a visit to antipolo

after attending mass at the antipolo shrine, we had early lunch at  savory chicken at the victory mall park & shop almost across the shrine. we were one of the first customers so we were able to get a good seat.

the first and last time i was able to eat at savory chicken was in early 2000 in their escolta branch. it's been a while that i can't even remember how it tasted back then.

we ordered hototay soup, chopseuy, lumpia shanghai and the original savory chicken. my updated view of the food - the chicken was good. it was --- savory to say the least! lol! and i like the crispiness of the chicken. the hototay soup was also tasty, and the fresh egg was the perfect touch.

 i wanted to have some dessert before buying pasalubong from antipolo. i saw this cupcake place nearby but i forgot the name of the restaurant. i wanted to try their different cupcakes so i ordered three kinds -- red velvet, choco fudge and cupcake smores. then i ordered tea and carrot cake.

among the three cupcakes, i liked the red velvet the best, next was the choco fudge and last would be the smores. the last was just too sweet for me.  i actually just had a taste of the cupcakes as they were more for aly and those were the flavors she wanted.

the tea and carrot cake went well together. nelo & i liked the carrot cake. it was just the right sweetness and i love the frosting.

after dessert, off we went to the pasalubong center behind the shrine for some pasalubong. the best pasalubong from antipolo - suman sa ibos, coco jam and kasuy nuts! aling cora, the store owner gave us a sample of her suman to taste. we dipped it in muscovado sugar - yummy!

after we've satisfied our spirit at the mass and our tummies with the food, it was time to go home. hopefully we can go back to antipolo and explore more of the city. until then...

independence day pilgrimage to antipolo

every year, the parish of san fernando de dilao in paco holds a pilgrimage to the national shrine of our lady of peace and good voyage in antipolo. this is done every june 12, independence day. the former is where we attend mass every sunday and where nelo also serves as a lay minister.

we've joined past pilgrimages but not recently. this year, we decided to join in the pilgrimage again and bring along nikko with us.  we went there with my sil and her family. the mass was scheduled at 8am and we left the house around 6:30am. it was raining when we left and nikko's outfit was just perfect for the weather.

when we got there, the previous mass has not yet finished so we had to wait. once inside, i told nikko to sit down on the church pew. good thing the lady was nice enough to let him stay there. i told nikko to hold on to his lunch box. we always bring this whenever we go out. it's filled with his favorite fruit- banana, some biscuits and his cerelac.

it was hot and humid inside the church. as expected, there were a lot of people who were attending the hourly masses. lucky for us, my sil was able to find a seat right behind the lay ministers. our mass already started around 8:30am.

nikko was behaved during the entire mass. of course there's the occasional "shrieks" from him and being carried back and forth between me and his yaya. but other than that, he was a good boy during the mass.

after the mass, we lighted a candle for our special intentions then paid homage to our lady.

 

then it was off to an early lunch. more on that on my next post.