♫♪♪ take me down to the paradise city ♫♪♫♪

while mina is raging outside my bedroom window, i've still got that fabulous white beach on my mind. i mean, who wouldn't right? and i'm not even a beach person.

that boracay trip came to me via cash cash pinoy. yes, i'll admit it: i have a healthy relationship with vouchers and when they put up for sale vouchers for P15,000++ for a 3-days and 2-nights trip to boracay for two with airfare, airport transfers, hotel, breakfast, and a dinner a zuzuni, well, i wasn't about to let go of the chance.

not only was it pretty affordable, i have never been to boracay ever. yep, how's that, right?

thing was, i have zero idea about boracay geography so i didn't mind that the voucher was for this hotel located on diniwid beach. my officemate told me that diniwid = nami and i knew that nami = upscale so i assumed that hotel on diniwid automatically meant upscale.

it wasn't bad, but let's just say remote is the more apt term.

in any case, we stayed at this hotel with hardly a lobby to speak of.

but not only did it have two double beds (which was fun especially if you still sleep in a twin bed at the ripe old age of 34), each bed also had three pillows each. *sigh* have i told you that i book hotels on agoda based on how fluffy the pillows are on the pic? well, if not, then consider yourself informed. one look and this almost felt like heaven.

well, almost. i must admit that it was unfortunate that the side tables didn't have lamps so if i wanted to read a book till i fell asleep, it would mean keeping my aunt awake as well. and the view, ugh, the view was of someone's backyard. hence you understand why no pics were taken, haha!

after i surveyed the room (with strict instructions to my aunt not to mess the beds up till i had gotten my shot!), i checked the bathroom out which is usually where i get disappointed. but, with a rainshower head, bidet, and uber strong water pressure, well, let's just say that they got uber-high points in their survey on the bathroom aspect!

i just don't understand who the heck thought of putting the towel on the bathroom floor as "design" ... was it to signal that the floor was clean? and take note that nope, it wasn't the towel that was meant to be a bathmat (it was there, but it wasn't on the shot). that's "art" for you!

oh, if i haven't mentioned it yet, we stayed at microtel boracay. and let's just say it was ♥.

thank you, microtel. it was amazing staying with you. the staff was lovely, the hotel was lovely, the ice machine was lovely. and while the not-red tocino for breakfast threw me in for a loop, i enjoyed your hospitality.

will work for new shoes

so there we were all set for hi-top (this grocery in qc where there's an entire section for items on 50% off) when i complimented my boss on her shoes. then she mentioned the magic word: i got them on CMG where the shoe prices have not only been slashed but they're on buy one, take one as well.

uh-oh ... shoes on sale. sign me up!

i think i must've tried at least fifteen pairs of shoes ☺ boo, cause some of the pairs didn't come in my size (particularly this brown i-will-eat-you-for-breakfast-if-you-don't-see-things-my-way pair that i was super in love with) but in the end, i came home with three (i split the B1T1 with another officemate ... the beribboned flats on the top of the heart isn't from CMG but from janylin last week. i've used it for walking and commuting that they're sorta giving up on me. and i haven't even paid for them on my credit card! boo, janylin, boo!).

sometimes i can't help but think that all this shoe shopping is a disease (i even wanted to buy this bag, but i held back, if only cause i'm saving up for this fino bag that sent my heart a-flutter, or this other bag i had been planning on getting for my 35th birthday which is six months from now) but since i'm a lawyer, i can fully justify each purchase. for example, while this weekend is the first four-day weekend in MONTHS, i actually did a lecture yesterday. so i've more or less earned enough money to pay for the shoes in the pic above. good job me (pats self on the back).

as for that bag though, well, that's a different matter altogether!

t minus 35 days and counting

it's funny how fast news flies in this office. while the change has been pending for some time now (like a month and a half), only five people were in the know, my boss, my big boss, and three of my friends who were sworn to secrecy. monday, i told my boss, wednesday morning, i spoke with my big boss, and wednesday afternoon, i made the announcement to my department (that's the entire legal department of my company up there). by the time thina forwarded my resignation letter to the HR department yesterday afternoon, all the them knew already, not to mention the steady stream of people who've come up to me to basically say, "i've heard something about you."

while i will not pretend and claim that the change isn't keeping me awake at night from all of the excitement, i also cannot ignore the fact that from day one, this office felt like home. and from the corporate ignoramus that my boss hired last year, i'd like to think that i've gained skills that i would not have learned otherwise (skills which helped me get the new job, no doubt about it). this job also taught me how to deal with an entire office of people (my entire career has been spent in small tight-knit organizations. and while i did work in the government, working for a justice meant that you were basically a small office of ten or so people) especially with things like bullying, competitiveness, and cliques.

don't get me wrong - all the bad stuff above notwithstanding, the past 11 months (and i'm sure the next month as well) have been a blast. i'll always have fun memories of my boss ensuring that she gets me at least one red ribbon empanada during board meetings lest this one director (who happens to favor it as much, if not much more, as i do) leave me with zero empanada, memories of all the 50% off goodies at hi-top which is a trike (or a long walk) away from work, or the lunch break runs to trinoma to satisfy the shopping monsters that lurk deep within. this company. i hope they'll also remember fun times with me (although i hope they'll forget the time when i emceed the office christmas party and ended up being "best in smile" since i hardly said anything!) and that when they think of me in the future (like when it's deathly quiet cause my constant chatter isn't around to break the silence), they'll think of someone who was always ready with a smile, someone whom they could approach for help all the time, and someone who despite her short tenure, made a difference.

i've 35 days to go before i make the big jump. in between now and then, there's a couple of things i have to accomplish work-wise. but more importantly, between now and then, i hope to build great memories with everyone in this pic, just so that when they think of me in the future, they'd remember not the girl who left so soon, but the girl who made the most of her 365 days.

boracay views

while i am neither a travel blogger nor a photographer, i do enjoy visiting new places and taking pictures to document the experience. here are some of the things that caught my eye while on vacation

{diniwid beach}

we stayed at microtel boracay which was located beside nami. it didn't have the most pristine of beaches, nor did it have the fun that white sand had to offer, but it did have lovely quiet evenings for pretend contemplative thinkers such as myself.

{microtel boracay poolside}

i am not that much of a beach person so i totally enjoyed the serenity to pool offered me on our first night there. while probably all the registered guests were out somewhere, my aunt and i had a glass of margarita each and discussed life and what nots by the poolside.

{white beach from the plane}

admittedly, even the non-beach person in me was enthralled by the sand that never gets hot, the variety of people in various states of undress (and overdress, haha!), and the wares and services being offered.

{painted startfish magnets}

since it's part of our culture to bring home pasalubong all the time, i was happy i chanced upon these starfish magnets. they're pricier than your usual boracay ref magnets but since they're (seem to be) not as common as the usual pasalubongs, i got fifteen of these - one for me and the rest for select friends.

{one, two, three, four, five, six ... yep, six in one motorcycle!}

we were waiting for our ride at jonah's shake (yep, i couldn't NOT go there} when this family passed us by loaded on one motorcycle. truly, only filipinos can defy that law of physics which states that no two things can occupy the same place at the same time. imagine, a family of six on a motorcycle that typically rides two at most.

{fire dancer with amazing abs}

no trip to boracay will be complete without watching the now-typical fire dancers. we chanced upon a group of three across boracay regency who managed to elicit and couple of wows and thunderous applause from the crowd.

{local kids at diniwid beach}

while white beach has been converted into the hub of commercialism, diniwid remains to be your neighborhood beach. on our second morning, a couple of local kids invaded the beach and revealed that the water truly is an "attractive nuisance" even if it's something that you see every single day of your life.

p.s. pics taken using my lumix fh2 camera. i'd like to think that the pictures from the boracay trip are slightly better than those taken when i was in cebu. maybe it's cause i've finally figured out a thing or two about the camera settings.

well, hello, boracay!

since i've already written about my parasailing adventure and flying via seair, i guess it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that my hot pink crocs finally made it to that uber popular destination that i (previously) never made it to: BORACAY.

unfortunately, since i'm neither a travel nor a food blogger, and by no stretch of the imagination could i call myself a fashion blogger, much less a photographer, the posts i'll be making are more random than anything. however, i do know that i am great at making critiques (este reviews) and i never get offered anything for free so you're assured of totally unbiased comments about the services i received throughout my vacation.

ready? let's go!

flying seair

you know how they previously had jokes about the tiny airplanes of the low cost carriers? like how you'd fly out an asian and arrive a spirit? well, they never really scared me. i'd like to think i'm the fearless kind.

but, i guess it was also cause i never flew using these airlines either. so when my turn came to fly seair, there was a teeny tiny part of me that was slightly afraid. but just teeny tiny, after all, the flight came as part of a great deal, and a great deal is always big in my book.

we were originally set to fly out at 8:30 thereabouts, but a week earlier, we were informed that we will be flying at 9:30 am instead. no worries. but apparently if (1) everyone's already there and (2) the plane's already there, they fly out ASAP.



our plane was a thirty-seater affair with two pilots and one flight attendant. it was no frills - you get it, you load your bags in the overhead compartment (which tita celia loved cause she could easily reach it), and you take a seat. the perpetual noise could get to you but the excitement of flying soooo low gets to me all the time -- i loved being able to view the terrain below and wonder in my mind exactly where we were at any given time.




don't be fooled by the seating arrangement which is basically a choice between a-d-f only. at first tita celia was like, "why are we seated apart?" only to realize that all "a" seats are on one side of the plane and is an aisle and window seat all rolled into one. perfect for those people who want the view and the ease of going to the bathroom.

i am totally in love with seair! superb service + quick flights + hassle-free check-in, boarding, and baggage claim. and since they now fly to macau (which is one of the destinations i plan to visit next), well, guess who's perusing their website for great deals right this minute.

♫♫♪ she's so high ♪♫♪ *

this vacation came with zero expectations and zero plans. after all, i'm not that much of a beach person (i'd rather be trapped in a strange new city with buildings and streets to explore). so while boracay is allegedly the top 4 beach in the world (something i read from the newspaper ten minutes ago), for me, it was just a place i had to cross off my list.

so when someone offered us to go island hopping, i said no thanks. and when someone offered us that helmet dive thing, i said no thanks again. i must be such a killjoy -- i think i was more excited over the fact that our room had two double beds with three pillows each. yes, i was here to sleep, relax, and sleep some more. the pristine white beach with the sand that never gets hot ... just cherries on top of my ice cream.

but as we paused at the far end of station one, yet another man approached us offering the plethora of beach activities one could enjoy in boracay. since tita celia (1) had been here before and (2) was deathly afraid of water activities, we said no again. the major difference though was this guy said the magic words: i'll give you a deep discount for parasailing.

i've always wanted to go parasailing. and i'm not one to turn down a discount.

half an hour later, i was up in the air ready to defy death for at least fifteen minutes. it was one of the best moments in my life.

*yet another blog title inspired by a song ☺

♪♫♫ Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? ♪♫♪

right now, it feels like things have turned into one big jumble of complications and i've run out of steam already. i've always been the type who'd go to a medical exam with zero fears - after all, while i'm crazy overweight, i've been weirdly healthy: i don't have high blood pressure, my cholesterol's normal. so, when i was asked to go get a physical, my only fear was that they'd take my excess poundage against me, or that my missing ovary might be a problem.

and then they saw an enlarged heart. now, i had an xray for my pre-employment exam in this company last september 2010 and another xray for the annual physical exam last february 2011 and both said that the size of my heart is normal. so, apparently, in six months, my heart grew. i'm thinking that since i'm not an athlete, it couldn't be the increased exercise. and since (1) i don't feel anything and (2) my heart was, and has always been, normal, this shouldn't be a problem. so, i wasn't scared when they told me to get an ecg.

according to the ecg, i have non-specific st-t wave changes. the nurse at the hospital told me that i might need to see a cardiologist and that this may translate to a 2D-echo or a stress test. so, i was scared. and then i texted my aunt, who said, "that's normal" and my doctor-friend who also said, "that's normal." my aunt even texted her cardio friend who confirmed that it's pretty "normal" so i was pretty confident when i dropped off my ecg results.

i guess the attending physician googles way less than i do because it took her a good 30 minutes of online searching (this was just a theory, mind you, but since (1) it took her 30 minutes to give instructions to the nurse and (2) she refused to actually talk to me) before the nurse -- who told me earlier to wait for the doctor so she could interpret my ecg results -- told me that my case would be forwarded to the medical director for "final clearance."

uhm, okay, i thought. i wasn't a happy camper, especially with pressure from all sides to figure this part of my life out. and now, this crazy doctor won't just tell me that i'm fine (or even that i'm not fine and ask for additional tests) and instead wants me to hold my breath for two days longer until the medical director decides my fate.

oooh, i've never been a patient person, so all this waiting is making me crazy. the last time i encountered anything of this sort resulted in one ovary being taken away from me, so i'm a bit nervous. then again, my entire family is a bit of a hypochondriac so my brain is telling me not to worry so much. at the end of the day, the chips will fall where they will, and for now, all i can do is wait.

even if the waiting is killing me more than my enlarged heart with non-specific st-t wave changes.

let's pretend i'm not going to boracay this friday, shall we?

you know how people are like months before they go on a vacation whch will require them to basically traipse around in their underwear?

well, they start eating less. and they start exercising. and they save money.

me, i'm not like everyone else. so on top of last week's buffet with my boss, my AG's dinner buffet pushed through last night. it was supposed to be at dusit's basix (so we can use the voucher) except that the place was booked solid. so we ended up at cafe jeepney at the intercon. i've never been there for dinner before, although i do remember it was there where i had my first (heavenly) taste of eggs benedict. to this day, i still am on the search for eggs benedict that taste as good as the ones i tasted then.

anyway, we were all supposed to be there by 6:30. i arrived 7-ish. i was in makati by 6 (nope, not excited, haha!) but i got a pedicure trying to kill time, and before i knew it, i was late. but not that late that i was the last one that got there.

so, here's me and ann (with ann pretending to be healthy with a plate of salad, haha!)

clearly, i had consumed my first plate of potato salad. yes, i know that it fills up your tummy really fasts and yes i know it isn't the best thing to eat in a buffet, but i love potatoes. so there.

shy and faith were across us ... and they too had their fill all to quick that faith's plate was empty by the time we took our first pics. love the bright lights of sm peeking through the trees. have i mentioned that i'm in love with henry sy?

it was a bit before che and dory arrived, but let me assure you that they ate up their P730 worth of food as well. yup, that's how not-that-expensive it was.

see, happy faces all around!

while it wasn't that expensive, let's just say that i was a wee bit disappointed with the food. this was the intercon for goodness' sake.

i mean, if i basically ended up eating potatoes with various dressings on top + bacon, you know that i was trying to salvage my dinner with bacon bits. sorry, intercon, i don't think i'll be coming back soon.

now, if you know me really well, you'll know this isn't my plate: i don't hardly eat japanese food (except yakimix/sambokujin, but they don't count, right?).

but that piece of hakaw, well, let's just say that one got away from me. yes, i love me some hakaw.

the desserts were slightly better, and there were a lot of pretty little things to choose from, but unfortunately, by this time, all the potatoes in my system began taking their revenge, and it wasn't long before i groaned my last and told my friends that if they didn't hear from me today, they should send someone to my house to check on me.

and you know why they ought to check on me, right? remember rico yan?

the buffet was a bit of a disappointment but the company, wow, the company just keeps getting better. we're planning something for the long weekend and that's really exciting (i'm rooting for corregidor!) and i'm just glad that i'm with a bunch of girls that i don't only get all giggly and matakaw with me, but girls who have been storming the heavens for prayers for me for the longest time.

p.s. my x-ray results revealed a slightly enlarged heart. i'll need an ecg to confirm everything's normal, so can you kindly say a little prayer for me today? of course, i'm saying everything's fine by blaming my additional fats and/or my bazillions of crushes for the heart thing, but i'm a bit worried so your prayers will be very much welcome!

making the most of my sunday

after being on my feet for almost six hours yesterday (the things i do to fund my magasotos self), i crashed the moment i got home. and while i was dying on my bed, i promised myself that i'd spend the entire day recuperating.

of course the day that i promised to be dead to the world is the day i end up waking early ... even without an alarm clock. by 7 i was online. by 8:30, i was bored. i figured, i should try to do something productive this sunday. so i made some plans and tweeted about them.

the idea was to be up and about by 9:00. by 8:59, i was ready to just spend the entire day sleeping.

then my laptop died. it was time to go.

{i've totally stopped working on my desk entirely!}

{9:00 a.m. ... time to transform from this ...}

{... to this. okay, fine, not a major improvement, but clean enough for the public to view}

{autobots, roll out!}

{bright and early to get one of the few remaining free parking places at ATC}

{mass at the st. jerome courtyard}

{last day of the accessorize sale! limited myself to two goodies only}

{burger king for lunch ... with the sundae that accidentally received a sprinkling of salt!}

{temporary chair bought!}

it was productive alright ... and while i didn't get to buy the chair i wanted -- one didn't feel as comfy as i wanted it to be and the other one wasn't in a color that would fit my room -- i was able to buy one that (1) was 1/3 cheaper (2) would fit right in my room and (3) would be functional to be used elsewhere in the house once i find the perfect chair.

happy sunday!

i love it when things turn out way better than expected

vouchers ... have i told you my entire department's addicted to them?

me, i try to avoid them as much as i can. for one, i didn't have a credit card i could use until recently and two, i know in my heart that once i get started, it would be difficult to stop. after all, going to all of these group buying websites feels like there's a mall-wide sale all the time.

but, i won't pretend i'm not immune to all that temptation. so when i got approved by that company to do a lecture for them, i kept my promise and bought a voucher for a buffet dinner at manila pavilion's seasons for me and my boss.

now, i worked in the court of appeals and i passed by manila pavilion almost daily and it wasn't really that impressive. so, at P699 per voucher, i didn't have high expectations. and then we entered the restaurant and it was bright and spacious and lovely.

my boss left me at the table to freshen up. i said, it's okay, i'll wait. but right behind me was a huge slab of parma ham and this salmon with a huge blob of cream cheese. i wasn't able to wait. i made a beeline for the buffet line and grabbed these two plates.

let's just say that seasons had me at parma ham. i LOVE parma ham. even probably more than i love bags.
they had stuff on the side to go with their parma ham. all i wanted was parma ham, but i pretended to be chi-chi and all that and grabbed a small spoonfull of mango slices and that sweet-ish sauce.

it was still parma ham heaven.

and let's just say that this salmon + cream cheese was heaven part 2. i kept coming back for more, and more, and more. i wanted a fifth ball but i was in pain from eating too much.

and shrimps ... sigh. i love me some hakaw and while the dumplings they had weren't exactly hakaw, i was fine with that. i was a bit disappointed with the cold shrimp salad though. while i never exactly thought i'd say this, there was too much shrimp and too little salad action going on.

and these oysters ... i dislike raw oysters in general so i wanted these "rockyfellered" but they said the best they could do was put in some cheese and what not. i said, okay ... except they apparently didn't cook them long enough. i still ate every single oyster though, and even stopped the waiter from taking one away since i wasn't done with the last oyster yet.

i can't remember what plate number this was, but note that i had more parma ham. did i say i was in love with parma ham? yes? oh, can i say it again: i LOVE parma ham. i can get married to parma ham and be okay with it.

i remember eating pumpkin soup (my favorite kind) and some other stuff, but let's just say that if all they had was parma ham in that buffet, i would've been fine. i was so full by the time we left and there was still oodles i didn't get to eat. it wasn't circles, it wasn't heat, and it wasn't spiral, but for some reason, that buffet at manila pavilion gave me a whole lot of loving.

i hope they have more vouchers there soon, cause i definitely know where i want to go back again.

note the mooncake face? i was having difficulty digesting my meal by this time ... and guess what still was on my mind.

yes, still more parma ham.

the cheap flight that ended up being not so cheap after all!

i've always been amazed with those people who could get great travel deals. me - i luck out on mall sales once in a while, and i'd like to think i got an okay deal with my tv and washing machine, but never when it comes to travel.

until that fateful day in february where, despite the spotty internet connection at work (oops, i use work internet for personal stuff, my bad), i was able to book and buy three tickets for a trip to cebu. yes, it involved a lot of texting (i started out with an original group of eight), schedule wrangling, and phone calls (to get credit card information) but it wasn't long before i was emailed my itinerary and we were bound for cebu ... in five months' time!

{P2,474.40/3 = P824.80 per person ... round trip!!!}

while i'm generally not OC about things, i am pretty much so when it comes to making schedules. so it wasn't long before i was trolling the net for information about cebu city, and the two places we planned on visiting: bantayan island and camotes island. and, while there was a whole lot of information about bantayan, getting accurate, specific, and detailed information (i told you i was OC -- i found some information but it wasn't as detailed as I'd like my information to be) about camotes pretty much challenged my mad googling skills.*

five months = lots of time on the internet, budget planning, text messaging, emailing, and chatting with travel mates. i planned and planned and forced my travel mates to plan (and to see it my way, i am a bully, i know!). by the time we were about to leave, i had one word file (for our itinerary), one excel file (for our detailed budget), and a text message reminding people of their (1) share of the budget, (2) to wake up early, and (3) that with no check-in baggage, our maximum baggage allowance was 7 kilos.

yes, imagine me trying to limit my baggage to 7 kilos. still, i rose to the challenge. the OC person in me weighed and re-weighed my check-in luggage. and, even if they tried to "intercept" my hand carried luggage before we passed through the x-ray machines, i was still let through. so i -- and my friends -- arrived in cebu with zero checked-in luggage. fast, quick, painless.

only thing we didn't count on was the fact that between the three of us, we'd have so much pasalubong and that since danggit will be part of the stash we'd be bringing home, we need to check-in a bag on our way home.

several times we planned on amending our booking. as a matter of fact, on our last night, we tried, but the spotty internet using the hotel's bad wi-fi connection through our blackberries kept preventing us from buying checked-in luggage. we gave in, thinking that at the very most, we'd pay double (or P200, since 15 kilos = P100 if you purchase it at the same time you buy your ticket).

apparently, you pay quadruple, of P400 per 15 kilos. not only that, our giant box with everything from shamrock to sand (which the airport police thought was drugs!) was around 20 kilos meaning we paid ...

yep, P800 for our giant box. almost as much as one round trip ticket.

so, i planned for everything ... except our collective shopping ability.

*eventually i found sufficient information here.

**if the long-winded narration wasn't enough to drive home the point, here it is: never, ever, ever underestimate the need for check-in luggage. at the very least, spend that extra hundred bucks at the time of your booking, if only for your own peace of mind!

it's been a while

and i'm glad i ended up going rather than spending my entire saturday at home pretending to work on a lecture when i know i would've ended up sleeping all day anyway.

it doesn't get any better than zubochon!

ah, cebu.

to this date, i still think of you fondly. i think of your sweet mangoes. i think of your wonderful beaches. i think of the cheap danggit to be had.

but most of all, i think of zubochon.

{according to ate marivi's driver, "ay ma'am dun sa may lumilipad na baboy"}

*sigh* zubochon. once, i said if i were dying of some deadly disease like cancer, i'll just eat bacon rather than have chemotherapy. now, it's going to be bacon + zubochon lechon. i promise you, happiness doesn't even begin to cover the feeling of partaking of their lechon.

but first, let's backtrack.

theo, cathy, and i volunteer in tuloy sa don bosco. we're from the thursday group (so kuya germs, i know!) ate marivi used to be a full-time volunteer. on theo's first summer, we were assigned to work on the summer program with the namuncura boys, ate marivi's dorm. all the other volunteers were deathly afraid of her; we weren't.

{technically, this should be the last pic ...

halata bang busog na kami?}

it was a sad day when ate marivi left and went back to cebu to take care of her parents. so imagine how excited we were to visit and catch up with her. when she picked us up from ayala center, she asked us, "cebu lechon or seafood?" smart theo replied, "lechon, since we can get seafood anywhere."

bless ate marivi's brother who recommended that we go to zubochon which, anthony bourdain christened as the "the best pig .... ever!"

{while i'm fat, best pig ever is the lechon, not me}

thing is, if there's one thing my friends know about me (or at least gay does), it's that i'm not a huge fan of lechon. not only that, i'm not a huge fan of the skin of the lechon. if at all, i love the meat part slathered with a whole lot of sauce. and, the few times i've tasted cebu lechon, it was okay. no choirs of heavenly angels, no smile slowly spreading over my face, no life changing moment. it's just lechon, and for me, without the sarsa, it wasn't my cup of tea. but, since i believe in a democracy (sometimes ... i tend to be a dictator with my friends, ha! ha!), i was okay with trying out zubochon.

deep inside, though, zubochon meant only one thing for me: i'll be able to try the kamias shake that tin recommended i taste. of course, i was a bit skeptical, but since i loved playing with kamias when i was a kid, i was okay with this choice. worst case scenario, i hate it.

{the kamias shake that changed my life. seriously}

first sip and i wished i could knock at my old house in pilar village and ask for our old kamias tree in the backyard. it was the best thing ever! perfect blend of sweet and sour, it was cool and refreshing, it was nothing at all like i expected when i first received the text message asking me to try it out. (and it was so good that my friends and i, on our last night, passed by zubochon just to have another glass of this kamias shake)

bit by bit our food started arriving ....

{everything in zubochon is good, including these seaweeds that i don't normally eat}

{sinigang na hipon}

i know, i know there should be a picture of the lechon we ate but, what can i say? as soon as it landed on the table, all thoughts of taking pictures for this blog (and for posterity) flew out the window. i wanted to claim my stake on the crispy skin (something i rarely eat in a traditional lechon) and if i could trick my friends into giving me more, i would've most likely done it. it was THAT good.

we also had fish but while it would've been great elsewhere (as well as the sinigang na hipon ... as i said, everything in zubochon was amazing), it was simply eclipsed by the fabulousness that came in grilled pig form. perfect is insufficient to describe the wonder that they turned the pig's skin to. and the meat, the meat ... i wouldn't mind sacrificing high cholesterol scores if i could eat that every single day (with bacon, of course, let's not forget my first love!).

the only sad thing was that zubochon was one of my first meals in cebu so everything else that came in after that just paled in comparison. there were times where i'd stare off in space and i'd have zubochon fantasies ... the crispy lechon skin, the refreshing kamias shake ... one meal, and i was a goner.

and you know what, i still have fantasies of that flying pig ... even more than a week later.