a daily dose of wonderland
We haven’t gone to a decent summer getaway this year, and the closest thing we could get to a full day of sunshine was a trip to Memory Lane. Sounding like an old cheesy come-on aside, Memory Lane is a synthesis of all the lovely and quaint things we have pictured in our heads since - we don’t know - day one of our lives?
Just simply driving up to the house gave us a vision of how we wanted to live for the rest of our lives! It really generated innumerable oohs and aahs of delight as we turned from one corner to another. Thus, to avoid incoherent rambling, we have dissected the experience in to the most endearing parts.
The Garden. It’s so hard to promise to contain unguided rambling when a garden is this beautiful! A walkway of blooms greets you as you enter Memory Lane, and accordingly draws you in to the whimsy of the place. It is exactly how a home garden ought to be - almost bigger than the house itself, and flowers growing as tall as people. A sign warns anyone who picks a flower, but we were happy to oblige and observe the rules. In pursuit of capturing the beauty of the moment, we took photos instead.
The Porch. Of course, lunch had to be al fresco! It’s one of those combination of things that makes you inexplicably at peace - a delightful view, the sun daintily peeking through tree leaves to grace a corner of your face, the light breeze, the faint background of birds singing, and good company.
The Food. You would go to Memory Lane for the experience and the ambience more than you would go for the food. Their menu is pretty diverse. Isobel had their specialty dish - Mom’s Homemade Spaghetti, which took more after the Filipino’s sweet-style pasta. Cara had a bowl of potato salad in Japanese mayonnaise-based dressing. The dressing wasn’t as Japanese or Asian as expected, it was a comforting dish nonetheless. Our friends, Gel and Dianne, had angel hair in aligue sauce and chicken cacciatore pasta respectively.The chicken cacciatore pasta was the best dish in the bunch.
The Restaurant. The place had such marvelous vintage things from the 1950’s to 1960’s, including a black and white telly that showed old Hollywood films, and a small jukebox cleverly labeled as iJuke. Our favorite items are the vintage advertisement posters, the chandelier, romantic lamps and the witty signs posted around the restaurant.
The Powder Room. As tradition goes, we just had to make the requisite photo-booth time inside the powder room come true. It proved to be one of the most romantic and prettiest powder rooms, with dainty mirrors, lamps and floral fixtures.
The service crew was friendly - shout out to Mark who was too kind to help make our Parent Trap-inspired dreams almost come true - You rang?
It was a perfect Saturday in the company of all things good and calming to the soul.
(Source: caraandisobel)
Memory Lane
Yesterday, I, with carafunk and two of her work friends (whereiscimmamum and Gel), drove to Tagaytay to check out Memory Lane restaurant.
La Vie En Rose sweets
Baking is love. There is nothing that can make life richer, sweeter and rosier than sharing that love— in the form of cupcakes, almond macarons and desserts, of course!
All of our sweets are made with only premium ingredients and especially hand-crafted to share and enjoy.-Cara & Rosenne Funk
La Vie En Rose sweets’s Tumblr is now up!
For products, prices and orders, reach through: 0905-2048031 / 0927-7103727 / carazfunk@yahoo.com
Today, carafunk and I celebrated her 24th on the 24th!
We drove up to our family rest house where we made lunch ourselves— chicken and basil pasta with berry wine, and salad with dried sugared flowers, milk cheese, apples, grapes and croutons. Later on in the afternoon we picnicked outside, with a couple good books and strawberries, my pretty Austrian tea and her homemade macarons and strawberry cake.
I had quite a lovely two-day-early birthday lunch at Bizu today with my biffle carafunk, a date we’ve been planning to have for a while now. We dined on truffle salad, mixed spinach-mushroom ravioli in pomodoro sauce with parmigiano, raspberry and strawberry kefir, and caramel-chocolate mousse gâteau and macarons for dessert— all of which made turning a year older a soupçon easier.
the macaron bake date
It’s been awhile since we had a decent date. We blame it on life’s tricky mischances. We haven’t let our hair grow too long, our feet up against curtains, while aimlessly talking in whispers but breaking into insouciant laughs in between.
This weekend, we had the chance to catch up on our tandem baking whilst dividing the role of heir to our grandmother’s most valuable mixing equipment. It’s like a trade secret being passed on from one generation to the next. It might have skipped a generation since our lola only had sons who would rather inherit her pantry than old baking pieces. We’d love to think that we have earned the necessary wisdom to deserve such a treasure!
In trying to make some delightful macarons, we had to make two batches. The first didn’t turn out quite as we’ve wanted it to. There must have been an error in the mixing process; the almond-sugar mixture wasn’t incorporated well enough in to the beaten egg white. But the second came out with tolerable success. It made us happy! The cream cheese and fresh strawberry slices filling danced harmoniously with the sweetness of the shells!
And so, the day concluded with adequate optimism. Despite feeling so small in an immense and overwhelming universe, wherein our actions and choices seem so irrelevant and ineffectual, we shared a feeling of magic, albeit momentary.
Love,
Cara and Isobel
Say bonjour! to the French macarons carafunk and I baked today, with cream cheese and fresh strawberry slices as filling! It took patience (watched Marie Antoinette, dressed up, and camwhored in between) and was quite tricky (took us two batches to get at least five sets right), but ultimately jovial nonetheless. The result was delectable, needless to say :) Although they’re physically still not perfect, but hopefully we’re getting there.
