As is typical at nice hotel everywhere outside of the US, there is a full buffet breakfast with almost anything you can possibly imagine. At the Edsa Shangri-la this means a create-your-own soup station, omelet station, fruits, yogurt, jams, sushi station, beef tapa, crepe station, panini’s, waffles, Indian, garlic rice, danishes…basically anything your little heart desires. Thus no matter what time I get home from work, 1am or 4am, I will wake up for this divine breakfast. At the sweet breakfast station there is bibingka, which is a type of rice bread that I’ve come to fall in love with. My coworker was kind enough to introduce me to Rico, who runs the omelette station and continued to spoil me every morning with an elaborate crepe filled with everything from mangos, and jam with fresh strawberry sauce, to mangos, bananas, marshmallows and white chocolate pieces. I miss you Rico!
While staying at a five star hotel is nice and fancy, I think for the long term I would start to resent it, and so I started looking for something a little more homey. I looked at service apartments and condos, and after two weeks of debating, one of my local coworkers found me a great service apartment in Makati, the central business district. While it is farther away from work than the Edsa Shang in Ortigas, it has a more active and social atmosphere. Once I moved / settled in to my new digs, my coworkers came over to show me around the Glorietta and Greenbelt mall areas and to take me grocery shopping! I think one of my favorite purchases is the 24 quail eggs I purchased for 40P ($0.95)…wow what a deal. Everything I thought would be expensive, was fairly cheap, and everything I thought would be fairly cheap was pretty pricey, go figure.
Some of the other popular foods I’ve tried are halo-halo, which literally means “mix-mix”, and is one of the most famous ice treats, especially from ChowKing. When my coworker explained to me what was actually in it I thought it couldn’t be true…how can coconut, purple yam, beans, corn, rice, jackfruit, bananas, pearls, and palm fruit taste good? Magically it does, and I can’t wait to try it again.
Jollibee is the most popular fast food chain, BEFORE McDonalds which comes in a far second. I have yet to try the burger, but the chicken joy with palabok was mighty tasty and not too big.
My other coworker, who also moved out of the Edsa Shang, wanted to cook a typical Tex mex dinner. It was fabulous! Even though eating out here is often cheaper than cooking in, everyone likes a home cooked meal.
Our final stop for the evening was the infamous Hobbit House bar, one of the 7 most bizarre bars according to Lonely Planet. While the place was fairly dead on a Sunday night, there is live music daily and imported beers from all over the world. Where else can you get a Duvel and Blue Moon in Manila? Even though this bar felt slightly exploitative, the music was good and the beers will have us coming back again.
Seasoned Traveler 
if you were closer I would join you ,it looks divine love grandma
I love reading your story about the place I’m so familiar with. Thanks for sharing and I should try to visit the “Hobbit House” I never been there.