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Asian Food Museum by Makansutra now open at Manila Ocean Park
Mostly, I like the Manila Ocean Park because it is one of the few places in Manila where you can enjoy the city’s natural beauty without spending much. Ever since Baywalk closed, this is now the place to gaze at the beautiful sunset and watching the panoramic expanse of the Manila Bay while sipping a drink and enjoying the time with your family.
The best things in life are (almost) free!
It is good that MOP doesn’t charge an entrance fee just for entering their complex. After offering the mermaid show, the people behind the Makansutra Asian Food Village unveiled yesterday the Asian Food Museum for a peek at Asian food history, culinary cultures and traditions.
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.
Liliw, Laguna photos
This is the second time I’ve visited Liliw, Laguna – a charming town south of Manila. All of the occasions I’ve been here, it was just for a stop-over but it doesn’t change my opinion about how charming it is.
There are some things that hold my attention upon entering – the brick-colored church and the narrow streets which play host to well-maintained- houses. Of course, there are all those shoe stores. This is after all the “Tsinelas Capital” of the country. The riches of the people in this town were made from fashioning all those tsinelas (slippers).
This giant replica is what greets you upon entering the main thoroughfare…..
Catch Celadon Manila’s Weekend Market on September 21 and 28
Downtown Manila is a place I never venture much these days. True, it’s a big part of my childhood, but somewhere in between, I ended up in the semi-suburb; living as I am now near a place with airplanes hovering above me, instead of jeepneys buzzing to death beside me.
Manila, it’s either you love it or leave it – the dirt,the smell, the sidewalks overflowing with goods from underground stalls,the noise and a thousand what-nots which make it one big,rough city.
Still, visiting the Alveo Land development Celadon Manila recently,you’d think twice about your impressions of Manila as an “ugly” place. I still can’t believe this is what they made of the former San Lazaro Race Track.
Red @ Makati Shangri-La Hotel
First of all, have you noticed how hotel rates have gone up these days – not only in terms of the room but also F & B? Makes me feel that I can never book again in a hotel unless am a balikbayan or Keanu Reeves living his life out of suitcases. The last time I inquired about this five-star hotel’s dinner buffet, it was a whoppin’ $50. Wow! All I can say is: “I gotta win them Christmas raffles!” 
Because it’s not everyday that I get to indulge in fancy dining (My Knight in Shining Armor is not around), you can just imagine how I ended up at Red, the Continental restaurant and wine bar of Makati Shangri-La. It was for some presscon. Red is so named because of the red upholstery of the furniture in the resto. How simple can it get? You can sit in a red chair by the window that overlooks a man-made garden with little waterfalls. The view is still better in Manila with the sunset and the bay, but this will do.
First to be served was the Lemon Olive Oil Poached Tasmanian Salmon with green and white asparagus, plus some egg-based sauce. This salmon was immaculate in its freshness, my first time to try it raw without Kikkoman and wasabi. Yeah, i imagined it was my favorite shake sashimi except that this one had the skin on. The sight of raw fish with raw skin looked unnerving, but yes, I was able to finish this one. Especially as I love salmon and asparagus!
No soup! After the fish appetizer came the main course. Between the Fillet of Grouper and the Grilled Prime US Rib Eye, I chose the latter. Sidings included creamy potatoes and rosemary jus. Sadly, this one was a disappointment. My rib eye cut was a thick one and far from being tender or juicy. The steak lay unfinished on my plate. I was ready to proclaim that “hey, if you’re looking for the best rib-eye in Manila, it’s not Red….” Enough said.
If we have double-digit inflation, why do they keep on building condos?
Two launch events I attended recently has made me do a double take on the state of our economy. If real estate companies are building more condos and houses, is there hope for better times ahead? Probably. If there’s one belief that has been inculcated on me by other people, it is that you invest in land today with the hope that prices will appreciate in the future. Still have to test if the hypothesis is true, since I haven’t disposed of any piece of real estate to see if substantial gains can be had…or not.
Another real estate assumption is that it is always good to buy at “preselling” rates. This means plunking down your money on a piece of structure that hasn’t been built yet. The good thing is that you get it at the lowest possible price per square meter. The bad thing is that it will remain a “risk” until the structure or unit is finished and is formally turned over to you. The safest way is always to invest in reputable companies, with a portfolio of fully-completed projects. Another advice is to review the contract so that you can actually recover your downpayment when either the project or the company itself goes down the drain due to bankruptcy or some other reason.
One Pacific Place is one such condominium project that is being sold at preselling rates. The property proponents, ACI Group & Cactus Realty, enjoins its target market to invest in a unit today and occupy it by 2011. Two things it boasts about – a good location in Makati’s Salcedo Village and excellent track record of being the company behind Pan Pacific Hotel Manila. Investors can grab studio units now at P1.9 million or so which is not bad for prevailing prices in the prime business area.
‘it’s a small world’ at Hong Kong Disneyland, a must-see!
I realized after our last trip that Hong Kong is indeed one of my favorite cities. It is almost a good neighbor of Manila since it’s so near and there is still so much about it I want to explore in terms of food, shopping and places.
But I have to admit it was quite a downer visiting Hong Kong Disneyland when it’s raining. Riding the Orbitron in our raincoats wasn’t exactly my idea of fun.
My advice really is not to go to Hong Kong Disney during the rainy season, even though I can just imagine how crowded it is during the summer. Size-wise, I found this Disneyland quite small, must be only as large as our very own Enchanted Kingdom. I realized after visiting Hong Kong Disney that we are doing very well with Enchanted. It is just the legacy of the Disney name, the Disney “magic” and the way they market the Disney brand with an array of merchandising products that makes it such a hit with tourists.
Anyway, if you only have less than a day to tour Hong Kong Disney, it’s a small world is one of the theme resort’s newest attractions and definitely one of the highly-recommended rides. In a nutshell, it’s a boat trip guests take to replicas of the different regions of the world with their own landmarks and Audio-Animatronics dolls dressed in national costumes, singing “it’s a small world” in different languages, including Tagalog (kay liit lang ng mundo…..)
The Legaspi Sunday Market
I figure that summer is the best time to go to the few weekend markets Manila has. There’s really no point doing so when it’s all wet and rainy, doesn’t it? At least with the sunshine out, you can see fruits, plants and vegetables in full abundance, never mind if you have to sort through them with sweaty arms (and pits!) It’s that hot and humid in the city these days.
The Legaspi Sunday Market is located in a quiet enclave of offices and residential condominiums in Makati, with a pretty park beside it. I didn’t know how to go here at first, and my personal GPS just told me to go around the side streets of Greenbelt 1 (near AIM) and find the Union Church of Manila. The market is located in a spacious parking lot, with a Starbucks just a few walks away. I would think that the weekend markets in Salcedo and the Lung Center are bigger and have more selections, but foodies and homebound fellas are sure to find interesting things here as well.
Victoria Court: the stuff tourism brochures aren’t made of …
I ‘partially’ work in the hotel industry. More recently, a couple asked me for help in booking the biggest jacuzzi in Manila. I presume it couldn’t be in the formal hotels which have these conventional bathtubs. And so I looked elsewhere. Here is what greeted me in the Victoria Court website : the Oval Office theme room.
Right! All I can think about was Bill Clinton and Monica Lunoksky
Blogging since 2004 and recently married to Mr Z. I can't live without coffee....and brown sugar.
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