Dessert at La Crèperie

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You have probably spotted this quaint French tea salon and pastry shop if you've passed by the second level of The Veranda at Robinson's Galleria. I won't be surprised if you already find it enticing just by looking at the facade. To be honest, I got completely intrigued and my eyes were glued to it until reaching the escalator area.

 

I'm happy that hubby and I spent a little date here one Sunday afternoon. Both the place and menu were excellent because all I really want is to sit down, enjoy our conversation and indulge with a toothsome dessert. After all  it's weekend, time to relax our minds from work. We owned the place for a few minutes and so I took as much photos as I could. 

 

They absolutely have posh design ideas inside. The entire place was properly lit and these long hanging lamps created an illusion of having tall ceilings. I see yellow, including my shirt, all over the place and can imagine blossoming sunflowers and golden honey. 

 

You can also see neatly pasted artworks on the glass walls, probably a few of the pastries they offer.

 

La Crèperie also offers boutique catering through Madeleine Boutique Caterer. Now I dream of English Breakfast tea in vintage little tea cups with the girl friends. The life!

Their menu offers a do-it-your-own set of crepes and have decided to try Mango Nutella with Vanilla ice cream for Php 235. I was swept over by the entire beautiful place that I missed to order my favourite Blueberries and Cream. That gives me enough reason to come back here very soon. My order however did not disappoint. It looked pretty thin from the outside but just as I was about to slice the sides, I realised how my crepe was overfilled with mangoes and yummy Nutella. Scrumptious until the very last bite.

 

My wide smile from ear to ear, unquestionably a satisfied customer! Sure enough will try the Le Gastronomiques and Toasts next time I come here. And if you plan to visit soon, make sure to bring that camera for some selfie happy snapshots!

 

La Crêperie 

The Veranda, Level 2 Robinson's Galleria 

EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City

Foodspotting: Don Henrico's

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After two hours of strolling in the mall one Saturday, we decided to take our late lunch slash merienda at Don Henrico's in Glorietta 1. It was past 2pm but all the other restaurants we've passed by were still full at that hour. I was advised that we were the third on the waiting list so I was kind of worried that it may take more than thirty minutes to get a vacant table. So while waiting, I took wacky photos of my Mom and daughter. Look how my cute little one posed like a K-pop wannabe! I also liked this 18th century-inspired ship wheel wall decor, for a while I've thought of Gulliver's Travels.

My eyes had a feast observing every details of the interior like this brick wall message board on my far left and how they used different shapes, colours and designs for tables and chairs. I feel and see "balance" more when some things are not uniform.

I was challenged to explore more as soon as I held the menu. It was awarded Gold Brand in 2012 so there must be something great for a foodie like me!

After taking our orders, I was told that pasta and pizza will be served in 20-25 minutes. Oh, great! But since we were comfortable in our seats and my daughter started singing her ABC's again and again, I didn't mind another waiting time. I must commend that our drinks (two glasses of iced tea and 3 glasses of water) were served right away.

{ Bottomless Iced Tea Php70 }

Another commendation for having our meals served in less than 15 minutes! Here's what we got and you might think that these were plenty for two persons. Ha ha! I really intend to make extra orders as a take out for hubby.

{ Tutto de Mare Pasta Php290, to share serving }

{ Fish and Chips Php280 }

{ 10 inch California White Pizza Php280 }

The whole food experience was delectable! The linguine pasta was indeed al dente, even Mom agreed on that. And the taste was superb! I can absolutely taste the herbs plus I did not need to count the shrimp and squid in it. I should know since most of the time I prefer ordering seafood pasta. It truly felt like their chef did a home-cooked pasta just for us. Our fish and chips were perfect too, they were grease-less. The fish inside was that soft,  like it melted already even before chewing it. I wasn't sure if there's anything special on our pizza or I was just preoccupied with my Tutu de Mare. We made the right choice to dine here and there must be a next visit with family and friends.

Don Henrico's

Glorietta 1

2/F Glorietta 1, South Dr

Ayala Center, Makati

(02) 511-1542

Cookie Butter by Go Nuts Donuts

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I was purely impressed upon first seeing Gonuts Donuts' branch in SM Makati located at the Ground Level. They were adjacent to the mall's entrance/exit doors so they are strategically visible to a passing crowd of customers, but what makes them a head-turner is their market-wise product display.
Plus their clean window stands were packed with colorful and mouth-watering donuts, each smothered with a generous amount of toppings.

A selection of iced or hot coffee and non-coffee drinks will also greet you as you reached the counter, truly a perfect addition for your donuts cravings. And when I say "cravings" - let's excuse the diet memorandum in the meantime.

No wonder they even captured my little one's attention, who suddenly gasped "I love donuts!" as if talking to the tray full of colourfully sprinkled donuts. That was by the way our first time to hear her say those words. Awesome!

 

But this post is actually dedicated for the scrumptious and much talked about Cookie Butter donut. In the past quarter, we were stricken with the cookie butter phenomenon, flooding our Instragram timelines with Speculoos-stained-spoon  or unopened Speculoos jar photos. Everyone, all of a sudden, wants to hoard cookie butter jars  and I didn't know how or where to order, which is somehow fine because they say it's just overrated. That didn't stop the hype though! So when I was invited to finally try Gonuts Donuts' Cookie Butter flavor, I said to myself, THIS IS IT!

And.it.was.love.at.first.sight.

I took home a dozen treat of Cookie Butter donuts. 

Such a happy day for a rookie cookie butter monster me! Ha! 

Surprisingly, they accept deliveries too!

See the amount of thickness and the evenly distributed cookie butter spread on them. They were that thick and consistent but I did not experience that icky feel, like when you eat a spoonful of some greasy peanut butter from our local groceries. When I opened the boxes as soon as we got home, it was soft and quite melted due to scorching heat, so I preferred cooling it in the fridge for a few minutes (like the ones below) to avoid a messy one-on-one donut sesh. 

Check out this much closer picture. It is honestly more tempting when you see it personally. Though I believe it has the right amount of sweetness, I think it is best paired with a hot, dark coffee to neutralise the taste. Due to over excitement, I forgot to ask the price of the Cookie Butter donut but I'm guessing it belongs to their Prima donuts or the most expensive line.  

Gonuts Donuts Cookie Butter Donuts are available at these branches: Market! Market!, SM Mall of Asia, SM The Block, SM Makati, and Shopwise Arcade Araneta.

Thank you so much Gonuts Donuts for allowing me to try them. 

Will surely recommend it to dear family and friends.. 

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Girl Thing: CoverGirl Lip Perfection

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As previously mentioned, makeup is never my regular purchase. I like trying them on whenever I see perfect shades for my skin tone but most of the time, I just back off and leave empty-handed. It's also my favorite eye candy whenever I do online window shopping but never really ended purchasing as much as I'd love to. It seems that I've turned out very kuripot nowadays that I even do our household budget in Excel format so I can easily spot which row/column is about to hit the benchmark. Yes, that's true! 

But of course, that doesn't mean we should limit ourselves with some not-so-expensive fancy stuff all the time. That's how I literally felt when I saw this lipstick shade from COVERGIRL. 

I've been eyeing for that perfect red on my lips, something that doesn't make me look too snob or ehm, sulky? More like channelling Dita Von Teese like this one. She's one of my fashion pegs in my dreams.. ^^ I tried three lipstick brands that afternoon but COVERGIRL's Tempt Seduction won my heart. 

 

It comes in a bronze, metallic finish tube. Nothing really special about the packaging but I am very much impressed how it gives the right amount of moisture on my dry lips. One thing that scares me off buying a darker shade of lipstick is that most of them leaves us with dry, chapped lips after removing them regardless of the cost. 

 

The pigmentation is highly recommended too! I'm not a makeup aficionado (how I wish though), yet this one made me feel like yeah I can't paint my lips so easily and desired result is clearly there. If there's one lipstick you can wear with your little black dress, less make up and just a statement lipstick - this should certainly be added on the list. For the price of Php395 per tube that stays long lasting even after sipping a grande-sized frappuccino plus dinner, that's what you call a score!

I believe it looks almost twice pigmented in reality in just two application both on upper and lower lip. Imagine a cherry red lips - that's how it exactly turned mine. Here's the complete selection of COVERGIRL Lip Perfection - check 'em out ladies!

Tell me about your latest lipstick purchase! ^^

xx,

OneGutsyMom

Why Is It Hard For People To Choose?

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That's a tough question especially if what was asked cannot be simply answered by picking A, B, C, D or all of the above. It happens to me when I'm lost for words or I feel pressured to give an answer straight away. For instance, when people offers to buy you food and you can't give a specific answer. Thus, resulting to the infamous line - "kahit ano" or "any" in English. But, if you are that person who took the initiative to buy someone else's lunch food, you'd probably 1.) get annoyed 2.) return the money back or 3.) throw back a sharp, talk-to-the-hand look and walk out.

So, what do you think should we do to avoid such scenario?

• Listen when people talk or ask. Don't just hear but pay attention to it. Aside from the fact that it was taught in Good Manners 101, you are more definite to provide a better choice when your ears transmitted the question accurately to your brains. That leads you to giving an answer with so much sense. This sounds funny but someone before can't give his choice because he didn't get the question. He just assumed he heard it correctly. 
• Know what you really like. Again, this is tough, but maybe for younger people. I work with professionals on their 30's or so and same goes with my friends, so that already gave us enough time to know ourselves, at least beyond the basics. If not, well that is another serious problem. 
• Take your time. But I did not mean forever, hello?! Digest the question and tell the other person that you're still thinking. 
• Stick to what you always or previously choose. This is always the safest. Though it's good to be experimental at times, it only takes us to a point where our mind turns blank. You have no idea about the other selection which makes the decision-making more difficult, but still you choose something foreign from the list. And what's worse is when you end up paying for something extremely disappointing. Perfect recipe for disaster!
• Ask. The person on the other line may have suitable ideas for you. It won't hurt to give in to a few suggestions plus it also saves time.
• Don't just jump into the bandwagon. Some people turn to this just so they don't end up behind. I usually do this in choosing gadgets. There is surely one thing you want that is uncommonly appreciated by most. It doesn't have to be the most unique or hard to find but should at least meet a certain criteria that only you have set.
• Decline courteously. That is if all else fails. At least, you don't pass on the burden to let them choose what they want for you. 

I'm still thinking of a few more action steps but these could already be a little help. Looking at the bullet points, it looks applicable to many facets in life that involves decision-making noh? Planning to make ligaw or give sagot to your manliligaw? This one's for you too! ^^

xx,
OneGutsyMom

HEAT by EDSA Shangri La

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Today, I'll be taking you back to my favorite buffet restaurant in a resort-like environment experience. I'm talking about HEAT by EDSA Shangri La Hotel in Mandaluyong City. According to their Facebook page, HEAT stands for Healthy, Eating, Amazing, Taste. This restaurant boasts internationally trained chefs offering Asian and continental cuisines in 13 open theatre kitchens, freshly prepared or cooked à la minute. Wow theatre, I could imagine trumpets, red curtains and a vast stage! They have a dining capacity of 426 seats, including outdoor patios with garden and pool views. To make these statements more visually convincing, check out my snapshots during one of our dinners not so recently.

The Food:

Cheese, bread and cold cuts station

Salad bar

Sushi and sashimi showcase

Seafood showcase 

Filipino station

 

Asian wok and barbecue kitchen

 

Dessert bar + Ice cream, fruits and native sweets station

The verdict:

I am impressed how they prepare our food right on the spot - everything in its transparent form so to assure that what you are about to eat is fresh and clean. The staff are very courteous and they make themselves readily available in assisting our needs. The entire restaurant is clean, well lit and most tables are clearly set as soon as the guests leave. The food is more than impressive and how we all wish to have all the time to taste everything in small portions. If I clearly recalled, I had three plates of full meal (we came really prepared)  and spent more time at the dessert bar, which by the way is all created by Edsa Shangri-La Manila’s Pastry team. Will I come back? Of course, yes! In fact, I've been there twice up to date.

The price:

Considering that this is situated inside a 5-star hotel in the Metro, the price is just reasonable and you clearly paid for a premium service. Since this was a dinner treat by my ex-boss, what we heard was it cost him Php1,800 per pax (unsure if service charge included). We almost dropped from our seats upon knowing it but overall, the VIP experience equates them all. There was no promo offered at that time.

HEAT by EDSA Shangri La

Location: Lobby Level, Tower Wing

Phone: (63 2) 633 8888

Operating Hours: 6am - 12 midnight

Dress Code: Smart Casual