Do you eat a lot at Starbucks?

I ask the question because I eat at Starbucks more than the average person (or so I believe). I passed by the Insular branch and borrowed their in-store binder that contains nutritional information of every food they serve in the store.

I noted down the calorie counts of food I regularly eat / or was curious to know the calorie count of. I tend to eat their bread products, sandwiches and cookies and stay away from their cakes. So the list below is incomplete, but it might reveal some interesting nuggets for you to consider.

I thought it was a shocker at how many calories some of these "vegetarian" and "whole grain" products have relative to things which have dairy, sugar, etc.. Labels can be deceptive.

I should double check that indeed a wholewheat croissant has more calories than the ham and cheese croissant.

Item	Calories
Sausage Roll	706
Banoffee Pie	685
Jamaican Pie "vegetarian"	682
Chicken Mango Wrap	651
Chicken Parmesan on Turkish Pide	528
Chicken Ham Gruyere Sandwich	509
Country Vegetable Pie	495
Italian Pocket Pie	467
Turkey, Chicken Tuscan on Sundried Tomato Foccacia	453
Bacon Twist	423
Cinnamon Swirl	420
Espresso Brownie	392
Cinnamon Roll	376
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar	370
Egg Tomato Spinach Wrap	361
Wholewheat Croissant	354
Ensaymada	349
Cornbeef Pandesal	328
Banana and Chocochip Muffin with Splenda	324
Ham and Cheese Croissant	322
Chicken Empanada	316
Tuna pandesal	308
Chicken Pandesal	307
Quiche	304
Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie	303
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookie	279
Coffee Brownie	271
Honey Glazed Doughnut	257
Multigrain Bagel	246
Spring Vegetable and Ham Crepe	197
Strawberry and Peach Danish	166
Choco Walnut Brownie	156

Murphy's Pub Quiz Night

It's not hard to find me on a Tuesday night. Murphy's Pub Quiz Night has become such a stable part of my week's routine, that friends know better than to schedule movies or dinner on Tuesday. Occasionally, work colleagues inquire on Wednesday mornings how our team did the night previous. The past few months Quiz Night has taken on a new texture, because regulars, such as our team, increasingly share space with younger teams.

For the most part, our team, a namesake of this blog, is comprised of a couple of late twenty-somethings and early to mid thirty-somethings. The "new blood" are early to mid twenty-somethings, and it's always fun to see these new faces. Our (obnoxious?) team has a new audience, and usually there will be at least a couple of familiar faces across the room. Soon we might have a real Cheers scenario on our hands.

* * *

I've started feeling useful again. The previous weeks I had be contributing very little by way of answers to the quiz questions. Last night, I was able to contribute more, and the teammates were as always appreciative.

There was a some fuss last night (and I admit I was a party to this ) over the attendance at quiz night of a certain wholesome basketball player from Ateneo. And sue me for almost gushing, but it did make the proceedings a little cooler.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago, two of our team members came up with the questions for the quiz. We received a particularly hilarious answer to a question about fashion.

Question: This Filipina fashion designer designed the wedding gown of Britney Spears. Clue: think pawnshops.

Answer: Tara Tambunting.

Edited to include the correct answer: Monique Lhullier.

Cubao Expo

I spent most of Saturday at Cubao Expo, the wonderful quirky pocket of Cubao that I hope the 'popular kids' will never discover en masse.

I am not concerned about posting about it here, because those kids do not read my blog. I no longer hang-out at Distillery along Rizal Drive because the pop-kids have discovered it. My aversion to them is not in their fashion, their slenderness, or in the fact that most of their cultural horizons never extend beyond anything more than ten years old (Ok, I exaggerate). But I do not appreciate how they cannot hold on to their liquor. I am a self-aware judgmental person on this because, as an earlier post of mine has mentioned, we have the genetic disposition to drink a lot.

The main reason I was there was the invitation to check out Outerhope, who I haven't seen perform in ages. They played their set on the 2nd floor of one of the shops, in a rather newly-opened place called My Apartment. The novelty with this venue is that you can watch the band up close (all 10 of you) on the 2nd floor, or you can stand on the street and watch them from the open windows. The buzz I heard that evening was that the bands sound better outside. My appreciation of this type of venue is that since it is 'intimate' it allows the band members to start telling a couple of interesting stories. I enjoyed Mic's (pianist/vocalist of OH) story of how a cancelled gig at Mag:net high street gave birth to a 'Living Room' set in their apartment -- comprised of all the displaced bands that evening.

My plan was to leave once Outerhope was done, but I ended up sticking around to watch Ciudad, the next band on queue. The fun and friendly vibe stuck to me and I ended up spending several more hours with Mic and brother Mike.

* * *

Cubao is one of Manila's districts that are full of stories. As it is a major node of this city's transport network, everyone is going somewhere, and people still walk its streets at 4am. There are nooks that still contain the freaks, the very bad fashion, and the surprises.

La Regalade

I finally ate at La Regalade on Friday night, after weeks of texts to Tanya promising to do so. Like many good plans, the visit was hatched on a slow Friday afternoon, and all it took was a short SMS to trusty JL to set up a 730 pm dinner.

JL managed to round up seven of us. Not forty-five seconds into my seat, Tanya approached. She recommended the duck burger, and I agreed that that was what I was going to eat for dinner.

The food was good, and the service was better. After dinner, four of us decided to have the chocolate tart. I decided on the tarte tatin. My dessert was good, but it was the tart that was, indeed, the correct choice. It remained at the back of my head for the remainder of the evening.

We went for drinks at La Cabane further down Pasay Road. I was glad that my friends liked the interior. The service was okay, and the drinks were unremarkable. I don't think I'll be back soon, but it is a pretty place, and has a lot of expats, if that's the sort of scene you're into. I thought how much nicer Martini's would be, but also noted that drinks would also be three times more expensive.

It was still too early to go home, and in Manila that means that it's time for . . . more drinks. We went to Grilla's for the sub-zero beer, and we ordered yummy ground pig parts aka Sisig. The music was total dance club type and too loud -- which was really appropriate. After a few more beers, we went home.