STK ta Bay! Paulito's Seafood House

A highlight of our trip to Cebu last month to coordinate with our counterparts for a conference we are organizing there is the discovery of this restaurant in the capitol area. STK ta Bay! is located along Climaco Street and is actually a couple (?) of old houses across each other converted into a restaurant. The houses contain a lot of antique items including furniture, houseware, religious items and decor. Following are photos taken at one of the houses where we were led since the main restaurant building was already getting full. The houses have several sections so groups can have more intimate or private meals.

The main restaurant on the west side in the middle of Climaco Street

STK stands for sugba, tola, kilaw, which in most cases will probably be referred to as sutukil by the Cebuanos.

Paminggalan or where the plates (pinggan) are placed at old houses

Long dining table for large groups with paintings in the background

Table settings for smaller groups

More vintage artworks and decor

A collection of vintage clocks and silverware (framed)

There are a lot of old cabinets and lamps

Another photo of the paminggalan at the entrance to the restaurant. It is on top of this old slab of wood that looks like an old door converted into a table.

Impressive collection of religious items (mostly depictions of Mary and the Child Jesus) on the wall beside the staircase leading to the restaurant office.

More table settings in the inner part of the house

We are back in Cebu for our conference and will surely dine at STK ta Bay! soon. This time we have a bigger group as these conferences are also an opportunity to have reunions with friends from all over who we don't often see (they're working at universities spread across the country).

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Space watches

I was always fascinated by the space race between the US and the then USSR. The first satellite launched to space was from the USSR - Sputnik. The first watch in space was Soviet-made and made famous by being worn by the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin - in 1961. That was a Poljot Sturmanskie manual wind watch. John Glenn followed in 1962 and wore a Heuer 2915A.

Vintage Sturmanskie in my collection

The USSR was ahead of the US for a while with another cosmonaut making the first space walk. I still have to acquire a Poljot Strela chronograph like the one worn in that walk by Alexey Leonov in 1965. The US though, went beyond orbits and spacewalks and successfully landed men on the moon in 1969. It is now 50 years since the first moon landing via the Apollo 11 mission. That mission also launched another watch model into its top iconic status that remains and would likely endure - the Omega Speedmaster Professional. There are basically two models of this watch - the ones flight qualified by NASA and the 'normal' Speedmasters that also have several variants.

My most cherished watch is one I saved for so many years

But there is another moonwatch. As the story goes, one of the astronauts of Apollo 15 damaged his Speedmaster but brought along his back up watch, which was a Bulova prototype chronograph. This was a privately owned watch by the astronaut and not official issue by NASA. The watch though became part of history and Bulova produced a more affordable version of the watch with a high precision quartz movement.

The back of my Bulova moonwatch. This one cost less than 10% of my Omega. :)

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Chocolate review: Co Chocolat High on Happy

Here's a first take on the chocolates of Co Chocolat. "High on Happy" is a dark chocolate of single origin cacao from Agusan Del Sur in northeast Mindanao. It is vegan and halal. The latter I am sure of because it is being marketed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and one of the owners being Muslim.

High on Happy is a 60% dark chocolate using coconut sugar as sweetener. Details shown in the photo include the harvest date for the cacao and the chocolatier.

Details at the back of the box includes date of production and expiry date. At the lower part in the photo is info on the location of the farm (I assume this to be a barangay).

Well-designed box

Opening the box reveals a wrapped chocolate and even more information about the company and its advocacies.

Close up of the company's health code

Close up of the company's community code

The chocolate itself is made on a mold that gives this intricate design

The chocolate is fine but I thought the coconut sugar is evident in the taste, and that made it a bit on the rough side as far as chocolates go. There is still room for improvement here as the goal is to come up with a chocolate that's par with the really good ones from abroad. I will soon post again on another chocolate from this batch we received from our friends.

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Omikron NOS manual wind watch

NOS stands for "New Old Stock". These watches are supposed to be unsold units that were stashed away and are being sold as if brand new but at more affordable prices. My friends and I actually got 4 of these NOS Omikron watch model with one for each of us who are into this collecting of watches.

Nice clean dial on this watch. The finish is like mother of pearl. The watch has simple raised hour markers with no day or date complications.

Side view showing the signed crown

The other side view

Case back showing a very clean slate. This is preferred for etching for anniversaries or dedications (e.g., retirement).

This is a Peseux Cal. 7050 movement that runs at 21,600 beats per hour. At full wind, the watch can run for 44 hours.

Wrist shot while at a bookstore. The watch has 20mm lugs so it wears like a big watch.

The wife fancied the watch one time I wore it and she now has this as part of her own rotation. Talk about sharing your passions!

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Museo de Baler

I have almost forgotten about this set of photos taken at the Baler Museum last April 2019. Somehow, these got piled over by other photos I took from other trips afterwards. Here are a load of photos I took at the museum; many of which have stories to tell. I included the text in my photos to save myself from writing about these in detail.

This photo shows a military tactic used by Filipinos while fighting the Spaniards during the war of independence in the late 1800s.

Old photo showing what the Baler church looked like during the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

Photo and caption showing the Spanish trench set-up.

Filipino revolutionaries in the late 1800s.

Historical details of the Siege of Baler that was popularized by a movie

A write-up on the life of Dona Aurora A. Quezon, former First Lady of the Philippine Commonwealth. She was born in Baler, Tayabas. The province formerly known as Tayabas was split into 2 - Quezon and Aurora Provinces.

More on the life of Dona Aurora and her husband, Manuel L. Quezon

Memorabilia and posters

Framed art, old news articles and maps

A map of Spain showing regions

Some trivia about Baler

This is actually a bench at the art gallery section of the museum

Another artwork at the museum

Various news articles on aviation prior to and during the Second World War

They have a stuffed Philippine Eagle on display at the museum but it was difficult to get a good photo because of the lighting and the crowd. And so I settled for this caption beside the display.

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Tsuta Bonifacio High Street

Arriving at Bonifacio High Street after a delayed flight to wait for the wife to also arrive from her trip, I decided to explore and have a very late lunch (it was past 2:00PM). I headed for the mall to check out the activities in the area but seeing the place to be too crowded for me, I decided to check out the nearby restaurants. Seeing very few people inside one Japanese restaurant, I went inside to have a meal after only a quick browse of the menu displayed outside.

Table set

Ramen with truffles - I was a bit surprised that this went very well. One probably assumed that the combination of ramen and truffles is a travesty but here it is and tasting very good and right.

I only ordered the ramen at Tsuta, just enough to address my hunger after skipping lunch that day. I thought the food was good and the price was par with the other ramen restaurants serving authentic Japanese ramen. I will surely eat there again given the chance and maybe order other items on their menu.

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Vintage Ricoh automatic watch

I had been looking for a nice Ricoh for a while and couldn't seem to get one. I got a couple a while back but both weren't ones I fancied once I got them and got a closer, first hand look at the watches. I eventually gave them away to friends who also collected watches and liked the designs. I got this one a couple of months ago and had it serviced when I noticed that the crown seemed stuck and hard to make adjustments on the time and date. Ricoh, of course, is a discontinued brand. And it can be a risky watch to collect considering the availability of parts in case the watch needs servicing.

The dial has both day and date features. The day display is in the style of the "President" watches made popular by Rolex and imitated by many brands including Ricoh.

Side view showing the crown and the quickset button for the day feature at 12 o'clock

The other side view giving emphasis on the case design, which is similar to the helmet models of other watches including Seiko and Citizen.

Case back showing the watch to be water resistant and shockproof. It also claims to have an unbreakable mainspring. The reference number indicates this to be a Cal. 61 movement.

Signed crown and the quickset button for the date. The day feature may be adjusted using the crown.

Close up of the dial showing the very good condition of the lumes on the watch hands

A photo of the movement when I got the watch back from my trusted watch repair man. The Cal. 61 movement runs at 18,000 A/h and dates the watch to 1970.

 

The watch keeps time and has a decent power reserve based on the times I have used the watch. It doesn't stop and runs well overnight.

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[Unloaded this watch with another Ricoh 11/3/2023]