Home Base: The Life Domestic - Our First Anniversary

My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday! We seriously don't know where the time went. Our anniversary fell on an awkward day this year though. It came on a Monday right at the tail end of Holy Week. My family usually just stays home to reflect and have a bit of quiet time on those days. We also didn't want to celebrate with the Easter crowd, and then we started having car trouble over the weekend. After all that, we decided to just restaurant-hop in the city and enjoy our favorite places. One year and counting!

The day started with a long and leisurely brunch at Cafe 1771 in El Pueblo. We sat at Whimsy -- the cute, bright, and utterly charming cafe area of the restaurant.

We love their complimentary popcorn! I like it more than the usual bread because bread is too heavy for me. Oh, and their dalandan juice is lovely. 

A's Lemon Chicken. I can tell he loves it because he always orders it there without realizing it. The dish is always his first choice, and mind you, he doesn't eat lemon chicken elsewhere. 

I have a mission to try every Eggs Benedict dish I find, so even if I wanted to order the Sea Bream, which I love, I ordered the Eggs Benedict. I wasn't disappointed. Cafe 1771's version has a more delicate flavor than other Eggs Benedicts I've tried, despite being surprisingly filling. It's delightful.

A

J

Us

We just walked around until it was merienda time. We had afternoon tea at TWG in Shang. 

A is not a tea person, but he was curious about TWG and was wondering why I love it so much, so he actually suggested it. He was willing to try it for me. Best husband ever.

I picked the Chocolate Tea from their Tea Book, since I knew A wouldn't like anything that tasted remotely leafy. My favorite is the Chocolate Earl Grey Tea, but I was concerned that its tea flavor would be too strong.

We ordered a teapot to share since we weren't sure how A would like it.

I made the right choice! At first he said it tasted like cough syrup, but when he stirred in some sugar cubes he warmed up to it quickly. In fact, he ended up finishing two heaping cups in record time, and didn't leave much for me. [A: "This never happened."] 

  

We went for the caneles and a couple of macarons.

Tea time love

That's his "What am I doing having tea?" face.

Smiling wife

The canele's soft, squishy, pudding-like, custardy center. I've been hooked on it since I tried it a while back. It's the bomb with the clotted cream and apricot tea jelly that they serve with it.

I chose the Grand Wedding Tea, Passion Fruit, and Coconut macaron, while A chose Earl Grey Fortune and Chocolate. They were scrumptious.

A and J at afternoon tea

Then we caught the evening mass at the St. Francis Church in Shaw to give thanks for the past year.

Dinner was at Watami in Shang. That's Japanese hot tea plus the Green Citrus Yuzu Marmalade soda.

We both chose Stone Hotpots. I got the Salmon and Flying Fish Roe Rice, and A got the Chasu Rice. We had a laugh trip over A's hatred for hot plates! It was so funny. Both dishes were really good though, and we were so stuffed at the end of the night.

It was a lovely, long day.