First Visit to Bookay-Ukay

I’d been wanting to go to Bookay-Ukay since college when I saw a photo about it on a social networking site, but never had the chance since it was far from home and I had no one interested enough to go with me. Then came last year and I thought I finally found that perfect Bookay-Ukay buddy, but sadly, our bridges burned a few weeks after we agreed on going there together. I couldn’t brave the big Quezon City on a search for it alone so I thought my desire for book-hunting at the store went to ashes along with my “incinerated” friendship.

But then at the start of the year, I went excited ’cause my friend and fellow blogger invited me to visit Bookay-Ukay. So without hesitation, a date was marked on the calendar.

To give a good picture of what the store is about and why I’ve been meaning to pay a visit to it, let me explain its name. Bookay-Ukay is a play of words certainly thought of by its lovers-of-words owners. “Book” and “ukay-ukay”, those are the two terms. “Book”, we have no problem about its description, but “ukay-ukay” is a  Filipino term for “thrift store“, so put them together, and we’ll know that the shop sells second-hand books that are still in good condition.

Since settling in Maginhawa St in 2008, it has been visited by cool and book-loving celebrities like Saab Magalona and Mercedes Cabral. Not that I want to look and be labeled cool, I’m actually proud to border on the nerd side, but Bookay-Ukay is a must-visit simply because it has books. And cheaper ones, I must say.

I didn’t know it was so easy to get there, but still, I wouldn’t know how to if not for my friend who frequented the area back in college (She studied at Miriam College and its near there.). We met at SM City North EDSA and took a jeepney ride to Quezon City Hall from its terminal for 8 pesos each person. After that, we walked to the side of National Housing Authority and told the driver of the first tricycle in line to drop us at the restaurant Tomato Kick for 17 pesos for two persons. As soon as we got off the tricycle, we were greeted by a two-storey old commercial building, and looking at the right side of its second floor is the sign of Bookay-Ukay. We finally arrived.

Contrary to what I imagined, the store is quite small, in fact, it’s only a room full of books. Perhaps I visualized it to be like those giant bookstores Fully Booked and National Book Store, which was so wrong of me. But at least its interiors speak of what it offers, unlike the formality and plainness of its rival book thrift store Booksale. The green wall on the left is filled with doodles and other stuff like a poster of local pop punk band Kamikazee, and the shelves just below contains other stuff sold in the store like magazines, CDs, and wall clocks which numbers are in counter clockwise. On the counter next to it are key chains from Pop Relief.

Then after those, everywhere else was filled with nothing but books, books, and yes, books on the shelves resting on the remaining walls and even on the floor. Just the perfect haven for book lovers like me and my friend.

Books on the wall

Books on the floor

For some time, my friend and I seemed strangers to each other as we both engaged in separate solitary quests for the books we like. From novels, both local and international, to medical books, Bookay-Ukay has second-hand books for everyone.

While I was busy on my hunt, a couple entered the shop and as the guy looked through the shelves, I heard him mutter to his girlfriend in Filipino something like, “I’ll be out of budget again because of books.” Hello there, fellow bookworm! Nice to meet ya! I wanted to tell him, but of course, that’d be crazy. hehe.

At the end, I wasn’t able to buy myself a book (Booo! Shame on me!) as I remembered my pile of unread books at home and how I’ll just decrease the chances of finally reading them if I buy more. At least now I know where Bookay-Ukay is. Meanwhile, my friend was able to buy two books for only 350 pesos. She got James Clavell’s Shōgun and Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, and she was very happy with her finds.

My friend and fellow blogger, Claa (http://watchamacallit-claa.blogspot.com/), with her two new books (Photo grabbed from her)

Are you a fellow bookworm who loves to hoard and read books for less? Visit Bookay-Ukay today and satisfy your book addiction! 😀

 

 

Bookay-Ukay
55 Maginhawa St, UP Village
Diliman, Quezon City
Mobile #: 0905.428.3125
E-mail: bookayukay@gmail.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/bookayukay
Operating Hours: 1pm – 12pm, daily

Fine Dine with Fam @ Nagomi

Group-buying sites are blessings to both businesses and their customers.

For the businesses, these sites are the perfect spots for the promotion and exposure of their establishments, products, and services; while for the customers like me, we get to discover something new and avail them at lower prices.

In fact, it was because of Ensogo, one of the most popular group-buying sites in the country, that I discovered Nagomi Japanese Restaurant, which became the perfect venue for a dinner date with my family. And the best part is, I got the meal for four at a very affordable price.

Photo taken by my brother. I don’t know why he took it tilted. 😛

My brother, Carlo, Mom, my sister, Charisse, and me

The restaurant is located at El Pueblo Real de Manila in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, a commercial area that used to be unknown to me though I always pass by it on my way to SM Megamall. It only got to have a name when I saw Nagomi’s address and I used Google Maps to know where it is.

Anyway, the thing most worthy to take note of when buying vouchers from these sites, especially those of restaurants, is that you have to call the establishment and make reservations of usually three days prior your planned visit. So when my family and I were already standing outside, hiding and wondering if we were in front of the right place, a Nagomi crew came to us asking if we were the guests under Ms Reyes’ reservation (Hey! That’s me! I thought.). I said yes and as we all followed her to our table, I remembered what I learned about a Japanese employer’s reminder to his workers that goes, “Okyaku-sama wa kami-sama desu”, or “Customer is god” in English, because the staff’s gesture showed just that: Superb customer service.

The interiors of Nagomi is dandy and very Japanese like those ones that can be seen on movies. It’s like once you enter the place, you’re instantly transported to the Land of the Rising Sun. Even the utensils and everything else on the table have a touch of authentic Japan which got me really excited since I love anything Japanese.

Then the food. I bought the voucher for 599 pesos and for such a price, my family and I were able to enjoy and share with each other Kani Salad, Ramen, Salmon Teppan Yaki, and Sushi with cold tea. The whole bunch is valued at 1,500 pesos and is good for 4-5 persons.

The Kani Salad is made up of crab meat sticks (“Kani” is the Japanese word for ‘crab’), crab eggs, lettuce, ripened mango, cucumber, and mayonnaise. The veggies were definitely fresh and Mom loved it mainly because of its healthy ingredients, while for me, it was okay except that I disliked the ripened mango (Even on maki!) because it seemed like it was disturbing everything with its sweetness. But anyway, that’s the Japanese style, I guess. Kani Salad’s real price is 170 pesos.

Kani Salad

Then the Ramen showcases how healthy the Japanese are with how the dish is tossed with noodles, slices of meat, and various vegetables, making it one healthy meal. It was delicious and it brought warmth to my tummy because of its hot soup. I don’t know what kind of ramen was served to us, but according to Nagomi’s menu, its prices range from 260 to 340 pesos.

Ramen

The Salmon Teppan Yaki was my sister’s and brother’s favorite for the night. The dish is salmon, either grilled, broiled, or pan-fried, and bean sprouts mixed with carrots, onions, and green bell peppers, then poured with a sauce for added taste. Because they loved it, my siblings couldn’t stop themselves from requesting me to buy them rice so I bought three for us. It’s 340 pesos.

Salmon Teppan Yaki

Then finally, the Sushi Platter. It was my favorite because I love raw fish and good thing my family isn’t into it so I was able to masticate the two all by myself. The fish was really great and fresh. Nagomi doesn’t really sell the sushi in platters but an order of it costs 60 to 120 pesos.

Sushi Platter

 

If it wasn’t for Ensogo, I wouldn’t know that such a wonderful Japanese restaurant exists, and even if I knew, I wouldn’t be able to bring my family there and treat them because if you open the menu, you’ll see how expensive their offerings are. The three orders of Japanese rice even costed me already 214 pesos. But then maybe, that’s really the price of an authentic Japanese experience.

All in all, our dine at Nagomi Japanese Restaurant was memorable not just because of the sumptuous dinner that was friendly on my budget, and with wonderful ambiance and customer service, but also because my family and I got to spend quality time together laughing and chatting.

DONE. 🙂

 

 

Nagomi Japanese Restaurant
El Pueblo Real de Manila
Julia Vargas cor. ADB Ave., Ortigas Center
Pasig City
Tel.#: 635.4546 / 632.1736

Lovin’ the Right Way with Kuya Kevin’s Book

My closest friends have found my battered heart on the ground some time ago. And while most of them showed support and gave me honest opinions and advices about it, my college buddy coupled hers with a book called Basta Lovelife: Making Wise Relationship Decisions by Kuya Kevin, an American pastor/minister and blogger living in the Philippines for a decade now.

It just got buried on my pile of unread books, though, ’cause I was too busy both with adjusting to my new work and with helping myself stand up again. And besides, there’s that term “lovelife” on the title, and I didn’t need it then.

But now that time is swiftly turning the pages of my life’s book to my 25th birthday, and I’m starting to wonder if I was born for single blessedness or married life/committed doublehood, I remembered it, and so I dug my dusty pile, read it, and enjoyed the pieces of information I got from it.

Basta Lovelife answers relationship questions about love (like the right age to be in a relationship, dealing with rejection, same-sex relationships, etc.) and sex from a Christian’s perspective and with pieces of evidence from the Bible to support the ideas. Its aim is to help young Filipinos make wise relationship decisions.

When it comes to sex, those addicted to a premarital one may not like it because the book has a strong conviction about sexual purity. Kuya Kevin discusses why one should keep their virginity until the day they get married by comparing  purity and impurity with fresh water from a water dispenser and contaminated one from a freshly painted curb, and asks which one would people drink. He also tells sex is the highest form of intimacy and that each time people engage with it, they give a piece of themselves to each sexual partner, so just imagine what’s left to offer to their future spouse if they do it outside marriage. Sex even loses it true meaning in the process.

Likewise, the book may also receive a couple of eyebrow-raising from the close-minded people because it discusses the double standard in males and females. They say that men, unlike women, don’t lose anything in premarital sex. But the Bible, through Kuya Kevin’s simple explanation, says it is untrue. Men lose too; they lose self-control, intimacy, themselves, safety, and security. Men’s sex drive is also explained in the book to make it clear if it’s a blessing or a curse.

The book isn’t just being conservative. As Kuya Kevin says in the book, “I base my beliefs on biblical commandments and principles.” So if the Bible has no clear stand on a certain act, like kissing and masturbation, he doesn’t say no to it although he also explains the potential consequences of such. And he didn’t condemn anyone who has made the mistake of having premarital sex in the past. God, after all, forgives, as long as one will be committed to change.

Potential detractors’ reactions aside, Basta Lovelife is a must-read for people seeking a more fruitful relationship in the future, the book is after all made for them. If you want to be enlightened, too, about its subject and others that surround it, this book is recommended to be added on your book list. Its 161 pages sure have a lot to teach you.

 

***

I got a shocking question from a guy friend a few weeks before reading this book: What’s your opinion about sex? It was shocking because it was the first time I got such query (He even added: I can ask anything, right?and yes, he could, I guess, since I indirectly agreed to have that Q&A session with him. But still…), so I didn’t know which part of sex I should talk about, how to start with my answer, and it was awkward for me speak about it alone with a guy.

It took me maybe about a minute to compose myself before I finally said something like: I’m open-minded about it and I can talk about it with people. I don’t even have a problem saying sexual words like penis, vagina, and sex, unlike most people who bleep them, since I don’t find anything wrong with them. I surprisingly know a lot about sex as compared to what my personality would suggest, so I can talk about sex in an educational way–although I haven’t done it yet, mind you–and laugh wild with people dropping green jokes all the time. But I won’t do it. (I just find it fulfilling to be knowledgeable about any stuff foreign to me, but no applications, please. It’s way too early for that.)

The texts on the photo sum up my stand on premarital sex.

Later on, I started questioning myself with my answer, thinking maybe I was way too conservative that I’m now missing a lot in my life. But as I read Basta Lovelife, I began feeling proud of myself and my beliefs and I decided to hold on to them tighter ’cause I know that I’m on the right track. The book is now a favorite. 🙂

Visit Kuya Kevin’s blog at: kuyakevin.blogspot.com

 

Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.

–William Penn

Don’t Get Stuck on My Tongue, Stackers!

On the night I created Words of Happinest, I promised myself never to write any negative entries, except for some personal sad thoughts and misfortunes, which importance in this blog is explained on the Categories page and tagline–… with an occasional fondle of woe to help us appreciate good times more–but never bad reviews about the books, films, products, places, and establishments I have experienced.

If I didn’t like it, I would just shut up. That’s the rule. But I like to make an exception today. Why? Maybe because I love burgers so much that it’s such a disappointment to eat one today that is far from being satisfactory, so I deserve to rant about it. Besides, this may be a good prelude to my upcoming Food sub-category about burgers. So that people would know how serious I am about my beloved burgers. hehe

Okay. So here it goes…

A colleague and I went to work without eating breakfast, and so as foodies, we decided, along with another co-worker, to order burgers for that morning which later turned into our lunch since we called in late. We had three options to choose from: Good Burgers, Army Navy, or Stackers Burger Cafe, which we found on this other co-worker’s so-called “black book” that contains leaflets of various food establishments.

Stackers Burger Cafe is said to offer Auss’m Burgers

Stackers was a stranger to us, but Good Burgers would open at 11am, while Army Navy ceased delivering around our area, so we thought of trying the alien just to satisfy our early burger cravings. It actually doesn’t deliver food, too, but multi-restaurant delivery service City Delivery could do the job for them. So everything was settled then.

The delivery was perfect, it arrived just in time for lunch break. But I just hope what we ordered were just as perfect. Oh well, I guess such a thought would already be asking too much. 😛

Honestly, I was pretty excited about this new find that I even brought my iPod Touch to our office pantry to make sure I capture my first ever Stackers Burger Cafe experience.

Picture 1: The packaging looks just like most burgers

I had the Pepper Burger which costs 185 pesos. It’s pricier compared to Army Navy’s Classic Burger (165 pesos), but the latter seems bigger albeit both restaurants use quarter-pound beef patties (Well, not all for Stackers offerings, but for its Pepper Burger, supposedly, yes). Maybe it’s because the former uses 100% Australian beef–which I can’t exactly tell apart from McDonald’s patties? Maybe. Anyway, I love the patty, I can’t say anything bad about it ’cause it tasted just right.

Another which I can’t comment anything bad about are the mayo, fried crispy bits, and the sautéed mushrooms (I’m an avid fan of mushrooms no matter how they’re cooked), I had tasted them just fine. But then there goes its bun that kept on sticking to my teeth. I had to cover my mouth every after bite just to remove them.

As for the veggies, they were a disappointment. I love lettuce, tomatoes, and onions on my burger but the ones on this are totally off. The tomato was okay, but the lettuce wasn’t fresh, in fact, it was already dark green and I think it tasted like Chinese cabbage. Then to my dismay, the onion strips were cooked. I love the taste of raw onions even if they leave a lingering smell on my mouth even after I brush my teeth. They’re one of my favorite parts in a burger, but since the strips on this were cooked, it lost its flavor. Sad.

Picture 2: Pepper Burger is made up of lettuce, mayo, pepper crusted patty, mozzarella cheese, tomato, sautéed mushrooms, pepper steak sauce, onion bits, topped with fried crispy bits

Picture 3: The bun that kept on sticking to my upper teeth

Then do I have to say something about the pepper steak sauce since it was named after it after all? Hmm. I honestly can’t recall how it was now or if it even had a taste, maybe it was somewhere along the average line.

But, oh, I can surely make a remark about my colleague’s burger. She ordered the Crazy Burger which costs the same as mine, yet apparently, it tasted worse. It was quite shocking to see her border on the mad side when she had her first mouthful of it, but I instantly understood why when she had me taste the dotted white sauce which is actually the cheese and grained mustard. It was sour at first, but as it dissolved on my tongue, it started to taste awful in the mouth.

Our other officemate had a simple Stackers Burger for 105 pesos and she didn’t like the bun either.

Overall, I think it’s quite obvious that I’m not going to try and eat any Stackers food in the future (But come to think of it, maybe it has something to do with us not dining at the restaurant itself…? I don’t know, that thought doesn’t make sense. O.o). Maybe it was just me or maybe Stackers and I just didn’t click, but I’ve read other bloggers’ entries about it and they weren’t saying anything spectacular about it either.

Oh well, after finishing mine, I had the feeling I could still eat a Big Mac since my tummy wasn’t sated at all. And if before I didn’t need to eat merienda after having burger for lunch, this time I found myself craving for a McFloat and large fries to make up with my tummy and taste buds.

Lychee Sprite McFloat and large fries from McDonald’s

Aaahhh… What to do without McDonald’s? Hehehe.

P.S. Let’s just say I wrote this post to keep anyone who’ll read this happy. Just imagine, now that you’ve read about it, you’re saved from ranting about it yourself. 😉

What’s Small but Terrible? It’s Cherry Mobile’s P8!

Amid the people crowding and drooling over big and technologically advanced cellular phones from giant companies, my friend and I showcased our uniqueness and went for the small and cute, yet surprisingly capable one from a starting local firm.

Cherry Mobile’s P8 – 1,199 pesos

It all started when my friend-slash-officemate came to my place at work and excitedly told me about a cute phone she saw the other day that she thought would match our unique taste. It was the Cherry Mobile P9 and we searched for it on the Internet and it really was cute and totally inexpensive. We promised each other we would buy one each as part of the signs of our friendship, but on our next pay day because it wasn’t part of our budget as of then.

Then came weekend and we went to one of her cousin’s home and saw her niece’s phone which looked like the one we ought to buy soon. We borrowed it, placed it on our palms and got impressed with its size, then checked its features out, and since then we couldn’t get it off our minds.

So when Monday arrived, we looked for the phone in Eastwood during office lunch break, then SM Megamall after work. It was quite a frustrating hunt, with every store had it out of stock, until we saw the Cherry Mobile booth in SM Megamall’s Cyberzone, and then YES! We saw our perfect phone! Not the P9, though, but P8 which is actually better. P9 looks like a calculator, while P8’s like a toy but really, really cute and more of an eye candy.

The Pros 

Cherry Mobile’s P8 is a tiny gadget packed with goodies. At the price of 1,199 pesos, you get a dual SIM phone that is also MMS, WAP, and GPRS capable. Then though its colored LCD is only 1.44 inches, its user can still view photos taken from its 1.3 MP camera and if one wants to, can transfer them to a computer since P8 also has a Micro SD slot that can accommodate up to 4GB! And the camera has options for: photo size, night mode, brightness, contrast, exposure, white balance, and effect. Nice, huh?

Not only those, who would’ve thought that such a small phone has Bluetooth, FM radio, can play audio and video, and even record voice and video? Almost everyone I showed it to in the office find it really impressive and one even already bought her own.

And with all the dangers on the streets expensive phones bring their owners, Cherry Mobile P8 offers no risk at all. I can wave mine freely everywhere without any fear that some bad guy or two would take it away from me. I’m too confident about this since I don’t think snatchers would sell their souls to the devil for such a price. hehe.

It’s also available in various colors: pink, blue, white, black, green, grey, white, and yellow.

The Cons

Now there’s a downside to everything. Due to its size, this phone is not advisable to people with big thumbs ’cause they’ll surely have a hard time with it. And the keypad isn’t QWERTY, which means if you are to type letter O, for instance, you will have to click, click, click on key 6 first to get it, then click, click on key 9 for letter X.

When it comes to sounds, P8 is quite decent until you listen to music through its earphones–Errr… That is if you have ears like mine, that which is sensitive when it comes to what has good quality and what hasn’t. But if your ears aren’t, I guess it wouldn’t be a bother.

And if you’re into applications, obviously this isn’t for you. In fact, I think I have decided to make this my phone because I have an Apple iPod Touch, and only the SMS-sending capability is missing in it, so P8 is the perfect fit for that gap.

If you don’t mind the few negatives, you can definitely go for this phone and I recommend it. 🙂

Established in 2009, Cherry Mobile is fairly new to the local IT business but it already managed to snag the IT Company of the Year award at the 2010 CyberPress Awards.

My friend and I with our Cherry Mobile P8. (Photo grabbed from Boss Deth Alegre)

Don’t Go Fading

Wrist slitting. The first thing that springs to my mind whenever I come across the word suicide, and far as I know, it’s the most stupid method to choose if you’re really decided to end it all.

Okay, suicide itself is outright stupid, but committing it by cutting the wrist makes it more foolish because:

1. I read that most people do not die from it (Maybe because they didn’t do it the right way. Some say the slash must be done horizontally or vertically or whatever. Try criss-cross.);

2. Unless you’re a masochist and incredibly morbid who wants to watch yourself bleed, I don’t think anyone would enjoy dying this way. And basically, you kill yourself to end your misery, right? So why choose that one that’ll take its time in bringing you to the finish line? You should choose a suicide method that’ll get you dead in a wham;

3. It’s messy! Just imagine the blood stains that you’ll leave on your bed sheet (assuming your attempt worked). It’s too gross, and don’t be selfish, it’s heartbreaking enough to lose someone/a loved one, so don’t make other people’s feelings worse by making them clean the evidence of the disgrace you did.

Oh no. Before you get any ideas, no, I’m not suicidal or anything. The reason why I thought of this madness is because I read about the high suicide rate in South Korea today. There was even a report that said that South Korea has already surpassed Japan when it comes to this.

As I read about it in the office, I was pretty okay because it was just an info I got to know, so I thought that life would go on. But when I got home and I still couldn’t get it out of my head, I started to get sad for the Koreans and feel lucky that I’m from a third-world country.

A The Korea Herald or The Korea Times News article that I read said that when the democratic Korea wasn’t rich yet, the nation’s suicide rate was one of the lowest in the world. But when the globalization hype started, that’s when the increase began.

Overworking is one of the reasons for this. To be globally competitive, one must work extremely hard, so that’s what they have been doing. Koreans would willingly work long hours everyday (Yes, even past the regular working hours, I’m just not sure if they get paid for overtime.), which means they get less sleep.

Likewise, students don’t get enough rest, too, because each day, after their regular schools, they still need to attend hagwons (or cram schools), and they take not just one subject. There’s this Korean that shared on the Internet that he takes five hagwon classes at the moment. He only takes two in a day, but they’re still two—two additional subjects aside from the ones being studied in school each day. Of course, when they get home they still have to do their assignments and study for the next day, which means they get to sleep at around two in the morning, and wake up at 5am, I think. I don’t know how they do it, but they sure are hard working and competitive. I can’t even imagine myself doing that. No, not in a gazillion years.

And oh, they have something about sickness, too. Whether they’re workers or students, they all continue with their everyday lives even if they’re sick. The explanation for it is that showing utmost effort and diligence are just too important for them that they’ll only get themselves absent if their illness is already leading them to the verge of death (maybe that’s a little exaggeration on my part).

Depression is another reason why South Koreans commit suicide. Alright, every person around the world gets depressed sometimes, but I think it’s on a different level in this country. Psychiatry is still a taboo for Koreans (or so I read), meaning going to such doctors would automatically make others think that they’re insane, so they’d rather stay away from help and keep to themselves. And we all know what happens when we keep everything inside. So that, couple it up with overworking and you get people saying goodbye to the world permanently.

I don’t know what you think about this bit of knowledge, but it sure got me affected. I just find it ironic that they work hard to make their lives the best, but in the process, they give up and end that very thing that they’re working on.

P.S. Even a simple chit-chat about veins and wrist cutting makes me writhe and cringe like someone’s actually trying to lacerate me, so taking a photo of my wrist is never easy. And to make my feelings worse during the “photo shoot,” I got to see my veins protruding like they’re saying hello to me (and they have the right to since it was the first time I ever paid attention to them). It was actually good as far as the photo is concerned because I think (I think) it stressed my point about wrist slashing, but the feeling I got! Ughhh… It took me a couple of takes to get that shot ‘cause I kept on producing blurred pictures, and you know why. -_-‘

*Originally posted on my Project 365 on August 3, 2011.

Heaven on My Palate, Whore’s Style

Along Maginhawa St, Teacher’s Village in Quezon City is a restaurant with the best puttanesca I’ve ever tasted.

But wait, what is puttanesca? In the Philippines, I find some people who bleep its first two syllables because it sounds like the first two syllables of probably the worst Filipino swear term. I find this act weird and irksome, but I just discovered that they were somewhat right in doing so since they really mean the same thing.

Puttanesca, or spaghetti alla puttanesca, is the name of an Italian pasta which literally means “whore’s style spaghetti” (Yes, it’s the “whore” part that people censor). There’s no definite reason as to why it is called such, but one of the hearsay has it that it smells like the cheap meal prostitutes serve their customers back in the day. Anyway, this pasta is made up of black olives, garlic, tomatoes, onions, anchovies, and olive oil.

I’d been hearing and reading the said dish on restaurant menus, but I used not to care what it was until my friend suggested we eat at Friuli Trattoria, a small restaurant that serves affordable yet definitely yummy Italian dishes, when we were in Maginhawa St, Teacher’s Village in Quezon City. With the words “Angel” and “Hair” just before the magic word, the name finally caught my fancy so it was what I ordered. And oh boy, I didn’t regret my choice!

The restaurant’s version of puttanesca has the usual tomatoes, capers, anchovies, and olives, but instead of using spaghetti, its pasta is capellini, a variety of Italian pasta similar to spaghetti, only thinner, and I believe better, thus, the term “angel hair”.

I’m not a fan of pasta ’cause I’m more of a rice person, but this one became my instant favorite. Its sauce is poured generously enough making me savor every mouthful of its rich flavor, in fact, I could distinctly taste the deliciousness of anchovies (I love seafood!). I also think choosing angel hair as its pasta has to do with its supreme taste, you know, the thin strands give way to experiencing more of its sauce than the pasta itself, which is truly celestial. Just a theory, though.

Anyway, I fell in love with puttanesca because of this that I promised myself that I’ll cook the same one of these days, and it led me to ordering the same dish in Bigoli and Pizza Hut. So far, Friuli Trattoria’s is still the best! I recommend everybody to have a taste of it! ❤

It’s affordable, too. For only 130 pesos, an order, served with a slice of garlic bread, is already good for two persons.

Friuli Trattoria’s Angel Hair Putanesca

Our other two orders were Spaghetti Carbonara, served with a slice of garlic bread, too, at the price of 130 pesos for my friend, and an eight-slice Mushroom Pizza, which comprises of four different kinds of mushrooms (My favorite!) for only 185 pesos for both of us.

Spaghetti Carbonara of Friuli Trattoria

Mushroom Pizza. YUM!

If the street isn’t far from my place, I would dine at Friuli Trattoria over and over again so I can endlessly satisfy my taste buds! Visit the restaurant, too, and discover heaven on your palate and its other offerings! ❤

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Friuli Trattoria
79A Maginhawa St, UP Village, Quezon City
Tel. #: 434 .1416
Operating Hours: 10am – 2am, daily

 

 

 
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REFERENCES:
POPSUGAR
Wikipedia
I Love QC