It’s my best friend’s birthday today and lucky for me it fell on a Sunday so I was able to go ahead and visit her at her restaurant at Isdaan, Laguna (finally!) The restaurant had been operational for I think three years already but this shall be the first time that I will be visiting her there…in fact, she has two restos already. The first one is in Tarlac but sad to say, I haven’t been there yet (hehehe) I guess it’s just too far for me to come visit but I do hope that the next time I go to Baguio, I will definitely make it a point to visit her resto.
It was also a good thing that my eldest son was still in Manila and so he and his baby boy (my grandson) were able to come with us. Expectedly, the hubby got left behind the house as it was too far away for him to drive us…besides, we may be getting home late as the invitation was for dinner and so it was around 2pm when the kids and I met up with eldest and his baby boy at the DLTB bus terminal at Cubao, EDSA. Then, we had to wait a bit before the bus left because there was a shooting of a GMA 7 teleserye with Katrina Halili and so we also watched a bit of the shooting before the bus finally left.
The trip took us more than two hours and we finally arrived at Isdaan, Laguna at around 5 and the waiters were expecting guests for her birthday (but I guess not just this early!) and so we were led to the big nipa hut where her birthday boodle fight shall be held. The head waiter told us that ‘Maam’ will be out shortly. In the meantime, we savored the sights and had our pictures taken with the humongous statues that littered the restaurant – there were giant buddhas, a humongous King Kong, Shrek was also there plus a lot of other cartoon characters that would surely delight the kids. She took us on a personal tour of the place and showed us the lagoon where the kids (even adults) can go boating, the taksiyapo wall where she made us try breaking some dishes (for free!), the fishing bridge (where one can have an entire bucket of tilapia for free if he/she succeeds in crossing the teeny-weeny bridge) and the numerous other things that one can do while waiting for the food to be cooked.
After some time, a few other guests arrive, including her family (her sister/model, her mom and dad), the hubby’s children and his kids from his previous marriage, some of our friends in college (UP Manila), and some other friends/business associates. Then, the boodle fight started and we were all treated to all the gastronomical delights that the restaurant had to offer – there was chicken tinupig, pancit, inihaw na tilapia, grilled liempo and of course, lechon! The food was great and it was fun eating over banana leaves and engaging in a boodle fight with the others at our table.
The dinner and chikahan would have lasted way into the night but alas we had to go home early because my grandson was getting restless and there was work tomorrow. So we reluctantly bade goodbye at past nine and thankfully, the traffic was a bit less (although we had a bit of difficulty getting a ride home as there were no more buses passing thru Isdaan so we had to take a jeep to Calamba first). It was around 12 when we finally got home to our place in Bulacan, but I felt happy finally seeing my good friend again and thankful that the kids still take the time to spend with me in visiting my good friend. I sure hope that they would continue going with me in my future visits. It was good bonding like this with my kids…being with friends, sharing stories, while savoring the sights and flavors of Isdaan. Thank you dear friend…till next year!
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