had the chance to try.

Anna Wangen and Woodstock

While feasting over isaw in UP, we decided to go to Anawangin. Jake's friend Chezka had been dying to jumpstart her summer and since we found ourselves free for that weekend, we decided to make the long drive (since we're coming from Batangas) to Zambales.

I switched cars with Yang so Trina (my car) was in hibernation at the Park & Fly for a week. Meanwhile, I drove the Bitch (Yang's car, not her).

We drove up on Friday night and reached Patio Beach in Pundaquit, Zamables at around 1AM. This was our jump-off point to Anawangin Cove which is about 20 minutes away by motorboat. Other than the fact that we were all on the verge of dozing off, it was pitch dark when we arrived so there was nothing we could make out of our surroundings.

That morning, we woke up to this gorgeous sight:



No, I did not mean me, you dummy! I meant those hills around me! Heheh.

We awakened to such breathtaking view that I was half-tempted to stay in the resort and not go anywhere else. However, such a beautiful sunrise held the promise of greater things to come for that day - enough motivation to get my butt out of bed and board the banca to Anawangin. The boat ride was smooth thanks to the early morning calm. Traversing the waters near the coastline, we came face to face with the majestic hills that seemed to carelessly tumble into the sea. I silently mumbled to myself "Ang ganda pala ng Pilipinas". Thankfully, before I could utter any more corny musings to myself, Anawangin Cove came into view.



From afar, it seemed like the beach was deserted but once we reached the shore, I realized that the place was abuzz with people, mostly campers. There were tents and mats everywhere and everyone was just lying around and being lazy. The atmosphere was light and hazy, everyone seemed to be in high spirits and there was this inexplicable calm in the air that I had to fight off the urge to randomly say "Peace, man!" with a silly grin pasted on my face. "This is probably how Woodstock felt like", I thought. Now I'm not sure if anyone was smoking pot that day but one can never be too sure, especially in the company of campers. My friends and I took posession of a picnic table, which you get for free with the Php 50 fee, and strung a hammock between two trees. However, sleeping was the last thing on our minds since we came here for only one thing: The Beach!













Overcrowded beaches don't do a thing for me so when I saw this, the opening notes of Moby's Porcelain started playing in my head. I fell in love.




I've been dying to go back to Pagudpud since I went there 4 years ago but Anawangin, which is a study of the atypical - with out-of-place pine trees and browning hills made even more otherworldly by the ensuing drought, definitely holds its own charm!

We started back for Pundaquit at around 5:30 that afternoon, just in time to catch the sunset as we disembarked from the same small boat that brought us to Anawangin that morning. Once more were beheld by a breathtaking vista:



Not me, you fool! The sunset!!! Heheh.

Under The Tuscan Sun...In Tagaytay

Last Saturday was decidedly lazy. My sister came over to Batangas for a visit and I wanted to take her someplace new in Tagaytay on the way back to Manila. My friend Jake has a penchant for looking for new places to eat via Google and came across a newly-opened restaurant called Marcia Adams' Tuscany. Interesting.

We headed up to Tagaytay at around 11:30 and were driving really slow (my sister and her boyfriend were in a car behind us so I couldn't speed up). We missed the restaurant on our first attempt to locate it and ended up somewhere past Ville Sommet and had to turn back when we realized that we probably drove past it. It's not that I wasn't paying attention, the restaurant had no sign!

Neil(or Neal)Adams was waiting for us at the entrance and explained to us, half apologizing, that they were not officially open yet but are accommodating diners anyway - sort of a dry run, hence, the absence of a sign out front. I actually found it charming that the host greeted us at the gate - it made me feel like an actual guest at someone's home and not just some casual diner out for lunch.

Since I love all things Mediterranean, I was instantly charmed by the place. The interiors were simple, rustic, and sleepy - all the ingredients for a perfect late lunch. We were first led to a lounging room that had a view of the rolling countryside as well as Bataan Bay. If we had come later, we would've caught a glimpse of a gorgeous sunset, says Marica Adams, who came straight out of the kitchen and introduced herself to us. Again the charming feeling of being an actual houseguest permeated the air. The whole place was intended to have the look and feel of a Tuscan villa - sans vineyards cum sugarcane fields.

Marcia Adams explained that she did not want to become too commercialized and was trying to carve her niche in the Tagaytay dining scene via the slow food movement (the opposite of fastfood). So what's on the menu? Well, there is a set 4-course meal that consists of soup, salad, a main course and dessert. I had the Aegean salad which had grilled pears (yum! my first time to eat them), mixed greens, cottage cheese and roasted pistachios. The soup du jour was pumpkin soup with yoghurt and a pinch of cinnamon (my favorite spice next to Victoria Beckham...kidding). I had Shish kebabs for the main course which was served with couscous (alternatives are organic rice, Egyptian rice or lentils) and I must say, my romance with lamb has gone on to the next level! The most interesting dessert choice was the grilled orange with vanilla ice cream - just because I've never had grilled orange before. The strong, citric flavor of the orange married so well with the subtle sweetness of vanilla that it made me wonder why I've never had this combination before!

Marica Adams also offers a selection of wines but since we had a long drive ahead of us, we opted to have ginger beer instead (it tastes like ginger ale, only better). I know, beer and non-alcoholic seem incoherent but the "beer" in ginger beer means that the drink has gone through the brewing process. It's a drink that can get dangerously addictive but procuring it seems to be a challenge - the only other place I've found this product is at the Shell Station in SLEX.

Right after dessert, Marcia Adams sat down and chatted with us while we waited for our tummies to settle down. She intimated that she was not only responsible for the menu, she also had a hand at the restaurant's architecture and interiors. She also shared that even if they are not really open yet, plans of expanding to a spa and bed & breakfast are already under way. She says, however, that she does not plan for the place to grow too big and too commercialized and intends to keep it small, charming and most importantly, personal.

As to my plans of coming back...well, I'm already salivating at the thought of trying out Marcia Adams' Moroccan fish stew, grilled aromatic pork, or amalfi prawns (provided that I lose my allergies)!

For reservations: 0917 801 1456
Street Address: JP Rizal St., Brgy. Sikat, Alfonso, Cavite (same turn as Ville Sommet)