The Original Buko Pie

     So my good Korean friend/neighbor surprised me again tonight with her favorite Buko Pie after a trip to hot springs in Los Banos... This is the second time.
   
     The box was still warm.  I know when she has the opportunity she buys several boxes. How generous of her to give one to me!  She has many other friends to share this with.   

     When it comes to Buko Pie, close as our location is to the brands towards Tagaytay, we prefer this, Orient.  I love how the packaging is the simplest plainest, kraft box, and has not changed.  They do not need to brighten up their packaging---their pies are the best!

     Just look at it--Full of supple flesh, just the right sweetness, a thin, flaky light crust.  The rest of the offerings especially by the big chain going up to Tagaytay have crusts too thick and sweetened for our liking.  

     

Makiling Sunset

From one of the Alveo villages in Nuvali, Canlubang, Laguna.
June 5, 2016

Now Brewing in Laguna

I now appreciate the fascination for craft beer.  Friends have started brewing these in the neighborhood  (their capacity and the facility is large, to my mind, I hesitate to call it "home brewing").

They had us sample them, and I enjoyed the first one I tasted. (We happened to have spicy chicken wings along with the surprise bottles. Good timing!)

Tuff Tuko with every sip somehow brought me back to Baguio...Baguio just last January.  I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was certainly something "woody" about it. 

Then my friend sent me this flyer, and I also then read the label..."pine hops"...no wonder...!

So what do I appreciate about their beers? Fresh tasting, just the bitterness of beer but no bitter aftertaste.  I've had pilsner in Prague and aside from Baguio memories...this reminded me of the Czech republic. Really.

Merry Christmas friends and family...these are coming your way when I see you!

Ryuma's Takoyaki

    If you can find it, outside the Ramen section, on a corner facing the Laguna blvd, hidden past all the kitsch and quirkiness of the main Ryuma...is their Takoyaki stall.  

     Ryuma's fare has improved greatly since it first opened.  The menu is extensive, very reasonably priced, with food portions quite satisfying.  Of course the place is decorated in a surreal, gaudy way...and their weekend dance performances quite...unique...but all this can be fun and entertaining. The mariachi is good by the way.

  You'll forgive them anything because the most important thing is, the food is very good.

     Sometime ago I enjoyed this blog post by gabmesina.blogspot.com, which best captured my impression of Ryuma restaurant.  I like how she blogger said it all, through her words and her photos!  

    http://gabmesina.blogspot.com/2013/04/happy-birthday-mum.html

     I've grown to seek their Takoyaki---tastes so much better than those from kiosks in other places here.  Also, an order is Php 20.00 for 4 balls.  At 5 pesos per authentic ball, this is worth the walk (from where another Takoyaki kiosk is located).   I spied students and employees grabbing some to snack on (to lunch on, even).

Last of the land

May I selfishly say that I hope they (the owners) never do anything with that grassland? Ah but it is inevitable.

I do keep repeating this.

What a depressing blog!

Santa Rosa Sunset February 9, 2014

"Scenic" route from Puting Kahoy, Silang Cavite to Santo Domingo, Santa Rosa Laguna

  It is not as awesome as seeing the "majestic Mount Mayon" from the road in Legaspi, that famous postcard shot of the (not-so-perfect-anymore) volcano's cone.  But, this is what we have driving down from the ridge on the Tagaytay-Sta. Rosa road and on a clear day like today, it can be beautiful.  I know I still can marvel at it.  You can see mountains of Rizal across the bay. You can see the bay.  Residents of Silang on hills and with high floor levels enjoy this view. 

     These particular scenes were shot in Bgy. Santo Domingo just past the "white corn" vendors.  It is also just past the earthquake fault line (yes there is one and you can actually see and feel the sudden rise or drop of the road, near the school).

I'm sorry to say, there is ugliness like this in the photo below.  Oddly, I was looking far away at the Mt. Makiling and at the bay, at the hills of Rizal across the bay, that I didn't even notice what was right in front of me. This ugliness. The kid asked me what the sign said...and exclaimed "they burned here! they burned here!" pointing toward the mountain.  Sorry, I end sourly again.

Sign reads "Trash is Prohibited"

Beacon Academy

 

 

 

    Ahh! So conducive to learning!  Set against a mountain, this high school is.  And as with many of the new, good schools adding a ''branch" or relocating South (of Metro Manila), this one is never really far from where people live. In this area of Santa Rosa, that is.  When I say "not far" I actually mean the drives are pleasant.  No traffic jams, no smog, greens along the road...various bird species on the trees (and well, okay, the wires). 

 

    I hope these children know how fortunate they are.  When I hear of others trapped in EDSA or C5 or wherever, going from school in Makati to home in Quezon City or vice versa,  I feel sorry. Even sitting as passengers in private cars, their daily travel to and from school can be a stressor.  And then the kids and teens focus on tablets sitting in traffic in the car...

 

   That is another story, maybe for the Mother blog where I talk about how now the kid dislikes flavored milk "because it's too sweet for my tongue". Among other things natural, unrefined, pure and maybe organic... 

 



A Lonely Road

     Let's mosey on over (MOSEY? who talks like that anymore? here?) to another border.  We've already posted about the Silang-Sta. Rosa border.  The same road on my title photo above, bears the sign "Welcome to Binan, Laguna" on the opposite side of the road. That's where we are headed on this post.  Well, not quite to the main area of Binan, but to Barangay Binan, where a phase of San Jose Village is located (if I'm not mistaken there are 6 phases. The last one is a very quite location full of trees).

 

 

 



 



    This way leads to another gate of Ayala Westgrove and the Laguna Technopark Inc. annex.  At the corner is the Metrobank, and a phase of San Jose Village.  Under construction are Avida Shophouses.  With plans for a 7-11 in one of those, I'm assuming this area is going to be a busy place, and this road not very lonely for long.

 

 

    At the moment it gives my father the heebie-jeebies (okay, first mosey now this...)  After all, it is bordered by nothing but cogon for a stretch. It's the kind of road which in the Southern Philippines screams "ambush! ambush!" to a soldier.  Yes he was a soldier (an officer), that is why such an empty road frightens him.   (And with this pardon my detour as I pay my respects to those who were massacred in Maguindanao this month three years ago. Clearly, the roads were paved, the hills verdant, more beautiful than this...but the incident horrific). It sure looks and feels like the boondocks, but I assure him, it's still a part of Ayala Land and the technopark.

   I'm sure at night it can be scary.

   But following my mantra, I mean to enjoy this loneliness, these bare fields, while I can.  A brief stop at the grocery in the shopping area with its Sunday crowd and artificial lights afterwards jarred my head again. I need the fields, plains and green mountains to relax me.  Oh, the sound of birds, and the sight of them here! 

    The weather was mild too.  Very sunny, yet cool. And this is Binan, Laguna, not even Tagaytay.

  
    Visible from this spot (facing the other way, down to the city), is the De La Salle Science and Technology complex. I still am wondering why it used to be called De La Salle Canlubang, when the borders I see around belong to Sta. Rosa, Silang, and Binan...I enjoy looking at maps and would like to know why.  Can somebody enlighten me please?

Sampaguita - Laguna

Thanks caverock, from whose channel I viewed this.

‘Rizal maps’ given to public schools in Laguna

‘Rizal maps’ given to public schools in Laguna

Where can I get myself one of these maps?    Senor Pepe, would you know?

http://filipinoscribbles.wordpress.com/category/provincia-de-la-laguna/

Salamat po to anyone who can answer.

Stamps, the friendly Barangay Post Office, and going postal

    
     I still enjoy sending and receiving "snail" mail.  Luckily, I still have one (come to think of it just ONE) friend who regularly sends me something on my birthday every year, and on Christmas, even if she is Thai and doesn't really celebrate Christmas the way we do.  She is a stamp collector. Along with a pack of Nestle Thai iced milk tea powder sachets, a present such as bags shirts, or whatever she can send that doesn't cost more than 500 baht to send by mail, are sets of postage stamps. BEAUTIFUL Thai stamps.  Sadly, I am not into philately, though I admire and have cherished all the stamps she has sent me through the years.  I keep the envelopes too. I really have to set up some webpage and scan everything to show them!

     The very last time I had to pick up my parcel from Thailand at the MCPO (Makati City Post Office) on Buendia, I gave away a set of those stamps. Actually, I think it was the envelope I gave to the post man.  He was nice anyway, and remembered that I had been coming to pick up the same kind of parcel with gorgeous stamps inside.  Besides, he was a true collector and was shy to say so. Of course I could share.

     What saddens me is I have not been able to truly share, to return the favor, to my Thai friend.  I have sent her some of our stamps, I have even given her this book about Philippine stamps by the late Reynaldo G. Alejandro (may his soul rest in peace). But I cannot match the stamps she sends me.  Ours just pale, pale pale in comparison. I'm not too proud to send them.  Often, I read press releases about commemorative stamps I would like to own and send to her.  I have not been successful in purchasing any of these, as I could not travel to the main post office in Manila.

     At the MCPO, there is a department upstairs from which to purchase the stamps.  I did get to buy a few, but they did not have the stamps advertised.

It was always disappointing.  Even if the designs had potential or were significant to me, the printing was not as nice as my Thai ones.

     These photos are of the ones I received last month.  I have even better, more brilliant ones tucked away in a closet and bins...from 20 years of friendship.  As an aside, I made friends with her when she hosted me in her home as part of this Japanese-government sponsored program, The Ship for Southeast Asian Youth.  I was a participant during a time when we had no option but to send letters written on paper. There weren't even cellphones in 1991.  I am just so happy she continues to send me these. Oh, and she sent them right before the flooding got around her home in Bangkok, so I received them during.

    Anyway, I have listed my mailing address as one in Paranaque now, and not this one in Sta. Rosa.   I consider it 'safer' in a sense, because then I would not have to go to the bayan to pick up registered mail.  Also, I notice that I only saw the Philpost van twice in here, and that was on our first year. I even spoke to the mail men (because call me postal but I love the idea of mail, post, and stamps, really.), who said they actually deliver registered mail instead of waiting for us to pick them up.  I then learned where the nearest post office in Barangay Don Jose is.  It is just at gate 2 of the Laguna Technopark, at the pedestrian entrance.

   Once, I intentionally mailed something, for my toddler to experience the whole post office thing.  It turns out this little post office room is manned by one interesting lady, but then you can never tell if it's going to be open or shut for the day.  Or some days, half the day.  The friendly security guard will tell you the various reasons, too.  When we finally got lucky, we met the postal lady, who is interesting because of her accessories. She matches her outfits with bangles, necklaces and earrings of similar print/color.  On our first day, it was animal prints, and the other, wooden beads in summer limes and yellow to match her green outfit. I complimented her.

   So now my toddler has this impression that the lady who takes your letter to lola is fashion-conscious.  Really, the accessories did a lot to perk us up (and I'm sure her), in the little roomful of mail to sort.

   I still cannot obtain commemorative stamps from her though. I wanted the John Paul II one, but she said I would have to go to the main office in the bayan, or really, in Manila. My compliment got me a friendly response, but didn't get me the stamps.

  

current weather in Santa Rosa, Laguna 4:40pm

     Gloomy, rainy, sleepy weather.

along the Laguna Lake



Laguna Lake on road coming from Paete, Pila and Caliraya

     Laguna province is large, and there is so much to see and visit.  We visited Pila for the first time, and Paete for a third in over a decade.  Paete was sad. More on that on another post.

Philippine Sights Reed Diffusers

Here is a collection of reed diffuser oils inspired by sights in the mostly Southern Tagalog region, including of course, Laguna, and a Southern island in the Philippines.  Reed diffusers are an alternative way of making a room smell good. Rattan reeds placed upright in the bottle of oil wick up and diffuse the oil--in this case a combination of essential and fragrance oils. They do so continuously as reeds stand in the oil, eliminating the need for flames and wax as in candles and burners, or electricity as in electric burners.

"Tanawin" Reed Diffuser Oils subtly scent your space with:

Guimaras

samyo ng matamis na mangga sa natatanging isla

fragrance of sweet mangoes on the unique island

a blend of green mango and coconut

Silang

halimuyak ng hardin sa bayang luntian

fragrance of the garden in this verdant land

a blend of lemongrass, basil, and other herbs

Laguna     
simoy ng sampaguita sa lupang tinubuan

breeze of sampaguita in the land of one's birth

a blend of sampaguita and bamboo

Amadeo    
aroma ng kape sa maaliwalas na gulod ng Tagaytay

aroma of coffee in the pleasant Tagaytay ridge

a blend of coffee and vanilla

Tanawin Reed Diffuser Oils bring pleasant memories of cool Tagaytay trips, or languid Philippine beach holidays into your home.
They're available for sale in Santa Rosa, on your way back from Tagaytay, or via meet-up in Alabang.  Unfortunately they cannot be shipped as yet. They would make great resort, restaurant or shop merchandise in the Tagaytay-Silang-Sta. Rosa area.    email poeticscents@gmail.com

Black-naped Oriole (oriolus chinensis yamamurae)

     Finally shot the Orioles we hear at dawn.

    ONLY with CAMERAS please! 

New roads, car stickers and rice paddies

     Residents of Ayala Land villages this side of Binan and Sta. Rosa, get the Greenfield Parkway stickers for a shortcut to home.  We exit the SLEX via Mamplasan, and go through the parkway.  It is a big deal to be skipping the traffic when exiting via the Sta. Rosa toll exit. Going past and reaching the Paseo de Sta. Rosa area via the Eton exit is alright, scenic, but more expensive and longer. 

   Recently I learned there is yet another stretch of 'scenic' road from Mamplasan to the Laguna blvd, and that cuts through the entrance of Verdana Mamplasan, and the Tamayo estate, among others.  I hadn't heard about this place before, so I really don't know if there are lots for sale, or if it is some sort of club.

   I actually hope the rotunda from the Greenfield Parkway to Verdana never changes.  There are rice fields, their accompanying egrets, and banana plants by that small roundabout.  It's nice and green, and I consider it very important for our children to view it. When I was growing up, we passed roads to Pasig with rice fields as well. I remember my mother practicing driving with us as passengers...and my fear of her driving us to the edge of the road into a muddy paddy.

   Driving through the new roads to Nuvali, I still saw some cows, and various birds.  I believe the bird population from the Laguna blvd. to Nuvali has dwindled though...

   So I guess I can't decide...rural or urban. I want to live in both.

Great Camp Out

McDonald's Laguna Bel-air

   This branch, at the corner of Laguna Bel-air's entrance and the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay highway, used to be such a landmark and stopover for those heading to Tagaytay.  Well, it was for me at least, a pitstop (pee-stop) if we didn't stop by any of the gasoline stations along the SLEX (South Luzon Expressway).

   It is a cute and friendly little branch with a "Playplace" inside.  It is therefore also a party place. One drawback is the street boys selling sampaguita in the parking area, beggars, and pirated dvd vendors.  It has still retained most of its charm as a little neighborhood branch. Somehow, it feels more homey and cozy than those in Metro Manila in there.

   I'm trying not to consume too much of this fastfood too frequently, and try not to have the kid enjoy it too much too.  Thankfully the kid does not really look for it but just enjoys it when it's there.  I would rather avoid character themes for kids' birthdays, much less in fastfood joints whose philosophy is the louder the PA system, the better. I concede however, that having a themed birthday party in McDonald's is not too harmful and young celebrants really enjoy mascot costumes.  I would compromise and review the hosts' plans for music and games though.  McDonald's I guess finally realized that the original Ronald clown scared many kids and that young children are attracted to the baby-faced character with a big costume head and big eyes.

   Searching their corporate website for birthday party packages is not too helpful to the many moms searching. So I'm doing this out of compassion for mothers (because it's the mothers who usually prepare for this) who have to go out to the branch just to get ballpark figures and details.
  The party themes listed are not updated, there are no rates, and no contact numbers for branches.  So, here is some price information about the current packages in this branch :

   Themes aside from Ronald and the Gang:   Php 3,000
            Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
            Disney Princesses
            Toy Story
    Themes include gifts, invitation cards, party hats, traymats, balloons, giveaways, game prizes, a character appearance (choose between Baby Ronald and Birdie)

    Food packages (minimum 30 pax):
            1. Php 135   (with toy)
            2. Php 150  (with toy)
            3. Php  160 (with toy)
            4. Php 155

    There's also a "birthday partipid" promo until June 15, 2011, with freebies for food bills beginning at Php 5,000.
            Director's Chair, Pinata and Inflatable Bouncer

     Unlike Jollibee however, this McDonald's branch does not have a lunch hour party schedule.  The party times are 9-10:30 am, 1-2:30pm, 3-4:30pm and 5-6:30pm.

Cuartel de Sto. Domingo

    I didn't post the wrong photo. This is right past Crown Asia's Valenza Italian inspired village, and the area is Bgy. Sto. Domingo.  The Special Action Forces Training camp of the Philippine National Police, is here.  Fort Sto. Domingo sounds so familiar, but it took time before I realized the Cuartel de Sto. Domingo was most likely in that barangay, and not in the old bayan ng Sta. Rosa. I don't know why I had assumed it was in the other side--the Balibago, Tagapo sides where the city hall is located.   

     Even before this barangay, is Bgy. Don Jose, which covers the area of the Laguna Technopark, Paseo de Sta. Rosa and many small villages.  Both barangays have their metal arches marking the entrance to the barangays, on the right side of the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay national highway.  Again, I dislike saying negative things sana, but I have to note that both barangay's roads are dirt roads.  It is sadder to see this in the Bgy. Don Jose, because this road is between Technopark tenants such as Panasonic.  I mean, it's supposed to be a World-class city now, this Sta. Rosa, but I guess that just means that it is host to such corporations. 

    Anyway, I digress.  I had seen just one old b/w pic of the cuartel online.  Google it now, and let me know if you find new information and pics, as there is really just now. Now everywhere I've lived, I have been interested in what has gone before.  I creep myself out trying to imagine exactly what went on in the land I am standing on.  In Makati's Bgy. Guadalupe Viejo and Poblacion, I would imagine natives by the Pasig river...but it was frustrating as I could not find any stories nor sketches of such scenes.  I wondered what could be found by digging along those banks.  The scant info I got mentioned that the entrance steps of the Nuestra Senora de Gracia used to reach all the way down to the river!

   Ayayay, here I go again going off on another topic...

   Back to that boring pic of a billboard. There is a road right in front of it, and that leads to the training camp's gate.  The men guarding it were very polite, explaining that no visitors are allowed to enter unless perhaps sponsored/led by the barangay captain, or a PNP official, or some such authority.  Neither have there been field trips to the place.  Here are photos of the cuartel circa 1800 and 2000, that I took at the Museum of Sta. Rosa:

 
   They're just ruins, I know, but very important and interesting.  This land people have been moving to, buying new houses and lots, once saw battle! I still can't believe these artifacts dug up from the cuartel, were just sitting by the museum door with no case nor cordon.  I mean, some nut could just take a fancy to them.

     You will not miss the Crown Asia Valenza Italian village...it right across Nuvali,too.  After these, you'll get to "Japanese corn" vendors lined up on the sidewalks on weekends.  This is Bgy. Sto. Domingo, which I imagine, is getting "world-class" too anyway with all the new developments.  It is still more special this way, I think:

   Hard to imagine just over a decade ago--well around 1995, 1996...when we began taking this route toward Tagaytay, we were actually afraid of passing here in the evening.  We would take the old way, the one that comes out to Cavite.
This Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay highway was dimly lit back then, and it was common knowledge that "salvaged" victims were dumped here.  I know this to be true---I have a cousin whose car was carjacked on their way out of NAIA (it happened on the way from the Pasig area to Libis, the same old modus operandi) and they were then dropped off in Sta. Rosa. They were unhurt, but their driver sustained a gunshot wound on the foot.  They hailed a tricycle home.  Even before then, we had been warned to avoid this route once it got dark. 

   What is it with me today, this is going everywhere but the cuartel. Well, that's just it. We can't even visit the cuartel until some sort of agreement is reached between the PNP and the local government.   Bet most of the people living here don't even realize the historical aspect of this land.  It would give it so much more significance and interest to know. I mean, the newness of places like Nuvali, the kitsch of Georgia model showrooms and the commercial Paseo can just be so...blah sometimes.  There are people out there who would appreciate the ruins.  And I think our children ought to.