Food from home: Snack time

     Looking for breakfast and merienda food can be a challenge.* As much as possible, I always look for healthy alternatives.

  Granola

     I found a granola tutorial in youtube, so out of curiosity, I wanted to try making it at home. I used coconut sugar and honey instead of brown sugar. Granola usually has raisins, but since I'm not a fan of raisins, I used dried mango and cranberries. This has been a staple, especially for breakfast with yogurt and honey for some of us: Mom, my sister Mitch, my brother in law Allan and I. It's a good thing this came out to be a big batch and gave one of my balikbayan friends Fox, which I'm pretty sure he won't find abroad (at least for this mix with dried mango).*

Polvoron

     This is a family favorite. My niece Sofia and my nephew Enzo spent the week with us so I decided to surprise them with a special treat. ;) This is a family recipe which has been around for decades. My sister Mitch was the polvoron maker before. Now this task was passed on to me and my niece Sofia. We used Klim before (If you're 30 and above, I'm sure you know this brand) but now it's Nido.

merienda -snack

balikbayan -Filipinos based abroad

Overnight stay @ Fairmont Makati -Part 2

     It seemed I was the most excited for breakfast because it's buffet (I'm known to be Ms. Buffet in the family). :P Good thing we woke up in time. Mom, my nephew Enzo and I were the first group for breakfast at Spectrum (please see this link for details). We were given a cheerful welcome and was able to get a table right away. #EarlyBirdCatchesTheWorm ^_^

Love the cheerful, cozy and modern ambience!

Jams c/o The Fruit Garden... Love it!

The Buffet

The kids were amused with the bees. ^_^

     I made sure I took pics of every display. ^_^

Round 1: Hash brown, baked beans, Pork sausage, Longganisa, Classic Muesli

     They just ran out of garlic rice so I had no choice but to wait for the next batch for round 2. The Longganisa has a sweet taste, which was surprisingly yummy!  The Classic Muesli contains yogurt, which I found too healthy.

Round 2: Waffle, Filipino Muesli, garlic rice, baked tomato, sausage, Longganisa, sunny side up egg

     Finally the garlic rice came. :D The Filipino Muesli contains milk, cream, mangoes and Pistachios... liked it more than the Classic Muesli. Sorry I didn't take a pic of the sunny side up egg. 

Round 3: Chocolate Croissant

     I always end with something sweet. I'm not a croissant fan but I love Chocolate Croissant just because it's Chocolate. :D

     I enjoyed the buffet in general because they had a complete selection. I was impressed with the cheerful and accommodating staff. I just wished I had more room in my stomach to try everything in the buffet... but there's always a next time. ^_^

Pool

     After breakfast, I was the kids' chaperone and accompanied them to go swimming. I loved the pool, but too bad I didn't bring my swimsuit, so I just went online while they were splashing away. ^_^

     To conclude everything, all of us enjoyed our stay. It was our first time and it definitely left us with a good impression. We loved the ambience, room and service. The staff always offered their services with a smile (thank goodness no one was blah). To name a few, they always offered to carry our bags. Also, they offered to place a router in our room when we had signal problems with the internet. I believe we'll be coming back again. Thank you to my favorite brother Dax who treated us here. 

Fairmont Makati

1 Raffles Drive

Makati Avenue

Makati City

555-9888

Visit their website

Sunny Bellevue, Bohol (Part 3)

     Most of our meals were in Lamian World Cuisine (click on this link for more details), especially breakfast, merienda and dessert.*

Breakfast

     I love breakfast buffets! It's good their menu had a large variety of Filipino and International food, which just means the more, the better... the more exciting. We always woke up in time and got to try most of their items. ^_^

     Here are some of the items we enjoyed, where we got second and third servings. These were taken at different times. ^_^

Omelet, vegetable gratin, sausage, tocino, garlic rice, fried noodles, bacon*

Pancakes

Sausage and baked beans

Sunny side up egg

Bread pudding and egg custard bread

     Many will agree with me here... the best thing to eat when you're by the pool and beach are sandwiches, fries, ice cream and shakes (aka happy food) for some reason. Among the dishes we've tried, here are the family's favorites (again, these were taken at different times)...

Battered chicken with garlic rice

Perhaps this can be considered happy food because these were yummy!

Grilled ham and cheese

Cheeseburger

I was surprised to see other sidings... which were also yummy!

Hotdog

I didn't get to try this but my sister in law, Sheila and my nephew, Enzo loved this.

Mango shake

Banana shake

Pineapple shake

Strawberry ice cream

Korean ice cream is available too. :D

     

    Another reason that made our stay pleasant and memorable is the friendly, cheerful and accommodating staff. Looking forward to a second time. 

  

The Bellevue Resort
Panglao, Bohol
Visit their website
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merienda -snack
tocino -reddish sweetened pork; a popular Filipino breakfast usually eaten with egg and garlic rice.