Tea for three

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Macarons, scones and finger sandwiches to go with our mandarin orange oolong tea at a TWG Tea Salon & Boutique.
 

Choices

"A cup of tea is a cup of peace."

~Sen Sōshitsu XVI, 16th tea master of the Urasenke family

We finally have TWG Tea Salons in Manila. Those mostly yellow cans on the walls, reflected on the large mirrors of the dining area, are just a few of the more-than-a-thousand tea varieties available at the shops. To be honest, I find the food too expensive (though I've finally satisfied my curiosity about scones), but I'm just very happy that I finally have a place to go to for some good loose leaf tea. And as long as one doesn't buy their fancy cans, the cost of TWG's teas won't break the bank.
 

All-malt

San Miguel Beer is probably the best known beer produced in the Philippines. It is also the most popular locally, cornering a whopping 95% share of the market. San Miguel comes in eight varieties. Cerveza Negra is still my favorite, but the Premium All-Malt is a close second.

Can anyone explain to me why so many beers are named after Saints?

Triple distilled

The label of Tanduay Ice simply describes it as an alcomix and a triple distilled spirit. It comes in five flavors (three of which do not give you any idea what flavors they are based on their names): Red Mirage, Blue Illusion, Yellow Paradise, Pink Pomelo and Citrus. It has the same alcohol content as beer but is infinitely sweeter.

Yummy to the last sip

When something becomes popular in Manila, it really becomes popular. During the past year, tea shops have opened in almost every block in the metro. The range is very wide—from quiet places that serve fresh, carefully brewed organic teas to shops that serve tea drinks with milk, all sorts of flavorings, sago pearls and jelly cubes, and everything in between. One guess what kind of tea Pao Pao Xiao Chi serves. It was the only place I could get a cold drink at the Greenhills West Clubhouse. To be fair, the simple iced fruit tea I had was pretty good; it wasn't too sweet and they have a light touch with the flavoring so I could still taste the tea.

Bottled light

If old shoes used as planters (see yesterday's post) aren't quirky enough for you, how about a chandelier made of old beer bottles? Too bad it was daytime when we went to Resurrection Furniture and Found Objects Gallery—I would have loved to have seen what it looks like lit up. And I think that Red Horse Beer should buy this piece by Nathan Apilado.

Keeping it cool

I was so delighted by Basilio Restaurant's cocktail glass, I just had to take a photo of it. The glass is made up of two pieces: the conical top holds the liquid, which fits into a bowl-shaped base which can hold ice. A most novel and ingenious way of keeping the drink cool without getting it diluted by adding ice. One just has to take care not to miss the base when setting one's drink down.

Ungrape

I have already featured coconut wine and sugarcane liquor, and the deadly, distilled lambanog made from the sap of coconut flowers. Now let me present a more genteel locally-produced fruit wine. Bignay (Antidesma bunius) is a fruit tree native to Southeast Asia which produces clusters of little round berries. They grow wild in the Philippines and several companies make a light, sweet, slightly acidic wine from the ripe, red berries. Patubas (which is Hiligaynon for "harvest") also makes other fruit wines from duhat, guyabano and pineapple.

Refreshing

Fresh coconut water, anyone? He will first cut off the top, just enough to create a little hole from where to pour out the water—in a plastic bag, rather than a cup, and served with a straw. Then he'll cut the coconut in half and scoop out the soft meat and add it to your bag. Even unchilled, coconut water is very refreshing (although it's even better chilled, of course). When you've sipped all the water, the plastic bag is perfect for holding the meat while you eat it.

90 proof

Philippine alcoholic beverages have traditionally been made in backyard operations and you couldn't get any unless you went to the regions which produced each kind. A few companies now produce them commercially, both for local consumption and for export. This bottle of lambanog in a woven wicker bottle holder is available at Kultura, located in all SM malls, and makes for a great gift and souvenir.



Lambanog is produced mostly in the province of Quezon from the sap of coconut flowers which is cooked, fermented and distilled. Do not ever make the mistake of serving or storing lambanog in plastic containers—its alcoholic content is enough to melt plastic.

Morning zombie

7:15am. Waiting for a colleague at the Starbucks across the Ateneo de Manila University to go to a conference in Makati City. Sitting in the sun because anything lower than 24°C makes me shiver. Staring at the school rush hour traffic (grade schools and high schools usually begin classes at 7:30am). This is probably the closest I will ever get to posting a sunrise photo on this blog.

SEE IT SUNDAY: CUP

Cold and hot

Frozen cocktails, anyone? Rum and fruit juice or Kahlua? Holiday cheers to everyone! :)

Rising from the ashes

This isn't about Baang Coffee but about the mugs that they use in their coffee shops. This distinctive pottery style—the rough, speckled, natural body with the smooth, color-glazed lip—is the work of master potter Lanelle Abueva Fernando who has her studio and a garden café in Antipolo City in the province of Rizal. The speckles are caused by her use of volcanic ash from Mount Pinatubo. Back in 1991, Mount Pinatubo, located 90 kilometers north of Metro Manila, blew up in one of the worst volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. Lanelle's production of these pieces began as her way of helping the Aetas displaced by the catastrophe. She brought some of them to her workshop and taught them pottery, using the same material that destroyed their homeland in the first place. Now, it is Lanelle's most popular signature design. Each piece is handcrafted so there are never any two that are exactly alike.

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It's that time of the month when I remind all CDP bloggers to please vote for the December theme! The theme for November 1 is Doorways. I'm actually dreading this because most places here have privacy walls and I can't even see the doors, much less take pictures of them. Ach!

A lesson in marketing

Despite the popularity of commercially produced gin, rum and beer, certain regions in the Philippines still produce their unique, indigenous liquors. Of course, with questionable manufacturing hygiene, much of the liquor cannot be marketed locally, much less internationally. In the past two decades, small companies have taken it upon themselves to produce commercially acceptable Philippine local liquors so now it's not too difficult to buy tuba, lambanog (which is 80–90 proof) and basi in Metro Manila. The company that produces these two went one step further: it hired the services of the Institut Oenologique de Champagne to create a coconut wine and refine the basi so that they could be accepted internationally. Malakan'yan, which was specially commissioned for the 1998 Philippine centennial, is a wine made from the water of young coconuts. The bottle is handcrafted from real coconut shell which makes each piece unique. 1807 is basi, a sugarcane liquor native to the Ilocos region. It is named after the 1807 Basi Revolt when the Ilocanos finally rebelled against the Spanish colonial government for expropriating the manufacture and sale of basi.

Bubbly chicken

Since it opened in 1945, Max's Restaurant has been known for almost only one thing: its crispy, tender, juicy fried chicken. Drop the diet and forget about cholesterol because you just have to eat the skin of this one. Instead of regular potato, Max's fried chicken is served with kamote (sweet potato) fries. Sweet potato has a higher nutritional value than the common potato and is popular as an inexpensive snack food among Filipinos. My favorite accompaniment to their fried chicken is their pancit canton. Named for the southern Chinese province of Guangdong (Canton is the anglicized form) where the original egg noodle dish came from centuries ago, Max's pancit canton is topped with vegetables, pork, shrimp and chicken, including its lamang loob (innards), which makes it even tastier. Don't worry if you can't eat those—I can't either and just push them aside. And for a refreshing drink, a tall glass of buko pandan shake: fresh young coconut, milk, sugar and ice run through a blender and served over cubes of pandan gelatin.

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Max's Restaurant has always been popular in Metro Manila for large family parties, and I thought this would be an appropriate post because one year ago on this date, I posted my first photo in My Manila. Back then, I had no plans of making it a daily photo blog because I already had Happy at Home. I only joined City Daily Photo two months later, and silly me even registered the wrong email address so I couldn't get into the author forums until I emailed the Eric of Paris Daily Photo and he corrected my information. Thanks again, Eric! And thank you to all of you who have made blogging such a wonderful experience for me—for your comments, your appreciation, and more than anything else, for your own blogs. I truly enjoy all the blogs that I visit because of the fantastic photos and the wonderful information that I learn—about history, lifestyle, customs, architecture and nature. What some people assume as ordinary can be so fascinating to me because it's so different from my experience. When people write about their country's painful circumstances, I am always humbled and shamed, and reminded and challenged to see beyond myself and try to do some good. For all of these, and much, much more, thank you. Now dig in!

Full bodied, high calorie

I'm no beer connoisseur, but this is my favorite local beer: San Miguel Cerveza Negra, a dark lager. Unfortunately, I can't have much of it anymore for various health reasons. I had a bottle last night, and consumed my serving for the month. I know some people will call me a Philistine for having my beer with ice, but with Metro Manila's temperatures, it's the only way to keep your beer cold—unless you can drink a bottle within five minutes or you're fine with warm beer.

Unusual taste

Blissful Belly, the little vegetarian restaurant (well, it's really more like a small canteen) along Xavierville Avenue in Quezon City, has some unusual juices. The reddish drink on the left is tamarind iced tea and the greenish one on the right is sugarcane juice. The tamarind tea tasted so much like the rolled-in-sugar tamarind candy we have here, it felt weird drinking it. Amazingly, the sugarcane juice wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. Both tasted very good, but I'm doubtful of the health benefits attributed to them.

Pinoy Penman and SMB Light

Jose "Butch" Dalisay Jr. is a Filipino writer, teacher, Mac addict, gadget geek and collector of fountain pens. He was short-listed for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize for "Soledad's Sister." San Mig Light is currently the beer of choice in Manila because it's as good as it's big brother, San Miguel Beer pale pilsen, but with fewer calories—perfect for the young ones who are weight and shape conscious, and for older ones who need to watch calories for health's sake. This was taken during a writers' night at Mag:net Cafè Katipunan—art gallery, cafè and bar, which holds exhibits, indie film showings, poetry readings, improv theater, book launchings, and jazz and rock gigs. (PHOTO BY DOGBERRY)

SEE IT SUNDAY: ALCOHOL