Mel and the New Normal

Choco-late de Batirol has been long on my must-try list of places to try when I returned to Baguio. I didn't know what to expect, I just knew I had to try it! That's Josh's snake from his horse ride. It's not part of the menu, haha. This is the Cacao fruit. I really don't know what was running through our minds when we impulsively purchased this. It's like, I expected the whole fruit to taste like chocolate or cacao! (Of course it didn't!) They advised on to suck on the seeds. Erm. Honestly it was not good at all. The ladies in the next table were peering at the fruit curiously, so we gave them some. They though we were being generous, but honestly we couldn't eat any more. Hahahaha! This is the famous chocolate de batirol (hot chocolate) of the place. It was good. However, I was expecting it to taste like Mary Grace's hot chocolate -- thick and goey. It wasn't, it was milky but still chocolatey. It was a good drink for the cool weath...

Hill Station is a very popular area in Baguio now. Just a stone's throne away from SM Baguio, I never noticed it until I read about it in Anton's blog Ourawesomeplanet.com. As we passed by it going around Session, I promised we'd come back and check it out. The library in the adjacent Mt. Cloud Bookshop has starred several times on the IG feed of my friends. Entrance Signages Look upon entering. It was quite dark, as it was also dark outside.  With my cousin Trish, and her BF Martin At this point (a month later) for the life of me, I cannot recall the names of these dishes. Peruvian chicken? It was good, though nothing blockbuster for me.  Personally, this was the dish that I enjoyed. It was their house salad, and it included native Baguio ingredients (what else?) like strawberries, candied walnuts. It was so fresh, like it was picked off their backyars. (It probably was!) Another memorable dish, their ice cream incorporating Baguio flavors ...

As this was an impromptu roadtrip, with no specific days on a particular location, we had to play everything by ear. So.... we didn't have a place to stay in Subic when we got there. This is unusual for us, since we usually book our places wayyyyy in advance because I want to find dirt-cheap places that are clean.  When we got to Subic, while eating our late lunch, I used my Samsung S4 to find nearby hotels with high ratings in Agoda. Unfortunately, it seems that the expensive resorts were the ones with high ratings! The rest had low ratings! I was ready to check in a hotel (sorry forgot the name) that was P3,000 a night, but on the way there, almost across the street, we saw this building -- Mango Valley. J said it looks nice, maybe they have rooms. The place across was their's as well. We left the kids in the car in front, and went in to check out the place. The lobby had cold aircon and had a welcoming air to it. We asked the rate per night -- P1,600! They sai...

While I was pregnant, I made a list of things that I missed doing. I missed doing them because I was stuck in bed, and physically limited. This included eating at my favorite restaurants (the smells made me sick), doing things with my kids outdoors (well, this was rare to begin with, we were more of aircon people), and jogging (insert FEELING here bwahahahah). I think I just missed the freedom of movement. This gave rise to another list eventually, the things I WOULD do and I have NEVER DONE BEFORE if I made it thru without physical problems. There's a separate mental list of things Kat and I would do if she made it thru, but I never had the heart to write it down. Anyways, the list of things I WOULD do included: 1. Surfing at Baler. (I know, I'm so FEELING talaga. Whales don't surf! But I tried it once and I liked it. By once, I mean, a surfboard hit me on the head once in Punta Fuego. It was love at first hit.) 2. Learn how to DJ. (This is a long story in itself.) 3....

I don't remember ever picking strawberries in Baguio. Perhaps when I was a kid. Or maybe I just forgot. Anyways, we promised the kids that we would take them strawberry picking. So even if it was raining a bit, and it was traffic getting there, we still persevered. Since it was our first time to travel to the fields by ourselves, we had to use Google Maps on my S4. We were able to find the correct spot, though we mistakenly took the longer, off-road route (my bad.)