Puzzle Gourmet Café: Until the puzzle finally fits

If you think the world is puzzling, imagine what the world is like for me. I hear things more loudly. I see things more clearly. I smell things more strongly. I feel things you don't. I taste things differently. I have autism.

It tugs at my heart, reading those heartbreaking lines written on one of the café’s tables. It must be hard and challenging for families to have a member diagnosed with autism. Children with autism experience the world differently than other children. They may have a difficult time socializing with others or dealing with or making sense of the sights, sounds, smells and other sensations. According to the Autism Society of the Philippines, there are close to a million cases of autism in the country.

That is why it is admirable that Puzzle Gourmet Café, an autism friendly café and store, finally opened its door in November 2014, to spread awareness about this complex developmental disability.

The inspiration behind Puzzle is the young man named Jose Canoy. He was born with low functioning autism and is good at organizing things. The café was put up by his loving and supportive family for him as an outlet, to make his time worthwhile, further develop his social skills in dealing with diners, and help secure his future.

It was Jose who named the cafe after his favorite hobby – completing jigsaw puzzles. Autism is usually associated with puzzles as it reflects the mystery and complexity of the autism spectrum.

  

I love the vibrant and colorful interiors of the café, its mismatched furniture, and the tables beautifully written with inspiring quotes. They celebrate life, diversity and being special.

Puzzle serves comfort food, some with quirky names like Julius Caesar, Senator Cheese, Parokya ni Egg-gar, Joey de Lechon and Choco Martin.

Choco Martin

Julius Caesar

Joey de Lechon

Tiramisu waffles

There is a grocery corner offering mostly imported gluten-free food, drinks, and sweets.

Interestingly, it also has a souvenir shop section showcasing the arts and crafts made by artists with autism. Most of these products came from their partner school Independent Living Learning Center, an institution which caters to the needs of children and young adults with developmental conditions.

What’s commendable with Puzzle is they provide employment opportunities to PWDs, as well as a safe haven for them so they could be mainstreamed into society. It is café with a heart, where people with different disabilities are appreciated and celebrated. I had fun interacting with the young lady server with autism, who was adept in taking orders and very courteous with diners.

Life is one big puzzle. I’m also still figuring it out, still finding the missing pieces. But what’s important is… it is okay to be different. It doesn’t make you less a person.

Puzzle Gourmet Store and Café
#1 Comets Loop, Blue Ridge B
Quezon City
Tel. Nos.: 0917-5019645, 0998-9722550

Camaya Sands Resort and Leisure, Bataan

“Sometimes I wish the world would stop just once

so a moment like this would stay a little longer.”

- Anonymous

The fastest way to get to Camaya is via ferry boat

Camaya Sands Hotel

The twin pools

Kahit may lagnat, ligo pa rin

The beach

Kids play station

The al fresco restaurant

Banana boat ride

There's dinner by the beach

Even for a day, let time goes by without a care in the world in one of Bataan’s top paradise getaways situated in the residential Camaya Coast.

Camaya Sands Resorts and Leisure

Camaya Coast, Sitio Wain

Mariveles, Bataan

Café Sanso and Museum in San Juan

“Unfortunately the 1968 Student Revolution brought a great change at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. My locker with dozens of plates, finished and half finished – disappeared. It kept me from prints totally, I mean not from prints but from etching. I just didn’t feel like going back to school. To me that was a rape. I thought it was physically so painful that I just decided I was not going back.”

- Juvenal Sanso

The two-storey museum

Love the colorful floor of the cafe

Mint citrusade and agua fresca

Francesinha

Pasta a la Chitara

Churros

Coffee table books and magazines featuring Sanso’s artworks

Sanso’s dark paintings

Discover the colorful life and art of the Philippine-bred Spanish natural engraver and etcher, and considered the first serious practitioner of graphic art in the country – Juvenal Sanso at Sanso Museum. And enjoy afterwards some Spanish comfort food inspired from his Catalan roots at Café Sanso.

And remember darling, black is also a happy color.

Café Sanso and Museum

#32 V. Cruz St. cor. P. Guevarra

San Juan City

Tel. No.: 0922-8946144

McLarens Pub in San Juan

It’s okay if they don't spell the pub the way it is in in How I Met Your Mother. But when I found out about McLarens in Manila, seriously, I got nostalgic and wanted to visit the pub pronto, even if I’m not a drinker.

Certainly, there is no other place in the city to best reminisce some of my favorite lines in HIMYM than at McLarens.

“Guys are like the subway. You miss one, another one comes along in five minutes.”

“The truth is you could fight your whole life to do good and still get nowhere.”

“You can't cling to the past, because no matter how tightly you hold on, it's already gone.”

“The future is scary but you can't just run back to the past because it's familiar.”

“Maybe a locket's just a locket, a chair is just a chair. Maybe we don’t have to give meaning to every little thing. Maybe we don’t need the universe to tell us what we really want. Maybe we already know that...deep down.”

“Aren't you tired of waiting for destiny? Isn't it time to make your own destiny?” 

Jack Daniels burger

Pork chops Marsala

Beer

"There are two big days in any love story... the day you meet the girl of your dreams... and the day you marry her."

“None of us can vow to be perfect. In the end, all we can do is promise to love each other with everything we've got.”

"You will be shocked when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That's why when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it."

“Because in the end, the only thing that can heal a broken heart is time."

If you really are an ardent fan of Ted, Barney, the mother or the beer, this place is for you.

McLarens Pub

2F #220-B, Wilson St.

Greenhills, San Juan City

Tel. No.: 0917-3701799