Stormy Lunch at The Porch (plus some plans)

Man, quite a stormy day today and it also happens to be my brother's birthday. To mark it, we and other relatives had lunch at The Porch by Casa Verde, located along Anonas street, in Sikatuna, QC. Today's the second time I ate there and last time I did was weeks ago, though back then, I wasn't feeling too well plus I didn't bring my camera (if I brought it though, then I might've blogged about this place already). I'll just be talking about the food and the restaurant and I wont go much into other things that happened. 

Anyways, the place is quite small, located past the grocery there along Anonas ext.. It looks like this small house but you'll know it when you see it. Although it's small and I find it tight, it has a good ambiance to it. One can eat inside or outside, depending on the availability of the seats. Personally, I might've preferred it if we ate inside (last time we did though) but this time, we were outside. Good thing that despite the winds, the weather didn't mess things up. :)

Now, on to the food. The restaurant serves American food such as ribs and the food's within the 150 to mid 300s range, so it isn't too expensive, but not cheap either. I have to say that the ribs here (Brian's Ribs) are tasty, and as one of their bestsellers, it's definitely worth a try. While I can't say if it's the best, since I don't eat ribs a lot, it's certainly good. A single serving's 250 Pesos, and by the way, that's a big serving since it's even good for sharing (that's how big it is). They also serve the ribs by the bucket (888 Php) for people that'll dine in bigger groups (kanina, we ordered 2 buckets, plus ordered 2 single servings! There were 12 of us). In addition to that, we ordered 2 servings of their Best Sampler(s) (one serving is 328 Php) which had potato skins, fried cheese and buffalo wings. By the way the wings here are one of the spiciest I've had. I'd say it is, but it's good though :D. Potato skins and cheese were great too, it's better with the dips that come with them. Other things we ordered today were a salad and spaghetti (dunno how much, I'll not comment on them). For desert we had their Death by Chocolate ice cream cake (188 Php) which had a rich taste, nice. We ordered 3 slices. One thing we didn't have this time unlike the last was the Fisherman's Platter. All in all, it made for a great lunch. :)

The Porch. I'm sure you can't miss it if you go by this place.

Iced tea and the salad

Salad and spaghetti. Both are good, I'd say. There was nothing we ate that I didn't like.

Best Sampler and Spaghetti.

Ribs by the bucket with rice. Wow, it's great. :)

Death by Chocolate cake. Ice cream's melting though... Still good. :)

The menu board. After choosing, you order at the counter. :)

After that I went home with my cousin and tito since the rest had other things to do. The weather's still bad though with all those strong winds and all. I was supposed to attend a retreat tomorrow but it got postponed :( ...

Anyways, it's gonna be some busy days ahead. Though our retreat was postponed, I still have plans for the week. Of course, I have my school work to deal with. In addition to that, I'll be heading to SM Mall of Asia for the Manila International Bookfair (MIBF) and if I go next weekend (which seems likely) I'm gonna drop by The Best of Anime (BOA) convention which was the first cosplay event I've attended (wow, it's almost been exactly a year ago). In addition, my birthday's fast approaching as well. Well, that's that and thanks for checking. :) Ingat! :D

FB page of The Porch

Holy Thursday - Part 3 - 2nd Visita Iglesia

Last part on my posts on Holy Thursday

After coming home from my Visita Iglesia with my dad, my relatives (from my mom's side) haven't started their Visita Iglesia yet and I decided that I'd come with them. We started at around 6 and we headed to more churches. I won't be posting much pictures here as in the others. I wont be going into details about what happened anymore and I'll just be posting pictures. Before we headed to St. Paul's Parish that night, we had dinner at North Park near Tomas Morato and we arrived at the last church (Christ the King, our parish) a few minutes past midnight. The first few minutes of Good Friday.

2nd Visita Iglesia 1st Church (9th church visited): National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes

National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, under the care of the Franciscan Capuchins. Originally in Intramuros.

Interior of Lourdes Shrine. The mass commemorating the Lord's Supper was still taking place when we came.

.

Altar of Repose

2nd Visita Iglesia 2nd Church (10th church visited): National Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary - Sto. Domingo Church

Sto. Domingo Church, Home of Our Lady of La Naval (Taken last 2012, Feast of Our Lady of La Naval)
Personally, it's one of my favorite churches.

Sto. Domingo's altar of repose, one of the most beautiful ones I've seen

Sanctuary area.

2nd Visita Iglesia 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th churches (11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th churches visited for the day): Santuario de San Pedro Bautista (San Francisco del Monte), St. Paul the Apostle Parish (Timog), Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish (West Triangle), Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish (Philam Village) and Christ the King Parish (Veterans Village)

Santuario de San Pedro Bautista in San Francisco del Monte

Altar of Santuario de San Pedro Bautista, taken last Dec 15th

St. Paul the Apostle, Timog ave.

Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish. I was baptized at this church. Very beautiful altar of repose.

Sta. Rita de Cascia Church, Philam. It had the simplest altar of repose that night.

Our Parish, Christ the King in Veterans Village.

Holy Thursday - Part 2 - Visita Iglesia

A continuation of my Holy Thursday posts.

Visita Iglesia 3rd Church: Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Senora de Guia, Ermita

Nuestra Senora de Guia

After San Agustin, on our way here, we were thinking about which church would we visit and dad decided to go to Ermita Church, near Rizal Park and the U.S. Embassy. We didn't have a definite route for the Visita Iglesia. This church is home of the oldest Marian image in the country: The Nuestra Senora de Guia. Before heading to the church, we checked out this art shop near the church that sold nice paintings and after that, we headed here and prayed the 5th and 6th stations.

Visita Iglesia 4th Church: National Shrine of St. Michael and the Archangels, San Miguel, Near Malacanang

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle

After visiting Ermita church, we went back to that art shop and dad bought a painting. After that, we were wondering what church would we visit next. We decided the San Miguel church. En route, we passed by a few churches, such as Adamson and the Hospicio de San Jose (there's a chapel in it). FYI, this church was a former pro-Cathedral of Manila. It's not a big church, but it is quite nice, especially the high altar where images of the 7 Archangels are enthroned.

Visita Iglesia 5th Church: Archdiocesian Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto, Bustillos

Our Lady of Loreto, one of the two churches in Bustillos

After San Miguel, we had to find what could be our next stop. I thought of San Sebastian and we passed by the San Sebastian Church but didn't visit it (Maybe we should've >_<, then again, I know how to go there anyway :) ). My dad suggested the twin churches in Bustillos, the St. Anthony Church and the Loreto Church,so there we went. We did Loreto first since it was nearer where we parked.

Visita Iglesia 6th Church: St Anthony Shrine, Bustillos (Next to Our Lady of Loreto Shrine)

St. Anthony, the other church at Bustillos

After the Loreto church, we walked here since it was literally just next to the church. Both are nice churches and are interesting to go to if ever one goes to this part of Sampaloc, Manila. We had merienda after visiting the two churches.

Here are pictures of the two churches, standing next to each other.

Visita Iglesia 7th Church: Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, Kamuning, Quezon City

Sacred Heart Parish in Kamuning

After the churches at Bustillos, we finally had to come up with one last church to visit. Since we knew that ninang was going to have a Visita Iglesia at night, we had to visit a church that they're not likely going to. Not only that, it was also about 5 PM, which was a bit of a problem because some churches are starting to have the masses to commemorate the Lord's Last Supper. We decided finally to go to the Sacred Heart Church in Kamuning and when we came, their mass hasn't begun yet (I was told that it started at 6) so we concluded it here. Such a nice church, but then, the altar was covered, because of the tradition in which (some, if not most) churches cover their statues and images for Holy Week.

Their altar was covered for Holy Week.

After visiting this church, me and my dad went home and he left. I then joined my ninang for a 2nd Visita Iglesia at night. I didn't pray the stations of the cross (since I was finished) and I prayed before the blessed sacrament at each church and took pictures of them as well.