Renzie Visits Mandarin Oriental's Club Lounge

more from the Food and Travel notes of Renzie Baluyut.

My good friend Sasa flew in from out-of-town last week, and so we took time out to meet up and do some catching up. While we've met up already for a good round of tale-swapping and general chit-chat the Sunday before, we thought we still had some more stories left, so she invited me over for cocktails at the Mandarin Oriental.

Turns out that the Club Lounge at the 17th floor is such a great place to hang out. But only if you're checked in at Mandarin's 15th to 18th floors. So anyway they have these comfy sofas and seats all over- you can go ahead and pick a spot- and quite an interesting selection of cocktails going on.

Sasa and I had some of these canapes, as well as some waldorf salad, and these appetizers of chicken breast and air-dried beef. You can get pretty much whatever drink that was laid out on the counter as well- local beers, juices, soda drinks, bottled water. I got me a Sprite Lite and a couple of glasses of wine.

On another table there was some pork satay, some breaded shrimp, and some Spanish chorizo sausages. You also had an assortment of sliced fruit, and some bowls of cold Japanese soba noodles if you wanted some.

Upon request, the attendants could also bring in chips or nuts to munch on (which would have been great with beer), but I think we had enough to last us the rest of the evening. I did, however, get myself another plate of food, some of the cold soba and some fruit.

All in all, it was a fine evening. Also managed to get some photos as you can see.

The Mandarin Oriental is located right along Makati Avenue. If you need to check it out, you could visit their website right here.

The Mandarin Oriental, Manila
Makati Avenue 1226 Makati City, Philippines
Tel (+632) 750.8888 / Fax (+632) 817.2472
www.mandarinoriental.com

Cheers, everyone!

Renzie is Back with More Food Stories!

It's been a rather hectic two months for me- my brother and his long-time girlfriend of 9 years finally tied the knot last month, and a big group of relatives flew in from Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston and the UK.

It was loads of fun- like an extended family reunion of sorts. We took them around Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces, took a lot of pictures, did a lot of shopping and hanging out and swapped stories over good food.

So that's pretty much a whole lot of stories since I got back from Los Angeles. A lot of stories to share on this blog, with lots of photos as well:

• Mom and I visited Butuan City- my very first time, actually. So much to see, and so much to do, to my surprise. Had I known, I should've booked myself for a longer stay. Lots of great food adventures there.
• Mom hasn't been in the Philippines in sixteen years, so naturally she's gone all nostalgic, and just HAD to get all the Filipino food she's been craving for!
  
• Naturally, when all my aunts, uncles and cousins flew in, we had to show 'em what a great place the Philippines is- and they had a blast shopping and trying out all these great food places.
• We might have taken Chowking for granted around here, but Mom was amazed how different it tastes from the Chowking she's frequented in Los Angeles. I gotta say, it's her favorite Pinoy fast food place now!
• Spent a week in Zambales, mainly to celebrate my grandfather's 84th birthday and also to spend time with my cousins- many of whom I've only seen after several years, some of whom I've only seen for the very first time- but it's all been fun and memorable.
• One of the more fun things was getting everyone's pasalubong- welcome home gifts- together. We visited all these cool places with great Filipino stuff they'd like to share with their friends back home, or just to munch on until the next visit.
  

So that's a lot of blog entries I'll be working on for the next several days. It's been lots of fun, and there's just so much to share.

Cheers, everyone!