Catzie.net Blog

Author: Catzie

  • Subic Park Hotel review, taxi rates, and places to visit in Subic

    Subic Park Hotel review, taxi rates, and places to visit in Subic

    In August, a companion and I wanted to get away from the city during a long weekend. We didn’t want to go somewhere too far from Manila, and were looking for just a little adventure in the trip.

    Because of that, we decided to go to Subic Bay Freeport Zone. 🙂 I’m going to include a Subic Park Hotel review in this blog entry, as well as a list of places that we visited in Subic. It was a fun, unforgettable Subic trip to me. Mostly because of Zoobic Safari and Xtremely Xpresso Cafe.

    Without a car, we either walked (we like walking!) or took a cab (all rates are fixed per destination). Places we visited were Zoobic Safari, Xtremely Xpresso Cafe, Meat Plus Cafe, Freeport Exchange, Duty-Free Puregold, an S&R Pizza place with no membership required, and the beach somewhere behind Subic Park Hotel which didn’t seem good for swimming or dipping.

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  • How to make a basic “Login via Facebook” with PHP & JavaScript

    How to make a basic “Login via Facebook” with PHP & JavaScript

    You’ve seen how some popular websites let you register or login via Facebook — Pinterest, Vimeo, Lifehacker, and many more.

    In this blog post, I’ll show you the very basic setup of the Facebook login button for your website. It is up to you to enhance the functions of your registration system.

    Note: There are periodic updates to the Facebook API, sometimes resulting to issues with previously working implementations of the API. So please note that this tutorial was written in the third week August 2015. 🙂

    I began writing this tutorial late in August, but because of other projects, was able to publish it when it’s already September.

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  • Kumori: Japanese baked goods review

    Kumori: Japanese baked goods review

    Blueberry Brioche and Hanjuku Cheese (Original) were two items that I first tried at Kumori. There’s a Kumori store in the lower ground floor of Landmark Makati, and if you want to try some heavenly spongy-but-melt-in-your-mouth cheesecakes, you know where to go. 😉

    kumori-japanese-bakery

    A couple of months later, I also tried Kumori’s “Tofu Cheese”.

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  • How to buy and reload Beep cards in LRT stations

    How to buy and reload Beep cards in LRT stations

    You’re on this page probably because you want to know how you can avail Beep cards at LRT stations. Or maybe for the first time, your Beep card is about to run out of load. Maybe you don’t take LRT trains but just a little curious. 🙂

    The Beep card ticketing system was first tried at LRT-2, and just a few days ago, it was also launched at LRT-1 but limited to Southbound trips at the moment. You can read about my LRT-1 Beep card system experience.

    The Beep card’s ticket vending machine does not give change, so you may only insert the exact amount you want to load into your card. Maybe the tellers at the LRT ticket booths can give you a change.

    Here’s how you can buy and re-load a Beep card:

    LRT: how to buy Beep cards from ticket vending machines

    LRT: how to reload Beep cards in ticket vending machines

    How to buy Beep card from Ticket Vending Machines

    1. Choose “Stored Value Card” option on the ticket vending machine screen
    2. Insert bills or coins into the machine’s slot.
    3. Take your Beep card when the ticket vending machine dispenses it.

    How to re-load your Beep card

    1. Place your Beep card on the “Stored Value Card” reader of the ticket vending machine. Leave it there while you reload your Beep card.
    2. Choose the “Add Value” option on the machine’s screen.
    3. Insert exact amount of money into the machine. The ticket vending machines DO NOT give change. The amount you insert will be the amount loaded into your Beep card.
    4. Wait for the message “Transaction Successful” to show in the screen. Do not remove your Beep card yet!
    5. The screen will show you the updated amount of load in your Stored Value Beep card
  • LRT Beep card: my experience with the new ticketing system

    LRT Beep card: my experience with the new ticketing system

    Tap-and-go na ang ticketing system LRT-1, Southbound man o Northbound! This is thanks to the LRT Beep cards. Hopefully, the next upgrade in our train system would be for the improvement of train availability.

    As I write this in late September, I can’t say that I feel any improvement in my daily and nightly commute via LRT-1 during rush hour after the implementation of the LRT Beep card system. Maybe it’s just me, but have the lines for turnstiles when exiting train station gotten worse since we started using LRT Beep cards? I really hope that this is just because people are still adjusting in this new system.

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  • Melliza Cakes and Pastries: review

    Melliza Cakes and Pastries: review

    When I go to Robinson’s Place Manila, I often buy a red velvet cupcake or two from the stall of Portobello Bakery. Their red velvet cupcakes are moist and have that nice “chew” to it, and the cream cheese frosting’s tang and sweet level are just right. But then I found out that the stall was no longer there.

    Still wanting to take home any dessert, I decided to try a slice of something from Melliza Cakes and Pastries, also known as Cheesecake Melliza.

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  • Yamazaki, Little Tokyo (Makati) – review

    Yamazaki, Little Tokyo (Makati) – review

    Friends and I wanted to catch up over dinner after work. Most of us were Japanese food fans, and we decided to eat at Yamazaki in Little Tokyo.

    I would definitely come back again for their delicious fried gyoza and would try the Yamazaki ramen, hoping there will be someone to share a bowl of it with. 😀

    Yamazaki Ramen

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    Three of my friends ordered the Yamazaki Ramen. They were all surprised by the huge bowl of ramen. I told them, maybe the bowl is just full of soup but not so much noodles in it. But I was wrong. They’re boys (I think it’s usual for men to be able to eat more than women), but the bowls of ramen were still too much for them.

    So, I would recommend that you split Yamazaki Ramen into two bowls if you’re not a heavy eater. That’s 218 pesos for a huge bowl of Yamazaki Ramen.

    Steamed Gyoza

    Gyoza is a dumpling filled with vegetables and ground meat.

    20150730_192147

    I had a heavy lunch that day so I wanted something light for dinner, and gyoza was what I thought would fit the bill.

    20150730_192343

    First bite and I was like, Saraaap!!! The exterior had a crunch to it, as the bottom of this dumpling was fried, and the interior was moist and very flavorful. I think that the gyoza at Yamazaki is perfect! 😀

    Yasai Itame (Vegetable Stir-Fry)

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    Aside from the “perfect” gyoza, I also ordered yasai itame to complement my meal.

    The yasai itame was very tasty and had that “grilled meat” flavor. Try it as a side dish! One plate of Yamazaki’s yasai itame is 106 pesos and can be served as side dish for about 4 people.

    Update: more Yamazaki food items

    This page shall be updated whenever I try something new at Yamazaki. 🙂

    Fried Gyoza

    yamazaki-fried-gyoza

    The gyoza in the above photo is the “fried gyoza”. I thought that the gyoza I previously had was the fried one. Well, only the bottom part was actually fried and the waitress called that kind “steam fried gyoza”. I liked the steamed one better, since it’s juicier and tastier.

    Chicken Karaage set meal

    yamazaki-karaage-set

    And the set meal you see above is Yamazaki’s chicken karaage set meal. The karaage set meal included picked vegetable, meat stew with potatoes and carrots, miso soup, a generous bowl of rice, and on the karaage plate there was shredded cabbage, spaghetti with mayo, tomato, and garnish of parsley.

    You might be wondering what the spaghetti with mayo is. Imagine macaroni salad that uses spaghetti instead of macaroni. 🙂 I think it tastes fine but some of the friends I brought along at Yamazaki didn’t like it.

    The shredded cabbage didn’t have mayonnaise or any dressing! We asked for mayo for the cabbage, but the waitress said there’s additional charge of 25 pesos, and that the dressing provided for it was the tonkatsu sauce. Meh.

    However, the chicken karaage was delicious! I had boneless chicken on my plate that were very tasty and juicy. Yamazaki’s chicken karaage is perfect for me. 🙂

    Menu from Yamazaki Little Tokyo

    Not the best quality for a food menu’s photo. If I ever take a better shot, I’ll update the photos here.

    yamazaki-menu-2 yamazaki-menu-1

    Yamazaki, Little Tokyo, Makati – Contact

    Yamazaki Address: 2277 Fernando St. cor. Pasong Tamo Street, Makati City, 1231, Metro Manila, Philippines

    Yamazaki Phone Number: 02 8932163

  • Conti’s Desserts: a review by a dessert-eating monster

    Conti’s Desserts: a review by a dessert-eating monster

    I love desserts. Dessert is usually the best part of meal for me, if not the best part of the day. 😋

    Being a desserts lover, I like visiting Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant occasionally because they sell a variety of interesting desserts. They have turtle pie, cheesecakes, and one of their most popular cake: mango bravo.

    In this blog entry, I shall take the time to describe the desserts, especially cakes, that I tried and will try at Conti’s. 🙂 And hey, if you love mint chocolate desserts, you may want to read my post about Mint Chocolate Desserts in Manila.

    Turtle Pie

    20150731_130419

    The dessert in the photo above is Conti’s Turtle Pie. Based on a chocolate crust, it has a layer of salted caramel cream mousse under a well-chilled chocolate mousse. At first, I thought it was chocolate ice cream until a friend pointed out. 🙂 A generous amount of walnut chunks tops this dessert. There’s also whipped cream piped on the edge. I think the whipped cream they use on turtle pies is non-dairy. Each slice is 115 pesos.

    Salted Caramel Cake

    20150731_130456

    This one’s the Salted Caramel Cake from Conti’s that I ordered in August 2015. It’s a very light dessert, with plain chiffon cake layers frosted with light whipped cream (not sure if dairy). The bottom layer is darker than the others, and I think it might be butter cake instead of chiffon cake. Maybe they needed a sturdy base for the cake. On the top of the cake is salted caramel, which I don’t really remember as salty. I think the caramel at the bottom of their turtle pie is actually saltier than the one on their salted caramel cake. If you want a cake that won’t fill you up, go for this salted caramel cake at Conti’s. 🙂 It’s 95 pesos per slice.

    20150731_131139

    Yummm!

    Peach Walnut Torte

    20150731_130609

    Here’s Peach Walnut Torte, with a delicious thick meringue-like crust where the walnuts are mixed in. It has a thick layer of cream above that, and of course – peaches! The crust made this an interesting dessert to me. Only 95 pesos per slice.

    More to come! 😉

  • How to install Laravel 5 in Windows with XAMPP

    How to install Laravel 5 in Windows with XAMPP

    This short tutorial is based on my own installation of Laravel 5 on XAMPP that is running on Windows 7.

    In this Laravel 5 tutorial, you will need:

    There have been major changes in the following: New Folder Structure, Contracts, Route Cache, Route Middleware, Controller Method Injection, Authentication Scaffolding, Event Objects, Commands / Queueing, Database Queue, Laravel Scheduler, Tinker / Psysh, DotEnv, Laravel Elixir, Laravel Socialite, Flysystem Integration, Form Requests, Simple Controller Request Validation, New Generators, Configuration Cache, Symfony VarDumper.

    To learn more about the Laravel 5.0 update, read about it here.
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  • SSH: Basic usage of Shell Screen

    SSH: Basic usage of Shell Screen

    If you are often running scripts in SSH, especially ones that have a long execution time, you might have experienced termination of your script before it actually finishes its task(s). Maybe you closed the terminal window by accident, or you lost Internet connection for a moment.

    What you can do is run your script persistently with the help of Shell Screen.
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