rants and raves

rants and raves
on films, books, food, restaurants, favorite haunts in Metro Manila (and now, Philadelphia)...

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

I have this sudden urge to take up golf. No one in my immediate family plays golf so it's never really been an easily accessible sport for me. But I really think it will help with socializing and all that. My parents both considered taking up golf before, so they could play with their clients and stuff. Hmmm, playing golf would be a huge time investment though. And it’s not cheap. And I’ll get darker. And it’s hardly exercise, I think. But there are a lot of intangible benefits to being a regular player. I’ll ask around and figure things out soon.

****

My youngest sister now informs me that the jumbo haw flakes I bought smell like feet. She still appreciates the thought though. And youngest brother has been devouring it, stinky smell and all.

****

Cheesecake Rant: I had a midnight snack in Cheesecakes Etc. We ordered a sampler plate (PHP240) that had some mango cheesecake thing, double Belgian cheesecake, and Butter Finger cheesecake. Two strikes out of three, both the mango and Butterfinger cheesecakes tasted disgustingly gelatin-ish. I’m a HUGE fan of cheesecake and I’m very particular whenever I have some. The Belgian cheesecake was deliciously rich though, it was so thick that it took a while to chew all the sticky goodness up. I might go back to order to Belgian cheesecake, but I suspect it’s the only good thing on their menu. None of that other gelatin-based cheesecake for me.

posted by wys | 11:54 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

I went to Binondo today, for what I think is the first time in my life. I had no idea where Binondo was and had a fun time looking out the window for the whole ride there. I was indoors most of the time, but what little time I spent outside was pretty interesting.

The building exteriors are still a million years old, with Chinese characters all over the place. So walking around Binondo almost felt like Hong Kong, albeit a much warmer version with lotsa brown skinned folk. Horse-drawn kalesas are still pretty popular, but probably more for the tourists than an actual means of transportation.

I got to buy a few Chinese goodies from this store called Polland. It was well lit, and had a nice display of all different kinds of hopia—regular mongo, pork, Japanese … and so on. I bought two packs of regular hopia (PHP23, still warm!), some preserved pork tapa thing (PHP50), and jumbo haw flakes (PHP40) for my two youngest siblings.

Would have eaten in this supposedly semi-famous Binondo Chinese restaurant called Savory, but time was a lacking.

posted by wys | 11:53 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 27, 2003

The Corned Beef Review

Argentina Corned Beef – This was really gross. I know I’m not the target market for Argentina but friggin neon pink corned beef? This is as gross as it’ll get. Maybe they’re going by the more artificial it looks the better mantra. Surprisingly, they’re still a best seller among the CD social classes. And I don’t know if it was the color that affected my taste buds, but I thought it hardly tasted like beef at all … more like some mutated unrecognizable mush.

Pure Foods Corned Beef – This is what my mum usually buys, a staple from my childhood. It’s overall okay, not too oily, not to mushy. A little on the stringy side. The best of local corned beef brands, I would say.

Palm Corned Beef – It’s extremely oily, but it tastes a lot more fresh that most local brands. The meat isn’t completely ground up into a mushy stringy mess, and there are a lot of nice big intact chunks of meat.

Tina’s Freshly Boiled Corned Beef – Of course the winner is … what I cooked myself. It takes a lot of time to thoroughly cook a slab of corned beef but the results are worth it. Like I’ve said before, Unimart (in Greenhills) sells raw corned beef so head over there and grab yourself your own chunk of meat. Practically preservative free, it’s a markedly new and different corned beef experience for most.

What’s your favorite corned beef?

posted by wys | 11:25 AM

Saturday, April 26, 2003

MOVIE RAVE
Phone Booth (2003)

At first I wondered how interesting a movie about a man (cute as he may be) trapped in a phone booth could actually get. Surprisingly, from the moment Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) picks up a call from a crazed madman (Kiefer Sutherland), up to the very end of the 81 minute movie, I found myself completely engaged. While Farrell could only muster a semi-decent Bronx accent, he played the public relations shark for all the wretchedness the character was worth.

It was a semi-plausible scenario, and the film was paced quickly enough for the audience to gloss over all the seemingly illogical scenarios presented. The madman calls Stu on the last phone booth in Manhattan to teach him a lesson, and Stu is shocked to discover that the sniper knows a lot about his personal life. But why oh why in this age when people carry four mobile phones each was Stu hanging around the phone booth to begin with? Apparently he would use it to regularly call aspiring young actress Pamela (Katie Holmes, who bugged me to death) because his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell) would go over his cell phone records. Uh, okay.

Now the sniper wanted Stu to confess to Pamela, Kelly, and the rest of the world was a scumbag he was. But Stu’s affection for Pamela only went as far as a crush. What bugged me about the sniper’s motivation was that Stu’s supposed sins hardly measured up to those of the other hotshots the sniper bragged about killing.

After the sniper shoots down a loud-mouthed pimp who wanted Stu to vacate the booth, the police arrive and naturally assume that Stu was the shooter. Chaos ensues. Larry Cohen’s story, borne of an idea pitched to Alfred Hitchcock 30 years ago, is interesting and action-packed enough to make me forgive the muddled moral message woven into the movie. I was never a big fan of director Joel Schumacher, but he does good here with unconventional documentary-style and music video-type shots. Phone Booth is thoroughly entertaining and Colin Farrell’s star can only shine brighter from hereon.

Phone Booth is currently showing in Metro Manila Theaters.

posted by wys | 1:31 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 25, 2003

Cinco de Mayo is coming up! I know no one in the Philippines really knows or cares about the holiday, but I just see it as another excuse to host a dinner party. The holiday is commonly associated with Mexican Independence, but actually commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862.

In any case, cooking up a Mexican feast seems like an interesting culinary challenge for myself. I haven’t really researched in depth what dishes are feasible but my initial menu reads:

Chunky Guacamole: Guacamole Picado
Chicken Empanada
Fresh Corn and Red Pepper Tamales
Beef Fajitas
Burritos
Leche Quemada (Caramelized Milk)
Fried Ice Cream
Churros

Of course this is all probably too much and I’ll have to make more specific choices later on. And I might end up killing myself trying to cook a host of dishes I’ve never tried making before.

posted by wys | 11:01 PM 0 comments

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Just saw X-Men 2 at Greenhills tonight. The theaters there are actually pretty nice, just a little on the small side. I got to see some new trailers too: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Agent Cody Banks (yuck) and Matrix Reloaded.

posted by wys | 11:17 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

RESTO-RAVE
O’sake
G/F Glorietta 2, Makati

Glorietta seems terribly out-of-date when compared to Greenbelt these days. But they new have a new row of mid-priced restaurants in Glorietta 2, on what used to be a parking lot I think. Sample finds: Gerry’s Grill, Gilligan’s (formerly on Katipunan), Max’s, North Park and W (P2 rice, P2 iced tea, and one of those mechanical bull things rodeo-star wannabes get to ride on). We ended up in O’sake, a Japanese restaurant owned by the same group that runs Zen, a slightly more upscale restaurant beside Tower Records.

I like the way they paid attention to the most minute details in the decor. Each place setting had a paper napkin topped with a small polished stone for setting chopsticks on, and a small piece of a banana leaf right underneath the stone. Centerpieces were small clear glasses filled with mongo beans and few bamboo shoots. Thirty-two limited edition Rock Drilon clocks (sold at Anonymous) showed both Manila Time and Tokyo Time.

I had tuna sashimi (P110), and it was as good as I’ve tasted anywhere else. I also ordered tofu steak (P80), which was a slim piece of tofu topped with a sugar-soy sauce mixture and a lot of colorful vegetables. We also had edamame (boiled beans, P45) and kani salad (P60). Nothing really adventurous in what we ordered, but with prompt service, generally good Japanese cuisine, and kooky Japanese Pop playing in the background, a return visit is in order.

posted by wys | 10:55 PM

Monday, April 21, 2003

Easter Dinner cooking notes:

I made freshly boiled corned beef served with potatoes and cabbage. It was easy piecey, but still a well received dish because it’s not that common to have fresh corned beef. I served it with horse radish on the side, I wanted to get one of those toothpaste-like tubes of mustard but Santis was closed this past week. If I had leftovers, I could have used this great recipe for corned beef mash. Alas, it was all gone in minutes.

Another easy piecey dish was roasted turkey breast. Just haphazardly rub salt, pepper and olive oil all over … stick it in the oven and you’re done. I made a lot of turkey stuffing (which isn’t actually stuffed in the turkey) but no one really ate that. My grandmother told me that it was yummy, but Filipinos generally don’t know how to eat stuffing.

We also had grilled Norwegian salmon steaks. My wine vinegar-garlic-lemon-pepper marinade was a little over powering but a little Food 911 adjusting saved it.

For the kids we had lasagna and pork barbeque, ubiquitous Pinoy party food.

Dessert was a delicious Chocolate Blackout Cake from Divine Desserts. They’re located along Katipunan and you can call them at 913-9875, 439-3069. Everything I’ve tried on their menu has been really good.

posted by wys | 8:55 PM

Saturday, April 19, 2003

In the 21 April 2003 issue of Time, there's a funny bit on John Cusack dating Meg Ryan:

They "form what may be the cutest couple the human species has every produced. Seriously, if they ever have a kid, it's gonna come out a Care Bear."

posted by wys | 10:56 PM 0 comments

I found this kooky diet booklet in the house, a remnant of the 70s with these totally unhealthy crash diets “guaranteed” to get the pounds off in the least amount of time possible. The listed diets are:

The 10-Day-10-Pounds-Off Diet – low carb, high fat, grapefruit allowed
The 16-Day Super Diet – aka the Atkins Diet
The Drinking Man’s Diet – low carb, alcohol allowed
The Quick Weight Loss Diet – low carb, no fats
The Grapefruit Diet
The Nibbling Diet – six very small meals a day
The Rice Diet – rice with fruit, rice with veggies, rice with more veggies
The Hot Dog Diet
The Vegetable and Fruit Diet
The Milk Diet – three or four meals, only one of them solid
The Meat and Mushroom Diet
The Skim Milk and Banana Diet
The Egg and Wine Diet
The Cottage Cheese Blitz
The Steak and Tomato Diet
The Egg and Orange Diet
The Gourmet Diet –smoked salmon, champagne, caviar, pate, lobster, crab
The Strawberry and Cream Diet

All in the name of vanity. As Ivana Trump said, “You can never be too rich or too thin.”

posted by wys | 10:40 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 18, 2003

Randomizing:

I’m still planning Easter dinner. So far I have the following menu: roasted root vegetables, grilled salmon pepper steaks, roasted turkey breast with fixins, asparagus and tomato pasta salad. And I think we’re not hiding any boiled eggs this Easter, just plastic ones with a little money and some candy inside.

I thought at least some establishments would have been open yesterday (Holy Thursday) but nothing was. We drove around in vain looking for a place to get away from the dreariness and dullness of our homes. Greenhills was supposed to be open, and parts of it were: Unimart, Pizza Hut, Mister Donut, Tropical Hut. So we bought some chicaron bulaklak from the grocery, had nice cool glasses of Orange Julius shakes (made with Greenhills tap water and powdered milk … YUM), and a couple of Tropical Hut Cheeseburgers.

This would be the perfect time of the year to go somewhere like Boracay, Metro Manila is practically comatose, but over there it’s parties round the clock. Well, next month I’ll be heading out to Ilo-ilo for a welcome change of scenery.

I want one of those huge Bobby-Flay-type outdoor grills, that would be so much fun. Although it might be one of those cooking tools that you use for the first few weeks and totally forget about later on.

posted by wys | 10:48 AM

Tips from Food Network on how to make the perfect hard-cooked egg:

The perfect boiled egg actually is not boiled at all. Boiling the egg makes the protein unpleasantly rubbery and can give a nasty green cast to the outer layer of the yolk. Follow this foolproof method for a firm but tender white and a smooth, butter-yellow yolk--a truly eggcellent egg:

To prevent cracking during cooking, prick the larger end of the egg with a pin. This provides an escape hatch for the air trapped there.
Place eggs in a deep saucepan in a single layer. Pour in enough water to cover eggs by 1 inch.
Set the saucepan over heat and then bring the water just to the boil.
Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and place a cover on top.
Let the eggs sit for 15 minutes.
Place the eggs in a bowl of ice water for 4 minutes to cool, then refrigerate.

Your eggs are now ready for dipping and dyeing. Remember, if you're going to eat the eggs, don't leave them out of the refrigerator for more than two hours.

posted by wys | 10:36 AM 0 comments

Saturday, April 12, 2003

RESTAURANT RANT
The Thai Kitchen
2/F JW Plaza, E. Rodriguez Jr., Libis

This restaurant was recommended by the “Guide to Restaurants.” Blech. It was generally okay, but nothing worth a return visit. We were looking for a good place to eat in the Libis area, and ended up here. I thought it would be exactly like Thai in a Box (which disappeared from the Ortigas area), but it wasn’t as yummy. We started with sea food rice (P110), bland beyond repair, and beancurd with asian celery, (P65) the most delicious dish we ordered. Then we had the pandan chicken (P135), which was moderately good but a little oily. Phad Thai Noodles (P130) I was expecting to be good but again it suffered from a terrible bout of blandness.

Interior decors are interesting, strong colors on the walls and little Thai-ish trinkets all over the place. Service was also prompt and courteous. Still, there are better Thai places out there, and I pretty much dislike dining in the Libis area in general.

posted by wys | 9:48 PM 0 comments

BOOK RANT
Guide to Restaurants in Manila
Published by Encyclea

I picked up this book in the bookstore after perusing it really quickly. I had read a few press releases about it and it looked like an interesting resource for new restaurant finds. All restaurant reviews have a general rating, average price per diner, the special dishes, operating hours, contact numbers, a little location map, and a general description. It looked good enough in the bookstore. But after looking over the entire book more thoroughly I realized that the actual reviews given are pretty unreliable and not in synch with my own personal tastes.

They rated restaurants that I hated with pretty high marks. Ugh. And because there are so many authors involved in the production of the book (thirteen are credited) I felt as if there was no real cohesiveness and uniformity in the way all the restaurants are rated. I think the methodology of the Zagat restaurant guides are better—they survey thousands of consumers (so it’s a little difficult to cheat here) and they rate three aspects: food, ambiance/décor, service. All in all it looks like I’ll find a handful of interesting places, but I have to take everything with a grain of salt.

posted by wys | 9:46 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 11, 2003

My Friday Five:

1. What was the first band you saw in concert?
Hootie and the Blowfish I think. Or Michael Jackson in that overpriced Manila concert a few years back.

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?
The Dave Matthews Band.

3. What's your favorite song?
I don’t like to restrict myself to singular favorite songs (or movies for that matter). So no answer for me to this question.

4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?
The piano, I took lessons for quite a while. I like the way it sounds, and the complexity of pieces one can perform. I don’t have the dedication and discipline to practice for hours on end though.

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?
Madonna—I think it’s so cool how she keeps on reinventing herself. She makes a lot of lousy movies, but she’s still a totally great musician and performer.

posted by wys | 9:13 PM 0 comments

This morning I'm throwing together some creamy tuna pasta (it has a much better name than that in the recipe book) for lunch. Ingredients: one can of oily tuna (a remnant from Christmas), one lemon, parsley, one can of button mushrooms, garlic, onions, butter, olive oil, cream, some icky San Remo pasta that'll probably fall flat on me later. Not altogether that hard. Cooking actually isn't all that difficult. You just need to live with an army that you can feed every time you want to experiment, and there's a little bit of mathematics involved. Or artistry if one is tired of measuring ingredients.

posted by wys | 6:09 AM 0 comments

Thursday, April 10, 2003

RESTAURANT RAVE
MYLK: My Little Kitchen
2/F Greenbelt 3

This looks like one of the more interesting restaurants in Greenbelt 3’s restaurant row (Greenbelt 2 houses pricier dining options). The interiors are brightly lit, none of that pa-trendy dark lighting here, and the walls are painted a serene lilac and sea green. Salted dried green peas were served so we had something to munch on while figuring out what to order. We started with the spinach gorgonzola dip served with crostini, very flavorful but a little on the runny side. I then had a mushroom tofu stir-fry served with rice. This was a delicious mix of shitake mushrooms in a sweet soy sauce and basil type mixture, topped with yummy deep fried tofu. Service was excellent (although we were among the only ones in the restaurant at that time), and I’ll probably pay them a return visit soon.

MYLK is open for lunch and dinner. Call them at 757.4802.

posted by wys | 9:46 PM 0 comments

VIDEO RAVE
Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)

This is one of those indie-type movies about a moderately good looking single twenty-something in Manhattan. I remembered seeing trailer to it on the Apple website and it looked interesting enough. I didn’t expect to like the movie as much as I did though. Jessica Stein is single, but not for lack of trying. The film employs the age-old (almost hackneyed) method of cutting from one bad date to another sitting across our heroine in the same table in the same restaurant, still managing to elicit a lot of laughs. Among the losers she’s dated: the geeky accountant that splits the bill according to who ate the more expensive lettuce in the shared salad; the sleazy muscleman that likes to rub his nipples; the “writer” that would “mal-use” words in the worst way.

One day a coworker reads a personal ad that piques Jessica’s interest, only to realize that it was under the “Women Seeking Women” category. Still, Jessica is intrigued and soon sets a date with Chelsea gallery owner Helen. They hit it off instantly and when they’re not making out with each other they’re complimenting each other’s outfits and exchanging make-up secrets. Everything in this movie feels genuine, and the dialogue comes across as being very real with none of the usual contrived lines Hollywood spits out at hungry audiences. I highly recommend this movie to girls (and romantic-ish guys) everywhere.

posted by wys | 9:43 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

PUERTO GALERA RAVES

ice cold fruit shakes
fresh seafood
nice cool sea breeze
perfect view of the stars against the pitch black sky
cheap cheap cheap everything
lots of opportunity to talk (there’s nothing else to do)
beach massages
tourist souvenirs: shirts, shell bracelets, friendship bracelets, colorful sarongs

PUERTO GALERA RANTS

dirty waters in some parts
lots of trash left my stupid visitors
less beautiful people than in Boracay
less than fancy accommodations (I’m a spoiled traveler)
lack of trees to shade me from the wrinkling sun (two words: skin cancer)
bad service at all the restaurants (pouty, slow waitresses)
too many boats by the shoreline
very dated music at all the bar-type places

For 3D/2N I SPENT:

P 800 accommodations
P 875 food
P 553.25 transportation
P 450 fun stuff (massages, snorkeling)
P 95 tourist items (bracelet + shirt)

TOTAL: P 2773.25

I had a pretty fun weekend, if only for the company of my friends. But I really hate the beach. It’s like you go to this hot sandy place to do … nothing. My whole family dislikes the beach. Case in point: we went to Hawaii a few years ago and we went to a grand total of one beach, and it was only my then 10-year old brother that swam … for a grand total of thirty minutes. We spent most of our time looking at volcanoes and eating macadamia nuts.

I’m more of an adventure vacation type of person. Well not necessarily “adventure” as in death-defying stunts and tricks, but I do like to keep moving. I love places with a lot of sights and photo opportunities. Anywhere with a lot of museums, historical monuments. And of course lots of places to eat eat eat. It’s such a waste when travelers in a foreign land end up eating in McDonald’s because it’s cheap and familiar. You’re in a new country, experiment for crying out loud!

I asked my other friends what their ideal vacations were like. One said hers would be similar to mine—going to a lot of museums and eating a whole lot, basically hitting big cities. Another said she would love to take a working vacation (something I don’t completely understand)—I think she meant somewhere she could make mini-documentaries of the place; and of course the ubiquitous but not-oft tried dream of backpacking through Europe. The friend who put the Puerto Galera trip together of course has a week at the beach doing nothing but scratching her tummy as her ideal.

What’s your ideal vacation?

posted by wys | 9:29 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 04, 2003

My FridayFive:

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?
I've only really lived in my current house my whole life. For a little less than a year, we moved to Valle Verde 5 while our current house was undergoing major renovation (my parents planned to have 4 children, they ended up with 7). And last year I spent a few months with my sister in her Manhattan apartment.

2. Which was your favorite and why?
I love my current house the best, because it's always been mine. I don't think I'll move out before I get married.

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?
I hate moving, packing. There was this time, five or so years ago, when there was always a room being renovated in our house so I had to move around a bit. Placing my stuff in boxes is tedious, boring and dusty ... although I would always find stuff I forgot I had kept.

4. What's more important, location or price?
I would rather have a not-so-nice house in a central location than a nice house in the outskirts of the metro. Although I wouldn't mind living somewhere as far from Makati and Ortigas as Ayala Alabang.

5. What features does your dream house have?
I would have a gorgeous kitchen where I could cook all the time (even after a long day at work). And I would have a really nice bathroom with a bathtub with feet. And walls upon walls of bookshelves.

posted by wys | 11:05 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

BOOK RAVE
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
By E.L. Konigsburg

This is such a great children’s book, I remember reading it being required reading for school when I was in the fifth grade. I bought a small boxed set of three Newberry Award Winning books for my 12-year old sister, so she’d stop feeding her brain garbage like Archie comics and those terrible novelized TV show books. I might read the other two books next, these books are such breezy reads I can finish them in single sittings.

The story is told from the point of view of Mrs. Frankweiler, who is writing a letter to her lawyer explaining why she wants certain portions of her will changed. Fifth grade Claudia Kincaid is intelligent, adventurous, and under-appreciated by her parents. To give her parents a lesson in Claudia-appreciation, she decides to run away from home. She selects Jamie, her third grade brother, because he’s stingy and probably has enough money for running away.

Thus begins their adventure. Claudia has decided that they were to hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, where they manage to sleep every night unnoticed. After a week of sleeping in the humongous antique beds, bathing in the museum fountain, and doing their own laundry, the two siblings feel just about ready to head back home. But then they encounter a mysterious statue called Angel that may or may not have been sculpted by Michelangelo. Claudia sees it as her mission to find out who the true creator of the statue is.

The two heroes of the story do seem rather sophisticated and mature for their ages, I know I never would have been able to pull off running away at their age as well as they did. But it is nonetheless a very entertaining story about two children who go on the adventure of their lifetime and the underrated value of keeping secrets.

posted by wys | 6:58 PM 0 comments

FOOD RANT
Pizza Hut’s Sausage Stuffed Crust Pizza

We had a midnight snack of pizza (P395) last night. I was a little intrigued by the TV commercials of Pizza Hut promoting their new sausage stuffed crust pizzas (even if the TVCs weren’t really that good). Toppings were okay, the usual not-so-fresh-but-still-generally-yummy fare. It was the crust that was a total disappointment. I was used to the thick, crunchy, oily old fashioned pan pizza crust, but instead got a mealy, chewy, paper thin crust. The sausage stuffed into crust was pretty innovative, but the terrible crust was practically falling apart when I would bite into sausage part. Yuck, that’s the last time I’m ordering that. Heck, that might even be the last time I’ll order from Pizza Hut.

posted by wys | 6:38 PM 0 comments

rants and raves

Currently writing from Philadelphia ... but will continue with informal reviews on films, books, food, restaurants, favorite haunts in Manila (when I'm home); and the occasional self-indulgent essay.

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recents

BOOKS:

2008 in Books

The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman

The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

MOVIES:

2008 in Movies