Travels – Page 2 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

SARSA

Hello Friends! One of the restaurants we wanted to try during our Vacation in Manila was the SARSA Kitchen (+Bar). Chef JP (I guess one of the owners too) is always a guest on KrisTV (one of my favorite morning shows!) and his recipes always look so good. So when my family finalized our Philippines trip, dining at Sarsa was a must! I was looking forward to it! The place was big and full, luckily we didn’t have to wait for a long time. Before we we’re even seated, the receptionist already asked us if we can order ahead because cooking and preparation time can be 20-30 minutes. The service was great! You can really tell that the waiters and staff are attentive to their customers and the service was quick ( so rare in most Philippine restaurants, based on our experience). I can’t say that about their food though. Honestly, I was disappointed with the majority of what we ordered. Their mango shake was another story! Oh My! The hubs and myself wanted a mango shake and were looking forward to having a fresh, sweet mango shake to enjoy with our lunch. The mango tasted like it was from a bottle of mango juice (maybe Gina brand) and they put in a blender, and there you go, your Shake! I can’t believe Chef JP would allow that to be in his restaurant. Oh Well! Anyways, it was still a good time with my family. We will probably still go back and try their other dishes, although we ordered most of their “best in town” type of food, so we’ll see.

SARSA (MOA)

Their Famous sisig (this was good)

Sinuglaw (a big disappointment); look at how tiny their pork belly is.

Big disappointment in their mango shake (The yellow one), the green mango was OK!

Kinilaw

The Pinakbet, another disappointing dish (I think they just blanch or steam the veggies then coated it with sauce). The veggies we’re not full of pinakbet flavor!

Tortang talong with kesong puti(too much breading)

Kare-kare sauce

Kare-kare

Crispy pata

Another sisig

Sizzling Kansi (this was good)

Hyatt City of Dreams Manila

Hi Friends! After our HK trip my family decided to stay 5 days in Manila just to relax for a bit. Our HK trip was very busy, with something always going on everyday. So we were all looking forward to this time because there’s no “agenda”. We planned to just swim, eat, relax and bond as a family. With this in mind, my family decided to check in at the Hyatt City of Dreams Manila Hotel. It’s a luxurious 5 star hotel (I think). It just opened last year so everything was still new. The rooms were spacious, free wifi, staff was helpful and friendly. It’s a hotel casino (so you can gamble if you want but I never went in the casino area). The pool is what we liked the most (so relaxing). My nephews loved every second swimming in the pool. What I like about this hotel is the location too. It was close enough to the airport and Mall Of Asia (largest mall/retail place in the Philippines) so we’re able to try restaurants like SARSA. Zach and my sisters had a chance to eat at some of the hotel’s restaurants but they thought the food was OK, and nothing to rave about. I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures in the hotel because to be honest the family was just lounging at the pool most of the time (obviously with the amount of pool pics I put here), then we ate out or spent time at the mall. If my family will return to Manila we will for sure stay at the Hyatt or one of its sister hotels again.

Hi Kram!

Tita Chack, Krammy, Eboy enjoying the pool!

Kuya!

Hello that’s me!

Sisters and our nephews

Relaxing sisters

Tita Till and nephews

Tita Kiss and nephews kram and crev

Mom and her grandkids

We had the pool to ourselves most of the time!

Crevy and Krammy (I asked them to jump at the same time and this is what happened! lol

Another try!

EBoy loved the pool! He said it’s his favorite part of the hotel.

I’m not sure what EBoy is trying to do here!HA

Someone is ready to go back to the hotel room!

One afternoon we skipped the pool and watched the UAAP game between Ateneo blue eagles vs NU bulldogs! The game was so crazy, with two overtimes. Our team won so that made us happy! GO BLUE EAGLES!

On the way to get a ride to Smart Araneta Coliseum

Bad photo of my brother and the boys!

What We Ate: HK edition!

Hello Friends! I just wanted to post what we ate on our vacation in Hong Kong. This is mostly pictures because I love food pictures, and also I don’t understand the Chinese/mandarin language so there’s no way I can translate food descriptions. To be honest, we encountered quite the language barrier during our trip too so ordering was kinda difficult, but the food was great! For the first time in my life, I had fried frogs! It was flavorful (similar to chicken) but kinda boney in my opinion. My sisters tried it too but they didn’t like it. One thing I like to do when traveling is try new food that we can’t get at home.

Plane food!

I didn’t care so much for our food during our 12 hour flight.

Fresh fruits on the streets of Hong KONG

Braised Pork Belly that Zach finds really tasty!

Deep Fried Snapper with bitter melon!

Pork Ribs!

Vietnamese Pork Chop style..Everybody loved this dish

Starbucks and Dimsum! We had Starbucks everyday on this Vacation:) I love me some starbucks!

Zach assembling our take out Chinese food! This is for the whole family (not just for the two of us).

Deep Fried fish and Braised pork belly (one of my fave meal during the vacation)

After Dinner Pic outside the restaurant!

Meat galore just outside on the street!

This meal right here made Zach sick because of the price! Rice and beef stew (of some sort) was close to US $25..HA

Roaming around the night market!

After checking out their night market, we got hungry so off to one of the restaurants that served seafood. I don’t remember the name of the place but it was crowded and we thought it must be good. The food was great, the service not so much.

Krammy not impressed..hehe

Fried Frog!

Ate and I at a restaurant at the Peak!

DisneyLand Lunch

Lunch at IFC mall! The place was really good too.

Disneyland, Hong Kong

Disneyland was the main reason why we wanted to visit Hong Kong. We wanted to bring my nephews there. They’re at the age where they can appreciate theme parks. My sisters and I have been to Disneyland HK 10 years ago, the first year they opened. It was the first Disneyland I’ve been to. It was such a magical experience for us. In my opinion, your first Disney trip will always be special:) After being here in the States for almost 8 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit some theme parks, Disney CA included, and I can say that Disneyland HK is my least favorite one (I’ve never been to Disney Paris / Tokyo) so far from my experience. The castle was so small in comparison to other Disney parks. The food was OK (close to terrible IMO). The shows were not as good as Disney CA (especially the Lion King; it was disappointing). We even skipped the Frozen show because we prioritized the Mystic Manor ride (which was worth it for us). The rides were great! We loved Space Mountain, Mystic Manor, RC Racer, and everybody’s favorite the Grizzly Gulch (except my mom, she opted out). My nephews enjoyed the Go Cart thing but had to wait for an hour just to get in. Both the parades and the fireworks didn’t disappoint! It was a tiring day for everybody but seeing the faces of our nephews made it all worth while:) Personally, I have no desire to go back to this Disney park, but for my nephews I would gladly do it again!

Naay parade mga sisterets, busy ba sa selfie!hahaa

Kissy faces!

It’s a small world ride! This is a must when you’re in Disneyland.

Krammy is getting tired already!

So he was really happy that Uncle Zach gave him a shoulder ride!

Going back to the hotel now after a long, fun tiring day!

Big Bus Tour, Hong Kong!

Hello Friends! On our third full day in Hong Kong my family decided to do the Big Bus tour to see the HK as we were limited in time and we wanted to check out the city and other touristy places with less hassle. The tour bus was perfect in our opinion. The sisters and I were a little worried that the bus would have lots of issues (base on some reviews), but thankfully we had a good experience and found the tour comfortable. Our Tour included the Peak Tram, Star Ferry/Harbour tour, Hongkong Island, Kowloon; boat tour around Aberdeen Harbour (our boat driver was very accommodating to us / offering to take pictures without us asking him!) now that is customer service:)

There’s probably nothing special about the tour bus in general but I know my family, especially my nephews, loved being in the top part of the double decker open bus. They don’t have this in the Philippines (not in our our city) so it was neat to see them experience HK this way. If you want a comfortable sight seeing experience with limited time, I would recommend this tour. I had such a wonderful time with my family:)

The Tram was crowded as expected!

Tram Selfie!

Selfie with my siblings!

HA! this picture makes me laugh..Zach likes to take candid pics thus our faces looks funny in this! #reallife

All the Titas took pictures and they don’t know where to look!

The look on my nephews faces says they’re not impressed!

Mama!

Here comes the Bus!

About to watch the Symphony of Lights (It was Ok for us, nothing special)

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Hello Everyone! I Hope you’re all having a good weekend. We’re still recovering at home from our nasty colds and annoying coughs. I just wanted to share our Ocean Park adventures with family during our 2 weeks vacation. Me and my sisters visited this park 10 years ago, we had a great memory about our experience thus we wanted to visit it again so the rest of the family can see what it’s all about.

The Park is so big that I don’t think we were able to see the whole place. We had to prioritize what shows and places we wanted to see because we didn’t have a lot of time and also their cable car was not working that day (what a bummer). Too bad also that my nephews were too short for a lot of the rides. Maybe next time we visit that won’t be a problem!:)

Here’s a description of the Ocean Park, Hong Kong (source: wikipedia): Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong.

Bus ride going to Ocean Park!

I love this picture of my Nephew Krammy, he was laughing at himself while trying this hat (miss you Kram)!

Eboy (another Nephew) miss you Eb!

I’m the only one looking at the camera?

Lazy and sleepy Panda!

About to watch the Dolphin and Seal show ( I was disappointed honestly, I feel like the show 10 years ago was so much better)

Lunch at Terrace Cafe (disappointed at how expensive the food was yet the quality was mediocre; I guess you’re paying the view of the restaurant)

Excuse my double chin! Bad Angle! HA..

After Lunch, we’re off to the Jellyfish museum which was very cool and one of my fave in the Park.

Candid picture of my Mom, sis, and nephew! They were laughing at my older sister while Zach was giving her a hard time on one of the rides they took.

I forgot the name of this ride, it was fun watching my family act like crazy kids..

Back From Vacation!

Hello Friends! I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks because we went to visit my family back in the Philippines. We spent 5 days in Hong Kong, 5 days in Manila (Philippines) and another 5 days in my hometown CDO (Cagayan De Oro). We just got back early Thursday. We got sick on our last few days and are still recovering till now. We had so much fun spending time with family and friends Lots of memories were made for sure! Time flies so fast whenever you are having fun. We are so grateful that we were able to do this vacation (debt free!) and looking forward to our next adventures with family! Thank You Lord:)

We had Seattle to Taipei to HK trip

Up early in HK looking for starbucks and some dimsum for breakfast! Excuse our faces #hagardoversoza

with Mama and Zach;HK public transport (MTR) is one of the best in the world.

Dog Parking?

Zach enjoyed durian at our house in CDO. One of the creamiest durians ever!

My Mom made sure we had Lechon once a week we were there. The best lechon for us.

After dinner at this yummy and very affordable local Restaurant!

Gotta visit Ocean Park when you find yourself in HK

Lunch at the Terrace Cafe; expensive but OK food (the view is great though)

we checked their night market (i forgot the name)

Big Bus tour of the city

The Peak

The Sampan Boat tour!

Symphony of Lights night time show

Disneyland Hong Kong

My Nephews enjoying the Pool at Hyatt City of Dreams

Swimming at Duka Bay with cousins

with our Cousins and Auntie (my mom side of the family)

Me swimming at Luxe Hotel in my hometown.

Lunch with my friends!

Westport and Ocean Shores, WA

Hello, Everyone! Last Friday morning we went to Westport (together with my Hubs family and our doggies) and Ocean shores for some family bonding (we got back yesterday afternoon). We’ve been wanting to do this for a while now because we wanted to bring the doggies to the Ocean and get some fresh seafood. Zach spent a lot of time at the Ocean during summer vacations growing up and they usually stayed at the Discovery Inn (sadly it’s in the process of renovation) and it’s not the same place anymore.

We did the usual things like go to Brady’s oysters for smoke seafood, get fresh tuna belly at Westport, spent time in the Ocean (the doggies had the blast), played some games, had s’mores one night at the Ocean with deer watching us. We really liked our rental, spacious and was more than enough space for all of us. Hopefully this will be a yearly thing for the family:) *picture overload about to happen!

Westport

Going to buy tuna belly and loin (so fresh, they got it that morning)

This guy was preparing our Tuna Loin (so good when it’s so fresh)

Pictures of our condo:

Our bedroom

My In laws room

Lexy hanging out at Julias room

We had tuna belly,shrimp, steamed clams in white wine and bread! Delicious!

The face Riley and I make when it’s too hot and too loud because of the motorcycle show!

With my Dad In Law Phil!

The deer hang out with us while we had s’mores

Excuse my morning face!haha..preparing breakfast with my Mom In Law Kathy (she made pancakes, I did the bacon!)

Giada

One thing me and my sisters wanted to do in Vegas was to dine at Giada De Laurentii’s new restaurant in the Strip (Cromwell Hotel) because it got good reviews and personally I really like Giada. I usually watch her Food Network shows and I have 2 of her cookbooks. I even went to Costco when she had her cookbook released and I waited in line to get it signed. I’m sort of a fan! This is her first restaurant so I figured I might as well check it out. The atmosphere was really nice, we were seated at the window so we got a good view of the Bellagio fountain and the Strip.

It was a pricey dinner for what we had (I think, the Hubs kinda disagree!). The food was good but the servings were kinda small for the prices ( I guess we need to expect that in a fine dining place). Although the food was good, Zach was unlucky because he didn’t like his order. He got the lobster ravioli (the servers recommendation) and it was pathetic. I tasted the ravioli and I can’t believe Giada would allow that dish to be served in her restaurant. The pasta was too al dente and BLAND and the lobster was overcooked! I wouldn’t recommend their lobster ravioli. Despite Zach’s order, we had a good experience and the service was fast. We will most likely be back here if we happen to be in Vegas but we’ll just skip the raviolis 😉

Meat and Cheese platter! I love their Parmesan and Prisciutto — Meat and Cheese platter! I love their Parmesan and Prosciutto

She put her name everywhere, from plates to the placemats!

Lobster Ravioli (looks good but this was so BLAND)

Lemon SPaghetti with shrimps (this was good) — Lemon Spaghetti with shrimps (this was good)

There was a photobooth outside the restaurant but we didn't bother checking it out. — There was a photobooth outside the restaurant but we didn’t bother checking it out.

Vegas!

The Hubs and I just got back from Vegas 2 days ago to attend a family friends wedding. The Bride is my sister Cynthia’s SIL and they are like extended family to us. My other sister Rosell also attended so it was like a mini reunion for me and my sisters. It was such a fun wedding and so happy that Zach and I got to see Trisha and Shane (Bride and Groom) on their special day. Aside from the wedding, I’m glad we got to spend some time with my sisters doing “Vegas” thing like watching a show, having a nice dinner at Giada, and enjoying the pool at Caesars palace ( we stayed at the Hard Rock hotel too), buffet dinner at Bacchanal and Wicked spoon and experienced the HighRoller at the LINQ.

We are back at home now and I’m just resting because since we got home, I’m having a nasty cold and I’ve been pretty miserable since. The Hubs is taking care of me and Riley. I hope you’re all having a good weekend!

strolling around The Forum Shops with my sisters

Dinner at Wicked Spoon (Cosmopolitan Hotel)

Pretty Bride Trisha (her Bachelorette party)

great view during the Bachelorette Party (Cosmopolitan Hotel)

excuse my double chin! this was such a fun night celebrating the couple! — excuse my double chin! this was such a fun night as we celebrate the couple!

Pool time (Caesars Palace, I love this place)

enjoying the sun and relaxing at the Pool

great way to see the Vegas view at night

preparing for a group picture with the newly weds

Father of the Bride, Trisha, Brother of the Bride

My sis and her husband Chad (brother of the Bride)

Reception at the Palms — Reception at the Palm

I love this picture of my Brother in law Chad and his brother Landon! such a happy picture.

Congratulations to Trisha and Shane! You two are such a fun couple and we wish you a lifetime of Love and Happiness!