My 1st Ever Tweetup
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On January 13, 2010
Last January 9, 2010, I attended my 1st ever Tweetup! I was very happy that I did. I met a lot of twitter friends personally. It was just so nice to be able to see your tweetmates in person. I really think tweetups can be more personal and bigger friendships could be formed.
For those of you who aren’t too familiar with twitter, it is a social networking and microblogging site. It allows us to share our thoughts in 140 character messages or tweets, as we call them. Think of it as a single text message but online. In fact, in other countries, you can send sms to twitter to appear as tweets.
Twitter is a bit addicting, really. I can’t go on a day without posting tweets. It can either be replying tweets from other people, sharing relevant links from different websites or just sharing news.
A few weeks ago, I saw several people i follow on twitter tweeting about a tweetup on Ayala Park. That was last December 2009. Unfortunately, I was too lazy that day to drive all the way to Makati. (Hey! In my defense, I was on vacation!). So anyway, I ended up sleeping instead and tweeting online. I later regretted not going. I was so excited when @mcmanoloto and @ssowy were tweeting about the next tweetup! And yes, I made sure to join 😀
haha! I was a bit late, ok I was late by 30 minutes. I only saw @mcmanoloto there at the time. At first I thought that this tweetup was going to be a bit of a disaster as the people who confirmed weren’t coming. A few minutes later, people were starting to arrive! Awesome right? Here we are 1 hour after the meeting time:
It was amazing. People just kept arriving and I felt so sad that that I was so pressed for time. I had another appointment to attend so I had to say goodbye & wasn’t able to join my tweetup friends for lunch. 🙁
Anyhow, I had the taste of what tweetup was like! 🙂 I must say that I loved it! It reminds me of the eyeball days when MiRc was still popular. I’ll make sure to attend the next tweetup! Holler to my twitter friends! 🙂
More pictures from the tweetup here.
Mr. Jones
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On January 11, 2010
Mr. Jones
Phase 2, Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City
(02) 501-3111
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Sharleen and I met up for dinner last week. It was a great night to bond with one of my dearest friends. I just missed her. We used to go out a lot before. Since she got married and had kids, we had to cut down on our meet up days.
For our dinner, I gave the suggestion that we should try out Mr. Jones because I have heard lots about it on Twitter. I like to try out things I see recommended online, it doesn’t matter if it’s foxy bingo online or a really good book, I think it’s good to try things that others recommend. When we arrived at the venue, we had to wait because we were 3rd on the waiting list. I thought to myself, I guess that they really were that good.
Here are what we ordered:
- Cherry Almond Crunch (Php 175)
I love almonds and cherries! So I had to try Mr. Jones’ famous milkshakes. I ordered their cherry almond crunch 🙂
Mr. Jones’ Cherry Almond Crunch milkshake basically has vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, cherries, almonds and almond syrup. All ingredients were shaked in the metal container then poured into a glass. If there were any excess, they would still give it to us. That’s the reason why the shaker was served to me as well.
- “Garlic Portobello” Steak & Eggs (Php 450)
According to my friend, this Beef Tenderloin steak topped with mushrooms and served with three eggs (cooked any style) and with potatoes was too watery and ended up with no taste. I could see the disappointment so I guess I will never order this Mr. Jones’ menu item.
- 1/2 Inch Thick Double-Smoked Bacon & Eggs (Php 295)
This is 1/2 inch big big bacon! I usually prefer crispy thin bacon though but this is okay. It was served with biscuits, potatoes & 2 eggs. Definitely will make your stomach full.
- U.S. Beef Ribcap “Tapa & Garlic Overload” (Php 295)
This is like the yummiest tapa I have ever eaten! Overload, true sense of the word! I wasn’t able to finish it. It was just too much but I defintely recommend that you order this. Bestseller! 🙂
The tapa was topped with tons of toasted garlic and was served with garlic rice, 2 eggs and atchara. This is definitely a must order.
- Twinings Green Tea Lemon (Php 110)
The servers will let you choose which flavor of Twinings you prefer. Then right after they served it in a tea pot with a huge cup (which could actually be a container for a soup). It’s that big! :P:P Cute!
I also liked the ambiance of the restaurant. It had this diner design. They even had a jukebox!! I tried the jukebox out (it’s the small thingy behind the seat in the picture below). It had songs of Elvis Presley. All of it!! hahaha! I also love the couch which was very comfortable. You would really love to hang out at the place for quite some time.
Food trip! Loved it! 🙂 More pictures here.
BBQ Chicken
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On January 10, 2010
BBQ Chicken
102 Jupiter Street, Bel-Air, Makati City
(02) 896-3272
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A few days ago, we had our girl bonding lunch session at BBQ Chicken. We haven’t been there so we wanted to try it out. I was very much impressed as all the dishes were delicious! Their fried chicken menu items were out of stock when we were there. So I’ll make sure to try those next time as well as their other chicken dishes..
BBQ Chicken is located at Jupiter Street. I don’t know if you believe in jinxes or feng sui but this particular space is somewhat a jinx to commercial establishments. I remember several businesses closed in that location, maybe there’s bad feng shui? Ok, maybe not as well but I think BBQ chicken will stay.
Here are what we ordered:
- 1-pc. Grilled Chicken Bulgalbi Set (Php 140)
BBQ Chicken has a lunch time daily promo for those who are on a budget. The promo runs from 10AM until 3PM. How it goes, there’s a certain menu item that you can get discount with. The catch is with a normal order, you will get 2 pieces while in this discounted item, you will only get 1 piece.
Jo ordered this while Hai ordered the regular-priced item. Let me get to that next.
- Grilled Chicken Bulgabi Set (Php 195)
This is grilled thigh part barbecued with chicken sauce. From the look that they had, I was sure both Jo and Hai loved their orders. The food just looked delicious! When I asked them, they agreed. By the way, this was barbecued in charcoal, giving it a Korean twist.
- Classic Bulgalbi Value Meal (Php 85)
BBQ Chicken doesn’t only have a lunch promo, it also has its everyday promo. I ordered the classic bulgalbi just to try out a different menu item. I was very impressed that the chicken was soooo good. The fried rice was super yummy! I don’t know how they cooked the fried rice but I was definitely hooked. I finished it even though my bulgalbi was just small.
- Bulgalbi Burger & Potato (Php 150)
This looked classy. Boneless bulgalbi patty seasoned with sauce put in & w/ vegetables, tomatoes & cheese. This was served w/ fries and ketchup sauce.
- Col-Pop Chicken (Php 80)
This is definitely unique. Okay, I admit by this time, I was already full but yes, I still opted to order this because I wanted to show you this awesome menu item. Great innovation. Great for movies. Unfortunately though, they are located far from the movie houses. 🙁
This is chicken breast cooked popcorn style. They have this customized container for the chicken which you can put on top of the tall drinks cup. So you just need to bring the cup and you already have both the chicken and your drink with it. Great, great, great idea!
The rest of our super enjoyable lunch here.
Club 360
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On January 10, 2010
Club 360
2nd Floor, A. Venue Mall, Makati Avenue, Makati City
(02) 994-9674
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This is my 2nd time at Club 360. The first time I wasn’t able to blog about it because, well I lost the pictures I took there! Anyhow, I was very impressed the 1st time as it stuck in my mind that Club 360 served good food. So when my friend invited me for dinner, I immediately said, “Let’s go to Club 360 at A. Venue Mall.“
The impression you would get from Club 360 when you look at it, you would think that it was a bar rather than a restaurant. Club 360 is obviously projecting a bar/club image. It had a pretty cool red and black themed entrance with circle shape and yes, that caught my attention.
The bar impression you get before you enter? Totally forgotten once you walk past the door. It really is a restaurant more than a club!!
We ordered the following:
- Pineapple Fried Rice (Php 180)
I was very disappointed when this was served to us. I ordered this because I saw the picture in the menu where the rice was supposed to be served in pineapple. You think my disappointment evaporated? It continued with the taste of the dish. This dish is just normal.
- Spareribs Salt & Pepper (Php 200)
This dish, i remember ordering during my 1st visit at Club 360. It still tasted the same, meat was tender and yummy to eat.
- Chinese Kangkong w/ Lechon Kawali (Php 195)
Lechon Kawali w/ Kangkong is definitely a good combination. I love it!
- Mascovado Healthy Lemonade (Php 60)
There were three types of lemonade served in Club 360. I’m having a hard time distinguishing the difference. So i ended up asking the servers. I asked, “What is the difference between masconvado, healthy lemonade, lemon mascovado lemonade and honey lemonade?”
Their answers were useless! hahahaha!
They don’t even know themselves. They just gave me ssoooo crazy answers like this is with honey, this is with lemon and this is healthy. LOLz. Crazy.
- 360 Iced Tea (Php 60)
- Mango Sago (Php 90)
The mango sago is like the worst mango sago I have ever eaten!! It’s like watered mango! That’s how I felt the taste was like 🙁
I feel sad that when we visited Club 360, there were few people dining there. To be fair, even in all the other restaurants in the mall, we observed that there aren’t too many people. The location of Club 360 isn’t helping it attract customers either. See, most events and parties are on the first floor. And Club 360? They are on the 2nd floor of the mall where too few visit.
A proof that there were not much people? Three servers were entertaining customers in 1 table. That’s too much customer service, IMHO. I hope their business will do better. Such a waste if they just close down.
More pictures from our dinner here.
LopezLink
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On January 6, 2010
The Lopez Group is a conglomerate of businesses open by the Lopez family. This group includes Benpres Holdings and of course, who can forget ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation & BayanTel telecommunications company, among other businesses. LopezLink, on the other hand, is the monthly publication of the Lopez Group of Companies. It talks about the latest from the Lopez’s many businesses.
For example, If you open LopezLink you will see LopezLink 2009 Year End Report.
You will discover that it wasn’t a good year for the Lopez Group but it wasn’t a bad year either. The past year had business as usual for the Lopez Group. LopezLink reported a lot of activities but I will share only a few that caught my attention:
- Kapit Bisig Para as Ilog Pasig was launched by ABS-CBN Foundation managing director Gina Lopez.
- Benpres last August 2009 bought back US$260M outstanding debt from Avenue Asia Group.
- ABS-CBN had an exclusive coverage of US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton’s visit as well as earning P1.79B.
- Meralco entered into an investment and cooperation agreement with PLDT (march)
- First Philippine Holdings Corporation becomes, Integrated Management Systems certified.
- ABS-CBN Foundation Bantay Bata 163 is “most popular corporate social responsibility (CSR)” project
- Energy Development Corporation, First Philippine Holdings Corporation and ABS-CBN get highest scores in corporate governance.
- Energy Development Corporation takes over Mindanao 1 and 2 geothermal power plants in North Cotabato.
- www.lopezlink.ph goes online.
- Sagip Kapamilya lead Lopez Group to mobilize relief and rehabilitation
- Energy Development Corporation turn overs Palinpinon and Tongonan Power Plants in Visayas to Green Core Geothermal .
- More than 22,000 participated with A Run for the Pasig River by KBPIP
LopezLink also talked about the Knowledge Channel and the Department of Education renewed basic education tools development partnership. This was during the recently held Knowledge Channel Stakeholders Awards (KOSA). What happened was, Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. and the Department of Education signed a memorandum of agreement that renewed their partnership. The purpose of this agreement is the continued partnership to develop basic education tools through the Knowledge Channel.
One of the aims of the Knowledge Channel Foundation is to broaden the channel’s reach from the existing 2,000 schools even as it continues its advocacy by keeping up with trends in technology and new ways to advance development of children.
Another interesting development is Knowledge Channel and Citi Philippines’ partnership. They will be launching a series that will teach simplified economic and financial concepts. The title of the series will be “Estudyantipid”. The show how to save money properly. It aims to teach about basic econ concepts like wants, and needs; wealth; interest and inflation.
Here is the trailer for that show:
Another program the Knowledge Channel is pushing for is the 10 episode, “Mi Isla,” which will be about how to save the environment. It will focus “Center of the Center” where marine life is very rich. This area is found in the sea route that is enclosed by Batangas, Marinduque, Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro Oriental and Romblon provinces. This show was filmed in Verde Island.
LopezLink also have forums if you want to participate. This is LopezLink Forum & where I last posted on LopezLink.