It’s beginning to look a lot like..

Christmas.. =)

Un Nuit Au Maroc

Thursday last week, Amanda Agnes and Sari Lazaro organized a fashion show for their production class. It was one night of fashion in Morocco. Designer students from our school, LaSalle College International, showed their stuff: Athena Tandoc, Finela Gregorio, Engie Garcia, Marge Regala, Kristine Bautista, Miki Hahn, Sari Lazaro and me. It was a great show, thanks to Amanda and Sari.

The location nearly ruined everything but it still was a great show, thanks to Amanda and Sari, everyone who helped and the designers. The place, and I mention this only once, was Warehouse 135. It was such a bad experience I shall never come back there again of my own accord, but the YoU Magazine launch this Saturday (in which I will be showing some punk rock clothes) will be held there so that will be the last time. First, they had to be told to turn the a/c on while we were setting everything up. And there was no help or any kind of assistance from them at all. When we arrived there late afternoon, the place, looking all dilapidated under the unforgiving lights was dirty, with cigarettes butts everywhere, probably from whatever went on the night before. The toilet had a lot of cockroaches. The backstage was upstairs and I was always scared to leave our things without someone we know because this dodgy crook-like man was always hovering nearby. He won’t even fetch water for my friend who needed to take some medicine. And while the models were undressing, the crook-guy and another goon were stealing looks! Athena had to tell him to give us a bit of privacy and he took one step back. We had to compensate and hide from them when they should be helping make things better. While the show is on-going, I was watching from the balcony backstage, waiting for my turn, and one guy came up to me and had the gall to tell me to tell everyone else to not nudge the stupid tables because the club’s power breaker thingy whatever will explode. What?! That totally doesn’t make sense. And it isn’t even my problem if they have some hacked-up electrical wiring that could cause major accidents with a single nudge of a table. It’s their problem and they either fix it or someone ought to investigate that. They were really gross and rude and unprofessional. I don’t know where the people who work there come from or how they were trained (if there was any training at all) but since they represent that “club,” everything about it was revealed to me in very poor, but clear light.

So next time you think about going there, don’t be fooled by the sparkling lights that hide all the ugly reality and stay near the exits because someone just might nudge a table and cause an explosion: you are in a warehouse that declares the fact in cheap tarp in front and that’s all it really is.

Thanks to:
stylebible.ph
Flip TV
Konrad Ong
LCI photography students
everyone who made it a nice event.

Sakae Sushi

By the way, I have a new theme in case you haven’t noticed! There are some changes: no more chatbox. I found out that the pop-up ads that sometimes come out were coming from the cbox chatbox so I’ve said bye-bye to it. The “About Me” page is still unfinished. Having a hard time writing about myself.. “Subscribe” doesn’t work yet, will notify when it’s fixed. The links are in the “Etc” section. Comment on the newest post if you want a link or whatever. I love my new look, hope you do to! :p

It was sushi for Sunday lunch with the family. We really liked how peaceful it was while eating at Sakae Sushi, the one at the Fort. That’s on top of how yummy the food was. It’s always a bother when we go out to eat and there’s so many people in the place- a lot of noise and other stuff going on- it gets stressful.

We had pork katsudon, chicken katsudon, some yakiniku-like dish on a hot plate, fish tempura and all the sushi that came from the conveyor belt. I wished there was some salmon sushi though..

Went to Fully Booked afterwards. As much as I like Fully Booked, they could improve their Fashion section. I was looking for some fashion history books and found only one.. That one only went back as far as the 1900.. Too recent. It was really beat-up too. Creased and wrinkled around the edges. The rest were just glossy coffee table books. I need sourcebooks, reference books. Ended up getting “Style Statement” by Mc Carthy and La Porte. I’m reading it and I like it so far.. really useful. After reading this book, I might be able to finish my “About Me” page. I’m having such a hard time writing about me.

Spiral

Celebrated our parents’ anniversary a few days ago with a dinner buffet at the Spiral restaurant in Hotel Sofitel. It was one of the best buffets I’ve ever tried. It could even be the best. It was ‘international’ in every way, from the diners to the cuisine served up: Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, French and much more than I can remember. It was all a blur of food of every kind. We all tried a bit of everything, I think, well at least I did. But I didn’t even get to sample the Chinese, Italian, Spanish bits or the steaks and fish. I was full after salmon sashimi, sushi, tempura, oysters, hummus, cheese and crackers.. and of course the desserts.

mom and dad blowing the candles on their cake

XD

fresh oysters, shrimp, crab on ice

a bit of the dessert strip..
there were lil pots of chocolate mousse, creme brulee, flan, lil glasses of chocolate dip for the churros, two chocolate fountains: milk chocolate and white, fruits, marshmallows, so so much more.

camembert on crackers

rolls, crackers, bits of brie, camembert, veal, nicoise, hummus, feta, oysters XD

desserts galore

this chocolate mousse thing

peppermint tea

That was a good dinner. I mean, 400-700 diners every night can’t be wrong.

Zuni

No this entry won’t be about some obscure African tribe. Zuni is a new Mediterranean restaurant at Greenbelt 5. We tried it out for New Year’s eve dinner. The chef is the same one from Le Souffle, specialising in Mediterranean/Italian cuisine. We took a chance and went for the 7-course dinner menu they’ve prepared for that night and were very pleased we did, it was all quite good.

Marinated Salmon and Prawns Roulade
in dill mustard sauce, served in salad panache and cheese croutons

Vegetable Consomme
with herb dumplings

Dalandan Sherbet

Grilled New Zealand Orange Roughy Fillet
in tomato salsa verde, served with brown rice, couscous risotto and green asparagus

Roasted U.S. Prime Beef Tenderloin
in port wine goose liver sauce, served with dough fine potato and sauteed spinach

Raspberry and Mango Mille Fuille

Dark and White Chocolate Mousse Gateau
with berries compote

From the enticing salmon salad, warming soup, to the refreshing sherbet, rare enough tenderloin and delicious fillet, tangy pastry until the battling sweet/sour gateau, I’ve to say it was a pretty well done medley of textures and tastes. The plating makes your mouth water. And the dishes complemented each other well enough. Arrived fresh, with the proper temperature with just enough servings for every course to be both light and filling, too. There was always fresh warm bread and butter on the table.

The waiters were helpful enough, can anticipate our needs without being too obtrusive. They knew to serve from the left and remove dishes from the right.

As the place is new, everything looked clean and shiny. The toilets are all right. The inside area is a bit crowded but there are tables outside with comfortable couch chairs beside the gardens where we sat. Piping bossa, the tinkling of china and silverware and crickets as background music plus well-placed moodlights, candles on the table and a light breeze makes for quite a relaxing, easy dining experience.

I’d definitely recommend Zuni to others, for the more mature family, get-togethers with friends and dinners for two. I advice getting reservations as there really is a limited amount of space, specially inside and it could be too hot to dine outside during the day. The only problem I had were a few mosquitoes that came to dine also. Although to be honest I was the only one who complained of this- something in my blood attracts mosquitoes as they seem to ignore the rest of the warm humans around me. Sorry for that. Bon Appetit!

S’mores a la French Toast

One day I craved for something sweet. I found some soft graham crackers (I didn’t close the box properly). They were no good for making s’mores but edible and I still wanted s’mores so here’s what I came up with.

Ingredients: Soft graham crackers, marshmallow creme, chocolate syrup and french toast batter. To make the batter, you beat an egg with some condensed milk and ground cinnamon.

Dip the graham cracker squares into the batter. Soak for some seconds.

Fry in yummy melted butter until puffy in the middle or until the outside is golden but not burnt. Remember there’s sugar in the batter so flip constantly to avoid burning the “crust”.

Place the graham toast on a plate. Get the marshmallow creme and place a good dollop of it on top of the toast. Drizzle some chocolate syrup, not necessarily forming a heart shape. Gobble it up.

If you don’t have marshmallow creme, pop some large marshmallows in the microwave and nuke them until they start to swell. Take them out and place on the graham toast. Drizzle quickly with chocolate syrup. Devour.

Foodie Shots

(If you haven’t had a meal yet, I apologise for this..)

What happens when I get a new set of cooking utensils? Why, this, of course. Plus some happy family members. =)

The culprits who started it all.

My attempt at French Crullers.

I couldn’t resist.. Lol.

With the icing. These tasted like doughnuts.

Sugarfalls.

It deserves another photo. Lol.

Breakfast tea.

Very hot, sip it sloowly.

I stopped the time.

A not-so-good lunch at Super Bowl. Everything was bland.

My version of shepherd’s pie.

Yummy with a glass of red wine.

Leafy greens with mango vinaigrette dressing.

Little pies of sauteed ground pork, melted gouda cheese and mashed potato “crust”.

In all their soft and gloopy goodness.

Baked Italian style spaghetti, mini pie and a scoop of rice(?!). Lol.

Sushi rice, roasted nori sheet, wooden mat.

It actually tastes better than it looks.

My brother’s evil chocolate shake.

You know you want it.

I Have Succumbed..

..to a lot of things this weekend. :s

But before that, some random updates, photos and thoughts.. For instance, how come I never knew that the Fashion Institute of the Philippines was just at the One San Miguel Bldg. in Ortigas when I lived there for a year? I’m thinking of taking lessons there now. While I’m waiting.. It’s onyl for 16 sessions anyway.. won’t take long at all.

Anyway, last Saturday, lunch with hun at Oody’s Greenbelt. Do you guys notice that none of the Oody’s branches ever look the same? The one in Greenbelt looks best while the one in Market! Market! looks the worst. Had tom yum ต้มยำ, fried catfish thaikatsu, lemon grass juice and thai iced tea. The iced tea was great as usual, I had two. The lemon grass juice was not so good. Thaikatsu looks and tastes like the Japanese tonkatsu.. but there’s a different sauce on the side that makes it taste different. The tom yum was really yum and the only dish we finished: the fried catfish.. although it did look like some freak alien from a sci-fi movie:

Before and after, I can’t decide which one looks worse. Haha.

I busted a toe as I was about to go home that night. My right foot’s big toe is in a sorry state. The nail looks all smashed.. like marble with veins of bloody red laced through the pale pink nail polish.. but infinitely more disgusting. It hurt really bad. And I can’t believe how much of a baby I was as my sister tried to clean it up for me. We were in the bathroom for 10 minutes, which consisted of me refusing and dodging the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and even shedding tears at the very end before I let her touch my toe. I really am frightened of physical pain. I mean, if it happens, then it happens but I will never do anything that will cause me physical pain.. like treat my own wound. But at least it’s not infected so that’s something. I have my very persistent sister to thank for that. Haha. =)

Yesterday, Sunday, we went to Chrysler to test drive some cars. Two cars, actually. A Durango and a Commander. We went to one Chrysler and were shuttled to another Chrysler, a bit farther away. We rode a Town and Country on the way there.. which was okay I guess. It’s a mumsy, van-like car. The doors open and close very slowly. Anyway, we got there and drove the two cars around for a bit. The Durango, an SUV, is more spacious. It seats 7 people, with the seats at the very back good, you can stretch your legs properly. It’s a bit bulky outside. The Commander is very cool. Like a mini-Hummer. It’s very very manly looking. There’s a separate a/c system for the last row of seats which the Durango didn’t have. But the same last row of seats didn’t allow for much leg space.. you’d have to indian-sit. But that’s okay I guess, I thought it was cosy. The family’s leaning towards the Commander. There are less than 10 Commanders currently being used in the Philippines. (At least, that’s what the guy said.)

My sister wants that car (2nd picture) for her 18th. It’s a grampa car. Haha. But she likes it anyway. It’s okay, I guess. Let’s see if she’s so lucky. Lol.

Lunch at Haiku, Greenbelt again. The undying katsudon for the three of us, something soba and tempura udon for the dieting parents, tamago sushi and california maki all around. The katsudon is yummy there. Not too wet but very tasty and it has sesame seeds. And as usual, my foodie shots:

Dessert at Max Brenner Chocolate Bar. White chocolate croissant, chocolate muffins, mad max, Marangan chocolate cocktail, a something irish cream frozen cocktail, a something toffee and something espresso choctails.

Aside from the muffins which were crumbly and dry, and served with I think it was sour cream which was strange, everything was yummy. Took me another day closer to the dreaded but inevitable diabetes I will surely suffer later on in life.

And lastly, I have succumbed in a major way: I got a pair of Havaianas slippers. Okay let me just say that I still don’t like this rubber slipper look but I guess for the beach, for random trips to the mall, and as long as you don’t make them the only kind of footwear you wear every day, then I guess they’re all right. We were walking and I was wearing the new pair of platform peeptoes (so my poor toe could breathe) and I was starting to get blisters. My mom saw the area behind my ankles getting pinkish red and almost blistering. We were right in front of Gas then who had slippers on display. So she said I should just go get a pair and well, so I did. And of course I got the ones with a bit of height. Lol. So there it is.. the story of how I succumbed to my first pair of Havaianas. And of course my sister who actually likes these rubber slippers got another pair. Figures.

Never Again!

I was out all day with hun. We went to the Mall of Asia to see Spiderman 3 in the iMax. There was a cosplay event there too I think because we kept seeing Sasukes, Narutos, Final Fantasy characters and bloody *literally* people milling around the place. Anyway, when we got to the ticketing place, the lady behind the counter told us that although it’s showing in the iMax theatre, it’s still 2D. That just totally beats the idea of watching Spiderman in the iMax so we went to see it at the normal cinemas instead. We lined up. There were so many people waiting in line that we almost just wanted to forget it, leave and watch it at another mall. The tickets would go to waste but really it was just too smelly and noisy and crowded. Spiderman’s been showing for two weeks so it didn’t really make sense that so many people would still be lining up to see it. We were standing around for around 15 minutes when we saw that we were standing in the Shrek 3 line! That’s why there were so many kids and people.. It also explained the guys in lime green shirts milling around, taking pictures. As I looked around again, everything suddenly began to spell Shrek. Little kids in green shirts, little kids crying, little kids riding on daddy’s shoulders. There was even an Hewlett Packard/Shrek promotion thing right beside us which we’ve been looking at for some time without noticing. We hurriedly ran off to the other UNcrowded cinema where our movie was showing.

Lunch at Tokyo Cafe. You of the weak hearted, avoid the place because you’ll never know when the staff will simultaneously yell “Konichiwa.” They do that when new customers enter the restaurant. It’s a bit upsetting when you’re not prepared. Haha. But the food is still yummy. And the staff really are quite friendly and accommodating. Shrimp bisque soup, fish fillet burger, fries, unagi, cafe frote and iced royal milk tea.

But seriously.. it’s going to be a challenge convincing myself to go back to Mall of Asia after today. There were so many people because of that cosplay event. The place, the largest mall in the Philippines, was teeming with so many people that the whole place smelled really offensive. And get this: it’s mostly an open air place. Choi and I went to Coffee Bean sometime that afternoon. The event was being held right beside it where the sunken activity area is at. Every single time someone opened the door, the whole Coffee Bean would smell as though a hundred sweaty people who haven’t taken a bath in two months have begun dancing in front of the air conditioners. It was that bad.

Anyway. I finally got my glasses tonight when I got home. Mom claimed them for me since I was out the whole day. I didn’t get the Bebe pair afterall. They suddenly looked too boring when I tried them on again yesterday. These ones are Kenneth Cole Reaction..

Tortellini, Tortellini, Tortellini

First of all, happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there =)

Had lunch yesterday at Cafe Provencal at Shang Mall.. They have lots of new items on their menu.. and they have tortellini! That was a pleasant surprise since I was a bit put out that Trattoria Gourmet (another restaurant in the same mall) had closed up. They had tortellini- a dish that’s quote elusive in Italian restaurants here. But not only did Cafe Provencal include tortellini in the menu- they offer it in 2 ways. I had the beef ribs tortellini (2nd photo). Very yummy. I was expecting it to be a whole platter of tortellinis though, like I was used to in Europe. There were a total of 6 tortellinis but that’s all right, a tortellini is a tortellini. It tasted very good. It was prepared in two ways. One cup had a gooey tomato cheese sauce and the tortellinis are buried in it somewhere. The other cup was like a stew with a very meaty taste and the tortellinis are floating in it.

Their three-way(chocolate, original and lime, I think) creme brulee(3rd photo) was all right. But I think The Old Spaghetti House’s creme brulee was more generous. The beef tips monte carlo was yummy.. served sizzling. Dad’s shrimp served on the same sizzling platter did not sizzle at all. The SSS pasta was not so good. It was bland.

I thought it was awful nice of them to give mom a special Mother’s day dessert on the house. It’s an apple strudel I think (last photo). It wasn’t like they had a banner outside enticing people to dine at their restaurant because they’re giving away free stuff like the other restaurants are doing. So that was nice.

The Pizza Company again for dinner. Their pizzas are really great.

Okay, on to some long-overdue updates:

First of all, the CandyMag Blog Awards.. I am a finalist! My blog is a finalist in two categories: People’s Choice and Best Over All Blog. People anywhere may vote for me and here are the voting details (repeated at the left sidebar):

Second, to those who haven’t noticed yet, I have a new theme! =p The colour scheme is actually taken from the movie, 300. Haha. The deep red, khaki and ecru and almost-blacks. Then it looked too dead when I was done. So I added the deep blue. Now I think it looks more like aged, weathered resort colours. I made an illustration for the header. It’s me and I’m holding a green tea frap w/hazelnut syrup because I like it. Lol.

I changed the sidebar background a total of 3 times. I think it looks fine now.. Any more suggestions?