Before the turn of the calendar, I was fortunate enough to attend the opening celebration of our local breast cancer support and advocacy community in Cagayan de Oro, ThriveCDO. Since it's officially #Pinktober, they launched a great lineup of activities that our locals can attend. (Note: you don't need to have cancer ib order to help promote this advocacy 😂)

As you probably know from experience, it can be very difficult to eat well from the comfort of your home when you’ve got a busy schedule. Without relying on any pre-packaged and processed foods, being able to eat well can be a huge challenge. However, there are still many ways you can make it easier, even in all the chaos of modern life…

The pizza game has really started to blossom in Cagayan de Oro and what's even better is that locals are starting to innovate ways to dish out even more unique pizza concepts. Take Nic's Pizza Baguettes, for example. This boring french bread turns to an interesting snack when topped with meaty, cheesy goodness. And now they're offering door to door delivery anywhere in metro Cagayan de Oro! The kind owner of Nic's Pizza Baguettes sat us down to sample the delivery menu; read on to know which ones are my favorites!

I never thought I'd get around writing this review, but miracles happen so here I am, making it happen. I went on the opening day and a couple of times after that. To say that there's a lot of buzz surrounding the Pizza Republic opening is an understatement. But here it is, my unadulterated review of the place, the food and the experience.

One of the Philippine's biggest asset is that we like to party and people from all over the world come over to join us. We look for any reason to celebrate something so it's not uncommon for us to have festivals in EVERY CITY, EVERY YEAR. My provincial city is dubbed 'The City of Golden Friendship' so it's not a surprise really if our festival's theme is "Higalaay" (Friendship / Making Friends). Last year and the year before, our friends (see what I did there?) from the nearby Davao city, Backyard Burgers, came to party with us for a week. They had such a huge success that only months after, they decided to open up a branch here in Cagayan de Oro City. And after many months, I've decided to review them (once and for all, albeit late)

After what is arguably my longest unannounced hiatus in history, I'm back! Eager to fill your mornings (evenings? lunches? midnights?) with my unsolicited advice, reviews and rants! This time, I was called out from my blogging slumber to share my two cents on Jollibee's (not so) new Honey Glazed Chickenjoy! So grab a notepad (don't, really) and read on.

When people open up restaurants, they usually set their prices based on a demographs (and it's usually the income and spending capacity). Thus, the demolished partition between the affluent and the less affluent returns to life in the form of marketing clusters "Class A,B,C and D". What most people don't know is when you're a college student trying to live life under a laughable budget (being shredded by countless photocopies despite the fact you have books), you're most like to fall on a "Class F". Don't wallow just yet! I've found a place that not only honors your grumbling belly, but also feeds your aesthetic food needs (because looks matter, duh!)

That according contemporary American science fiction writer, Glen Cook. He couldn't have said that better. Honestly, I'm a morning person. I love how the sun stoops down and kisses my skin, love how the cool breeze sighs and tell me where he's been. It's an amazing feeling, if only I could be awake or less grumpy when that happens. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (trust me, I'm a nursing student! ;P) and I enjoy it alot. But then again, I dont always have breakfast in the morning. Krispy Kreme, my fave donut place, released a variant of their Baked Creations a while back and everything just makes me want to WAKE UP and EAT THEM IN THE MORNING (or Brunch seems fine too)

Bigby's is a travel-inspired restaurant based in Cagayan de Oro city but with branches scattered around the Philippines. Its first store along Dvsoria featured 30 items, but now, through the years and with more travels, the present inventory lists 68 items. Last September 19, I was among the 130 people invited to celebrate Bigby's 16th birthday. It was a lot of fun! I got to see friends I haven't seen in a long time (lol, this semester's schoolwork has been sucking all my socializing time) and we had great hor d'ouevres to chew while we talked, met new friends and had a great time.

When we think of Japanese cuisine, some of us instantly think of sushi or ramen, seeing as it's the most common out there. But a classic favorite in Japanese homes, Tonkatsu, is sure to prompt the gastronomes in you.

Style Origin is back in Cagayan de Oro grounds after last year's spectacular show. This year, Ayala Malls' Style Origin celebrates true fashion with curated looks from the industry's top trend shapers. I was privileged and very excited to attend what's dubbed to be the biggest fashion show in Cagayan de Oro. I brought my sister Abby as my plus one this year, she helped me with some of the pictures as I have very shaky hands sometimes. 

Weeks ago (I've been a very bad blogger), several of the CDO Bloggers and I were invited to check out the newly opened Iligan-based Pop rock Cafe and Restaurant along Tiano-Jr. Borja St. The cafe has been a family corporation since March of 1990 in Iligan City, the concept inspired by Archie Comics.

It's been a while since I've posted, I've been terribly busy with school, Muay Thai, church and life in general. I have been meaning to invite people over to guest post, however, everyone might be quite busy as well since only a few responded to me and some only to tell me that they couldn't do it or they could on a later date. I am terribly sorry! To make up for my absence, I decided to cheer you up with a food post. If you follow me on any of my social media accounts, you might already know that I went to ShangRi-La Resort and Spa in Mactan with my family last week for my sister's graduation. During our brief staycation, I was able to try Shang's famous buffet restaurant, Tides, and their Chinese cuisine specialty, Tea of Spring.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but as a student making the most out of her summer, waking up early to lavish healthy aliment is nearly impossible (and highly improbable, no matter how devourable the devourables might be). Glen Cook couldn't have said it any better, "Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day". For those of you who, like me, are convinced that gravity is stronger in the morning, it seems that Missy Bon Bon really thought our predicament through when they debuted Brunch at Missy Bon Bon. Who needs to compromise sleep and scrumptious food?

This April 16, Missy Bon Bon will be celebrating their 4th birthday and my, do they have a treat for all of us! Every weekend (Saturday & Sunday) for the whole month of April, the famous CDO breadshop will be dishing out a delectable brunch buffet for only Php350. Don't forget to tell your friends that brunch begins 10am - 1pm (so they better be out of their jammies then!)

Monster Kitchen Academy is a Cagayan de Oro-based baking and culinary school that caters to people from different walks of life who desire to master cooking / baking fundamentals. There is no pre-requisite degree and age limit, no one is going to stop you if you want to enroll just after your high school graduation or after you've become a retired war veteran slash doctor slash principal. So long as you have the passion for it, you can enroll and experience life as chef-in-training (just like Masterchef, only less intense because your chefs don't go Hell's Kitchen on you).

Food is an essential part of travel, probably why travel blogs are almost always bundled as food blogs. While I was in Cebu City, Philippines to visit my sister last week, I had plenty time to waste looking for good restaurants to eat at. Fortunately for me, there were plenty of choices and I've narrowed it down to these ten: