Your Travel Concierge

07/25/2024

07/24/2024

"Success cease to exist if not together."

Be it in sports, politics or relations.

04/11/2024

Incredible!

12/10/2023

A Message From Robert!

02/01/2022

Happy lunar new year!

01/14/2022

01/14/2022

Break of dawn... this is country living.

01/13/2022

12/29/2021

.....Not alone anymore?

12/17/2021

Let's all put back Christ in Christmas!

"Christmas is you, when you decide to be born again each day and let God into your soul.

The Christmas pine is you, when you resist vigorous winds and difficulties of life.

The Christmas decorations are you, when your virtues are colors that adorn your life.

The Christmas bell is you, when you call, gather and seek to unite.

You are also a Christmas light, when you illuminate with your life the path of others with kindness, patience, joy and generosity.

The Christmas angels are you, when you sing to the world a message of peace, justice and love.

The Christmas star is you, when you lead someone to meet the Lord.

You are also the wise men, when you give the best you have no matter who.

Christmas music is you when you conquer the harmony within you.

The Christmas gift is you, when you are truly friend and brother of every human being.

The Christmas card is you, when kindness is written in your hands.

The Christmas greeting is you, when you forgive and reestablish peace, even when you suffer.

The Christmas dinner is you, when you gave bread and hope to the poor man who is by your side.

You are, yes, Christmas night, when humble and conscious, you receive in the silence of the night the Savior of the world without noise or great celebrations; you are a smile of trust and tenderness, in the inner peace of a perennial Christmas that establishes the Kingdom within you.

A very Merry Christmas for all those who look like Christmas.

- Pope Francis message

(Above is a re-post.)

10/03/2021

07/08/2021

A story worth sharing...

The Story Behind the Aristocrat Restaurant

"Bakit, nahihiya ka ba sa mga aristokrata mong kaklase sa Ateneo?” ~ Aling Asiang, to her eldest son Andy (ca. 1936)

July 6, 1975. Exactly 46 years ago, chef, entrepreneur, and founder of The Aristocrat restaurant Engracia Cruz-Reyes, fondly called Aling Asiang, passed away in Manila at the age of 83.

The young Asiang was born in Navotas on April 16, 1892 to a poor family. Her mother was a street peddler who sold food condiments and fruits, and later managed a small neighborhood eatery (carinderia).

Though she was able to complete only four years of primary education, she developed her cooking skills at a young age, having to prepare the meals for her five younger siblings while her parents were out working for a living.

In 1912, she married a young lawyer from her hometown, Alexander Reyes, who in 1948 would be appointed as an Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court.

To augment her family's income as her husband struggled to establish his legal practice, Cruz-Reyes set up in 1928 a small carinderia at Calle de Marques de Comillas (now D. Romuáldez, Sr. Street) in Ermita, Manila.

She named her eatery Lapu-Lapu (after the Mactan chieftain who defeated Ferdinand Magellan in battle), adopted a native motif as interior decor, and served primarily Filipino fare. These nationalistic manifestations especially stood out at that time considering that the Philippines was then under American colonial rule.

By the 1930s, Aling Asiang was selling adobo sandwiches at the Luneta out of a car loaned to her by a future son-in-law.
Her reputation as a cook had also grown due to the home dinners she had cooked for many of the leading political figures of the day, friends of her now-prominent husband. According to her granddaughter Millie Reyes, "Lola Asiang had 16 children, plus their friends, who would sometimes eat in their house, and the guests whom Lolo Alex would entertain, since he was a justice at the Supreme Court at that time."

By 1936, Aling Asiang operated a rolling store — a mobile restaurant featuring a menu stacked with traditional Filipino dishes — which she initially wanted to name “Andy’s” after her eldest son who was studying at Ateneo de Manila (then in Padre Faura). After he refused, afraid of being teased by his elite friends, the upset Aling Asiang decided to just name the mobile canteen after his “aristocratic friends." And so it became “The Aristocrat."
After operating the first Aristocrat in a Studebaker van for two years, Cruz-Reyes opened a permanent restaurant along Dewey (now Roxas) Boulevard in Manila.

One of the oldest restaurants in Manila today, The Aristocrat had a name then that was considered ironic, for during that period, Filipino cuisine was not considered yet as appropriate fare in the homes of the Filipino elite. (If they only knew the story behind that ironic and pointedly witty name.)

With its original menu featuring Adobo, Dinuguan with P**o, Arroz Caldo, and a Chicken Sandwich, the restaurant was immediately successful.

By the 1950s, the menu had expanded to feature the present-day specialties such as Kare-Kare, Chicken Honey, Crispy Pata, and, of course, Chicken and Pork Barbecue. Aling Asiang, as narrated by her son Joe Reyes, developed the famous Aristocrat barbecue out of a need to prevent losses of utensils, so she served the barbecue on sticks.

And how can one forget the variation on the adobo sandwich Aling Asiang used to sell at the Luneta? Coming home from a trip to America in 1950, Joe told his mother about the latest food craze due to UFO sightings, which inspired her to introduce the Adobo Flying Saucer. Today, it continues to be one of Aristocrat’s bestsellers.

The popularity of The Aristocrat also helped usher a renewed popularity of Filipino cuisine as worthy "first-class" fare, a reputation Cruz-Reyes enhanced by her insistence of serving such dishes in the dinners she was often called to cater at Malacañan Palace.

Aside from being a restaurateur, the "Mother of Filipino Cooking" was also active in the cause of women's suffrage until Filipino women were granted the right to vote in 1937. During her lifetime, she was the recipient of several honors, including the "Mother of the Year" award from President Ramon Magsaysay.
Her clan has remained active in the food industry and have put up restaurants, from the mid-priced Alex III by one of her grandsons to the luxurious Round Table (at the Sunken Gardens, Intramuros) by her son Joe Reyes.
In the 1960s, her son Joe built The Plaza Restaurant at the Makati Commercial Center. It housed five concept restaurants: Willow Court, a Chinese restaurant; Plaza Café, a French restaurant; The Plaza Royale, a smorgasbord or buffet concept restaurant; Branding Iron, a steakhouse; and a Presidential Hall that could fit 800 people for big events.

Teresita Reyes, her eldest child, created "Mama Sita's," a line of sauces and mixes meant to bring the taste of the Philippines to countless Filipinos abroad who longed for real Filipino food.
In 2008, the family opened the Culinary Institute of Aristocrat, a cooking school accredited by TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) that offers technical and vocational education and training programs.
As for Aling Asiang's "The Aristocrat," according to the online entertainment and lifestyle guide ClickTheCity, aside from the flagship restaurant located along Roxas Boulevard in Malate, you can have your Adobo Flying Saucer at the following malls and locations: Robinsons Place Manila (Ermita), SM City San Lazaro (Santa Cruz), SM City Manila (Ermita), SM Mall Of Asia (Pasay), Jupiter Street (Makati), Subic Bay Freeport Zone (Zambales), Ultimart Shopping Plaza (Laguna), and SM City Dasmariñas (Cavite).

POSTSCRIPT: In celebration of the centenary of her birth in 1992, a commemorative stamp was issued in her honor by the Philippine Postal Corporation and a street in Ermita was renamed after her.