Cocktail Hour

This may not be the most graceful exit, but I know when the bottle's empty.
---Doug, Cocktail 1988

When I was in my early 30s, I used to down four to eight bottles of San Mig Light. But now, when I go out with friends, it would take me forever to knock back two bottles. And lately, I’ve been favoring cocktail drinks than beer.

I am no cocktail drinks expert but my favorite Alabang watering holes are Tia Maria’s, Gilligans, and Aplaya. I think I’ve been to most of the bars in Festival Mall’s Green and Grills area. Aplaya’s piña colada (rum, coconut cream, pineapple juice) tastes better than Gilligan’s, and it goes with a paper parasol. But I like Gilligans’ daiquiri (rum, lime juice with cherry as garnish), both the banana and mango variants. Tia Maria’s strawberry Margarita (tequila mixed with triple sec and lime or lemon juice, often served with salt on the glass rim) is too sweet. I have also tried Payao’s version (rating: good enough), while I find the one served at VoxBox (a videoke place at the 4th Level of the mall) too warm.

There was also a time that I thought Long Island Iced Tea (gin, tequila, vodka, rum on the rocks) was simply an iced tea variant. I didn’t know that it was just named such due to its resemblance to the good old iced tea. May amats pala.

But yes, I would still enjoy a bottle or two of SML with Alex at Antakya (4 bottles for Php100 during happy hour) while listening to a band or watching the stand-up comic acts, and at our Pacita hang-out, Big Cha (where they usually play 80s music) with our usual pulutan of french fries, pork sisig and calamares. When we spent a night once in Mauban, we went to a local pub in front of the hotel and drank beer with garlicky peanuts (for him) and inihaw na isaw/tenga ng baboy with super spicy vinegar dip (for me). Simple pleasures for simple folks like us.

Cheers.