Kagayan Food Tour 2018: Part I

My mom and I arrived at 4:34 pm at Pane e Dolci. We were told to go to the second floor and it was a bit quiet since a group of bloggers were still at another venue...and I just gained a fear of wooden floors. Ho, boy. Maybe I was just tensed or excited coz it was the first food tour that I ever attended.

How did I get here?

At 4:41 pm, a party of bloggers arrived riding the colorful Odyssey van. Looking down, I recognized Tita Ruby and few others.

4:45 pm Ensaymada was served on our table and I was tempted to eat but hesitant to do so coz nobody's eating it yet...oh, bloggers... they were too busy taking pictures on the snacks, and the place. 

Later,the bottle was served on our table and I thought it was wine...but it was actually water. Quite disappointed that it wasn't... but why should I? I'm still 15 years old (contradicting my statement, am I?)

4:51 pm, Oh-la-la, my prayers were answered! Itadakimasu!

At 4:55 pm, a promotional video was shown, it was cute and catchy. And while we ate our snacks, Sir Mark Antony Lacuesta, business partner of the chef further explained to us about their business, what they offer and what are their bestsellers. His barista also showed us how to make coffee. They said they can even tweak the flavor to whatever we want in order to have our preferred taste...sounds interesting.

They said the best age for coffee is 7-12 days. As the coffee ages, they adjust the grinding of coffee from coarse to...*insert blender noise*...it just interrupted my bad hearing.

At 5:15 pm my coffee was served. Whoah, it looks s-e-x-y! However, it tasted so bitter I had to add more sugar until it became too sweet to drink. Dang, what have I done?

I wasn't able to keep track of the time anymore because it started raining hard. We left Pane e Dolci very much grateful for the accommodation and for giving us a box of their famous Sylvannas.

Our next and last stop that day was at Boy Zugba. Despite the heavy downpour of the rain, we were able to reach our destination at dinnertime. I got suddenly famished seeing all the food the staff prepared on the table. 

But bloggers being bloggers, we have to do our duties first -- taking pictures of the glorious food! I could only imagine how these foods would soon go down to my esophagus and to the depths of my intestine. Er, that sounds unappetizing.

When we finally settled down and enjoyed our meal, Boy Zugba staff suddenly stopped serving to do some dance number. But I was too busy eating and enjoying the sumptuous food that I don't recall what music was played and how they stopped dancing. Blame it on the good food. I went home full and satisfied. Never thought Food Tour could be this fun.

That's all folks!

Book Review: MAGNUS CHASE AND THE GODS OF ASGARD

Ever watched those movies and read books depicting the life of Vikings? How about the Norse gods and the Nine Worlds? And not to mention, were the rest of the gods as well-known as Odin, Thor and Loki? If you think you’re good at mythology, name other gods aside from those three.

Give up? No problem. I also started out that way. Now, try to imagine this supernatural Norse world—only that it’s modern, and in Boston, of all places. Insert a homeless, sixteen-year-old pickpocketer with a near-unbreakable love for falafel, and (drum roll) you get Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

If you're not a fan of spoilers, I don't think you should read this blog. Or if you're curious...well, may the god of blogs and spoilers have mercy on you, puny mortal (sorry).

                

Introducing the new and improved Kurt Cobain...!

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is narrated by Magnus Chase himself, and the story is about his agonizing death as a free pass to the afterlife equivalent of Camp Half-Blood (or Jupiter?), Hotel Valhalla. Along the way with his sidekicks Blitzen and Hearthstone Alderman, and Valkyrie Samirah al-Abbas, they break a few…dozen rules in Valhalla, put the others’ lives at stake, and at the end, save the world anyway. Just like any other Riordan book, MCGA is action-packed and notoriously funny, and is filled with quests, a few bloodthirsty monsters and tyrannical deities on the side, and—again—closely linked to the world of Percy Jackson, plus the usual prophecies. And like any other book, there’s the usual clueless hero, the badass girl, and the guy who…well, is pretty much the sidekick (or in Magnus’s case, two sidekicks). The difference: the main character is a much darker example of Percy Jackson or any Riordan hero you come across—angsty, bitter, resentful and…ding, ding, ding! Prone to a lot of cursing, which is quite unusual in Uncle Rick’s books.  Another good example is how instead of enduring torture while alive, you die all day every day…which is oddly a normal occurrence for them.

Moving on to my opinion, I am very sorry to compare this but it caught my attention way better than Percy Jackson and the rest of the Seven did, combined with the Kane Chronicles. I don’t know how, but it’s probably the reference from famous shows and—oh, Thor, yes!—the internet memes. It may be the fact that it’s less corny, or the talking sword (sorry, Riptide) and the sass and sarcasm levels breaking the charts. As much as I love the previous series, I could relate more with Magnus Chase and his crazy Norse adventures, maybe because it had a very modern feel to it. Imagine a sword who sings Top 40 songs off-key, a dwarf promoting a fashion line, a thunder god who farts every few minutes, and the doorman of Valhalla taking selfies on his, um, phablet.

For any of you who are unfamiliar with Norse mythology and those with a sense of humor, this is more than highly recommended. And if you are prone to getting easily addicted, just don’t try to purposefully die in agony in order to get into Valhalla…it won’t work. Trust me.