Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Kuro Ramen at Ippudo

Last weekend, we had lunch at Ippudo to satisfy our ramen craving. We usually have our ramen at Ramen Nagi and occasionally Ippudo, Hokkaido Ramen, and Ramen Kuroda, in that order as their branches are most accessible to us. Our daughter also loves ramen so its not difficult to decide to have ramen for lunch or dinner.

Ippudo's Kuro Ramen 

The ramen was really good and I wouldn't mind having this regularly for the richness of the taste including the torched chashu. I still think Ramen Nagi's tamago is better though so if Ippudo can match that then this ramen will be close to perfection for me. I thought though that the taste may not be for everyone especially those who like the lighter ramen in terms of broth and ingredients. Baka nakaka-umay for others. Perhaps it's still better to have different ramen from time to time while remembering the "go to" or favorites from each ramen shop/restaurant.

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Everlasting flowers

Today is Mother's Day. It is a very special day for all mothers whether biological, adoptive, god, or however we regard our mothers. I believe that we also need to honor those who basically function as mothers. Those who play significant roles in our lives to care for us just like our mothers do. They include health workers, care givers, and teachers among others who in one form or another.

Last Sunday, as we exited the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, we chanced upon one vendor selling something that brought up some childhood memories of going to church. The vendor was selling everlasting flowers. We use to buy these after going to church in St. Francis in Mandaluyong. My parents preferred these over sampaguita because, as the name implied, they lasted longer. The small garlands were placed on our home altar or hung with an image of the Sto. Nino, Jesus or Mary. 

Everlasting flowers at our altar at home


Happy Sunday to everyone! 

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Chocolate review: Cachet Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

This is a very late post about a chocolate that we bought and ate months ago. I started writing about it a long time ago but somehow other material got in the way of my finalizing this post. Cachet is Belgian chocolate but with the cacao sourced from Africa; Tanzania to be exact.

There's an interesting slogan on the wrapper - "This bar is supporting our "Cocoa for Schools" project in South Tanzania.

Details about the chocolate at the back of the package.

Ingredients - the chocolate claims to have 70% minimum cacao

Nutrition information

I was pleasantly surprised to see the inside of the wrapper having a story to tell.

The bar retailed for 185 pesos at Healthy Options. That is not really expensive for a high quality 180g chocolate bar. I think I mentioned before that many local chocolates are overpriced considering their inferior quality. This chocolate can serve for benchmarking local (Philippine) chocolates in terms of quality as well as pricing.

I will post about the information on the inside of the wrapper in the next post.

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