D.I.Y. burgers

Another new little eatery in our neighborhood is The Burger Project. Choose your bun (whole wheat, potato, sesame seed), patty (tofu, chicken, beef), cheese, toppings and sauces. Quite innovative since most burger places here, franchise or independent, let you choose only the toppings and sauces at the most. The tofu burger was a disappointment, however; I'll try the chicken burger next time.

Rat Pack

As Francisca pointed out in my DQ ice cream cake post, Halloween is gaining a foothold in Metro Manila. Especially in the South, villages decorate for the holiday and kids go trick-or-treating. And what's driving it? Commercialism, of course. Hotels have parties for both children and adults to increase room and banquet sales, and malls are decorated to the rafters, have special shows and even allow children to go trick-or-treating among their stores. This trio—born of a marriage between a ghost and a pumpkin, apparently—was greeting shoppers at SM City North EDSA mall's Sky Garden. Somehow, they reminded me of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra.

Don't ask

Not only is there no consistency to the design of Metro Manila's footbridges or overpasses, some of their locations aren't very well thought out either. But the one at Philcoa, the same one with the cute anime graffiti, has got to be the worst. It's the only one, so far, that I've seen that ends in the middle of the street. There used to be an island there so pedestrians were protected from vehicles when they got down the steps. Whose great idea to remove it, I have no idea, but he or she obviously doesn't use public transportation.

Partners

For the life of me, I just can't get a decent photo of my own grade school and high school, Holy Family. Barbed wire runs on top of its walls and utility cables are thick all over. This is just the side of the school; the cables at the front, which is in our neighborhood's main street, are even worse. Holy Family School is run by the Siervas de San Jose (Servants of Saint Joseph), a religious missionary congregation founded in Spain, and is an all-girls school. It is separated from Claret School, an all-boys grade school and high school, by a single, low wall. Needless to say, a lot of heckling and eyelash-batting goes on around that wall during recess and lunch break.

Simple blessing

A relief of the Madonna and Child in the gardens of the Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Way) parish church in Quezon City.

A roc's wingspan

Persia Grill is one of many restaurants on the Sky Garden of SM City North EDSA mall. I must say that my husband and I weren't impressed with the food we ordered, but I do like their sign and lanterns. If someone can tell me what this creature is supposed to be, I'd really appreciate it.

Camouflage

I like how the roofs of the Grade School and High School departments of Miriam College, which older Manileños know better as Maryknoll when the Maryknoll Sisters ran it, blend so well with the trees in their campus. This was taken from the matching green pedestrian overpass in front of the school during a Saturday afternoon, hence the scarcity of cars and school service vans in the parking lot.

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October's theme for City Daily Photo bloggers is Graffiti. That's going to be fun! Don't forget to vote for the November theme too!

Leaves of rice

The Pahiyas Festival celebrated in Lucban and in other towns in the Philippines is a harvest festival. It is always held on May 15, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer or Farmer). The highlight of the festival is a procession of revered religious icons followed by the town's prettiest girls in fancy gowns, which begins and ends in the parish church. The houses along the roads where the procession goes through—the route is changed every year—are decorated just for the festival and this is what pahiyas (ornaments) refers to. The decorations are composed of the fruits of the harvest and Lucban has a special kind of ornament made of rice, called kiping, which is why the festival attracts thousands of tourists every year. Grains of rice are pounded to a flour and mixed with water and food coloring to form a paste, which is then brushed over leaves and left to dry. The result is thin, translucent, jewel-toned leaves which are used to cover the houses' facades or strung into elaborate designs, like this almost two-story high chandelier which graces the entrance of Buddy's restaurant in Quezon City.




Smaller kiping lanterns are hung all around the restaurant's interiors, and the flower pattern at the building's facade is echoed by the beautiful light fixtures on the ceiling.




A photo collage about Lucban—the higantes, the procession led by the statue of San Isidro, Mount Banahaw, the parish church, and a house richly and colorfully decorated with pahiyas—curves along the wall of the staircase which leads to the second floor.

Fiesta!

During the opening of the Timog Avenue branch of Buddy's restaurant (see yesterday's post), the owners recreated some parts of the Pahiyas Festival. It was a fun treat seeing higantes (giants)…




and a brass band. Of course, both attracted quite a lot of attention from passersby, including a vendor hoping to sell some balloons to guests with little children.

Slurp

The town of Lucban in Quezon Province is most famous for its Pahiyas Festival, which I Heart Manila featured extensively last month. Almost as famous is the town's longganisa (sausage) and pancit (noodles). Buddy's is the only restaurant that I know of in Metro Manila that specializes in Lucban cuisine and it just opened a new branch along Timog Avenue in Quezon City. The flower design over its entrance is typical of the festival's decorations. Lucban pancit is regular street fare and usually served on a piece of banana leaf—no plate, no fork—and one is supposed to eat it straight from the hand. Because of that, and the sucking sound that people tend to make while eating it, it is also known as pancit habhab. Of course, customers don't have to do that in Buddy's though I won't be surprised if they have banana leaves in stock just for those who want the experience.

It's not low-cost housing

Here is another view of the Berkeley Residences from the other day, but from the bottom of the green footbridge which leads to Miriam College. Because Halcyon asked whether it was affordable housing, here's a little more information about it. If you take a look at its floor plans, you will notice that the units are tiny, but these are actually the standard among most condominium buildings in Manila nowadays. Sulit.com.ph lists their cost from 1.8 to 4.3 million pesos (40,500 to 96,700 in U.S. dollars) depending on whether they have one or two bedrooms and also if they are on the pool level or not. Is Berkeley affordable? For the majority of Filipinos, no it's not. But compared to other condominium buildings, and especially houses, in the metro, yes it is. 

Gray and green

The looming 35-story residential condominium along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, which I first wrote about in March, is almost done. Only the pavilion on the roof deck remains unfinished. It's called the Berkeley Residences and the developer is the SM Group of Companies, the same company that filled Manila, and many other parts of the Philippines, with enormous malls. The Philippines is still in the middle of its monsoon season and our skies look like this, or worse, almost everyday. It's a bother, but as long as there are no devastating typhoons, I don't mind much—just look at that wonderfully green grass!

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Ziggurat ruins

Not as tall as the abandoned building behind Quezon City Hall but in a more prominent location, this terraced eyesore stands on government property at the corner of one of the roads which radiate from the Quezon Memorial Circle. When the land was still empty many years ago, the rumor going around was that Ayala Land was negotiating to lease or buy it so they could build a mall there, which would have been their first in Quezon City. When this terraced structure went up, the rumors became even fiercer. Then construction stopped completely without any explanation, as is quite usual in my country, and the thing's been standing there since. Ayala Land did eventually build a mall in Quezon City and I don't know if there's any truth to the old rumor, but the design of certain parts of Trinoma sure look very similar.

Bloom where you are planted

Of all the colorful sculptures of Joel Ferraris at the Sky Garden of SM City North EDSA mall, Bloom is the only one with a practical application. I've seen people sitting on them, although mostly just to pose for photos. Wouldn't it be fun to have garden chairs like these?

We live here

Eunilaine Foodmart is our neighborhood grocery which is only a 15-minute walk from our house. After shopping, when I already have my heavy grocery bags, I just take a tricycle back to the house. The company that owns Eunilaine has another grocery elsewhere in Quezon City and a pharmacy which is built into their two buildings. Eunilaine has been in our neighborhood for many years and I've seen it expand, go digital and change layouts so many times. This past year, a branch of Save More Supermarket opened just a couple of kilometers away. Save More is a large chain owned by the even larger SM Group of Companies, the same company that has a gazillion, humongous malls all over the Philippines, aside from many other kinds of businesses. I don't know how it has affected Eunilaine, but I think it's too much to hope that it didn't have an impact on "my" grocery's sales. Eunilaine's banner sums up well how I feel about the situation: "Why shop at Eunilaine? We live here, we bank here, we work here, we hear mass here, we do business here, our children study here, our good friends are here, it makes sense shopping here, we love it here."

And That's My World!

Cross on green

This is the pedestrian bridge that crosses Katipunan Avenue from Miriam College, which is exclusively for women from grade school to college. Like its neighbor, Ateneo de Manila University, the college keeps a security guard on or near the bridge for the safety of its students. The footbridge is basically of the same design as the one in front of the Ateneo a kilometer away which I posted last month, except that it doesn't have a roof. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but the bridge's green paint happily matches Miriam's school color.

Bridges around the world: Sunday Bridges

Nurturing gifted children

Akademeia opened in a converted house in our barangay less than five years ago. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about it except what I've read in its no-longer-updated Multiply site. Having studied in a traditional school as a child, I really like the idea of small class sizes and individualized instruction with special programs for gifted children. If you have three minutes, do take a peek at the "Another One Rides the Bus" video posted in its old Multiply site—the two little boys are talented, hilarious and absolutely adorable!

All about Quezon

Here's a closer look at the bas-relief on the oddly-shaped Mid-Century Modern building in Quezon City Hall which I first posted more than one year ago (and before you ask, no, I still don't know what's inside the thing). I can see the Quezon Memorial and the Oblation statue of the University of the Philippines on the relief, and many of the other scenes feature Manuel L. Quezon, the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the man after whom the city is named. One particular scene strikes me the most, the one where he is ankle-deep in mud and planting rice. What I'd like to know is, until what year did the city still have rice fields??

Street whimsy

A very different kind of art from yesterday's post. This motley crew adorns one end of the pedestrian overpass beside Citimall in Quezon City.

For us?

Quezon City Hall has a brand-new civic center building. I was on my way elsewhere and didn't have time to check it out though. I hope I can go back soon to find out what it's all about. I've heard of civic centers in American cities and towns, but it was the first time I saw one in my own city and I'm wondering if it will be offering similar services.