Souvenir teas from friends

I took home a couple of pasalubong from friends who know I prefer tea over coffee. The green tea or matcha is from Kyoto. My mentor who is still active after officially retiring 5 years ago got me this after visiting his daughter who's family is based in Kyoto. Featured on the box is popular Japanese pitcher Shohei Ohtani. Green tea is one of those things I drink that brings back memories of living in Japan in the 1990s. Prior to that, I wasn't into tea. That changes when I tasted the really good ones, even the instant variety that we had stock at our laboratory in Yokohama.

The other one is from a colleague who is also my junior at university. He just got back from the US and Canada where he spent sometime during the break after getting his PhD diploma at Stanford. I haven't tried it yet but am curious about the taste of maple tea.

Green tea from Japan and Maple Tea from Canada

I haven't tried either but will probably have some soon as they wet season is here. These are perfect to warm the body during rainy days. 

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Cheese cupcakes from Burnt Sugar

There used to be a nice grocery store with a bakeshop along Katipunan just across from Miriam College. Shoppersville was already there when I first entered UP back in 1988. Fast forward to 2012 and I discovered it had a smaller branch in Antipolo; near where we decided to build our house after the experience of Typhoon Ondoy's floods.

Shoppersville was consumed by fire many years ago and their branch in Antipolo had to close, too.  They had opened a store in front of the burned building on a converted container. We thought that would last until they rebuilt the grocery but that too didn't last. Time went on and the pandemic hit a lot of business pretty bad. Recently though I learned their baking survived and they now have a commissary along Maginhawa near where we first resided temporarily about 26 years ago.

They now go by the name Burnt Sugar and the selections from their FB page shows they still have most of the products they offered before including our favorite cheese cupcakes, taisan and brownies. They usually post what's available for the day but you can order in advance for you to pick-up or have picked-up by a rider. They are very quick to reply and its easy to order and arrange for pick-up.

 

Our daughter doesn't know it but somehow she baked something like this when she started making cheese cupcakes. Kaya siguro may good memories the first time we indulged our daughter's creation?

A box of 12 cupcakes cost 320 pesos. Not bad for the quality and quantity.

I may be biased about my daughter's version of this cupcake being better (the ingredients are better) but there's some nostalgia about Shoppersville and their products. I will probably order some brownies soon. 

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Soap and childhood memories

Taking vacations in Iloilo during my childhood days, my aunts always took good care of us at our paternal home. Of course, there was always good, home-cooked meals. But this time I write about something a little different from the usual stories of food, relatives and friends, and going around. This is about something we use everyday - bath soap (trivial though it seems). I have a memory of one of my aunts justifying opening one of her imported soaps on the occasion of our vacation. She had many in her closet thanks to my cousins who were then based in the Middle East always sending her care packages. The packages usually have expensive cosmetics, lotions and soap for their mother who was at that time a public school teacher at the local elementary school. These were not so common brands at the time like - Dove, Ivory and the imported versions of Camay. There was also the imported version of Lifebuoy, which is how I learned about the product. 

Fast forward to the present and I still patronize products that I used back then. There's a certain nostalgia about the smell of Lifebuoy, for example, that I brings back memories of vacationing during my childhood years.

Lifebuoy soap has one of those distinct scents that's practically the same as the ones I used decades ago. The smell brings me back in time.

This is a Unilever product that's now manufactured in Indonesia.

 

We used a different brand soap at home at the time. I think it was usually Safeguard and at time Irish Spring (favored by Tatay). So it was somewhat refreshing to have a different soap for showers.

Bananas from Calawis, Antipolo

Yesterday, I made sure to stop by the weekend market at the Sumulong Park, which is the area between the Antipolo Shrine and City Hall. I already saw the fruits and vegetables being sold there on my way to City Hall and I knew these were cheap and sold by the farmers themselves.

Saba and latundan bananas from the weekend market 

 

Banana chips likely from the same saba variety that's abundant in the mountains of Antipolo.

I learned from the vendors from whom I bought bananas that they were from Calawis. I frequented that barangay because of Mt. Purro, which is managed by the family of close friends. Whenever we were there, we made sure we got some fruits and vegetables from the area if not from Mt. Purro where they have the farmers over to sell their products to guests. My only regret from yesterday was not buying ginger. Perhaps I will get some from them next weekend.

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Mazesoba at Menya Kokoro

I found this unfinished article about the lunch we had at Menya Kokoro at the Podium in Ortigas Center. Their main dish is mazesoba, which is a brothless (soupless) noodle dish. The noodles are soba and not ramen. I haven't eaten this since the 1990s when I think I last had it at our university canteen (shokudo) in Yokohama.

Unagi mazesoba

Closeup of the noodles of this very satisfying dish

It's always nice to get reacquainted with the food I tried many, many years ago when I was a student in Japan. In this case, the mazesoba was a welcome departure from the ramen we usually enjoy. The unagi (eel) was a bonus that I readily opted for when I saw it on the menu. I wouldn't mind eating there again soon. But the serving is generous so I have to be a bit hungry to finish the food.

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Lunch at Tablo, Maginhawa Street, UP Village

We initially planned to eat lunch at Gyud Fud Hub last Tuesday. However, when we got there, we discovered that two of our go-to stalls have closed. These were the Bacolod Chicken Inasal and the Siam Thai where we usually got our lunch when we are at Gyud Fud. The others are ok but we only occasionally order food to try other stalls. The only one remaining among our go-to was the Japanese themed stall serving salmon sushi and sashimi. But that sort of limited our choices. Hindi naman kami mabubusog sa ice cream ng Colonial Creamery. And so we ended up going to Maginhawa Street where we haven't lunched at for a long while. My buddy guided us to Tablo, which he said was a popular restaurant. 

Their version of beef salpicao

Fried breaded pork chops

We had a really good lunch at Tablo. The servings were generous as we only, correctly, ordered two dishes that we shared among three. There was real good value for money, too, considering the quality of the food and service at the restaurant. We were lucky that we had lunch there during this mid year break so it was not crowded. I heard it could be full during evenings and weekends. We are already looking forward to the next opportunity for a lunch out.

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More sunflowers

I couldn't help but take another photo of the sunflowers along the University Avenue. I was at Quezon Hall the other day and as I went down using the stairs, I paused and proceeded to the balcony on the Second Floor to take the following photo.

I realized that they only planted sunflowers between Quezon Hall and Jacinto Street. They used to plant these between Quezon Hall all the way to the junction with C.P. Garcia Avenue. Perhaps some austerity measure was adopted this year? It also costs money to grow and care for the sunflowers. 

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Sunflower season at UP

It's that time of the year at UP Diliman and the sunflowers are in full bloom. I took the following photos for posterity in addition to the selfies I took with the wife. 

I took this photo last Friday before most people came to take photos before the recognition rites and commencement day at UP Diliman

I took this photo along the University Avenue last week showing graduating students wearing sablay taking photos with friends and/or relatives.

This photo was from early last week when I first noticed the flowers in full bloom in time for the UP Diliman commencement exercises today.

There were no sunflowers when I graduated back in 1993 and again in 1995. We also didn't have the sablay back then. Both are now staples for all UP constituent universities with some unique additions in certain regions like Cordilleras (UP Bagiuo) and Mindanao (UP Mindanao) though the sunflowers are probably best viewed and in large numbers at UP Diliman (correct me if I'm wrong).

To this year's graduates especially my former students - Padayon! Serve the country! 

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Farewell to Mr. Lee, an old friend

I meant 'old' here literally as he is or was a senior citizen. Mr. Lee was from Taiwan and settled in the Philippines decades ago as he worked with the precursor of what is now the Universal Robina Corp. I met him many years ago after we moved to our home in upper Antipolo. We actually first crossed paths when I started walking around our village. As I learned and practiced in Japan when I resided there, I greeted him a good morning. He responded and we had a short chat about the weather and our village. That was the start of a regular meeting during most weekend mornings. 

Post-pandemic, we continued to meet and even more frequently as I took up walking almost every morning as I became more health conscious. One time, he was walking in front of our home when I came out and he casually mentioned his appreciation of our garden. He offered to give me some plants from his garden in his home just across the chapel. I accepted and one morning I found myself in his garden where he dug up some of the plants. He explained these were the same ones he was tending at the chapel and were plants that grew in temples in Taiwan and Japan. Those plants are now growing in front of our home.

I missed seeing him the past weeks but thought that maybe he was going out for his walks earlier (he prefers walking just before sunrise) than me. Last year, he continued to do his early morning walks despite a seriou shoulder injury, and months ago I greeted him as he opted to tend to his plants instead of walking as he recovered from an illness. Only yesterday did I learn that he passed away, not recently but weeks ago. I learned this from our driver, Lary, who in turn got the news from another neighbor.

Farewell and rest in peace Mr. Lee. I will miss our morning encounters and conversations. Rest assured that I will take care of the plants you entrusted to me and that they are thriving on our garden. 

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Back in Tagaytay - Buon Giorno

A few of weeks ago, we were back in Tagaytay. We made sure this time to have a meal at one of our favorite restaurants there where we haven't eaten in years (since before the pandemic). Previously, when we frequented Tagaytay, we regularly at there. We tried to eat at Buon Giorno in a previous trip but it was full and we had to settle for dinner at another restaurant near it. This time we were lucky and got a nice table to enjoy our pasta and pizza. 

Quattro Formaggi Pizza the way we like it

Our daughter was amused of the mug for her iced tea. It featured a flexed arm for its handle.

The wife and I had our favorite Spinaci e funghi ravioli

Close up of the ravioli 

Our daughter had risotto while our niece had vongole. I didn't take photos of these as they immediately dived into their food the moment these were served. Needless to say that we had a great dinner at Buon Giorno.

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