Enjoying the City
You want to spend the day out in the city with your two daughters. Where will you take them?
I’m not much of a mall rat, especially now that I have a seven-month-old. It’s not our thing as a family to spend hours walking around aimlessly. I must say, my older daughter does appreciate our “dates” in the Glorietta and Greenbelt areas. We get her hair cut, we watch movies and plays, and have our favorite soup and pasta from Cibo. Oh, and she absolutely adores her “great big bookstore” in Bonifacio Global City—we both get lost in there for hours!
With a little one in tow, it’s really more about family now. We usually spend weekends in the south, where the air is fresher and life is a bit more relaxed. The Alabang community is self-contained. Everything you need is there!
During the week, I take my girls to friends’ houses within the metro for playgroups with other babies, and we usually find ourselves enjoying parks close by. The crawlers get to take in some (relatively) fresh air, and the bigger kids get to run around, climb the monkey bars, slide to their hearts’ content, and basically just be free from the constraints of being indoors.
If you wanted comfort food, where will you go and why? Ooh, so many great places that serve excellent comfort food now! In terms of comfort food as a cuisine, there’s a lot of buzz about 2nd’s at Bonifacio Global City. I love their Caprese Salad and Leche Flan Turon! A new favorite, after trying a good number of dishes in one go coupled with some of the pub’s amazing Belgian beer on tap, is Draft over at the Fort Strip. But essentially, comfort food is all about old reliables that may not be flashy or fancy, but you’re ensured a good meal—Cibo, Milky Way, Isshin, People’s Palace, Mandarin Oriental’s Deli and Tin Hau, Pancake House, Corner Tree Café, Terry’s, The German Club, and La Nuova!
Where do you and your hubby usually go for date night? When we do date nights, it’s to quaint little restaurants (Italian is always a contender, for some reason—La Grotta in Legaspi Village and L’Opera in the Fort) without the crowds and noise. Apart from excellent food, we tend to look for the right ambiance to transport us to another state of mind and allow us to focus on us, even just for a few hours.
Though my husband and I enjoy a good movie every so often (we just discovered the Resorts World Cinemas, we’ll be frequenting the movies more now because of it!), it’s difficult to catch up while engrossed with what’s happening onscreen. We are more of a theater-going kind of couple. We enjoy straight plays and the bigger musicals that several
theater groups—from UP to Repertory Philippines, Atlantis Productions to PETA, 9 Works Theatrical to World Theater Project—stage throughout the year. It is such a beautiful art that could use more recognition, and I’m hoping that city dwellers realize this fact.
What is your idea of a perfect day in the city? As time has become a bit of a frivolity recently due to work, a
perfect day could be in any setting—at the park, in my parents’ house, at the mall to grab a bite. The one thing that would make that day complete would be quality time with my husband and two little girls.
What is it that you love the most about Manila? Why? I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to explore the city the way not many get a chance to. Restaurants old and new, art exhibits, spas, plays and other live performances—there are so many things to do and see! I was guilty of being a complacent city girl, just sticking
to the things I knew and not allowing myself to expand my horizons and experience new things that Manila had to offer. I think many of us are guilty of it. We should all give Manila a chance. There’s always an interesting find in the most unexpected of place. We just have to keep our senses open and never be afraid to try something new.
