bits of boracay

Others find that Boracay island is not as beautiful as it used to be. The shores are tainted with trash, the sand not as fine, the common areas over commercialised and the island swarmed by numerous tourists that contribute to the island's degradation. It's a sad but somewhat true statement, as I've seen photos of the place and visited the island years back when "Laboracay" and "batch Boras" were not yet in place. It looked bare and clean, contained less structures and was surrounded by more natural greens. The boats could easily be counted and the waters clear of bits and pieces of a tourist's last meal. It may not be exactly the same as it used to be, but despite the horrific image that these truths may put in your heads, I must say after my visit last November, the island still holds a beauty worth going back to. 

White House, the go-to for 7am-7pm happy hour. 

The Strand

We tried out The Strand for this visit since we were able to get our rooms at 50% off thanks to our friend Marga. It cost us Php 3,000 a night for a suite that looked as though it could fit 8-10 people.  Though the place is quite a walk from D Mall, located a few resorts past Fridays and a minute walk into the back area, it was a comfortable, beautiful place to stay in. 

Our room was very spacious and clean, had a lanai, a living room, a mini kitchen, a big bedroom with a king sized bed and separate toilet and bath.

It was always clean upon returning from our daily activities, and we'd be left with a little note from our cleaner wishing us a wonderful stay.

When our flight got cancelled and we ended up having to rebook to a much earlier flight, we had to leave at 5AM to get to the airport on time. Leave it to The Strand to lighten up this inconvenience--the staff happily got up at 4:30AM to check us out, help us with our bags, call us a trike and even prepare a sandwich breakfast for takeout.

The Strand also has a pool and lounging chairs by the breakfast area.

As for the food, I was only able to try the free breakfast since we spent the rest of our days out. It wasn't anything grand and came in small servings, but surprisingly I still got full during all my breakfast meals. You have the option of a Filipino or American breakfast, and it comes with coffee, juice, and a mini fruit platter.

It was my first time to visit the island outside the summer season and it was surprisingly more filled than I expected. The beach wasn't empty despite the bipolar weather and the bars were pretty filled come night. It wasn't as packed as summer, I'd say just the right amount of people, so it was comfortable, relaxing and easy to get seats in restaurants. I was a bit worried about Boracay in November because of the weather, but even though the rain poured on us a few times during our stay, the bits of sunshine on the island, the beautiful beach, wonderful people, delicious food, and of course, great company, definitely made the trip worth taking. 

#danielaeats: part of japan

Before I share with you some photos of Japanese food I had in Osaka, I have to let you know that this post might come out as a disappointment to some of you who have been to the place. 

1. I didn't get to try their Kobe or Matsusaka
2. Because of the limited time we had, we rushed all our meals so we could get on our feet again and explore places
3. Conveyor belt, Family Mart, conveyor belt, Family Mart
4. Non-Jap meals (shame!)

Nevertheless I am sharing this still for those who would like to get some ideas when visiting Osaka. 

Family Mart. 

Here's what we had on our first night. We got to our place in Namba past 12 midnight and were not familiar with the area, so we went straight to Family Mart just a street away from our building. Though it's a shame we had this several times during our trip, I have to say that Family Mart there is the bomb. If the quality of food in the ones we have here were the same as Japan, I'd have it for all my meals. We got there pretty late but the maki was still so good, the rice soft and still moist inside. Probably even better than what you would get in some restaurants here that serve it to you as you order. The soba was just okay, not so sure if that's how legit Japanese noodles really are or if it had an off taste because it was sitting in the store almost the whole day, but it had this flavour I didn't enjoy so much.

Dotonburi restaurant with the hand holding the sushi. It's hard to miss because you'll see this in the line of restaurants along Dotonburi along with big octopus and crab figures outside other restaurants. This was one of the conveyor belt restos we ate in during the trip. It's about 100 yen (around Php 40) per plate for fresh, delicious sushi (their uni still tasted like the sea!). It's crazy how affordable Japanese food is here! A lot of people think that going to Japan is hella expensive because the quality of their food is so much better than in Manila, but really you get good quality at such low prices. It makes you wonder why it's so expensive in Manila (for some restaurants) when the fish isn't even that superb. 

For every conveyor belt we ate in, I managed to consume eight plates (some salmon, tuna, uni, shrimp and others I tried). That's eight plates with two pieces each of fresh, hearty, delicious sushi. 

Photo inside the restaurant with the big sushi hand. Sorry no name, there was no English translation outside.

Another conveyor belt we ate in in Kyoto is Kaiten Sushi. It had pretty much the same servings as the one above but had some extra noodles with soup (not ramen). According to @bookymanila, Genki Sushi (pioneer of Kaiten Sushi) will be opening at Bonifacio Stopover!

I couldn't help myself. I was starving that day (we had lunch almost 3pm) so I took a bite before taking the photo and forgot to take more photos of my meal because I was too busy stuffing my mouth.

This conveyor belt was cool because each table had a machine to order in case what you're looking for doesn't come out. On top of the revolving belt was another belt also connected to the kitchen. Once you input your extra order in the machine, it will appear on the top belt in five minutes or less. 

Noodles with Soup. It's not ramen, it's noodles with soup. We stumbled upon this "ramen" place (so we thought) that had a long line during the day. When the late night munchies called, we walked to Dotonburi and looked for a place that was open, and this so happened to be the first one we came across. My first taste of it brought me to Pho Hoa. It tasted and had the texture of Vietnamese noodles, different from the ramen that we were expecting. On the side you have the option to add extra garlic and kimchi to add more flavour. After putting in a generous amount in my bowl, I was more satisfied with the flavour and enjoyed my first "noodles with soup" experience in Japan.  

Noodles with soup

Sisen Ramen. My friend recommended that we try out the ramen place across Swisshotel (Namba station) so we made a stop there before heading home one night. It's probably one of the less known ramen places to visit in Osaka, but I highly suggest you try it out. I'm not so fund of Tantanmen (mostly because I get tired of the flavour halfway through my bowl), but when I ate here I devoured the whole thing. Their gyoza was also really good and had the right cook on it - slight crunch at the bottom and a soft top. I really regret not making a second trip. 

Sisen Ramen

Ichiran. One of the more known ramen places to visit (long lines in the two branches we came across) but also worth trying. They only have one flavour of ramen here, but the strength of the flavour, the cook on the noodles and the level of spice is determined by you before giving in your order. Also so delicious!

Ichiran

Food on the street. We spent our nights in eating areas around our place. The restaurants were very small and could seat less than ten people at a time. Even these small restaurants had good food, and we would munch on some sashimi or takoyaki balls along with our Asahi. 

Don't forget to enjoy the Kirin, Asahi, and Sapporo while you're there.

We were expecting to have Family Mart almost the whole trip because we thought we'd be spending a whole lot if we ate in restaurants. It turns out food there isn't as expensive as some restaurants in Manila. You can get good quality food in the smallest and simplest restaurants, and not have to pay a premium for it. If i'm not mistaken I think I spent about Php 1,600 on my first day just for food, drinks and some transpo (we used the train to get around, forget the taxi). It's really so much more affordable than I expected, and if you don't splurge on these things like I did, you might even end up spending less in a day. Crazy! Time to book that trip to Osaka! I'm definitely planning another visit next year.

Until next time #danielaeats!

travellingd: a glimpse of shanghai

Just a week ago I got the opportunity to go to Shanghai for 7 days. Majority of the trip was spent doing work, but I was able to sneak in a few side trips to the Bund, TienZiFang, a few malls, and the old French Concession. 

On the day we arrived, we decided to go to a mall and walk around our hotel neighborhood. We stayed in Caobao road, and in that area there were no shopping malls close by so we had to take a 10-15 minute cab ride to get to the closest one. We saw a lot of street food in our area being cooked along the sidewalks outside different stores. We wanted to try because the aroma of the food being grilled was very inviting, but our Chinese friend suggested we don't eat any of it.

This is one of the high end malls called IAPM we went to on our second day. It had all the good brands like Chanel, Balmain, Louis Vuitton, and also had shops like Nike, Mango, Muji, and others. 

I made a KFC run for 2 or 3 nights because I was craving for something non-Chinese (after all the Chinese dishes we had the whole day).



TienZiFang. A shopping area recommended to us by one of our Malaysian friends in Shanghai. If you're a fan of random cool stuff, accessories, kuchi-kuchi, and art, you might enjoy this place. A lot of the shops carry the same things so try to look for the shop that gives you the lowest price. You could bargain with them, though if you don't speak Chinese it's a bit difficult.

There were many eating and drinking places inside (which I heard are really good), but we weren't able to try any. Some restaurants had pretty cool and unique designs so I enjoyed looking around.

I fell in love with this leather store that sold everything leather--bags, wallets, notebooks, and small pouches. The store smelled of genuine leather and all the bags looked well made. If i'm not mistaken the bag prices were around Php 3,000 - Php 6,000 depending on the size.

On our 6th day, we wanted to check out The Bund (which is a must when visiting Shanghai). So we took the Metro from Caobao and got off at People's Square. 

We walked around a bit to check out some shops, then headed to East Nanjing Road. Usually people take the Metro to The Bund from People's Square, but our Chinese friend suggested we walk the whole East Nanjing Road from People's Square because the whole road is filled with shops and malls. 

East Nanjing Road

The view of LuJiaZui from the Bund.

My shopping buddies that day.

By the time we reached The Bund, it felt like a different place. The whole road was lined with beautiful European style structures (which held offices of banks and expensive stores). Despite the number of tourists there that day, it was still nice to walk around and take photos because the area's really big.

The Bund.

The day after we were able to explore the old French Concession, which was also really beautiful because it looked like Europe and had some really good eating places and unique stores in the area. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos of the place because we were rushing to do some last minute shopping. But there will be more updates of this trip to come!