Furry and cosplay at the shrine?

Last week, I was at the shrine in Antipolo (Antipolo Simbahan) for church as well as passing the area to get to City Hall for a workshop. After our workshop on a Tuesday morning, as I walked back to where I parked, I spotted these two - one wearing a furry outfit and the other cosplaying as Spiderman. You see these mostly in malls and tourist attractions like amusement parks. Apparently, they're in the area because the shrine in Antipolo attracts a lot of visitors especially pilgrims. They solicit money from people taking photos with them. They are popular with children. People place their money into the boxes each character has at the spot where they're standing and waving to people.

I thought maybe it was hot inside these costumes. Even with a fan, the sweltering heat would likely make it uncomfortable. And on a Tuesday, it seems there weren't many people even for Antipolo's shrine.

I actually didn't notice the one dressed as Spiderman so had to take this photo as I walked past them.

I wonder if these are also at Quiapo or Baclaran? It's probably if not actually a form of mendicancy. But rather than looking kawawa like the typical beggars you find at street corners and intersections, these are dressed up and attract people via the photo ops. Yesterday, there were a number of them dressed as Capybaras inside a shopping mall in San Juan. I guess its a better way of marketing to earn a living? 

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Showering the dog

We're still pretty much in the dry season and the last few weeks have been quite hot. We shouldn't forget that our pets also need some cooling. In this case, that might be in the form of a quick shower. Our Shira, a 4-year old Golden Retriever, loves her quick showers in addition to her regular long ones where she gets shampooed and massaged and groomed/combed.

More water please!

The singkit look when you think your human is about to spray your face with water.

More about our pets in future posts!

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Herencia Artisanal Tablea Chocolate

We attended a surprise birthday party for an uncle on my wife's side. He is actually also a godfather/ninong in our wedding. The dinner party was held at a restaurant in Marikina. As we exited after the party, we passed by the regular part of the restaurant/cafe where on display were cakes, cookies and bottles of this chocolate drink. 

Herencia Artisanal Tablea Chocolate is based on the original chocolate drink prepared and served at homes in the "old" times. Tablea or tableya are cacao chips or cubes that are melted and transformed to a drink that is usually thick. Note in one of Rizal's novels where the thick version - tsokolate-eh is the thick, rich version of the drink often served to VIPs or guests of honor or close relatives and friends. Tsokolate-ah is the watered down version.

Nutrition information on this chocolate drink

This was definitely on the side of tsokolate-eh. I liked the richness of taste considering this was served cold and not hot. It's on the expensive side though as a bottle cost more than 200 pesos! Good perhaps for occasional purchases and drinks but not for daily consumption. The maker is from Quezon City (based on the quick research I did using Google) and specializes in chocolate among other products. 

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Special edition ice cream: Selecta Shoyu Caramel

I was buying some ice cream the other week and was browsing the available flavors at a convenience store. I spotted this limited edition flavor from Selecta (Wall's in other countries). It's a Japanese themed flavor that practically hints at a form of salted caramel. The salt being substituted by shoyu or soy sauce, which is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking or used as a dip for food like sashimi or sushi.

Selecta's limited edition Shoyu Caramel

The featured ingredients are caramel, shoyu and cashews. The base ice cream is vanilla.

The ice cream was okay. It is basically salted caramel. There was a hint of shoyu but it was not strong. I'm not sure what the maker's objective was when they made this and decided on the name. Perhaps more on the novelty side? 

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Mangoes galore!

Our mango tree yields a good number of mangoes every year. However, we noticed that we have an especially high yield and larger fruits around every other year. Sometimes, it took 2 years before a good yield. The best yield and harvest since we moved to our upper Antipolo home was in 2020 during the pandemic. We had fairly good yields the last two years so this year we expected to be an average harvest. The fruits this year were not as big as the previous years' but there were a lot that survived since the flowering days in March. Fortunately, the fruits grew before the late March rains that usually destroyed flowers. 

Part of this year's harvest from our tree

Our dog Boots usually sits near the pile as if guarding it from the cats and other animals roaming our garden at night.

Here's Boots again beside the mangoes we were sorting to give away to family and friends.

The skin was still green but they are ripening rapidly.

More mangoes to give away

Selected mangoes for our consumption were placed near the dining area

We suddenly had mangoes dominating the fruit table. We usually have bananas and citrus on this table.

More on mangoes in the next post! 

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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.

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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! 

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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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House Macaroni Gratin

Last weekend, I found this box of Macaroni Gratin from Japanese brand House. I had forgotten about this, which I bought at a Japanese store along Katipunan in the St. Ignatius/White Plains area. It's an easy to prepare (instant) pasta dish that you can prepare in a few minutes. You can add potatoes and even meat if you want to though cooking those ingredients properly will add to the time for this to be ready to eat.

The box contained sealed packets of macaroni and the gratin mix.

I used cheddar and quick melt cheese as topping before I placed the clay pot in the oven toaster. This is the result after I took it out of the toaster.

The cheeses served as a crust to hold the macaroni gratin. This is what it looks like after scooping some for dinner.

The gratin was a success. Our daughter loved it. It was a good foil for the savory viands we had for dinner.  The price tag is still on the box. I thought this was good value for the 189 pesos I paid for when I bought it last year. I will probably get another box or two the next time I get to go to that Japanese store. 

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More brownies and chocolates by our daughter

Our daughter's still hooked on baking. She baked some brownies last weekend and we (mainly I) immediately consumed the brownies she allocated for us. One of the trays was already reserved to one of our close friends, her Ninang, who 'ordered' some.

Mixing the ingredients

One tray in the oven

She used walnuts for this batch as we ran out of cashew nuts

She also made a batch of Dubai chocolate loaded with pistachio and kadayiff. She uses local chocolates that she mixes to get the right consistency and texture. Her lola (my mother) and uncle (my brother) loves the chocolates.

Her mom decided to print these stickers for our giveaways. Currently, its limited to close relatives and friends who also encourage her to bake.

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