Lucban Quezon's famous Longaniza and Pancit

Longsilog at Buddy's Restaurant in Lucban

Lucban Longanisa and Pancit Habhab are the famous local food in Lucban, Quezon, that’s why when we visited Lucban in February we did not pass the chance to taste these foods where they originally has been renowned. 

After we paid a visit to the town’s church, St. Labrador Parish we started our quest for where to eat the best and authentic Lucban Longanisa and Pancit Habhab in town.  We had no idea where it could be and we bet that the best person to ask are the locals, which we did.  The first person we asked was a passerby outside the church, the second was a stall vendor and the third was a lady store owner.  They all gave us a similar answer - Buddy’s Restaurant located along the Lucban Highway.

24-Hour Sports Club and Bar

Mayweather and Pacquiao event

I was lucky to have been invited last Sunday, May 3, at Sparks Club Sports bar, located at the 2nd floor of Guilly’s Island restaurant in Tomas Morato, Quezon City to watch the live Pay Per View of Mayweather and Pacquiao Battle for Greatness fight, and not only that, it comes with a free buffet breakfast. Who wouldn’t refuse such an offer? It’s a rare opportunity so I grabbed the chance immediately when they sent me an invite. Although I had to wake up early last Sunday to make it to the call time, an extra effort for me is a gesture to reciprocate their generosity.


It was my first time to visit the place, but I did not have a hard time locating their establishment near the intersection of Tomas Morato and Eugenio Lopez Drive. I was greeted by Ms. Mikaela at the entrance door and led me to the second floor with some other invitees who were already seated at the high bar chairs reserved exclusively for invited guests.

Dining

The room was dimly lighted and cool which makes cozy ambiance, a perfect atmosphere while sipping the cup of coffee offered to me by their crew. The room is equipped with 5 large televisions mounted on the wall strategically located so that a guest can have a view of the show on TV. The sound system is good also. Aside from high bar chairs they also have high back dining sofa, so if you wanted your conversation to be a little bit private you can opt to be seated there. I tried sitting on both and I prefer the high back sofa because I can slouch or lean to relax my back on the padded backrest.

heavy breakfast 

The breakfast buffet was offered when almost all the seats are occupied by invitees and guests. We lined up at the bar area where the sumptuous Filipino breakfast menu was being served. First on the array of food is an option of plain or fried rice, seconded by different egg menu – omelet and sunny side up egg, thirdly meat menu – Tocino, Longaniza, Beef Tapa, and Arozcaldo with hard boiled egg. Also included is the Pandesal.

One of the best Halo Halo is in Pagsanjan, Laguna

Aling Taleng's Halo Halo

There’s no doubt that the majority of Filipinos favorite summer cooler is Halo-Halo.  What makes it looks enticing to eat are its colorful combination of different ingredients, such as sweetened fruits and vegetables like red beans, saba banana, sweet potato, jack fruit,  kaong (sugar palm fruit), yam.  With jellies, jams, thinly shaved ice and condensed milk, that even the world renowned chef Anthony Bourdain calls it “oddly beautiful” when he had a first glimpse of it. 

Halo-Halo is easy to prepare that’s why during summer in the Philippines you would often see on every street corner a Halo-Halo seller.  When I was younger, I don’t recall having it in two options, the regular and the special.  And most often Halo-Halo is only available in the neighborhood store or just anybody in the neighborhood who would just set up their own Halo-Halo store in front of their house,  just a table, a manual ice shaver, stock of glasses and spoons and those ingredients contained in a glass jar and that’s it! But because of Halo-Halo’s popularity most Filipino restaurants have it in their menus.   

Restaurant hopping in Tagaytay our last day itinerary

Time to leave Canyon Woods

    Our check-out time at Canyon Woods should be 12:00 noon but they allowed us to extend until 1:00 p.m. so we maximized our stay in our room, just in time we finished packing our things the bell boy arrived on time and carried our things on the trolley and brought it out and helped us to put it on our car.   We left the hotel happy and at the same time satisfied with the friendly approach and good service of the crews from the receptionist, maintenance and bellboy.  They deserve a commendation for their good customer service.

Dining at Canyon Woods Pavilion with stunning view

  

   I have shown on my other post the room and pool of the hotel in Canyon Woods, and this time I am going to bring you to their Pavilion where we had our brunch.  It is detached from the hotel where it has its own building which can be reached by walking and you have an option if you would want to bring your own vehicle or arrange a vehicle at the reception to bring you there, one of their vehicles are golf carts parked outside the lobby of the hotel.

Dinner in the hut at Mer-Ben's Tapsilogan Tagaytay

Mer-Ben Tapsilogan

     We decided to have dinner outside Canyon Woods after having the kids swim in the pool and also we still want to discover and try out other restaurants in Tagaytay.  Beef is abundant in Tagaytay because most cattle industries are in Batangas that supplied the freshest beef meat in most of the restaurants and markets in the nearby towns, and I guess all restaurants in Tagaytay has Bulalo and Tapa as staple in their menu.   We considered Mer-Ben because we got some positive feedback about their Tapsilog menu.  Tapsilog is a short term for Tap – Tapa, Si- Sinangag (fried rice) and Log – itlog (egg) and when it usually comes with other variants or combinations like Chicsilog (chicken,sinangag,itlog) Longsilog (Longanisa,sinangag,itlog) and Tocilog (Tocino,sinangag,itlog)and among many other fried food which can be combined with fried rice and either scrambled egg or sunny side-up.

RSM Lutong Bahay restaurant in Tagaytay

RSM Lutong Bahay facade

    Our family love to eat and in every place that we visit, we always look out for the best food they have to offer, and Tagaytay is best known to serve the best “Bulalo” so we included in our itinerary to have our lunch in Tagaytay before proceeding to Canyon Woods where we are going to stay for two days. 

Afternoon Sweet Delights at Starbucks E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue

Inside Starbucks photo capture from mezzanine

    After our afternoon walk in Bonifacio High Streets we should supposed to go to the newly opened SM Aura inside Bonifacio Global City, but the heavy traffic caused by vehicles and people going there made us decide not to proceed and re-schedule our malling, so instead of turning right from the intersection of 26^th Street and McKinley Parkway we headed straight to Carlos P. Garcia Avenue (C5) until we reached the E. Rodriguez  Jr. Avenue (Libis area).  Prior to approaching E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue my daughter is insisting on going to Starbucks, as always, whenever we go out she never forgets to persuade us to go to Starbucks and order her favourite drink – Coffee Jelly.  I allowed her clamour this time because most often I despised her begging.

Food trip at Qizia Cafe restaurant in Marikina

Enjoying our food at Qizia Cafe

        Every December on a holiday season we always schedule a visit to my in-laws at their house to have a moment of bonding, since this is the only time that majority of us are already on a Christmas vacation.  And last December 30 we had a simple family get together at Qizia Cafe, Marikina.  We’ve invited them over to have lunch at this restaurant to have a different ambiance and we also want them to taste the food at this restaurant in Marikina which has became one of our favorite restaurant to eat whenever were craving for  Italian food like pizza, pasta, cakes and pastries located near our place and which is budget friendly.

Overlooking restaurant experience in Davao

Taklobo Restaurant 

Jack's Ridges resort and restaurant

                We could have not known this place if our taxi driver didn’t inform us about this restaurant overlooking the city of Davao, which originally not on our itinerary.  Our plan was to eat at any restaurant near our hotel, then explore the plaza.  We were convinced by him that it is one of Davao’s tourists destination because of its view and the food are good, so it triggered our curiosity and we proceeded there.

Lunch at Glenn 50's Diner Baguio

 After checking–in at our hotel and took a short nap we headed to 50’s Diner to eat lunch, we chose this restaurant because it has a very good review of the internet search on where to eat in Baguio.  It was past 1:00 pm and there are still customers waiting for their turn to be accommodated inside the dining area, at 1:30 we were led inside.  The waiting is satisfied because the food is good and they're serving per order is good enough for 2 to 3 persons.  One thing I just don’t like in this place are the “ukay-ukay” occupying their parking lot, that’s why we had difficulty finding the restaurant because of the merchant vendors blocking their facade.