Lunch at La Preciosa Restaurant (Ilocos Norte)

HOOORAAYY FOR OUR SECOND LOCAL TRIP IN LIKE EVER! Weelll Ilocos isn't really the second Pinoy location I've visited aside from Manila, but more of I don't really consider the Tagaytay and Subic area as a legit adventure for peeps coming from Manila... The last time we went on an adventure was when we went to Cebu and Bohol in 2005, and the rest of my trips have been international. 

The moment we got to Laoag, the first place we were brought to was La Preciosa restaurant. Founded by Madame Preciosa and now managed by her family, mainly her daughter Pammy, it's by far what people claim is the best place to go for Ilocos food. We were brought to several other places in Ilocos to eat, and I think I can agree that as far as Iloko food go, this is the place to hang out in. 

Since this is our first Iloko meal, we decided to pig out and order lots of oily foods we normally wouldn't order in one sitting. 

Yabu Time (December 19, 2014)

It's true what they say that it's the outing that isn't planned that gets pushed through. I actually wasn't planning on going to Yabu, until my friends Earl and Jean (who hitched a ride with me from some other stuff we did) thought the best way to unwind would probably be to go to Yabu. 

I haven't been to Yabu many times as my mother hates the place. If we're going out as a family, Yabu is automatically crossed out of the list. Well, she doesn't really have this hatred toward the place to the point that she wants to nuke it or something, more of she's just not into fried food and a restaurant that banks on how well it fries its pork just doesn't appeal to her. This is why I always associate Yabu with friends, as it's usually when I eat out with friends that Yabu pops up as an option, and more often than not it pops up as the primary choice for dining. 

I also always associate Yabu with its cute manga, which varies per branch. The SM North branch talks about its Menchi Katsu, and if I'm not mistaken, Robinsons Magnolia talks about their fried oyster. I wish I could find the branch that has their Berkshire pigs in the manga. 

And I honestly wished I brought my SLR along because phone photos just do not give justice to how good the food is. (well how was I supposed to know we all came from doing serious stuff and in the first place we weren't even supposed to go to SM). 

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka (December 23, 2014)

I blame my lack of ramen-house savvy to the sheer amount of work I need to do. If I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm busy beauty blogging. If not both, I'm busy cleaning up a mess in the house or busy making stuff for my clay art business or beading. I really like going out and all, but with the kind of schedule I have, I can't afford to live like the people who go out weekly and eat out almost daily. 

So this is why in all the years, months, or whatever time frame Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has been open in TriNoma, I have never gotten to eat at the place yet. 

We spent a good time looking at the set menu and all, but we decided that we'd prolly be better off with the lunch special as these set menus have too much stuff that if we ordered two sets it'd be waaaaayyy too much food for three people.