Autumn Getaway 2012: Day 2 - Life in Technicolor

My first full day in the U.S. was on a Sunday and my Auntie was nice enough to bring me to mass at St. John's. St. John's was my school in 1992 and I have great memories here.

This is St. John's Peter Kramer Hall which was our gymnasium and the site of our basketball games. I wish that I'm some big time professional ball player and going back to my alma mater. Haha! Unfortunately, I'm not even close to being a professional athlete (or even just an athlete at that). But this was where I tried out for my first ever basketball team and the first of eight years of playing basketball in different schools.

St. John's Leonia

After Church service, we made our way into New York. My cousin Cassey and I found a guy in Union Square who was posing with a "No Picture" picture sign. We thought he had some deeper advocacy or cause but it turns out he just likes the irony of being a 'no-picture'-picture-guy!

My first tast of New York pizza in this trip. This is a Margherita pizza from Artichoke Pizza at the East Village.

A New York Moment

I've been in New York / New Jersey the last four days! Been meaning to write about what I've been up to not so much as to showboat but just needing a written account of the things I've been up to. Getting older, these things become necessary. (Does memory go with the hair that one loses?) And also, I won't make this trip halfway across the world as just a 'matter-of-fact' or seemingly insignificant event I mention as an aside. This thing here is monumental and I cannot be more grateful for having been given the chance to get here!

I haven't been living up to writing about all that I've been doing here but let me start with a teaser: a moment that I felt like I was on top of the world even just for one passing minute. Here is my New York Moment...

It was Columbus Day today, October 8. I didn't expect to come across any big festivities as it wasn't a big National Holiday but as I was making my way from Central Park into 5th Avenue, I came across an Italian Parade, and who better serenade this moment than Frankie himself with perhaps the only definitive theme song that no other city in the world can claim to have.

More on this trip soon!

The Best Buffet in the City

Reeling in from the embarrassment (or maybe just a state of shock) of my first OOTD, I write another entry. I feel that it's in my best interest to write another entry so that my outfit post gets pushed down, getting removed as the main headline and demoted into old news.

And gentlemen, OOTD, apparently, stands for Outfit-Of-The-Day. Oooh. Now I'm not sure if I should throw around these terms recklessly but I do know one thing: I will never 'LOL'. Please. Can we all stand in (gentleman's) agreement that we shall never 'LOL'? Please? Us men shall never 'LOL'. In this day and age we can send smileys, we can "Hehe", and we can naturally express everything that God's given our faculties but please, NO LOL-ing on the floor.

Thankfully, this entry will NOT be an OOTD. This will be about something that's a lot closer to my heart, more aptly, my stomach. Here I will write about the most underrated buffet in the city.

LET'S FIRE UP THE GRILL!

There's just something so primal about being surrounded by raw meat on the dinner table. Our caveman operating systems are still embedded in us despite new apps and hardware that we have upgraded to. I believe that this is why there's still something so satisfying about having red (raw) meat so proximate for your total devouring. Perhaps it's the closest we can (commercially) get  to feeling like the lions that hunt down gazelles in the Discovery Channel. The food chain comes full circle! So 'Caaaaan you feel the love tonight'?

Be our guest be our guest put our magic to the test.

With this, you might have guessed right by now that the most underrated buffet in the city that I speak of is a Yakiniku. NO, it's NOT Yaki Mix. Definitely not that. It's not Tong Yang either (although, Yakiniku + bottomless beer at Tong Yang I can never say no to). The most underrated buffet in the city is Tajimaya Charcoal Grill at Mall of Asia.

Lost for words for a caption on this

It may seem that Tajimaya pales in comparison to its counterparts. There is no big buffet table, no sushi, and it doesn't draw much of a crowd. But what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. It's a very small variety that Tajimaya offers but in this choice selection comes the best cut meats that are perfectly marbled for grilling. Beef, Pork, Chicken, Sausage, Shrimps, and Fish Ball. That's it. But it's in the quality of ingredients that make this my favorite buffet in the city. Tajimaya serves marbled US Angus beef karubi, almost passing for entry-level Wagyu. Their choice cut meats are generously sliced to a thickness that is filling unlike in Tong Yang where you need to request for meat separately and served in thin slices. Unlike Yaki Mix where raw meat is drenched in oil, Tajimaya serves fresh meat that you can distinguish by smell. Langhap sarap! Lastly, Tajimaya serves fresh lettuce and vegetables with bibimpap tasting sauce that serve as wrapper and palette cleanser.

''Well Helo, Clarice..."

At P580, this 'eat-while-we-serve' is the best bang-for-buck buffet in the city. This comes with both bottomless iced tea and rice. There is a 'pure meat' variant at P420 that excludes rice, drinks, and veggies which is an even greater bang-for-buck I must say. This was the buffet that my girlfriend availed of. Oh, I almost forgot to mention Parched Girl was with me in this food expedition! I didn't forget about you babe, promise!

P420 for a carnivorous feast

Munching down my very own 'Yaki-Veggie-Wrap'

The food was so good I had to order myself a scotch after all was said. I felt like those Japanese businessmen happily indulging in alcohol after a productive day and a hearty meal. Let me go on record by saying that the best cuisine designed for drinking is Japanese. But more on that in future posts.

Tajimaya, the best buffet in the city and a place that will always put a smile on my face --- a place that will make me go LOL!