2016 Summer Getaway

2016 presidential election weekend, we opted to go on a trip to Baguio, being that it was a long weekend and we needed to unwind from life in the metro.

I hunted for affordable lodging places near Session Road (preferably Php 5,000 for two nights stay) and saw the newly opened Bloomfield Hotel. The pictures emitted such an elegant and relaxing aura (plus they have good ratings), but unfortunately, they were fully-booked over the weekend.

My search ended with Venus Park Hotel, mainly because of the good things said about them.

DAY 1

So we left for our trip on the morning of May 7, around 7AM, and arrived in Baguio roughly by 12noon. With all the roadblocks that we encountered, it was still a pretty decent travel time.

For our first stop, we had our lunch at the infamous 50's Diner, along Military cut-off. This restaurant is well-known for its affordable, delicious and generous food servings.

We ordered the 50's Beef Stew, The Famous 50's Burger, Grandma's Fried Chicken and Strawberry Milkshake. All of it for less than Php 500!

After our filling lunch, we went to the hotel to check-in. 

We were welcomed by the friendly and accommodating staff and were escorted to our room.

I have to admit, I was shocked when we entered the room. It was such a disappointing room! I'll be writing about it in a separate review.

Moving on, after settling ourselves in the room, we decided to go around Session Road.

Being the Volante lovers that we are, we just had to dine in there for dinner. :)

We just ordered a 10 inch Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza.

As we had expected, everything was on point and just the way we like it! The dough was baked just right, with a crispy crust, mushrooms were fresh and taken as a whole, it was very flavorful. This had a price tag of Php 263, plus 5% service charge.

We ended our first day, walking back to the hotel and sleeping uncomfortably in our hard beds.

DAY 2

Since the room rate did not come with any breakfast, we decided to go early to Volante, Wright Park Branch. We arrived there around 8:30 AM.

We just ordered one Breakfast Starter to share. This platter comes with 2 Eggs (Scrambled or Fried), your choice of either Bacon, Ham, Hanna Sausage or Embutido, choice of Waffles, Corsican Rice, Plain Rice or Garlic Bread, and either Brewed Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Iced Tea or Lemonade. All that for just Php 134!

So here's what we chose: Waffles, Fried Egg, Bacon and Hot Chocolate

This is really filling even if the two of us shared the dish.

So we took our time eating our breakfast and waited it out until 11:15 AM, because we intended to have lunch in Canto, which is located in the Ketchup Food Community. (Yes, food again :D )

Be warned, parking gets very difficult, so come early or just hail a cab. Also, be prepared to fall in line. :)

We went inside the Ketchup compound around 11:25 AM, and there was already a line formed outside Canto. Good thing I was third in the waiting line. 

Here's what the inside of the Ketchup Food Community looked like:

  This is Canto's waiting area (Lucky they have an umbrella!)

We waited for around 30 minutes to be seated since the place was really packed. It's actually impressive how the servers are able to maintain the order of the long queue. Good thing also is that they're strict in implementing proper queuing.

I ordered the half slab of Lomo Ribs (Php 209) while hubby ordered the Chili Burger (PHp 199). For drinks, I had their Strawberry Slush (Php 50) and the Almond Lychee Gulaman (Php 25).

Drinks were served first and both were amazingly yummy and very refreshing! When our orders arrived, we were overwhelmed by the size of the serving.

 

I loved the Lomo Ribs! It was sooooooooo tender and flavorful. I think I was just able to manage to finish 1/4 of the ribs but I ate all of the sides. Hubby finished his huge chili burger and loved every bite of it! With a very affordable price tag on their menu, we left happy and very satisfied.

Needless to say, we will be coming back here on our next trip to Baguio.

After such a heavy meal, we just decided to go around SM Baguio and bask in the cold breeze.

So late afternoon came, and since we were still full from our heavy lunch, we just decided to have some cake at Vizcos.

We ordered a slice of Strawberry Shortcake, and a slice of Oreo Cheesecake.

Both cakes were delicious! You can tasted the cream cheese in the Oreo Cheesecake and the Strawberry Shortcake was light and refreshing.

We went back to the hotel feeling lethargic from the entire day's ordeal.

DAY 3

Finally! We can check out!! But before that, we made sure to go the the market to buy fresh strawberries and other delicacies. We left the hotel around 8AM to make sure that we make it in time for the strawberries.

We went around the market and saw around 4 stalls selling strawberries. Prices were off the roof and reached Php300/kilo. I gave up on the strawberries and just bought some Peanut Brittle and Choco Flakes. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to buy any strawberries, the stall where we were buying our "pasalubong" brought out a sack of freshly delivered strawberries and was just selling it for Php 220 / kilo. I immediately told the vendor that I would be getting 3 kilos. Mission accomplished!

Went back to the hotel, fixed our pasalubong and finally checked out of the hotel around 10:30 AM. Was I so glad that I'm finally out of that place.

Well, since we didn't have any breakfast, we started looking for a nice restaurant to conclude our trip. One of our friends suggested we try La Cucina Amare. 

La Cucina Amare is located inside EGI Albergo Hotel, which is near Ketchup Food Community.

We got there around 10:50 AM, it was still closed. I searched and saw that the restaurant opens by 11 AM. Unfortunately, being that it was election day, they deferred their opening time to 12noon.

They allowed us to wait in their outside seating and we ordered our food in advance.

The Menu

 

The Interior

This restaurant was known for having authentic brick oven pizza, which as you can see above, is the huge brick oven.

We got their Pepperoni Pizza (Php 395) with Mushroom add ons (Php 55) and the Ala Carbonara (Php 265). Their pizzas come only in a standard 12-inch size.

Both dishes looked amazing! You can see that the pizza goes beyond the serving plate it's on, which makes its actual size to be around 13-14 inches. And they certainly did not scrimp on the toppings!

We both loved the pizza! It was juicy and very savory, but not to the point that you'll get too overwhelmed with the flavor. It was really just right. The crust had the prefect crisp, and it was also not too thin nor too thick. 

For the Carbonara, I can say that there was nothing special about it. I actually found it to be a bit bland, and had to use a lot of Parmesan Cheese. The bacon though, was perfectly caramelized.

Will come back here mainly for their pizzas, but the pastas are just mediocre.

After our lunch, we headed back to Manila.

And that concludes our 2016 Baguio Trip! This has been a lengthy post, and I do hope that you enjoyed reading it. 

P.S. Don't forget to read about our hotel stay. :p

Belo Friendly

Last May 2015, I started using Belo SunExpert Body Shield (SPF60, PA +++), which I got from Sampleroom.

It comes in a easy-squeeze yellow-gold packaging.

The product consistency is a bit loose, but has a non-sticky feel, is easily absorbed, and doesn't leave any white residue on the skin. More importantly, a little goes a long way. I use it on a daily basis since I walk for about 20-minutes enroute to my office.

As to effectiveness, I can say that it does its job. It did not make me dark at all, even during the times that I would be exposed to direct sunlight during noon-time, no tan lines!

Last March, I was lucky enough to be able to avail of the Belo . It was just in time too, since my Belo SunExpert Body Shield was almost depleted. 

I love that it comes in a spray bottle! As you can see, the product is colorless, so no need to worry about white residue. 

Easily absorbed by the skin and does not have a sticky feeling.

I was able to put its effectivity to an extreme test during my trip to Bangkok last April 23rd.

I generously applied my Belo Sun Expert Sheer Spray in the morning, before we went to our scheduled tours. The heat in Bangkok is unforgiving! It's a lot hotter and definitely more humid there. I was literally sweating non-stop. 

The Ayuthaya Temple (at 12 noon):

I noticed that my sunblock was holding up through all the heat and sweat! I reapplied after about 5 hours, since I was wiping off all the sweat from my face, arms and legs. 

For two days we were exposed to the scorching heat of the sun. We braved it for the sake of being able to see the wonders of Bangkok. I was actually confident while doing our itinerary since I know that my Belo buddy will not let me down!

And like what I said, Belo did not let me down! No tan lines!

Thank you so much Belo and Sampleroom!!

MEAT MY DAY

I've been out of the blogging grid for so long, because of, ugh, work...

Now, I finally had the time get my creative juices going!

Around mid December of 2015, I finally got the chance to visit Meat Depot in Banawe.

I was so excited that right after our filling lunch at Tea Rock, we went straight to the Meat Depot.

The Entrance to Happiness:

MEAT HEAVEN!

Freezers fully packed with wonderful meat cuts! Local beef, pork, lamb, and look, Black Mountain Angus and Wagyu Beef! Moreover, they have other items such as sausages, longganisa, tocino, and probably, the best tapa we've ever had!

They also have a separate chiller for fresh, unfrozen meat selections.

I just have to say that the quality of their meats are amazing! The steaks have a wonderful marbling and very affordable.

My meat haul on different dates:

 

My creations (with just your basic salt, pepper and garlic butter):

 

Aside from their uncooked meat selections, they also have a dine in area on the second floor wherein they charge Php 100 cooking fee and already includes a sidedish. They have a unique Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ordering method wherein you get to pick your meat (based on the items available in the chiller), select the doneness, sauce, sidedish, and any thing additional that you wish to add. 

Just recently, we tried their dine-in service. For our dinner selection, hubby got the Black Mountain Angus Ribeye (medium well) with mashed potato, while I went for the Liempo with french fries. We didn't bothered ordering drinks since we still had our orders from Tea Rock.

It took a while for our order to be served since there were a lot of people dining that night. We really didn't mind the wait since we were excited to finally try their cooking.

Both the steak and the liempo tasted heavenly!! Flavorful and very tender. Worth every peso spent!

The steak was perfectly seasoned and was cooked exactly as we wanted. The liempo boasted of it's barbecue glaze and was a delight in every bite. The only mistake I did was to get fries instead of rice.

We will definitely come back for more.

TIP: I suggest to order a big cut of steak and just share, since the price of your meal will depend on how much the price of the meat is,

What's Hot? Hot Star!

Been craving for the Taiwanese style chicken-chop, so we had our late lunch at Hot Star Large Fried Chicken.

I'm so happy that they opened up a branch in Banawe, so much more accessible for us, yey!

Hotstar's menu is quite limited and straight to the point, so you won't have a hard time choosing. :D

We got the HS1 (Original Large Fried Chicken) and the HS2 (Crispy Large Fried Chicken), each costs Php 110. We also ordered their Almond Ice Crush (Php 40) since it looked promising in their menu.

Serving time takes about 10-20 minutes. They have a designated pick-up counter for ready orders.

So here are the stars: HS1 (left) and HS2 (right)

  

Huge and intimidating chicken chops! Do note that these are not deboned, so expect to find the bones while munching over these giants.

I personally loved the HS1. It had the right amount of seasoning and the perfect crunch! I found the HS2 a bit bland, it lacked that umami taste that HS1 had. The meat inside both flavors were tender.

Overall, I am very happy that we went here for lunch.

SM Supermalls Mobile App

So I came about the mobile app of SM Supermalls in Google Playstore and downloaded it to see what they have for their customers.

Once you open the app, a "LOG IN" / "SIGN UP" page will appear:

After finishing the signing up, you'll be sent a "VERIFICATION CODE" in your email, which you'll need to enter in the pop-up window that will appear.

So the app has 4 main tabs:

               
The first tab contains updates brought to you by SM Supermalls, basically about upcoming sales and events.

The second tab is like a Mall Directory, wherein you can get a detailed listing of the establishments in the mall selected.

 

In the "Profile" tab, you 'll find the "Coupons" sub-tab, which I think contains on-going offers that we can avail. As of the moment, my tab is empty. >.<

Well, that's basically the contents of the app. Overall, I found it easy to use and very informative. You'll never miss an SM Supermall event with this app!

As a bonus, SM Supermalls partnered with Krispy Kreme, and they're giving away  3 Original Glazed® Krispy Kreme doughnuts each to 100 unique SM Supermalls mobile app registered users every day from April 30 to June 30, 2016. 

Upon signing up in the SM Supermalls mobile app, a digital scratch card will appear on the app and you are to scratch off the gray area to find out if you won.

Well, I wasn't that lucky, hehe.

So dough-nut forget to download the app now, and you might be one of the lucky users to catch their prize!

#EverythingsHere #SMMobileApp