It’s 20:20 when we started watching Beijing Olympic Games open ceremony in hotel’s function room. Definitely it’s a great show and should be one of the bests with those 29 olympics. Too bad I could not stand for 4 hours and returned around 20:30.

Catch in mind are the statistic numbers: 29th Olympics; 203 countries; 91,000 audience; 1.3 billion population; 4 billion were expected watching worldwide; 40 billion yen investment…

We had dinner at Chilli’s at Greenbelt 1 last night. My favorite dish is classic nachos. The Margarita grilled chicken shrimp combo is also good.

The desert around 15:30 was Panna Cotta with caramel sauce, an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set.

A picture is worth a thousand words (畫意能達萬言), this is how I learn foods’ name from breakfast buffet.

Bread: Berlin Doughnuts, Blueberry Danish, Breakfast Muffins, Brown Bread, Ensaïmada, Farmers Bread, Hard Rolls, Mutligrain Bread, Pancake, Pandesa, Peach Danish, Plain Croissant, Sourdough Bread, Wafer, White Bread

Cereal: Banana Flakes, Bran Flakes, Corn Crunch, Corn Flakes, Muesli, Rice Crispies

Cheese: Brie, Cheddar, Cottage Cheese, Emmentaler, Gouda, Tilsiter

Dessert: Almond-Lychee Mousse, Chocolate Chip Pudding, Chocolate Crème Brulee, Fruit Tartlets, Halo Halo, Mini Cheesecake, Papaya Pannacotta, Raspberry Mousse, Vanilla Crème Brulee

Fruit: Avocado, Cantaloupe, Cinnamon, Grape, Guava, Honeydew, Jackfruit, Longgan, Plum, Pomelo

Jam: Butter, Chocolate Sauce, Guava Jam, Mango Jam, Maple Syrup, Pineapple Jam, Raspberry Marmalade 

Others: Atchara, Beef Tapa, Chicken Longganiza, Cuttlefish, Daing Na Bangus, Dijon Mustard, Grilled Vegetables, Hash Brown, Ketchup, Lapu Lapu Fillet, Mushroom Quiche, Pancit Canton, Pork Longganiza, Soya Vinegar

Tonight get dinner at New Bombay, quite a good Indian restaurant. We’ve ordered Garlic Naan, Roomali Roti, Sweet Lassi, Mutton Biryani, Tikka Massala, Tandoori Chicken and Fish Curry.

P.S. Lunch was taken at Binalot (Binalot is just that classic Filipino fare wrapped in banana leaves in traditional local fashion). I’ve taken Fiesta Adobo: rice with chicken and pork.

Yesterday had dinner at Cafe Havana in Greenbelt, Makati. It should be a good place to have drinks at the outside, also has live band at Friday or Saturday. I’ve ordered Mariquitas de Plátano (Cuban crispy banana slices) as starter and Paella Valencia (Spanish stir fried rice) as main course.

P.S. I’ve had longsilog as lunch -> longganisa (Philippine sausage), fried rice and egg.

Italiaani’s Restaurant at Glorietta Manila is a good choice for dinner. I like the starter Spinach & Artichoke Formaggio (Spinach, artichokes, mushrooms and creamy blend of cheeses) much.

Another business trip to Manila, Philippines next week. Again it is the 2nd time to the same city for business reason. It happens to other places already: Oxford, Amsterdam, Paris, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Taiwan, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore. What’s next? Dubai, FoShan or Boston?

My family will come later in the trip. It was a shock when finding my daughter’s passport has expired a year before! With immediate actions applying the travel document, we should be able to get it just before departure! It is by chance we can discover this fault within 10 working days before departure.

We intend to believe this is my daughter’s fortune more than anything else.

Note: “… department pledges to complete the process of an application in 10 working days after receiving all necessary documents.” means delivery can only happen at the 11th day.