this year's fall tv season officially started last night (i think) with the two-hour series premiere of 'prison break'. since a friend picked me up for dinner, i decided to just tape the entire show and watch it later.
got home shortly before midnight. i wanted to watch just the first hour but then again, i got hooked already. it seems like i've found a new fave to add to my list.
other potentials: the reunion (also on fox), supernatural (wb)...
returning favorites: nip/tuck, alias, 24, desperate housewives, the oc, the amazing race, american idol, will & grace, survivor: guatemala...
might give it a shot: the apprentice (martha stewart); the apprentice (donald trump), any of the csi series,...
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
prison break
food, food, food - v 4.0
my trip to san francisco last week was fun. i got to dine with some friends and we tried out new restaurants. the first one was this nondescript, hole-in-the-wall thai place called 'pad thai express' along market street. at first i was quite hesitant, but when i tasted the food, it was glorious.
here's what we tried.
roast duck red curry. something new, something different. delicious.
j's fried tilapia on a bed of steamed vegetables, and sprinkled withsome garlicky sauce. a new attack at eating fried tilapia.
for dessert, we had ripe mango and sticky rice. it was yum-yum. the mango could have been better if it were from the philippines (sobrang bias na ito!) because pinoy mangoes are still the best. and then we went to 'steps of rome' a coffee/dessert place in san francisco's little italy. if they had a little italy.
i ordered the white chocolate profiteroles to satisfy my sweet tooth.i love, love, love white chocolate, so needless to say, i loved this one too.
then for lunch the next day, j and company brought me to this new filipino restaurant in san bruno. it's called 'patio filipino' and they serve filipino-spanish cuisine. something new uli. actually, this reminded me more of people i know who claim that they are filipino-spanish. basta lang maging hyphenate. filipino-this, filipino-that. whatever!
the food was different. something new din. fresh attack on old pinoy dishes. like this one:
the food was different. something new din. fresh attack on old pinoy dishes. like this one:
crispy binagoongan. the way my mom does her binagoongan. dry. (meaning, no sauce, no floating oil). they put it on top of a grilled eggplant. and finally, they topped the dish with diced tomatoes. tops on my list!
before and after shots of sizzling bangus sisig. no further explanations needed.
seafood kare-kare. kare-kare with a twist. no beef, no tails, no tripe. instead, there were clams, tahong, squid and scallops. it was okay, not quite a big fan.
sinigang na corned beef. not quite how i imagined it. i thought and wished that this was their version of sentro's (a great resto in greenbelt, where i treated my family to a hearty dinner the night before my flight back last march) specialty. their versionw as kinda salty (maybe because of the beef being corned). not a big fan too.
j insisted on the classic lechon kawali. while it was good, i think i've had better lechon kawali in cheaper turo-turo type restos before.rise, n'awlins, rise!
about a week ago, i wrote about the reason why i am not going to new orleans this year. it has become quite a yearly tradition for me to go to n'awlins (the way locals want to pronounce new orleans), and at first i felt sad that for the first time since 1999, i won't be able to visit this mysterious city. (watch 'the skeleton key' to get a feel of this city's 'mystery').
then came katrina. and she unleashed her fury. and today, this piece of news saying that new orleans needs to be re-evacuated, according to the governor of louisiana.
this reuters photo shows the 10 freeway leading to the french quarter, almost everything in sight submerged in water.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
food, food, food - v 3.0
not full yet? here's more --
my friends and i are not usually vegetable-friendly but on this particular night, when we tried out palms (in their new location), we ordered vegetable dishes. here's p's. [palms is a famouls hollywood (boulevard) restaurant. last week, they moved to a bigger and better location. the resto still has its thai elvis. thai elvis presley in da house!
and here's mine. remember my aversion to really spicy food? i asked them (as usual) to make mine mild. they made it mild. after eating everything on my plate, i noticed these red stuff. chili! so much for being mild.
finger food. yum yum.
on my recent trip to san francisco, i went to urban outfitters and saw this shirt.it cracked me up. :D
how much of a coffee bean addict am i? well, my friend from san francisco called me up two weeks ago to tell me the good news that coffee bean has opened another branch in downtown sf. here it is, on 4th and market. i had to go. i had to go.Saturday, August 27, 2005
food, food, food - v 2.0
okay, more photo- food-blogging here.
since it is still my birthday month... c treated me to a nice lunch one warm sunday afternoon. we headed to the post hotel bel-air. not wanting to attract attention to myself (with my camera and all), i took some pics from my trusted cam-phone. here's the entrance from the garden to the restaurant.
the wait staff knew it was my birthday and after the meal, one of them brought out their dessert sampler. the madeleines were yummy, the biscotti delicious, the chocolate chip (warm na warm pa, from the oven) smelled good and the strawberry thingy was awesome. needless to say, i've got some sweeth tooth.
singapore's banana leaf @ the farmer's market on third and fairfax. their food can be really spicy so i ask them to cook my meals mild. really mild. last time i was here, i ordered chicken curry. (there's still some left-over in my fridge)
sometimes, all you need is 
just how good? this good!Friday, August 26, 2005
food, food, food
finally, i have downloaded all the pics from my camera-phone, something that i have been meaning to do, so i can start food-blogging.
instead of writing separate entries for all the food that i have consumed (hahaha, that would be a lot!), i have decided to just put everything under this 'food, food, food' post. let's see what happens.
for the month of august -- here are some of the old (and new) places my friends and i visited to satisfy our cravings.
my favorite cup of cappuccino from urth cafe
'taste,' a new restaurant along melrose ave. this is where i celebratedmy last birthday with my friends. it is located a few steps away from
hollywood hang-out lucques, where we saw ryan philippe.
chili's, located along san bruno avenue in san bruno. it is located steps away from the courtyard marriott where we usually stay when we
travel up north. how strange is this? the past three times i went to san francisco,
i stayed at the courtyard, in the exact same freaking room!
buddha's belly, along beverly boulevard. my friends and i had dinner
here one time. the place was packed! i did not enjoy the food, though.
j's ginger fried rice was good; m's steak was delicious, i ordered
something soup-y and it tasted blah, blah, bland.
travel up north. how strange is this? the past three times i went to san francisco,
i stayed at the courtyard, in the exact same freaking room!
buddha's belly, along beverly boulevard. my friends and i had dinnerhere one time. the place was packed! i did not enjoy the food, though.
j's ginger fried rice was good; m's steak was delicious, i ordered
something soup-y and it tasted blah, blah, bland.
the softshell crab appetizer was good, the sauce kinda tangy. 
another appetizer: vietnamese spring rolls. cpk's version is way, way better. 
my tasteless, character-less and bland meal. i don't think i'd evermake the mistake of ordering this at buddha's belly. beware!
the ginger fried rice. something new (the name) and something old (the taste).still, i've had better fried rice before. i like the plate.
the steak. with extenders galore. hahaha. i liked this one.Thursday, August 25, 2005
yes, they can dance
ryan conferido and melody lacayanga, you rock!
they are the remaining finalists in this fox show called 'so you think you can dance,' a dance show produced by the people behind the successful american idol franchise. i've been wanting to blog about ryan and melody (and half-filipino allan frias -- a clueless friend asked me, 'kaano-ano niya si jasmine?' to which i responded with a blank look) since the show started but i haven't found time until i saw my friend mathew blog about it.
yes, they are pinoys and (i hope) they are proud of it. some people do not cannot see why pinoys in the u.s. get all happy and hyped up when they hear of fellow pinoys making it big in the mainstream. we want them to win competitions because they have the talent (hello, jasmine!) not because they are "supported" by a voting block, the fil-am block. we want them to break into the mainstream so that other people of color could get the same opportunity.
my friends j and m and myself were at the grove last week. we ordered food at L.A. Korea, a Korean restaurant at the farmer's market. we were waiting for our food when we noticed this kid, spiky hair and all. there was something in him i could not specifically pinpoint but i could sense the confidence. a few days later, j called and told me that the kid with the spiky hair, and ryan conferido is one and the same. the last time i saw him on tv prior to seeing him at the grove was when he had this slick, 70s-like hairdo a couple of weeks ago. it did not occur to me that it was him.
damn, if i knew, i would've asked him to dance like he's never danced before. because right now, whether he likes it or not, whether he wins the title or not, he is already a role model to the thousands of fil-ams growing up in search of a role model that looks like them and talks like them.
mv campaign
no, not my initials.
(click on the picture to go to the mv campaign website)mv stands for michael vaughn which stands for michael vartan. yes, the guy on alias. it seems that the producers of the show have decided to kill him off the series. what the f*ck? after last season's finale where they revealed, well, michael vaughn revealed to sydney that he is not 'michael vaughn', you are doing this to us?
damn it, jj!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
sun city
i never thought there was a city in cali called 'sun city.' until tonight.
my friends and i drove (well, one of one did) to sun city (80 miles from where i live) to drop a friend off (parang package). this, on the night that i was supposed to sleep early because i'd be off to san francisco around 330 am (which is about half an hour from now).
anyway, plans for me to sleep went pfft when a friend asked if i could go with them to sun city. then we were joined by two other friends and it ended up as an unplanned field trip.
got home around past one. quick shower, packed my stuff, checked my emails, browsed some blogs, updated my own. time check: 3:05 am.
i'll be in san francisco around 9ish, then it will be meetings all the way. i hope i don't fall asleep during any of the meetings. kape!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
palmdale
together with other asian media, we went to palmdale last week to get a sneak peak of the new wal-mart store there. this is no ordinary wal-mart, it's a wal-mart supercenter, you know, this girnormous super store almost twice the size of an ordinary wal-mart.
if you've been to a wal-mart store, then you'd have an idea. this store is huge, it's 205,000 square feet. it's a one-stop shop, too.
here's the store's facade. they are not open yet. they will open next wednesday, 
august 31.
okay, so we went inside and the store manager and some officials gave a tour. this supercenter is about as big (if not bigger) than their supercenter in bentonville, arkansas, which i visited last march. these supercenters are open 24/7 and the only day that they close is during christmas.
here's cynthia lin, wal-mart's corporate spokesperson, telling us about wal-mart's low, low prices. i didn't believe her at first, until i 
looked around.
and i found out that she was not lying. heinz ketchup (any variety) selling for zero dollars. what's cheaper than that? tell me.
during my tour, i met a kababayan. her name's ninfa and she works as a 'department manager' for the fine jewelry department. she's been with wal-mart for the past 12 years.
lastly, i saw this sign. wal-mart's also selling 'character' at a 
discounted rate. i can't complain!
can't stop smiling
you would too, i swear.
okay, so i am not going to new orleans this year for the labor day weekend. but guess where i am going instead. guess again!
manila, i'm coming home next week!
there you go. my week started right. very right! if it were any more right...
Monday, August 22, 2005
talk, talk, talk
that's what my friends and i did for hours on end today. one, two, three, four, five hours passed without us even noticing it. we "watched" (and i use the term loosely) two movies when we had a break. the films? the village and hitch.
the village had way too much negative publicity that i admit i decided not to watch it because i've read all the bad press the film has successfully (pun intended) generated. it had its moments, as m night shyamalan is known for with his films. but these were of the jolt variety, where there was really nothing suspenseful about it. i was just surprised to see adrien brody in the movie and i think he was quite good as the crazy/lunatic noah. his nose was just so disturbing.
hitch. well, we had some of our talks while hitch was ongoing so i did not actually get to watch the film in its entirety. i almost forgot that a pinoy was in the cast of hitch. yes, lea salonga's flower drum song leading man, jose llana. he played the role of a photographer.
got home late. really late.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
back-to-back
it's been awhile since i went to the movies with my friends so when the opportunity presented itself today, my friends and i grabbed it. so what did we watch? the great raid. and since we had time to spare, we also caught the skeleton key.
capsule reviews: for the great raid -- i enjoyed it. maybe because i've read almost all the negative reviews about it so i ended up not expecting too much about it. watching the movie was almost like a homecoming for me. it's just funny how white people (in general) pronounce cabanatuan [ka-ba-na-two-an] as [cabana + twan] pretty much in the same way as cabana is pronounced. we pronounce it with emphasis on the third syllable; they pronounce it with emphasis on the second.
it was an emotional ride for me, especially during the execution of ten POWs because one of them tried to escape. i ended up sniffing, stifling my tears. i don't know why it had that effect on me. and during the movie's 'highlight' (why, the raid of course), i also ended up suppressing my tears, to no avail. damn.
maybe because i made it personal. one of my mom's brothers was in the actual death march from bataan to camp o'donnell in tarlac and watching on the big screen the atrocities and the senseless killings of innocent people just did it for me. hah. my anti-war sentiments creeping up.
damn the reviews! the movie may not be of oscar-caliber but it was fine story-telling. and isn't making movies just a glorified way of telling oft-untold stories?
the skeleton key was alright with me. it had its moments. kate hudson is a really wonderful actress. what i liked most about the movie? the fact that the film was shot in its entirety in new orleans, one of my favorite cities.
i've been going to the big easy every year since 1999, and every year has been different. i've also nursed a broken heart here one time. hahaha. senti. i think i'm going to break the six-year tradition this year. stand by!
Friday, August 19, 2005
one out of four
alin, alin, alin ang naiba? piliin kung alin ang naiba. piliing mabuti, mabuti kung alin. alin ang naiba? [thank you, batibot.]
some scandalous british rag revealed that one of the westlife guys is not actually a guy. uhm. guess which one?
the news item further said that "he's currently dating another guy from another boyband."
the original title of this post was 'one out of five' but then one of them quit last year.
so, who's the fairest of 'em all?
hi and bye kaysar!
last week, with an overwhelming 82% of all the votes cast, america chose kaysar to return to the big brother house. as julie chen says, it is a "season of surprises." hence, this sudden gimmick of putting evicted people back into the house. oh well.
this is 'big brother 6' and there was a reason why i decided not to join the bandwagon when the show premiered about a month ago. i was a certified 'big brother' addict, having survived the first five seasons. my interest, however, started waning last year.
this interest was once more piqued last week when i started reading about an evicted houseguest making a return, with america voting on which one makes the grand return. and then, this guy, kaysar (a graphic designer from irvine, originally from iraq -- i wonder how much of this factoid caused him to be selected as one of the houseguests this season) was the unanimous choice in almost all of the blogs that i visit every single day.
tonight was the first time this season that i finished an entire episode. it's crazy in that house, i am telling you. it's a house divided, and because of broken promises and lies, the people in the house are fighting each other like crazy. there's no sense of civility in the way they act when they are in front of each other. this is what happens when you get stuck with other strangers for a hundred days without any exposure to the outside world.
which brings me to 'pinoy big brother.' i've also been reading a lot about this new show that abs-cbn will start showing next month (i think). they dubbed it 'ang teleserye ng totoong buhay' or something to that effect. i hope the producers got a good mix of houseguests so it won't be boring to watch. i'm really looking forward to this show on tfc.
the differences between big brother here and pinoy big brother?
the host/s. here, it's just julie chen. i read three people will be hosting pbb -- willie revillame (huwat?), toni gonzaga and some girl named mariel. i wonder how it will eventually play up.
the nomination/eviction. here, it's the houseguests who will decide which one's evicted. pbb will ask the help of the viewing public to evict the not-so-liked houseguest (based on a nomination from the HoH, which means Head of Household).
the prize. here, it's now one million bucks. past few seasons were 500K. pbb winner gets "a million pesos in cash pot money, a brand new Nissan Frontier Titanium 3 and a house and lot in St. Monique Villais."
Thursday, August 18, 2005
interesting
i was doing my usual blog-hopping when i came across this material about the launching of a new men's magazine.
its name? men's vogue. and this is their maiden issue --
my 2 cents' worth? it's a surely novel concept, lending the all-too-familiar 'vogue' name to an 'aspiring' men's mag. but then, it would have been better if they just took a different name and earn their reputation from there, than coat-tailing on the undeniable success of vogue. but then, that's just me.
george clooney looks dapper, but he looks kinda old too.
according to the new york times, "The target reader is a man over 35 who earns more than $100,000 a year, is already living the life he wants rather than merely chasing it, and presumably isn't too embarrassed to be seen reading a magazine that for more than a century has been associated with women."
i am so not their target reader!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
adobo
i might as well turn this whole thing into a food blog. hahaha. i was browsing a friend's blog when i came across this uniquely pinoy quiz. needless to say, i took it, and what do you know:
Adobo: Meats simmered in soy sauce and vinegar.
Classic Filipino dish
Which Filipino Food Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
and then it says: This quiz has been taken 1214 times. 4% of people had this result.
what? only 4%? hmmmm.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
viva cristeta!
ladies and gentlemen, meet cristeta comerford, the first woman executive chef of the white house. yes, she's pinay! in fact, she graduated with a degree in food technology from the university of the philippines. you make us pinoys proud ms. comerford! go feed the bushes some lumpia and adobo!
photo courtesy of tina hager/the white house
read her story here.
little biatch
weather-related stuff: i am so loving it. it has been cool since sunday, and when i woke up this morning, i checked my window and yes, it's another overcast day. nice.
i was not doing anything last night so i practically channel-surfed until i stopped on mtv. laguna beach was playing. the remote control got its rest. i think i missed a couple of episodes and i'm quite confused as to why stephen and lc were practically hooking up in mexico. and what's up with kristin and talan? shoosh. juvenile talaga.
since it was way too early to sleep, i decided to stay on and watch the season premiere of this show called 'super sweet 16,' also on mtv. the premise is simple, cameras will follow a young girl who's about to turn 16. not 18. 16.
i was cursing at my tv from the moment the show started (presented commercial-free by diet pepsi. thank you diet pepsi!) until it finished. this episode's celebrator is a little bitch named sophie. she's a huge black girl. okay, she's probably bi-racial. we didn't get to see her dad, only her stupid mother. sorry, i got so affected.
the mom says she spent almost 190 thousand dollars just to make her daughter's 16th b-day memorable. if you were the kid, you'd treat your mother well, correct? not this one. she's way too disrespectful and she tells her mother to 'shut up' and pretty much orders her around. and what does the stupid mother do? she relents, and gives way to what her bitch daughter wants. pathetic people.
this girl sophie is vile, sobrang feeling, nakakakulo ng dugo. the mere thought of her right now makes me want to crawl into, yes, into, my tv screen so i can bitch-slap her till kingdom come. one comment i read made me laugh really hard. 'if i were as ugly as that bitch, i would be super angry as well.' point well-taken!
and today, i was doing my usual blog-hopping when i came across this. it turns out i was not the only one who hates this bitch. hahaha. i need to get a life!
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