Bryce's Birthday

I got to cap off the last day of the week with another gathering of friends. It was Bryce's Birthday again. Same time, same place and mostly the same people as last year @ Century Diner Buffet. I hadn't gone there since the last Birthday, but the place has remained exactly the same. All stats from my original review remain.


The shots I took this time came out better because we weren't crammed into the narrow party room this time. We had a nice open space that was still sectioned off all to ourselves.

Andrew, Joanne & Liam

It was another long day followed by another gathering of friends I was looking forward to. Andrew & Joanne who I haven't seen for a while invited me over for a nice home cooked dinner. I didn't get out of work as early as planned, but still somehow made it in time before baby Liam went to bed. Click on the slideshow below to see more detailed comments on each photo.


That's 2 fun days already at the beginning of the week. Tomorrow is Wednesday... the midpoint. Almost to the weekend!

The Holy Basil

Location: 149 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003
Cuisine: Thai
Hours: MON-THU (5pm-11:30pm); FRI (5pm-12am); SAT (4pm-12am); SUN (4pm-11pm)
Phone: (212) 460-5557
Website: www.holybasilrestaurant.com
Prices: $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

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

Frequency: Unique

We had the snow day last week, but other than that, it's going to be a long streak of 5-day weeks until Memorial Day in May! But luckily, I have a few things lined up this week to help me get through. This week is all about catching up with friends and it started tonight.

Mike, Patrick, Emily & I got together for a little reunion. We all grew up in Congers on Roman Terrace during the 80's & 90's. I've been in touch with Mike over the years and we've met up regularly, but he hasn't seen Emily since high school. I haven't seen Patrick since I was on break from college. But somehow, we all ended up in the city.

We went for Thai food in the lower East at The Holy Basil. It was an interesting location on the 2nd floor of what looked like an apartment building. They had a large main room with a bar and tables. There was also a loft like mezzanine area with a couple more tables and a separate windowed room overlooking 2nd Avenue. The place was clean and well-decorated with traditional Thai artwork. The place was full, but surprisingly quiet and easy to talk in.

I went with the crispy duck in red curry as I usually do when duck is on the menu. Overall, the taste was pretty good and they got the duck very crispy without burning it. It was a nice contrast to the creamy curry sauce. The dish was further enhanced by lychee fruit on top. It could've been a little spicier, but I won't take off points for that... still great. Portions were just right for that dish.

Click here for photos & more details

Snow Day

It's the beginning of March and we're just having our largest snow storm of the year! This is after a week of Spring-like temperatures too. Luckily, work was cancelled today because there's no way I could've made it in. Here are some photos of my parents house just before we started shoveling...


It's definitely much harder to shovel snow in the city. The area is a lot less, but it has to be pushed further and stacked up high because each house has very small boundaries. Back when we used to live in Rockland, things were much easier despite a long driveway. We would just zig zag, pushing the snow to the left side, then right and so on. It'd be wrapped up in 10-15 minutes.

Chung Kiwa Korean BBQ

Location: 40-06 74th St., Elmhurst, NY
Cuisine: Korean, Japanese
Hours: 24/7
Phone: (718) 478-0925
Prices: $40/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 2
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

We had our monthly dinner a little late this time because Emily & I had a wake to go to last week. Luckily everyone was available this week as well. Last month, as Reinhard drove everyone home, they passed by a Korean BBQ place in Elmhurst that looked a like a good candidate for the February dinner. I asked Jen about it because it was closest to her place. She suggested Chung Kiwa because it was about the same and closer to the train station.


The food was great. That's saying a lot on this particular night for me because I couldn't eat meat due to Lent. I still ate a good amount of seafood and vegetables. The beef & pork were a little tempting, but I think the squid and shrimp were just as good. For more details about the food, click here to visit the Picasa album.

The service was pretty good. All of the staff members were polite and friendly. They probably didn't understand English that well because there was some confusion over a few things, but no problem at all. The effort was there.

The price was a bit high though... even for a Korean place. The total w/o tip came out to $300 for 9 people. That's almost double what we usually spend. Something to keep in mind is that it was in Queens and not Manhattan!

The space was clean and well decorated. Seating was comfortable as they were easily prepared for large groups. Each table with built-in grill can serve 4-5 people. The only minus was the bathroom lock was broken at the time. So anyone that had to go had to have a buddy guard the door!

Click here for photos and more details on the event.

Jollibee Soft Opening

On the way from Manhattan to Queens, I decided to drop by the brand new Jollibee just for a look. On the second day of business @ 2:30pm the line was still crazy. It reminded me of Ben & Jerry's FREE Cone Day except the line didn't move as quickly and they weren't giving anything out for free. It could be a while before we have our monthly dinner here!

Related: Jollibee, New York Magazine, Jollibee in Metro Manila, Coming Soon!

Bread-A

Location: 41-46 College Point Blvd., Flushing, NY 11355
Cuisine: Bakery, Chinese
Hours: SUN-THU (12pm-11pm); FRI-SAT (12pm-12am)
Phone: (718) 886-1888 x14
Website: www.breadaorganic.com

Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

A couple months ago, my Dad's friend came back from Taiwan and he brought us a bag of multigrain powder drink. We tried it out and all liked it. It became a weekend routine for afternoon snacks. More importantly, it's healthy and a good substitute for that coffee craving. I didn't know where to start looking for this product because the pouch was labeled in Chinese with no translation. I took a shot of it with my camera phone and sent it to Lewis. He directed me to a nice little store on College Point called Bread-A. They're an organic vegetarian bakery & café... a gem in the Flushing area. There aren't too many organic places there.

I checked it out today as our supply of the multigrain drink was down to a few more servings. Sure enough, Bread-A had it. I walked in and my eyes immediately zeroed in on the Chinese characters for 5-grain. The place is small, but I was overwhelmed by the different foods they had to offer. I've never seen so many organic Asian items before! I picked up a can of the powdered drink, which was a different brand, but at least twice the size of the bag from Taiwan. I also got a few of the green tea pastries. We all enjoyed the whole grain bun with green tea flavored filling. I was surprised that my Dad liked it because he usually hates anything healthy, especially wheat and whole grain breads. Maybe the green tea flavor was good enough to make up for it!

Bread-A is a small family business, so naturally, the service was great. It was also clean in contrast to its location in the industrial part of Flushing. I didn't give this place a food rating yet because it would only represent the green tea pastry... a tiny tidbit of what they offer. So I'll definitely check this place out more often.

SCAD Reunion

Ning, Lewis & I were trying to get together around Chinese New Year, but had some conflicts until this weekend. It worked out well because it gave me something to look forward to after the holiday weekend. I usually Lewis every once in a while, but haven't seen Ning & Pascal in years... and never met their daughter, Ella Nio.


We decided to meet early, around 11am so we could walk around and catch up for a bit. We then headed to Happy Buddha for lunch which was a nice, comfortable place to get a healthy meal and not feel rushed.

Uncle Vic Memorial Trip

Originally, I wasn't to blog about this trip at all, but I just spent a seemingly long week with close family members, sharing memories about Uncle Vic. Being with each other helped bring all of our spirits up at this difficult time. So I decided to document the quality time as a memorial to my Uncle Vic. As with many of my trips, I didn't have time to blog electronically after each event, so I back-dated all of these to preserve the original date of occurrence. Here's the table of contents of all related posts in chronological order:

- 29
- Riley
- Photos & Video
- Uncle Vic

I also took a few pictures with my low-res camera phone:


We gathered and bonded over the weekend, in the same manner that Uncle Vic used to lead the way with in the Philippines. I think he would be happy with this and proud of his family.

Uncle Vic

12/3/1941 - 01/28/2009

Although I haven't spent a lot of physical time with Uncle Vic, I have a pretty good sense of who his is through his actions. He's not a blood relative to me (Auntie Clarita is my Dad's sister), but as my dad mentioned in his eulogy, "Vic is more of a brother than a brother-in-law." He acted just like a blood relative. Whenever we visited the Philippines, it would be him and Uncle Mariano that organized the large family dinners and get-togethers. Every time, I was with my dad's side of the family there, someone would be on the phone asking, "hey Vic, what's the plan?" or "where are we going to eat tonight?" He treated us like his own and I always saw him as an important leader in my family. I associate those dinner gatherings with him and will always remember him for future ones. Uncle Vic displayed his charisma with a gentle, quiet demeanor. He would be the calm one in heated conversations and he didn't have a loud voice, but people listened to him.

I also know Uncle Vic indirectly through my cousins Jeremy & Kathy as we spent a lot of quality time together when they studied on the East coast. They both always reflect their father's calmness and kind-heartedness. I will miss him a lot, but am happy to know that his spirit will live on for generations.