We drove up today to Antipolo with the new car to the Cathedral of Nuestra Senora de Paz y Buenviaje. The boys have taken to calling the car the "Subawu," as opposed to the "Gwandis" (or sometimes, the "black Gwandis") and the Accord, which they identify by the first two letters of its license plate, "WD." After our church visit, ravenous for lunch we drove up the Sumulong highway looking for Lanelle Abueva's Crescent Moon Cafe, which we read about in a magazine - or it may have been on Anton Diaz's excellent Our Awesome Planet blog.
A few minutes of asking around got us directions to the place, which is set back from the main road in a space that appears to be enclosed entirely by greenery. They've got a beautiful koi pond, a circular lotus pool, and a couple of rock waterfalls. Very tranquil setting - the only noise we heard was rippling water and, naturally, the boys' enthusiastic voices as they got excited about "feeding the fish!" Abueva is also a potter, and on display (and for sale) were various kinds of plates, bowls, sinks, and sundry kitchen and home items rendered in ceramic. The restaurant is apparently by reservation, and consists of a prix fixe menu, but the kitchen was kind enough to accommodate us walk-ins.
While waiting for the food there was enough to see on the grounds to entertain the boys. There was a small turtle pond at the back of the property, and since the boys love fountains the water features got their complete attention. Seeing the boys roving round the koi pond, the nice waiter brought out a container-full of fish feed for the boys to scatter on the water.
We shared a lunch of fish, in a nice teriyaki glaze; chicken curry, and some wonderfully fresh kangkong in peanuts and garlic. The appetizer, which preceded a pumpkin soup with toasted bits of garlic, was novel: alagao leaves you were supposed to wrap, lumpia style, over a selection of dried shrimp, dessicated coconut, kamias, chili, onions, ginger, and a toyo/peanut sauce. Baz enjoyed the fish, and Hadrien liked the chicken - sorry, no gulay because of the peanuts.
The boys skipped the dessert of suman, but Baz had the accompanying mango. Meanwhile, Hadrien - with a moist towelette- was busy cleaning each reachable glass pane of an old wood frame divider.
There was traffic on Ortigas en route home. The boys got a little restless but passed the time taking turns with the dome light, Baz being the "on-er" and Hadrien, the "off-er." The only thing we didn't do was teach the boys the words to "Tayo Na Sa Antipolo," but I can already guess which will be their very favorite part - the line about "Hinulugang Taktak ... tak tak tak."
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