The First Maid Cafe in the Philippines

This is Meidolls, the first maid cafe in the Philippines where the waitresses are dressed in cute maid costumes worthy of an anime cosplaying party. Meidolls is at the second floor of the building just across the Rublou shopping plaza near the Brookside jeepney stop in Cainta, Rizal (UPDATE: In 2012, the restaurant had moved). You can see the interior of the restaurant from the outside of the building through a long glass wall fronting the road. The management of the cafe had relocated to this front unit from a smaller one on the same floor that's hidden from view.

The interior of the Meidolls maid cafe is quaint with a television in the corner where a maid or two usually sings or dances. The large counter in one corner is where all the food is prepared and served from for ease of service. The restaurant has just enough room for maybe two or three groups of people and a few pairs along the side. The tables and chairs have short, or no legs at all, to simulate an authentic Japanese dining experience. Once you open the door, the "maids" inside greet you in traditional Japanese fashion and attend to you almost immediately; at least, as long as they're not busy attending to other guests.

The maid servers call all diners "master" and they are summoned with the ring of a counter bell on each dining table. Just tap the bell and they come to fulfill your dining needs. They can even perform a little song for you (see images), if the timing is right. It's all about fun dining and you can even play an eating game - with a corresponding order of course! Meals are easy to eat and fun to look at. The colorful menu says it all. If you want to, you can even have your meals prepared to go. But then if you do that, you miss all the fun.

UPDATE: In 2012, the Meidolls maid cafe restaurant closed down.

Boracay, Wet and Wild in October

This is a Queens Blade Airi Black Maid Costume Statue just for you maid-loving anime figurine collectors. It's impeccably detailed and you know at a glance that she's a maid. The question is if she's out to serve or out to serve your head on a plate! Click here or on the image to order this fine anime maid statue with a huge scythe for your collection!

New Year Firecracker Air Pollution in the Philippines

Smoke from firecrackers spent on the midnight of Dec. 31, 2010 linger the next day.

Here are a couple of pictures that show the aftermath of the new year celebrations for 2011 in the Philippines. At left is what the streets of a residential area in Rizal looked like about an hour into the new year, and the above photo shows houses the next day at 7:30 am shrouded in air particulates that resemble fog. The limited visibility is the result of millions of firecrackers that have been lit and exploded on the midnight of Dec. 31, 2010. That means a lot of smoke from burned firecracker powder and it can linger for days in many parts of the country.

Pinoy Carbonara pasta recipe

These are not your typical Peanuts ceramic collectibles. They are actually the Peanuts Holiday Salt and Pepper Shakers! Click here or on the image to place your order!

Write articles and earn continuously. No kidding! Hindi ito biro!

Bibingka and Puto Bumbong: Philippine Christmas Sweets

When it's Christmas in the Philippines, it's the time of year when you can buy lots of bibingka or sugar-glazed rice cakes baked under hot coals and puto bumbong, a pasty snack made from glutinous rice cooked inside pipes or tubes (traditionally made of bamboo). These two traditional foods are served and eaten hot, often served with shredded coconut. If you go to a local cathedral, you will likely find them being hawked in the streets in stalls with makeshift ovens that make use of hot coals on galvanized plates placed over either clay or concrete stoves.

Shown here is a bibingka and puto bumbong stall near the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Batangas City. Cooking bibingka cakes must be done carefully; in other words, it has to be timed. Otherwise, the cake can get burned and the customer may end up with one or two with blacked sugar glazing. Puto bumbong, on the other hand, must be cooked just right or it will turn too sticky and harden quickly if served too soon or too late.

If you are visiting the Philippines this Christmas season, getting a taste of these delectable and tasty treats is a must. Ask around so you know where you can get the best of these treats.

Delicious Tuna Egg Foo Young (Philippine torta)

Little girls can make their own sweet treats with this Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery Cake Maker kit. Yes, this will get your little doll on the right path to being a baker. Click here to order your Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery Cake Maker Kit!

Asphalt Overlays Sink Roadside Houses in the Philippines

Roads in the Philippines are slowly raised by repeated asphalt overlays that sink houses and buildings beside the roads and cause flooding inside residential and commercial lots.

Have you ever seen roads in the Philippines that are almost as high or even higher than the sidewalk? There's plenty of those in Metro Manila and even provinces like Quezon, for example, there are roads there that have been overlayed repeatedly with asphalt by local governments for years so some of the roads are now higher than the sidewalks! The same problem can be found in Rizal where asphalt overlays are applied over major roads even when there's no need for an overlay. During election periods, this practice is common.

At first, this practice seems helpful in that it keeps construction budgets to a minimum, but in the long term, it becomes a problem to motorists and to houses and other structures beside the raised roads. When the sidewalks are repaved, for instance, they are constructed at a higher level to match that of the road already elevated with too many asphalt overlays. This technically results in the "sinking" of the houses and other buildings by the roadside. The causes flooding in the rainy season in many residential lots that ended up below the level of the road and sidewalk. For motorists, the ditch created between the asphalt and the sidewalk becomes a motorist's nightmare. In one incident, a motorcyclist take a spill when his front wheel slipped into the ditch and he fell with his head almost getting run over by one of the front wheels of a jeepney.

Poor supervision of construction of overlayed or repaved roads and sidewalks sometimes lead to blocked driveways which was the case of the parking lot of a church in UP Village in Quezon City, which was blocked by a new sidewalk after the road was repaved at a higher level than the old one. One car which used to pass through the driveway ended up with the front wheels "hanging" and meeting only air. The driver wasn't aware the new sidewalk had blocked access. The church had to remedy the problem with a concrete ramp inside the compound. In other places in the same area, wheelchair ramps were added to the sidewalks (in accordance with the law), but some are useless because of their steep angle and some ramps even go up against an obstacle that blocks any wheelchair from getting through!

The Department of Public Works Highways (DPWH) engineers and construction people must consider the negative effects if the roads being maintained are raised with asphalt overlays along with the sidewalks. They need to consider two things: too much asphalt overlays cause flooding in the properties beside the roads, they affect accessibility, and they make the roads dangerous. Because of frequent asphalt overlays, some roads in the Philippines get higher by several inches every few years, and the roadside also continue to sink. Philippine lawmakers should pass a law that specifies that roads and sidewalks should not be made higher than the sidewalk and roadside properties unless there is a valid reason.

The Gotohan sa Hardin restaurant in Ortigas Road Extension in Rizal is already sunken due to multiple asphalt overlays and higher sidewalks. It gets submerged during heavy rains.

Boracay View from a Departing Plane

Barangay Yapak of Boracay Island from a plane departing from Caticlan.

It's hard to leave Boracay Island just when you're starting to have fun in the sun, sand, and shore! But when it's time to go, you just gotta go and the only final souvenirs you can get are the pictures of the island that you manage to catch as your plane departs. Shown here is a picture of Barangay Yapak of Boracay Island. It's where some of the more expensive resorts are located and you can see some of the condominiums and golf courses that go right down to where the white sand beaches are. See how the beaches are naturally partitioned in some areas? That should make the pockets created more private!

At the upper right side of the picture on top is part of Carabao Island, the larger neighboring land mass near Boracay that doesn't get as much media attention and hype. Here it is at the left in a picture that shows a complete view of the island. It appears more tree-covered unlike Boracay which has been developed into a mini cosmopolitan community. It was a fine day when these photos of Boracay and Carabao Islands were taken - one which came after consecutive days of dark clouds and rain.

What is Boracay in October like? Find out here!

Want to have fun on the beach in Boracay? Then take this canned beach ball along! Click here or on the image to order your own colorful Instant Beach Ball!

Bulalo Served in Tagaytay Is a Hot Treat

Tagaytay City in the Philippines is famous for it's meat market. It's said that the best meat in the province of Cavite can be bought at the Mahogany Public Market. The place is crude, but it's there where you can buy good beef meat that's affordable. In front of the market is a long row of eateries or turo-turo in the local language. The term literally means to point repeatedly, and that's exactly what a customer usually does when he points to the food he wants to order. In a turo-turo food store, what's on the menu is lined up front to make it easy for customers to see the food for themselves.

Shown here is the famous bulalo stew of Tagaytay City. It's basically a beef leg bone soup with long string beans and cabbages seasoned with salt and black pepper corns. It's simple, but it's delicious and perfect for hot, steaming rice. Everyone loves a bowl of bulalo in Tagaytay if the weather is cold. The bulalo meat may be dipped into fish sauce mixed with a local lemon called kalamansi. For some kick to the sauce, you can add some red chili. The bulalo pictured here was ordered from an eatery called Moi's Little Ronamar Canteen. It serves complimentary mini bananas on the table.

So you like beef? Then here is an item that you must definitely be salivating for by now! It's the beef bandage assortment pack! It's bandage that you use for scratches and other wounds on the skin. They look like real beef steak! Click here or on the image to order your beef bandage tin pack.

Sweet and Sticky Suman of the Philippines

Suman is a Philippine desssert or merienda that's made from sticky glutenous rice cooked in salted coconut milk extract (called gata) and water. It is conveniently wrapped in a cut banana leaf which makes it easy to eat like a banana. Suman is sticky and oily so one may need some napkins while eating them. Nevertheless, suman can be so delicious you may just do away with the tissue paper!

Suman starts out as rice that's cooked in coconut milk (gata) until soft and sticky. The coconut milk gives a pleasant and appetizing taste to the suman. If you want the suman to be sweet, you can add sugar to the mixture. A simple rice cooker can be used to prepare the suman. But the product wouldn't be "suman" is if isn't wrapped in banana leaves! If that's the case, that would be kakanin (local sticky sweets made of rice) similar to another Filipino delicacy called biko, which is laid on a bilao (flat woven basket) and sliced diagonally into square or diamond sections.

The banana wrapper can be sourced from locally-growing banana plants. Otherwise, the leaves can be bought already prepared from grocery stores and the community market (palengke). If you want to prepare your own banana leaves. cut them into squares just big enough for your suman. The pieces are then heated over an open flame to soften them up. The leaves will turn darker over the flames but do not let them burn!

To wrap the suman, take spoonfulls and drop them into each leaf. Each should appear like paste from a tube and should be big enough to be held in one hand. After the suman rice are all wrapped, place them in a pot filled with water and allow to boil. You should then let it simmer for about 30 minutes, after which the suman should be done. You may prefer to cook your suman rice without sugar. You can just add coco jam to your cooked suman for flavor while you eat!

Learn about the Philippine sweet potato or kamote

This freeloader fork is perfect for those times when you fear there won't be enough food left for you. It's ideal for hotdogs, sausages, and suman! Click here or on the image to order this fine freeloader fork that expands up to 2 feet!

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