Yoki's Hydrophonic Farm

location: Tagaytay

- owned by a very low keyed person who loves collecting all sorts of antiquities, orchids, herbs, salad greens etc. It got its name " HYDROPHONIC " thru his process of growing his herbs and plants... WATER is the main source with nutrients added to the system. In short you can try the greens as you purchase them. You dont need to wash off the dirt since its not planted on the soil. His farm supplies most of the restaurants here in makati. When you want to buy that is the only time they will go and pick it from their nursery. I took a bite of the lettuce they were selling and it tastes different!!

Ultimate Tour and Culinary Cuisine goes to Tagaytay

I travelled with food bloggers and first timers on this trip. We were 20 in a little coaster on our way to TAGAYTAY. Most of us were fully equiped with our cameras, tripods and video equipment ready to document our experience..... before i took this trip all i thought the best food places were SONYA's garden and Antonio's ..... but after tasting and discovering these new places.... it makes you want to make that trip to Tagaytay once more!!! When you travel with food bloggers... you cant eat as soon as the food is set on the table.... YOU GOT TO TAKE THE PICTURE first....... once satisfied with the outcome of your shots... then.. you sit down and eat... UNLESS... you are famished... and gobble down your food before you can document your food...you end up with NO FOOD pictures!!! Joining a food tour is all what it is all about... DOCUMENTING your food and by word of mouth.... these new places will be another " MUST TRY " places to eat when you are in Tagaytay. What I learned from this experience was to be adventurous in your taste, have an empty stomach since you will be eating and sampling so many things along the way, its very important to pace your food intake, one must have an open mind when you go on these trips and last but not the least.... tons of energy to last you the whole trip........ otherwise.......... JUST STAY HOME!!!

Loumars - known for its BUKO CRUMBLE PIE... what i learned we have to eat the pie baked right from the source ( we went to the wholesaler of this buko pie)...its better to buy your buko pies early morning so its still warm and fresh. When you get it any other time of the day... they dont taste as good.

Ilog Maria HoneyBee Farm - owned by Joel Magsaysay and his family. They sell all sorts of products like handmade soap, massage oil, bee pollen, etc. The road to his little farm ( 9 hectares ) is a very narrow bumpy, dirty ( during summer ), muddy ( during rainy season ) road.. you need a 4 X 4 vehicle to get there. He had prepared a impromtu video presentation about his farm and showed us around. I learned something new about the BEES and their HONEY... Ants whether black or red are not attracted to natural honey.. Once the honey is harvested and processed... sugar is added... etc... thats when the ants come.

BAWAI's - its a newly opened Vietnamese Resaturant owned and operated by Mr and Mrs Tatlonghari.. It opened only 15 months ago... and was discovered by Anton Diaz ( food blogger of OUR AWESOME PLANET ), Mrs Tatlonghari a native of Vietnam personally supervises and cooks all the dishes from her kitchen.. Since the restaurant also serves as their housing quarters it is opened only on weekends.. and one has to have make reservations in advance. Unlike Sonya's garden which has the set menu... BAWAI has a menu you can order what you like. The seating capacity is 28 persons.

CHATEAU HESTIA - owned and operated by Johannes Zehethoffer ( from Vienna ). It opened last year... and its a few meters down the road from BAWAI... this was where we went for our dessert. He has 2 house liquers which i tried.. LIMONCELLO ( but this time with a twist ).. since we dont have LEMONS in the philippines he made use of our dalandan with a dash of vanilla. the other one was ORANGE liquer which was also very good. He offered us panna cotta topped with passion fruit bits and jam which i liked. His ferrero rocher ice cream was also good. He had another treat for us called mango napoleon which i wasnt able to try since i was soooooo full already!!

National Palace Museum, Taipei

Taipei's National Palace Museum, located in the Waishuanghsi neighborhood of the Shihlin District, is the pride of Taiwan. It ranks as one of the four best museums in the world, in a class with the Louvre, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The museum holds the world's largest collection of Chinese artifacts, around 700,000 items in all. Since the museum only has space to display around 15,000 pieces at any given time, the majority of the treasures are kept  protected in air-conditioned vaults buried deep in the mountainside. The displays are rotated once every three months, which means 60,000 pieces can be viewed in a year and it would take nearly 12 years to see them all. 

Some of the oldest artifacts in the collection of the museum are pieces of prehistoric pottery over 5,000 years old. The vast majority of these art objects are from the private collection of China's emperors.

Included in the collection are artifacts made from jade, bronze, porcelain, lacquerware and enamel. There are also tapestry and embroidery, and many priceless documents and books containing excellent examples of ancient Chinese calligraphy.

There are tours in different languages and for the handicapped. A multimedia slide show is presented daily in both Chinese and English languages. October is the best time to visit.

The museum provides a handheld audio tour system called INFORM. This system enables visitors to create a personalized guided tour of the museum. You can simply walk through the galleries, choose the highlighted exhibits which interest you and learn about them in your own pace.