The Collective at Malugay St.

It was one of those unplanned get-togethers. Jan and I were almost ready to go home when Nin sent a text inviting us to join her and Jerry at the Collective. Jan was planning to jog when we got home and I would do anything to get away from exercise. I convinced him that it would be raining when we got home and we would just be stuck in traffic for most of the night. He said yes and we were off.

The Collective is located in Malugay St., near the Avida Makati West Tower where we were waiting for our little studio unit to be ready soon. I would say the Collective was what I was most excited about living in the area, next to finally having our own place.

The gang went to the Outer Space gallery where they were having an exhibit of photos taken in airports. There was also a crude world map painted on the floor and this sign below.

If you leave an unwanted souvenir and place it in the map where you got it, you can get a free poster. The poster shows the heights of the world's mountains and depths of the world's rivers. It's an ingenious gimmick for an interactive installation art! Cool, huh?

We didn't get to leave any but I do plan to go back and find something from my stash to take part of this collective art! There were a few things others have left behind though.

My favorites were a Delftware ceramic Dutch house from Netherlands (I want to steal it to keep the one I have company!), an unopened Stolichnaya Vodka fro Russia (whu? If I drank alcohol, I would have finished that one up!) and a maple leaf from Canada (pretty!). There was also henna powder from India, a Buddha figurine from China and beauty contestant postcards from Thailand. The Africas and the Balkan states are still empty, so if you have been there, leave one for the map. It's on until October 30, 2011.

Above is a photo of a photo taken by the artist. Awesome "No Gizmos!" sign. It's so dated that it features: Gizmo the Gremlin, a radio, a walkie talkie, a beepr and a clunky mobile phone. I wonder if kids nowadays will get the Gizmo joke? :P

The "living room" area of the gallery was also a treasure of old books and classic items. Too bad they weren't selling because there were a few items I'd love to get hold of! This Luke Perry autobiography in Spanish is not one of them though. LOL.

Walking around the rest of the Collective, I found this gem of a bust. Hail Rene Requiestas! May he rest in piece.

From their last the Collective visit, Nin and Je were raving about Ritual, the resident organic store, and its variety of dark chocolate flavors. We got Dark Chocolate with calamansi and dark chocolate with green mango and salt. There were also other food items like salad dressings, coarse sea salt, organic rice and dark muscovado sugar. They also sold ketchup gasera, melon scraper, nescafe glasses and even a classic engineering notebook.

I can't wait to buy some of my groceries here when we move!

The plan was to have dinner in Wingman for some chicken wings but first we passed by Offbeat Cafe to have a taste of their nefarious Offbeat Burger which had a thick beef patty, bacon, cheese and friend egg sandwiched in between Krispy Kreme Donut!

We ate the chocolate and the Offbeat Burger at Wingman while waiting for our order. I loved the chocolate with green mango and salt. It was a nice mix of salty, tangy and bittersweet. The calamansi zest also added a slightly sweet sour zing to the chocolate.

We girls enjoyed the Offbeat burger. The patty was very juicy and its flavors burst. The donut gave that extra surprise of unexpected sweetness. The boys however preferred to have the regular bread with the beef. Typical. :P

In Wingman, we ordered lemon pepper and garlic parmesan chicken wings with extra bleu cheese dip as well as pulled pork. We were so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture. Teehee. The food were all sooooo gooood. Really good! Definitely a must-try.

So we ended the night early, with soul food from the art and body food from a few restaurants. The sign from The Outer Space gallery says it all...