Hot Pandesal with Reno Liver Spread & Dari Creme

I love Hot Pandesal.

When I was a kid, Hot Pandesal was always paired with Reno Liver Spread or Dari Creme. For the 30-somethings and up, this statement brings back a lot of memories.

I remember waking up at 5 in the morning to jog with my parents along Reposo Street from our small apartment in Taguig Street in Santiago Village, Makati City. My main motivation was not the exercise. It was going to the bakery along Reposo Street and buy Hot Pandesal.

My mom always joked that I'd fill my little hands with all the pandesal I could get hold of. During those times, palaman was a luxury. So if there was Reno, that was heaven. Ah, there will be no other liver spread for me other than Reno! As for the butter or margarine, Dari Creme was considered bootleg. My dad worked for San Miguel Corporation so all products at home had to be. Anchor Butter or Magnolia Butter was our staple. We'd have Dari Creme or Queensland butter once in awhile. :)

Reno and Dari Creme are part of Generation X...the so-called Martial Law babies.

As everyone in my generation would say, life was so simple then. Not much complications. Staying home was boring. Playing out in the streets till the Meralco lamps lit at 6 in the evening was the in-thing. No Internet or cellphones. We'd go to the libraries and study. I'd borrow Hardy Boys books and be part of the detective squad. In school, I'd be playing tex or cops and robbers.

Game-and-Watch or Atari were luxuries for the well-off kids. I'd be out in the basketball courts or in street courts challenging for limahan and win a Litro of Coke. We'd bike all-day or play tumbang-preso, pepsi-seven-up, piko, siyato, or patintero. For me, those days were blissful.

So there. On this lazy Sunday morning, as I have my breakfast with bread spread with Reno, and the other with Dari Creme (now, in Lite), I get happy flashbacks of my childhood. I feel so blessed that I've seen happier days. I may have more money in my pockets today, but I had less worries then. I come to realize that especially today, peace and happiness are priceless.

Thank you, Reno and Dari Creme -- you made my day! :)


(homer nievera)

An Authentic Irish Pub Opens in Paranaque City

You won't miss it.

Mulligan's, an authentic Irish Pub, has a distinct look. Having just opened yesterday in Aguirre Avenue, BF Paranaque, the place was almost packed by 9pm tonight -- it's second day in business.

Mulligan's reminds me of Murphy's, a favorite habitue of expats in Makati's Legaspi Village. The beers are definitely European and abundant in varieties. There's even a beer-all-you-can promo for 295 pesos from 5-8pm. No service charge on drinks, but there's 10% on food. And for those like us who drink lots of water, you'll have to buy mineral water as they don't serve complimentary water. They don't have iced tea either. Too bad.

The food is a mix of Irish, Euro-fusion and Filipino -- for those like my kids who'd always look for Pinoy classics. We ordered Salpicado, Calamares. chicken wings, all-meat pizza, french fries, mashed potato and onion soup. Everything was superb! Oh, and the pizza was baked from a brick oven on top of a small trunk of burning wood -- pugon-style. Sarap!

However, despite having been in the restaurant business for a long time, service was slow. Besides having no complimentary water (c'mon, it only costs 100 pesos for three 5-gallon bottles!), there was no official receipt and no credit card available. Cash basis only. No one told us until we asked when it was payment time. I hope they brief the staff well next time. Because dining is about total experience. Even if the food was great and the experience wasn't, it will be hard to bring back customers.

Chicken Wings & Salpicado:









Mashed Potato & French Fries:









All-meat Pizza & Onion Soup:









Calamares and the Pizza Brick Oven:

Baliwag Lechon and KTV: Perfect at Cafe Havana!

Baliwag is lechon manok. Period. Wrong.

There are three Baliwags in in BF Homes Village in Parañaque City. Two sell lechon manok and the other pata. Three are along Aguirre Avenue. One of these is a Baliwag restaurant where besides serving the best lechon manok ever (!), they also run a full-service restaurant. What's more, they have a family KTV called Cafe Havana. I bet many of you didn't know that huh? :)

We have been regular customers of the restaurant for about three years now. But we haven't been to the family KTV until recently when after attending a Friendster rock concert at Festival Supermall in Alabang, the kids and their cousins decided to do some singing themselves.

So there we went to Cafe Havana. The place is like your usual family KTV excpet that it's more cozy and doesn't smell like a "pugon" due to cigarette smoke. I guess the ventilation was really quite good. On weekends, you have to come a bit early since many frequent the place on Fridays and Saturdays. You'd think that the lots of cars parked just go to Baliwag Restaurant to eat. But many would move to Cafe Havana (just right beside the resto) and stay till 2am.

There were 7 of us. We were charged 50 pesos per head per hour, non-consumable. We spent a total of PhP 1,500 for food, drinks (including a pitcher tequila and 2 beers) and tips for a two-hour session. Not bad eh?

So the next time you're thinking of doing some videoke in the area of Parañaque, Las Piñas, or Alabang, try visiting Cafe Havana. Go for a cheap fiesta-type of a dinner at the Baliwag resto first, then belt your heart out after. It's worth the experience.

The Place to Be: South of the Metropolis

Thirty five years.

That's how long I have lived in the southern suburbs of Metro Manila. I live in a middle-class suburb with my family. We live in the same village as that of my parents, in-laws and relatives. The south is what molded me. This is the same place where my kids, now all teen-agers, have taken their roots.

Our village is accessible via three main arteries: SLEX Sucat exit, Ninoy Aquino Avenue, and the Coastal Road. We also have three village entrances: Sucat road in Paranaque City, Naga Road in Las Pinas City, and the C5 extension also in Las Pinas. Around us are the malls of SM (there are four branches nearby), Ayala, Festival, and Starmall. In the vicinity are lots of schools, colleges, a university and major southern hospitals. The nightlife is as vibrant as shopping. If you're in the mid-to-high socio-economic class, you must be living in the south. Everything is here.

By my definition, the south metro includes: Paranaque, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas. Some include Quezon. So, once you take the SLEX, you're in for a happy road trip to the south. A leisurely drive for a day with lots of stop-overs will surely take you to as far as Batangas City or its nearby towns and beaches. If you take the Aguinaldo highway, you'll pass by Cavite's coastal towns and go up the mountain city of Tagaytay.

The past fifteen years has seen full throttle development in the south. Mostly brought about by economic zones in Cavite and Laguna, spurring residential and commercial center develpment. Senator Manny Villar's Camella Homes sparked the boom in low-cost housing in the south. So it's no wonder the major highways he has lobbied to be built passed through or connected his companies' real estate holdings. Nothing personal. It's purely business. I don't complain. The guy reimbursed me in full when I had my deposit for a property in Molino, Cavite refunded. Now that's another story to tell.

So finally, after many years in this beloved suburb, I shall be doing a chronicle of the happenings -- good or bad -- down south. There are a lot of places and happenings I could have written about in years past. For being a busy bee, I just couldn't find the time. But anytime's a good time to start. I'm using my vacation leave to go back to writing. So here goes...till next time!