weekends

Weekend at The Lakeshore

| kirstenebv

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My stay at The Lakeshore, Pampanga last November has been fun! Christian tagged me along to join his friends from the office to have a chill weekend at Chinee’s place. The road trip has been a blast, thanks to the lovely weather and good ol’s music from the 90’s. I did not doze off even for a bit! If you know me, Queen of Sleep, you will give me a pat in the back for the tremendous effort of staying awake.

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Lakeshore4 After the 2-hr-ish drive, we stopped by Koko Buri in San Fernando for lunch. There, I got to try their famous soy chicken. It’s quite similar to Bon Chon but their serving is much bigger. Therefore, much affordable. The interior and the ambiance of the place is cozy with the warm lights and colorful table knick-knacks.

Post-lunch, we headed to Chinee’s place to settle down for a bit before our afternoon swim. I met Chinee’s dog, Amber, once again! Super cute!

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One thing that I really loved about our swim is I got to enjoy the sunset. I always get this peaceful feeling when I’m having a nature trip. It’s such a nice, sweet escape from the urban jungle. Yeah, let’s not forget the fact that I am getting old so I tend to be nostalgic on these kind of mundane. 😛

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Another thing I enjoyed on this weekend getaway? The food! Everyone helped in preparing the meals and they all turned out delicious. Seriously! I’m thinking of trying them out on my own — especially the “Good Shepherd’s Pie” and “Bangus Belly in Spanish Sauce”.

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I don’t know what its actual name is but everyone called it “Good Shepherd’s Pie”. It has chicken chunks and carrots in mushroom sauce, topped with mashed potato and greens. It was a hearty meal and I can’t wait to make my own version of it. I really need to have a decent kitchen soon!  The Bangus Belly meal is a mashed-up of two of my favorites: bangus belly and spanish sardines. It was really easy to make. I just need a pressure cooker and the right ingredients and voila! Instant awesome meal! 🙂

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And what’s a getaway without the booze? We had our fill of these after dinner while playing King’s Cup. It was hilarious! The game got funnier as everyone gets drunker.

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In the morning before heading home, we went to the other side of the lake to enjoy the view and have some photo ops. Thank the heavens for the really lovely weather that weekend.

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Weekend Starter

| kirstenebv

Had an awesome weekend (!) and it all started with this bottle of wine. After work, me and my friends headed over to the Old Swiss Inn and bonded over Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s not our usual take on weekend starter/after-shift drinking session being the beer/mojito-drinking people that we are, but I enjoyed it. We had this with a bowl of cheese fondue and a plate of cold cuts. Not the best fondue and cold cuts in the planet, though. I’m lucky that they served a basket of warm bread. They are so soft and tasty, I had about 3 or 4. If I was the only one on the table who did, I would’ve felt ashamed but Dan had the same so…

Anyway, it’s true what they say. Drinking wine has this certain tinge of sophistication. Or is it the other way around with us? Made us act sillier than usual? A bottle of Caajfdkljfsdhfeorewndnceney Saigsdfhdighrothvnon, please? 😀

Weekend Discoveries

| kirstenebv

This weekend has been full of new discoveries!

Let me start with Saturday. Christian and I were both craving for Japanese (no surprise there, really) and we magically stumbled upon Rai Rai Ken. OK, to be perfectly honest, we were lured by their “50% discount on ALL Ramen” ad. Turned out that you have to order a plate of appetizer and any Pepsi product to avail of the discount.

It proved to be a very good thing actually because without it I wouldn’t have discovered their delicious Fish Fingers with Cheese. The wasabi sauce goes really well with it and the salad is a good side dish compliment. Christian ordered a plate of maki (as usual) and for the ramen, we opted for a fusion of Japanese and Filipino: Batchoy Ramen. It’s one of the store’s best seller but it was a little too salty for me.

This overhanging lamp is my favorite decoration in the resto. I wanted to take it down and bring it home! 😀

Come Sunday, Christian’s sister, Cati, took us all to The Collective in Makati to have lunch at Wingman. I’m crazy about chicken wings so I was really, really excited to visit the place.

And I was not disappointed! Wingman serves one of the best and most affordable chicken wings in the area. They are also relatively big in size compared to what the other restos are serving so a dozen of this is good enough for three. You can also opt to order two different flavors for your chicken wing dozen. That way, you can have more flavor variety for a lesser price.

And true to all chicken wing dining, it never hurts to order a plate of fries or onion rings to pair with your meat. 😉

After lunch, we went around the compound to check out some of the stores. But because it was a Sunday, most of them were closed. I’m planning to go back there to visit the Polaroid store which sells Instax Mini cases. It’s high time that I give my Choco a face lift.

Anyway, the compound trip would have been a shame if it weren’t for this:

The walls were lined with amazing graffiti. I’ve always been fascinated with them. There’s something interesting about the colors and the chaos of graffiti art. It makes me think of what the artist was thinking while sketching these. If ever reincarnation is true, I would work my ass off just to be a kick-ass artist in my next life.

As for my personal discovery, I fell in love with the dress-and-sneakers porma once again. It’s funny how I used to dress up like this every single day when I was in grade school and the early part of my high school. I’ve always been sort of a tomboy growing up but wasn’t really into jeans. Plus, my mom always buys me these cute dresses whenever she can. So there. What I probably love most about this style is it is girly and totally laidback at the same time.

Anyway, I’ve been blabbing on forever. I should really get my act together and start a daily blogging thing. Wrapping a weekend over one post can be lengthy.

Or maybe my weekend was really just a blast. Or I talk too much. Whatever. 😛