Date of visit: May 8, 2010

After our farm lunch, we headed to Baluarte for some close encounter with nature. :)

Right at the entrance is the petting zoo. This is where you can freely interact and take photos with different animals like camels, ostriches, deer, parrots, orangutans, and a lot more.

It is not just a zoo, it's an interactive wildlife sanctuary and facility.

Aside from plainly interacting with the animals, visitors also have the chance to feed them.

They also offer free mini horse rides called "tiburin". The mini horse pulls a small carriage that can accommodate up to 4 persons including the "caballero". Taking photos and riding the mini horse is absolutely free of charge.

Another attraction here is the close encounter with the tigers. You can have your photos taken with the tigers for Php25 per person.

Baluarte sure is one of the must-visit places in Vigan. With just a few minute drive from the heart of Vigan, you can already have an extraordinary adventure and experience the wonders of nature with your family. What's more amazing is that the admission to Baluarte is FREE. :)

BALUARTE
Vigan, Ilocos Sur

It's Father's Day today! And there's no other way of celebrating this special day than having a luscious feast with the whole family. :)

First in the menu is the Crispy Pata. Who wouldn't give in to this mouth-watering treat? *drools*

Next is the Hotpot. It's a stew with beef or pork and veggies. You may actually add in any ingredient that you wish. Just like my dad's version of hotpot which includes cream dory fish fillet, tofu, crab flakes, shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, pechay Tagalog, pechay Baguio, and eggs in oriental nido soup. We all love this dish! The shiitake mushrooms are my favorite! Yummy!

And last but definitely not the least is the Kare-kare, my mom's favorite! She made sure to get a taste of it, even if she is also on a diet! Haha!

And for dessert, we had Fruit Cocktail Jelly with fresh lychees, which is Gia's original recipe. :)

It's simply made from fruit cocktail, right from the can, plus fresh lychee, mixed in sweetened gelatin. Lemon flavor and fresh lychee juice were also added for a more delectable twist. :)

Simple as it is, it sure is a mouth-watering dessert, especially when eaten with scoops of ube, cheese, and halo-halo ice cream, plus purple yam jam. *drools* Nice recipe Gia! *wink*

And who else would give us such delectable treats but my dad! Yup, even on his special day, he still managed to cook for us.

Thank you daddy! Thanks for being a good provider. May God continue to shower you with blessings and good health, and may you never get tired of giving us all these tasty treats! Happy Father's Day! I love you! :-*

Last Friday, June 18, was my parents' 27th wedding anniversary. We had a simple yet super fun celebration with the whole family at Bosay Resort.

We got to the resort around 4pm and started the celebration by having merienda. My dad cooked Pancit Canton and bought Sapin-sapin and Biko for merienda.

Sapin-sapin

Biko

The kids immediately dove into the waters after they finished their food.

After our late night dinner at Merge Point, we were up early the next morning for another adventure, well another food trip adventure I should say. *drools*

We first had our breakfast (Vigan Longganisa, eggs, and fried rice) at the hotel...

I wasn't able to blog for weeks! Ugh! I have just whined about the many backlog stories that I still need to write about (in my previous post) and then days later, off goes our internet connection! :| Thank God it has now been restored (after millions of follow-up reports to PLDT!).

Let me shed off the backlog list by giving my warmest gratitude to Ms. Ria of Ria's World. She gave me my first ever blog award, the Sweet Blog Award. :)

I only know of a very few who are avid readers of my blog. And it always makes me happy whenever people give me nice comments about my posts. But receiving a blog award was just so unexpected for me..and very heartwarming. :)

Let me share this award to some sweet bloggers. :) I chose them because I personally love reading their blogs. They are constantly dropping by my blog too. :)

Jerellt of Je's Anatomy

Mei of Inside of Me

Enchie of Sweet Nothings

From My Kitchen And Beyond
Mrs. Martinez of MrsMartinez's Raves & Rants

Sweets Foods Blog

Parent Times

Foodarrific

Josie of Josie's Kitchen

Losing It - Getting Fit

Rules for This Award:

1. Pass it to 10 sweet people

2. Inform them about this award

3. LINK BACK to the ONE WHO GAVE you the award

Happy blogging! 'til my next (backlog) post! Haha! ;p

The summer season is officially over! But I still haven't completed my posts about our summer adventures. *sigh* So I'm warning everyone, most of my posts will be backlogs of the adventures and food trips that I had this summer. So please bear with me, and I hope that you will find time to read and enjoy the adventures and food trips as much as I did. :)

~~~

Mark's normal life, specifically in terms of eating, finally got back! Since summer is over, it's also his off-season from bodybuilding, which means he no longer has to deprive himself of food that normal people eat. :D

It actually started last week when we had our late lunch at Butter Diner. It was then followed by another pigging out session last Friday, May 28. We were supposed to have a dinner date last Thursday, but since I had work, we decided to just move the date.

Since I knew how Mark wanted to eat so badly, I was already surfing the net and reading reviews about restaurants around the Araneta Center even days before our dinner. There were a lot of choices, but Blackbeard's Seafood Island got me all hooked up. :D I was just browsing through their menu but I can already imagine how Mark would love to dine here.

It was both our first time to try it out at Blackbeard's Seafood Island. We were greeted by staffs in pirate costumes when we entered the restaurant. Aside from the pirate costumes, another main attraction in the place was the interior. I just had my camera phone at hand so just bear with me with the photos. :p

The ceiling fans made from individual abanikos really caught our attention. What a nice touch! :)

Situated on each post are preserved crabs and lobsters. They also have an aquarium right next to the entrance wherein you may choose fresh seafood and have it cooked.

There were also some abacca ball lights hanging on the other side of the restaurant. They also have a bar which resembles that of a pirate ship.

Aside from the nice ambience, the restaurant also takes pride of their seafood and grilled treats.

Both Mark and I had a hard time in choosing what to order, it's like we wanted to have everything in the menu! Haha! After a few minutes of contemplating, we finally decided to go for the Dapitan's Pride Boodle Feast. For the drinks, I got the Buko Shake while Mark opted for the bottomless Iced Tea. I ♥♥♥ their Buko Shake! I don't know if I'm right but it tasted like it also had dairy milk on it. The Iced Tea was good too. :)

A few minutes after we placed our order, one of the wait staffs went to our table and got the place mats, plates, and utensils, and left just a single plate with 2 pairs of utensils on the farthest side of the table, which really made Mark and I surprised. We got more surprised when our order was served. The Dapitan's Pride Boodle which consist of Crispy Coco Gin Shrimps, San Mig Clams, Grilled Tilapia, Grilled Squid, Laing, Steamed Crab, Grilled Liempo, Kalkag Rice, and Atchara Papaya, on banana leaves layered on top of a huge wooden tray was right in front of us.

We were like stunned for a few minutes! Haha! We even said that we'll just have the left-over food wrapped since we know we can't finish the whole boodle. But no! We were enjoying the food that we didn't notice that we ate up all of it! And the food that was supposedly for 3-4 persons, as stated in the menu, was gone in no time! Haha!

The clams were perfect, I love its soup. I just didn't know why they called it 'San Mig' clams, hmmm... :D The Laing, which I tasted for the first time, was also good. The Grilled Tilapia, Liempo, and Squid, as always, appealed to our palates. The Crispy Coco Gin Shrimps and Steamed Crabs were just oh so delectable! But I guess the best part was the Kalkag Rice. It has tiny dried shrimps on it and it tasted like it had Crab Aligue. Hmmmm!!! Mark and I simply love it! *drools*

We both enjoyed the dinner that we forgot that we ordered fresh fruits for dessert! Generous serving of sliced watermelon, apples, mangoes, and oranges, in huge platter with crushed iced sure is a perfect dessert, unfortunately we were already full so we just had it wrapped.

We just really had to rest for a few minutes because we literally can't even drag ourselves up after our gluttonous feast. *burp* Mark and I both enjoyed our dinner. We definitely will come back again to try out the other boodle feasts! And I will make sure to bring my camera when we get back..*wink*

BLACKBEARD'S SEAFOOD ISLAND
Seafood Grill and Barbecue House
Shopwise Arcade, Araneta Center
Cubao, Quezon City