An Extraordinary Experience at X/O Philippines

I've been trying to put off this post till I get some pics to go with it but since I can't find anything about X/O Philippines on the net except for this one Inquirer article I'm posting anyway. If you want to see the food then just visit the place yourself. Sorry!

The last time my sister and I went out and watched a movie/concert together (U2 3D was great btw) we ate at Banana Leaf. The food at Banana Leaf was NOT spectacular nor the service great. We were doubly disappointed after riding the escalator up The Block at SM and saw the cool ambiance of X/O Philippines and wished we'd dined there instead. Anyway a couple of weeks back Mark, Jamuel, Gemma, I and Sam decided to eat out and it truly was an extraordinary experience for me for several reasons:

• The place was really nice. I looooved the chairs...at least on the outside part. The whole ambiance was pretty nice.
• The service was ok. The people were nice and though they didn't have the best service it was passable for a small and new restaurant.
• The food was truly extraordinary. I absolutely loved their take on the kare-kare. Kare-kare is almost always good but usually all you can say about it is that it is good. Their kare-kare was really innovative. All the ingredients was cooked and served separately with the bowl of sauce on the side. Some of the veggies were fried while some were simply either blanched or steamed (not sure which). The pork was the best part with the ribs roasted and spiced with slat and some other stuff I do not know what. It was delicious. The rest of the food was equally good although the tapa tips was a bit too tasty, I guess it was a bit overpowering though only because we didn't eat it with the bread and the buts, which it was supposed to go with (we ordered the appetizer last...LOL). The Bicol express would also satisfy any true Bicolano although you'd better be careful with the sigarilyas (winged beans) because as Jamu found out too late some of the sigarilyas were actually very hot green peppers.
• And last but not the least, the most extraordinary part of the meal for me was that the leg of the chair I was sitting on broke and I fell in slow motion... It wasn't too embarrassing since there was only one other table with people but it still made me lose my appetite...but only for a few minutes. No, I'm not yet that heavy but the leg was already ready to give. We ended up having one free dessert (yummy buko pandan) but as my sister pointed out I ended up spending more for the BENGAY I needed to ease the muscle pain the next day. Hmmm. Should have asked for BENGAY instead of dessert. If anyone asks me though I'm willing to go back to try their other dishes though I fell flat on my butt and all that, which says a lot about how much I enjoyed the food.
  

10 Things I Love That Starts with K

I visited this blog a few days back and liked the meme. Anyway though I didn't know the blogger I asked Evil Genius for a letter anyway. If you read this meme and want your own letter just tell me.

My only problem with this meme is that I can't think of much stuff that starts with the letter K. As I try to enumerate stuff I love I find myself of thinking about everything that starts with any letter except K. Oh well, after much thinking a few peeks at the dictionary here's what I ended up with.

1. Kisses/Kissing - I like kissing Mark be it a simple kiss on the cheek or the stuff my mom would hate to see. I like kissing Sam's cheeks, chin, nose, armpits, and butt. I like getting kisses from small kids as their parents force them to kiss me their ninang or tita. Kisses and hugs are the best. xoxoxo
2. Kisses - Hersheys Kisses are great. I like all kinds but the white ones and those with almonds inside are my favorite. I loooove chocolates!

3. Kites - I love it when I see a kite flying high. It brings back childhood memories. I can still remember trying to "help" my dad build this big kite for our neighborhood's kite flying contest. I don't even remember if it flew but I do remember thinking it was the best looking kite of all. It probably wasn't but it doesn't matter. I miss being a kid.

4. Kris Kingle - I used to not like Kris Kingles that much because I hated seeing people disappointed with the gifts they bring home. But lately my enthusiasm has come back thanks to the Christmas Party we attended at the Manasan's last year. I don't know if there's any formal name for the modified kris kingle where you get to swap gifts and strategize. I did sleep through the actual exchange of gifts but Mark told me all about it and we played it with my family during New Year celebration. It makes kris kingle so much fun. It's not just about the gifts anymore but the game too.

5. Kitchen - Mark and I ate here once for a spur of the moment date. The food is good. The ambience nice (it's not too stuffy and pretentious there) although you can't slouch much since the seat are benches with no backrests. They use recycled paper for their placemats and menu. The price is definitely more expensive than LB food but not outrageous. The plates are big. The serving not too big but very filling. I'd like to go back and sample more of their food. The Kitchen I'm talking about is located in Greenbelt (I have no idea which part of Greenbelt but it's near the garden) couldn't find their website so I can't point you guys to it. Sorry.

6. Klingons ... and Star Trek Books. Note I said books. I don't watch the series nor the movies but the books are great. I know they're based on the scripts and the show itself but I was exposed to the books first and I like imagining the stuff better than watching it. Truth be told I like Vulcans a lot better than Klingons too. I even really wanted to be Vulcan before or at least be as logical as they are.

7. Katherine Kurtz - She's not the best fantasy writer but her Deryni Chronicles first exposed me to the wonders of fantasy novels. We still haven't completed our collection since her books are hard to find. We just find them in old book shops and in book sales. Cool fact: A person's Deryni powers are actually not magical in nature but a result of genes.

8. Ketchup - Ketchup is good. Just make sure it's tomato ketchup and not banana. I hate sweet ketchup. Ketchup is supposed to be sour not sweet. Get sugar if you want something sweet.


9. Kids - I love well-mannered kids. I love witty kids. I love the way kids say the darnedest things. I love having kids around on social gatherings because I always have someone to talk to when I get left out or anxious. As for bratty kids or extremely hyper ones I don't love them but I still generally like them.

10. Kind people - Random acts of kindess whether from friends or strangers just amaze me. Without kind people I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten through a lot of difficult situations. Thank you to all the kind people who gave me their seat on the MRT, who carried my bags for me, who gave me change, who offered a ride, who uttered a prayer, and who smiled back when I smiled at them.

Not so Quickie

Smart Bro Fiasco

I have internet again! Will need to test it though so I want to post before something goes wrong again. I should be posting something for work as a quickie but my blog's a bit more important right now. ;-)

Right after I posted my last entry I gave Sam his milk and when I returned after 30 mins no more internet. So I actually ended up working a bit on Feb 14 though I didn't work when Mark got home. Besides the internet has still been utterly horrible the entire week. Ugh!

*************

Valentine's Night

On a lighter note Mark and I decided to spend the night at home watching a movie and eating pizza. Although I waited so long for the take-out pizza from Pizza Hut LB to arrive (there were just too many customers) it was worth it because they made a mistake with my free pizza (love my Palm Card). Instead of giving me a Veggie Lovers with cheesy volcano they gave me a Super Supreme with cheesy volcano for free instead. I also got to chat with this girl who as never ordered from Pizza Hut and she copied my order except that she threw in some pasta combo. I now remember how I love chatting up strangers and making acquaintance. It feels nice to be pleasant and human. Little town mentality can be fun.

Thanks to Cherry, I finally watched Memoirs of a Geisha from beginning to end. Mark fell asleep though, which he always does when we watch movies at night. Even if he did am pretty happy because he actually brought up the topic of semi-planning about the Valentine's Day before I did. He also left his office as early as he really could. Maybe by the time we're sixty Mark will learn to be the most romantic and thoughtful guy in the world. I can wait though...It should be fun seeing how much we've changed yet stayed the same by the time we're sixty years old. I still do shudder at the thought of growing old though...

*************

Family Day Out

Our little family went out to LB today. Mark tutored a sister of his old friend because she isn't doing well in her Physics 3. Sam and I for the most part didn't do anything but wait outside St Therese dorm. I was so sleppy but Sam enjoyed being pushed around in his stroller since it was pretty breezy. After the tutorials we headed on to MetroHair where we met up with Nikki and Kei. Kei got her hair treated, Mark got his hair trimmed, and so did Sam. Kei took some pictures with her phone so I'll be posting some pics after I ask her for some copies. We ate at Bonito's and had a pretty good time eating and just chatting. There's nothing like a queit time with old friends to relax you. Anyway I looooved my spicy chicken wings. Next time you go to LB try the spicy chicken wings at Bonito's.

Today was a very tiring day for me (try lugging Sam around and you'll understand why) but it was a day well spent. I enjoyed going out and doing nothing much for a change. Sam seemed to have enjoyed the day too. Even on the way home at around 10pm he was still squirming in the tricycle very excited. We should go out on weekends more often.