Mel and the New Normal

Joining the growing ramen community in Alabang is Bangaichi Restaurant, located right behind Festival Supermall (at it's Riverside Area). If you need a landmark for it, it's located in the strip of restaurants behind Save More Supermarket side. You can park right outside it, which is super convenient. Two stories tall, this restaurant is pretty hard to miss when you're in the right area. Upon entering, I noticed that Bangaichi had an industrial feel that's pretty popular now (unpainted walls, bare bulbs lighting fixtures). It had a very modern feel to it. They were still on their soft opening when we tried it, so possibly the restaurant may look different inside by now. As you can see, the restaurant has lovely views of the "Riverside" creation of Festival Supermall, and it has wonderful natural lighting. With regards to the Ramen, we really enjoyed it. I was happy to have butter corn ramen here in the South (since I also get to have in the ra...

You know how everyone had their #Happydaychallenge thing a few months ago? Even though I'm I huge, like, SHEEP in the sense that I love following trends, I did not get into that. In general, I am a very happy person, and I feel happiness even in the worst of days. I kid you not. Even during the "dark ages" of our pregnancy, I consistently found something to be happy about everyday (thank you American Idol!) I guess I just have a lower standard for happiness, and I easily find happiness in small things, so I wasn't so into the challenge where people seeked out at least 1 happy aspect of their day. That said, this is a completely different concept from me being a "Grateful" person. I am not a grateful person. Happy, yes, but grateful, not so much. Meaning - I enjoy my life, but I am not that person who says at the end of the day, "Thank you for this and this and this." I don't even mean this in a religious way, that I'm not grateful to God ...

We celebrated our daughter's birthday a few months ago (this is an extremely late post). Just sharing a few photos of her special day. Luckily, it was a holiday, so we were able to take along Miks and Josh. We bought her our usual favorite pink flowers, plus a cake and some balloons. Here's ate taking photos of our gifts. We put a fish cookie on the cake, just so it wouldn't be boring. Coz you know. She's a water dragon. (Labo haha!) We just wanted to make her cake look a little kiddier. We celebrated the day by eating at the nearby Zark's, where we shocked the kids with our impressive Bacon-caged Burger. Yum.  We had a great time, visiting her as a family, as usually it is Just and I who visit her. Okay, this entry isn't just about balloons and burgers, if that's what you're thinking =D In hindsight, the last 2 years since her passing have been good to us. We really feel that there is an angel up there watching ove...

Was in Greenhills area a couple of weeks back, and forced Justin to check out Ronac Art Center with me to look at rubber shoes. We actually have done events in Ronac for kiddie parties but I've never seen it personally, so I also wanted to check it out for work. After checking out Titan and drooling at the shoes (for Justin, not for me), I asked if we could have lunch on the ground floor. We (okay, I) chose Lunchbox, just because it looked pretty from the outside, hehe. SUCKER! The interiors were refreshingly cool to the eyes, with clean neat lines and lovely lighting. Even the floor had lighting! I love lighting! Seriously though, I liked the design of the place, and the aircon was nice and cool (it was blisteringly hot outside that day.) I had the Rueben (P295), which was a corned beef sandwich with the works. Goodness gracious it was YUMMY! Was that dill I tasted? I would order this again in a heartbeat. I actually told Justin that the style reminded me of Breakfast...

Since moving homes, I have gained A LOT of weight. What would be my usual weight gain in a year happened in a span of months! But it's not my fault, it's my husband's fault! I mean, look at my breakfasts! This is why I'm so fat now! Scrambled eggs, strawberries, kiwi fruit, and spam c/o Justin. Burnt croissant c/o me. This one was a healthy dinner, actually. Salad with strawberries and kiwi, potatoes, and soy chicken Wheat bread, corned beef, eggs, kiwi (I know, we love kiwi) plus jam from Antonio's How can you NOT get fat from these meals? It's gotten to the point that I got mad at him for cooking like this everyday, to which he responded in a "damned if I cook, damned if I don't cook" kind of way. Hahaha. True. I need to go to the gym or something. I'll never be on a diet in this house!

Been very very busy the past few months with work... Can I just not work anymore? Haha! That would be the dream, not to run businesses, just stay home and take care of the family.  Unfortunately reality calls, and 1 income isn't enough unless the kids are scholars until college!  So I'm on blogging pause at the moment, but will try my best to crank out some words with the photos just saved on my draft folder :p Or maybe just post the photos on their own!  See you in a bit! 

Much has been said about this place, and goodness, it was delicious! We were able to squeeze ourself in one quiet Sunday. Please.Order.Fauxtwix. This place doesn't come cheap but it's definitely worth the money. Sharing photos of our delish lunch!  Saw Jeremy with his family! He's so cool. 

Parking = FULL Having worked in BF Homes for a good 3 years, we've eaten in a LOT of restaurants in BF Homes. Hands down, one of our favorites is Borgo , which I've raved about several times in this blog. There are other great restaurants located in BF area, which is why I never gave Sam Won a second look. One day, Justin pointed out Sam Won, and observed that it always had full parking. I told him that we would try it next time we were in the area (I admit, this was a half-hearted comment since I wasn't interested in Korean cuisine, hehe.) The opportunity arose one diet/starvation day, where I couldn't/shouldn't have my favorite pasta and desserts. So I told J that we might as well try Sam Won, since *tears* I couldn't have my favorite food anyways. We were doing a no carbs diet for a few days/years, so off we headed to Sam Won. Tadaaa! Here we are! I am soooo glad I gave it a try! I had no idea what Sam Won served (e...

We were on the way to Army Navy (Alabang) when we spotted a new restaurant right beside it, Coco Hut! Peering inside, I saw it looked almost exactly like Army Navy, and thought it would be nice to try something new. Anyways, I was pretty sure that Army Navy owned it, so the taste would be more or less the same. Open Kitchen I could be wrong, but I really think the company behind Army Navy owns the place too. Looking at the menu design and the equipment inside the kitchen, it was almost exactly the same in design! Cute nipa-looking canopy The specialty of the place, obviously, was fried chicken and fish. For some reason, even with the name and design of the restaurant, I thought it was more of US style of frying fish and chicken, but the restaurant served items that were quite different. I think it's supposed to a Filipino restaurant but made into a cooler looking fast food concept. Cute poster, hehehe! Simple benches and table setup. That's Mika reading beside...