My childhood Bag of Beans

I remember my first time at Bag of Beans when I was in grade school. It was just a little cafe with a small garden and we were entertained by the British owner. I fondly recall that day because I was with my late Lolo Pilo who ordered fish and chips, shepherd's pie, tomato soup, and freshly baked bread for me and my mom. I remember him chatting up the other British patrons who were apparently friends of the owner.

Now, I'm sad to see that I can hardly recognize the place. I guess it's a good thing they were able to successfully expand. However, they lost the charm of the quaint, cozy cafe of my childhood memories. I think the present bakery used to be the small cafe that I remember. It has now expanded into a full-fledged garden restaurant all the way to the back. I actually would prefer the small garden they originally had.

I can't find the good old tomato soup anywhere on the menu so my friends and I settled for coffee and cakes. We ordered the panna cotta, strawberry cheesecake, and apple pie ala mode with lattes. Jake, in particular, loves cheesecakes and I think he enjoyed his order. I like my cheesecakes dry and crumbly with a thick crust. The one he ordered was a bit creamy but the huge slice made up for the consistency.

Dana and I each ordered our own apple pies, thinking it was just a tiny sliver. We had no idea they would serve a whole mini-pie! I was surprised by how good it was, given the fact that I rarely find decent apple pies (when compared to my mom's, whoops). This was verrrry rich, wasn't too sweet and tart, and had a thick crust. They also sell frozen ready-to-serve pies at the bakery. Just pop it in the microwave, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you're good to go!

We were seated at the garden underneath a couple of trees. It was quite cool and breezy in the shade but we were alarmed when we saw a huge-ass spider on the canopy of the other table. Just watch out for some insects!

I didn't get to try Mitch's panna cotta but I think she enjoyed it. It looked pretty and was perfect with a cafe au lait.

Overall, I would only eat here again for desserts. I saw their buffet set-up and would rather keep my childhood memory of English cuisine freshly cooked by the British owner in the tiny cafe than eat the contemporary dishes they are now serving in an overly commercialized place. Still, two thumbs up for the cakes and coffee!

Charlie the Unicorn

Call me stupid. Call me shallow. I cannot deny that these Charlie the Unicorn cartoons made my entire day. No, make that my entire week! The boyfriend made himself useful and posted the YouTube link on my wall early this morning.

I've already taken to talking like pink and purple at work. I already tend to annoy my officemates like so, hence it's a pretty easy task. Now I'm just re-watching episodes 1 and 2 (which are my favorites) to pick up some notable lines.

Happy days are here again!!!

The Papier Tolé Shop of Intramuros

During the last Holy Week season, I was able to re-visit Intramuros and explore the place from a new perspective. This time, I opted for the typical turista point of view and tried to visit places that would attract a newbie's attention. The Papier Tolé Shop has been on my wish list of places to visit in Intramuros every time I pass by the place since I thought it was a paper and stationery shop--and there's nothing more a girl loves to collect than paper and stationery, right? Since we were waiting for the 6pm Easter mass at San Agustin, we decided to cross the street to finally check out the place.

Now, the only thing I know about the art of paper tolé  is how you cut and glue together a single illustration to make a 3D effect of the whole picture. This used to be a hobby of my tita and we have lots of paper tolé  creations framed around the house. I wasn't expecting though that the Papier Tolé  Shop would be filled with unique souvenir items from all over the world. It was like a treasure chest exploded all over the place!

One of my favorite finds, a secret book within a book! 

The sister was also thoroughly amused and can't get over the Russian dolls she found in one corner.

I also found some amazing or creepy (however you want to look at it) head bells upon further exploration of one shelf. I was itching to buy the Thai buddha bell--I'll definitely buy it if it's still there the next time I visit.

Since all the shelves are overflowing with trinkets, you'll never know what you will find. They don't seem to have a method of categorizing the items and it's actually fun to explore the whole place and find unusual souvenirs. They also display their paper tolé creations, there's an artist on site, and sell them for reasonable prices. I particularly love the one they have of the old Intramuros and some French toy shop window.

And look! Origami dragons! I'm in my dragon obsession phase right now thanks to Game of Thrones and these were so cute when I found them staring up at me from a glass case.

Since they have every space jam-packed with different items, it's also rewarding to check out the top shelves or cabinet tops to see what other items are waiting to be discovered. We spied a dainty woven basket filled with stalks full of pearl flowers resting on top of one of the shelves near the doorway. It looked so pretty from afar.

Here's my sister Bernice posing with the masked dancer who greets every customer by the front door. We're definitely coming back here!

And a sneak peek of my next Intramuros blog post, Barbara's! Since they're all housed in one ancestral Spanish era building, you can spy the patio of Barbara's from the Papier Tolé's window by the stairwell. (They were setting up for a debutante party!) It's also connected to a museum which houses authentic Spanish-era furniture. I remembering going there once when I was in grade school, can't wait to check it out again.

Until we meet again, Intramuros!

What's in a name? Italians!

I'm sitting here in the sala chatting with my lola while on a quick break from studying for finals. She just told me how I got my name, Beatrice, and she has inspired me to finally read the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

Being an English teacher, she loves reading classic literature and has always taught the Divine Comedy to her students. She told me that her favorite character was Beatrice, who in Paradiso (the last book) guides Dante from hell towards heaven. My lola promised herself that she will name her first grand daughter after this character. 

photo credit

Beatrice Portinari was from Florence, Italy and served as Dante's inspiration after years of unrequited love starting from when he met her as children. Tragically, she died at 24 and inspired Mr. Alighieri to write Vita Nuova (must also read this) and use her as the muse for his greatest work, Divine Comedy.

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Since I have never read the book despite it gathering dust here at home, I found a nicely written account of how exactly my namesake played her part:

"In The Divine Comedy it is Beatrice who, out of love for the poet, initiates Dante's journey because she believes that he has strayed from a righteous path and she thinks that this divine journey will save him from himself.  Thus, she leaves her seat in Heaven to descend to Hell where she asks Virgil to serve as Dante's guide.  Beatrice meets Dante in Earthly Paradise (Purgatorio) and acts as his guide through Heaven.  On many occasions during his travels through Hell and Purgatory, Dante believes that he can go no further but the promise of meeting Beatrice motivates him to continue.  Beatrice amply rewards Dante for his travails when she leads him into Heaven and grows in radiance and beauty as they ascend toward God."

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Ah, Italians and romance. And I thought I will never find anything more romantic (or crazy) than Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. My lola never fails to amaze me. 

Famous old churches of Intramuros

My little cousin who lives in California just sent me a life-sized paper doll version of herself as part of a project to have your "flattened" self go on an adventure in a different place. Since Jake and I have never explored downtown Manila, we decided to head to Luneta Park and Intramuros on a whim with our little paper girl. I never really appreciated the old elegance of the place. After a quick visit, I can't wait to properly explore these places!

Here we are at Manila Cathedral. I am awed by the gothic beauty of this church. Funny how I never notice it every time we pass by Intramuros.

It's difficult not to stop by every corner and take pictures of the architecture and beauty of Old Manila while walking around Intramuros. I remember when I was little, we went on a museum tour in one of the houses here where they preserved the furniture and interior from the Spanish era. I must check it out again.

We braved the crazy traffic jam caused by the overlapping weddings at nearby San Agustin church. Yes, we would do anything to get that perfect shot.

Outside San Agustin's side door--see the detailed carvings?

San Agustin church kind of reminds me of Malabon's San Bartolome church which is around Jose Rizal's age. That is, until our crazy parish priest who's a frustrated engineer decided to "restore" it and proceeded to ruin the century-old church. San Agustin is very well-preserved and has earned its fame. This place is so popular for weddings that we were able to witness how quickly they were able to shift from one wedding to another--the place was booked!

Here's KC with the UNESCO World Heritage Site marker! Can't believe this church was built in 1607.

The oldest stone church in the Philippines! Ah, history.

wearing Forever 21 top, American Eagle denim shorts, Kickers shoes, Rayban wayfarers

I don't think they would have let me in, though. Old churches and their strict dress codes. Meh.

Oh, and we also spied a Padre Damaso-ish friar walking in the church's courtyard. I was laughing just looking at Jake and his dagger look.

Sweet Valley High movie!

I am speechless. I cannot process this happiness.

Diablo Cody, the genius behind Juno, has confirmed she's still working on the Sweet Valley High movie! I am mentally jumping up and down like a little tween. I grew up with Jessica and Lila as my role models,and have collected almost every book in the Kids, Teens,  Junior High, High,  Senior Year, University, Unicorn Club, and even those boring Elizabeth goes to London series.

TOO  AWESOME FOR WORDS.

Photo from Sharetv.org

Singapore-lah Day 1

Before I went to the land of chicken rice, I only had shopping plans on my mind. I had no idea I was going to enjoy the other sights and activities Singapore has to offer. I already can't wait to go back to this amazing country (and make a beeline for Orchard Road and Universal Studios).

Mitch, Maan, Ryan and I felt like we had to take a bus from the airport going to the hotel to truly travel backpacker style. We had no idea buses follow the one-way rule and we found ourselves circling Penang Road and Orchard before we finally arrived at Bugis. It was worth the long ride, though. The scenery (ehem, shopping malls) was amazing. It took all of my willpower not to leave my suitcase and bags on the bus and run to the nearest mall. Err.

We found an awesome hawker place a few steps away from our hotel near Bugis Village. After a quick lunch of authentic Hainanese, we set out to finally see some sights. First up on our jam-packed itinerary: Singapore Zoo and Night Safari!

We took a bus going there because we missed the shuttle along Orchard Road. We took two buses, actually. Here's me posing like a geek in front of this sign while waiting for the second bus to take us to the zoo. "Every Singaporean Son" on National Geographic, anyone?

wearing Chatuchak market sheer top, Black Sheep shorts, Fitflops, Aldo necklace, Longchamp Le Pliage

Yay! Tickets for foouh please! We got a great 3-in-1 package that already includes tickets for the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, and Singapore Flyer.

I've always wanted to see a giraffe since my last time was when I was in kindergarten for our Manila Zoo field trip. Other animals I got a huge kick out of seeing  at the zoo were the white tigers, penguins, kangaroos, cheetahs, lions, rhinoceros, meerkats, orangutans and flamingos. Tadah!

After a quick merienda and Ben & Jerry's (I love how they have Ben & Jerry's everywhere here!) we headed off to the Night Safari. You have to ride in a guided tram and it's pitch black the whole time. You can't use your flash when taking pictures to avoid startling the animals so I had no good pictures from the ride except when we were pasaway during the trail walks and had to use flash coz it was sooooo dark and scary. During the tram ride, there are no fences between you and the animals so you had to be quiet or else. The trail walks were also scary since they just built walking trails inside the forest and if you were really clumsy and absent-minded you were bound to get lost. There were also bats and squirrels everywhere so yeah, I screamed a lot.

Something you shouldn't miss at the Night Safari: the Creatures of the Night show! All the animals were trained and my favorite part was the white wolf. Dedicated kung dedicated sa pag awooo! I hope when I return here I'll get to see Sheba and Inuka, their polar bears!

I'm still not over unicorns

Or anything stupid and immature, really.

It's been roughly three years since I spotted that unicorn stuffed toy at Toy Kingdom, Jake. Oh, and thanks for sending me this for my morning giggles.

Photo from zappa blamma of Flickr.

NYE 2011: Sparkly, happy people

Just like we did last year, rang in the new year with my family and Jake--minus the flashy fireworks. We settled for sparklers this year 'cause everyone was too tamad to set up (or even buy) fireworks. Excellent Media Noche courtesy of my mother and grandmutti--yummy pastas, baby back ribs, morcon, tacos, tomato soup, chicken, and too many desserts. 

For 2011, I want to finally grow up and revert to my serious, nerd mode. Well, I'll try. REALLY TRY for my own good. Anyhoots, it was a funny (yes, funny instead of fun) night with Modern Family, three rounds of Taboo, and pigging out.

Behold, my boyfriend has finally snapped and thinks he's a boxer. Jake's recently started boxing sessions and is so into it that he is prone to demonstrating punches and jabs every once in a while. Yes, even with people around. He's so cute and funny with his game face on that it's so hard to take him seriously. He even bought boxing gloves to prove his point. I personally support him, as I'm really hoping he'll do so well in the sport that I'll soon be living the Jinkee life. Hehe.

I also got my family to finally pose for an updated holiday photo, and this time we included all the dogs. Also wore our torotot hats for that festive look but Jake refused to wear the one I got for him, what's a new year picture without the torotot? So yes, with a bit of nagging and whining..tada!

 

He was defiant about it, though. He managed to sneak in a dirty finger 'cause I made him wear the feathery one. This was our HAPPY NEW YEAR, FOOLS! greeting on Facebook. Really suits us, yes.

 

 wearing Topshop see-through lace top, inner Forever 21 nude top, vintage denim shorts, Mango woven belt, Promod necklace, Kickers loafers

At the stroke of 12, we all went out to light up our sparklers. Jake celebrated with his smoke rings while we were waving our sparklers about. Awesome way to start the year with a view of our neighbors' fireworks and, amazingly, only a few ear-splitting firecrackers. I had a blast playing with the sparklers (while keeping a safe distance from Jake's kicks, of course) and was disappointed I couldn't figure out my camera settings so I could take pictures with lit-up words. Boo. Still, felt good to welcome the new year surrounded by my loved ones!

Happiest part of the night--our 3 rounds of Taboo! We played with each other for the first two rounds, before and after midnight and had our third round with my sister and Marla. Yes, we know it's meant for at least 4 players but we were having too much fun instantly guessing each other's clues that we didn't care anymore if we failed to follow the rules. Jake and I only had to say two or three clues, not even remotely related sometimes to the word, before guessing it right. I guess we know each other too well by now. I love our inside jokes and quirks. 

So far, so good, 2011!