Happy Valentine's Memories with my BFF and Eats So Good! :)

It's official. I've been single for long enough for me to not *really* mind all the hullabaloo of Valentine's Day. Despite all my #hugot hirits, I honestly view Valentine's Day now as a happy excuse to celebrate whatever kind of love, because yes, love comes in many other forms than just romantic, cheesy, angel-butt-with-wings-and-an-arrow love.

This year, I decided to spend Valentine's day with my BFF, GT. :)

GT and I :D

GT and I go way back. We were carefully manipulated into being friends and ending up in college council together (inside joke, sorry :p), and became close when we ended up going to the same law school. Through the years, we've bonded over our common struggles which include challenges in our career, trying to live a balanced life, and of course, pageebeeg. 

Anyway, it so happened that Team Aldous's Monse generously gave me two passes to Spectrum, a lifestyle fair that was held during Valentine's weekend. She had a booth there for Eats So Good! and invited me to try out her food. I invited GT to go with me. He happily obliged, and also me invited to go with him to a concert afterwards. It was a date!

Spectrum

The fair was held at Whitespace Manila along Pasong Tamo. We didn't have any trouble finding the place. It was packed though, so we had to park elsewhere.

Whitespace Manila.

It was a very colorful fair.

Colorful entrance.

Just before we entered, we saw people munching on some interesting food. We were excited (and hungry).

Happy people enjoying their food.

Registration booth.

The event was so pretty and colorful that I forgot about my hunger and decided to look around a bit before getting food.

We found that a mini-stage was set up inside. Later in our stay, a singer went up the stage and serenaded all the guests. :)

A mini-stage.

We also found many interesting concessionaires that offered clothes, decors, food, and many other items.

After looking around, I looked for Monse so we could finally try out Eats So Good!

There she is! :D

With Monse.

It turns out that she was there with her beau, who was also her partner in her food business. Just awww <3.

Happy couple <3

Per my chat with Monse, Eats So Good! offers salads and pastas. Monse and her beau decided to start the business out os a passion for good food. They make everything from scratch, and they have carefully selected every single ingredient that goes into their food. 

Here's the menu they offered during the fair:

Eats So Good! does bazaars and catering for now. I have high hopes for them. :)

Their food was indeed, very good. In fact, they were sold out of pastas when GT and I got there. Thankfully, though, we still got to try their great salads.

I got to try the Classic Caesar, while GT got to try Eats So Good!'s Signature Salad.

The portions of their salad were big enough to stand alone as a light meal. Both were very flavorful and were obvioulsy made with fresh ingredients.

Classic Caesar.

Eats So Goods!'s Classic Caesar is honestlythe best Ceasar Salad I've had. When Monse's beau told me that I'd forget my name once I've tasted their homemade dressing, I thought he was just hard-selling the product. But he wasn't. It was close-my-eyes-to-savor-the-taste kind of good. The dressing was very rich and creamy. The salad also had garlicky, buttery croutons, and a generous helping of crisp bacon. 

Signature Salad.

I also took a bite out of GT's Signature Salad. Its dressing was more on the light side, and was sweet and sour. The whole salad had a sweet taste, with the mandarin oranges and corn, but was balanced by the earthiness of the almonds. The ingredients of the salad gave it a very interesting texture.

GT and I both enjoyed the salads, but since we were at a fair, we couldn't help but try out the other food booths.

GT enjoying Mr. Graham's Cebuano.

Sushi Nori's Sushi Samba.

Roasted Mallows from Pufft.

GT and I ha a nice time at Spectrum. :)

Later that day, GT and I also got to enjoy a South Border concert for FREE. :D

Luke!

Working our way to get nearer the stage :))

Luke and Jay! <3

All in all, it was a happy Valentine's Day. <3 GT and I totally slayed that day, friendship style!

Be happy!

<3 Missy

My fun Valentine's: 50 Shades of Love

Hello, friends!

I know it's been too long since My last post. You see, I had to sell my Piolo (my laptop) and for the longest time I found it hard to post anything. But I'm done grieving now and in line with my theme for this year of making things happen, I am now blogging through my iPhone (find a way!). 

Speaking of making things happen, this year, I've decided to stop being a grandma and start shaking things up with my life, and that of course includes my dating life. 

It was the week before Valentine's and I still had nothing romantic planned. So i decided to take matters into my own hands. :D I googled and found this:

Ooooh, looks interesting, I thought. And it seemed pretty "safe," since it was sponsored by Click the City, among others. 

But alas! When I tried to sign up, the slots for women were already filled up. But the site did say that I should leave my details so they could inform me of future events, and I was like, why not. 

It came as a surprise to me when Telu Events, the organizer, called me up the day before. A slot opened up! Is this fate? Is this destiny? Haha. So I said yes. 

The event was held at Oz Bar, Holiday Inn and Suites. We had dinner first. At this time, the participants started to chat already. I was seated in a pretty friendly table. :) Some of the people there were "forced " to attend by their friends. One was a second-timer. I was the brave soul who joined last minute. Telu also conducted a getting-to-know-you game to break the ice. It really helped get rid of some nervousness. Well, at least for me. 

Also, Telu gave us a "speed dating kit." It had some helpful tips on grooming, small talk, etc. Pretty useful for a socially awkward person such as myself. It also gave me something to look at during lull moments at dinner. :p (will post pics of these later)

I was delighted to find out that Holiday Inn served good food. I had cream dory with potatoes and vegetables. The fish was soft and flaky and well-seasoned. The potatoes were cooked perfectly for me, not mushy but not raw. It also had pepper and eggplant, the flavors of which balanced out the saltiness of the fish and potatoes. I also loved the dessert they served later in the evening..

But wait. I'm not here to talk about food. 

After dinner, the participants were ushered to the pool area, where the fun begins. 

So the setup was there were about two rows of small tables with two chairs each. The ladies were seated in designated tables. The men would first sit    on a designated table, have their first date, and then after 5 minutes, transfer to the next. 

The participants were given a date list. We were supposed to write down the names of our dates, take notes, then check either "absolutely" or "no." If the one you said "absolutely" to checks you back, Telu will give you his contact number. 

Me and my friends at our table thought it was peculiar that dinner was served before all the dating. But it makes sense. Speed dating takes effort. It is tiring. We needed the energy. I didn't think much of it, but really, meeting 27 new people in one night is pretty tiring, but hey, it was also fun!

The most common first question is "what do you do?" I found this problematic, since by experience, once a guy hears "lawyer," he'd be like. "Oh, wow, scary tiger lady!" or, "Hey, my sister's best friend's cousin's helper is having trouble with her husband.. what should we do?" Hahaha. So I tried different ways of answering this question, like, "I litigate" (then the guy pretends to know what that is and move on), or "I work for an airline" (then I let the guy assume that I'm an FA, lol) or, my favorite, "can you guess?" (So I get what impression I give). 

Some of the answers I got were teacher, fashion person, doctor, nurse. No one guessed right. 

The weirdest question I got was "Are you Chinese?" I mean. I have nothing against China (save for the territorial dispute). But look at my eyes. 

I had pretty interesting conversations. Many of the guys were IT professionals. There was an engineer, an insurance salesman, a chiropractor, a med student, a self-proclaimed introvert, an artist, a car nut, a body builder, and a very silent seaman. :))

At the end of the night, Telu gave us keys, and we were asked to give it to the friendliest person we encountered. At this time, we were seated with our last dates for the night. My date gave me his. He got like three keys and won Mr. Popular. He also won Best Dressed. He was the sweetest guy, he gave me the prizes he won, yay! So I got a planner, perfume, and a gift certificate. 

After the event, we were given our loot bags, and a cocktail, for the after party, of course! 

Check out the goodies I got: 

But really, the best thing I got from this event is new friends. We girls gossipped a lot about the guys during the after party. :p 

So that's how I spent my Valentine's this year. :D I hope you had a happy one too!

Thank you, Telu Events for this fun night. You can check them out here https://www.facebook.com/teluevents

Be happy!

<3 Missy