The life of pie

Grace and I really do think alike.

Before leaving Tagaytay, we talked about where we could have lunch. Since we had a heavy breakfast and planned to do some serious snacking on the road, I suggested that we try out Project Pie in Alabang.

"'Yan din exactly 'yung i-su-suggest ko!" Grace exclaimed.

So, Sunday afternoon found us creating and savoring our bespoke pizzas.

The truth is, the task of creating your own pizza isn't as simple as it seems. When you're in front of the counter and faced with all those cheeses and toppings, it really takes time to figure out what you'll put on the pizza. But as daunting as the task was, we gamely put our chef's hats on and started creating.

Grace immediately went for the hams. She loves prosciutto and that was a must for her. After that, she piled on more mean, olives, mushrooms, green pepper and several types of cheese, and voila! Here's the Grace special:

Mark, on the other hand, started with cheese. He was overwhelmed by the cheese choices that he asked that they add mozzarella, parmesan, provolone and blue cheese. To keep it from being too cheesy, he also added different types of meats, olives, green pepper and some herbs. And here's Mark's cheese and meat pizza:

When it came to my pizza, I thought that I'd go more "gourmet" - which is a euphemism for "weird." I thought of all the possible pizza combinations, and avoided them. What I ended up with was a pizza that had olive oil, mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and feta cheese, then I added anchovies and chicken, topped it with roasted red bell peppers and caramelized onions, and to amp up the weirdness, I asked them to add dried cranberries, walnuts and crushed garlic. The result was a sweet and savory pizza that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We had so much fun experimenting and trying out each other's creation that we hoped we had more space in our stomachs to try out another pizza. Alas, we were eating the entire day, so our stomachs were fully expanded by this time.

But we left Project Pie with the promise that we'll be back soon, and we'll be more bold and experimental next time.

Follow the shepherd

While we didn't really have an itinerary for this Tagaytay weekend trip, we had a list of things we wanted to do:

1. Eat bangus at LZM

2. Buy tarts at Rowena's

3. Drop by Good Shepherd for their Lengua de Gato

Numbers 1 and 2 were easy to do. We had LZM for dinner - a hearty dinner at that, and there was a Rowena's store in front of the hotel. So, the only thing we needed to do was drop by Good Shepherd.

It came as a surprise to us that Good Shepherd actually moved already. I remember that their shop used to be located near the area leading to People's Park in the Sky. But we found out that it's now located along the Sta. Rosa road, and is right smack along the highway. How convenient!

While they've changed locations, the look and feel of the place is just as I remembered it. They still had the Good Shepherd statue at the front of their store.

The area where you place your orders is as organized as always. There weren't a lot of people when we arrived, but the crowds started to swell in a matter of 15 minutes.

The new Good Shepherd store was much more spacious. It had these ramps that went up and down which makes for good exercise.

And the parking spaces now are much wider, which was the usual problem of the old store. Not only was it spacious, it was also easier to maneuver.

On this trip, we discovered that aside from the Lengua de Gato, Oatmeal Raisin Chews, Buko Tarts and Ube, Good Shepherd also had great food offerings.

Their fried lumpiang ubod is so, so good! It had the right crunch, a generous amount of filling, and the most divine sauce I've had in a while. (Yes, divine is an apt word to describe something that comes from Good Shepherd.)

We also tried the turon with ube and langka, and yes, it was a hands-down winner! I devoured a pack of these goodies in minutes! It went well with their buko-lychee juice and guyabano shake which Mark and I ordered.

By the end of our 30-minute stopover, we were completely full! Not only that, our seats were almost full of Tagaytay goodies as well.

The weekend was simply so wonderful that it deserves a follow-up really, really soon.

Another destination

While we were having this photo taken at Odaiba, I realized that Grace, Mark and I have been together in 3 different countries already (well, 4 if you count the Philippines.) And although we've been there in separate occasions, all three of us are here now in one destination.

First, there's Hong Kong, then, there's Bangkok, and now, we're in Tokyo!

Now I wonder where our next adventure will take us.