Bittersweet Pilgrimage to Antonio’s

Antonio’s Fine Dining is our family’s happy place in Tagaytay. It’s a place we travel to maybe twice a year for the ambiance and for (in my personal opinion) the best steak I’ve ever tasted. We love it so much that we call each trip there a pilgrimage. Earlier this year we made one such pilgrimage, but we weren’t complete. My parents didn’t travel with us due to my (late) mom’s health, so it dampened the whole trip.

Today, exactly 1 week after mama went home to the Lord, we travelled there again. This time all the surviving members of our family, from my dad to my siblings made the trip again. It was my dad’s idea that we travel to Antonio’s to celebrate the twin golden birthdays of my wife and my sister.

It was a bittersweet occasion. My mother’s death is still a raw and fresh wound in our hearts; yet life must go on. While we mourn for those who have gone before us, we must also continue to live and to celebrate the lives of those who are still with us. That’s why we are thankful to the Lord for this opportunity to make this day trip as our family gathers up the shattered pieces of our hearts and pushes on.

With November 30 being a national holiday here in the Philippines, the place was packed. Traffic was bad but the food, specially the steak, made it all worth it. I used this occasion/pilgrimage as an opportunity to try out the Sony A7lll for some editorial and landscape type shots. The photos I took and how I processed the RAW files reflect both the weather – cloudy and overcast and the mood I felt – melancholic and bittersweet.

The Place to be in Tagaytay for what I consider to be the best steak I’ve tasted!