The DJ who's not a DeeJay

In 2013, my friend Joey Alarilla went on a "no beef, no pork" diet. During this time, I needed to lose some weight and lower my cholesterol levels. Inspired by this type of diet, I decided to take on a "no rice" diet challenge. I started in November 2013 without any end-target date in mind. 

We usually plan for vacation, listing down things to do, places to visit and people to see.  But this particular vacation was really for us to relax.  It's not like it's our first time to visit the Philippines so minimal research and planning was required.  So our plan was basically to visit family and friends, spend a few days out of town, and taste the foods we absolutely missed.

We thought of trying to combine all into one plan. So we decided on spending a few days in Tagaytay, south of Manila with our relatives and join us in eating popular Pinoy dishes.  And so my dad, mother-in-law and cousin joined us in a weekend leisure drive to the chilly city.


Our first stop in Tagaytay was Gerry's Grill.  We wanted to order everything in the menu.  Good thing there's six of us so we could easily order different platters of food and taste a little bit of everything, a combination of seafood and grilled meat.  Too bad we didn't have our checklist of Pinoy foods to eat.  That would've made ordering easier.

Gerry's Grill had a breathtaking view of Taal Lake.  A break from hot weather (and some traffic since it was a weekend) was also very welcome.
This is my idea of relaxing.

Gerry's Grill view while you eat

While we were there though, there was a rescue team nearby.  We found out that someone had gone over the steep cliff and has been down there for hours.  There were about 15 men pulling a rope little by little in efforts to rescue the victim.

My dad, being the curious one, tried to come closer to the scene to find out what's going on.  I escorted my dad back to the parking lot as we were on to our next stop.  Little did I know that I would have a close encounter with these rescue people again in a few days (check my succeeding blog posts to find out how.)

We finally got to our destination: Casa Maria Y Martha.  It's one of the lesser known bed and breakfast accommodations in Tagaytay City, but surprisingly at the heart of many landmarks including Our Lady of Lourdes Church and Ayala Malls Serin which are both conveniently located across the street.  Casa Maria Y Martha, recommended to us by a family friend, was a homey place.  Past reception, the ground floor looked more like a living room than a hotel lobby, which is a good thing.  This also led to their dining area which had a serene view of the lake.

the Taal lake view from Casa Maria Y Martha

Our Lady of Lourdes Church

dinner with family and family friends.  Fruitcake not in the pic yet.

Want a healthy alternative to dessert? Want to create a dessert in 30 seconds?  Try this out.

What you'll need:

1. Apple
2. Bar of Chocolate
3. Apple Hole Puncher

Here's what to do:
Step 1: Create a hole in the apple
Step 2: Insert chocolate in hole

That's it!
INSTANT CHOCOLATE APPLE!

Our family went on a road trip in Tagaytay last week to visit Caleruega Church as one of our Visita Iglesia churches for the year.   Since there was a lot of people going to the popular church on a hill, it took us a while to get there and get back on the road back to Tagaytay.

The entrance. Seats are one floor below with door leading to the garden facing Taal.

We were hoping to stop by somewhere for a break and we already had lunch at Bag of Beans so we were looking for somewhere else to stop over.  Then suddenly, we found a cozy new place which had only one establishment open, Starbucks!   This is the 4th Starbucks branch I know of in Tagaytay, but what sets this branch apart from the others is the astonishing view and very wide veranda area one floor down with a spectacular view of Taal.   The interiors of this branch are elegant and classy.  It doesn't look like your typical Starbucks branch.

While you're in line, this is what you'll see.

breath-taking view of Taal from Starbucks

And to confirm how impressed I was with the location, interior of this Starbucks branch, I find out that ABS-CBN posted an article considers this branch to be the Most Beautiful Starbucks Branch in the Philippines.

Going to the supermarket is one of the things that gives good use to a calculator, a pen and paper.  But with the advent of technology, there are so many things that can make your grocery experience more convenient.  Here are 5 supermarket and grocery apps and gadgets we'd like to see:

1. Shopping Cart Scale - The shopping cart is a scale on wheels.  Every time you put something in, it adds it to the total weight of your groceries and displays it on an LED display at the cart's handle.  This is especially useful if you're going to carry all the groceries yourself after paying.  Additional features include a real-time calculation of how many bags will your groceries consume. Options to input paper or plastic bag will recalculate and consider bag's maximum breaking point which is lower for paper bags.  Level of difficulty also appears in the calculation.  Carrying 6 paper bags without any handles to hold on to is considered "difficulty level high."

2.  Mobile Shopping Scanner and Grocery inventory app - Each cart or basket comes with a bluetooth scanner which connects to your grocery inventory app.  Current contents of ref and cabinets are all stored in a database in the app. A running total of the prices also appear. No need to find which aisle that supermarket scanner was located at.

Each time you place an item in your grocery cart, it informs you if you already have it at home.  Click on "yes" to include in the case that you need more or want extra stock.   App also notifies you of expiring items at home so it would be easier to decide to buy or not.  Extra feature of the grocery app is that it adds expiration dates to a Google calendar and auto alerts you of expiring perishables.  Now, you'll be notified when your cheese is about to expire and you can either buy a new pack or finish the one at home before it expires.

3.  Price Comparison app - Automatically checks price of scanned item and shows the price of the same item from different supermarkets.  A lot of online sites already do this but only compare online prices from other websites.  This one does that for groceries and also includes quantity available from each supermarket.  Is that wine cheaper in the other supermarket but there's only one left?  Then may be it's worth buying the one in your hand than risking going to the other supermarket but got beaten by someone else.  Bonus feature is the app will tell you what time the supermarket with the cheaper price closes and how long it would take you to get there from the current supermarket you're in.

4.  Waze for Supermarkets - In case there's a huge number of people at the supermarket, this app will show (and tell) you the fastest way to the item you're looking for.  Don't know where the milk shelf is?  Use the voice activated feature and say "go to softdrinks" and the app will show you a map with directions.  Voice commands will provide guides like "at the 3rd aisle, turn left" or "in 10 steps, look at the 3rd shelf to yur right.  You have reached your destination."   This is especially useful for those 1st timers in a supermarket  It is also PWD friendly with voice commands.  Crowd sourcing data is also available.  So you can receive updates like "Spilled milk ahead. Proceed with caution."

5. Nutrition Calculator - Familiar with the MyFitness app?  It tells you how much calories you've consumed in a day based on what you ate.  It also shows breakdowns like sodium, cholesterol, vitamins and other nutrients.  The Nutrition Calculator app auto computes the same thing only for the groceries you buy.  If you see all your groceries total 10,000 calories, you may want to put back some items.  The app will also rank items based on calories and show in red the top 5 items that highly contribute to your calorie total.   The app also awards you with points every time you buy groceries under a defined maximum threshold for calories.

Some existing apps may already have some of these features but it would be nice to have these apps and gadgets all integrated.  Hopefully some developers or supermarket owners read these suggestions and come up with new apps which would benefit just about anybody who goes to the supermarket.
What supermarket app features do you want?

Not your "bu" but mine.
Not quite a chocolate kind.
Juicy mix-mix time.

My overhead compartment at my office desk is all tea!

I love tea. I actually prefer tea over softdrinks.

I used to drink a lot of bottled fruit juices and teas but since a lot of them contained a lot of sugar, I cut down on my manufactured tea consumption and switched to hot tea where I could control the sugar intake and choose what kind (brown, coconut, splenda or none at all).

Since then, I've tasted a lot of teas from different countries (thanks to all who've been giving me different tea flavors to sample too!)  I actually have over 25 different flavors in the office.  Having tasted a lot of teas (and boiled lots of water in the process), I present my Top 5 Favorite Teas.

1. English Breakfast tea - it's your all around tea, so breakfast is not the best term to describe it.  But it does have that kick that you'll most likely need in the morning so I guess that's why they call it such.  It's also one of the most popular complimentary teas you'll find in a hotel room.
2. Jasmine tea - I actually don't like flower-based teas.  This is the exception.  Jasmine tea doesn't taste anywhere near a flower.  Its light and mild flavor makes it easy to consume more than a cup.  If you have a tea pot of this, don't be shy to get a refill.
3. Oolong tea - Whenever I'm in a Chinese restaurant, I won't think twice on ordering this as my drink. This is one tea that doesn't need any additional sweetener to enjoy. This is best taken before and after meals as it would bring your taste buds back to normal.  No matter how full you may be after a hefty meal, an additional cup of this tea won't make you any fuller.
4. Blackcurrant tea - I actually liked the tea line of berries (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry) until I tasted this one and instantly preferred this over the berries.   Its grape-like flavor is good if you prefer a stronger taste for your tea.
5. Mint tea - I'm a fan of any mint-flavored candy (peppermint, spearmint) and so this tea flavor was no-brainer for me.  This tea leaves a fresh and soothing taste and sometimes feels almost as if you just brushed your teeth.   

Fastfood in a rush  
Line up, pay, sit, grab & munch  
A quick fix for lunch.

Bars of chocolate that taste like medicine
Tablets & capsules that taste like candy
Looks don't matter anymore
It's what's hidden inside that you bargain for.

This is a delicious snack of tofu sprinkled with pepper garnished with crunchy basil leaves served at Serenitea.

Thanks to Aileen who introduced me to it, I've had a liking for seaweed snacks. One of the brands out there that sell seaweed snacks is Tao Kae Noi. They package crispy seaweed ready to eat.

Rice with garlic literally on top