Category Archives: Travel

Norma’s

By | Foodie, Travel | One Comment

A recommendation from my brother, Quito.  He had just eaten here with his friends and told us to go for brunch too.  I love fancy and fun menus! Those highlighted in red are the bestsellers of the house so we just followed and ordered mostly the red items. What a lovely experience!

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Norma’s Eggs Benedict 

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Artychoked Benedict with truffle porcini sauce- Mom’s order because she loves Eggs Benedict and truffle! – Yummy!

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Chocolate Hazelnut Fruit Filled Crepes 

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Flat As A Pancake Crabcake

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Heart2Heart’s only foie gras dish this trip -YUMMY!!  There was a generous amount of foie gras

Foie Gras Brioche French Toast with Asparagus and mushrooms865097771603_0_alb.jpg

 

Potato Pancakes

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Tasti D-Lite

By | Travel, Yummy! | One Comment

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It was so hot in New York!  There was a heat wave and there was a day when it hit a record high of 98 degress! Good excuse to have all the frozen delights! Though, even when it is cold in NY, we still get all the frozen treats!!  🙂

Yummy Tasti D-Lite!  There are many of them in the streets of New York but they vary in size.  The bigger the place the more flavors they have and the more candies they have.  We are lucky to have a big one beside where we stayed. The stores are a bit old already and have not been updated…but nevermind…we just go to get the soft serve.

All soft serves are 80 calories or less ONLY!!! But the taste is still creamy and YUMMY! It’s not ice cream and it’s not yogurt!

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WOW!! Javier is in paradise!!! Only in big locations they have this much candy to choose from!

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The flavors change all the time and small places usually only have one or two flavors.  So this location had six! The smallest size costs around US$ 3.50 and it goes up if you add toppings.

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You can visit their website to see the Nutrition facts of each flavor:  Tasti D-Lite Flavors 

Who can resist the creamy delicious taste of Classic D-Lite? Dig into it plain, dipped, topped with luscious fruits or crunchy sweet treats – you’ll never regret it. This is the original – and still the best – guilt-free indulgence. In more than 100 mouth-watering flavors. 

Angel Food Cake Apple Pie Babi Ruth
Banana Banana Crunch Banana Fudge
Banana Pudding Bananas Foster Black Cherry
Black Forest Cake Black Raspberry Blueberry Cheesecake
Brownie Batter Brownies Burnt Sugar
Butter Pecan Butter Praline Buttercrunch
Buttercrunch Mania Butterscotch Butterscotch Fudge
Cake Batter Cappuccino Caramel
Caramel Apple Caramel Fudge Carrot Cake
Cherry Cake Chiffon Mint Chocolate Chip Mint
Chocolate Cookie Dough Chocolate Macaroon Chocolate Marshmallow
Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Pudding Chocoleche
Cinnamon Crunch Coconut Coffee Bean Coconut Candy
Coconut Cookies Coconut Joy Coconut Mounds
Coffee ‘n Cream Coffee Cake Coffee Crumb
Coffee Crunch Coffee Espresso Coffee Toffee
Cookies ‘n Cream Creamy Coconut Crème Brûlée
Cremesicle Devils Food Cake Double Berry
Double Dutch Chocolate Dulce de Leche Dutch Chocolate
Egg Nog Fluffernutter Fluffernutter Fudge
French Custard French Vanilla German Chocolate Cake
Green Tea Honey Nut O Kahlua ‘n Cream
Latte Latte Fudge Mango Dream
Maple Maple Fudge Marble Cheesecake
Marzipan Milky Weigh Mocha Almond Fudge
Mochaccino Mudpie New York Cheesecake
O Tasti Oreo Chocolate Mint Oreo Mint
Oreos ‘n Cream Oreos ‘n Peanut Butter Papaya
PB Moosemellow Peach Melba Peach Pie
Peanut Butter Peanut Butter ‘n Jelly Peanut Butter Cake
Peanut Butter Cup Peanut Butter Dream Peanut Butter Fudge
Peanut Butter Marble Peanut Butter Mounds Pecan Praline
Pecan Praline Fudge Pina Colada Pineapple Cake
Pineapple Cheesecake Pistachio Praline Crunch
Pumpkin Pie Raspberry Cheesecake Raspberry Chocolate Truffle
Raspberry D-Lite Red Velvet Cake Rice Pudding
Rocky Road Samoa Cookie Smores
Snickers Strawberry Banana Strawberry Cheesecake
Strawberry Colada Strawberry D-Lite Strawberry Shortcake
Tapioca Pudding Tasti Garcia Tasti Musketeers
Toasted Almond Fudge Toasted Coconut Tres Leches
Triple Berry Tropical D-Lite Vanilla Cream
Vanilla Marshmallow White Russian Wild Berry

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Javs always has to have his sprinkles, I like mine plain so I can taste the flavor of the soft serve!

Smoothie D-lite Menu

 
Sip a frosty, delectable treat that’s low in calories. And high in nutrients and health benefits. Let us whirl up a smoothie with a superfruit. Or a shake in a delectable Tasti flavor. Try our sundae toppings, too! Delightful. (Of course.)

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D-lite To Go Menu

 
It’s a celebration! Now good treating on-the-go is easy. D-Lite To Go is perfect for dinner parties. Birthdays. Holiday feasting. Post-holiday dieting. School treats. Or simply indulging at home. Check our freezer case, or custom order something to your liking.

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Some materials taken from their website: Tasti D-Lite[email_link] 

 

 

Chipotle

By | Foodie, Travel | No Comments

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A year ago, Chipotle was just a name we were reading about and a name on the stock market. Finally, we get to try what everyone is raving about and why the stock price was going up.  James, the Taco Bell lover,  was so insistent on going to Chipotle and the kids thought they would not like it and that it was not their type…. but they liked it!chipotle-book1.jpgstorychipotle.jpgmenuchipotle.jpg

Behind the counter is a set up like this and what is nice is that you can tell them what you want in your taco or burrito. You make your own.  All ingredients are FRESH and as Steve mentioned, BETTER SOURCES OF INGREDIENTS.    Which explains its price and maybe why they call it GOURMET.

The lines can be long so you might get pressured when you get to the counter, so better to know already what you want before going to the counter so you do not get harassed.  We did not know what we wanted, so they helped us a bit- good thing it was still good!  🙂 So if you will notice, what we ordered, they all look almost the same in terms of filling.

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The orders come in 3 pcs.  It is around US$ 7.00+ for 3 pcs. which I think is double the price for 3 Taco Bell tacos.  We tried the crispy taco and the soft taco. And in those 3 pcs. you can choose different fillings for each.

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We also tried the burrito bowl!

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and of course the chips for Javier! It came in a brown paper bag!

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You can even just fax in your order so you do not need to line up: sc000d37c3.jpgsc000d56221.jpg

 

Photos taken with an iPhone – It is so hard to bring my big and heavy camera all over the city 🙂 so I use James’ iPhone

Some materials taken from Chipotle’s website:  Chipotle 

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Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz

By | Travel, Tributes | 3 Comments

Of course Dad’s birthday is not complete without celebrating mass. Thanks to Tito Stephen and Tita Reggie for giving the gift of prayer for Dad.  They arranged a private mass for the family with Fr.  Erno.  What a beautiful building in a nice location… it is right beside Little Italy.  

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I remember s beautiful line that Fr. Erno said during his sermon.  “The HEART is the source of all good things.  True LOVE comes from the HEART and that keeps us together.”

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Thank you to Fr. Erno for bringing prayer and bringing God closer to the Filipino people in New York.  san-lorenzo-ruiz-book7.jpgsan-lorenzo-ruiz-book9.jpgsan-lorenzo-ruiz-book8.jpg

Fr. Erno is trying to raise funds to maintain the chapel and will be having a fund raising concert in Manila by no other than Tito Jo Mari Chan.  Tito Jo Mari is always so busy doing concerts all over the world and most of them for charity.  Thanks Tito Jo Mari for sharing your talent and for always helping other people. I hope that friends of Heart2Heart will help support Fr. Erno.

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website:  Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz 


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Wolfgang’s Steakhouse

By | Foodie, Travel | 4 Comments

We also celebrated Daddy’s birthday in one of our favorite restaurants in New York.  Dad tries to avoid beef but we figured he can treat himself on his birthday.  We used to go to Peter Luger across the bridge in Brooklyn,  but ever since Wolfgang’s Steakhouse opened in the city, we have been going there.  They serve the same exact thing so it is more convenient.   

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Wolfgang is owned by the former maitre’ d of Peter Luger.dsc_7068.JPGwolfgangowner.jpgwolfgangs-steakhouse-book2.jpg

Their bread is so good!!! I do not know what they call it.  But we pour some of the steak sauce on the bread plate and dip the bread on the sauce and it is so good!   

 

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Sizzling Canadian Bacon – YUMMY!!  Order this for appetizer!   

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THE STEAK!!!! This is the GOOD FOR 3 portion. 

It is burnt on the outside but pink on the inside.  YUMMY!  Then if you want to cook the center a little more, just put it on the plate which is very hot and cooks the steak a bit more.  

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For the first time we tried their rib eye and it was VERY GOOD too!!!!! 

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Make sure to order the creamed spinach and the German potatoes on the side!!! wolfgangs-steakhouse-book10.jpg

We ordered so many desserts to share – the SCHLAG ( homemade whipped cream ) IS SO YUMMY!!! 

 

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Oriental Garden

By | Foodie, Travel | 4 Comments

Dad’s favorite seafood place in New York – all the way in Chinatown.  It was his turn to choose the restaurant of his choice since it was his birthday!

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14 Elizabeth St., New York, NY 10013
nr. Bayard St. 
212-619-0085

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Serendipity

By | Travel, Yummy! | No Comments

For almost 20 years that we have been going back to New York, Serendipity is a definite stop to have the FRRROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE!!!!   This time we took the kids and now they love it too!  One order is even too much for the 2 kids and James but there was a minimum of $ 8.50 per person so they made them order some more so they allowed another order.  But nevermind, it is worth it!!! There are many things on the menu, but we come mainly for the frrrozen drinks!

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Serendipity3 is located at:225 East 60th Streetbetween 2nd and 3rd AvenuesNew York, NY 10022 

 Our store hours are:Sun-Thur 11:30am to midnightFriday 11:30am to 1:00amSaturday 11:30am to 2:00am

(Photos taken on an Iphone )

website:  Serendipity3 

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