Top 10 Oldest Restaurants

According to Yahoo! News published last 03 September 2010, the top 10 oldest restaurants that we would like to bring our Rafa one day include:

10. SAVORY (1950) 201 Escolta Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila with various branches Tel. no. 243-0336 Open from 9 a.m. to 12 midnight daily

9. LITTLE QUIAPO (1949) 90 Malakas St. Brgy. Piñahan, Quezon City Tel. no. 922-4131 Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

8. MAX’S (1945) Roxas Boulevard, Baclaran, Parañaque, Manila with various branches Tel. no. 832-1991 Open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

7. ONGPIN MANOSA RESTAURANT CO. (1940) 926 Ongpin Street, Binondo, Manila Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday, closes earlier on Sundays

6. BOY CHING WOO (1939) 103 BCW Building, J. Rodriguez Street, Caloocan City Tel. no. 287-1430 Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

5. ARISTOCRAT (1936) 432 San Andres St. cor. Roxas Blvd., Malate Tel nos. 524-7671 to 80 loc. 225 or 230 Open 24 hours daily

4. RAMON LEE’S PANCITERIA (1929) 540 Ronquillo Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. no. 733-0642 Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday

3. MA MON LUK (1920) Quezon Boulevard, Manila Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

2. AMBOS MUNDOS (1888) 750 Florentino Torres Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. no. 734-1160 Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

1. NEW TOHO FOOD CENTER (1888) 422 Tomas Pinpin Street, Binondo, Manila Open 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

Among all, Cecile and I have eaten at Max's Restaurant and Aristocrat, often with our own parents. Rafa has tasted Max's Fried Chicken, while their chicken sisig is a favorite!

2 hours at Brazil

In Saigon, one of our favorite restaurants is “Brazil.” Other fave restaurants include Texas BBQ Ribs where Chief, Patrick (my cousin) and I feasted down to the "bones" of good-tasting ribs. And Pendolasco, with their eat all you can pizza crust. Only last September, during the Asian CSR Forum, I brought Tere Lopez-Pacis, my best friend from Intel at Pendolasco, together with a couple of other jounalists.

After the 10am Mass at St. John Bosco Parish, Chief and I proceeded to Bonifacio High Street to meet up with Rene Bernal for lunch at “Brazil” at Serendra, Bonifacio High Street, Taguig City. It was an easy ten minute drive while listening to 105.1 FM jazz music.

It was our anniversary weekend and we wanted to treat a friend who is dear to us. Photo shows Chief enjoying a cup of green tea, reportedly good to cleanse all the "fat" we ate.

Today, we look back to memories of more than 25 years while enjoying good food at “Brazil.” Rene Bernal had been my friend since I studied at UST Graduate School. That friendship started in June 1982. Together with his friend, Etoy, he visited us in Saigon last 2003 and stayed at our first Greenhome at 25 Tran Nhat Duat Street, District 1.

Unfortunately, they didn’t allow me to take pictures of the buffet table. Sorry. But for 670 pesos for "all you can eat" buffet, it was worth it. The waiter first served corn soup. Medyo konti lang. Just around ten spoonsful of soup. Then, I started with potato salad before all the grilled items started to fill my plate.

It was nice and easy two hours of kuwentuhan, from our trips to Olongapo, where we nearly faced death as Egay's car spun around three times along the expressway... to Ilocos Norte, where we stayed in haunted house... to Puerto Galera, where we buried each other in the sand and to more places we tried to remember.

Plus our first-ever overseas trip to HK in 1988. That would be a whole separate blog.




For dessert, I got strawberry cake and fruit salad.

Two Weddings

Chief and I watched two weddings tonight. “Why kaya?” asks Chief.

In an episode of “The new adventures of old Christine” Christine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) ex-boyfriend gets married. But during the toast, he mentions Christine’s name. Photo of Julia Louis-Dreyfus by Sheryl Nields/CBS Broadcasting Inc.

In an episode of “Will and Grace” Grace played by Debra Messing gets married to Leo (played by Harry Connick, Jr.) It is Will (Eric McCormack) who walks down the aisle and says to Leo, “Take care of my friend.” Cast photo courtesy of NBC.

“Why kaya?” I now also ask myself.

I was telling Chief that I was thinking of getting the DVD box set of “Will and Grace” when I was in Hanoi last month. “Why didn’t you get it?” says Chief.

The series was originally broadcast from 1998 to 2006 and takes place in New York City. It was nominated for 83 and won 16 Emmys.

Maybe, it is because on the 5th of November, Chief and I would celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary? Maybe.

La Provincial

It was Rene Bernal's birthday treat. Rene had been my friend since 1983, when I first entered UST Graduate School, where I first met him, together with Nady Nacario and Christie Que. I was then with Manila Bulletin (my first job). He also stayed with Chief and I in Vietnam in 2002. And my first overseas trip to HK was with him. That was back in the mid-80s.

Chief had picked me up front Rustan’s Fresh in Greenbelt 1 at around 7pm. There was definitely the mad rush going home along EDSA on a Thursday night. I was swapping SMS with Egay Guerrero.

By 7:30pm, we were going around Ortigas Center as I made a wrong turn at San Miguel Avenue. Not really familiar with the streets here at night. A few minutes later, we had parked in front of the shopping mall and on the escalator heading to the La Pronvincial, 2nd floor of the EDSA Shangrila Mall.

Everyone was here when we arrived. Rene Bernal. Nady Nacario. Issa Avendano. Christie Que. Egay Guerrero, easily recognizable with his Jay Leno grey hair. Food was being served. Two types of pasta and pizza. Plus salad. (Again, I took pictures courtesy of Sony Cybershot!)

Gifts had been exchanged. Even Issa and Nady gave me a birthday gift. A Jose Marie Chan CD. “Naku, papaiyakin nito kame,” I said, knowing the senti music of Jose Marie Chan. Earlier, I had bought a “Noel” the new Christmas CD of Josh Broban, who recently was here in Manila for a series of concerts.

We all laughed and talked about the good old days we had, from the bathroom pictures of Rose Dumpit to Egay’s old car spinning 360 degree along NLEX. We were also teasing Rene about his birthday trip to Bangkok and the 600 bhat massage. Did he get that massage?

Chief and I announced our up and coming TV segment at “Mel and Joey.” Everyone was surprised and eager to see it. Egay said, “Magpapatali ako sa sofa para siguradong mapanood ko iyon.” He was also proud to talk about his 8 year old daughter, who had recently won a school quiz competition.

Egay was looking back to 1979 when I first met him as he was the boyfriend of Cecil Recto Villa, who was my classmate in Comm Arts. He recounted how we worked on our thesis, 25 years ago! Cecile thesis mates included Elaine Velasco, Jeanette Manarang, Genoveva Balandra, while I did work with Joyce, Edith, Chie and Jovie.

Our friendship had stood the test of time!

Chocolate with Bingo & Mila

Today, Friday is a holiday. End of Ramadan. And last night, Chief and I met up with our couple friend from Vietnam. Bingo and Mila Pantaleon. We had first met them in Saigon, through a referral from Maribel Regino, who used to live and work in Saigon before she moved to Jakarta (and now based in Bangkok).

Bingo who was then Marketing Director of United Pharmaceuticals had entrusted his brands to McCann Erickson, which was led by Chief. Today, they are based in Jakarta. We had visited them nearly four years ago (2004). And whenever they are in Manila, meeting them for coffee would be part of their itinerary.

Caught with them around 9pm at Larry’s Bar at Serendra. They had ordered lechon. Wow. Cholesterol. I ordered from Cherry one ice-cold San Mig Light Beer Cherry. Chief and I had eaten dinner at home earlier, as we watched the 1st episode of Kelsey Grammer presents The Sketch Show.

Chief, Mila and Bingo had the “Original Sin” chocolate cake while I tried the Breakfast Blondie cake. Photo shows the 7,500 peso coffee maker and 45 peso per slice cakes. Back in Vietnam, the old fashioned coffee strainer cost only around $5.00. hehehe

Photos taken by me using Sony Cybershot (borrowed from my mom)

Boston Public "Gone" Episode

Last Wednesday night, Chief and I had watched “Boston Legal.” We really wanted to sleep early and there was nothing really good on TV until the opening credits of “Boston Legal.”

I only had watched a few episodes of this series, which had started as a spin-off from “The Practice” while we were still based in Vietnam in 2004.

What was important to learn in this episode was how Allan Shore (James Spade) chose friendship over his own principles. He valued his friendship with Denny Crane (William Shatner), who had been subject of a lawsuit from an indigent, named Kirk (after Shatner’s own character n Star Trek) he had shot with a paint-gun. Spade agreed to take on the case as a way to settle with the indigent for the amount of 75,000 dollars.

In a parallel story, Denise Bauer (with photo)
and Brad Chase (Mark Valley), two other lawyers of the firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. pretend to be FBI agents to the extent of violating the law to rescue the son of her maid who had been kidnapped by a pedophile. This pedophile had been hiding and only maintains contact with the priest.

Julie Bowen was born on March 3, 1970… and celebrates her birthday after Chief’s own birthday).

Chief was surprised at one scene, when Brad with an ax in hand, accidentally, cuts of three fingers of the priest, who had prevented the lawyers from entering his office.

At the end of the episode, Spade talks about the 27 million poor Americans who might one day decide to fight back against the rich like Denny Crane.

Meanwhile, the priest gets his missing finger back and points to the location where the pedophile is hiding. The boy is rescued.

But on the teaser for the next episode, Brad is on trial.

Guess, we will watch that episode.

Photo courtesy of Boston Public cast and Julie Bowen from www.tvguide.com (by Scott Garfield / ABC)

Lunch at La Taverne

Met up with my former colleague Ms. Tu Nga at the La Taverne Restaurant, front of the FPT Office at 41 Suong Nguyet Anh, somewhere in District 1. According to the http://anan-vietnam.com website, La Taverne offers Vietnamese & French cuisine prepared by a world-renowned French Chef in villa and its tranquil gardens. (Photos from http://anan-vietnam.com)

We caught up on many things happening within Vietnam. I worked with Ms. Tu Nga when I first arrived in Vietnam in 2001. Mai Thanh Advertising was the first company I had worked for.

As PR Account Director, we worked together on several brands and events. This included the launch event for Dove in HCMC.

Together with Johnny Edbrooke and Brenda So and the rest of the agency team, we developed the Dove Spa on the building which would later become the Sheraton Hotel.

We also worked on the Kimberly Clark “Simply the Best” Program.

Here at the La Taverne Restaurant, one would see the middle-class Vietnamese professionals enjoying buffet food. Western food. Pasta. Salad. I had two servings of potato salad and three slices of pizza. Not really like my fave cheese and garlic Shakey's pizza but good enough for lunch.

On one table, I saw a foreigner enjoying lunch with a Vietnamese woman.

Will post food pictures soon.