Latte Love: A Latte Art Workshop

If you've read some of my entries, you'd know how much I absolutely can't live without caffeine! I am simply addicted to coffee. I usually get to have 3-5 cups, depending on the situation and the level of sleepiness I am in.

So I was thrilled when I received a Blogger's Pass for an event on a subject I really understand and love: COFFEE. The event is called Latte Love: A Latte Art Workshop and it'll be held on Saturday, November 5 from 2 to 5PM at the Landmark TriNoma in Quezon City.

The first time I saw latte art was in Boracay, I forget the name of that cafe but I see it clearly in my mind's eye. Ever since then, it continues to amaze me - how they can "draw" or "create" art using latte! AMAZING! Makes you not want to touch your coffee AT ALL sometimes hahaha

Thank you so much to Krups Marketing. I will run to TriNoma right after my Strategic Planning class all the way from La Salle in Taft. Your latte event will keep me up for an extra few more hours! :)

Who else will be going to this event? Give me a holler! :)

This Made my Day! Thank you Coffee Bean and Geiser Maclang!

First of all, let me apologize for the absence in blogging. I've been struggling at juggling studying for masters, work, blogging, and my so-called life hahaha! I promise I will make time to finish my Cebu trip blog. I'm so sorry!

Anyway, this totally made my day today. I opened my e-mail and the subject said: "Someone left a drink for you at The Coffee Bean". So I opened the mail and saw this:

I was thrilled to the bones. I SUPER LOVE COFFEE!! I have about 4-5 cups of it every freaking day! It was a huge sacrifice for me to give it up for Lent. Every time my friends and I would hang out, it'll almost always be in a coffee shop.

When we get sick and tired of the usual Starbucks, we go to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. BFF Trency has a swirl card already, so we go there frequently and use free wi-fi!

I love Coffee Bean's Vanilla Iced Blended and Cafe Latte. The latte is super good with any of their pastries, especially their cakes. I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this but I think Coffee Bean has one of the BEST CAKES compared to some coffee shops! I particularly love their New York Cheesecake! Paired with a Cafe Latte, it's simply heaven!! YUMMY!!!

Hope you guys get to receive one of these! It was a huge surprise for me. I'm claiming mine in my usual branch - Four Seasons Condominium here in Salcedo Village. Thank you so much Coffee Bean and thank you Geiser-Maclang! :))

Good Burgers and then Some at Stackers Burger Cafe

Burgers are the ultimate go-to food when you're just hungry and can't really find a specific thing to eat. There's something about burgers that you just can't resist aand get tired of. From the simple burgers in our schools to the Jollibee Yum burger and to the sosy Brother's Burger, it's just really irresistible.

While waiting for Trency to finish up with her midterms on the day we were to hit Candaba, Mike, Amanda, and I trooped on over to The Venice Piazza at McKinley Hill. We wanted fast food because we weren't sure what time Trency would call. The final decision: STACKERS BURGER CAFE.

It was my first time to eat at Stackers, so I was grateful to see this "breakdown" of a Stackers buger. I think it's a great way to entice people to order their burgers and to give first timers a good idea of what's in it for them.

Their menu was pretty rockin' too. The layout was clean, and the photos can make you hungry. And it was all about BURGERS (uhmm...duh!).


So anyway, on to our orders. I was being weird, I have this knack for ordering something a particular restaurant isn't exactly known for. They were a burger joint, but I ordered Chicken Nuggets with Fries. Talk about being a non-conformist! :p

It was actually pretty good. The nuggets were freshly made, not soggy, and the outside was crispy. They also have a generous serving of fries. It's a good meal for those who aren't too hungry. It's filling but not to the point of hacking it all up.

Mike ordered THE MASSIVE. Although they could've done a much better job at making it MASSIVE.

Mike let me taste it, and it was good. It's like a McDonald's double cheeseburger, only Stackers made the beef juicier and fatter...not too mention twice the price! Mike had to to add like Php60 to get fries and a drink.

Amanda on the other hand got Buffalo Chicken Ranch.

This was a flop! The chicken was dry and a bit tough, obviously it was reheated or something. The precious few amounts of sauce in the burger did very little to wet the chicken and give it a little bit of taste. And like Mike, she had to add Php60 for her fries and drink. For something this blah, it was expensive!

Just to be safe, maybe you should just go for the Stackers Classics. I think those are the burgers they have perfected and can whip up during sleep. It can be pretty steep, so you just have to know what to order, cos you can end up really disappointed with it. They have really small drinks and a puny container for their fries, so for me, it's quite expensive.

I've got my eyes set on the Stack Cheese Burger, looed really good on their menu. I'll have that on my next trip to Stackers.

Stackers Burger Cafe
Ground Level, The Venice Piazza
McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio
Taguig, Metro Manila
Tel. Nos.: 403-6572 and 409-6843

Ilocos Tour Part 6: Foodie Finds

No trip will ever be complete without me finding the usual food fare. I knew I was in really good company during this trip up north, because these 2 girls sure knew how to eat and EAT WELL! :) Perfect foodie buddies, Kim and Milds are!

So if in Vigan, Ilocos Norte, besides the let's-go-back-in-time tour, one MUST go on a food trip in this historic city. I didn't realize Vigan had so much food haunts. Here are some recommended places to go.

LOS MAJITOS STREET DINING

Owned by Sheila Medina, this caught our attention as we made our way to the Vigan Cathedral to hear Mass. The street dining concept was really cool, since it was really cold out while we were there, plus you get to dine within the old walls of the stone houses. It also had a really cozy feel to it, and I think that's what attracted not only local tourists, but foreigners as well.


And what a meal we had in this place! Since we knew nothing in the restaurant, we were supposed to order Ilocano delicacies by the plate. But the really servers tipped us on getting this HUGE PLATTER (think BOODLE FEAST) of everything Ilocano - bagnet, Vigan longganisa,pinakbet, and KBL (kamatis, bagoong and lasuna). Lasuna is a kind of onion found in Ilocos. THIS WAS HEAVEN!!! MUST EAT WHEN IN VIGAN FOLKS!!


We also drank in this spot, the cool winds made it perfect for binge drinking. But as we were drinking, the peaceful Vigan night was shattered by a small riot. It was so cool to watch the whole scene unfold right in front of your eyes! It was like a movie scene where the bad guys wreak havoc and the police come to break it up. If only we understood Ilocano, it would've been so much better.


I'd also like to thank the staff of Los Majitos. They were very accommodating and when the riot broke up they asked us if we wanted to transfer inside the restaurant. Great food with great service warrants a really good blog entry! :) Sheila, if you get to read this, congrats! Great restaurant, I miss it already!!

LILONG AND LILANG'S COFFEE SHOP

We got to here during our calesa trip, and our driver Kuya Richard brought us to the Hidden Garden to have a look around and to eat.

The restaurant had very simple set-up but was prettified by the wood ornaments, the Christmas lights and of course the plants all around it. It made the place really cool even if it was right smack in the middle of the day.



Here, we got to try their Sisig and Pork Sinigang. It was good, but let me tell yoou one thing, we were starving. They say when you're starving everything tastes good. But really, it was good. I just wish that their Sinigang had more meat in it.



LEILA'S CAFE

Found right beside Los Majitos is this quaint coffee shop called Leila's Cafe. Being a caffeine I just had to have my daily dose of caffeine.

The interiors were very comfortable, way MORE comfortable than Starbucks or Coffee Bean. It looked like a house's living room.

I decided to take a seat outside, and have my Caffe Latte which was only P50 (a little over USD1). Amazing! It was strong just the way I like my coffee. Although I would've liked it in a much bigger cup.


They also serve tea, just take a look at the board for other stuff you might like. It's a perfect place to unwind after a long, tiring tour of Vigan.

Just to let everyone know: Everything that we ate in our trip was BELOW P600 (more or less USD15). We didn't scrimp on our food alright, it's just that food in Vigan is cheap. CHEAP BUT REALLY GOOD! Your historical tour could also be a foodie tour!

This was one remarkable trip. Since this was my first MAJOR trip this 2011 I think it will become a benchmark for all my upcoming trips. So I know deep down in my gut, it'll keep getting better and better! :D

Other links to our Vigan tour:
Part 1: Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte
Part 2: Cordillera Inn, Night Shots and Empanada
Part 3: Crisologo and SyQuia Museums
Part 4: Bantay Bell Tower and St. Augustine Parish Church
Part 5: Baluarte and Hidden Garden

The Much-Awaited Barkada Reunion

This has to be said, I am iffy with Capampangan food. But when my college barkada called for a reunion and asked around for a nice place to meet in, I said ABE in Serendra. Seems like Taguig's the new reunion place for my barkadas, my high school barkada had our Christmas get-together over at Burgos Circle.

I also wanted to change my mind about Capampangan food, so what better place to do this than ABE.

In Capampangan ABE means friend, and this was also the nickname of Emilio Aguilar Cruz, a Capampangan writer and painter.

Good thing we made reservations because the place gets PACKED with huge groups of families and friends eager to have dinner. There were people waiting in line, and some were even getting rejected already. It's that much of a HIT!



The inside of the restaurant is just yellow and the space was a bit cramped. But they made it a place to display the works of Emilio Aguilar Cruz - his painting were there and so were other photographs of him.


Everyone in our group was STARVING. So we ordered A LOT because we left Steph in charge of ordering.

Pork Binagoongan

Green Mango and Bagoong

Binukadkad na Pla-Pla

Lumpiang Ubod

Knockout Knucles. WE SUPER LOVED THIS! :)

AND KARE-KARE A LA BISTRO.

Remember the last kare-kare I ate and RAVED about it? Well this is just like it! I remember sopping up the sauce..it just lacked the peanut bits but it was really good! :)

Yes, I realized that Capampangan food's good. Nothing to be scared of anymore.

After the heavy dinner, we all trooped over to the new Starbucks near St. Luke's Medical Center. It's the latest store with a DRIVE-THRU! Here are some of my pictures. Come meet my DLSU barkada.








Just a little story about us, we all got together when we were in 3rd year in DLSU. We were all majoring in Mass Media. This group was the first barkada I had my first road trip with when we went to Pagudpud. We went on countless overnight trips and numerous nights getting wasted! But hey, after 7 years and despite us being busy with our own "careers" we're all still together! :)


Dinner at:
ABE
Serendra, Bonifacio Global City
Taguig City, Metro Manila
Tel. No. 856-0526