Prudence and Madness

I’m sorry for not updating this blog often these days. A lot of things have been needing my attention and I’m almost up to my neck with “work” that now I come to understand how that Koala bear must be feeling, hanging on to my stethoscope for a lllooooooooonnngggg time. But she’s great with the kids so too bad she had to stay for a while longer.

For the meantime, check out this week’s medical blog carnival at my health blog, Prudence, M.D.

After our visit to La Maison (wasn’t able to post about it anymore because I wasn’t able to take photos or even eat because I was already too full. Had a great time watching the other bloggers eat, though, hehe. And yeah, I vote La Maison for the Restaurant with the Best Ambiance), we proceeded to the cinema lobby, only to find out that the raffle and the concert were to be held outside in the amphitheater near Starbucks. I’m not really the one who gets lucky in raffles, so it didn’t bother me much that the raffle had already started when we got there. We just took our seats and I watched some of the bloggers receive their prizes. I think, some of the blue group where fortunate to have won in the raffle .

The band, Sound, capped off our night by playing us hits from their albums. It was my first time to see this band play, though I’ve already heard some of their songs. After a few numbers, I started to get envious of those bloggers who won CD copies of the band’s album, Blue Monsoon. And sure enough, after the concert and the food tour ended, I went straight to the record bar in the department store and bought a copy of the CD. Impulsive, but I liked the band that much. Too bad I wasn’t able to have it signed.

So, there goes the biggest blogger event (so far) of the year. Everybody’s happy, of course, with their goodie bags, prizes, and well-fed stomachs. Well, except Anne, the “manager”, who surely will get some reprimands because of what happened in Cabalen restaurant during the food tour. Also, I think, that isn’t going to reflect very well on the reputation of Ayala Malls and TriNoma, though indirectly. Perhaps, by this time, Cabalen would have realized the impact of what has been done. Surely the lesson isn’t just “not to mess with bloggers” but rather, “to give quality customer service whoever it is who presents in your restaurant”. It just so happened that, as bloggers, we get some opportunity to reach out to a wider audience, as compared to those who do not blog. This Anne is still sort of lucky that AJ of Baklaako.com isn’t a writer in the newspaper or a TV celebrity (or maybe soon-to-be TV celebrity? How about that, AJ? ), because if that’s the case, all I can say is, “good luck!”

As for the food tour, I enjoyed it immensely, except for some snags, which probably was due to some miscommunication between the mall and the participating restaurants. I’d suggest that in the next blogger food tour, if there’ll be another one:

1. Advise the tour guides to engage more with the bloggers. There were awkward situations which could have been avoided if the guides were able to introduce the group properly to the establishment.
2. Make sure that participating restaurants know what to expect during the food tour. For some establishments, they thought a food tour is just having to explain to the guest the concept of their restaurant. For others, it meant having them to sample their dishes. Which is which? It’s better to straighten out all of these before the day of the tour, so everybody would be less tense and enjoy the day better.
3. Start the event on time.
4. Also, I think it would have been better if there’s more time allotted for the tour. Ten to 15 minutes for each restaurant is definitely not enough, especially if that restaurant is only starting to prepare their samples when the bloggers come in and not before. If done this way, there’s more time for the bloggers to get to know the restaurant better, have enough time to ask questions which could be relevant to their review of the place. It will surely be for the benefit of both the bloggers and the restaurants, because if given enough time, bloggers can enjoy more of their stay and thus, write more positive reviews about it.

That’s just about it. The rest of the food tour is just simply fabulous that I can’t wait for the next one!

Can’t get enough of the TriNoma Blogger Food Tour? Check out these other posts:

TriNoma Blogger Food Tour - Dining To The Next Level! by L.A.

Restaurants at TriNoma by Jehzeel Laurente

Bloggers’ Food Tour At TriNoma by Ed Arevalo

Eat! The Psycho Way! by Phaelun

Trinoma Food Bloggers’ Tour - We Stuffed Our Faces Off! by Ignatius Javellana

We Love TriNoma! (A Video Spoof) by AJ, Poyt, Joe, Kring, and Coy

The Great Trinoma Food Tour as told by her

*Burp* by Jhed

The Great Trinoma Food Tour as told by him

The Trinoma Bloggers’ Pig-Out (Part 1 of 3) by JM Tuazon

The Trinoma Bloggers’ Pig-Out (Part 2 of 3)

The Trinoma Bloggers’ Pig-Out (Part 3 of 3)

TriNoma Blogger Food Tour: The Beginning

Blog Event Alert! Trinoma’s Blogger Food Tour - PinoyBlogoSphere …

We love Trinoma Video Spoof

Renzie Recommends: Cyma Greek Taverna at TriNoma

TriNoma Blogger Food Tour: Speed Eating and Reviews, 3rd Level

Episode 28: We Love Trinoma! (A Video Spoof)

Trinoma Bloggers’ Food Tour gets fritzified

TriNoma Blogger Food Tour: Speed Eating and Reviews, 3rd Level

TriNoma Blogger’s Food Tour

Food Tourist

Trinoma Food Tour Special: Reviews

Trinoma Food Tour Special: Foods, Fun and Friends

How To Deal With A Blogger Properly

Byahilo Goes To The TriNoma Blogger Food Tour

I Went To The Trinoma Bloggers Food Tour and I’ve Got Nothing To Show For It

Trinoma Blogger Food Tour by Shinytiara

Leave your links here, if you’ve posted about the food tour too!

Also, don’t forget to vote for the participating restaurant with:

• Best-Tasting Food
• Best Customer Service
• Best Ambiance
• Best Food Presentation

Cast your votes in the comments section of my first post about the Trinoma Blogger Food Tour. Or if you’re feeling lazy, just leave it in the comments section here. (I repeat, the poll is in no way connected to TriNoma or with the other sponsors of the food tour. It’s just for fun!)

So ends this long series of food tour posts! Whew!

You (especially those who’re in the Blue Group reading this) must have noticed I’ve skipped a couple of restaurants in my posts.  I did that because, 1) I wasn’t able to take decent photos of the place; 2) I didn’t eat much so I don’t know how to comment on the food; 3) I don’t find them too interesting to blog about hehe; and 4) I’m itching to write the post on Conti’s!

To tell you the truth, this is my family’s favorite restaurant, in the sense that, whenever the clan would hold a reunion, they acquire the catering services of Conti’s.  And serving Continental, Filipino, and Japanese dishes, it’s just the perfect resto for us because members of the family just love those kind of food.

And so, can you imagine that I’m still excited when we’ve come to this part of the tour, even if I’ve eaten Conti’s food several times already?  Well, you should because, really, I was THAT excited!

Well, who wouldn’t get excited seeing a dish like this?  This is Baked Salmon, one of Conti’s best-sellers.

Roast beef with creamy mashed potato.  I’m not big on beef dishes but the mashed potatoes…yum!

Yep, our group had eaten everything on the plates clean that Conti’s had to set out a new batch of food because the next group’s already coming in, with us still inside munching away our food.  And yeah, that’s one reason why I wasn’t able to take photo of the famous Mango Bravo cake; bloggers have eaten much of the cake already that there’s nothing substantial left for a good photo shot.  Hehe.