Snapshots: Vintage Luggage, Hacienda Isabella, Tagaytay

I see things like this and imagine how romantic traveling must've been like in the old days. But there's also something quite romantic about setting off with just a backpack, wearing your brightly-colored fisherman pants and flip flops, hoping the rubber straps on them won't break because it's the only pair of footwear you have with you. Ever seen "Before Sunrise"?

Snapshots: Hacienda Isabella, Tagaytay, Philippines

Tagaytay was probably packed with people over the long weekend. I'm not exactly a fan of Tagaytay, especially for long weekends or holidays, because there isn't much to do there except eat. So I suppose it's nice for day trips on lazy Sundays and such, or spur-of-the-moment road trips after a night of partying.

It's ideal for business planning sessions too - we had one at Hacienda Isabella last year, which was a lovely place. I have a bunch more pictures, will dedicate a post soon.

Snapshots: Dessert! Buon Giornio Caffe & Bistro, Tagaytay, Philippines

Might as well close the week out with one last dessert photo. Have a delectable Friday!

Snapshots: Breakfast in Tagaytay

It was the first weekend of 2012. I was with a bunch of work friends and we had celebrated a birthday Friday night, and were at the after party early Saturday morning. It was two, maybe three a.m., and wasn't it in an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" when they said nothing good ever comes from making any decisions after 2AM?

But you know what? It wasn't so bad, spontaneously deciding to drive to Tagaytay to have breakfast after a night of partying. You just need friends who are willing to go with you, and at least one of them who knows how to drive - this time around, it was Dan.

By the time we had gotten there we were just hoping there was a place open other than 7-11 or Burger Machine - and thankfully, there was! We had goto and arroz caldo and proceeded to drive back to Manila soon after, driving with the windows down and the music up.

We got back fairly early on Saturday morning, and I proceeded to sleep through the rest of the weekend, rendering me pretty useless on the first weekend of the year. But hey, that's at least one crazy thing to tick off my list of crazy things to do. On to the next one then!

Snapshots: Three-Way Adobo in Pamana Restaurant, Tagaytay

There are three things I love most about the Philippines, in no particular order: the resilience and natural happiness of its people (a trait I find that I myself manifest - I'm a generally upbeat and happy person, which probably has a lot to do with my Type 7 - Enthusiast personality. And yes, it also has a lot to do with why I often digress from the point I'm writing about, branching off to random topics and rambling about them for a fair amount of time before I get back to my point...just like what I'm doing right now!); its stunning beaches and the sheer volume of them - there's just so many, thanks to our 7,000+ islands!; and finally, Filipino food.

Filipino food is soul food - comforting, nostalgic, and basically a general source of happiness. Filipino food reminds me of family - I shall never tire of my grandmother's cooking. Her afritada is the best, her morcon pretty much a legend in our hometown and is a staple dish during the annual fiesta, and I can probably live on her Filipino-style lasagna for days on end (I think I might have actually done that once during one of my holidays breaks when I was still in college). There's also my uncle's epic caldereta that's always served during the holidays or other family get-togethers - the secret ingredient, I think, are the olives he puts in it, but it's really a lot more than that. You could serve me the same exact dish with the same ingredients, cooked by a fancy chef, and I'd still prefer my uncle's own cooking, because it reminds me of home and family.

Anthony Bourdain seems to think that from a global perspective, Filipino Food is rather underrated (watch the episode he did in the Philippines, it showed a pretty decent representation of Filipino cuisine), and unfortunately, I kind of have to agree with him - you don't see a lot of Filipino food in cooking shows or travel shows, and I don't think there are a lot of Filipino restaurants outside of the Philippines, at least, not as much as there are Chinese or Vietnamese or Thai food places. So I thought I'd be a little patriotic and do my share of spreading the word on how awesome Filipino food is.

Over the holidays last year, my friends and I went on a road trip to Tagaytay where we had lunch at Pamana Restaurant, a family-owned joint that served Filipino cuisine made from secret family recipes handed down from generation to generation. We ordered a number of different dishes, but my favorite of the lot would have to be the three-way adobo - that is, adobo done three ways: chicken adobo, adobo spareribs, and adobo flakes. I already love adobo to begin with (and what Filipino doesn't?), but this dish definitely gets bonus points for creativity and variety.

This will be the last of my series of food posts for now, but I think I'll be writing more about our food trip to Pamana Restaurant soon. And I'll still probably have sporadic food posts every now and then as well, so I hope you look forward to those!


Pamana Restaurant is located along Aguinaldo Highway in Tagaytay, right beside Boutique Hotel.