Library Café: Cool Beans Café

Cafes  serve as a venue where you can  study or read a book with the luxury to sip a cup of coffee while munching your favorite pastries or a meeting place where  your friends  get together while imbibing  a frappe or a spot where you can conduct a  group meeting  while savoring a meal that can fill up your mind for a brainstorming- that is what a café is to me until I visited Cool Beans Café.

Cool Bean Café serves the famous Philippine Highland Arabica Coffee. The former are well known coffee  produced in Cordilleras. These coffee are known as Sagada (coffee with high Arabica and has a slightly bittersweet aftertaste), Benguet (coffee that has a bitter taste and very aromatic) and Kalinga (coffee that is made from Robusta beans with good aroma and blended perfectly).  It was said that the owner of the Café fell head over heels with this coffee that when she was planning to have her own café, serving this coffee would be her primary goal.

Aside from Highland Coffee the Café is also the first Library Café in the country. You can choose to read from their variety of books, magazine and comics. They have a stand of National Geograpgraphic , Life and Time Magazine  that can feed your wondrous mind. Marvel comics are readily available for youngsters and those who are child at heart. Variety of books from fiction to nonfiction and history are also available.

Cool Beans Café also offer a wide variety of dishes that you can munch on while reading your favorite book. They have panini, pasta, soups and salads, rice meal and all day breakfast meals. Aside from coffee, you can also indulge yourself with their brewed coffee, coffee based frappuccino and non coffee based, tea and soda.

The interior is homey and very relaxing that you will definitely enjoy having a perfect date with your book on this place and for those who want to escape the hustle and bustle world of internet, this is a great spot for you, for  the so-called WIFI is inaccessible in the four corners of this cafe.

Cool Beans Café is located in 67 Maginhawa Street, Quezon City, Philippines  and is open from Mon - Thu: 10:00 am - 11:00 pm  and Fri - Sat: 10:00 am - 12:00 am.

Chocolate Over Load Cake by Ms. Polly’s

I was about to sleep when my little sister got home. As I was about to close my eyes, my mom opened the door of my bedroom and excitedly told me that my sister bought  a cake for evening snack. Yes, you read it right. My family kinda take a snack before going to the bed.  Well, ever since I was a kid, 3 hours before going to bed me, my sister and dad  are taking a snack while watching the television.

I got up and saw a box…. The box is somewhat familiar. Hmm… I think I always see this box on the internet.  Could it be… could it be the chocolate cake that I always see as one of the best chocolate cakes in Manila?...  Yes it is!

 

The brown box encapsulates a round chocolate cake of  Ms. Polly’s.

 Ms. Polly’s Specialty Cakes and Desserts or also known as  Magallanes Shell Chocolate Cake was created by Ms. Polly who is a  housewife who loves baking.  They started selling cakes in Shell Magallanes and branched out to Robinson’s Galleria where you can enjoy a cup of coffee while enjoying a slice of their cake and other wares.

 

My sister bought a two layered round chocolate cake. The spongy cake layer is divided by a thick  chocolate icing that also coated the entire cake. The icing in the middle is so thick that when you cut the cake the chocolate icing will ooze out from  the sides of the former.  The icing is also made from cocoa that released the strong taste of chocolate. What I love with this cake is it melts in your mouth and it is definitely  a chocolate overload cake.

This is not a typical chocolate cake that you can buy in the market. Polly's Chocolate cake  is a multi- awarded dessert since 2005. Others call it a heaven sent chocolate cake and I would definitely agree to them.

You can grab Ms. Polly’s Cakes and Desserts on it’s home in Shell Magallanes and in Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas, Pasig City.

My Belgian Malinois "Waffle"

Waffle at 4 months and the couch 

she tore when she was bored

Sunday, it’s the day of my week when I stay at home, wear whatever I want to, be as simple as I want to be, no make up on, eat whatever I want and spend time with my family but aside from that, Sunday is also “Waffle” day for me.

Who is Waffle?  Waffle is my 8 months Belgian Malinois. I got her as a Christmas gift from my boyfriend. We named her as such because his Dad (my boyfriend) loves to eat Belgian Waffle and since she is a Belgian and the same color as a waffle, her name became the former. She was 2 months when we got her. I was planning to get a Shih Tzu that day, but when we saw her, I got hooked up with her charm and sweetness and that closed the deal.

Waffle at 6 months and her
favorite toy "BALL"

Waffle belongs to the Belgian Malinois breed of dogs. They are working dogs that usually aids in detecting explosives, narcotics, and use in tracking and rescuing people. Basically, they are police or military dogs. Their color is from fawn to mahogany and tan with black mask. My waffle’s coat is mahogany and she has a good looking black mask.

Malinois are very intelligent, active, alert and hard working. The first time we got Waffle, she is very attentive to the sounds of her new environment. She would always look for the source of the former. At 2 months she also learned a few tricks like sit, stand, up and down. By the time that she was 3 months she learned how to fetch and catch the ball in the air. She also learned how to roll and play dead by then.

My little girl loves playing and she has a whole lot of energy for it. Her drive  usually comes with her toy- BALL. Yes, she loves playing with her toy ball….. Whenever she sees her toy ball, she would definitely want to bite it or catch it.  

Every day  Waffle and I follow a routine for her exercise. Belgians are known to be destructive if they don’t have one and I myself saw the things that Waffle did when she don’t have exercise,  that’s why I strictly follow this routine of ours. I keep her mentally and physically exercised.  Since her drive comes from her toy “Ball,” I use it as a tool for her exercise. We always play hide and seek, wherein I will hide the ball on different  spots in the garage and her task is to find it. We also play catch, but with a little bit of a twist.  I toss the ball in the air and she will catch it, after she does she will go up to her pedestal and go down and go up again to give me the ball. The drill will end once she’s tired  because as they say “tired Belgian Malinois are Happy Belgian Malinois.”

The good thing about having a Belgian Malinois as well is that they are one of the dog breeds that have lesser health problems. They likely have a good health record compared with their other working breed counterparts, but to be sure I give Waffle vitamins  that will surely give her the nutrients that she needs.

Having Waffle in my life is such a blessing. Yes at times she tests my patience, but she definitely gives me her  100% unconditional love.  Every time she excitedly  greets  me when I go home, all the stress that I have  during the day vanishes. Walking and exercising with her is so much fun. Teaching and seeing her learning a trick makes me proud and satisfied. 

Waffle is my baby girl, my not so little baby girl that I love so much.

MA MON LUK

When it is raining and you want to savor a hot soup, there is one place that you can visit and definitely love.  Wonder what restaurant that is? The former is the famous MA MON LUK. 

Ma Mon Luk   is  the 4^th oldest Chinese restaurant in Metro Manila since 1886 and  known for their siopao or steamed pork dumplings and chicken noodle soup.  Ma Mon Luk was named after the founder of the restaurant itself, who is Ma Mon Luk.

Ma Mon Luk was born in China and was a grade school teacher at the former. It was said that he migrated to the Philippines to earn  a fortune. His famous chicken noodle soup started in the streets of Manila where he peddled it and soon became famous to students within the University belt.

The chicken noodle soup success led to the opening of his first restaurant in Binondo where he introduced his famous siopao. Even though he has his own restaurant Ma Mon Luk still peddle his chicken noodle soup, give samples of their goods and advertise his restaurant in the streets of Manila. His hard work paid off and his restaurant later on became a hit to Filipinos.

Siopao and chicken noodle soup is Ma Mon Luks specialty. The two complement each other and I definitely love them, especially during rainy season. Aside from the former and the latter I keep on coming back to this restaurant because of their  Chicken a la Ma Mon Luk, Sweet and Sour Pork and Ma Mon Luk Special Fried Rice but since this restaurant is very popular there are a lot of times that their dishes are easily sold out. So as a suggestion visits them 3 to 4 hours before their closing hour.

The Interior of the restaurant shows every visitor how popular it is. Pictures of celebrities that visited them as well as articles written about their wares  are posted on the walls. Cool stuffs like old landline phones serves as an ornament as well as a reminder that the restaurant was founded during the heydays of  Manila.

Currently Ma Mon Luk has two branches that you can visit. If you are near Quiapo you can go to their branch at 545 Quezon Boulevard Corner Raon Street, Quiapo, Manila but if you are near Quezon Avenue you can go at Quezon Avenue, Tatalon, Quezon City.