Jollibee

Location: San Juan, Metro Manila Philippines
Cuisine: Fast Food
Phone: (02) 721-08-90, 722-92-02, 722-92-14
Website: www.jollibee.com.ph
Prices: About $10 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 5

Frequency: Uncommon

I didn't get a chance to eat at Jollibee in 1999, the last time I was in Philippines. It was in 1991 that I last had it... over 16 years ago. I knew I had to make an effort to fit it into an already tight schedule. It worked out perfectly because I just got back from Xiamen with my Mom, Dad, Aunt & Uncle and were waiting for EM to get back from dinner w/ my other Aunt. So we went along with cousin, I4 to a Jollibee around the corner.

I ordered the Champ, their equivalent of McDonald's QPC. It claims to be a third-pounder, but totally isn't. Despite the size, it still tasted great... just like 16 years ago. The burgers here have a unique taste to them... could be some tomatoes worked into the patties. I wouldn't say they're better than McDonald's burgers, but just treat them as something else.

An interesting note about Jollibee... they're the only local fast food restaurant in any country that has not been eclipsed by McDonald's. That's pretty impressive. It seems like the unique taste matches the Filipino appetite. I4 mentioned that another friend from the US did not like the taste and had trouble finishing it.

Philippine Air

Philippine Air was the exact opposite experience of EVA. The fleet is old and has not been renovated. Service seemed to be very disorganized overall. The food was terrible. I was nervous during takeoff and landing because of the accident record. Philippine Air had 68 reported incidents, but no total crashes like China Air. There isn't much of a choice for travel between Philippines and Xiamen though. There's the tainted Philippine Air or the infant Cebu Air. Surprisingly, both landings (to Xiamen and to Philippines) couldn't have been more perfect... no bumps at all.

Related: Philippine Air, Philippine Air on Wikipedia

Hokkien Majority

I felt at home in Xiamen even though my stay there only consisted of 4 days & 3 nights. It was a strange, but welcome experience to be in a city where everyone spoke Hokkien (aka Fukianese, Fujianese). I normally do a double-take when I hear it because the only people I'm used to hearing it from are family members. In NY, I hear it occasionally, but it sounds different because it's often the Taiwanese version, which is heavily accented. So it felt unreal to hear it from cab drivers, store operators, hotel staff and tour guides.

Can Your Hear Me Now?

It's worth noting that I had a full signal with the Verizon Wireless network in all parts of China. Even the small surrounding villages were in the coverage area. Philippines had no coverage... not even in Metro Manila!

Fujian Roots

For our second full day in China, we headed out of Xiamen to the surrounding villages... about a 2 hour drive. The farmlands in this area looked very much like the province scenes in Jet Li's Fearless. Our first stop was So Village, the original home of my maternal grandfather. There are actually 2 houses under my family's ownership still... the house my grandfather grew up in and the older ancestral house. We then took a lunch break at a local restaurant before heading off to Ang Village. Ang was the original home of my maternal grandmother and Auntie Day's (Mom's cousin from Long Island) father. Auntie Day made an effort to trace her roots during this trip and we were able to find her family's descendants in the village. They were positively IDed when they brought out a photo of her father with a note on the back from 1933 to her uncle.

The trip was physically exhausting as we climbed steep hills and dodged cars on narrow roads, but very rewarding as we all learned about our past and met relatives we never knew existed.

Peony Wanpeng Hotel

Location: 19 Huyuan Rd., Xiamen, China
Phone: (86) 592-2662888
Website: www.peony-hotel.com
Price: Standard Room ($50)
Credit Cards: All major

Rooms: 8
Service: 7
Value: 8
Amenities: 8

Length of Stay: 3 nights

China has some of the best hotels at the best prices. Peony Wanpeng Hotel is just one of those in the Xiamen area. The rooms were a little on the small side, but built with high quality material. The closets, minibar and desks were equipped with everything I could think of. They even had umbrellas and a safe in the closet. The window was huge and offered a great view through the front of the hotel.

We didn't really use the services much here, but the front desk was very helpful. They gave us a pro-rated price on one of the rooms when we needed it for storage a few hours after their standard checkout time.

I didn't stay long enough (3 nights) to check out all of their facilities, but the business center looked very complete. There's a 2-floor restaurant taking up the 4th & 5th floors and a cafe on the first floor with breakfast buffet. Internet service in the rooms was stable, fast and most importantly... FREE!

Xiamen in 1.5 Days

We arrived at night on 11/27 with enough time to check out Zhongshan Lu. The next day was a full day which we split between Garden Show Park and Gulang Yu.



Zhongshan Lu: [Attraction] This is the main shopping street of Xiamen. It consists mostly of designer clothing stores and sporting goods. It's not like the shopping areas of Shanghai & Beijing where you can find small souvenirs and gift items. The side streets are filled with DVD shops, restaurants and food stands.

Huasheng Tang Dian: [Restaurant] Located at the end of Zhongshan, My Mother's uncles made a point to stop by here for a peanut soup (huang ze he) snack as they were our tour guides. This is a specialty of the Xiamen area. It was also served after dinner at the Peony Wanpeng Restaurant.

Garden Show Park: [Attraction] This is the home of the 2007 Garden EXPO and is made up of 98 different gardens. We spent about 2 hours here and saw 5 gardens. They were some of the most artistically arranged gardens I've seen, but I can't imagine anyone sticking around for all 98!

Gulang Yu: [Attraction] The original home island of my paternal grandmother, Gulang Yu is now a tourist attraction made up of historic buildings and shops. Tour guides can be picked up right after the ferry drop-off. They start at 40 RMB, but can be bargained down to 10 RMB. Our group of 10 took about a 4-hour tour, so we just paid her the full 40 RMB anyway. It didn't even tranlate to much in USD ($5.40), but 40 RMB can go a long way in China.

Yuan Xiang Kou: [Restaurant] Our first stop on Gulang Yu was this small restaurant that specialized in fishball soup. I was a little reluctant at first because I didn't feel it wa exotic enough to try out and none of us were really hungry, but the tour guide convinced us to try a little. I'm glad she did because it was a the best fishball soup I've ever had. It tasted like real fish meat as opposed to the processed stuff we're used to in the US.

Xiamen's Cast

Joining Me and my parents on this side trip were:

Auntie Remy: Mom's younger sister, has lived with us in NY during my childhood
Auntie Ida: Mom's oldest sister
Auntie Solidad: Mom's youngest sister
Uncle Ruben: Mom's younger brother
Granduncle Manuel: Mom's uncle
Granduncle Robert: Mom's Uncle, builder of schools, bears a striking resemblance to Thomas Haden Church (Sandman in Spiderman 3)
Auntie Day: Mom's cousin from Long Island

Later on, we met up with the following, who arrived a little later:

Uncle Ramon: Mom's younger brother, well-known architect/designer in Philippines and Asia, majority owner of Swire Élan Suites
Auntie Élan: Uncle Ramon's wife, yes... the hotel is named after her
Kim: Their daughter

Razon's of Guagua

Location: Greenhills, San Juan, Philippines
Cuisine: Filipino, Dessert, Fast Food
Prices: About $6 per person

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

I had just finished shopping for some local crafts and had some extra time before the next family event. So I4 suggested that I try out the halo halo @ Razon's. I was never a big fan of that dessert, but wanted to try it out because it's a well-known dessert and the best in the Philippines deserves a try. It truly was the best halo halo I've ever had. It had just the right amounts of everything. For those who don't know, halo halo is an iced dessert made up of shaved ice, milk, beans and fruits. Razon's version is less wild and more to my taste. Some people really like loading up their halo halos with everything! The dish ends up looking like a rainbow. Razon's looks appetizing to eat. It's just a white & brown mixture of ingredients, topped with flan.

Service was the typical of Filipino restaurants. The decor was actually pretty nice for a fast food place. It had a nice color scheme (earth tones) to it and that had maps and historic information about the origins of the restaurant and the original village of their food.

Élan Café BETA

Location: 49 Annapolis St. Greenhills, San Juan, Philippines
Cuisine: International, Filipino
Phone: (632) 744-7878
Website: www.greenhillselansuites.com
Prices: About $10 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 6
Service: 9
Value: 6
Environment: 10

Frequency: Common

Élan Café is a new establishment located on the ground floor of Greenhills Élan Hotel Modern. Decor and presentation were great. The service, like all places in the Philippines was courteous, but the staff had moments of inexperience. We ordered cold soda without ice. They brought it out with ice-filled glasses. Then we just took the cold cans and used the empty cups at the table. Much later, they brought out more empty glasses for the soda... uh... a little too late?

I only had lunch here for one day of my visit... the day I arrived. I ordered the Signature Cheeseburger (lettuce, tomatoes, gherkins, coleslaw, crispy fried onion rings, fries). It was pretty good and had an original taste to it. The meat was a little on the salty side though. I heard the same from other family members who ordered beef items.

Breakfast was pretty good. I had the breakfas buffet a number of times. It's much different from the prison food continental breakfasts offered in many American hotels. Eggs and pancakes can be ordered in any style. There's a wide assortment of breakfast meats, breads and pastries. I couple of things one has to get used to is that they eat things like hot dogs, hamburger meat and rice for breakfast here in the Philippines. The diet here is highly carniverous!

Quarterly Meetings

I was catching up with Sidney & I4 after the party. We talked about how big my Mom's side of the family is and how get-togethers worked in the Philippines. Just to give an idea of size, Sidney is considered by nephew because he's the son of my cousin, Betty. Betty is the daughter of my Mom's oldest brother (the oldest of 11 siblings). So I'm actually closer to Sidney's age than cousin Betty's. So gatherings are huge and happen 1-2 times per year in this family. Sidney & I4 mentioned that they attempted quarterly meetings at one point, which worked for a while but eventually started feeling too often. I thought that was funny. The family's so large that it needs to be treated like a business with a quarterly report!

Mom's Birthday

We missed Thanksgiving this year, but that also meant that we missed my Mom's birthday celebration. Her birthday is 11/24, which often falls on or close to Thanksgiving. So every year, we celebrate it along with Turkey Day. But we made up for the lost holidays and more with a gathering of her relatives @ Élan Café for lunch.

Heat

Healthy Eating Amazing Tastes

Location: 1 Garden Way, Ortigas Centre, Mandaluyong City 1650, Philippines
Cuisine: Seafood, Asian, Buffet
Hours: SUN-THU (6am-12am); FRI-SAT (6am-2am)
Phone: (632) 633-8888 ext. 2738/2739
Website: www.shangri-la.com/en/
Prices: About $30 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 6
Service: 10
Value: 5
Environment: 10

Frequency: Unique

Heat is an upscale seafood buffet located inside the 5-Star Edsa Shangri-La hotel. The most notable thing is the decor in this restaurant... Japanese style architecture, glass rooms and ice sculptures.

The food is probably considered great for the Philippines, but I'm from Flushing, NY where we have tons of these types of buffets. It doesn't really measure up. The sushi selections are slim and really just include the generic ones. The dim sum selections were also weak. The crabs and lobsters are original though. We have nothing of that size and taste in NY. The soup station was my favorite. You get a choice of noodles, soup bases, meats and spices. Great coffee too. The dessert station looked tastey as I walked in, but after dinner, it didn't look too appetizing anymore.

I gave the value a 5 even though it's a standard buffet price in NY because $30 for any meal in Philippines is really high.

Jekyll & Hyde Service on Eva Air

The 20+ hour plane ride felt like one long day, but it was actually about 1.5 days... 1 day flying time + 1/2 day time difference.

Overall, Eva Air was OK. The onboard service was great... probably the nicest flight attendants I've come across. The food was surprisingly good. It wasn't the usual airplane rations that consist of hydrated astronaut food. By contrast, the gate service was terrible and disorganized. When it was boarding time, they had passengers in wheelchairs and families traveling with children go first... that's OK, except they let a family with 3 teenagers mix in. "Kids" should be babies, toddlers at most. There's no reason for a family with a teenager to board first. They also did not call the "Evergreen Deluxe" passengers during the boarding, so those who paid for upgraded seats ended up being the last to board, behind Economy class.

Pre-Flight / Non-Thanksgiving

It feels weird to skip Thanksgiving. This is the first year that I can remember that we're not celebrating it. It's the only way to get a trip to Asia while cutting down on vacation day usage though. Right now, I'm at the airport with my parents, waiting for our flight to the Philippines on Eva Air. Most of my family is headed there for my cousin, Christine's wedding on December 1. My sister, EM is already there. She headed there a week earlier so she could include side trips to Thailand and Cambodia. I also have 2 pairs of uncles/aunts heading out from NY & Boston after Thanksgiving.

The flight is surprisingly full for Thanksgiving night. Check-in went by at a normal pace... no problems. The security checkpoint was a mess though. Laptops needed to be in a separate bin. So I ended up with 3 items... 1) backpack; 2) laptop & 3) bin with miscellaneous items. Of the 3 of us, they chose my mom to be patted down. Whenever I travel with my family, security never checks me. Usually, it's my dad they get. It's ironic because I'm by far more suspicious than my parents. I'm almost fully covered in black, including gloves, hat and hood. My backpack is filled with electronics that security guards have never seen before. Any one of those items could easily be a bomb component. Yet I never get searched. One other thing... if my laptop has to be taken out of the bag, then passed through the x-ray, then I lack confidence in the ability of the x-ray machine to protect my security.

About Video Game Ratings

Category: These are the basic video game categories... RPG, action, adventure, fighting, shooter, sports, racing, etc.

POV: Either 3rd or 1st.

Graphics: 1-10 scale on graphics and animation, 10 being the best.

Controls: 1-10 scale on ease and responsiveness of controls, 10 being the easiest to control.

Difficulty: 1-10 scale on how easy/hard it is to learn the game, 10 being the hardest.

About Movie Ratings

Story: Based on completeness of story, original ideas and holes (or lack of) in the plot.

Action: Martial arts, gun fights, car chases, war scenes, etc.

Acting: Quality of cast; Believability of how the actors portray the characters.

FX: Explosions, integration of CG, animation, audio etc.

Durability: My favorite movies are movies that I never tire of. So I created this category to display that. There are movies out there that are great when watched once, but then lose total value if watched again.

All categories will have a 0-10 rating, with 10 being the highest.

About Flashbacks

"Flashbacks" are stories from my past that I want to share with the world. I will break them up into the following subcategories:

Wonder Years: These will be my childhood years going through high school. So it's basically anything in 1993 or before.

SCAD: From 1993-1997, I attended the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). So I'm naming this period after my school because anything that occurred during these 4 years was either while I was in school or on one of my extended breaks.

Golden Age: This subcategory is named after the "Golden Age" of the Internet... the Dotcom Era.

About Hotel Ratings

Rooms: The quality, condition and design of the rooms.

Service: This item rates the professionalism of the staff. Part of this is based on politeness and the other half knowledge & skill.

Value: This means "bang for buck" basically. It doesn't mean cheap or expensive. An expensive hotel that has great service and amenities can have a great value.

Amenities: Number and quality of amenities in the establishment.

Length of Stay: I think this is worthy of mention because more weight can be given to my opinions for longer stays.

About Chinese Buffets

I'm probably going to start reviewing a number of Chinese buffets in Queens and this cuisine type is a little different, so it deserves a short intro.

Rating System
For the most part, the rating system is the same as my restaurant rating system, but I'm going to split up the food stat into the different types of food common to these restaurants. The majority of the food is Chinese. Japanese food will be rated on teriyaki and sushi. Italian food will be rated on pasta & pizza. Sometimes there's American food, but I won't rate those items because they're usually generic and people don't go to Chinese buffets to eat french fries and hot dogs... nor do I! Desserts will be rated separately as well as drinks.

Tips

1) All of the food is made to look good, but you won't necessarily feel good after you eat it. Take a little bit of everything on the first round, no matter how good it looks.

2) Don't overload your plate. Many of these places have penalties for wasting food.

3) Limit the fried items. The grease has a tendency to ruin your appetite for other stuff.

4) Don't be carnivorous! The meats look tempting, but you'll probably feel sick after eating too much. Alternate with some non-greasy veggies.

5) Eat slowly and take sips of tea between bites.

6) Pass on the soda. It's tempting because soda is great with Chinese food, but the carbon will limit your capacity.

About Frequency

I wanted to add a "frequency" rating to my restaurant and store reviews because I believe it adds a level of perspective to the other ratings. Many published reviews are based on a single visit by a writer. I think it's important to note which places I've visited once and which I go to all the time.

Unique: Only one visit.

Uncommon: About 2-3 visits or multiple visits, but spaced out by lots of time.

Common: Multiple visits with little spacing of time (multiple trips to the same place during a single vacation)

Frequent: Visited on a regular basis.

All the Time: Visited all the time.

About Restaurant Ratings

Note: The category name is called "Restaurants and Eats" because I will be reviewing delis and food stands also.

Food: This rating is purely for taste. The healthiness of the food is not taken into consideration.

Service: This item rates the professionalism of the staff. Part of this is based on politeness and the other half knowledge & skill.

Value: This means "bang for buck" basically. It doesn't mean cheap or expensive. An expensive restaurant that has great food and portions can have a great value.

Environment: Deals with comfort, decor and amenities of restaurants. This will be omitted for food stands and street vendors.

About NY Local

In this category, my goal is promote NYC restaurants, stores and events. I'm going to concentrate mostly in the Flushing, Queens area since there's already a ton of information out there about Manhattan. For part of my childhood, I grew up with friends in Flushing and have lived there for about 6 years. I think it has some of the best restaurants in the world, yet it doesn't appear in many travel guides, not even as a side trip from Manhattan.

Introduction

Hello World!

Sorry for the default design on this blog. I just want to get a few travel related entries up while I'm on an upcoming trip to the Philippines and Xiamen, China. I don't know yet what the overall subject matters will be yet, but I'll start with my trip and go naturally from there. When I have a better feel for the content, I'll skin this with a much nicer design.

Enjoy!