Abuhan Dos in Cebu

Dinner with the FTV peeps ( Jia flew in from Singapore ) and our friends from Marketing and Creatives at Abuhan Dos was an experience in itself. Abuhan-the original on Ramos Street I remember from way back in 2001 when I first ventured out to Cebu. It was known for it's pochero-sort of like bulalo which was really good and quite cheap. Perfect after partying fare. This time around almost 7 years later I find myself in Abuhan Dos which is also on Ramos Street but in what could possibly have been an old house. It's got two floors and even an outdoor karaoke section (shudder). Thank goodness we just went there to eat and not to exercise and torture our vocal chords. Filipino comfort food (read: not healthy) as the group ordered pochero (the house specialty-what we Manileños would call bulalo) and sizzling pochero. There was also callos, lengua, grilled taningue, kangkong and chicken salad. The area of Ramos street is not the nicest with a lot of homeless and "women/ trannies" of the night abound. We did have an interesting experience when a woman holding a cellphone approached us and asked if she could be our friend. We waved her away since we had no idea who she was and she proceeded to the bar and eventually sat down with a man (who looked like he hadn't eaten or showered in days) on the other side of the restaurant. After they ate the man left right away and she even went back to us and said "See you later". We thought, 'Ok, weirdo, but a friendly one' her companion was more sketchy looking to be honest, but we were glad that he left without paying us any attention. After she left, we asked the waiter what was going on and apparently this was part of the woman's M.O. she comes in, approaches a big group and pretends to befriend them. She then sits with her companion (or perhaps someone else) and proceeds to order food, then they leave and she tells the waiters that she's part of the big group and to just add her orders to THEIR bill. Thankfully, the watiers and the staff had had experiences with her before so they actually asked her to pay BEFORE she ordered and when she had a receipt they served her her food.
I must say that the whole incident made everyone uncomfortable and I could tell that there was tension even when we were digging into the food. (Which was very tasty by the way, but how can you go wrong with fatty pork). I don't know if Abuhan Dos can "control" something like that since it's not in a great area and they shouldn't really discriminate ( after all the woman did pay for her meal ) but it did bring down the dining mood. Perhaps if we had stayed on the 2nd floor the whole situation would have not come to pass.
Moving forward, I can say that the group enjoyed the get together and despite the threats about hitting the gym the next day or moans about not wanting to eat another bite ever, we still proceeded to La Marea for dessert. Dietary hypocrites we are indeed.

Earth Rat Welcome!

The last time I formally celebrated Chinese New Year was a good 9 years ago. I remember specifically that we had to dress in either white, silver or red and that we had to follow an auspicious "route" recommended by the late Paul Lao of the Mandarin Hotel. It seemed like a fun thing to do, from what I can recall we all had to be inside a white, silver or red car and we had to pass through certain parts of Metro Manila ( and Old Manila)-in some parts we had to circle a landmark three times! We were a big group of friends and even my mom was game enough to participate. The last "stop" was at the Mandarin Hotel ( surprise surprise) and there was a dragon dance and a buffet ( that you had to pay for) and a gazillion people. In fact, just the people on the road doing the route was already a lot. Not sure if that year turned out to be particularly lucky but I had fun and my friends had fun and that's enough happy energy to make any year good right?

This year though is "my" year, being born in the year of the Rat. I had been invited by Joy Lim, proprietor of Charms and Crystals to her condo to celebrate the Eve of Chinese New Year. Apparently she only invites certain clients, family and friends to partake of a specially prepared selection of food ( each have their own meaning) and rituals to welcome in 2008. We started out writing our wishes on wishing paper and folding 8 pieces of lucky money. These would all be burned in a big fire in front of the altar of dieties on the roofdeck of the condo. As we started throwing our wishes and money into the fire (lit by three sticks of sandalwood incense that were also later placed in front of the altar) the fireworks started at the stroke of midnight Joy explained would "open" up the heavens since the next step was to write our wishes on red balloons that would be released (all at the same time) and would now "enter" the opened heavens. Pretty cool huh? Almost everyone was in red and the wishing writing was pretty much a frenzy but you could tell that everyone had hope in their hearts and were really praying for a much better new year.

"About 80% of wishes come true" winked Joy to her guests and she started handing out lucky money in red ampao envelopes "You keep this in your wallet so you will attract wealth" were her instructions. I now have a bright red and gold envelope sticking out of my wallet, who knows right? Am not going to complain if my bank statements reveal more $$$ in the coming months.

So to everyone who believes in Feng Shui or thinks this is all Feng-phooey, I would like to wish you all a very, very Gong Xi Fa Cai!