Sodam Experience: Pigging out over Korean food for only 299!

Hey fellas! Here's another blog for you, but this time it's not about travel, but about some munchies - and good munchies they are!

Is it Affordable? Indeed!
Is it Yummy? Good enough!
Is it Worth Trying? Absolutely! (well, that is if you like Korean food :p)

First thing, let us not talk about the exact names of the food, and I'm not Korean either, so let's do away with the usual descriptive terms I know. ;)

HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE TO PAY:

Surprisingly, pigging out starts at only 299 Philippine pesos! I know lots of a la carte meals are less than 299, but, face it, meals in fast food chains and small restaurants range from 60 pesos to even 300 pesos! So 299 pesos is a real steal considering you get to have lots of choices, and you can keep getting more!

For 299, you may have all the dishes they serve, as well as beef and pork slices which are also unlimited! However, if you prefer to ask for an unlimited serving of beef alone, the charge will then be 399 pesos.

For children below 4ft, they only charge 199.

WHAT TIME ARE THEY OPEN:

Lunch: 11:30-2:30pm
Dinner: 6-10pm
They are also open during weekends and even holidays.

WHERE IS IT LOCATED:

Along P. Guevarra St., Little Baguio, San Juan City

They occupy quite a small building, in fact, their parking area
in front could accommodate just 3 cars I think.

HOW'S THE AMBIANCE:

The place is simple and clean, nothing too fancy, it has basic chairs like these and some warm lights and korean embellishments on the walls. The place is small, and the airconditioning might burden you a bit when the place is crowded, 'cause it doesn't seem to cope up with the smoke and the heat, so that's one thing to consider. Also, I don't think it's recommendable to those couples looking for some formal dates because the seats and tables are close to each other, duh, y'know what I mean, haha, there couldn't be 'alone times' in this place. Anyway I still think the place is really nice, again considering the price you pay.

WHAT ARE THE DISHES OFFERED:

Here's the yummy part! Again, I don't know what the dishes are called, so please bear with me. ;)

They offer kimchi, potato balls, korean vegetable pancake, mussels, fish fillet, japchae, a station for bibimbap, soups, beef and pork slices to grill and more that I do not know what to call. :D

Here are the dishes that I personally loved:

This one is a combination of fried eggplant, other 
veggies, and crab stick, coated with egg, nyahaha,
I am not even sure what it's called, 
but this tastes great with the dipping sauce.

This, I think, is sort of chop suey (Chinese, I know) 
'cause it contains random vegetables. :D 
I liked it because it has kikiam, also my favorite. Haha

This is LOVE! My boyfriend wrapped some grilled
beef with the fresh lettuce,
added some dipping sauce in it, and it's perfect!

I would highly suggest that you do this!
Spread some of their red and yellow sauce
(again I don't know what that is! :D)
on the grilled beef strips. 
I also love love love this one!

This one is the vegetable pancake, well I call 
it pizza as well. This one is my favorite I am 
actually craving for it now. It has a tinge of 
seaweed flavor which I love, and it has 
a soft and chewy texture, 
but there's still a good bite. 
Perfect snack!

Take note that the dishes they offer everyday may vary, so I'm not sure which ones here are available by the time you visit, but then of course, that only means you have many other dishes to choose from. Also, they replenish their dishes depending on the customers at the time.

Some other dishes include:

Here are the beef and pork belly slices for 
grilling; remember, this is part of the buffet! 
Love!
You may grill it the way you like, but we 
personally liked them still tender, 'cause 
overcooking may cause 'em to be makunat :D

All in all, the dishes are great! With their wide array, for sure you'll have some you'll love! I guess it's all about experimenting with their dipping sauces available as well, unfortunately I'm bad at that, good thing I have my boyfriend with me to do it for me, (and it's his treat! <3). ;)

OTHER INFORMATION YOU MIGHT NEED TO KNOW:

The 299 or 399 doesn't include beverages.
Water isn't considered as a beverage, ayt? Hehe ;)
Water is for free, of course. :D

Obviously because they offer drinks
and ice cream for sale, that's why. :D
Aaand, the place is wifi ready for an
instagram post right away! ;)

I believe Waze can show you the way. :D 

For other questions or reservation, feel free to inquire:
(02) 654-6428
0905-3934190

WOULD I RECOMMEND:

Definitely! Absolutely! Totally! Lylyly!


So that concludes our mouth watering blog today. Feel free to tag me in your photos and blogs about Sodam, ayt?! Thanks for reading! Until next chika. ;)

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Daranak Falls and San Ildefonso de Toledo Parish in Tanay, Rizal

Hi guys! :)

So here's a quick post regarding our Holy Week getaway in Tanay, Rizal. If you want to know more, just keep on reading. :)

As their Facebook page says, Daranak Falls is a natural resort in Tanay, Rizal about 9 kilometers away from the Tanay proper with 14 meter high falls and almost 30 foot deep.

Their page: https://www.facebook.com/DaranakFallsinfocenter

First thing, I live in Antipolo, Rizal, so Tanay is just a 2 hour drive tops from our place. We left at around 12 noon and arrived in Daranak Falls at around 2 in the afternoon (that is because we kept on asking for the way since we're not familiar as well). We brought a private car so I'm not sure of the fare, sorry for that.

How to get here:

If you're coming from Cubao, you shall ride a jeepney (pangharabas), fx (medyo sosyalin), taxi (yayamanin), or you could walk (nah, just kidding), to Cogeo Gate 2, which will be an hour ride or less.

From there, there are available jeepneys going to Sampaloc, Tanay, which I suppose will be a 2 hour travel. Drop off at Tanay market and from there you will be fetching a tricycle to bring you to Daranak Falls.

As to how to get out, tricycles camp out the entrance so there could be no fuss about that. Just fetch one to take you to the main road again.

Just an additional information, there may be a season when Daranak is not that crowded, so I will suggest that you inform the tricycle from Tanay market to get back to you at an agreed time, so you don't have to worry about going out.

How much is the entrance fee:

As of April 2015

Adult and children have the same entrance fee of 50 (Philippine) pesos unlike before, which I think is a bummer, since some in the family do not prefer to swim anyway, specially the adults.

As to the picnic tables/sheds, there are places where you could just stay to eat if you do not like to rent, like the 'cafeteria'.

So here is the 'cafeteria', well I do not know how to call it. Hehe.. beside this is a store selling some food, and the bathrooms are also near this place. I am not sure if you need to pay to occupy a table, but we didn't, we just asked the attendant if we could just eat for a while, to which he agreed provided we clean afterwards, and so we did, of course! It's something my family always do anyway, we do not leave trashes wherever.

What time is it open:

As you can see, it is open from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. It is worth noting that they do not entertain overnight stay in here.

What to do here:

Of course one thing you could do here is swim!

Jaraaan! It's the dry season in the Philippines so that explains why the falls does not seem to be abundant. I personally would like to see this not during summer, and maybe during an off peak season.

Please don't mind the guy, I do not know him. Hahaha.. I just want to show you this picture since this is another reason why the water is deeper on the plunge pool area; they close that part for a larger swimming area near the falls. If you want to swim on shallow waters, you can opt to stay on the other basins through the stretch of the river, such as this part:

You could also have a full body massage on this area right here, I actually wanted to try this, but I did not plan to swim (kj, I know). 

And of course, take lots and lots of pictures while you savor the feel of nature and the company of your loved ones!

Who doesn't have an 'emote' pic?

We occupied this for free since nobody's asking us to pay anyway. :D

Roots!
This is quite a scary place to take a picture on but it's also very
beautiful I actually wanted a pic there too!

I just love this picture of my mom and dad! <3

Hi! ;)

I know there's not much of information in here, but there really is not much to tell, what is in here is too much to feel and savor! Our nature is just very inexplicable in simple terms. What I could assure you is that it comprises every thing you could see in nature, river stretch, a waterfall, mountains, this is also near a cave named Calinawan Cave (which we failed to visit, maybe next time. :( ), so if you're a nature lover like me, you'll surely love this place. :)

Additional Information:

I'm not sure if it's just the weather, but it's very (verrrry very!) humid here, I feel very uneasy not wearing a cottony top. So a suggestion would be that you should wear very comfortable clothes when going here.

Also, you might want to go here on an off-peak season, since the place was crowded these days due to the summer vacation and the holy week.

Aaand, there is another waterfall on top of this, named Batlag Falls, but we're disappointed not seeing it 'cause they're charging us 50 pesos per head even if we're just going to take a look at it; and since it's already 4:30, we didn't anymore bother pay and visit, tsk..

Here are the rates in case you're wondering.
Also, this is open for an overnight stay unlike in Daranak.

For inquiries please contact Tanay Tourism Office at 736-1059/ 655-2195 loc 212/213 / 0998-9881590/ tanaytourism11@yahoo.com (Info as of April 2015)

We left the place at around 4:30 to attend the 5pm mass at the San Ildefonso de Toledo Parish also in Tanay. Just a good 20 minute ride from Daranak is this 400 year old parish, though this structure is only around 260 years old.

Sorry for the low quality of the picture, my camera found it hard to take a pic since it's already 7pm when this was taken. :p

The structure looks really big from the outside, but this is what it looks inside.
I suppose they already reinforced it and opted to do it from the inside since the least we'd like to do
with old structures is to disturb its image, ayt? :)

The church's retablo looks spectacular!

Upon entering the premises, you will be welcomed
by this very nice carving of an acacia tree made by sculptor from Paete.

Churches like this just amaze me so much so I wanted to share a little sneak peek as well. I might do a separate post on churches next time. 

For other places to explore in Tanay, Rizal, (and I tell you, there are lots and lots!) you may take a look at these ones:

So there it is! Hope this helps. Let's keep on exploring! Just always bear in mind, nothing beats being safe during travels. Until next post! ;)