The Undisclosed Location

When November was about to end, I looked at the December calendar to up our PT schedules. I was surprised to see a note for our anniversary. It just said, "Undisclosed location". I recognized Sweetie's handwriting and asked him where were we going?

I tried to crack the surprise the past few weeks, but he didn't give in. The day before he just told us we'll leave at 10 and don't wear shorts. I first thought we were going to Bulacan since Sweetie wants to try the Skyway. I also couldn't think of a place to visit there.  

Anyway, he mentioned we were going north. I immediately thought about Azadore. It's the only place up north that's on my bucket list. I kept quiet until we reached the restaurant and when I saw the resto name, I exclaimed, "I guessed right!"

I was so ecstatic because I've always wanted to dine at Azadore. It's been awhile also since I had Spanish cuisine, so I ordered paella and lengua*. Miggy got fish and chips and Sweetie got lasagna. We just shared a plate of churros for dessert since we were all so full already. The food was heavenly and I was happy we had some leftovers to bring home.

The other undisclosed location was the church where we tied the know. I blogger about it last Friday (check it out here). Ahh, it was a wonderful day to have good food and nourish our soul too. 

Thank you Sweetie for planning an amazing day for our family. Love you both forever!

*Last time I had lengua was when Titay made it many, many years ago.

#BeKind #StaySafe

16 Years

We are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary today. It just seems like yesterday I was walking down the aisle to the altar with my parents.

It was a memorable day with our families and friends. Sweetie surprised me today and brought me and Miggy back to where our family officially started. 

It was surreal to visit Mary the Queen church again after 16 years. There were a lot of changes in the church, but that didn't matter because I felt like we were there again on our wedding day.

The past 16 years has been filled with memorable moments. We've had highs and lows, happy and sad times, and we've weathered all the challenges with love, respect, trust and faith. 

While praying at the church, I was just grateful for Lord for providing all the love and care for our family. Thank you Papa God <3

#BeKind #StaySafe

Celebrating Our 14th Anniversary

Put away our aprons today, closed the kitchen from any cooking to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. That meant dressing up since we were going to dine out. We used the opportunity to take our Christmas family photo. Ended up a bit haphazard since we were rushing to leave for our lunch reservation. We'll just do it again for New Year, haha. 

Since on my birthday we tried Chef Tatung's Private Dining, I discovered he had a resto at BGC, Lore Manila. It's nearer and you can order from the menu (you can also opt for the course meal, but it's good if you're a bigger group). Traffic was light, so we arrived in just 20 minutes. Parking was very easy too and we found a PWD spot. Soon enough we were ushered to our reserved table. 

I was excited to try Lore Manila since they have Davao Kinilaw. I was hoping it would be the same as the one they served in Antipolo. We chose several dishes. Each dish is good to share 2 to 3 people. To break our fast we had Molo soup first. It was Miggy's first time to try it. I told him we used to have it often at home waaaay back. He liked it and I told him we should try to cook it next year. 

We also ordered Humba Cebuana, Five Spice Fried Chicken with Haw flakes sauce, and Grilled Bangus with Salsa. The boys loved the fried chicken. I liked it with the haw flakes sauce since it reminded me of my childhood. Mom always bought haw flakes for me since she worked in Binondo (the original PNB HQ). I also liked the humba since it wasn't too sweet and the meat was very tasty. Of course, we had Tatung's Fried Rice to match all the dishes.

One thing very interesting were the mocktails we ordered. I had ube macapuno, Sweetie got the ginger tea and Miggy had the strawberry-pineapple drink. They were very tasty and I think I got full quickly because the ube drink was quite heavy. It's delicious though, like drinking ice cream, haha. 

Well, we ended up skipping dessert since we were very full already. We enjoyed our meal at Lore Manila. The restaurant was a nice place. You can expect to eat good food with more than enough servings. We'll come back for another occasion (well we rarely go out anyway, haha). If you want to experience a higher level of Chef Tatung's fantastic dishes, try the private dining option (I have a vlog here). 

After our gastronomic dining experience, we walked around the mall and had coffee. Met up briefly with a friend and then did some errands (got water filter + a few missing groceries + gas). We don't like going out a lot, so we pack things in whenever we step out. Good thing traffic was light and we were home by sundown. 

We skipped gifts this year (also for Christmas). Well, we didn't have time and we were too frazzled because of November's misadventure, hahaha. We're also in the middle of decluttering so it didn't make sense to add more stuff. We'll just do it randomly in the next few weeks maybe. We're just happy to be together and enjoy it by eating good food. 

Happy Anniversary Sweetie and Miggy. Love you both forever!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Date Day

We finally went out today to do some groceries and we managed to squeeze in some time to celebrate our anniversary. Oh boy, we didn't expect there would be so many cars parked at Landers. It was still a comfortable crowd inside since the Superstore is huge! 

We first had some breakfast. Sat by the window to be extra socially distant to other diners. We enjoyed the sunlight shining through the windows. It wasn't warm at all plus we got free vitamin D. After breakfast we walked through the store for 2 hours. I'm surprised myself we took that long. I think that's what happens when you don't have a grocery list! Skipped buying veggies because they were so expensive! We'll just buy at a nearby veggie stall.

We burnt off our breakfast while walking around the store, so we were hungry by the time we finished. Headed to West Gate for late lunch and chanced upon Conti's upon entering the area. Parking was also available and I didn't have energy to walk far anymore haha. Turned out great since we haven't eaten at Conti's resto for (probably) more than six years. We finally got the chance to eat salmon! (How come they're so horridly expensive here in the grocery???). 

It was a great meal and rare time to be out haha. You truly appreciate things more when you rarely go out. Still need to be careful, so we're back to hibernating again. Tomorrow is another day to clean and organize the kitchen, haha.

Have an awesome hump day tomorrow!

#BeKind #StaySafe