Today, January 31, is my birthday, but because Justin’s lolo and lola (my parents) were with us yesterday when we went to church, hubby and I decided we’d have an advance birthday celebration yesterday, January 30, at Mr. Choi Kitchen at Robinsons Galleria. My younger sister and my eldest niece were also there to celebrate with us.


The birthday girl in red!


Me, my son and hubby!


My niece Tin-Tin and Justin’s lola and lolo

All of us!


My sister Meann finishing the big bowl of birthday noodle
Hubby ordered everything because he and his officemates have eaten there more than once already, and they all agreed this Chinese restaurant serves delicious but affordable food. Below is a rundown of what we had for lunch yesterday.


Hot Prawn Salad, Php330.00


Steamed Fish Fillet with Garlic, Php265.00


Braised Patatim, Php260.00


Fried Chicken in a Basket, Php250.00


Beef with Broccoli, Php250.00


Birthday Noodle, Php200.00


Yang Chow Fried Rice, Php185.00
My niece Tin-Tin bought me a White Forest Cake from Red Ribbon. She even made me blow out the candle on my birthday cake.


My birthday cake: White Forest Cake from Red Ribbon


That’s my son singing “Happy Birthday, Mommy”!
We paid less than Php2,000.00 for everything. My parents were given senior citizen discounts, too. Their neat and accurate receipts made me wonder what document management software they’re using. Anyway, we went home too full and satisfied.

So, that’s Part 1 of my birthday celebration for this year. Watch out for Part 2.

Because I’ll be celebrating my birthday in a few days and because I promised to pamper myself more this year as part of my 2011 resolutions, I went to Forever Flawless at Robinsons Galleria last Sunday, January 23, to have an age-defying facial. This type of facial treatment restores elasticity, boosts the skin’s natural ability to stimulate collagen and visibly diminishes wrinkles and fine lines.

While I waited for a beauty specialist to attend to me, I had a chat with the people at the reception area. They’re very friendly, by the way! One of them happened to be the store supervisor, but I didn’t catch her name. I even asked her if it’s alright to have my picture taken while undergoing a procedure inside their clinic, but she said she still has to ask permission from the higher-ups, so I did not insist anymore.

Melody, or Mhel for short, was the beauty consultant/specialist assigned to me, and she nicely ran me through the steps of the age-defying facial. For all of those who haven’t experienced this facial treatment before, here’s what you can expect during the procedure, as I remember them.

Step 1: Essential oil to relax
Step 2: Foaming
Step 3: Facial massage
Step 4: Facial scrub
Step 5: Steaming
Step 6: Eye de-stressing and placing of eye patch
Step 7: Placing of hot moist pack on my hands
Step 8: Vacuuming of face
Step 9: Pricking
Step 10: Application of witch hazel toner on face
Step 11: Laser
Step 12: Application of age-defying mask
Step 13: Application of hot towel on the face
Step 14: Application of cold towel on the face
Step 15: Application of skin disinfectant on the face
Step 16: Application of Vitamin E and water-based moisturizer on the face

Regarding Step No. 7, I was surprised when Mhel placed hot moist pack on my hands and said that it’s to relieve stress and back pain. This, she said, is an added service to their clients. I liked this very much! Mhel even massaged my back while waiting for the appointed time to remove my age-defying mask. I loved that, too! The age-defying facial cost Php490.00 and lasted for an hour.

Next time, I’ll have my facial warts removed and I will try their Power Peel.

“Cara Mia” means “my dear” in Italian, while “Gelateria” is the modern-day version of Italy’s traditional ice cream parlor. Caramia Gelateria offers gelato (Italian ice cream), gelato cakes, affogato (coffee-based dessert or beverage) and gelato shakes.

My son craved for chocolate ice cream last Friday after he’s had his hair cut, and we decided to try Caramia Gelateria at Robinsons Galleria. I bought him a scoop of Cioccolato, which cost Php75.00, and I bought a slice of Banana Blast for me.


I’m not really fond of sweets, so I never thought I’d finish the entire slice, but I did, and I wanted more! If not for my son who was raring to go home after he’s had his fill of chocolate ice cream, I would have ordered another slice of this delicious gelato cake.


Banana Blast, Php95.00/$2.00 per slice
Banana Blast is Banana, Strawberry Supreme and Cioccolato gelato with chocolate cookies crust. I love the taste of banana and chocolate on my mouth while munching on big chunks of frozen strawberries! Because I like it so much, I asked hubby to buy me another slice last Sunday. The entire cake costs Php600.00, but you can have a slice for only Php95.00.

Incidentally, did you know that gelato is made with more milk but lesser fat? This means gelato is not only richer and creamier, but it’s also healthier than ice cream.

CARAMIA GELATERIA
Robinsons Galleria Branch

West Lane, Level 2
Robinsons Galleria
EDSA cor Ortigas Ave., Quezon City
Email: rg@amici.ph

A few hours before 2011, Justin, his Dad and I went to Veranda at Robinsons Galleria to try one of the restaurants there. Veranda is located along Ortigas Deck Parking. We agreed to eat at Papa John’s Pizza.

Mommy and son hamming it up for the camera while waiting for our orders
We chose to stay outside Papa John’s because we were watching the crew of a nearby restaurant dancing to the delight of the diners. We were grooving to the music, too. We made a mental note to visit this place one of these days.

We ordered the following: Super Papa’s Pizza, Marinara and Seafood Carbonara.


Super Papa’s (small, 9 inches), Php300.00/$7.00
What we like most about this pizza is its soft and chewy dough. They also serve pepperoncini and garlic butter sauce on the side to enhance the flavor of pizza. I like my pizza with garlic butter sauce on top. Yummy!

Super Papa’s has pepperoni, Italian sausage, succulent chicken roll, freshly sliced mushrooms, onions, green peppers and black olives.


Marinara, Php (forgot to list down the price, sorry!)
My son loved this! In fact, this was all he ate. He left the pizza to his Dad and me. I like this, too, but I think the Seafood Pasta of Chef D’Angelo tastes so much better.

Marinara is spaghetti or penne served with shrimps, crabsticks, tuna, green peppers, and onions baked in special pizza sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese.


Seafood Carbonara, Php180.00/$4.00
This one’s too bland for our taste, but we ate all of it, nonetheless. We have to get our money’s worth. LOL!

Seafood Carbonara is spaghetti and penne served with shrimp and calamari served in carbonara sauce.


Our drinks
I think we were really hungry that time because we finished everything. LOL! So, are we coming back to order more from Papa John’s Pizza? We already did. Hubby bought a medium-sized Super Papa’s pizza last Tuesday.

My son and I took a quick trip to Robinsons Galleria yesterday noon to see Joy Mendiola and give her my Christmas gift, to take my son to the barbershop to have his hair trimmed and to treat my son to Tom’s World; he hasn’t played there in a long while.

On our way to the barbershop, my son stopped dead in his tracks, seemingly afraid of something. He sat on the floor with his left hand touching the ground for support, and I couldn’t make him leave his spot. Nope, there weren’t band saw blades lying on the floor that scared the wits out of him.

He was actually afraid of the glass panels that serve as dividers at the mall. Because the glass panels were transparent, he actually thought there was nothing there, and he was afraid that he might fall down if he gets near these “invisible” glass panels.

I tried to make him touch the glass panels so he could see for himself that there was nothing to be afraid of, but he wouldn’t budge. I had no choice but to proceed to our destination at once, so he could forget about the whole thing.

After he’s had his hair cut, we passed by the same glass panels again. I took the liberty to take pictures of the things he feared and compared it to the ones the mall planned to replace. They’re still not finished changing everything inside the mall.


Glass panels


Metal grilles
Now, which do you think is safer for children: the glass panels or the metal grilles?

We were at Robinsons Galleria Activity Center yesterday morning for the Smart Parenting Model Search 2010. This contest is open to children aged 0 to 6 years old. I entered my four-year-old son in this competition both for exposure and experience.


People lining up to register


Justin (right) and another contestant
Feeling complacent that Robinsons Galleria was just walking distance from our place, we went there a few minutes before 11am. We were surprised that there was already a long queue of people. We lined up for registration for 2 hours. Tension was already building by noon time because the lines for registration were not orderly. It didn’t help that the kids were also getting cranky.

We were supposed to register our kids, then fill up a form and wait for our numbers to be called. Because there were lots of complaints from parents (moms mostly) in our queue, the organizers had to skip the registration process for us and just gave us the forms instead with our assigned numbers written on top.

They also weren’t able to check our Php500.00 proof of purchase for kids’ tops and bottoms purchased from Robinsons Department Store, which is one of their contest requirements, and they simply dumped our forms and receipts in one corner. I just hope that no receipts get lost in the process that will disqualify some contestants.

According to Michelle of MrsMartinez’ Raves and Rants who was there to cover the event, the organizers were not expecting a lot of contestants to join. They should have anticipated this because they’re holding a nationwide model search.

After two hours of waiting, my son had his photoshoot on stage a few minutes before 1pm. He was Contestant No. 124. He was already a bit restless then. Good thing, Dora appeared on stage, which made him totally forgot what he was whining about. I managed to take a picture of my son while posing for the photographer on stage.


Justin posing on stage
We were tired, thirsty, and hungry when we left. Next time there’s a contest like this, we’ll make sure we’re there early with lots of bottled water to keep us hydrated and a fan to keep us cool. Winners of the Smart Parenting Model Search 2010 will be posted on Smart Parenting’s website.

I was browsing through my photo files, and I came across some of the photos that were taken when we dined out at Sizzing Pepper Steak at Robinsons Galleria last August 1 to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary.

Because it was our third time to eat there, we were surprised when we were asked by our server to tick off our orders from an order sheet. It wasn’t their practice before, and my husband got into a little argument with the server because she was insisting that it has always been that way. Oh well, it looked like they’ve implemented changes since the last time we were there.

We ordered Beef Pepper Rice, my husband’s favorite and Chicken Pepper Rice. The little boy didn’t want to eat. He simply asked for Dippin’ Dots ice cream before we went inside the restaurant.


Beef Pepper Rice (Thinly sliced beef seasoned with cracked pepper, garlic butter with teriyaki sauce), Php165.00/$4.00


Chicken Pepper Rice (Cubed chicken sautéed in taro sauce, onion and bell peppers) Php155.00/$3.00)


Blueberry Cheesecake (Creamy cheesecake topped with blueberries), Php150.00/$3.00)
What we like most about this restaurant is their unique way of cooking the meat. They use a “patented” hot plate system that allows diners to cook the meat on the spot. Steaks are cooked at just the right temperature, and they are served juicy, tender, and hot.

Their place in Robinsons Galleria is a bit cramped, though. I wish there’s more space for the customers to have a more convenient and pleasurable dining experience.