Restos in Angeles City: VFW, C’ Italian Dining & 19 Copung Copung
Most recently, a foreign friend bent on staying for a time in the Philippines asked me for recommendations about places to go and the cost of living in the country. “Anywhere I should avoid? Like Angels City? I mean those places where sex tourist and ’sexpats’ gather. Don’t want to end up somewhere like Thailand’s Pattaya. ”
I presume Angeles City has such a rep among the males by virtue of word of mouth and what they read in the forums. I was here this week and the trusty pedicab I rode in drove through the city’s (in)famous bar strip in Fields Avenue where some joints were indeed open 24/7.
However, it’s an unfair accusation to just associate Angeles City with ‘ affordable girls’ and sleazy entertainment. I really like the food here…and I don’t mean the carnal kind 
The place was after all one of the sites of our forget-your-diet, ultimate food trip way back in ‘06.
This time around, I made sure to try the much-acclaimed C’ Italian Dining along Don Juico Avenue (also known as the Friendship Highway.) My first attempt to visit this resto during Christmas ‘07 was a failure because the place was closed. And my first impression now was that it looked like an enoteca due to the bar with all those bottles of wine that greeted guests upon entering. And of course those plates on the wall signed by satisfied guests.
Korean cooking chronicles: it’s not only kimchi
Can’t remember when Korean food overtook Japanese as my favorite Asian cuisine, but I do crave for it now more than the other. There are a lot of Korean restaurants in Manila, but the problem is I always find it hard to tag along my friends there. You see, everybody likes dimsum but not everyone acquires the taste for kimchi. Moreover, the average you can spend for a meal by your lonesome in a Korean resto is P300 – quite expensive for an office worker, tee hee. So I guessed the next best thing was to figure out how to cook their cuisine.
The first sensible thing to do is to visit the Korean grocery. Most of the ingredients just can’t be found anywhere. Am lucky that I work in the tourist district of Ermita because there are a lot of stores here. I found out too that there are a lot of quality shops in Paranaque, but that’s for another post:D
Easily, the most common perception is that Korean food is uber-spicy – which is true in some aspects. But the popular bulgogi certainly is not. And so is this luscious piece of steak which is my own version of beef kalbi (or galbi). The beef ribs that was supposed to be used for this dish was at an astronomical P800 per kilo, so I substituted with T-bone steak instead. The meat was marinated overnight in cooking wine and other ingredients, then topped with crushed Korean pear for greater tenderness and flavor. The result was a T-bone Kalbi that was bordering on deliciously salty and sweet. It definitely made our Sunday lunch a mouth-watering one!
Kimchi chigae is another popular Korean dish. I even like the one where they put slices of Spam in it. This one I made uses canned tuna, and the oil or brine is even added to the soup to give it even more flavor. For this dish, you need kimchi (of course), slices of soft tofu, the broth from the kimchi, red pepper powder and several more slices of pepper. When you want an alternative to healthy eating, this is it. Caution: uber-hot!!!!
Face-to-face with world bowling champion Paeng Nepomuceno
I still have to personally meet Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao, but I was certainly glad to mingle face-to-face with Paeng Nepomuceno who, in his heyday, brought pride to the country by being a World Bowling Champion SIX TIMES. Still lithe and limber at 52, Paeng is pushing for a different advocacy. he’s now working to include bowling as an Olympic sport, starting with the 2012 London Olympics.
“Bowling is truly an Olympic sport. It entails mental and physical precision, superior hand-eye coordination, unwavering muscle memory and tremendous stamina and endurance,” says he.
We were able to catch up with the great bowler at the family-owned Paeng’s Midtown Bowl in Robinsons Manila and he was game enough to answer some questions about his present lifestyle.
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Online shopping in the Philippines and beyond
I have to admit it was the husband who introduced me to online shopping. Because we’re apart, we’ve gotten into the habit of sending gifts to each other (okay, he’s better at it than me, hehe). It was here that I discovered the numerous websites existing solely for the purpose of selling through the internet. For example, when I want to ogle at new tees, I go to Threadless even though I already have a closet full of ‘em. They have an active online community where artists can submit their designs and members can rate ‘em. If you’re a t-shirt lover, there’s always something new to admire each time.
While buying and selling through Ebay, Multiply and Sulit.com is popular in the Philippines, efficiency of service is still an art to be perfected here. Hubby, for example uses a local site called Makulay.com to send us fastfood like Chow King and Jollibee from time to time, but the food always turns out soggy and cold. It makes me think that they should stick with boxed chocolates, flowers and stuffed toys, instead of perishables. Uh huh.
One should be wary of transacting through Ebay as well, after an officemate paid much for a Lacoste bag which turned out to be fake. Probably her fault for not being too discerning. As I found out, overseas companies are generally more reliable. For instance, our wedding rings – ordered from Tiffany New York – arrived safe and sound via US Mail. So were our Macs and Bike Friday bikes.
The beauty of online shopping (at least overseas) is that you don’t have to be physically present to buy even those high-ticket items. Because their online reputations are at stake and have been built over time,web-based companies are ever so careful of bungling things. That’s why they always strive to be prompt, reliable and efficient, otherwise there would be no repeat customers
Brothers Burgers flashback rollback promo
How carnivorous are we? Today’s the day when Brothers Burgers lowers the prices of some of its prime beef patties on a bun, and we’re in! This is part of their 10th year anniversary celebration. Under their Flashback Rollback promo, the Brothers Pounder and the Big Brothers Burger revert to their 1999 prices. This means the Pounder will be sold at P135 (from the present P250) and the BBB at P85 (from P175). This yummy deal happens today, June 23, only, so we’re making sure we’re having them burgers for lunch 
Brothers has become a byword because its charbroiled juicy, beefy meat is what we’d expect a burger should taste like, not unlike some deflated, soggy varieties in the market.
This kinda reminds me of a new burger joint I hang out over the weekend.
Testing out D-loads cellphone reloading business
It is common for small business owners to try other income streams to maximize business space.It is the way to survive, especially if you’re paying a monthly rent or trying to find a way to augment your income. For example, the sari-sari store in our block is also selling Japanese surplus items which seems to be common these days. I was discussing with fellow blogger Wenchie since we both own laundry shops and we’ve agreed that we can very well sell ukay-ukay clothes too, if only we know the source, LOL.
Cellphone reloading is really the easiest sideline business to think of. There are countless load retailers around, from stand-alone types to those added as a supplementary service to existing businesses. I’ve already been thinking of going into this, but quite frown at the thought of buying separate retailer SIMs for Globe, Smart and Sun, the Philippines leading cellular networks.
Thankfully, I was at the Manila Food and Beverage Expo (MAFBEX) yesterday and chanced upon the booth of D-loads – a pioneering e-loading service which can send load to a full array of networks from a single SIM. D-loads can service Globe, Smart, Sun, internet prepaid cards, landline prepaid, online games like Ragnarok, TANTRA and the rest of them.
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Swiss and Belgian chocolates
I’ve been lucky enough to be a recipient of chocolate gifts recently. Even luckier because they are some of the world’s finest chocolates, coming from the two of the top producing countries, Belgium and Switzerland. If you ask me to tell the difference, I can’t, although am sure one would claim to be better and sweeter than the other.
First is this trio of chocolate packages from blog reader-turned-friend Marissa, who is based in the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland. One brand is familiar, Lindt, while the other is called Cocktailbar and are shaped like liquor bottles. Most of all, they contain real shots of alcohol! The Lindt was delicately packed itself in pink with the most attractive feminine graphics – so Paris Hilton Tasting the savory pralines was another matter. We simply couldn’t have enough of it.
I figure that chocolate-making itself is an art. Before these confectioneries become desirable, they must first become presentable, right? Coming up with nibbles like those in the picture above requires special molds and the most exacting process. According to Wikipedia, Switzerland (which is famous for Toblerone) has the highest rate of chocolate consumption in the world.
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DTI business name registration is a failure
Launching our little business last month has been an eye-opening experience. It has broadened my mind about the dynamics of being an entrepreneur in this country. I am bound to agree with the observations of some people (including foreigners) that the environment for doing business in the Philippines is poor and discouraging. But first of all, President Arroyo should crack the whip on agencies who are “good on paper” but are actually NO GOOD in what they do.
For example, how does DTI Secretary Peter Favila and his staff explain the more than one month wait in the approval of business names? I am asking this because the DTI even goes to the extremes of spending millions for advertising their Business Name Registration Service (DTI BNRS is supposedly a frontline service for the registry of sole proprietorships). The last time, I saw their half-page ads in the Inquirer.
More than one month of waiting for government approval of a business name is just inexcusable. It certainly doesn’t speak of the prompt delivery of service and efficiency of the DTI. My fellow applicants and I have been in touch through cellphone and they told me that they haven’t received their certificates from DTI as well. We applied on the second week of May. DTI BNRS promised to process our applications in two weeks, and they were supposed to mail our papers to us.
Mermaid show at the Manila Ocean Park
The kids and I hang out at the Manila Ocean Park over the weekend, just in time to catch their recently launched Mermaid Show. This is a 30-minute treat where attractive (and should I say, curvaceous) swimmers perform dances, moves and acrobatics underwater. Of course it’s a given, they gotta be professionals to do that!
I must say it’s a real delight for kids, who must be harboring fantasies about being the next Little Mermaid or even our homegrown Dyesebel. It was fun seeing the women-swimmers in their colorful, alluring costumes, waving and smiling at their audience while grooving to the beat of the music. I took a video but I still have to upload it to YouTube
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Eastwood Mall & its state-of-the-art cinema
Faraway Eastwood in Quezon City is one place I’d think twice about going, but when almost-neighbor Sasha offered a treat of free movies at the spanking new Eastwood cinema plus free pick-up in their family car, I had no choice but to say YES!!!
Traffic along C-5 was smooth that day, which made going to Eastwood such a breeze – less than 30 minutes! Arriving there, I couldn’t help but be transported to another world. The new Eastwood Mall was far from crowded and did not look like the populous boxes of concrete in Manila. It looked every inch immaculate and upscale. I also liked nice touches like the man-made water structure and walkway bridge in the outside garden.
The high ceiling, escalator and cavernous middle kinda reminded me of Shang-ri La Plaza mall in Mandaluyong, except that Eastwood has better scenery outside. I dig the airy sunroof (if that’s how you call it.)
We’ve hardly done a tour of the mall and it was time to catch the 1 p.m. movie. We met up with Tinay of Megaworld who was going to show us the mall’s high-tech theater, with the uber-comfy fully reclining seats.It was heaven and relaxing indeed, plunking down ourselves in the plush chairs which fully reclined just by flicking a side lever.
Blogging since 2004 and recently married to Mr Z. I can't live without coffee....and brown sugar.
