I saw the Josephine’s restaurant and resorts featured on TV four to five months ago. I even suggested it to my family before to give it a try and dine in the Department of Tourism winner of “Kalakbay” Award for restaurant of the year.

Josephine’s is one of the longest running restaurants in the country today that started way back December 22, 1966 when its first restaurant opened to the public. From eight hectares of fishpond business in Kawit, Cavite, it was converted to a restaurant and in May 1967 when it first opened the resort. Josephine’s has branches in some parts of Metro Manila but the most famous one is in Tagaytay.

Two weeks ago before my brother in-law went back to Belgium, we were searching for a place where we could have our lunch and stay for our while before going to airport. Josephine’s came first to our mind since we still have a lot of time left before his flight so we thought why not tour him first in some of the historical place in Kawit and have lunch at Josephine’s.

Although it was my first time to see the place also and didn’t have the idea of specific dishes they are serving but we know they are serving Filipino cuisine. My wife already tried its Tagaytay branch and even suggested before to have lunch there again. We ordered Pancit bihon, fried tilapia, ginataang tilapia which later captured my Belgian brother in-law taste buds, chopsuey, grilled panga ng tuna and bulalo. Imagine these dishes for five adults and one kid only. But we never went wrong as foods here are really great. We almost consumed all of it, I think I need Colonix for all the foods I ate especially those fats from the bulalo. Imagine a Belgian foreigner who is a meat and steak eater eating ginataang tilapia. He will never forget this place and soon we will visit it again.

Island resorts like Boracay and Puerto Galera are among the visited places during long holiday weekends. Thousands of people from various places in the Philippines including international tourists visited these islands just to see and experience their beauty. Hopefully, the local Tourism department of these places will do their share to ensure the safety of their visiting public and not just ensuring the revenue they are going to collect. Hopefully they will ensure that the tourists visiting these places would be delighted and experience the Filipino hospitality and will love to keep coming back instead of having travel nightmare experiences.

Safety inspection must be thoroughly conducted in all amenities from the vessels that the tourists are using as a mode of transportation to the island. Overloading, safety equipments and also proper insurances if the passengers are given the right benefits or claims from the insurance rates they pay. Authorities must also ensure that these places are free from scammers and other lawless elements. They must provide information desk officers available 24/7 to attend to tourists’ needs. These should have proper information for their benefits not only for the benefits of resort owners and businessmen in the islands.

For me, safety and good service are more important than other things during travel to encourage tourists to keep coming back and not just to have first and last visit to these places.

I was able to watch Sports Unlimited yesterday featuring couple of resorts in Davao City and Samal Island. They featured Bluejaz Resort and Waterpark and Rancho Palos Verdes Country Club. I was amazed by the beauty of Bluejaz resort featuring its beautiful water slides and swimming pools with elegant patio furniture around and beautiful and sophisticated amenities.

I was assigned in Davao City for six month by my previous job but I never had a chance to have leisure and travel in the beautiful place of Davao. I am hoping I could bring my family there next time I visit Davao to see beautiful places and resorts and Samal Island.

When my brother in-law visited us again, he stayed in BSA Tower Serviced Suites in Makati. The place is located in front of Greenbelt 5 where lots of restaurants exists just walking distances away. My sister in-law wanted us to try Chef de Angelo but it closes early so we always end up into David Tea House located a couple of blocks from Chef de Angelo. Although we already tried David’s Tea house branch in Baguio, I never thought it was in Greenbelt that the restaurant serves better tasting dishes out of the same dishes it serves in Baguio.

As usual, we ordered lemon chicken, fried rice and luckily chicken pancit canton since we love noodles. I think we ate there for four times in just one week with the same ordered dishes saved for added vegetables and fried tofu in between. Just last night we had dinner in the place again with very same order. I think I really need a good appetite suppressant already on our next visit because I cannot control myself even with the same menu we had ordered due to the delicious taste of these dishes.

My wife and I sometimes laugh at the funny situation we are often in. Just when we really wanted to find a better restaurant to eat at, for example, we don’t have the money. But once we’d have had the extra money, we don’t have time to go out. That’s why we made sure that we have to set Sunday as our family day and food trip time. Like last Sunday, we planned to eat fresh sinigang fish but since we were there already in Tiendesitas, we remembered Fresca Restaurant in the Tiendesitas food court. It has a set promo that for only 199 pesos you will already have salmon head “Sinigang sa Miso”, chicken barbecue and two cups of rice.

It truly fit a small family of three like ours plus it is budget-friendly. I have to read diet pill reviews for this again.

Filipinos are fond of traveling during the long holiday last week asides from celebrating Holy week while we do our Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Well known tourist spots in the country are the usually the main destination sites during this week like Boracay, Puerto Gallera, Subic, Baguio and swimming or beach resorts nearby.

Although we also travel during this time for the past three years we dedicated our long vacation cleaning and arranging our home. We did some major arranging and cleaning. We decided to throw away things which are already damaged and not use already. We feel the additional space at home now. Maybe if I have a new recliner chair as replacement for our damaged sala set, partnered with at 32-inch flat screen TV and area rugs , I will not go out of the house anymore.

I am gaining weight and seem to be suffering again lately with my old kidney problem. An excruciating pain at my lower back radiates to my stomach. It might be a sign that I am having stone forms again. This is because I have been busy for the past month and already forgot to drink some fresh juices. Alternatively, I started to drink some soda again.

Since my wife is limiting me again from drinking soft drinks and eating fatty foods, she cannot refuse when I ask her to have lunch in Sizzling Seafoods and have “sinigang na ulo ng maya maya sa miso” for a meal. This is my favorite place to eat before when she used to have her office in Ortigas where I would have to drop her off from her office. I would then spend my time in Robinson Ortigas where I would also meet my cousin whose office is close by.

I really love their “sinigang sa miso” and other sizzling grilled fish. How can I control my weight for this? Anyway another diet pills again?