2013: The Year of Living (and Saving Up) Dangerously

So. We have come to this part of the year again. December 31st. The mad dash into doing one last good deed. The last day of the year aka that day everyone scramble their way to a perfect year-end blog/journal entry. That or scribbling furiously their new year's resolutions which we all know would be abandoned, at best midyear, or several months into the year.

And here we are. You bet I'm one of those people! In retrospect, I had a great and lovely year. I got to travel to new and old places, ate a lot of good food, spent quality time to people that matter even got promoted. To top it all, I was able to hit my target savings for 2014. Lord knows I did a lot of scrimping here and there, practiced maximum temporal self-restraint. I like to think I succeeded in achieving these goals while still not giving up on other things I love. Now that's quality (buhat ng sariling bangko)!

Below are photos that I believe perfectly sums up my 2013.

JANUARY. I went back to Singapore for vacation and spent 9 long, glorious days there. Getting in Singapore was a heck of an experience too (you can read all about it here). Nevertheless, I had so much fun as it was the Christmas vacation I never had. I got to try a lot of things I never got to try when JC and I went there in 2012. No pressure at all in covering things/places on a limited time which felt really great to be honest haha. Thank you to my friend host, Diane, for taking me in.

FEBRUARY. A charity climb for the benefit of the children of Itogon, Benguet. Mt. Ugo was a LONG and weary hike but seeing the delight on the kids' faces was all worth it.

MARCH. Second out of the country trip but this time with JC and friends. We got to visit Prambanan and Borubudur Temples in Yogyakarta and soak in the sun in Bali. We must come back to Bali though as there are are still a lot of things we missed/not covered when we were there. 

Oh, I almost forgot. I got engaged in Bali. This guy below praying at Tirta Empul proposed to me at Seminyak beach :)

APRIL. Joined my first TNF trail run at Baguio. 11k worth of sweat and screaming-with-pain legs.

MAY. Celebrated my birthday with Stan the T-Rex!

JUNE. 3 years anniversary working at Brady. My longest so far.

JULY. Finally finished reading these monsters. I was so bored with A Feast of Crows it took me a much longer time to finish that one. Oops. Can't wait for Winds of Winter!!

AUGUST. As a mountain climber, this is quite embarrassing on my part. I haven't climbed the famous Mt. Pinatubo yet so when the chance came up, I grabbed onto it. It might not look like what it was a few years ago but the magnificence of the volcano has always been intact.

Also, the Cheese and I went back to Boracay (only my second time) to celebrate his birthday.

SEPTEMBER. JC, Kimi and I participated in Greenpeace's #IceRide, a global bike ride protesting ice drilling in the Arctic region.

Also, The Killers live in Manila. No words.

OCTOBER. Celebrated our 5th Anniversary in Bacolod City. Joined our first triathlon relay with our friend Kimi.

NOVEMBER. The best batchoy in Iloilo and Guimaras's famous Mango Pizza. Kay ganda ng Pilipinas!

DECEMBER. Mt. Kan-laon. Friends, colleagues, love. Christmas, get togethers. 

I have a lot to be thankful for but most of all, I'm just thankful I'm alive, that I made it through another year. Everything else is a bonus. 

The ultimate selfie - at a volcano's crater!

How about you, what are you thankful for this 2013?

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

With my Brady colleagues, all 16 of us trooped inside Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen at the dashing and now almost complete Shangrila Mall East Wing to have our Christmas dinner together. 

Japanese dinner for Christmas. How apt. I couldn't think of a better place

Takowasa. Raw octopus mixed with wasabi paste (PhP120.00)

Ikano Shiokara. Sliced squid marinated with salty paste (PhP120.00)

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My officemate Josh ordered these edamame which I had a major booboo eating in. Paka-baryotic ko lang.

I ordered Ajitama Tonkotsu and boy was my stomach satisfied. Definitely worth your quid. Okay too many British films/series going on.

Ajitama Tonkotsu. Topped with a special half-boiled egg that is fully marinated with a special blended soy sauce base (PhP380)

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Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen
Shangri-la Plaza Mall
5/F Shangri-la Plaza Mall, East Wing, Shaw Blvd cor EDSA
Wack Wack, Mandaluyong

Ginza Bairin at UP Town Center

Had a reunion lunch with my Spice Team friends at Ginza Bairin in UP Town Center where we had an amazing server whom, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the name. There were so many of us and conversations were flying in, on and over the table you name it, so medyo kaguluhan lang talaga. 

Nonetheless, I still want to thank you for taking care of us lot. I will remember your face when I go back there. If I ever go back there. It's not you, it's me :)

Gyoza (PhP150)

There's an inside joke to this Special Tonkatsu Set that my friend Amy ordered but we'll just keep it to ourselves na lang. 

I ordered a regular Rosu Katsu Set (PhP345)

This baby makes the most adorable facial expressions! Hay Habagat, y u so cute.

The whole gang! Although we are still missing some Spice team members here.

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Ginza Bairin
UP Town Center, Katipunan Ave
Loyola Heights, Quezon City

L.E.S. Bagels

Because we failed to locate Las Flores resto in The Fort we ended up eating in two places. One is in Milky Way, mainly for the Cheese who wants rice meal and not bagel and the other one is LES Bagels. This was an afternoon filled with minor booboos but ones that we can shrug and laugh off after a while.

Milky Way's Kaldereta

My friend Mitch has always wanted to try L.E.S. Bagels, that day, her wish was finally granted.

We went nuts with all the options and took our time choosing our cream cheese.

Choose your own bagel from this stacks. Each bagel costs 40 pesos only!

The guy behind the counter was nice enough to answer all our queries about cream cheese, bagels, their bestsellers, etc!

Even gave us a free sampling of Bacon and Cheddar, Jalapeno Cheddar and Scallion.

But in the end, I settled for Scallion which JC said was a pretty boring choice after all the time it took us deciding what to take hahahaha. The man has a point though.

I sure did not expect this piece of bagel to be an equivalent of a full meal. Kaya pala the French and American people tend to always have this for their lunch. LES Bagel did not scrimp at all with their cream cheese filling! It was super thick, as in.

Overall, I'm satisfied with my Scallion bagel. Next time, we can try other cream cheese, preferably not the boring ones haha.

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L.E.S. Bagels
Tuscany Residences
Upper McKinley Road, McKinley Hill,
Fort Bonifacio

Design Your Own Pizza at Project Pie

I am proud to say that after a few months of utter curiosity, I finally got to try Project Pie. I like Project Pie's tag line: everyday artisan pizza custom built by you. Just like our very own DYO (Do Your Own) line from work. Free plug yo. 

At first, I really thought that the pizza dough will be handed to me after which I will sprinkle/design it with whatever toppings my heart desires. Wrong! Actually, there's a bunch of people who will take your orders starting from pizza base, cheese and toppings.

Project Pie menu

Here's a step-by-step guide:

1) You line up here. Lucky you if there's no queue!

2) The first person you will talk to will ask what your pizza base will be. Basically, just choose between numbers 1 - 7, as listed on the menu. Then he will ask if you want to add more toppings on your base pizza. He will also get your name which will then be passed on to another person by way of yelling haha.

3) Should you choose the Build-Your-Own option, the next person in line will take your base pizza and add whatever toppings you want in it. There's so many to choose from it's a riot bordering on #firstworldproblems.

I love that they will never scrimp on your cheese!! Plus 100 points!

4) After finalising your order, you will then move on to this girl (or a guy in your case) who will hand over a paper with your name and the toppings you chose written on it. 

Then this guy will bake it for you in a really, really hot oven.

5) You pay for your order at the counter, maybe add an extra order of drinks (try their China Mist Iced Tea!). My colleagues and I all went for the BYO and paid 285 pesos each.

After a few minutes they started calling out our names one by one. Everything was done pretty fast! I think I've spent a lot more time choosing what toppings to add than the actual baking itself.

Behold my meaty Number 5 (mozzarella, ricotta, gorgonzola, parmesan, cracked black pepper, olive oil, garlic, fresh chopped basil)! My choice of toppings were pepperoni, ham, bacon (regular and Canadian), caramelized onion, green pepper, mushroom and get this, walnuts. Ang labo ng order ko, I know! But this one I didn't regret because when the cheese got a bit too strong for me, the walnuts were there to equalize the cheesiness. Molto bene!

Below are samples of what others ordered.

We traded some of our own pizza slices to others so there will be more variety. It was such a great idea. Here's the happy Brady bunch!

The next week, we ate at Project Pie again (please don't judge us, we were just happy and satisfied customers). This time we ordered half-half BYO pizza and Simon, our newly hired member, bought a dessert pizza for everyone.

Half and half BYO.

Strawberry Mango Nutella. PhP195.

The best thing about Project Pie, aside from the pizza, is their Clean Your Own policy. I looove this. It lessens the burden on waiter/waitress' part plus you get to practice cleaning your own mess like what we all should do even outside our own homes/offices.

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Project Pie
1555 Laurel St cor Shaw Blvd
Wack Wack, Mandaluyong