PANCAKE HOUSE, DAY & NIGHT, HAHA! =D

Pancake House has been figuring quite a bit in our dinner (and sometimes breakfast) menu that if Sister Pusjing were to double-check all the receipts I give her every month, she’d find most of them were actually issued by Pancake House. Haha! Yes, Hubby Sweet and I go back all the time because we like the food. And because it’s practically everywhere. Never mind that oftentimes, the service is pretty slow. Must breathe in and hold tongue and dream instead of the food that is to come. Haha.

Bro I-gue, Sister Pusjing and I grew up on Pancake House with its dimly lit outlets and cheesy gigantic movie posters. Having waffles (sosyal na pancake, haha!) @ the old Makati Cinema Square (when it was still the new Makati Cinema Square, haha) was always a welcome treat from Mother and Father. Heck, even during EDSA DOS, best friend Marts and I found ourselves sharing portions of our spaghetti, pan chicken and rice with fellow protesters (all strangers) because the line of people still waiting to get in outside the Galleria Branch was still long and yet the food inside the kitchen was already running low. Aaaaahhh, the spirit of a peaceful revolution. =)

As a child, trips to Pancake House automatically meant ordering pancakes (I was not YET allergic to pancakes back then. Seriously, now I’m allergic to some pancakes so just to be on the safe side, I try to avoid it altogether. =)) It was only in the early parts of the Wander Years that I discovered all the other great dishes on the menu. Just as well. After the change in ownership and the upgrades which resulted in the brightly-lit, orange-pine wood interiors that this generation knows (as opposed to the dimly lit restaurants of old), the pancakes seem to have inexplicably been downgraded. =( Much better to buy your pancakes at McDonald’s, I say. Almost the same quality, but it’s much cheaper and quicker at McDo.

So anyway! In the past year, we have been frequenting different branches. During trips to St. Luke’s for tests and monitoring earlier this year, the Hubby and I lightened every trip (he hates hospitals; I hate being tested and monitored, haha =)) with breakfast at Pancake House. We’ve made so many trips that one day, while we were reading the complementary newspaper, we both burst out laughing. The Business Section headline said it all. Haha! We should be charging the Lorenzo group for dividends. =D

For breakfast, you can choose to have lousy pancakes or you can choose to order any of these and feel like you’re starting your day reasonably wel. =)

Top on my list: BEEF TAPA. Love, love, love. Especially if I eat it with DEL MONTE Original Blend Ketchup. YUM! ^_^ Maybe it’s because it reminds me of the tapa that Mother used to make for breakfast as we were growing up in House Better. Pancake House’s new campaign uses “Come Home” as a tagline. Everytime I order this, I do. =D

Next, DAING NA BANGUS! Soooooooooo worth it. Although the last time I ate at Pancake House (this time with Mother), I noticed that the bangus seem to have significantly shrunk. Oh, well. I suppose everyone must make adjustments for rising costs.

TOCINO. You may try it but I personally think it’s on the bland side. I love my tocino sticky-sweet, dipped in slightly spicy vinegar. Still, this one ain’t bad. Just not the type I really, REALLY (!) like. =)

LONGGANISA. A bit too sweet (and dry) for my taste, but it’s not bad. Just not something, I suppose, I would rave about. I grew up thinking that if longganisa is sweet, it has to be sticky and moist with carmelized sugar coating each piece. (Goodness, I’m salivating! Haha.) If the longganisa is dry, they have to be salty-garlicky. Like that of Lucban, Vigan or Cabanatuan. The Pancake House version is sweet and dry. Enough said. =)

The Hubby also tried CORNED BEEF once. He said it’s OK. I did not get to try it so I wouldn’t know if it’s any good. I will assume that it is. =)


For lunch or dinner, it’s always a toss-up between the 2-piece Pan Chicken (if I’m not dieting) and the Fiesta Taco Salad (if I’m pretending to be on a diet). Haha!

Aside from their regular spaghetti, the 2-PIECE PAN CHICKEN, I think, is the most sulit item on the menu. P135, super busog ka na! =D I do notice though that some branches cook it better than others. The one on Boni High Street, for example, cooks their chicken much, much (!) better than the ones in Boni Stop (near the Shell station). To think they are just about 10 blocks away from each other. When done right, Pan Chicken is cooked-to-the-bone with no red spots, but still surprisingly moist and juicy on the inside, even as it is done to crisp-perfection on the outside. Still, regardless of how it is cooked, the Pan Chicken’s patis-and-calamansi marinade and its buttery gravy always save the day (especially when you eat it with rice liberally sprinkled with Knorr Seasoning! Yum, yum, yum! ^_^ Unfortunately, the only pic I have is that of the chicken that is overcooked. Ngek. =)

The FIESTA TACO SALAD. Aaaaaahhhhh. This should not be called a salad for the simple reason that once you finish one, your stomach would feel heavier than if you actually ate a full meal with rice. Haha! Still I delude myself into thinking that this is the right choice because I am eating veggies laced with high-protein kidney beans. Yes. Veggies and beans mixed with with chicken strips, a generous sprinkling of Chippy (yes, Chippy), topped with grated cheese, all laid on a bed of a gigantic, fried (yes, fried) flat tortilla. Haha! Oh, and yes, you eat it with some sort of oil & vinegar-based dressing. Vinegar is healthy and good. I will choose to think that the oil they use is olive (I actually don’t =)), but I will choose to think so. Hahaha. =D

Oh, and lately, Hubby Sweet has a taken a fancy for their shakes. His favorite is Kiwi. If not available, grape-apple will do. At P135+ per glass, mahal ha! But he has chosen to eat and drink healthy so fruit shake it is! No discussions.

Just last week, as the Hubby was confined in Medical City (long story, will write about it in another post), Pancake House once again saved the day. With Mother and Sister Pusjing baby-sitting him (as I stealed back to the office for an early-morning presentation to our President—which I obviously cannot resched), I got back to the hospital in time for lunch. Where else but Pancake House on the ground floor? Haha!

Pancake House also saved the Hubby from starvation. His diet wasn’t restricted, and while the hospital food tasted decent, it was only enough for Hubby Sweet’s one…uh…gulp. Haha!

A take-out of 2-PIECE PAN CHICKEN and KIWI SHAKE did the trick. ;p

SATC, THE MOVIE / JUNE 1,2008 =D

Even as everyone is now raving about The Dark Knight (or that John Lloyd-Sarah Geronimo movie, haha), and even as I try and figure out how to squeeze in a Mamma Mia! screening into my sched, I felt it right to write about the last movie I saw. SEX & THE CITY (and since I already used my one-chick-flick-a-year pass for this movie with the Hubby, I suppose I would just have to watch Mamma Mia! on the small screen—"Dibidi, Dibidi...." ;p). BTW, I got all the pics used in the post from the publicity photos posted on Yahoo. =D

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Sex & the City (the TV series) held special meaning for me. During The Wander Years, I fancied myself to be Carrie Bradshaw. Except, of course, for her fashion sense—which never really made sense to me. =) Carrie processed and figured things out by putting her thoughts on paper. She was a fiercely loyal friend. She was a professional success, but an emotional retard. She was in constant pursuit of her idea of The One Big Love every woman should have, but always got her heart creamed in the process. BIG TIME. All pun, BTW, fully intended. =)

When I first moved out of House Better into my own place, the one vision that I had running in my head was that of Carrie typing away at her laptop as she looked out her apartment window to the sky above or the street below. I thought, hmmmmmmm, I could do that. =) In my spare time, of course. (I had always wanted to be a writer, but have long accepted that a writer’s pay will never be enough to pay for my dreams. =))

On my first night in House Pioneer, I walked into my near empty apartment after a long day at work, tired but bubbling with excitement. After blowing my life savings on the downpayment and the first batch of monthly amortizations, I did not have money left over to buy a decent sofa so I only had the gigantic throw pillows Sister Pusjing and G-Genius gave me for Christmas littering my sala. I did not have money left over for a decent bed so I only had a mattress in my room. I had those, a 25-inch flat TV, plus an 11-cubic feet stainless steel ref with nothing in it but water (this was long before a stainless steel ref became fashionable). I also blew money on a a stainless steel gas range with hood but without LPG because the darn thing was for purely decorative purposes, hahaha. (I did not want any weird holes in my kitchen. =)) Oh, and because I also did not have enough money left over to buy a decent aircon after spending the last of it on my decorative gas range & hood, I had to settle for a stainless steel industrial fan "gift" to cool me at night. Have you ever tried sleeping with an industrial fan pointed in your direction? Hahaha! 'D For sure, the entire place was far from where I wanted it to be, but it was my place. My own space. On the first night I walked through Door 2**4, I couldn’t stop grinning. I remember thinking, “I am soooooooooooo Carrie. HA!” =p

And so it goes that even during The Wander Years, every Tuesday night was officially a no-gimmick night because I had to be home in time for the 10:30 screening of SATC on HBO. I sighed when Carrie sighed. Laughed when she laughed. Swooned when she fell in love. And, yes, I cried buckets along with her every time she broke her heart. I went through the entire gamut of emotions with Carrie and the rest of the SATC girls. We were girl friends for life. =)

Which is why I have never anticipated a movie more than I anticipated this one. The final episode of the TV series put a definitive “closure” on each of their stories. Miranda married Steve and moved to Brooklyn with their son Brady and their housekeeper Magda in tow. Charlotte finally found and married her “prince” in the kind-hearted but ordinary-looking Harry (a far-cry from the dashing, but emotionally distant Trey). She even had her lifelong wish of being a mom fulfilled with the hint of an approved adoption of a little girl from China. After a bout with cancer, Samantha finally found herself giving up her series of one-night stands for the one thing no one really thought she would go for—committed love in the arms of Smith. And yes, after a long-winded history of romantic hook-ups and disastrous break-ups, Mr. Big finally came to his senses to realize there was only one girl for him. Carrie. There could be no one else but Carrie. (The other bonus closure, of course, was that in the final episode, they finally revealed one of the series’ long-running mysteries: Mr. Big’s real name was John. =))

Now, it would have been ideal to watch SATC, The Movie with “the girls”, but the office folks watched the premier on the night I had to go to a family affair. Because of a business trip to BKK, everyone had also watched the movie by the time I got back. And so it goes that I had to force Hubby Sweet to watch this one with me. It was like pulling teeth. Hahaha. =D In any case, I deliberately put off writing this post as I did not want to spoil the story for my other girl friends who have not seen it. Still, I’d like to be able to remember the parts of the movie that hit me most:

1. That scene where Carrie rushed out of her bridal car to hit Big repeatedly with her bridal bouquet, petals flying off in the air! I was reduced to a bumbling, sobbing fool in that scene. Hubby Sweet looked at me like I was an alien and, in the dark theater, he couldn’t help blurting out, half-kidding, “Ngyaaah! Sa lahat ng oras na nag-away tayo, di ka umiyak. Sex & the City lang, ngawa ka ng ngawa!” HAHAHA!!! Oo nga naman. Haha. =D Still, how could I make him understand? How could I explain to him just how many times I have sat in a darkened room, crying just as I had that day in the theater? How could I explain to him just how much I felt Carrie’s pain in that scene, knowing the million and one heartaches she had to go through and disregard just to get to that point? I never did like Mr. Big for Carrie. I had always favored Aidan. Aidan whose heart she broke. Aidan whom I think—to this day—really loved her most. All the husbands and boyfriends who accompanied their girlfriends and wives, only to see them reduced to tears in that scene, need to understand that to women, Carrie was not just some fictional character. Especially to SATC fans, she was the embodiment of the heartbreaking journey every girl has to go through before finally settling down with The One person she was meant to spend the rest of her life with.
   
2. That scene where Charlotte stepped in to stop Big in his tracks as Carrie rushed back to the bridal car. Holding up one finger, she said only two words. With those two words, she was able to say it all. NO! NO. Angry. Firm. Then restrained. Her face betrayed all the hate and disappointment simmering within. If the scene in #1 reduced me to tears, this one totally killed me. For the first time, I saw a little of myself in Charlotte. She had always been the dreamer in the group. The one who believed in happy endings, regardless of dire circumstances. She was the only one in the group who supported Carrie every time Carrie decided to give Big another chance, despite all her past bad experiences with him. And so, during the Wander Years and the series’ 10-year run, I never really understood Charlotte, never really liked her unconditional optimism. In my single mind, she was sugar and spice and everything TOO nice. And yet, in that scene, I instantly saw myself in her. I was instantly transported to all those times I chose to support my girl friends who decided "in the name of love", against all rational thought, to go back to their hoot-of-a-BF/FB/BT (for boy toy), etc., etc. (They will all remain unnamed in this post, but I’m sure they all know who they are, haha!). Charlotte’s definitive “No! No.” captured all those times I would have gladly stepped in and slapped all the boys (I refuse to call them men) who weren’t treating my girl friends right—if only my GFs had allowed me. Like a two-edged sword, the scene also made me appreciate even more all my girl friends who, at different points in time, stepped in to keep certain people from hurting me more than they already have.
   
3. That scene where Carrie laughed for the first time after her disastrous heartbreak. Most of us have gone through times when we just don’t have the energy for anything. Not for eating. Not for getting up. Not even for waking up. We sleep, literally, from dusk till dawn, only to sleep again soon after we open our eyes. Now while self-pity can be a soft, fluffy pillow in the beginning, it can soon turn into a cold, hard place if one wallows in it too long. So you wake up. You get up even though you have no sense of real purpose. You go through your chores like a zombie. You go to bed, only to have the cycle repeat the following day. AND THEN, one day it unexpectedly happens. You find something soooooooooooooo ridiculously funny, you can’t help but laugh! Not just a giggle kind of laugh, but a real, right-from-the-gut, belly-kind-of-laugh that leaves you doubled-up, barely able to walk. The kind that leaves you fully flushed with tears in your eyes. The kind that reminds you, “Hey, no matter what you’ve been through, heck, you’re going to be all right.” Yes, after that "first laugh", you can't help but be filled with hope that the best was yet to come. Hubby Sweet must have thought I had gone bonkers inside that dark cinema because minutes after I cried uncontrollably over #1 & #2, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing with the girls. Even weirder that I couldn’t help but giggle every time I remembered #3.

I do have a few beef against some of the things in the movie. I hated the way Big and Carrie reconciled. It seemed….uh…trite. It was nothing compared to the TV series’ romantic, sweep-me-of-my-feet conclusion. Then again, I’ve never really been a big fan of sappy, oh-I-totally-knew-it-was-going-to-happen-that-way kind of resolutions, so I suppose I will just have let that one go. My major beef is that they reduced Stanford to nothing more than a wallflower looking giddy on Carrie’s non-wedding day! Hmp. >:\ While I get that Jennifer Hudson’s new character was key to the “reconciliation scene”, I sorely missed all those moments when Stanford stood in for all the men in Carrie’s life who let her down. Every time she needed to attend an event after a break-up, Stanford readily stood as her “date” (albeit, openly-gay). Everytime she needed to vent, Stanford listened to her think aloud over brunch. He was always ready to be with her. All she needed to do was ask. Every woman knows that during times of love crisis, next to our girl friends, it’s our gay friends who prop us up most. Not our secretaries. Not our personal assistants. Our girl friends. Our gay friends. I suppose time constraint did Stanford in. Still, I wonder to this day just how the story would have progressed if the writers deliberately kept Jennifer Hudson's character out and made a conscious effort instead to keep Stanford in. =(

Still, all in all, SATC The Movie was a jolly, good romp, and a wonderful celebration of the power of "girlfriendhood". It was interesting to note that four years later, my life has strangely evolved along with theirs. I no longer just relate to Carrie. I can now also relate to Miranda with her struggle to juggle family and carreer (but THANKFULLY NOT the infidelity that Miranda had to grapple with throughout the movie). I could even now relate to Charlotte with her mommy wishes and baby woes! OK, so I think I will never, ever be able to relate to Samantha and her "wandering" ways, but I will always consider her classic entertainment. Haha! I especially found poignant that scene where Carrie was packing all her stuff so she can move out of her "single-girl flat" into the space she was to share with Big. I found it particularly touching because, inside the darkened theater, I realized that soon, I will also have to do the same packing in House Pioneer in preparation for the big move to the more family-sized House Royal.

Four years later, the SATC girls have all grown-up. Apparently, so have I. =)

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I am soooooooooo looking forward to the DVD release, and would probably ask Cousin Dooders to bring it home for me from U.S. when he flies in for his 2009 wedding. (Naks! =)) As we all know, the big, bad censors had their way with SATC here in Manila and snipped-snipped a lot of scenes. I'm just so sure that the movie is way funnier than what I got to watch in the cinemas, and watching the full version on DVD would fill in some of the "blanks" that inevitably resulted from the deletion of the, uh, censored parts. =)

IT'S PARLOR TIME! / JULY 30,2008 =D

At the risk of this adventure blog turning into a live journal on Buster J, I’m going to write about this particular bit anyway! After almost 5 weeks of being with us, Buster J has turned from a smart and spritely mini-schnauzer into an adorable, cuddly….uh….mutt. Hahaha! You’d have to wade through tons of facial hair to get a glimpse of his puppy-dog eyes. His cropped cut has given way to a wave of curls.

“Tweet,” the Hubby said one morning, “Buster is starting to look like you.” BWISET! Hahaha! He was, of course, referring to the hair. (Or at least, he better be referring to the hair. Hmp. >:p)

And so it goes that after office hours two Thursdays ago, the Hubby & I decided to bring Buster to Pet Scan @ Tiendesitas for his first ever grooming session under our wings. At P550 per dog, I thought, man, mas mahal pa yung haircut and pedicure niya! Hahaha. =) But just as most moms spend more to bring their kids to the mall parlor with the fancy car seats instead of dropping by the neighborhood parlorista who would’ve charged only P40 (with shampoo and blow-dry na), we did not even think twice about shelling out the equivalent of a few day’s lunch money for our pup’s grooming needs. Ngyah. =)

The instructions given to the groomer were pretty routine—mini-schnauzer cut, Kuya--with the only major discussion point (between the Hubby and me) being about whether we should have Buster’s foot fur cropped. I did NOT want to do it. He’s a mini-schnauzer for goodness sakes; he should have fur on his feet! I told the groomer to just make sure that the fur between his paws were trimmed and that his foot fur did not extend too much to the ground.

The Hubby protested; he wanted it cropped. I suppose since he usually walks Buster, he’s the one who keeps getting irritated every time Buster J’s fur gets wet as he pees. I tried to stand my ground. The Hubby was adamant. In the end, I gave in. The discussion in front of the pet groomer was getting ridiculous. “The only way he will see the folly in his ways is to actually let him get what he wants,” I thought, seething.

“I-poo-poodle cut ko po yung paa?” the groomer clarified.

“Kuya! Wag yung naka-shave pati yung legs ha!” I blurted out, horrified by the idea of a Buster J with poodle legs.

“Di po, Ma’am,” he reassured me, “Yung sa paa lang.”

The Hubby gave a definitive YES!

We stayed with Buster J for a while and watched him go from all scraggly to cleaned-up, the entire time reassuring him (through a glass window) that things are going to be OK. When we felt Buster settle down, we decided to steal a bit of time to get a quick dinner over at the Savory Chicken House at the SM Supercenter right beside Tiendesitas.

Now I’ve always heard about the “oldies” speak about Savory Chicken with reverence. Father, in particular, would sometimes wax nostalgic over having lunch at Savory when he was younger and still worked in the vicinity of Ermita (it was the Central Business District back then). The Hubby, on the other hand, seemed to have a real recollection of actually savoring Savory Chicken when he was young. I had no such recollection, so I eagerly trooped along with him.

We both went for the combo meal. Quarter chicken, salt & pepper spareribs, rice, one sliver of banana fritters, two small turon pieces + a glass of drink. At P195 per plate, it was not exactly cheap, but what the heck! The food arrived. Forget the rest of the food. None of them were spectacular. If I were to go back a second time, I’d just go for the chicken. I’d pay for nothing more than the chicken. In my mind, only the chicken would give me my money’s worth.

It may not look like much in the pic, but the chicken was crunchy and perfectly seasoned. Not too salty, it was flavored with some unique spice I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It actually did not taste like fried chicken to me, and reminded me more of the fried pigeons I used to savor at the Macau Pigeon House in Rockwell before the restaurant sadly folded up. Savory Chicken was the type you would dream about going back for over and over. The “oldies” were right. =)

The Hubby decided he also wanted to have it for baon the next day, and ordered A WHOLE CHICKEN for take-out. P320. Still not cheap. We just hoped it would still taste as good the following day. I suspected that it will not taste as good without the crunchy skin. Sadly, I was right. After a night’s stay in the ref, the Savory Chicken was no longer as…uh…savory. =(

We were done with dinner in no time, and trooped back to Tiendesitas to find our Buster J being bathed, then blow-dried (which, from experience I know he totally, TOTALLY hates!).

He couldn’t contain his excitement when we finally went through the door to pick him up (the entire time, we were watching him through the glass window on the other side). Hubby Sweet took one look at him and said, “Uh…...Tweet......uh, hahaba naman yung hair niya sa paa, di ba?" ACK! Hmp. >:/ I wanted to bonk him, but decided to just laugh. “Mukhang weird kase. Nakakatakot. Parang di dapat kalbo yung feet niya,” he continued.

"Of course!" I thought, but resisted the need to say I told you so.

In any case, I suppose it will all grow back over the next four to five weeks. At least, I HOPE IT DOES. Hay. =)

Anyway!

Here’s Buster J with his new haircut. Please try to ignore his chicken feet. Hahaha! ‘D

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Buster slept soundly that night. I think maybe he may have been stressed by the entire thing. =( In any case, as soon as he entered the unit, he practically plopped down on the pillows we had laid out on our mats for watching TV in the sala.

“Huy, tabi dyan. Higaan ko yan eh!” Hubby Sweet kidded as he gently tried to move him, but our pup just wouldn’t budge. =)

“Huy, amo mo ko no!” the Hubby repeated, chuckling. =) No reply.

After that incident, the Hubby stopped calling him Buster, and has since referred to him by his new designation: Master. Meet Master Johnson. Hahaha! ‘D