Thoughts on Thoughts

Looking for a scrumptious restaurant yet budget friendly outside Metro Manila? Well, try to visit a small, peaceful and picturesque town which is one of the popular tourist attractions in Laguna, Philippines - the Municipality of Liliw. If Marikina is known for shoe making in Manila, well in Laguna, Liliw is known as the footwear or tsinelas capital of the province. A lot of tourists from all over the world visit Liliw Laguna, not just for the footwear but also because for its beauty and its delicious foods.

Chef Mau Restaurant and Arabella Café were the two most recommended restaurants in Liliw Laguna. What makes Chef Mau Restaurant unique from other restaurants in Liliw is that aside from its scrumptious taste, it is also budget friendly. You may belittle the restaurant once you see it because of the very simple nipa hut like structure but once you get inside and taste their dishes, everything becomes extra ordinary.

From left to right: Chef Mau Mobile Fastfood and Restaurant (cart), Chef Mau Restaurant (nipa hut). Photos from Juan Gala, a Feature Documentary for BESC102 (2015)

In 2004, Chef Mau Restaurant and Catering Services started as a mobile fastfood and restaurant. Their mobile fastfood was located in Sta. Rosa where Chef Mau was living. Their mobile food cart tends to roam around the area of the municipality, bringing food to the people. Unfortunately, they were only able to sell in San Lorenzo near Enchanted Kingdom. Securing permits for each place they want their cart to be, weren’t easy. That is why their mobile cart didn’t last long enough, but that didn’t stop Chef Mau’s passion to put up his own restaurant. He decided to have his restaurant in Liliw instead. In 2005, Chef Mau and his family put a small nipa hut beside their house that caters 30 to 50 persons only. Few of the dishes they served first were Pansit, Stuffed Eggplant and Cordon Bleu which already attracted many tourists.

According to Ms. Cristie Arjona, the co-owner/ branch manager of the Chef Mau Restaurant in Liliw and one of the 12 siblings of Chef Mau, some people from the famous newspaper in the Philippines, Manila Bulletin were the first publishing company that told them that their dishes were good enough to bring it to other places. A lot of customers started to come by their restaurant and in 2008 they decided to expand their 30 to 50 capacity nipa hut to 70. They also decided to start offering catering services.

From left to right: Chef Mau Restaurant (nipa hut interior)

Every single dish was thoroughly studied by Chef Mau that’s why the scrumptious taste of every dishes in the restaurant were later on brought to other parts of Laguna. They now have branch in Calauan, Laguna where Chef Mau handles the place. The Calauan branch is bigger than in Liliw and it focuses more on its catering service.  

Here are some of the dishes to be found in Chef Mau Restaurant:

Spicy Sisig “Ala Mau”

 

The spiciness of the Sisig makes it more appetizing. This Sisig costs Php120.00 only. (Good for 2 to 4 persons)

Stuffed Eggplant

Their Stuffed Eggplant is more than just a fried eggplant. The pork sausage stuffed inside it is one of the reasons why the Stuffed Eggplant is one of their best sellers’. You can have it for only Php100.00 (Good for 2 to 4 persons)

Chicken Cordon Bleu

The Chicken Cordon Bleu with fried potatoes in it is already delicious but the lemon butter sauce makes it more extra-special. This Cordon Bleu only costs Php 120.00 (good for 2 to 4 persons)

 

Cheesecake with fruit toppings 

 

 Per slice Php85.00

Whole Php800.00

It’s not the ordinary cheesecake that you know. This cheesecake is quite special because of its crust. Its crust is not just a graham, (which is the typical crust of cheesecakes) it is mixed with Macapuno which makes its taste more of a “province made” type of dish. A definitely must try dessert!

Chocolate Fondue

 

Their chocolate fondue is served with fresh fruits (banana and apple) along with marshmallows. The balance of chocolate and good fruits will surely made your dining experience wholesome.  This Chocolate Fondue is available for only Php95.00 which is already good for 2 to 4 persons.

Tempted for what you just saw? Head to South now! It may take hours of road trip, the feeling of travelling somewhere you don’t know when you will arrive. But for sure, it’s really worth the trip.

Chef Mau Restaurant and Catering Services is open from Mondays to Sundays from 9:00AM to 9:00PM. The restaurant is located in Brgy. Bungkol, Liliw, Laguna, Philippines. For inquiries, you may contact them at (049) 573 6290 or 0915 926 7824.

According to our professor, the Simple Market Economy model shows the roles of the two primary economic actors or agents, the households and the firms/business. The diagram also depicts the flows of goods and services and money which shows the interdependence of the two economic agents through two types of markets namely the factor market and the product/good market. I remembered I watched a tutorial about the Simple Market Economy Model for my Economics class just to further understand the model. Here’s what I have learned based from my professor and what I’ve watched.

In the Factor Market, households are the ones who own and supplies the factors of production simply because the households sells the land, labor and capital of entrepreneurship, the factors of production or economic resources. These become economic inputs to the businesses. Then now, the businesses incurs costs to the factor market because they have to pay for the resources and so this becomes the income of the households in the form of profit, wage, rent, interest and salary.  

The households are the ones who demands for finished goods and services simply because the households are the ones who buy goods and services from the businesses. Businesses are the ones who sell goods and services through the product market to the households. And so the households consume and pay for those goods and services. Those consumption became revenue to the businesses.   

Well, I think that the diagram is entitled “Simple Market Economy Model because it simply explains how a market economy works. It is like a system of incentives that shows how businesses and households respond to incentives through that factor market and product market. It clearly shows how simple it is for the households and businesses interact with each other through markets for products and resources.

Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Act 1 The Set Up

The narrator tells about the things happening in a certain town or place and there, Amelie’s childhood was shown. The parents of Amelie were also described. When Amelie was 6 years old, her father checks him up and he thinks that she has a heart defect and because of that, Amelie was only taught by her mother instead of going to school. Aside from her imaginary friends, the only friend she got was her gold fish whose name is Blubber. The fish tempted a suicidal and so her mother decided to let Blobber go. In return, her mother gave her a camera but an accident happened while she was taking pictures and a nasty neighbour told her that her camera causes accidents, because of that Amelie was petrified. After days, she realizedit wasn’t her fault and she decided to take revenge to the nasty neighbour by turning on and off his television signal while watching his awaited football game. Things turned out really bad for Amelie when her mother died because of a tourist who bent on ending her life. After years, she was a waitress in Montmartre at The Two Windmills. The narrator described the environment of the Windmills, her co-workers and customers. She then often visits her father and asked him to use his retirement for traveling. Amelie grew liking to skimming stones on the Canal St Martin.

One day, while Amelie was watching television about the death of Lady Di, she dropped something to the ground and when she tried to pick it up, she discovered a secret hole that was just covered with a tile that the thing bumped into and inside the hole was a box. There, she was decided to find the owner of the box. She started to find the owner of the box and because of that she was able to get to know a lot of people from her neighbourhood. When she was able to see the owner of the box, she realized that she likes helping others. It gives her happiness and satisfaction so she started to help others without letting others notice that she was the one helping them out. One day, she saw the same guy he saw before scraping something at the ground under the photo booth. She was curious of him, the guys started to run after someone and Amelie followed him and sees the guy’s lose his photo album and she picked it up and because of that, she had a way to get in touch with him.   

Act 2 The Confrontation

Amelie was pretty determined to find out more about the guy and she tried to look for him. The guy asked for anyone who saw his album, Amelie called him but she was surprised when another man from prono video store who isn’t the guy she was looking for picked the phone, instead she just put the phone down and she went to the store instead, unfortunately Nino wasn’t there but she was able to talk to one of the personnel of the store whom Nino works with and there she was able to find out more about Nino (the guy he was looking for). Nino was working in the Carnival that time so she went there instead because she wants to give the album personally. She left a note in Nino’s bicycle to go to a certain place and there she will give back the album. When Nino arrived there, Amelie prepared directions for Nino to follow. When the guy saw Amelie put the album in his bicycle, he tried to catch her up but she was already gone. Amelie called him and told him that the guy that keeps on appearing on the pictures is a ghost man and Nino asked who she was. Amelie told him to look in his album and there’s a picture of Amelie asking him if he wants to meet her. For Amelie’s dad, he keeps on receiving pictures of his gnome in different places. Amelie kept on helping others.

Later on she realized that there’s no ghost man, that Nino was tryong to find out on his album. Amelie arranged to meet Nino in the cafe, Nino started tracking Amelie and decided to go to the cafe. When Nino arrived at the café, he didn’t have any clue who’s Amelie is. She asked Amelie if she was the one he’s been looking for, because of Amelie’s fear, she denied. She left a note in his pocket by asking for her co-worker to do it for her. Amelie told Nino to go to the photo booth station and there’s this repairman that tested the photo booth and Nino discovered that he was the one he’s been looking for.

Act 3 Resolution

Amelie was about to go to him but when a small vehicle passed by, and she turned around Nino was already gone. Nino came back to the place where Amelie works, she found the same waitress that put the note in his pocket and the waitress told him that she would accompany him to Amelie’s. Amelie thought that there was something between her co-waitress and Nino already.

Nino knocked on her door, left her a note that says he will be back. Her neighbour called her and told her to watch his video in her television and that made up her mind that she’ll fight for her feelings for Nino. When she opened the door, she found Nino and kissed him.