Thailand Shopping Haul

Good morning everyone! Last March 13 to 17, my parents and I went to Bangkok to attend the yearly VIV conference. It is actually the international platform of trade shows for the Feed to Meat industry in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Russia, India, China and Turkey. My parents have been bringing me along to attend VIV since I was in college whenever they do the conference in Kuala Lumpur, Vietnam and Bangkok. So this year, to my advantage, it was held in Thailand which is the country where I love to bargain shop the most! Without further ado, here's my lil shopping haul. :D

Lugang Cafe at Northeast Greenhills

For the past couple of months, there are only 3 restaurants we usually hold our Sunday family brunch at. These are Hai Kang Seafood Restaurant, Mann Hann and Lugang Cafe. The "holy" trio. lol. Last week was Lugang Cafe's turn. Even though the food serving here is small, the dishes are pretty cheap so we could order more food to sample.

Mamou at Serendra, Fort Bonifacio

When my achi and her family came back to Manila for a short visit, Mamou was her top restaurant of choice! Her husband, Ahya Adrian simply loves the steak at Mamou. At 8 in the morning, she called me up to instruct me to book a table for the 6pm seating at the Serendra branch. Everyone made sure to arrive hungry for a full fantastic meal ahead!

My Kitchen By Chef Chris at The Oasis

My dichi seldom visits our house. One reason would be is that she's super busy taking care of her two chikitings ( she's a proud hands-on mommy ) and another reason is she lives in the far far away land of Ortigas while our house is in Manila. So on those rare occasions she shows up at our house and after hanging out and playing with the kids at home, the entire family would have dinner at My Kitchen by Chef Chris. My dichi is in love with this restaurant and even when she was still helping out in Angeles, she would often request to dine at C' Italian at least once a week.

Hai Kang Seafood Restaurant at Greenhills, San Juan

Hai Kang Seafood Restaurant is becoming one of the family's favorites so when my dad's birthday came up, we all voted to celebrate it at Hai Kang. We just love how Hai Kang gives a new twist to old Chinese favorites. My dichi did all the menu planning because she and her family always dine here every Sunday.

Abe's Farm at Magalang, Pampanga

Last Black Saturday, Rin-Rin's friends went to visit us in Angeles. Whenever friends and relatives from Manila come here, we always bring them to Abe's Farm for a good Kapampangan feast. Good thing it was opened and we were asked to go there at 2 pm because the receptionist said the place was packed.

Ki Won Korean Restaurant at Friendship Highway, Angeles City

On Good Friday, we also just stayed at home and watched series. By afternoon, Rin-Rin was bugging everyone that she is craving for Chajangmyun or the black bean paste and vegetable noodles being served at Ki Won Korean Restaurant along Friendship Highway or also known as Korean Town. All the food places around Angeles City are usually closed during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday so we were quite hesitant to leave our house. To our amazement, all the Korean Restaurants were open.

Matutina's Seafoods at San Roque, Tarlac City

My baby sister went to Angeles for a visit so yesterday my mom planned something different for us to do. We don't usually do the 14 churches Bisita Iglesia but at least we visit one every Holy Week. This year, we went to Monasterio de Tarlac to hear mass and pray a little. It was our first time to go to this place which is about 3 hours away from Angeles City. They say you get to ask for one wish whenever you visit a new church. It is said that the monastery holds a relic of the cross where Jesus Christ died. 

"The holy cross came to the monastery in 2005 after its former custodian, the Diocese of Essen in Germany, deemed the SRC worthy to watch over the religious treasure.

The relic, authenticated by a papal seal, is said to be part of the cross discovered by Saint Helena, the mother Emperor Constantine the Great.

Religious accounts say Helena found three crosses and, to determine the cross of Christ, asked a dying woman to touch all three. The woman suddenly recovered when she touched the final cross."

-Source

Houcaller Beefsteak

Since we were all tired of eating Chinese food, I suggested Houcaller Beefsteak for our 5th day's lunch. Houcaller is like a fast food chain of moderate quality steaks. I used to eat here a lot when I was still studying in Xiamen. The food is cheap, the serving size is HUGE, and there's a salad bar where you can get endless of fresh fruits and black gulaman!

House Honors Banquet

We celebrated Baby Arian's first birthday or toh-tse at House Honors Banquet Chinese Restaurant located in Rongyi Hotel. It was a simple dinner party because we couldn't really find any clowns or magicians in China to make it more like a children's party. All we could do was get some party decors and make cute loot bags for guests to take home. My sister's husband took care of the dinner menu and he got a lot of EXOTIC dishes for us to dine on.