Travel notes, food finds, and everyday stories.
After our Sunday gym session, one of my buddies started talking about bulalo. Not in a casual, maybe-later kind of way, but in the specific, single-minded way you crave something after you’ve just burned through a workout and your body is asking for exactly one thing. There were three of us, including a friend...
There’s a particular kind of hunger that hits after a Sunday long run, the kind where your legs are heavy but your stomach is louder than your legs. That’s usually when we find ourselves pulling up to Pancit Cabagan Batil Patong along San Vicente Road in Urdaneta City, still in our running clothes, still...
There’s a version of buko pie that tries too hard. Heavy on condensed milk, drowning the coconut in sugar until you can barely taste what made you order it in the first place. Cabuyao Original Buko Roll Bakery’s Classic Buko Pie is not that pie. At ₱250 for a whole pie, this one leans...
There’s a specific kind of letdown that comes from paying more for less, and that’s exactly what happened with this buko pie. I went in expecting the classic combination of tender coconut meat and buttery crust, the kind that makes buko pie worth seeking out in the first place. What I got instead was...
When I was a kid, one of the best parts of going to Dagupan was knowing we’d stop by Pedritos. I’d get excited the moment I knew we were headed that way, because it meant I was getting a pineapple twist. Soft, chewy bread wrapped around a pineapple jam filling that was sweet with...
Getting a group of elementary classmates together for dinner sounds simple until you actually try to plan it. Everyone’s scattered across the city now, some with kids, some with odd work schedules, and the group chat had been going in circles for weeks with no one committing to a place. It took one friend...
It was a warm afternoon when we arrived in Hoi An—a perfect time to wander through the Ancient Town, explore the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge, Tan Ky ancestral house, and Phuc Kien Assembly Hall. By night, we had planned to catch the colorful lights dancing on the boats along the Hoai River. But the...