tagaytay beckons

okay, here's my weekly update.

boo-hoo-hoo. i used to update this blog regularly before, but now? no more freaking time to do it. ngayon, i managed to squeeze in a few minutes while i am downloading my pics to be used in this issue. sigh.

anyway, went to tagaytay last weekend. i had so much fun. stayed at the tagaytay highlands. the place is really beautiful, with a commanding view of the taal lake and volcano. (we stayed at belle view). the elevator was astig, like the one at luxor. pababa! they start at the 12th floor, down to the ground. it was just amazing.

dined at antonio's. fab, fab, fab. a really beautiful place in the middle of freaking nowhere. makes you wanna go, 'wtf?' anyway, immensely enjoyed my über expensive meal. but it was well worth it, ambience and all.

right before you step to the dining area is the pond with koi. diners can also choose to eat in this area

the decorations are beautiful. who would have thought that achuete could be a nice centerpiece?

this is the view from the pond. i can't wait to return to this place.

went also to the farm of one of gloria diaz' sisters in alfonso, cavite. i got to interview one of the diaz sisters, isabel, a famous painter who's based in new york. the farm/house was featured two years ago in architectural digest lang naman, the bible for all interior designers. amazing. my jaw dropped. had a really, really good dinner under the full moon and the stars.

i thought that the rains would spoil this trip. thank god, it did not rain last saturday.

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toxic

and i thought i was in for a ride.

my schedule the past few days have been extremely erratic and my irregular sleep hours + jet lag have made me kinda cranky (kinda lang). the past two days have been the craziest and i have been having 16-hour days. no fun.

anyway, enough of the bad. in with the good.

my friends and i watched 'footloose' at the meralco theater last week. it was okay. jay-r and iya villania were surprisingly good. i need to watch the original so i can compare. i've got quite a number of questions in my mind. the music was swell. i swear, nothing can beat 80s music. hahaha. oh oh almost parahhhdise. damn. saw a lot of celebs and non-celebs. hehehe. then we headed to metrowalk for dinner (dencio's!). i was a tad disappointed with their sisig. what happened?

another highlight: went to ateneo last tuesday for the 'misa ng katotohanan' led by the jesuit brothers. i came face to face with former president cory aquino and i had the chance to ask a couple of questions. her responses boiled down to one thing: pray. [pray!] we've got to pray.

anyway, i saw this friend from 16 years ago. yeah, college years. damn, i feel old. anyways, it was safe to say that i haven't seen him in ages [10 plus years]. i was looking for a seat at the church of the gesu [a really nice, uniquely-shaped church]. so i took a seat where i could take a good look at the goings-on near the altar. you know the feeling when someone's staring/looking at you from behind? i got that feeling, so i looked around and saw him. it was so strange and unexpected. i never would have thought that i would see him there.

felt guilty because we started catching up before the start of the mass. he's married and working on his masters (economics!) at the ateneo. i never thought of him as a super religious guy but he told me he frequents the gesu before his classes. he took off in the middle of the mass. and i got that feeling once more. look, look, look. and i saw another familiar face. he belonged to a younger batch but i went to some classes with him and our common friends. another strange and unexpected thing. he's now a priest! goodness. we exchanged waves and went on with the mass.

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iced tea overload

'baka naman magka diabetes ka na niyan.'

that was what my manila co-worker quipped when i told him that i've been having na iced tea binge since i stepped foot on philippine soil last saturday.

who doesn't love iced tea? i know i do, especially the ones offered by the restos here in the pilipins. here's the deal. they sell iced tea for at least 40 pesos per glass. the bottomless ones go for 50. call me anything you want, but given that choice, i think everyone must go for the bottomless, right? maybe wrong. but me? i always end up ordering bottomless iced tea and on the average (so far), i've been chugging 4 to 5 glasses per resto. that's like 10 pesos a glass. not bad. hehehe.

side note: i remember reading in a blog somewhere about the bottomless iced tea craze. if i remember it right, the blog said that based on unofficial research (or studies, lol), the only you could actually "sulit" [when you feel that you one-upped the resto by consuming iced tea that's no longer healthy for you] the 50 pesos per glass you paid, is when you actually consume 25 glasses because each resto's cost of a glass of iced tea is only 2 pesos. or something. isn't that outrageous? no wonder my iced teas have been surprisingly sweet. oh well.

by the by, i discovered a new drink. it's called c2 and i am addicted. i've been drinking one bottle a day since i arrived. they're everywhere, and you can buy them at the friendly mini-stop stores in your friendly neighborhood. i know its green tea but this one's very good 'green tea'.




i just realized. maybe i should drink more c2 than the restaurant iced tea. green tea's healthy, right?

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dateline makati

okay, so there's some semblance of normalcy in my life after the 14 and a half hour flight from los angeles to manila last saturday. we arrived at the naia around 5:00 am and i had no idea it was raining so hard until i finally stepped out of the airport.

the lines at the immigration and customs were long. the wait for the luggage was long. ho-hum.

i felt very happy upon seeing my mom, my brother and my niece. i'm home again. after exchanging a lot of pleasantries, we decided to leave the airport and start our trek to home. we had to stop for breakfast. my first meal in pinas? a jollibee breakfast meal. longganiza, no less. plus peach-mango pie. my meal came with a free copy of the philippine star. not bad.

jollibee at the north luzon expressway. this was my first jollibee breakfast meal. ang sarap talaga ng garlic rice. instead of coffee, i had dalandan juice.

after a leisurely drive, we reached cabanatuan around 9. i had to exchange some of my green bucks so i can start spending. hehehe. for my family. went shopping! and window-shopping. bought a pair of my disposable contacts. had a 7-course lunch at one of my mom's fave resto, and i ordered food i terribly missed: tinumis, sizzling daing na bangus, ampalaya con carne, sinampalukang manok, sisig, pata tim, bicol express. i also had mango shake. sarraaap.

four of my favorite dishes (clockwise): sinampalukang manok, sisig, ampalaya con carne and tinumis [a variation of dinuguan. in my province, they cook dinuguan with young tamarind leaves]

i'll post [more] pics as soon as i download them.

anyway, normal blogging will resume shortly...

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iPhone

[something distracted me from my semi-stressing day.]

after an almost three hour meeting, i went back to my desk. went to google news, and found this.

a motorola cell phone + iPod's iTunes = iPhone. i want one!

apple is launching it in san francisco next week. tsk, tsk, tsk. and it will only be available through cingular. gee.

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'excited ka na ba?'

it's ten minutes to nine. i'm in the office.

friends and co-workers who know about my trip to manila have repeatedly asked me the question (in all forms and variations): 'excited ka na ba?' and i have responded: 'baka sa araw ng alis ko' ['maybe on the day of my trip']. [it's hard to fake excitement when all that's on your mind is the building pressure to deliver.]

true enough.

i didn't sleep until 4:00 am earlier, and i only have about a three-hour shuteye. we're supposed to have a 9:00 am meeting. i'm so screwed. i have three pieces of luggage at home waiting to be packed. the major ones have breached the dreaded 70-lb mark; the hand-carry tinkering on the 7 -kg line. yes, i've been warned that even my hand-carry will be weighed by the pal people. damn.

and to think i still have to bring some stuff from the office. an ex-roomie has something as padala, too. what gives? on top of my head, i am thinking of the stuff that i'd [probably] leave. the six-pack spam [my brother's]; the 6-pack corned beef [brother's too. i don't know with him. the best corned beef i have tasted come from the philippines [argentina, purefoods, swift, not necessarily in that order]. last time i was home, i hoarded more than 10 cans of these canned goods. btw, australian and new zealand corned beef are also to die for. literally.]; the ginormous jar of cashew nuts from costco [mom's]; the 12-pack of dove [mom's and titas]; big pack of pistachios [dad's] and the twin-pack of aveeno lotion [mom's]. sigh.

my mind's a mess. i hope i don't forget anything important. [like my passport.]

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70 pounds + 70 pounds

less than 24 hours before my flight...

it's already past 2 am and i have not finished packing yet. some friends and relatives have 'padalas' and it's so hard to say no.

it's funny how 140 pounds of everything is not enough. always not enough. my gulay. i'm already having headaches. and to think i still have some materials from the office to bring. it looks like i over-shopped. the stuff that i bought last march that did not make it to the 140 lbs then? not making it again. and to make matters worse, they will be joined by more stuff. like that ginormous jar of cashew nuts and the huge creamer from costco. plus bars and bars of dove and irish spring. goodness!

i have a 9 am meeting tomorrow in a few hours. then i'll go home to do the final packing, and off to the airport ago. wish me luck.

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prison break

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,...

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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 with
some 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:

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.

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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.

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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.

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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 a little patience a steaming bowl of pho. yes, pho. i love pho. and this month, my friend p and i discovered a really nice pho place close to where i live. it's on sunset boulevard (near silver lake) and they serve really good pho.

just how good? this good!

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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 celebrated
my 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.

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 ever
make 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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

okay, self, settle down. yes, i'm going home on a business-related trip. which means that i might not be able to have enough time to be with family and friends but hey, i am not complaining. i'll have weekends off. i think.

there you go. my week started right. very right! if it were any more right...

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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.

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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!

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