After-dinner at Bertie's

Paully's been planning to take me to what she calls this cute little place that sells scrumptious blueberry cheesecake. And finally, after satisfying a Jollibee dinner craving, we found ourselves in Bertie's Crafter in Calamba Laguna.

 I forgot to ask why it says "crafters"

I like the wall art of their pastry cafe.

They don't allow taking photos of the cakes but they allowed me to take photos of the cafe. Here's Paully ordering 2 mini red velvet cupcakes and one slice of blueberry cheesecake. They also did not install wifi because they want their customers to interact with each other and not glued to their tablets and smartphones. 

Here's the two mini red velvet cupcakes (priced at Php30.00 each). PRICEY!

Honestly, I do not get these red velvet cupcakes, then I took a bite...

... and understood why they had to be priced at Php30.00. But it's still so expensive. When I took a bite, I thought, so this must be what a real red velvet tastes like. 

Meanwhile, the main reason for this dessert event, the blueberry cheese cake,  is priced at Php145.00 per slice and it's also good. The cheesecake, was creamier than the usual though.

We were lucky we got the chance to chat with the owner, who happens to be the sister of my doctor! Such small world. Paully and I would probably go there next time to try their pasta. 

Thank you for taking me there Paully. We really need to incorporate a fitness plan to balance out all these food trips that we're  having.

A trip at Ted's in Sta. Cruz, Laguna

Kung Hei Fat Choi! I am thankful that we get to have Chinese New Year as a holiday even though we're not Chinese, hehe. For yesterday's holiday, we had a "Titas" (Me and Kat) and Mommy's (Emi) Day Out. We planned this road/food trip when Emi got back from Singapore. Louie was supposed to come with us but she got caught up with her personal errands.

Anyway, we initially just planned to have lunch somewhere near UPLB then we just decided that we head over to TED's in Sta.Cruz, Laguna, because: 1) It was part of the original plan; and 2) Emi and I have never been there.

I love the feel of the place. I am a fan of Shabby Chic themes.

I must admit though, I have heard not so good reviews about Ted's. It took us quite a long time to order because we want to make sure to enjoy our first time eating experience.

However, this note is helpful:

I didn't know that Ted's place is big, we get to dine al fresco and with only three of us chatting away.

We were so hungry, here's what we ordered: 

Wiped out! My goodness, I've never been this full, since... I don''t remember anymore. 

Before leaving, we went to another area of Ted's. This shop sells whole cakes only. 

Food Verdict: We enjoyed the food! Obvious ba? I love especially the smoothies. Kat doesn't recommend the Family Platters. We were hesitant to eat here at first because all of the bad reviews (like: food is blah, nothing spectacular, blah blah...) I guess it's really what you will order that can make or break the food experience. In our case, we got lucky we liked it! I actually have a simple taste palette so if I was not able to like the food, then it must be that bad. But I'm glad that besides having a good company, we enjoyed the food and good thing because we paid more than Php500.00 each. 

And we're off to our next impromptu adventure: Slippers Shopping in Liliw. Emi's never been there so it's a must that we take her to Liliw since it's only 30 minutes away from Ted's. 

Hope you had a nice holiday! :)

Quick Review: Karne Frio

Deciding where to eat in elbi in an instant is always a problem, especially when you practically tried the good ones, heard negative reviews about the others, and well, you're just simply on a budget.

Yesterday, Paully and I tried this not so new restaurant called "Karne Frio"at the ES Plaza. I've seen it before and did not really got curious to try it because I'm cutting down on red meat. But yesterday we just went for it, what the heck?

I like their location and how it is air conditioned. I was actually looking for an alternative to Bonitos where I can hold private meetings. 

But the place is not so private, eh? 

You know when a place is student dominated when you see boards (and the likes) like this: 

And oooh! They sell planners! I already have mine for 2015 but I still checked it out. (Will share on my next post)

Without further ado,  Let me share their menu: 

I asked for their best seller and they recommended this. I ordered the Garlic Rosemary Pork Marimadas for only 69 pesos! 

But for 69 pesos, let's get real about the actual serving size:

Paully ordered the Meatzzanini for 99 pesos.

The Meatzzanini is actually good, although it can get better if they have more cheese on it. 

I wanted to try other things on the menu, like dessert perhaps?

But I got frustrated because unfortunately, on that day, no dessert is available and it's only 1pm in the afternoon. I'd probably come back next time, hopefully, the ones I will be ordering will be available.

Friends, Food, and Sunset

One of the things that I like about living in Laguna is how an ordinary, no-schedule day Saturday, can turn into a spontaneous medyo-out-of-local-town weekend.

I was just at the car wash when I got a call from Poch saying our friends wanted to go to Liliw for whatever reason. An hour and a half later, I find myself on the way to Liliw with my friends. Last time I was in Liliw was back in October 2013. It is still the same but we never got the time to try the famous cute restaurant called Arabela.

We arrived at around 3pm already and this time, luckily we got probably the last good seats in the house: corner spot with couch. I took this photo from where I was seated but this photo was taken after the guests have gone. (Because they probably wouldn't want to dine and appear in someone else's blog)

What I didn't like about the interior is the low ceiling. Check out Poch and Lyle haha 

Without further ado, let's have a quick review of the food.

Jim ordered this four cheese pizza, which tastes more like Tomato Pizza with cheese for the tomato's taste is a lot more dominant than the supposedly four cheese. 

 I ordered the carbonara, which is the safest. It costs Php 100.00.

 But it is just a small serving in reality. It's okay for a carbonara although I can get one with similar taste at Pizza hut.

 Jim, Mhy and Lyle ordered the lasagna. And Lyle could swear that hours later he can still taste the spices in his mouth.

Poch ordered this with an extra order of rice. I forgot what this is called and I don't remember hearing him rave about it.

BUT, this, my darlings, is my favorite: The Chocolate Chip Cheesecake! (Php 110.00)

 It was too sweet for Jim and Lyle's taste but I like it! I'm going to order this again when we come back this month with my girl friends.

After buying house slippers and roaming around the place, we decided on the spot to head to Caliraya to watch the sunset.

Jim, Poch, together with their photographer friends used to chase sunsets in Caliraya for that picture perfect sunset shot. Here we are on the exact same spot trying to capture it via...smartphone.

There were also some visitors and photography enthusiasts on the spot where we were waiting for the sunset. They came prepared with their selfie-sticks while Poch served as our human monopod. We were supposed to have a group shot with the Caliraya sunset background as Jim came prepared with a DSLR and a tripod but we got too busy trying to capture the actual going down of the sunset in our smartphones.

And by little past 7pm, we were already in our own homes and have called it a day.

I had a good first month for the year 2015. How about you?