Traincha

This is one lady that sings oh so beautifully!  Traincha is the singing sensation from Amsterdam.  She has worked with a lot of jazz artists, and is most popular for her collaboration with Burt Bacharach on a series of albums recreating new twists to his wonderful songs.  I got her album "The Look of Love" on a weekend sale, and I think I stumbled onto a gold mine!  One may argue that it is difficult to step into the shoes of Dionne Warwick, who imprinted Bacharach's songs with her distinct cocky but playful mood--but this young lady has a crystalline voice; her phrasing brings out a pleasant tempo that will make the Bacharach fan proud.  Truly a great find!

Taylor Swift

Such a graceful and charming young lady with wonderful talent--Taylor Swift!  The American singer-composer is a worldwide sensation, and at the age of 22, has remained the simple country girl despite all the glitzy trappings that stardom has brought her.  On the last leg of her Speak Now Tour (around 80 playing dates, all sold-out), she invited her best friend Selena Gomez to sing onstage at the Madison Square Garden, the first time ever that the two stars share a stage.  The BFF (Best Friends Forever) sang a duet on Selena's hit song "Who Says.

On the same concert show, the country star called out and introduced the legend himself--James Taylor--who sang his famous hit song "Fire and Rain" on a duet with Swift, and who played the guitar to accompany Swift on her hit song "Fifteen."  It may seem obvious, but for the record, Taylor Swift was named after James Taylor!

Banapple

Andi's birthday cake was a hotly debated topic over our Sunday lunch in Kikufuji--which one to buy?  Banapple, a bakery in the C5 area that first gained prominence with UP and Ateneo students has started to expand its operations, and now has branches in Tomas Morato and the Ayala Triangle, among others.  The mere mention of the name was seconded by Bryan and thus, Vicky and the kids went off to the Ayala Triangle Branch to pick up 2 cakes (roughly around P750 each).

The picture shows their classic banana coffee concoction (lots of cream and chocolate shavings).  I couldn't distinguish what banana variety they used--was it lakatan or cavendish?  The other cake they got was the chocolate cake--this one however, was too sweet for my taste.  A forkful was enough, and I wished I has some black coffee to tame the sweetness that lingered.

Tung Lo Wan

Had a business meeting today with one of my developer friends whom I introduced to Gwammy and Kong, and we all had lunch in Tung Lo Wan.  No, we didn't go all the way to Hong Kong--as many will attest, Tung Lo Wan is the name of the original main street in the Causeway Bay area, a shopping district with one of the priciest rental rates in the world.  This Tung Lo Wan I'm referring to is a restaurant located along Wilson Street, near the corner of P. Guevara Street in San Juan.  Simple ambience, fast service and tasty food priced reasonably.

The roasts were quite yummy!  I was in this same restaurant a few days ago with some friends and for today's lunch I ordered mostly the same favorite viands--soy chicken, polonchay with red eggs & century eggs, 8 Treasure soup, steamed suahe (white shrimps) and Lechon Macau (roasted pork with crunchy skin)!  For dessert we had mango sago (yellow mango slush with  cassava pearls) and almond gulaman (jelly made from seaweeds) with lychees.  Kong was a bit disappointed though--he's allergic to eggs and I forgot to tell the waiter not to include eggs in making the 8 Treasure soup.  Pricing is pretty reasonable--we spent something like P400 per head.

Sesame Street

Back in Fairview, I was busy rummaging through my old stuff when I came across a cassette tape of Sesame Street!  Yes, I bought one of these albums many years ago, and I let loose several chuckles looking at the playlist.  Memories automatically came in, fast-flooding my brain with all the fun clips and tunes from that most-loved educational kiddie TV show.  Even now, as I write this blog entry, I'm humming Kermit D. Frog's version of "Green," one of those meaning-of-life songs that are both  melancholy and uplifting at the same time.  I myself didn't watch Sesame Street to learn (I was a bit too old for that), but I remember Anella was glued to it, and I sometime sat with her watching the show.  Who can forget those characters?  Oscar the Grouch, Ernie & Bert, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, The Count, Elmo...  Probably too numerous to mention all of them, but I'm sure most of you have some idea of who they are.  Jim Henson's muppets gave so much life into that show, and the human characters (don't even remember the actor's names), made educational TV so enjoyable.  I don't know why the show was pulled off the air (I don't think they had poor viewership), but sadly, even good things come to an end.  Many thanks to the Children's Television Workshop, which produced the show, we all loved and enjoyed it!

Arce

Celebrated Andi's birthday last Sunday with our favorite Arce Dairy Ice Cream flavors of mantecado (butter ice cream) and caramel (sugar ice cream).  These two go very well with the cakes and pastries that we got from Banapple.  The brand is the new ice cream brand of the Arce family, which started ice cream production in the 1930s as Selecta Ice Cream (this brand was later sold to the RFM Corporation in 1990).  My all-time favorite flavor, of course, is shown on the picture on the left--atis (sweet sop)!  The difference that segregates the Arce ice cream from the rest, is that the main ingredient is carabao milk!  Creamier, richer, with more fats and protein, this is the absolute pride and joy of Philippine ice cream.  It is inexpensive (half a galloon costs under P300) and available most anywhere in the Metro.  Enjoy!

Wuxiang

We had no time to cook for Monday lunch, so I told Vicky that we would order something quick, and we found the perfect place--the neighborhood Wuxiang restaurant is a sister restaurant of the Binondo-based Sincerity restaurant (I think the original restaurant is located along Nueva Street).  This place has a speed chef inside, so we were in and out in 20 minutes.  Both restaurants serve the same fried chicken recipe, with exactly the same serving cuts!  The chicken comes in a box (16 pieces to a box) that costs P300.  Be careful, it's super hot!

We also got some fresh vegetable lumpia (P45 each), but I found the taste on the sweet side, which isn't exactly my trip.  The oyster cake (P180) was gooey, chewy and tasty--thumbs up for this one!

It's a no-frills restaurant, but their selling point is that their recipes date back to the 1950s, surely a throwback to the comfort food of yesteryears.  Luckily, the food quality has been maintained throughout the years.  As a note to students of business administration and economics, you can see the difference in their traditional management style, as compared to the more recent versions of other panciterias, like Savory and Panciteria Lido (yes, these ones have evolved into mall-based fast-food chains).  Even without the fancy ambience, however, it's good old-fashioned Binondo food!

Komrad Mao

Our Eastwood stroll was finally over, once again our tummy cargo was getting depleted--intensive shopping had worn down the energy levels of Vicky & Monique!  We settled for something different for dinner--spicy Chinese food from the Hunan and Szechuan provinces!  Most of the Chinese restaurants in town serve Cantonese or Fookien style cooking, and Komrad is one of the few restaurants that serve the spicy variety.

As you can see, we had a lot of dishes, and we specifically asked the chef to make everything with mild spice.  From the top, the pork strips came with pickled taro leaves, General Cho's chicken was crunchy and slightly sweet, while the spinach in egg white and century eggs were a smash hit with Monique.  The fried tilapia was crunchy but a bit salty for my taste, the beef strips were crunchy-cooked with egg batter--this was quite spicy, the spiciest of them all; and last, the fried rice reminded me of kiampung (but wasn't sticky).

Chairman Mao's portrait stares down on you while you eat!  It's a wild marketing gambit by the restaurant owner Marvin Agustin (he's also a TV actor), but apparently the crowds flowing in can attest to the popularity of the place.  Roughly P500 per head.

Kitchen Ala Ching

With Andi smiling ear to ear from all that Red Mango yoghurt, we roamed around the Eastwood tiangge (flea-market)--our lazy afternoon mall routine.  We came across the stand of Kitchen Ala Ching, a bakery noted for their liqueur cakes.  As we browsed through their display, it dawned on me that their cakes were packaged inside wenge-colored wooden boxes.  The boxes, when ribboned with their big golden bows, were quite impressive for Christmas giveaways!  With the special box, each cake was something like P500, but without the box, it was around P300.  Monique decided to get the lemon vodka cake and the Kahlua cakes, both of which were absolutely yummy!  A word of caution--you might not want to give them to kids, though, as the cakes well saturated and can give you that giddy feeling!

Red Mango

Red Mango has been at the Eastwood Mall for around 2 years now, and the first time Monique tried their frozen yoghurt, she found the tartness a bit too much for her taste buds. We then wondered if her sister would like it--and we found out last Saturday that Andi just loves it!  While other yoghurt brands like Golden Spoon try their best to mimic different ice cream flavors, Red Mango serves it tart!  The only variation they have is their green tea flavored yoghurt.  Added contrast just comes in from toppings--crumbly cookies, candies, chocolate bits, sprinkles, fruits and various syrups!  Around P100 for a serving.

Arrow

Like my father before me, I've been a customer of this RTW brand since I could afford the shirts.  Arrow shirts are designed conservatively, and have a wide range of sizes such that my neckline can be easily accommodated (that means I can wear a necktie!).  Shirt colors are relatively corporate, fit well, and are supposed to be shrink-free (I first heard of the term "sanforized" in the Arrow ads, with just means that that the textile has been subjected to the controlled compressive shrinkage process of the Sanforized Company).  In addition, the fabrics used by Arrow are cool on the skin and resistant to the usual disintegration due to multiple washings.  As I have little patience for the iterative fitting schedules of tailors, I bought a few Arrow shirts at the Eastwood mall.  Despite the high price tag (around P1,600 per shirt), I feel these products are of high quality and made good sense.  And since they fit me just fine, I'm such a big fan!

Cibo

 

Italian restaurants in Manila very often have the classic interiors that give the diner the ambience of an Italian home (e.g. L' Incontro, La Grotta, La Tavole or Pasto) or the feel of the Italian countryside (e.g. Bellini's, Amoroma).  Cibo is one of those Italian places that go counter to that stereotype--the place is hip, chic and quite appealing to the younger set.  As Monique was busy going with her friends around the Eastwood Mall, we took Andi Panini to Eastwood's Cibo branch, which was located along the hallways in the mall proper.  

Andi just loved their spaghettini Alfonso (tomato sauce, seafood and cream), and we were surprised she was able to finish most of the serving.  Sauce was nicely done, not too salty, just the right amount of cream.  Pasta was not was gooey-on-the-inside as I would have wanted, but this was firm and curled up neatly.

We also had meat sauce linguini but we thought this one could have been done with a bit more of flavor.  The two kinds of oval pizza that we got--parma ham with arugula, with shavings of some hard cheese (I forget which one exactly) and

smoked salmon with dabs of cream cheese and roe, more than made up for that.

We wound up with a bit more than we could finish, so the food servers were kind enough to pack the left-overs in a take-out bag.  We spent something like P400 per head, came out of the place, quite stuffed!

Game of Thrones

I'm an absolute sucker for medieval fantasy epics, and the HBO mini-series Game of Thrones is exactly that.  Introduced to me by a business colleague, the George Martin  epic centers around the struggles of the seven houses in their bids to control the Iron Throne of Westeros. Mesmerizing and interwoven story-lines, intriguing characters filled with rage and angst, lots of mythical characters and creatures of the night, expensive sets and lavish costumes, beautiful scenery (excellent cinematography), strings of beautiful and sensuous women, plenty of swordplay (gory, in fact), an onrush of savage hordes, tales of strength, honor, cruelty and ambition, and a factual depiction of life's brutalities--many of the interesting features that lie in store for the viewer.  The series features Sean Bean (who has appeared as rogue agent 006 in the James Bond movie Goldeneye and as Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy).  Note, however, that the series is not for the faint-hearted. 

Florabel

Yesterday's business luncheon at Florabel went with nary a hitch; the good food and  cool ambience helped us relax our thoughts after several rounds of on-our-toes discussions.  Located at the ground floor of the Podium, this is one of the restaurants operated by Chef Florabel Co Yatco, formerly of the Le Souffle group.  I understand that she also operates the Felix at Greenbelt 5, SumoSam at both Rockwell and Shangri-la Plaza, Commons in Salcedo Village and used to operate Cafe Ten Titas at the Gateway Mall.  The menu is both continental and Filipino, and I was delighted to try their onion soup and roast beef for my meal.  As I found out, the cheese topping was gooey, and the meat was soft and flavorful.  My friend had prawns thermidor, and judging from the look on his face, I guess it was well prepared.

My dessert was quite satisfying--caramel ice cream topped with crushed walnuts, and we had enough time for light chit-chat after our satisfying meal.  The bill came to about P1,200 per head, which isn't bad for a business lunch, but slightly stiff for mere daily meals.

Midas Hotel

Had a business meeting at the Midas Hotel along Roxas Boulevard the other day.  Located very near the EDSA intersection, this hotel was originally a Sheraton, then it became a Savoy, and was a Hyatt for the longest time.  As far back as the early seventies, I remember attending Christmas parties of Kong Kong's office at this hotel.  Furthermore, Vicky and I have such fond memories here--this is where we booked a room for our wedding event!  From what I gather, after a series of labor strikes, then owner Jose Mari Chan (the sugar trader and singer) decided to close the hotel and offer the place up for sale.  I understand the current owners of the hotel also own the famed Misibis Bay Resort in Bicol, and for Midas, they have chosen the Genesis group as the hotel managers.  The feel of the hotel has been totally modernized, and I had a sad longing for the Calesa Bar which no longer exists.  I spent many a night just listening to crooners, jazz vocalists and show bands there.

The lobby lounge is now filled with orange boxes as a tribute to the boxes popularized by luxury brand Hermes.  I think I saw a ladies bag encased in one of their lobby shelves!

The buffet spread at the 2nd floor Midas Cafe is pretty interesting, and the interiors have been spruced up to make use of natural light.  Buffet costs something like P1,400 per head.

Caramia

After that heavy dinner, we turned to Caramia for ice cream dessert, which was just across from Holy Cow.  Well, a correction is in order--we had gelato, not ice cream!  This Italian dessert is slightly different, for gelato is made with milk, not cream, and as such, air bubbles are minimized.  The resulting texture as the gelato melts is more like milk than the frothy leftover of ice cream.  I understand that the chain makes gelato in smaller batches, and keeps the frozen temperature at -14 degrees Centigrade, as opposed to the rock-hard temperatures needed for ice cream (much lower at -30 degrees Centrigrade).  Several flavors drew the attention of the kids--hazelnut, pistachio and lychee!

Cones are pretty reasonably priced at around P75 per scoop.  One can also elect to have the gelato sans the cone, which is exactly what Andrea had.

The gelateria also creates gelato cakes!  Yes, the cakes shown above are all frozen gelato, and look oh so yummy!  This is something that I haven't seen since the days of the Magnolia plant along Aurora Boulevard.  I didn't inquire, but I would surmise that they have dry ice to pack the cakes too.  Not bad at P700-P900 per cake.

Holy Cow

Brought Monique and her cousin Louise over to the anime convention at the SM Megamall over the weekend, and much to their delight, they spent a good three hours soaking in all the trappings of the Japanese art.  Famished and exhausted, the kids were ready for dinner at the nearby steakhouse, Holy Cow!  I understand that this restaurant is a sister company of several other mall restos, namely Karate Kid (Japanese) and Congo's Grill (Filipino).  They had a large sign promoting a family treat which we decided to try--P1,300 for a meal good for 4 people, which included mushroom soup, grilled beef strips, back back ribs, a combo platter with fried chicken, squid rings, french fries and onion rings, rice and iced tea.  In addition, the kids had corn-crusted fish while Vicky tried the pork chop.  Popular-priced restaurant with easy on the budget meals (rice and viand can be had at P170 inclusive of a drink).

The steer head shown above is a popular decor item in a lot of American steakhouses & grills.  All the place needs to complete the ambience would be a mechanical bull and a rhinestone cowboy figurine!

Lam Ting

Lam Ting is one of those Chinese noodle houses that you normally don't hear about much, except from friends that know the area and frequent the place.  Luckily, my good friend and compadre Nito works in the Banawe area and knows these holes-in-the-wall like the back of his hand!  The restaurant is situated near Quezon Avenue, and the place was quite full when we got there around 8pm on a week night.  The noodles came in hot and the dimsum items were yummy!  Cheap too, as we spent something like P200 per head.

Cafe Breton

Last Sunday Vicky and I took some time to do the rounds of the stores in SM Mall of Asia, braving the thick long-weekend crowd that engulfed the mall.  As we finished buying stationery & kiddie giveaways from National Bookstore, we tried to find a restaurant to have dinner--but unfortunately, every place was full!  After 30 minutes of wandering about, we had the good luck to find a table at Cafe Breton, the home of French crepes and pancakes.  We usually stop by this restaurant for dessert, but this time we took a look at their savory delights:  Hungarian sausage and asparagus on wheat waffles, and seafood & spinach crepe!  We finished off our dinner with Vicky's favorite "Tarzan" crepe (banana and condensed milk!) and hot coffee.  Our bill came to around P450 per head.

Mandragore

Vicky and I wandered about the Rustan's shop in Makati and we were lucky enough to rediscover this wonderful unisex EDT by Annick Goutal, the concert pianist turned perfumer.  Mandragore (or Mandrake) is a root that has been historically used as the "magical root" with medicinal (curing sexual impotence) and oftentimes hallucinogenic uses.  I was previously of the impression that this root is sparingly used in perfumery, however, in this case, Annick Goutal makes another magical symphony and I particularly like the spicy notes that cling onto my nasal passageways and linger as a sharp awakening sensation in my mind-- very frank in denoting desire and promoting passion!  Reading the label, I somehow remembered the 1930s comic strip Mandrake the Magician, and somehow, catching a whiff of this lovely scent has taken me back to a more elegant and magical time!

Manosa

Last week, Monique and I had a chance to go jang-jang on a working day, and I took the opportunity to bring her around the business district of Makati.  We found ourselves at the RCBC Plaza, and my initial thought was to grab a burger at the Hungry Hippo counter.  Unfortunately the last available burger was taken by the customer just ahead of us--we missed it by a few minutes!  Luckily, the Manosa noodle house was also in the food court, and we took time to sample the goodies of old Binondo--siomai, ki kiam (with ngo yong or five spices), and their specialty, maki mi!

Maki Mi is a thick cornstarch soup with pork and noodles.  I first encountered this when my cousin Clifford took me to eat in a restaurant very near the Metropolitan Hospital in downtown Manila.  The consistency takes some getting used to, but the flavor is absolutely wonderful!

The meal cost us some P200 per head, and if you have drinks, you can spend something like P250 per head in this restaurant, which was named one of the 10 best Chinese pre-war panciterias in town by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  Check out the food in their different branches citywide!

Silver Phantom

I was just watching a DVD of the Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, when one of the characters hops in a Maybach... such luxury!  While I haven't taken a ride in a Maybach, I remember my first ride in a Rolls Royce--I was like a child with a new plaything!  The Silver Phantom was everything one would dream of!  Lush wooden trim, fancy silver buttons, firm seats.  Well now when I really think about it, it wasn't  that spacious, and the ride wasn't the "floating suspension" that I expected, but what the heck, it was Rolls Royce, and I truly enjoyed the ride!  Yeah man!