2023

If 2022 was all about revenge, then 2023 was a year where almost everything felt back to normal. A majority of us have chosen to move on and deal with neo new normal after three odd years (which felt like a lifetime). With this newfound feeling of freedom and relief, we’ve chosen to revisit old norms with a little bit of pandemic-inspired things tossed in the mix. It was weird.

It’s Starting to Look Like 2019…

The pandemic never quite left us, to be honest. In fact, I would find myself infected again in the first half of the year after going on a holiday. Thankfully, the symptoms were generally mild so I was able to continue as if it wasn’t a big deal. While it clearly wasn’t a big deal for me, COVID-19 remains to be a disruptive virus with a chance of dealing long COVID to the vulnerable. Needless to say, we’re just tired of the whole thing. We’ve recovered and now it’s time to really ask ourselves “where the hell do we go from here!?”.

I still don’t have the answer to that question and 2023 has been a year that’s occasionally defies logic. The urge to go through some form of self-preservation persists and at this point, we’re all just winging it and pretend that weird has become the new normal.

But first, let’s go travel first. We still have a little bit of catching up to do.

Travel

We traveled more than the usual in 2023, continuing the theme of revenge travel and a sudden yearning to see more of the region in light of all these holidays. Flights have gotten a bit more expensive, prompting us to finally take advantage of all the miles we’ve accrued over the years.

Southeast Asia

It’s so good to live in this side of the world. Our move back to the Philippines in 2018 (it’s actually more of 2019 for me) proved to be such a great decision because there’s just so much excitement and promise in Southeast Asia. My recent trips to Hanoi, Bali and Bangkok made me fall in love with the beauty, food and people of the region. One can’t help but admire the diversity too. There’s always a little bit of something for everyone.

Bangkok

Started the year by visiting Bangkok and it’s proving to be one of our favorite destinations. A flight from Manila to Bangkok takes less than three hours and you’re suddenly transported to a tourist-friendly city filled with interesting architecture amidst a large urban sprawl. Should my friends decide to visit the region, I would actually recommend that they visit Bangkok first.

January’s a good time visit, the weather is still mild. In this trip, Rica and I just stayed in Sukhumvit, a place that we’re already quite familiar with. Having visited multiple times in the past, we had a pretty minimalist itinerary composed of shopping and dining out (sometimes in the same place). We also managed to get massages every day. We did, however, check out the much hyped Jodd Fairs night market and actually had fun. Of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to the Chatuchak market. It’s always a good time.

Singapore

I used to travel to Singapore for work in the early 2000s and have developed a fondness for this modern, prosperous city that also happened to have great food. Almost all my memories of travel in the city revolved around this (except for that time where I watched the Oasis concert with friends). While we do have a lot of friends that call Singapore home, we often choose other countries over Singapore for holidays. This could actually change with our children in the future, given that this is actually a kid-friendly country.

Thanks to Netflix, Formula One racing has gotten popular. Even I got into the bandwagon after watching the series, rooting for Red Bull and their rivalry with Mercedes. In a way, you could say that their investment in producing that show worked because my high school friends suggested that we visit Singapore for the F1 weekend and watch the race. I didn’t have to think about it at all. Besides, a trip to the city was long overdue.

Singapore just keeps getting better from an infrastructure standpoint. I was really impressed at how nice Changi was, giving me a pretty bad case of Airport (and country) envy. It was also quite easy to move around the city, thanks to Grab and their public transit system. Everything just worked, putting a lot of North American cities to shame.

But we were there for F1 and while I didn’t really know what to expect, I was just so happy to experience the night race in person. There was just something thrilling about hearing those engines roar across the city. The event itself was well-organized for us non-paddock spectators too. It’s funny because this turned out to be a race where Red Bull wouldn’t win but it was still nice to rush towards the podium and celebrate with the winners of the race. I highly recommend it.

Overall, my trip there was quite short. Still, I managed to hang out with Quark whose wife recently gave birth and my long-lost friend Danda who has called Singapore home (and gave me a tour of her neighborhood). I should really consider Singapore more in the future.

China

I never really thought I’d visit this country anytime soon, although I’ve heard a lot of things about China from friends who have been there, saying that the food’s great (as it should be!) and that it’s a different experience compared to other East Asian countries. All it took was an invitation from our one of our partners at work to finally tick this country off my must visit list and I thank Huawei for inviting us to their campus in August.

China’s a pretty interesting country. This particular trip had us visit its most populous province, Guangdong and I was just blown away by how much technology is integrated in their cities. Also known as the factory of the world, I saw huge facilities in the outskirts of the city as well as LED-heavy buildings in cities like Guangzhou and Dongguan (which is really more considered as a suburb similar to Palo Alto in the States).

What struck me in particular were the overwhelming presence of electric cars, giving us a glimpse of what’s to come in the near future for the rest of the world. They even demoed a Huawei car to us and I was just impressed at all the tech involved. I hardly remember seeing a gas station during my visit. The city was connected, you can do almost everything with your phone. China was already living in the future and I was really impressed at the scale of everything.

The Huawei campus itself is something else. Located in the city of Dongguan, it’s home to over 25,000 employees set in the backdrop of European-inspired buildings (more like castles) connected by a tram system. I would soon learn that these are one-to-one copies of their European counterparts. It’s also connected to Songshan lake. The campus currently houses their research and development facilities, which made sense because we were there for the company’s Developer Conference (which was actually held in a stadium elsewhere). I never really had a chance to visit Google and Apple Conferences in the past, I guess this is the closest thing I would get towards experiencing one and it was quite fun.

I was only there for four days and three nights and it was enough to give me a strong impression of the country. I’m still curious to visit other cities like Shanghai and Beijing. I’ll be back. Provided that they grant me a visa, of course!

South Korea

South Korea has gotten so successful with its soft-power push that their culture has reached peak ubiquity all over the world. The Philippines, which saw an influx of South Koreans moving to the Philippines starting in the late 90s, has taken a liking into the food, beauty and entertainment norms of this East Asian country. The idea of actually visiting the Seoul itself was always on our mind, only to be upstaged by Japan when it comes to travel.

It took a healthy amount of miles that was expiring in a few months to make it our next destination. While we actually thought about not doing “big” international trips with our children every year, we figured that it would actually be nice to take them to Seoul, knowing that they’ll appreciate all the kid-friendly things in the city (and they did have a lot).

We spent a total of five days and four nights in South Korea and managed to cover a lot of ground during our stay. We asked our friends for recommendations and went with a pretty spacious serviced apartment in the Jongno area, a few minutes away from the Myeongdong shopping district (we would eventually spend our evenings there), passing the Cheonggyecheon stream along the way. It was beautiful but we were surprised that it was still a bit warm (in fact, a bit too warm) for fall weather. As it turns out, the temperature would drop drastically a week later.

Given that it was our first time in the country, we also signed up for a couple of tours and attractions. This would eventually take us to the Garden of Morning Calm and Nami Island where we took a lot of photos of our family basking in autumn colors. I should also note that we didn’t really post any of these in social media. Well, a little bit. Rica would eventually misplace her phone, a fact that she would realize in the bus as we approach Seoul. Thanks to the kindness of our tour guide and his colleagues, we eventually recovered it the following day.

Living in New York gave us the opportunity to make connections with people  from around the world. My colleague from the early 2010s, Hong, moved back home to Seoul a few years ago and gained success as a startup influencer and founder along with his wife. It was so nice to reconnect with old friends and see how their post-New York lives turned out. I’m so proud of everything he has achieved (and his recent wedding!) and from what he told me, he’s moving once again to the US to try his luck. Other than that, we just pestered him with questions about K-Pop and Physical 100.

We did this trip for our children and we tried to bring them to as many kid things as possible. For the first time in our travel history, we used Tiktok and Youtube as a resource for all sorts of suggestions on where to bring our children. These would eventually take us to a kids cafe called Cali Club and the kids had a great time. We like the fact that parents have their own space where they can do their own thing as their kids expend energy in a sprawling play area. More than anything, our kids are getting better at travel and we don’t have to worry about them so much. Although there was one night where we walked for a total of 30,000 steps and Max just cried himself to sleep because he was so tired. I’m sorry!

It was a pretty comfortable trip for us. I’m really thankful for all the comforts provided by South Korea’s solid tourism infrastructure and this made all the difference in the world especially when traveling with children. Klook also proved to be a great service to secure all of these things.

Taipei

My wife and I celebrated our tenth year wedding anniversary this year and we wanted to make it a bit special by actually going somewhere aside from Manila. Given that it was a December and travel was at its most expensive (from the Philippines), we still pushed through with our plans just to properly honor ten years, expenses be damned. We ultimately settled on a short trip to Taipei.

Great East and Southeast Asian cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei pretty much offer a comparable travel experience. The airports are efficient and sprawling, public transport and the overall tourism infrastructure makes it easy to enjoy yourself in a city with no trouble. In fact, once you’ve visited any of the cities mentioned above, you’re sure as heck that you’ll eventually just know your way around them. You know that there’s a shopping, restaurant, hipster, business and historical district in each and every city. While this may sound a bit homogenous, the beauty really lies in the not so small differences in the city itself.

We liked our stay in Taipei a lot. We opted to stay in a hotel a few blocks away from Taipei 101 in the Xinyi district. This gave us access to a great subway system and access to a couple of interesting restaurants nearby. In all of our three short days in the city, we also checked out Zhongzheng (for the shopping) and Da’an (for the restaurants). I particularly liked the Datong area with its huge Japanese malls as well as this charming streets with tiny retailers and cute stores. It was right next to a pretty long park that would blend in with a bigger mall. The December weather also helped, a welcome break from the still humid December in Manila.

Our overall impression of the people, the culture and food (more on this later) was quite positive. We’d love to be back and see more of Taiwan. Three days and two nights in the city was good enough for a sampling, enough to make us wonder what else it out there for us.

The United Kingdom

Found a legitimate excuse to finally visit the United Kingdom for the very first time thanks to the London Marathon in April. Europe will always be a curious destination for me and I’m just thankful to have this opportunity to actually see more of the continent as I get older. As for the country itself, I wouldn’t really say that it’s on my top 5 list of countries to visit in Europe but it’s definitely up there as a destination I have to see before I kick the bucket.

As Filipinos, we’ve always been exposed to both sides of the English-speaking Atlantic in terms of culture. I grew up appreciating Nirvana and Blur at around the same time. The same can be said about TV shows, with us growing up on syndicated UK TV via cable and American ones in free TV. Our history as nation gave us a natural leaning towards the US of A but we definitely understood and on various occassions, identified with what we saw and read on UK media. I think the English-speaking world works that way in general.

It was also good timing because it was a few days before the coronation of Prince (now King) Charles. While we didn’t stay long enough to actually see it, there was an air of festiveness in the air, with the city preparing for the ceremony (despite all the jaded yet valid criticism of the monarchy in general). It was nice to see a country honor tradition and heritage.

But I didn’t really know what to expect with the UK once we arrived there in Spring. I just knew that the weather could be a bit melancholy and they drove on the “other” side of the road. I would soon realize that the UK is wonderful yet shockingly expensive country to visit. But it was truly worth it.

We spent a total of thirteen days in London and its surrounding suburbs. While a multi-country trip could’ve been ideal, given the fact that we traveled thousands of miles to get there, the UK (technically, just England or if we want to narrow it down further, just the Greater London Area) just had so much to offer.

The first few days were spent acclimatizing in a rainy spring in London and we initially stayed at the Kensington area only because it was close to the marathon finish line (besides, we booked this via a Marathon Tour Operator). The hotel was located close to a tube station so it made it fairly easy for us to get around the city. It also helped that we stayed close to nice little gardens, museums, a Nando’s branch and of course, Hyde Park.

Checked out Chinese-artist Ai Weiwei’s exhibit at The Design Museum. I’m really impressed with his body of work and the gallery properly honored the subject matter. I also enjoyed access to proper bookstores like Waterstones and smaller ones that helped me discover books that weren’t even on my radar (and I ended up enjoying). Just like New York City, London neighborhoods had pretty distinct personalities to it and it helps that their public transportation system was so accessible (even paying for subway tickets using your credit/debit card was so helpful).

For a one-country trip in Europe, we kept ourselves busy enough to appreciate what the UK has to offer leaving enough for us to wonder what else is there to see. We were fortunate enough to stay with my wife’s friend outside of the city and actually see the English countryside by way of Surrey Hills. While this might not technically count as the definition of the country by the commuting public, we were so happy to rolling hills and lots of greenery, a stark contrast from all the buildings in the city itself. We even managed to go on a day trip to the Cliff of Dover and enjoyed it a lot.

I can go as far as to say that I really enjoyed our time in the UK. London proved to be so interesting with its neighborhoods, culture and people. I’d love to be back. This time we’ll bring a sturdy umbrella.

Seeing More of the Philippines

If you work for a company named after a pretty popular place that’s not in the capital, then you’re sure as heck you’ll find yourself summoned in the great province of Palawan itself. In my case, I had a chance to visit Palawan twice to visit our corporate Headquarters and it’s always a good time (and welcome change in environment).

I’ve developed a certain liking to Puerto Princesa. The food is actually great, the people nice and I appreciate how small the city center is. It’s one of those cities where you can actually run to the airport and I’ve done it multiple times. It also helps that we have access to a beach that’s an hour’s drive away from the office. Consider it a perk of the job!

Also visited Baguio after four years, taking public transport this time. It’s one of those cities that generally stay the same and I did miss the mild, cool weather in November. I was also in town for work and managed to go beyond the city itself, exploring other towns in the Benguet area like Atok and La Trinidad. I’m also happy to have spent some time with my pal Gabe, who settled there during the pandemic and serves as its champion at the same time.

We ended the travel year with a little post-Christmas, pre-New Years trip to Bohol and it was so nice to see Panglao further develop its tourism infrastructure. We’ve stayed in the same resort since coming here in the mid 2010s. The only thing that really disappointed us here was the actual flight going to and from the city with all the delays (we pretty much lost a whole day’s worth of travel) and we vow not to fly this carrier ever again. Otherwise, the food was not bad, the amenities were always good and it’s really cool to see more foreigners appreciate this tourist hub (especially Koreans!) for what it is.

There’s still so much to see in the Philippines. I haven’t even been to La Union and Siargao only because we feel that our kids are a bit too young. I promised to visit IloIlo after hearing so much good things about this city. Of course, I’d love to visit Cebu and Davao again. If only!

Life

Eating In

We didn’t really spend that much time indoors compared to the previous three years. This meant less opportunities on my end to cook at home thanks to an abundance of things happening elsewhere. Still, the mere act of cooking grounds me and gives me an opportunity to not only feed my family, but to explore new tastes as well. If it sounds good on paper, then it should be good.

While everyone’s raving our their air fryers, I’m still doing my usual business with the Instant Pot, now on its third year of service (these things are pretty durable). I still make my usual Siu Yuk, BBQ Ribs (with Sweet Baby Ray’s - of course), chicken biryani (I now marinate my meat in yogurt for that creaminess) and multiple iterations of cheap primal cuts of pork or beef, cooked to almost perfection.

One of them was Instant Pot Milk Braised Pork which is better known in Italy at Maiale a Latte. The New York Times published a recipe that was generally easy to follow. The dish, which uses milk as its quirky ingredient, is similar to Jamie Oliver’s whole chicken braised in milk recipe (which went viral a long time ago). It’s pretty easy, you just braise the pork in the pot, add milk with some lemon, herbs and dinner is served in two hours (counting prep). The effort to flavor ratio for this dish was unbeatable and proved to be a good main alongside some rice or bread - if you’re feeling Italian. Also, once you reduce the sauce further, the curds turn into a gravy-like consistency that’s quite addicting.

We also experimented a bit outside of the Instant Pot. My years in New York really trained me to favor, simple recipes that would generate a considerable amount of leftovers (they should keep well in the fridge). I must’ve roasted way too many spatchcocked birds (of course it’s best when fresh) and vacuum sealed meat (I got one and it’s the best) for lazy days. My proximity to Palawan province also allowed me to enjoy some of their outstanding Danggit Lamayo at home, with apologies to my neighbors, of course. It was a year of practical cooking. Finally, we also discovered the joys of beef short ribs and have used this cut of meat for Filipino stews like Caldereta and comforting soups like Nilagang Baka. We’ve also been really consistent with fish on Mondays and we’ve gotten so used to Tinapang Bangus for dinner. With salted egg and tomatoes.

Eating in has kept our health in check and our wallets happy. That being said, I actually think that we ate out more in 2023 compared to previous years. Again, it’s really just things feeling more like 2019 at this point.

Dining Out

It’s another exciting year of eating for me, which kinda explains the weight gain that has nothing to do with aging at all. All this travel in 2023 has exposed me to all sorts of food and I remain thankful for having had a chance to try these in the first place.

Philippines

The Philippine dining scene remains generally vibrant with a lot of new restaurants taking over locations that shut down during the pandemic and new dining hotspots emerging in Manila neighborhoods. Despite promising myself to cook more at home (which I did), I still can’t help but explore what’s out there.

The past few years have seen us embrace Japanese restaurants in the country. Maybe it has something to do with a lot of Filipinos visiting Japan in the past few years and wanting to experience the food back home.  And we’ve got everything, from casual sushi places, katsu, tempura, ramen bars, izakayas and curry places. You need not travel far to get your fix and they’re actually quite good. Heck, you can even buy different kinds of chu-hai in groceries now.

My family are big fans of Coco Ichibanya and this has become a default mall food for us. I just got with my usual katsu curry meal with all the fixins (corn, eggplant, cheese). I actually appreciate Ramen Nagi only because it’s close to our apartment but still swear by Marudori and their chicken-based ramen which has a shorter line compared to Mendokoro two stalls away in Makati. We’re covered there. Speaking of which, I still go to Ramen Ron when I have time. Their Miso corn butter was as good as a first tasted it back in the mid 2000s.

Then you have this quirky genre of mid-scale Japanese restaurants in the metro. We’re talking about places that share the same menu as Manmaru, Ipponyari and Marugame but with better quality (with matching prices to boot). We’re big fans of Tanoshi in Alabang Country Club (the Kenji Tei in Greenbelt is just as good) and Kazunori along Chino Roces. Tsumura’s also great and they recently moved to Ayala Triangle in 2024.

I’ve kept my dining options close and I’m generally lucky to call Makati home. There’s just so much to love with Salcedo Village nowadays. We have neighborhood legends like Crosta Pizza (Vodka Pizza with Pistachio), treated our kids multiple times to Elbert’s Collective (their sandwiches) and even Tyler’s Cafe (the burger) with their brunch fare. Of course, I’m always a fan of Di Cofi (Bun Thit Nuong). Of course, one of the more celebrated openings in 2023 would go to Franco, a french-inspired taqueria that opened by my partners in that short-lived hot sauce business from way back. While it’s technically not a french taco like they have in France (I know, it’s a bit confusing), they incorporate french technique and dishes in a buckwheat taco. I’m a big fan of their steak and frites and le bon junk, a riff on the Mexican frito pie.

As for the other Makati “village, we rediscovered the joys of Sarsa along Legazpi village where we stuffed ourselves silly with their Inasal and Pork Barbecue. We also continue to appreciate Txoko Asador and their paella and steak and of course, Hai  Shin Lou for Fujianese/Cantonese fare. So good.

We still order from our usual takeout places. I’ve come to the conclusion that North Park’s Garlic Fried Rice is the perfect encapsulation of what fried rice should be, perfectly cooked day-old rice, the right amount of garlic and a solid wok-hei taste that could put other places to shame. For Korean Fried Chicken, our family has officially pledged our allegiance to Bok Chicken over 24 Chicken only because my wife says so. Happilee proved to be a sleeper hit at home with their Kimchi fried rice and Odeng Bokkeum.

There’s always something fun to eat in the Philippines. Too bad I wasn’t able to discover much outside of Manila. I did have a chance to sample some dishes in Baguio after such a long time though and my best friend Gabe took me to this roadside joint where you can have some bitter soup and grilled pork belly for breakfast. I also managed to sample some cheap and abundant Baguio Chinese food in Rebeka’s Rose (which is technically in La Trinidad, Benguet). Speaking of which, I tried the old-fashioned sizzling steak place along Session Road and it was probably the worst meal I’ve had in 2023.

Singapore

The city will always be a great eating town, too bad I was just there to watch the race so I didn’t really have enough time to eat my way around the city. Still, it was good to travel with friends who love to eat and I think that made all the difference in the world. It’s been a while since I last visited the city so I made it a point to eat the “essentials” first (with the exception of Chili Crab).

This meant a customary visit to Lau Pa Sat, which had us ordering individually and bringing our haul to the table to be shared. We tried almost everything, from Char Kway Teow, a gratitious amount of Satay, different kinds of curry and chicken over rice and all sorts of stuff. We also checked out Chatterbox, which was apparently quite popular with Filipinos and ordered their chicken. Of course the big revelation was their Rojak, which everyone loved.

I still left a little bit of room for the new and novel. My friend Danda took me to her neigborhood and had me try Peranakan Cuisine from Old Bibik’s. Everything was good, from their signature Crispy Chinchalok Omelette which had some fermented shrimp and vegetables. The rendang was good and so was the curry! We also went out of way to check out an Indian restaurant that had unlimited servings of basmati rice, where we sampled all sorts of curries. Delicious.

Otherwise, I didn’t really eat much at the F1 event itself. I think I just settled for a simple serving of Biryani because it had no line!

Bangkok

Eat, shop, repeat. This is what makes the city of Bangkok so much fun. This time we came prepared by doing a little bit of research prior to our trip. Our first meal, which came highly recommended by my sister, ended up becoming the best of the lot.

Polo Fried Chicken is an almost hole-in-the-wall joint near Lumphini Park. It’s not that close to the hotel district so you really have to take a taxi to get there. While it was generally out of the way, the food and beer alone was good enough to justify multiple trips in this Michelin bib gourmand place. Their chicken, topped with fried garlic was perfectly juicy and tasty. It came with multiple dipping sauces too! We then ordered their yum catfish salad and pork jowl as an accompaniment to the meal. Everything went well with the rice. The best part in all of this is that they serve the coldest bottle of Singha ever, thanks to their specialized freezer similar to the Beer Below Zero we have in Manila. It was quite memorable.

Of course no trip to Bangkok is complete without a trip to dessert bar After You, which has become quite ubiquitous in the city. We had our usual bingsu and shibuya toast. Then you have the signature crab curry in Somboon which we paired with some vermicelli noodles and prawn. Jodd Fairs also allows us to sample multiple iterations of meat on a stick like their moo ping (milk pork), isan sausages and other bits and pieces. I even tried some bugs for fun (it was a bit nutty)!

We’ve officially decided that their our new favorite thai salad is the Som Tum Khao Pod, which is basically a standard som (with their lime/fish sauce based dressing) with corn, tomatoes and salted egg. It was a symphony of flavors. Corn just goes well with everything.

Seoul

We watched all the videos and took everyone’s recommendations to heart. And our trip to South Korea proved to be such a great experience. Given the popularity of Korean cuisine in the Philippines, we were no strangers to their food. It’s just that we’d like to taste it from the source. While it wasn’t entirely that different, drinking beer with all sorts of food in Seoul was just unique.

Traveling with your kids to a country known for its fried chicken was a good idea and we literally had this every day. And we had fried chicken from different establishments, mostly in the Myeongdong area, which was quite close to our hotel. We had Two Two Fried Chicken (our first meal in the city), BHC Chicken (which was full of Filipinos), Oppadak (also found on the same Fried Chicken Street) and of course Kyochon near our hotel. It helps that all of these joints were clustered within a 400 meter radius from our hotel. It goes without saying that the chicken was excellent, regardless of place. If I were to choose one though, I’d have to go with Kyochon with their signature red pepper sauce. It just so happened that it was our last meal in the city.

Our hotel’s proximity to Myeongdong also meant that we had nightly access to their famous street food market at night. We sampled almost everything we saw on Youtube, like the 200 won egg bread, spiralized potato on a stick that my Oz loved just for the sheer novelty of it, that dubious oreo churro (it was just okay), white bread served with bacon and cabbage, some fried battered shrimp and all sorts of meat on sticks. And we had all of these after dinner. The kids were happy to finally taste a Youtube video.

We also had some Korean BBQ in the area and found the meat to be quite flavorful. I had some odeng (fish cakes) on a stick while waiting for my wife and kids to wrap up with shopping. My favorite meal of the lot was in Sinsajeon in the Gangnam neighborhood where we had a sampling of different kinds of savory korean pancakes. We paired it with some Makgeolli served with honeycomb. Delicious. It also helped that we had our friend Hong to guide us with the menu.

While they were no clear surprises in our dining and we certainly had to play it safe since we were with our children, it was still everything we expected it to be. Hopefully we get to try more adventurous fare next time.

Mainland China (actually just in Guangdong Province)

I’ve read a considerable amount of literature on Chinese food thanks to Fuchsia Dunlop’s excellent writing. While I haven’t a chance to visit the country prior to 2023, I was in awe of how diverse and surprisingly different it was from the “Chinese” food we grew up with (and that also includes American-Chinese fare I enjoyed in New York). Needless to say, I was totally stoked to finally sample mainland food, even if it’s just in one province, in this case, Guangdong, formerly known as Canton (yes, Canton of the pancit fare - not entirely related though!).

This trip, however, was for work so my options were generally limited to what was available to us during the event and wherever our partners would take us. We were terrified to actually use our method of payment, knowing that there’s a high chance that our payment cards won’t be accepted. Even cash!

Still, I was thankful for having had a chance to eat a proper banquet in Guangzhou. Our hosts were kind enough to bring us to this restaurant, 陶源酒家, which was known for its fine (I have no basis for comparison though!) Cantonese cooking.

It was quite good. And it was a combination of food we’ve already tried in Hong Kong (also part of the bigger Southern Chinese geography). The Siu Mei was fantastic and we tried new things like stir-fried crab, gently steamed fish, fried pork ribs served with different dipping sauces and powders, and a whole slew of vegetables. It was quite fancy and a lovely experience, complete with lazy susan.

Otherwise, it was just another business trip and the hotel we stayed in had traditional continental fare. This meant having truly “Western” three-egg omelettes and toasted bread for breakfast and tons of carved meat for dinner. As a saving grace, we finally had some noodles at the airport. Might as well!

London and the Surrounding Burbs

We haven’t been in New York City in years, and visiting a world city like London was a good reminder of how it felt like living in a great restaurant city. Given that it was my first time in the city, I tried my best to have a working understanding of the food culture in advance. Besides, it was nice to visualize all of these things. All it took was a relatively obscure Youtube Channel featuring a couple (with a pretty flexible budget) from Malaysia to get us really hyped for all the food we were going to try in London.

Preparation matters, especially for this city. We were told that it’s best to reserve well ahead of your trip to ensure that you get the right table on the right night. True to form, this ensured that we got to try all the restaurants on our list. This also gave us a preview of how expensive it was going. Dining in London was not cheap at all.

But it was worth it. Our first meal in the city had us walking through the rain-soaked streets of London, eventually reaching a busy corner in the Spitalfields district for dinner at Ottolenghi, named after its famous celebrity namesake. Everything was quite good and opened us to a whole new world of flavor that was Yotam Ottolenghi’s signature taste. We had smoky aubergines, pickled peppers and seeds resting in a bed of labneh, mastelo cheese,  fish sitting in a bed of pureed root vegetables, lamb kofta. They were all memorable and worthy of an opening salvo.

We also had time to check out the food in Borough Market where we actually didn’t eat bao in a restaurant called Bao. We ended up sampling their Taiwanese Fried Chicken, Pork Jowl (delicious) and their special 40-day aged beef served on a bed of rice. Their prawn bao was really more of a roll in this case. Still, it was good. I also sampled the sausage rolls from Ginger Pig which was excellent.

Of course we had room for more traditional English fare like fish and chips and I was just amazed at how big these things were (we had ours at Poppies in Soho). I also had a chance to eat a real full English breakfast at our hotel which was quite good. I also enjoyed the pork chop from Markman in Hackey (medium rare-ish!). On the night before the marathon, I personally asked Rica to indulge me for dinner in Nando’s for good luck (I had this right after the Chicago Marathon).

Things got way, way more interesting after the marathon. Still limping, we enjoyed our Indian lunch at Gymkhana, which has the best broccoli and (wild muntjac) biryani ever.  The service was also superb. We also celebrated in style by dining at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. The tasting menu was great and worth the money. I loved the steak, the thrice-cooked fries and all sorts culinary engineering like their orange looking pate and some interesting salads and desserts. The food at Native, in the Mayfair neighborhood was quite memorable. I’m still thinking about the scallops as I write this. What a great restaurant city! I also completed by experience by having breakfast at the Holborn Dining Room.

Our stay in Surrey allowed us to experience a little bit of British home cooking as well and our hosts had us sample some scotch eggs, beef wellington and clotted cream.

Overall, this was quite a crazy, memorable and delicious dining city. We’re so lucky to have had a chance to really experience this city. I should note that such an experience doesn’t come cheap. But hey, it was our first time and I just ran a marathon. We might as well splurge.

Taipei

Prior to our visit to Taipei, our knowledge of Taiwanese food was limited to our fondness for Taiwan Pork Chop House (what used to be called “Excellent Pork Chop House” before they decided to be more modest) and their signature pork chop, chicken served on top of minced pork and rice. Aside from that, we already knew that bubble team was huge in the country as well as their pineapple cakes. That alone was good enough reason to visit and eat our way into the city.

It didn’t disappoint. We were just blown away by how great the food was, from noodle stalls in alleyways, upscale restaurants, night markets and food courts. There was just a clear abundance of great, affordable and excellent food in the city. It also felt like we barely scratched the surface.

You know a city’s good if you can trust Google Maps to find your next meal. Our very first meal, a memorable Taiwanese noodle dish with some dumplings and century egg in the light soy broth from Cha Kee Noodle House was really good. All we had to do was use the Google App to translate the menu and went to town with it. Other finds include a fermented tofu dish served as gastropub fare. We also enjoyed the food in Longtail in the Da’an District. Their quinoa-crusted salmon Gua Bao was fantastic.

When I learned that there was an outstanding sushi place in Taipei, I wasn’t really surprised. Given their shared history and proximity to Japan, Taipei can also be mistaken for another Japanese City. The place, interestingly named Addiction Aquatic Development, doubles as a seafood market complete with fish tanks and a fresh seafood counter where you can order all sorts of sushi and sashimi sets. The seafood was fresh and delicious and clearly rival any decent place in Japan. The prices were also quite reasonable for the kind of food you’re getting.

Given that it was our first time in the city, we also made sure to check out the night markets, where we had some beef buns and streetside lu rou fan. We also managed to sample the best of Ximending and I still dream of the misua soup from Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle. I was also quite happy with the chicken popcorn from Xing Fu Tang. Nearby, we finally had our taiwanese porkchop fix. It was so satisfying to finally enjoy this from the source.

It was a pretty short trip. Needless to say, we brought home a ton of pineapple cakes from Chia Te. We’ll definitely be back.

Work

Work has been wonderful and my decision to leave the world of media back in 2021 proved to be a great one. I’ve always said its good to be a product leader in this part of the world since assuming the role of (digital) product head for CignalTV in 2019 and it continues to be true. Especially now that I’m in Fintech.

Without disclosing much information, our electronic wallet, PalawanPay has been growing steadily since its public launch in 2022. We ended 2023 with over 14.6 million registered users and still adding more to date. Again, Asia just scales differently compared to North America.

My team has also expanded and I now lead a team of designers, analytics folk and a core team of four product leads handling our expanding portfolio. I’m lucky to receive support from my fellow heads and the board of directors for allowing me to realize our product roadmap. It really takes a village to deliver a service like this. I should also add that these things are never binary, we have a great product because of all these brave decisions we make on a daily basis.

There’s really such a thing as a “maker’s high” when you do product work, that feeling of shipping something that your team conceptualized, designed and introduced to the public. I always tell my team that the first million in GTV (gross transaction value) is the hardest because that’s when you try to make adjustments on the fly. I remain lucky to have a job like this. I just hope to get to do more in the next couple of years. Especially now that I’m getting older!

Family

Kids are an interesting lot. You really see them physically transform, almost unrecognizable from their photos from the year before. Max and Oscar have had their growth spurts and so did their emotions and interests. Max, who used to be a huge Minecraft and Lego fan has fully surrendered himself to Roblox and the oddities of Skibidi Toilet (which also happens to inspire several knock-off tower defense games in the game). Oz continues to color, this time with better markets (he prefers POSCAs, this brand made Japanese company Uni). He used to draw planets,rainbows and all sorts of stuff but he’s went through a pretty amusing Miles Morales phase. Everything he drew was just Spiderman. And oh, he also discovered Justin Bieber, to the point that he wanted his hair to be like his (thankfully, it was not during that whole “Baby” era. That would be funny.

But it’s so nice to see them discover the world. They’ve been fairly active with extra curricular activities outside of their Montessori schooling. They continue to do their football practice and Max even participated in his first tournament (they won second place!). Likewise, they also discovered the joys of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It’s so nice to see them do well in their sports. I’m also happy that they’ve finally become such capable swimmers.

Rica and I try our best to raise our children to be as well-rounded as possible. We try to expose them to a lot of variety in their life (and we’re quite privileged to do so). I’m so happy they got to travel to Seoul and see them explore a new city. They’ve also developed deeper relationships with other kids and cousins and have them fully spread their social wings as they shake off what’s left of the pandemic.

It all begins with home and Rica and I have created an environment to make sure that our kids thrive in this world. I’m truly lucky to have such a great partner in Rica, who’s as busy as ever yet still finds time to make sure our kids get quality family time. While BTS went on hiatus, she just channeled her energy around more K-Dramas and travel. I really admire advertising people, I have witnessed firsthand how tough this industry is.

We’re not getting any younger and I’ll keep on saying this year after year. Our bodies are starting to change and things just aren’t the same as they were in our 20s and 30s. This is life in our 40s. This means we have to work harder just to stay in shape and stay sane, even if it means foregoing certain pleasures in life. But that’s just how life is. We’re just happy to have such a comfortable life and in good health. There’s nothing more I could ask for.

Sport

If there’s one thing that I managed to do well during the pandemic, it’s cardio. It was a journey that started with a loss of fitness and weight gain in 2020 and the gradual return to a good enough base, thanks to a combination of running and cycling (which I did mostly indoors). What was lost was gained once again and I was ready to take on new challenges. Towards the end of 2022, I was already conditioning myself for my marathon comeback. This was long overdue.

Running

I last ran a marathon in December of 2019, four months before the world shut down. I had big dreams of doing one every year but unfortunately, my planned Berlin Marathon run in 2020 didn’t push through due to obvious reasons. Towards the end of 2022, I was already convinced that 2023 would be the year where I resume my quest towards five (not six, Boston is just a bonus) stars. It was one of those arbitrary stupid goals that I felt like doing especially now that I’m getting older. Guess we were going to London in April for the marathon then.

Marathon preparations started in the last week of January and it was based on the same 12-week training plan that I used in both Chicago (2018) and Osaka (2019). McMillan Running worked so well for me and I had no plans of doing anything wildly different in this comeback race. It also helps that I already knew what to expect. There was going to be a whole lot of speed work, two key 32K runs and my favorite, the Yasso 800 workout. I did a mix of indoor and outdoor running. This also meant reactivating my gym membership where I would take advantage of industrial-grade treadmills during off-peak hours.

My training plan recommends running a race to put myself in the zone and it just so happened that a major race was taking place in Manila a month before the marathon and the timing was perfect relative to my training plan. I ended up signing up for the Milo Marathon under the 21K category and it gave me a chance to calibrate my fitness. It’s been more than a decade since I last participated in a race in the Philippines, and it was a great experience, finishing the course in 2 hours and 17 minutes. It was clearly not my best but it served its purpose as confidence booster that I was on track with my training. I set the bar pretty low for comeback race. Still, it gave me a taste of race-day jitters which was always great.

Needless to say, I’m just not the same runner anymore after the pandemic. It would be harder for me to get into the same shape as 2019 (or 2018 for that matter). The pandemic years saw me divert some of my fitness towards cycling and to be honest, I just gained more weight in the past few years. The training itself saw me negotiating on my ideal training pace (which was much slower) and convincing myself that finishing a marathon was enough. This was a comeback race after all. Again, I just had to trust the process. I might even surprise myself on race day.

It was already April and I managed to bring myself to a good enough place to feel generally confident about finishing a marathon. I also thought that I should run a bit faster than my slowest marathon (New York) but not as fast as my last (Osaka). What’s important was experiencing this beautiful race once again after such a long time. I really missed that feeling.

Clocking in with an official time of 4:31:04, this was still a better than expected result on my end. But it was all about the race, which was the most wonderful one I’ve run to date (even better than New York City!). The whole town was out to watch the big race and it just so happened that it was a few days away from King Charles’ coronation. Regardless of what your opinion on the Royal Family, it added an air of prestige to the whole race. The aid stations provided us with ample hydration and nutrition. The music along the course was fantastic. Never thought that Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Tough, The Tough Get Going” would wake up my already sore legs (or was it the Boyzone version?).

If I were to nitpick, I just wished that some parts of the road weren’t so narrow and this is a big one - it didn’t rain as much. This was my first wet marathon and it resulted in pretty nasty blisters towards the end. I also remember one guy running through a puddle, effectively splashing dirty water towards our already leaking bodies. But man, it was such a great experience. You really get to see everything and last few miles were perfect. This was the comeback that I need.

But that was only April and I still had a year of running ahead of me. I just used a little bit of time after the marathon to recover and take a break from this beautiful sport. It’s wasn’t running, it was me. I would find myself running in subsequent travels, surviving the punishing humidity in Dongguan in September (the running paths were great though), finding my way around Singapore, traversing the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul during fall and getting lost in Taipei. In a way, my love for running (now on its sixteenth year) endures. I just have to show up on race day.

It felt quite weird to wrap up my running season so early in the year. I still needed something to scratch that itch. I ultimately signed up for yet another race towards the end of the year with the Manila leg of the Rock N’ Roll series. This time it was a half-marathon through the streets of Manila, most notably Intramuros. I was then reminded of how bad 2:00AM gun starts are, but it was fun and we’re beginning to see more and more people get into the sport. What’s not to love with it?

While it was a big year for running for me, I needed to reconnect with the other cardio, cycling.

Cycling

The band has broken up. After such a great run (pun intended) starting in late 2020, the past year saw me riding less and less after such a sustained build-up in the past few years. From riding 5,471 kilometers of 156 rides in 2022, I only rode a total of 606.8 kilometers of seventeen rides in 2023. While my pivot back to marathon training was the obvious reason, I did find it harder and harder to actually suit and ride in 2023.

The year also saw me unsubscribe to Zwift and practically retire my indoor cycling setup. I haven’t introduced any new upgrades to my bikes nor did I bring these for maintenance as I should have. Our little cycling group has ceased to exist, with most of the people reverting back to their old pre-pandemic activities. But it was through one person’s passion for cycling that got me out of this cycling rut.

I met Nic through our cycling group and he never tire of inviting me for rides in BGC and/or Alabang despite all my excuses. All these invites to ride from Makati/BGC to Rizal have gone the way of the Dodo and with the increase in the volume of cars on the streets (even on Sundays), this has turned this great activity into something less safe (but still not dangerous!). Still, riding with Nic was great and I’m always reminded why we rode in the first place. It’s still a lot of fun on two wheels. But still, the call of two legs have taken over because now I had towards some goals. It was clearly something I didn’t develop with cycling, I didn’t even know what I should be going for. It was just a joy to do.

So maybe I missed the whole point of doing this in the first place. Cycling gave me a reason to enjoy exercise in a different way. It also made me more consistent in exercise at one point (there was a point where I was doing 25 kilometers of running and at least a 100 kilometers of cycling a week) and this discipline was something I carry with me until now. There was obviously something gained.

It pains me to report that I still haven’t gotten around the Colnago build. But I did push through with my bike fitting session with Freddie Ilagan a few weeks before the London Marathon (I did reserve for this slot a year before that). But this sport is currently in stasis. I hope it doesn’t take a pandemic to rekindle it!

Media

Reads

What does eleven years of Goodreads’ reading challenge get you? That’s over 300 books (I had more modest ambitions on the first two years). If setting an annual reading quota of 30 (since 2015) isn’t enough, maintaining this streak can be a bit tough. Especially on those years where “good” reads are hard to come by. Unlike others, once I’ve bought something, I really have to commit to it.

But 2023 was a pretty landmark year for reading, which made it easy for me to fulfill this self-imposed quota. I also made a promise to myself to read at least one fiction book a year and I’m so happy it was in the form of Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” which was an epic story of love and friendship set in the backdrop of game development. While I agree that some of the characters in the book were a bit unbearable, it was still a roller coaster ride told over decades of tragedy and triumph.

Other notable books for the year include, Charles Wheelan’s “Write for your Life” which I consider one of the better non-fiction writing guides out there (not that I plan to write one in the near future!). Morgan Housel, of the “Psychology of Money” fame reminds us once again that we just have to trust humanity and make sure that we don’t panic sell our index funds in light of a market crash with his book “Same as Ever”. And you know it’s a good year when Fuchsia Dunlop releases a food writing (as opposed to a recipe one) book about the nuances of Chinese cuisine with “Invitation to a Banquet”. I also enjoyed my first Jean Twenge book, with the extremely quotable “Generations”. Melissa Perri proved to be this generation’s best product thinkers, focusing on the missing link in product management with “Product Operations”. I also thought that Tony Fadell, of Apple fame, explained “product” quite well with “Build” and Nick Duerden’s “Exit Stage Left” was an intimate portrait of the laos (has-been) phenomenon with pop stars. '

Oh. I can go and on. Robb Penn, whom I first encountered with “It’s all about the bike” is capable of weaving great, nerdy stories. With “Slow Rise”, he just made breadmaking (and the grains that go in the making of it) sound so appealing and cool. Bent Flyvberg, on the other hand, probably wrote a personal instant classic with his book on project management, “How Big Things Get Done”. This book got me obsessed with megaprojects as a career ambition.

For the first time in my reading history, I finally aligned with the New York Times and consider Patricia Evangelista’s “Some People Need Killing” as a masterpiece in contemporary non-fiction. Obviously, this one hits a bit too close to home, talking about the atrocities of the Duterte regime and the thousands of Filipinos killed during his war on drugs, memories of which remain fresh in our collective psyche.

The rest of my reading pile in 2024 were just okay, sometimes suspect too. But it’s all in good fun.

• Music
• Gaming

Tech & Productivity

Hobbies & Collecting

• Gunpla
• Others

Looking Ahead

META

I started work on this earlier than usual, forking last year’s essay structure on January 24. With a new CMS system in place, I’m much more comfortable posting this as a work in progress instead of publishing this in one go.