Bistro de Manila (Filipino Restaurant) in Oakland..

It's not really the bistro that we know of, metal and glass tables with antique looking chairs, outside seating, cozy. It turned out that the origins of bistro is french and russian and that it means something that is quick.  This Bistro is actually an all you can eat restaurant.  Although, how much can one eat for lunch is relative,  it is a place lined with trays of different types of food, certainly can make one eye-hungry.  I think in the 70's  this type of restaurant is called smorgasboard.

 And here is what yelp had to say.  I have sworn off this place several times, but I always come back-to fulfill the craving from Pinoy food.

365 19th Street
Oakland, Ca 94612

Newsflash! We were at the restaurant that week, chatting with the owner who gave us a frequent diner card. What do you say, a few days after I came back, the place is closed and is under construction for a Vietnamese restaurant.  Oh well, that's the PInoy.. no details whatsoever..

Pizza,mousse, and churchie talks

I think this was the week before the Holy Week, they were going for a retreat in Denver  (not sure about this link, they will comment on it, if it is not), So they decided that we should cook and enjoy a movie or something. But I wasn't feeling up to it, T came with her organic and healthy pizza ingredients, we were both lazy. L came late of course, with the dessert ingredients, she was the only one cooking :).  We ended up ordering pizza from pizza rustica, gluten free and vegetarian, how sad is that ha ha.. 

Whatever we do, discussion always segued into churcie talks, how progressive can a Catholic church be without defying the dictum, the teachings of the church.  Recall that the Catholic Church does not only rely on the Scripture, the teaching and the doctrine, and its traditions. Sometimes we got hangup on what should and what shouldn't be, but then when do we stop participating in activities that defies the things that the Church represents.

 It is certainly a call that we each have to answer, we are answerable to our conscience, to God, and the creatures that we co-exist with. It is indeed mind boggling to say that we comply, that we are not rightfully the children of God.  But we can't be that, we are forgiven, absolved of our past sins and justified of our future sins. So what is the problem, maybe we just don't know how to enjoy the combination of pizza and an avocado mousse and a raspberry mousse.

It was enjoyable,  I take it back, there was sausage in a section of that rice-crust pizza. But then again, T has not taken a lead in these cooking experiments that we do, how about these samosas recipes?