Neon clock tower

Eastwood City is a 16-hectare real estate development of Megaworld Corporation near the crossroads of Quezon City, Pasig City and Marikina City. It's a high-density development with office buildings, condominium towers (currently ten), and a commercial and entertainment center which they call 'City Walk.' When non-residents like us go to the commercial center though, we just say we're going to 'Eastwood.' The place has movie theaters, a bowling alley, and a shopping and dining complex which I think is one of the most interesting in the metro, design-wise. The clock tower figures prominently in many of Eastwood City's marketing materials. It'll probably be used in the materials for that new condo going up.

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It's hard to believe that tiny little bodies can hold so much energy! It's only been two days since my sister and nieces arrived and I'm already exhausted—although in a very happy and satisfied kind of way. I'm just so glad they're not three little boys!

Local

Manila has a local version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame: the Eastwood City Walk of Fame, located in the mixed use complex that is Eastwood City in Quezon City.

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Calling all City Daily Photo bloggers yet again! Time flies by so fast and it's less than a week until our next theme day. The theme for February 1 is Wood. (I'm going to like this one again. I love the many textures of wood!) The poll for the March theme closes on January 31, so please vote and spread the word!

Global support

This is a slightly different view of the residential and commercial condominiums in Eastwood City from the photo which I posted back in October. Eastwood was one of the first land developments in Manila that specifically targeted the business process outsourcing industry, providing their buildings with advanced high-bandwidth and fiber optic telecommunications systems. Dell International Services, which provides customer care and other support services for Dell users, has a center in the Eastwood City CyberPark.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Charming, but…

Eastwood City Walk's concept as a shopping area is charming. It was made to look like a cobblestone street lined with three-story buildings on both sides. In truth, it's really just two long buildings connected on one end, but they change the design of the facade every few meters. Each building has wide promenades and even the second level has open corridors so you can look out over the 'street.' There are also balconies in some of the third level spaces to reinforce the illusion of being in a genteel European street. Unfortunately, what makes Eastwood City Walk charming is also the reason why it never succeeded as a shopping area. With the heat and humidity of Manila, no one wants to walk up and down those open corridors to go window-shopping. How many people actually go shopping with a particular item or store in mind? A few specialty shops are still there, plus some cafés and restaurants, but they're all only up to the second level—I haven't seen a shop on the third level in years.

Zombie plaza

One of the few industries that continues to grow in the Philippines is business process outsourcing (BPO). The most common services offered here are customer contact services, finance and accounting, and human resource. Eastwood City (the same place with the pretty mall) was one of the first property developments that offered office buildings specifically targeted to the BPO industry. E-Commerce Plaza is only one of the eight there and collectively, they're called the Eastwood City CyberPark. Now, why my title? Well, with clients from all over the world, most BPO companies operate 24/7, especially call centers. All their employees get assigned the graveyard shift at one point or another, hence the nickname for them: call center zombies.

Yet another

Looks like the lovely shopping and dining promenade that is Eastwood City Walk is not enough to serve all the residents and tenants of the many condominium and office towers of Eastwood City. Megaworld, the property developer, recently opened Eastwood Mall in the middle of a ring of towers, some of which are still being constructed. Some of the shops in the Walk have transfered to the mall, including the cozy A Different Bookstore (whose new store is no longer as cozy, unfortunately). The shops and restaurants in the mall are more upscale (Crisostomo is on the second floor of the mall, just above where the young girls are) and seem to be targeted to 40-somethings and older, while those at the Walk are trendier and younger. I guess I don't fit in their demographics—I still like the Walk better.

Boombox

The dining, shopping and entertainment promenade of Eastwood City frequently has bands performing in one of several plazas. The Eastwood Central Plaza is the biggest of them, with the stage, café tables and chairs under a huge tent. Many of the concerts held here are multi-band events, and this is where my husband and I discovered some great local jazz groups several years ago. The last time we were in Eastwood, there was a rock concert titled 'Boombox Live' and it was colorful, foggy and loud! Maybe a decade ago, we would have stayed and screamed along with the young ones but… We just took a peek then skedaddled out of there. I also had to do a little web search to find out if Boombox was the name of the event or that of a band. It was the event—the concert featured a dozen Filipino rock (Pinoy rock) bands. Boombox Live 2008 was in early October, hence the 'living sculpture' in the scarecrow costume.

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I would just like to share a beautiful contest site with you all: World Challenge is an annual global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses around the world which show enterprise and innovation at the grassroots level. I summarized the 2008 nominees in Creating hope. Please take the time time to read it or, better yet, please visit the World Challenge website. As a member of a blogging community that features the varied sights of cities and towns all over the world, I'm sure you will appreciate what these people are trying to do.

High and low

Looking out across the rooftops of some of the upscale residential subdivisions around Capitol Hills Golf & Country Club from the roof deck of Dencio's Bar and Grill. I've already posted a photo of the building being constructed on the right, which will become the tallest building in Katipunan Avenue when it's done. The cluster of buildings on the left is the residential and commercial condominiums of Eastwood City. These are all in Quezon City, but the farther buildings in the middle are already in the Ortigas Center of Pasig City.

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Calling all City Daily Photo bloggers! Our theme for June 1 is Funny Signs. That should be fun! And don't forget to vote for the July theme!

Bene, good, 좋은, masarap!

Caffé Bene, a Korean coffee shop chain, is now in the Philippines. So far, they only have one branch, located at Eastwood City. I only had a sip of it, but their Misugaru Latte, a roasted multi-grain drink, is really good. I want to go back soon for a full mug, when I'm not so full from a leisurely lunch with friends—their enormous honey bread concoctions also looked very tempting.
 

Legs

I just wanted another photo of Eastwood City Walk, the unique dining and shopping center whose design I like so much. It wasn't until I uploaded the photo that I noticed the two guys sitting across each other on the benches just beyond the arch.

Find more Odd Shots—or post your own—at Katney's Kaboodle.

Book aquarium

Last theme day, I showed you the cozy corner inside A Different Bookstore's Eastwood City branch. This is what the shop looks like from the outside. You can't see the couch from this angle—it's on the left side, near the back. The bookstore doesn't have its own café inside but there's really no need for one anyway. To the right of the bookstore is a Starbucks, across it is a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and along the open-air promenade is a Café Xocolat. You'll find me at Coffee Bean with a mug of tea latte. The bookstore is open until midnight, and the cafés—well, we've never stayed out there long enough to see them close shop.

Splish splash sploosh

In the mall that doesn't look like a mall that is Eastwood City Walk, this fountain stands in the middle of a round plaza called Fuente Circle surrounded by cafés and restaurants. The powerful jet actually produces waves in the basin and causes the water to splash out the sides. I love the sound it makes.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

A mouthful

Back in 2009, I posted photos of a lunch that my husband and I had at the then-new Crisostomo Restaurant at Eastwood Mall in Quezon City. Now I discover that they have three additional branches: one in Muntinlupa City and another in Pasay City, both of which are part of Metro Manila. The third one is in Santa Rosa City in the province of Laguna. I looked at photos of the interiors of all the restaurants, and I can only describe them as "modern turn-of-the-19th-century Filipino-Spanish" design. It's an awkward description, but the results are quite charming.

Holy House of Mercy

Macau's historic Santa Casa da Misericordia was built in 1569 and was the region's first house of charity. It provided a home for Macau's needy elderly, orphans and the widowers of sailors lost at sea. It is now a museum of charity. What has this to do with Manila? When we went to Eastwood City, it had a promo going on: every thousand pesos (I think—I just remember it was high) spent in its shops or restaurants would give you a raffle ticket for a chance to win a trip to Macau. This ten-foot model of the Santa Casa da Misericordia was promoting that promotion. No raffle ticket for us—I just wanted some Go Nuts Donuts.

Sunday lunch

It was my husband's birthday last Sunday and we decided to try the new Filipino restaurant of chef Florabel Co at Eastwood City. Crisostomo, which boasts of "turn of the century Filipino cuisine," is named after the main protagonist of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere." All of its dishes are named after other characters in the book and even the servers and busboys wear name tags of characters in the book, not their own names. One thing you have to remember about Filipino meals, whether it's Filipino cuisine or not: food is meant to be shared. In Crisostomo, the dishes are served 'family style,' which means that they are placed in the middle of the table and each person is expected to serve himself. Actually, even in non-family style restaurants where your entire meal is on one plate, it is not unusual for Filipinos to dip into each others' plates. Anyway, enough about Filipino eating customs—let's eat!

The appetizer: Ostra Maestra, Elias' Choice – oysters with garlic and cheese. There were two other choices available for the oysters, one of which was raw. In fact, I suspect that Elias' Choice was not baked either but that melted cheese was spooned over raw oysters. Very fresh.



The drink: fresh buko juice. With the coconut meat sliced and served in the glass too. Of course, you'll have to use a fork to eat the slices. I think that coconut juice (some call it coconut water) is pretty good for cleansing the palate between dishes with strong flavors. Filipinos will also tell you that buko juice is very good for the digestive system, but I have no idea how true that is since I have never read a medical report about it.



The rice: fried garlic rice. No Filipino meal is complete without rice. Crisostomo has different kinds available and if you order the basic steamed rice, you can have as much of it as you want.



The vegetable dish: Noli Me Talong – tortang talong (eggplant omelet) with kesong puti (white cheese). Kesong puti is a local Filipino cheese traditionally made out of carabao's milk. The carabao (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis) is a type of water buffalo important to Filipino farmers as a plow animal and as a means of transportation.



The fish: Bella Bandida – panfried bangus (milkfish) belly with burong mangga (pickled green mango). The green mango was mixed with a little bagoong (shrimp paste) too.



The prawns: Doña Victorina – prawns in aligue (crab fat) and gata (coconut milk). Cholesterol heaven. And yes, the prawns are served whole. I don't think I've seen a restaurant here serve prawns that have been shelled or deveined. It's just not done. The butterfly cut is acceptable though. Of course, it takes some practice to learn how to remove the shell with a knife and fork.



The dessert: Kapitana Maria – frozen Brazo de Mercedes. The traditional Spanish-Filipino Brazo de Mercedes is a log-shaped pastry of meringue (egg whites and sugar) with a cream filling made out of egg yolks, sugar and milk. Admittedly, Brazo de Mercedes is not a very flattering name for a pastry—it means Mercedes' arm. Use your imagination. Kapitana Maria has a cookie crust, is frozen and drizzled with caramel sauce. I think it's better than regular Brazo de Mercedes.