The IHOP’s Breakfast Buddies Combo

When The International House of Pancakes opened in Manila, it was natural that families made a bee-line to it. Everybody loves breakfast–specifically breakfast food. Other than having big fluffy pancakes in their menu, they also added Filipino favorites; so of course, that all added to the craze.

As a mom on a budget, I always considered IHOP to be a luxury as–let’s be honest–most of their items are not friendly to those of us on a budget. Today, as the toddler and I were heading home from our early morning grocery run at Century City Mall, I had noticed that the IHOP branch there had a new poster. It was a new menu combo that started just yesterday, September 1, 2016.

My daughter was immediately drawn in by the luscious looking strawberries on the poster. With the enticing price of P159 for Strawberry Banana pancakes and a cup of coffee,  I was finally prompted to find out if it tasted as good as it looked.

Aling Foping’s Halo-Halo FLOP

Since moving here to Davao, one of the first things that my step-mother mentioned worth taking Caleb to was Aling Foping’s Halo-Halo place in Matina Town Square. We were up in the mountains then and it was always freezing up there, so the urge to go grab some wasn’t immediate. However, now that we’re down here, and the summer heat is bristling, it’s time to go check it out!

I’m not particularly fond of the classic Filipino treat but Caleb is so why not give it a try? For the first time, I’m actually excited about a tall glass of Halo-Halo!

Itaewon: Eat-All-You-Can for P195!

Recently, I was lamenting the closure of the Dimsum Matina Branch. Caleb and I had been trying to visit it for several times now but it was always ‘Closed’. Little did we know that it had already shut down either for good or for renovations, I’m not sure. At least, there will be other branches, right? So as I mentioned the fact to my older brother that Dimsum had shut down, he had mentioned Itaewon which is literally right next to Dimsum. I honestly thought that it was a Korean grocery like Arirang at Obrero. Silly me, right?

Being the research fiend that I am, of course I immediately took to Almighty Google to see what I could find out. The Itaewon FB page had a scathing review from a customer but I also saw that whoever handled the page did reply with apologies which is a big thing for me. Most page admins, aren’t big on criticism and most of them would simply delete your post or comment if it wasn’t in their favor (I’m talking to you Teleserv!) so it was nice to see actual interaction between client and store. There will always be bad reviews but I always believe in trying things for yourself first before passing down judgement on it. If it is a terrible experience then at least you know never to go again. If it ends up a good one, that would be great! The greater thing is that you didn’t deny yourself the experience. Diba?

So anyway! Since I was planning on taking Caleb out on a post-birthday celebration, Itaewon it was!

Itaewon Grill and Menu

Holi: Festival of Colors 2015

A couple of weeks ago, while I was working shooting the breeze a new event popped up on my FB newsfeed. Apparently, an old high school friend of mine had clicked ‘Attending’ on a particular event. The event was this:

Event Promotional Image on their FB page

The Holi Festival is a Spring Festival which is also known as the Festival of Love. The Holi festival has other cultural significance as well. It is the festive day to end and rid oneself of past errors, end conflicts by meeting others, a day to forget and forgive. People pay or forgive debts, as well as deal anew with those in their lives. All so positive! All the more reason to attend, right? Holi also marks the start of spring, and for many the start of new year. I immediately sent Caleb the details and asked if he had wanted to attend. We’ve been seeing images of Holi being celebrated around the world via Tumblr so it was a pretty exciting idea! We did manage to go to the event yesterday and this post will be discussing my thoughts about the experience.