Weekend Dinner with the Girls at the Tierra Cafe, Tierra Alta, Valencia

I had dinner two weeks ago with the high school girlfriend at the new Tierra Cafe. It's this new  restaurant that serves theTierra Alta clubhouse, the new residential resort located 15 minutes from where I live. I made a short post about their now famous lighthouse here. The developers have been busy lately, adding more improvements such as the swimming pool, the clubhouse and the restaurant. All are done with a Greek theme in mind, hence the white buildings. During the day, the entire place easily reminds me of Mariduque's Bella Roca. We were scheduled for a 7pm dinner, however, so there wasn't that much to see except the pavilion awash in lights, and the entrance to the restaurant to the left when we arrived. The restaurant is quite small, but it is cleverly divided into a booth area on the left and the tables on the right. A door at the opposite side of the entrance leads outside to a pathway that leads to the lighthouse. There's a sport's bar outside, where guests can play pool. 

The night was spent catching up. It was a windy Saturday and a three-day cold almost persuaded me not to come. But I'm glad I did. The food was delicious, and it felt good eating somewhere a little bit far from the center of the city. 

Food

I loved my yellow fin papillote. It made a grand entrance, since the waitress first served me with the orange chicken. The quick trip to the kitchen solved the problem. My papillote came in two plates, one with the fish wrapped in tin foil, still piping hot, and my cup of rice with its side of colorful fresh vegetable garnish. The others  had baked chicken l'orange, while some had the baby back ribs, which according to Darwiza was pretty popular. The back ribs were exceptionally soft and buttery, so soft that you could cut through the meat with a spoon. Serlyn had the honey glazed chicken pork  belly. All looked sumptious, and the presentation was professionally done. Everything is affordable by Dumaguete standards. If you are used to eating at any of the restaurants that line the Boulevard, you will feel right at home with the prices here. 

They had a pretty good team of kitchen staff, since our food came just minutes after we arrived. Of course, I think it helped that Darwiza made reservations for us ahead of time, so for those who want to go in and sit down to your meals a few minutes after arriving, phoning in ahead of time would be the way to go.

Yellow Fin Tuna Steak en Papillote

Baby Back Ribs

Honey Glazed Grilled Pork Belly

Baked Chicken L'Orange

 House bread and the Mango Panacotta

A short walk would be ideal if you just had dinner here. The air is so fresh, and there's a breeze that sweeps through the place and clears up the lungs. They reportedly have a problem with flies during the daytime, which is something that the management should work on, but thankfully we did not have any encounters with flies while having dinner.

The view from Tierra Alta is amazing, whether you are staying during the day or enjoying the place at night. We climbed up the lighthouse just to see how high up we were. From the lighthouse you can also see the new lagoon swimming pool which is bigger than most of the pools that I have seen around Dumaguete, and something which we still have to try in our next visit. I didn't think that they allowed non-residents to use the pool but apparently all you need is P500 for a great daytime stay here, where you can swim and eat lunch before heading back out to the city.

Pasta King Dumaguete

Today was a rainy day in Dumaguete. I was set to meet a friend for the first time for a short snack at Sans Rival  but with the rain pouring and the cold, I thought the weather was better suited for a warm, carb-laden pasta dish over at Pasta King. Pasta King is quite new, it sits a block across from Tops and Bottoms and is just a few steps away from the Rizal Boulevard. 

I am far from a connoisseur of Italian food, so I really have no idea what good Italian food tastes like. However, I do know when I like or dislike what I'm eating, and usually, it's when food is overcooked or undercooked, when it's swimming in a watery sauce, when the meat is too tough, or when the color is bland and the presentation is boring. This appealing lack of sophistication when it comes to food  has not stopped me from repeatedly eating restaurant grub that really appeal to me, whether they are authentic-anything or not. And this applies to my love for Pasta King's penne carbonara with prosciutto. After reading some reviews of others who have eaten there, most of them think that the food is really nothing to rave about, and others think that the food is surprisingly very un-Italian for a restaurant that specializes in pasta. All these reviews are good to know, since it does leave you curious about what real authentic Italian cooking tastes like. But I still like my penne over at Pasta King's. In fact, I've been there four times, and I have ordered nothing but the penne. I love the fat, juicy pasta, the salty and creamy sauce, and the thick, juicy, fatty slices of prosciutto. The serving is also very generous for P175, so you can go out full and happy just by spending a little over P200 for pasta and a drink.

Penne carbonara with Prosciutto

warm tea for a rainy afternoon

 My fourth visit was especially fun, since I was meeting Thirde, a friend from Manila who I met through this blog, and the owner was kind enough to serve us macaroons for dessert, on the house. That capped our afternoon, especially since once we got out, the sun was shining and a cool breeze was blowing, perfect for a late afternoon stroll.

Free macaroons!

I still get cravings for the pasta every once in a while, especially when it rains. In fact, just this week I had to take out an order for penne carbonara so I could have an early dinner before school. As I was riding the pedicab, the driver  kept looking at my container, and finally asked what was inside. I told him it was carbonara, and he said that it smelled really good. Poor guy, I wished then and there that I had bought two orders so I could give the other one to him. I still have to try Pasta King's other dishes. Thirde had the seafood pasta and according to him it wasn't bad, so I might try that during my next visit.

Only the Good: Human Nature in Dumaguete!

I first went looking for organic replacements for my moisturizes a year ago after reading about the harmful effects of preservatives that are often present in moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, and almost any other thing that has a shelf life past one year. Most organic products are expensive, and it can be hard finding affordable ones from trusted brands, especially since a lot of big name brands in cosmetics and body care are showing no hints that they are planning on coming out with organic lines soon. So it was a good thing that I stumbled upon Human Nature.  Human Nature is brand under the Gandang Kalikasan, a personal care company that offers all-organic hand, body, hair, and facial care products.  Aside from these, HN also has a great line of organic baby stuff. A quick look at their  website will also tell you that they also now have a line of organic coffee.

However, I only got to buy my first HN products while serving as a Gawad Kalinga volunteer in Amlan in the early part of 2012. Human Nature had set up a booth there, manned by Ate Minnie and Kuya Oliver, and that's where I came face to face with the moisturizers, lip balms, and sunflower oil that I now truly love. Other personal favorites include the sunflower beauty oil, which is great as an evening moisturizer, and the citronella bug spray, which I also use as an excellent  aromatherapy essential oil. 

The good thing about HN products is that they do not contain preservatives, and those products that should contain at least some form of preservative contains the tiniest amount, just enough to keep the product from spoiling for a shelf life of one year.This is good news for everyone, since most preservatives are chemicals that could accumulate in the body over the years the longer we use the products that contain them. The least amount of chemicals and preservatives you apply on your body, the better. 

Aside from being an affordable source of organic beauty loot for me, I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that Human Nature is closely linked to Gawad Kalinga and works in partnership with the AIDFI or The Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. In fact, the raw ingredients used in HN products are taken from the GK communities where livelihood  programs have been set up. Every time you are buying from HN, you are basically helping these livelihood programs and these communities thrive! Kewl eh? (*insert victorious fist pump here*) Social enterprise is fast becoming an attractive option for  a lot of entrepreneurs,  and for a good reason. It's really good that business people are now becoming less profit-oriented but instead are now thinking of ways to use business as a way to grow and improve communities. Gawad Kalinga and Human Nature are excellent examples of this, and frankly, we need more of these programs in the Philippines. This is perhaps the reason why Human Nature products are less expensive compared to your typical branded organic products. The focus is more on getting people to use products that are healthier for them, and this means making these products more affordable. However, these manufacturers are also working with local and independent farmers, so the trade is supporting our local growers as well. Consumers get more affordable organic products while supporting the livelihood of local farmers, and everyone benefits. 

Couples {Fritz+Dianne}

Weddings make me cry. I do not cry easily, by the way. I usually cry for puppies and old dogs, for old people begging on the streets and sad movie endings, but apart from that I don't cry. However, it gets a little bit hard to keep my face from crumpling up everytime I attend a wedding, especially a wedding that is very beautiful, one that has been planned with love and care to the minutest detail. So when Kat, a friend of mine and one of the best photographers in Dumaguete asked me to serve as her second shooter for this wedding, I did two things: I said yes, and immediately after saying that, I Googled 'How to avoid crying at weddings.' I had to be prepared. People would think it strange if they saw me crying, especially since I knew that I would not know a lot of the guests there. I have cried at weddings before, especially if the couple were people I knew, and especially if I knew of their love story. Dianne and Fritz have a beautiful love story to tell as well, although I should not be writing about that here (although that would be neat!). 

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This Dumaguete wedding was very beautiful, and I was very thankful that I only got misty eyed at church, once, thank God, and I had to wipe a tear or two during the reception, just seeing how happy everyone was. Weddings are more than just the celebration of two people coming together. It's the celebration of two worlds, two families, two groups of friends, coming together into one, smiling, beaming, singing mess. And for the families of the couple, it is a reunion of sorts. For those who can afford to have even their distant cousins there, a wedding is a time where you see an aunt who you have not seen since you were in kindergarten, or the yaya who changed your diapers and fed you until you reached Grade 1. In this wedding, Fritz and Dianne had their picture taken with the people who took care of them when they were kids, and I was immediately reminded of my yaya and how I have not heard from her in a long, long time. Weddings make you remember the people who showed you love as you grew up, and make you wish every one of them could be there at that moment. It was heartwarming seeing the couple have that in their wedding.

Perhaps another reason why it's so easy for a lot of people to get emotional at weddings is because it celebrates almost all the things we love about life. Family, best friends, good food, dancing, and if you have one of the best team of event planners in the area (Purple Parasol did a great job with this one, as expected), pretty things! I loved how they put everything together, the lighting, the stage with the hanging mason jars that each held a single flower, and even the puzzle-style message cards where guests wrote their wishes for the couple. Everything went exactly as planned, and I think the couple could not be happier.

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