National Pizza Day at California Pizza Kitchen on August 13-15, 2014

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), an international casual dining restaurant chain specializing in California-style pizza, is celebrating its National Pizza Day on August 13, 14 and 15, 2014. Now on its third year, CPK will be giving away FREE* pizzas in all of its nine branches in the Philippines.

Pick Your Match Promo at California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), an international casual dining restaurant chain specializing in California-style pizza, recently released its latest promo in the Philippines. With the Pick Your Match Promo, guests get to choose a combination of salad, pasta and pizza for only P999.00*

Capones Island and Lighthouse in San Antonio, Zambales

Capones Island, located off the coast of the town of San Antonio in the province of Zambales, is favorite weekend travel destination in the Philippines as it is conveniently accessible from the capital city of Manila. The island is famous for the century-old Capones Lighthouse. Pundaquit Beach is the jump-off point to this island, as well as to a number of other coves in Zambales.

Sweet Mangoes from Zambales

The province of Zambales is said to produce some of the sweetest mangoes in the world. Having this is mind, we made sure that we get to taste their mangoes during our weekend trip to the province. It wasn't an exaggeration! Mangoes in Zambales are indeed sweet! One, two, three mangoes, we couldn't have enough of them.

Mango Vendors at the Trade Fair

It is no surprise that mango is declared as One Town, One Product or OTOP in a number of towns in Zambales. To help promote their mangoes, the province holds an annual Mango Festival. Among the activites is a trade fair held at the provincial capital town of Iba. Various mango producers sell their harvest at bargain price. The province's 13 municipalities also set up their own booth to showcase their local specialty products.

Mango Festival Trade Fair

Summer time is the best time to visit Zambales when mangoes are at their most abundant. If you will have the chance to visit Zambales, don't fail to sample their mangoes. A number of vendors have stalls along the national highway, mostly located between the towns of San Narciso and San Marcelino. During Mango Festival, the best place to look for mangoes would be at the trade fair in Iba, usually located at the Zambales National High School grounds.

One Town, One Product (OTOP) is a program of the Philippine Government through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to encourage entrepreneurship aimed at providing livelihood and employment to Filipinos. It showcases products made of indigenous raw materials crafted by local workers, craftsmen and artists. The OTOP is also a key instrument in promoting tourism in the country. We at Pinas Muna advocate the OTOP program and through our blog, we aim to introduce you to the many Filipino-made products and urge you to support Filipino businesses.

Summer Outing at Magalawa Island

Every summer, we go on an out-of-town trip with our high school friends. This is an opportunity for us to bond and update ourselves with what's going on with our busy city lives. And as a tradition, we are designated to organize the trip. This year, we chose Zambales as destination for our 3D/2N weekend trip. First on our itinerary was Magalawa Island located in the town of Palauig in Zambales. We booked a 2D/1N package with Magalawa Island Armada Resort which already included boat transfers, accommodation and four meals.

We left Manila at around 5:30am and drove north via NLEX and SCTEX passing through Subic. We arrived at the town of Palauig at around lunchtime. We were instructed by the resort to proceed to their parking area where we can park our van and where we would board the boat for Magalawa Island. The boat transfer to Magalawa Island is already included in the package. To set the expectation, the waters near the parking area is a bit smelly as it is also used as a fish port.

Lunch at Magalawa Island Armada Resort

When we arrived at Armada Resort, we were welcome by the owner Maam Grace Armada and showed us to our rooms. We booked two air-conditioned rooms with private shower room. Maam Grace told us that while we unpack our stuff, she would have our lunch prepared at the restaurant. We really find Maam Grace very hospitable and despite the number of visitors that day, she made sure that she attended to every guest herself. 

onse-onse crab: (L) cooked; (R) live crabs

One of the things that we liked the most about Armada Resort is their food, which is cooked by no less than the mother of Maam Grace. Their specialty is the onse-onse, a type of crab abundant in Palauig. It has eleven spots on its shell, thus the name onse-onse (eleven-eleven). Some of the dishes served during our stay were adobo, escabeche, sweet & sour fish, lato (seaweed salad), calamares, gambas, menudo and tinapa. 

Sunrise at Magalawa Island

The following morning, we woke up at 5:00am to catch the sunrise. Part of the morning scene on the island were fishermen getting ready for the day's work. The resort's staff were also busy cleaning the shoreline. Breakfast was served at 7:00am and by 8:00am we were called by Maam Grace for our schedule snorkeling activity.

We boarded Armada Resort's floating cottage which was then towed by a motorized boat to the snorkeling area. The water was clear and very calm, truly ideal for snorkeling. We spent about an hour swimming around. It was really a fun-filled morning for our group.

Lunch was served at 11:00am to give us enough time to prepare for check-out. At 1:00pm, we said goodbye to Magalawa Island and continued our weekend escapade to our next destination.

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Magalawa Island Armada Resort
Palauig, , Zambales, Philipines
Phone: +63920-948-3303
Website: www.magalawaislandresort.com (see Rates)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Magalawa-Island/204336016808