*I really had a hard time picking which pictures to include on this entry so forgive me if this post will be too heavy and overflowing with our faces *

The resort’s standard time of check-in and check-out is 3pm and 12pm respectively. But since we got there late (9pm) due to Kai’s work, we asked the receptionist if we could stay a little bit longer the following day. She was so pleasant on agreeing with us. She said that it wouldn’t be a problem since there were no reservations following us. We were so happy we stayed till 3pm!

Reception

Upon our arrival we were served with welcome drinks. The receptionist asked us if we had dinner yet and when we answered ‘not yet’ she instantly called the kitchen crew to prepare food for us.  We felt really spoiled because dinner time is 7pm and though we came late they still served us our freshly heated full board dinner! I really recommend this resort! They have the nicest staff.

All food were tasty, even Kai can attest to that. It is indeed a fact that Kai is truly and undoubtedly the choosiestest of all when it comes to food but he ate a lot when we were there and he kept on mentioning that he liked that dessert we had for dinner.

After stuffing ourselves, we didn’t waste much of our time and hurriedly went around the resort especially to the beach front to breathe in the fresh air of Anilao and hear the relaxing sounds of sea water (and take gazillion photos of course!)

love the way he looks at me

This is how the resort looks like in the morning.

rooms

The place is well manicured and maintained. The whole area was clean already when we got up at 7am. Most of the fallen leaves the night before were collected already.

The resort is just small but I love the way it is designed. No long walks or whatever (exception on the parking area though). I love the colors of the cottages. The simplicity of the units is really classy. Also the staff were really very approachable and accommodating. Whatever amount of money we used there is money well spent.

neighbor room

The parking area and the resort itself is separated by a 200++ steps up and down. I wished I didn’t forget anything from the car so I wouldn’t have to walk back up to the parking but sadly I did. Early morning excercise it is! It was really tiring, it numbed my legs for a few minutes.

200++

FYI, Anilao is a dive site so do not expect a white sand beach but rather a beach front full of rocks. It would be best to bring a swimming shoe.

The use of kayak and water bikes in the resort is free. Kai and I played like kids on the water. I used my old point and shoot camera, Canon Ixus 80IS and a waterproof underwater pouch on the following pictures.

on my way to Sumbrero Island. joke! hehe

We were scheduled for scuba diving at 9am and since we woke up early, we took our time to spare on taking some more photos.

It is by far the BEST anniversary ever! During our first anniversary we went to Trinoma to just see a movie. On the 2nd we had dinner at Shakey’s. This one’s pretty incomparable. Also this was the first time that we were allowed to go out of town just by ourselves, so the trusts our parents gave us were really something to celebrate as well.

Thank you so much to Dive Solana! You gave me another moments to keep in my treasure chest And of course to my Babe for being extra sweet, caring, and loving on our special day! Wait up for next year! Let’s break the record and make that more exciting! Love you.

Shakey's Menu

Shakey's Menu

The Shakey’s Pizza Restaurant at SM is cool, nice chairs and tables, very clean, not so crowded. Then the hostess handed us the menu greeted us in a proper way and smile. Shakey’s is serving the world greatest pizza for 35 years. They had a wide variety of  thick and thin special pizza flavors that truly satisfy.

Shakey's Spaghetti Platter

Managers Choice

A must try is their Manager’s Choice and Shakey’s Special. A meal isn’t complete without pasta, must try is their Carbonara Supreme and Monster Spaghetti with Meatballs Platter.

Overall it’s a satisfying meal we had on Shakey’s, service is good and the pizza and pasta is great.

Come "shopping" and now "eating", too

If you’re not sure about the English usage here, check out my previous post from a few months ago:

How to Speak Like a Mexicano: American Slang

This is a perfect example of the popularity of the English word “shopping” here in Mexico. Unfortunately, they decided to be creative and throw in the word “eating” as well.

It’s so bad, it’s almost physically painful.

I love you Shakey’s, but I just might have to boycott you after this.

Let’s Join the Craze! Eat More Pizza! Win More iPhone 4!

Client: Shakey’s Pizza HK (
http://www.shakeys-pizza.com/
)
Photographer: Gary Li
Company: Photo.G. Production
Web Site: www.Lcygary.com/
Contact: 92254725

Sabía dónde estaba la pizzería, pero como la identifiqué fue por el olor. Es increíble cuántos recuerdos puede evocar un simple olor, en este caso, de pollo y papas friéndose. Así es como me recibió Shakey’s. Sorpresa enorme me llevé al ver que han cambiado su identidad gráfica, pero aún conservan la original que tenía tipografía gótica, solamente que la usan para souvenirs. Al ir a pedir la orden a la caja, me di cuenta de más cambios, siendo el que más me entristeció el que ya no tuvieran pizza de camarón. Recuerdo que no dejaba de pedir esa cada vez que iba cuando era niño al Shakey’s que estaba en Insurgentes Sur, justo frente al Relox y a un local de helados Danesa 33. En su defecto, me vi obligado a probar simplemente la pizza de queso.

Shakey’s tiene la ventaja de que maneja distintos paquetes de acuerdo al número de personas con quienes vayas. En este caso, éramos dos y pedimos uno con pizza mediana, 4 piezas de pollo y papas Mojo. Debo apuntar que todo sigue siendo sumamente bueno en sabor, pero quizá éste se ve opacado al estar en un ambiente totalmente ochentero. Incluso la música, baste decir que en los televisores ponen videos del canal VH1 Classic. El manejo de estímulos sigue siendo prácticamente el mismo, hasta hay un área de maquinitas y juegos para niños. Y si bien, el horno donde preparan las pizzas está ya más oculto que en mis tiempos (donde literalmente podías ver cómo preparaban tu pizza al instante a través de una ventanilla), sigue siendo toda una experiencia. Los letreros pegados en las paredes recuerdo que me hacían reír mucho, y siguen conservándolos exactamente escritos como estaban antes, por ejemplo: “si usted apaga su cigarro en el plato, pídale a su mesero que la próxima vez le sirva la pizza en un cenicero”.

Cabe destacar un último cambio, que sí ha sido sumamente criticado por los especialistas nostálgicos: ya no hay piano. Antes, hubiera o no pianista, siempre tenían un maravilloso piano que daba esa sensación de un lugar casero, familiar, antecedente sin duda a Friday’s. El local de La Cúspide es enorme, no veo el por qué decidieron prescindir de un elemento tan importante en su imagen del hábitat.

Yo tengo la esperanza de que la fórmula les funcione y se reposicionen en el público. Que los que ahora son papás pero que en su niñez vivieron la experiencia Shakey’s, lleven a sus hijos y continúen la cadena. El servicio es excelente, quizá hasta mejor de lo que yo recordaba, espero no sea el síndrome del negocio nuevo sino que así lo mantengan, pero sí debo apuntar que yo me llevo un buen recuerdo y pienso volver. Sería aún mejor que abrieran un Shakey’s al sur de la ciudad, La Cúspide quizá no fue la mejor opción a nivel de atractivo, pero no importa manejar decenas de kilómetros con tal de probar una de las mejores pizzas y pollo que hay en este país.

This is the first proper dinner we had ever since this blog started so we decided to actually jot down notes on the food we had, the service & restaurant, and also having both of our opinions but separately.

Food

CAPPELLINI PESTO $48

Derek
-Pesto seems very fresh
-I hate angel hair
-no life

Nat
-tabasco makes it better =)
-they could have blended the herbs a lil more but he likes it like that -.- but still good!

D: “its like home made pesto”

N: “well then i don’t need to pay 48 bucks plus service charge when i could make it myself ‘home made style’”

D: “i can’t cook”

N: no comment

MOJO ROYAL $39

Derek
-ever wanted nacho like that could actually fill your stomach? well we found it

Nat
-i want more toppings….

N: “i hate how they don’t give me more toppings! i mean they need to put more sour cream and at least put more tomatoes and olives and spring onions!”

D: looks at Nat with the look

N: “k nevermind…its just me….”

TWINS PIZZA (hand tossed) – SHAKEY’S SPECIAL + FIRE HOUSE $128

Derek
-i like the way the pizza is served on that wooden board thing…
-firehouse is pretty good
-the hand tossed crust is not too thick like other places…although, u tend to get tired of it after a while…

Nat
-the mince meat on the shakey’s special is yummy
-i like olives =D

N: “K shakey’s special just taste like pizza hut’s super supreme but with mince meat on it -.-”

D: “Pssh then you can say that for every single place”

N: no comment

Service & Restaurant

• not attentive enough
• served pasta before appetizers
• cheap beer!!
• all drinks n food were mad cheap
• appetizers actually came LAST!!
• server smells n none of them r presentable
• their english sucks
• servers look like they all have a hangover
• no one’s askin me (derek) if i want another beer!!!!!
• apparently it’s a pinoy pride thing cuz theres a lot of filipinos here
• their take-away boxes look like you bought something from a dai pai dong

As the title of this post has Pizza Hut on it we’re gonna post a little on the time we went to pizza hut last year October…


The pizza is called…. i THINK cheesy stuffed crust pizza, or… maybe…cheese bites something pizza… Anyways it doesn’t really matter cuz they don’t have this in Hong Kong anymore and i think they only have these kinda weird pizzas around Asia, they’re only for a short time period. Like the current “Ha-Ha Crayfish Pizza” its..just weird. Anyway, as you can see you can rip off each cheese crust bits thing and u can dip in in the sauce in the middle. We thought it was cheese sauce, turned out to be cheesey texture but curry taste…EEK!! And the pizza base sauce is i think thousand island…There were rasins…shrimps…onions…green peppers…and half of a cherry tomatoe between every few crust…hahahhahaha omg…-_-” well yeah …delicious…. yums…..

Anyhoooo hope you guys found this useful! =) Give comments on what else we should give judgment on or any comments will do! =) thnx!

Derek & Nat

xx

Address & no.:

Shop 121, G/F, New Town Plaza, Phase 1,
No. 19 Shatin Centre Street, ShaTin, N.T.,
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2608 0889

Shop No.L1-1, Level 1, apm, Millennium City 5,
Kwun Tong, Kowloon.
Tel : + 852 2367 1000

(we went to this one)
2/F, Metropole Building,
57 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: + (852) 2721 1138

Shop 598-599, 2/F, Zone C, Tai Po Mega Mall,
Tai Po, N.T.,
Hong Kong
Tel: + 852 2665 7388

Shop 2173-2182, 2/F, Phase 1,
Tuen Mun Town Plaza
Tuen Mun, N.T.,
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2899 0878

For more information on Hong Kong’s Shakey’s Pizza go visit their site:

Shakey’s Pizza – Hong Kong

Shakey’s Pizza. Yes, pizza. All-you-can-eat lunch buffet for 850 yen. Crispy thin crust, lots of sauce and cheese, and toppings such as tuna fish, romaine lettuce and honey, and marshmallow. They also serve the best darned spicy potatoes in the universe. Pass the hot sauce.

Samrat Indian. I’m all about the all-you-can-eat in Japan. This one is AYCE naan or rice with two curries for 980 yen. The naan always come hot and buttery out of the oven. The deceivingly small bowls of curry really are bottomless.

Woodberry’s Frozen Yogurt. Start with plain frozen yogurt and add any mixture of fruit and cheese you want.

Mister Donut. Our old standby. Favorites include ebi (shrimp) gratin and Golden Chocolate donuts. Bonus=free coffee refills! (And I was a proud member of the “Misdo Club” as a child.)

Sweet potato “puree” in a baked apple. Mom and I could only eat half for lunch. I wish I could have one right now. I want to go to there.

Chicken liver. This was a free appetizer–I never would have ordered it on my own. Man, these were cooked so that the texture was amazing.

Matt was so excited for dango. I wasn’t so much but I did taste it and discovered that the green tea flavor with red bean paste was mighty tasty! And filling!

Kaiseki course #1 at Nakamura-Ro. I am mainly posting this for the lightly fried and candied lotus root in front (the ones that look like pinwheels). So light and crunchy.

Tempura is one of my favorite foods, but not when it’s covered in thick batter and you don’t even know what you are eating. This wasn’t that. It was the opposite of that. Perfect. And the ball of radish made it perfect plus infinity.

Tsumetai (cold) soba is another one of my favorite foods. And this is my favorite soba, made fresh and on premises at Jindai-ji.

Ukai Toriyama. This restaurant is amazing, even if you do have to cook your own meat. This was one of many delicious courses and I especially loved the miso paste. So many meats and fish we ate on the trip had miso paste. What a simple concept–we could even try it at home!

Sasagin bamboo. This was another first try for me and it was another home run. We made fast work of the bamboo, a house specialty at this izakaya.

As unappetizing as these sweets look, mainly made of rice and sweet beans, they were made with love. I felt the love in every bite. The shop that specializes in these sweets has been around for 150 years, passed down through generations of sweet-makers.

This was a small selection of delectable foods we ate in Japan. It was very difficult for me to choose just these. I may have a follow up post one day when I am hungry but am trying to lose five pounds.

This post contains some great pictures that my Dad took yesterday. I am using my parents’ computer and my photos are not on it, so I am using license to publish photos taken by someone else. Thanks, Dad.

This is my favorite of the day. I love the Gap here. I know it sounds so wrong, and even more wrong because I always have to buy the pants two sizes larger than what I buy in the States. (I wear a 6 and 10 size pants fit me in Japan.) When I lived here, the notion of not “fitting in” wore on my mental state and actually caused me to lose a little too much weight over a couple of years. But I digress. Here is the photo that I am submitting to Gap (too bad my sweater is JCrew and my mom’s jacket is Eddie Bauer):

And actually I lied. I forgot that my mom put my photos on her computer. Score! Continuing below are some shots my dad took:

I got some very mixed advice from many fashionistas about this pattern combo (Burberry and tweed). I tried it and I love it. So there. And I also added a new accessory from my mom:

Here are some shots that I took (side: for some reason WordPress decided to not save the rest of the post that I had completed 5 minutes ago so this next section may be half-hearted.):
Harajuku station–hasn’t changed in at least 23 years.

Takeshita-dori (famous street for new fashions)

Ume blossoms trying to bloom

We are too early for fully-bloomed sakura and ohanami (I wrote about it here) but hopefully before we leave we will see some ume blossoms, which I sometimes think are even more beautiful than sakura.

Timing today: left Tamachi at 10:00 and arrived in Harajuku at around 10:45
Ticket cost: 190 yen each way per person on Yamanote-sen
Time elapsed: 4 1/2 hours
Accomplished: omiyage shopping, walking around Harajuku, eating lunch
Lunch: Shakey’s pizza: 850 yen all you can eat

Stay tuned!
Today: Roppongi Hills, Muji, local sites

Here in the San Gabriel Valley, much like our residential housing, commercial architecture is guilty of a certain degree of elasticity. This generally bothers New Yorkers and the French, but not Germans (or me). Can you guess the origins of the above Ye Ole Persian Palace?

Sherwood Johnson, the founder of Shakeys, was nicknamed Shakey due to the after-effects from a bout of Malaria he suffered during WWII.  Billy Bob Thorton despite his phobia of antiques, managed the Culver City Shakey’s Pizza Parlor on Washington Blvd. Frank Zappa paid tribute to Shakey’s with the lyrics to his song “The Blue Light”

Sometimes you’ll go to a pizza place
You go to Sharkey’s to get that
American kind of pizza
That has the ugly, waxey, fake yellow kind
Of yellow Cheese on the top…

That clever Frankfurter! but what Frank fails to mention in his ode to Shakey’s is that October is National Pizza month in the US.  While we’re on the topic how about a shout out for America’s favorite topping? What’s that you ask?..none other then that delightful pig product we call “Pepperoni”.  Did you know 350 pieces of our “humble pie” are consumed per minute with 33% of those slices covered in pork products (more if you count sausage and ham). That’s a whole lot of bacon. Although our favorite pie may be humble, I’m not. I was born in the year of the pig.

No offense taken

……….

There conversation goes a little something like this:

Chef: Stan, sometimes God takes those closest to us, because it makes him feel better about himself. He is a very vengeful God, Stan. He’s all pissed off about something we did thousands of years ago. He just can’t get over it, so he doesn’t care who he takes. Children, puppies, it don’t matter to him, so long as it makes us sad. Do you understand.

Stan: But then, why does God give us anything to start with?

Chef: Well, look at it this way: if you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away. If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, then it would have nothin’ to cry about. That’s like God, who gives us life and love and help just so that he can tear it all away and make us cry, so he can drink the sweet milk of our tears. You see, it’s our tears, Stan, that give God his great power.

Is that how you imagine God? Would you like your own Shakey’s Pizza?

Get a FREE Bonus Chapter from The Zen of South Park.

Read about other South Park episodes.

You know, you pretty have to go to KFC if you want good Fried Chickens in Msia. There used to be Popeyes in sunway (but not sure why they closed down) and lets face it, McD + A&W fried chickens SUCK. BIG TIME.

Then again, this is not a blog about food.

Last Sunday we (the gang) went to KFC in SS14 and ordered up a snack plate combo meal + burger. I paid and then my wife said, “Maybe you should order the dinner plate instead as i want to have 1 piece of your chicken”.

Ok, i told the cashier ” Can you please upgrade my snack plate combo meal to dinner plate combo? i will pay the extra”.

Cashier: ” Tak boleh la sir, i dah key in. cannot cancel”

( I cant do that sir as i have key in your order already)

Oh yeah. thats what she said. At that point my blood was boiling (this cashier had earlier also pissed me off by asking me 3 TIMES if i wanted spicy or original- im not always this nasty ). I told her please get your manager. The manager came and silently nodded to my request and presto, snack plate upgraded to dinner plate combo. The manager didnt bother to apologize also. hmmmm……

Frankly speaking, i was MORE THAN HAPPY not to upgrade cos i would have save the extra RM3 but because of my wife and that we were already there….

So this is what i figure:

KFC Malaysia has around 390 outlet nationwide.Lets assume that on average 5 customers per day wanted to upgrade to the dinner combo in 195 outlets:

• RM 3 (per upgrade) x 5 customers per day =RM15 Per Day
• RM 15 X 30 days = RM450 per month per outlet
• RM 450 x 195 outlets = RM87,750
• RM 87,750 X 12 Months = RM 1,053,000 revenue lost per year
• 

Very interesting indeed. This is a very conservative amount already as you know the vol of customers that goes into KFC daily is very high. Now i dont have any proof that i was there last sun in KFC SS14 as the manager took the receipt but i guess this is up to KFC whether that want to review this.

So the next time you want to upgrade, DONT. If KFC dont want the extra $$$, save it!

I will email this to KFC, lets see how they respond……

By the way, i dont know if you know this but Shakey’s Pizza Country Fried Chicken is DA BOMB. Dont Diss it until you try it ok.