Hakata Ton-Ichi Ramen

We discovered another ramen shop while staying in Makati earlier this month. It was good as we wanted to eat something not so heavy but not so light in terms of a meal. It was also an easy choice for our daughter who also loves ramen.

Hakata ramen

Hamburger steak with curry

Cheesy gyoza

Their ramen is somewhat refreshing for me considering the relatively richer, heavy choices from the likes of Ramen Nagi and Hanamaruken. It was also not as expensive as the other ramen shops so it wasn't heavy on the pockets or wallets, too.

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Some observations on LeCoultre watches

A friend made a casual remark about his LeCoultre watch not having a 'Swiss' or 'Swiss Made' mark on its dial. Due to this, people were saying his watch was likely a re-dial (i.e., modified dial or dial transferred to another case - also like re-cased?). There was also mention of it being fake. To clarify, I asked if his watches were 'cased and timed in USA'. That means the company in the US (a subsidiary of LeCoultre) brought is the movements and assembled (cased) and calibrated (timed) the watch in the US. This meant cheaper (relatively) watches as complete or whole watches are subject taxes upon shipment to the US. Movements were considered parts so were treated differently.

On the inside of the back of the case it is indicated that the watch is 'cased and timed' in USA.

The inside of the LeCoultre 9386, which was marketed in the US as a Wrist Alarm instead of Memovox. Here you can already notice the differences between the "Swiss Made" watches that were complete watches shipped to the US and those not bearing the 'Swiss' mark but had the pedigree of the maker since the movements are really the heart and soul of the watch.

A vintage LeCoultre Futurematic with a 'Swiss' mark at the bottom of the dial

A vintage LeCoultre Powermatic with a 'Swiss' mark at the bottom of the dial

 

Here is a nice series on Jaeger-LeCoultre watches in the US market:

https://blommanwatchreport.com/2019/11/13/jaeger-lecoultre-and-the-u-s-market-part-1/

https://blommanwatchreport.com/2019/11/19/jaeger-lecoultre-and-the-u-s-market-part-2/

https://blommanwatchreport.com/2019/11/21/jaeger-lecoultre-and-the-u-s-market-part-3/

Also, here is a nice link to the criteria for what can be called 'Swiss Made' 

https://www.cosc.swiss/en/bienfacture/swiss-made-un-label-sous-controle

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Lunch at the Prawn Farm at South Farm, Panglao

This is obviously a very late post as this is an article about lunch at one of the restaurants at South Farm, the farm of the South Palms Resort in Panglao, Bohol. The Prawn Farm is an outdoor restaurant in the middle of the farm serving what we usually consider as comfort food in as far as Filipino cuisine is concerned.

The Prawn Farm menu offers seafood, soups, desserts and various drinks.

The main course items, salads and appetizers are also tempting.

The salad part of our Chicken Mango Salad

Linabog na manok

Baked oysters

Chicken, mango, vinaigrette and mango salsa for our salad

Four seasons

I forget what fish they used and what this dish was as I remember this wasn't exactly on the menu. It's probably grilled tanigue in barbecue sauce.

Halu-halo

Puto maya with coco dip, and camote chips on the side

Most of their dishes especially the salads use the blue ternate flowers. It's a healthy feature of their dishes that you will also find as garnish or a main ingredient in dishes served at the resort. I highly recommend eating at Prawn Farm.

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Brunch at Tanay Viewpoint Garden Restaurant

After taking our daughter to summer camp at Mt. Purro last weekend, we decided to take a side trip to Tanay to see what's there. More specifically, we wanted to see the restaurants and cafes as well as the views of the Sierra Madre mountains. After about an hour's drive, we decided to stop and eat at Tanay Viewpoint Restaurant. We were supposed to go to another restaurant/cafe but there were so many others that we decided to just stop over, have a meal and enjoy the views.

Restaurant sign by the roadside

The restaurant is located near a hairpin curve along the Marilaque Highway. Notice the wind turbines in the background?

That's a view of Laguna de Bai and Laguna Province in the distance.

Here's a marvelous view of the Pililla Wind Farm, which is now a landmark for Rizal Province. You can likely see them if you're on a plane approaching or taking off from NAIA.

It turned out that the restaurant was owned by the cafe we wanted to go to - Cafe Natividad. Here's a wrist shot that included the local hot chocolate I had.

The wife had their bestseller tapsilog

I had grilled tanigue steak to go with steamed rice.

We will be back in Tanay to try other restaurants there. We stopped quite short of other restaurants as well as Regina Rica, which we also wanted to visit.

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His and hers watch

We traveled recently and selected watches to wear for the occasion. While I have always brought my reliable Mido, it was the first time the wife was taking her Omega on a trip. This wasn't a trip to the beach so she didn't have to bring a watch for swimming or snorkeling. Both watches are basically blue as shown in the following photo.

Mido Ocean Star Caliber 80 and Omega Aqua Terra

 

We actually have a matching "his and hers" pair, both Baume & Mercier Hampton watches. I have an automatic while the wife has the quartz version. We use those for special occasions like weddings (we're now in that phase where we are wedding sponsors).

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Wet season

It's been raining since yesterday and it was the kind of rains that brought about flooding. Well, it's the wet season and its no wonder we have heavy rains this time of year. We've also come to accept the 'new normal' brought about the climate change though acceptance is more along the lines of people just shrugging-off the heavy rains as if it were like this before. It was not and extreme weather is something we should be worried about as it brings a lot of misery to a lot of people aside from the floods they usually bring about.

Here's a screenshot from a weather app showing the rainfall intensity in Metro Manila and surrounding areas. That's a lot of rain falling in those areas as indicated by the red color. The darker reds mean heavier rains.

The downpours are usually associated with Habagat but before, rains this intense would have been brought about by typhoons. Nowadays, even if there was no typhoon, we can experience heavy rains oftentimes with strong winds. Will these become more frequent this time of year? Is this a harbinger for a punishing dry season afterwards? I think we should be wary of the changes in the weather as our planet continues to heat up.

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Learning to use the train in Singapore

In a recent trip to Singapore, we took advantage of their excellent public transportation system to teach our daughter about commuting using public transport. It will be useful for future travels especially in countries we plan to visit that also have similar transit systems.

Descending to the subway station near our hotel

At the station level, one needs some sense of direction and the layout of the station to know where to get a card or tickets and where to enter the station towards the platforms.

Station and train information are available and very visible in SMRT stations

Network maps help one plan a trip including determining where you can transfer from one line to another. While there can be many transfer stations, the key is to determine the least number of stations as presumably this will lead to less travel time. Offhand, a familiarity with stations may also be useful to determine where it is easier to transfer (i.e., same platform for two lines rather than having to walk, ascend or descend to transfer).

Singapore’s transit system employs ezlink cards for the convenience of commuters. We got one each and its nice that we got these cards with the Doraemon design. EZLink cards regulary have many nice and attractive designs that help popularize its use. These have already become collectibles among commuters and visitors.

It took only a couple of rides for our daughter to learn how to commute in Singapore. That’s how easy it was and it should be very similar if we’re traveling to Japan or Korea, even Europe at some point. The public transportation in cities in those countries are really good and easy to figure out and use. Hopefully, we can soon take her to learn how to use the LRT in Metro Manila and perhaps also the bus and jeepney. That will be an interesting experience.

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Room with a view

We stayed in Makati over the weekend as our daughter had dress rehearsal and her recital for her summer course. We decided to stay near the venue of her recital and were able to get a nice room at the hotel. The rooms had nice views around considering it was a corner unit. Here are the views from the room.

Gil Puyat Avenue - Ayala Avenue intersection

Makati Medical Center

View towards Cavite (which you can see on a clear day)

It was hazy the afternoon we checked in.

The Makati City Fire Station can qualify as a heritage structure and a similar one in Singapore is perfectly preserved yet fully functional.

 

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The Seiko 5 Ultraseven Limited Edition 4R36-14S0

My first watch feature this month is on a Limited Edition Seiko 5. An instant classic is this Ultraseven 55th anniversary limited edition that I acquired early this year.

The watch has many desirable features including the bezel and dial design. It also has both day and date complications.

Side view showing the crown

The other side view

The sticker is well preserved despite several uses. It is protected by the nato strap. This is a limited edition watch that is number 3043 of 3,400 produced.

Close-up of the dial

Wrist shot with 2 other Seiko 5's in the background - the Worn & Wound limited edition flieger and a variant of the popular Seiko 5 GMT

I will write about this watch again soon. I plan to change the strap to a stainless steel bracelet so I can wear it more often especially for field work. Nato and similar straps can get drenched in water or sweat when I'm outdoors doing fieldwork so it more practical to have stainless steel bracelets for watches I wear.

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Venchi chocolates and gelato in Singapore

This is another late post from our travel earlier this year to Singapore. We thought that we had to go to Marina Sands to get us some Venchi chocolates. It turned out that there's a Venchi shop at the mall adjacent to our hotel. That made it easier for us to purchase some chocolates as well as to enjoy their gelato (ice cream).

Venchi store at the mall near our hotel

Our daughter contemplating on which chocolates to purchase. She told us that she didn't realize there was so many variants to choose from until then.

Excellent gelato from Venchi

We bought several chocolates to take home and most of them remain in our cache to open and eat to celebrate occasions and milestones.

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Creatures in our garden - Great Crested Canopy Lizard

We being the month of July with another creature feature. Our handyman caught another creature the other week. It's another reptile - a Great Crested Canopy Lizard. Of course, our daughter was very excited to see and hold it. I just didn't include a photo of her with the lizard here for privacy reasons. Here are a couple of photos of the lizard on one of our garden tables.

 

Our daughter released it a few moments after she handled it and we identified the species. It didn't run away immediately after being released but eventually disappeared in our garden.

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