Cold Weekend-er

Lipa's "bed" weather did not disappoint. The wind was howling during the night. It felt like there was a storm, but the wind lulled this family to sleep until late morning the next day. The kids slept like logs and had to be woken up. 

The weather is great! How I wish we could always wake up to mornings like this. It’s such a treat to not have to use the aircon and even the electric fans the past days. I’ve just read in the morning paper that temperature in Baguio dropped to 8.1 degrees yesterday, the coldest in five years.

I am happy to write my second post for the year in this cold morning weather. I want to share about the weekend getaway my family just had. We drove South from Manila to our favorite weekender spot – to Lipa, Batangas. We go there every so often to visit with friends. On this recent trip, we were really thrilled to have experienced the near-Baguio “brrr” temperature. My kids who sweat easily and do not get to wear their sweaters back home despite cooler temperatures, had to put on extra layers in Lipa.

Upon reaching Lipa, we noticed that the car was registering almost the same temperatures outside and inside, 22 and 21 degrees Celsius. It was awesome! That got us excited as we expected the temperature to drop further into the night. The northeast monsoon or what we know as Amihan did not disappoint us. It got colder indeed. We were out (literally out in an open space) chatting with friends while the kids ran freely at 11pm. I thought that that “brrr” experience compensated for my longing for Baguio last Christmas. And I was very thankful.

I have a soft spot for Lipa. It is my mother’s birth place. We used to visit with relatives back in the 80’s. Our relatives are mostly in Mataas na Kahoy, a place named as such because of its high elevation. I remember going there during fiestas and distinctly remember how cold it was in the barrio/bukid, particularly in the mornings. Some years back, my husband used to frequent Lipa because of work, through which he met what is now his small circle of very select friends. Before, we would even contemplate retiring there when we are old and in our sixties. It’s the weather, the people, and the food that make Lipa a nice place to think about spending our sunset years in. It doesn’t hurt to plan early, you know. Hehe. :-)

When in Lipa, we never miss going to the small restaurant Goto sa Barangay for their Batangas goto and fried murang isaw (cow’s intestines). Their goto is nothing like the usual one I also love to buy from the fast food chain Goto King. It is not rice-based, consisting only of cow’s entrails boiled with onions, garlic and pepper, and served very hot with lots of fresh onion as topping, and fish sauce with calamansi and red chilies (siling labuyo) for the dip. I totally crave for this each time. It’s perfect with steamed rice. One cup is not enough. That yummy, yes!

My super favorite one-of-a-kind Batangas goto, and Garrett's favorite pancit canton. We love it here at Goto sa Barangay, Lipa.

Batangas folks are known for their hospitality. We are lucky to have friends who go out of the way to prepare delicious, mouth-watering dishes for us, like chicharon, sinaing na isda, and mais na gulay. We were treated to dinuguan and grilled fresh pig liver, a pre-taste of the food feast the following day for the town fiesta. We got the best puto (rice cake) from the town of Rosario, to dip in the 'bloody' delicious dinuguan. And to top it all, we had the famous kapeng barako to enjoy before and after meals, in the cold weather. Add to that the laughter and stories shared, and we really had a fun, relaxing weekend. 

L-R (clockwise): Kapeng Barako - Batangas local coffee; grilled liver, fresh from a newly butchered pig; my son Garrett with our host, Jet.

We are a family that likes things and places that are familiar, and so we tend to patronize the same restaurants and hotels. Sometimes I wish we were more adventurous. But then again, we come back to the same vacation spots for a reason, and we go home never disappointed. And so, for this trip, we preferred to stay again at The Suites at Mount Malarayat. It is within the Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club and Residential Estates. There are these Suite Buildings (named after trees – Narra, Yakal, Tanguile, and Kaimito ) with rooms which can be booked online for overnight stay and extended vacation. It’s affordable. Last year, we booked via Agoda and got a standard room for only Php1,800 all in except breakfast. This time we got a bigger room in Kaimito Suites, and the rate was not also bad at Php2,787, net of tax and service charges. Breakfast is extra, but you get your money’s worth at their restaurant with a nice view of the golf course.

Malarayat Golf and Country Club

What the kids look forward to is swimming in the large pool. No matter how cold it was.

Aside from pool, there is a playground where my kids also love to spend time at. The playground is not fancy or big, consisting only of a couple of slides, swings and climbers. It’s nice because there’s lots of greenery. With the sun above and the canopies of trees offering shade, you are sure to go home with lots of beautiful pictures.

I know I am sounding like I am being paid for advertising the Mount Malarayat Country Club. This is not a sponsored post, obviously. I am not a blogger that way (I wish I were though!). But I like to share it with you, just in case you’d be interested, and by now, are mulling a weekender in Lipa. You will not be disappointed, but of course you have to keep your expectations in check, and not compare it with the hotels in Manila or other big cities like Cebu and Davao. The bathrooms are clean. The furniture is run-down, and the beds are not the comfy-soft type of mattress you have at Shangri-La, Holiday Inn, or at whatever your favorite hotel is. But all in all, the package would be worth the price. And the weather until February will surely make it worth the drive.

The drive by the way is very smooth via South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) toll gate. It only took us 1 hour and 30 minutes going home, covering a distance of around 90 kilometers. We left at 6:45pm on a Sunday.

My Hands Smell Like Garlic

Here I am, guilty of being on fb (again through the course of the day), using the laptop this time, in a semi-office setting, complete with a table and an office chair. I’m also browsing other sites I find myself on almost everyday – Rappler, Blogger (reading blogs I follow; happy to have recently stumbled upon Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop), Instagram, ADB mail (just checking), among others. While browsing, I lean on the table with my elbow, cupping my chin with my palm, and I smell g-a-r-l-i-c. I’ve just cooked dinner.

It’s a late discovery for me – this love for cooking. I didn’t know I could really cook (almost) everyday. The rewards are immediate and fulfilling, making up for the lack of "formal" work (housework by a mom is informal :-)) and pay. Relatedly, I used to kind of dread doing the grocery, having to go through all the aisles of the supermarket to replenish pantry and fridge supplies every other week, and I just hated my infrequent trips to wet markets. 

I feel different now, like I’m really kind of morphing into a full-pledged homemaker. But not the stereotype of old. I would like to associate myself with the younger ones in their late 20s and early 30s, whose social life is largely based on social media – mommies who are actively fb’ing, instragram’ing and even blogging and joining online forums. Ooops, this topic needs a separate blog post. (There are security issues being discussed globally on whether parents are screwing the digital identity of their children by posting pictures and other information, and unknowingly creating a mess even before these children reach an age when they can decide what identity/personality to put out publicly. I am concerned, of course. But, again, I’m veering away from the topic of this post.)

Shifting back to my main topic – I have taken a real interest in cookbooks, cook shows, chefs, and food in general. My husband worries that I am starting to really fill out my clothes and stretch (some inner) elastic bands such that bulges appear where they hug so snugly. That’s the downside of good, home-cooked meals. Oh, well! Look who’s talking! He is also getting bigger. Uh-oh!

My birthday is upcoming, and I am cooking! Wow! There’s always a first time! I am going to prepare a dinner consisting of:

- Salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, and fruits with vinaigrette dressing 

- Spaghetti in mushroom sauce – adapted from the recipe on the package of Clara Ole Pasta Sauce (Mushroom).

- Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti Aglio Olio (Garlic and Oil)

- Mediterranean Fish Tacos

I am also inspired by Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives via her book, Eva’s Kitchen.

And then there are these other books which I thumb through to get more ideas. 

Cooking per se is not difficult. It is actually thinking of what to cook on a daily basis that poses a challenge, and cooking for picky children make it not only challenging but, at times, stressful and frustrating. The good news is that my son, who unlike most kids, has never really liked spaghetti, is now eating spaghetti with gusto! He cried when I told him, around the time before I had temporarily stopped working, that we would be dining out less. He used to like eating out a lot, but now says he prefers to eat at home, and is requesting that I just cook for him on his birthday. True, I am not exaggerating. :-)

The recipes I have tried are mostly of Food Network’s Rachael Ray. I like watching her 30 Minute Meals show, and her recipes really turn out well.

When I cook Filipino dishes, it is also easier for me to just google, which turns up a lot of Pinoy chefs’ blogs. Everything about cooking is just a click away.

I think the real challenge is to get the ingredients. Feta, ricotta and other cheeses, vegetable broth, canned chicken stock are nowhere to be found in the area where I live. And zucchini is P300+ a kilo! Yup, prices are also limiting to a large extent. But moms are creative with budgets. I try to offset, like I wake up in the middle of the night to wake up my daughter and lead her to the bathroom. This way we save almost P500 on diaper. Oh, things just round up in the end, everything is connected.

But what makes my son like my cooking more? It’s because of that one ingredient – love. Love means more attention to details and the process, from buying ingredients to plating. It makes all the difference!