incessant rambling

the camera panned to the right and edward cullen stepped into the frame to resounding shrieks from the mostly (girl) tween audience. one girl beside me was screeching so loud it was like scratching the blackboard with a fingernail. and guess what they were hollering? "AAAAAAY BAKLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" ang pula pula ng labi nya! para sya naka foundation?! shet, ang kapal ng kilay! ang baduy ng damit?! denim jacket? a ha ha ha ha, a hi hi hi hi. i honestly believe that the producers are cashing in on the highschool musical syndrome - cute works for animation, but for real-life action, we can only stomach so much. besides, there's not much "action" going on. there you go, the most anticipated movie sucked. pun intended.

friends left for london last saturday. i stayed in a coffee shop and read books. i've had my share of goodbyes but it doesn't make the next one much easier. so i comforted myself with the memory of friends sharing food and hearty laughs rather than standing in a crowded airport and waving teary bu-byes.. if mama inday took my advice, am sure she brought adult diapers with her to the airport. you see, they're more absorbent than the usual hankies. her eyes were a bit puffy when i saw her in ayala with papa dodong and ron. dinner was in the agenda and when i got there they were waiting in line to be seated in teriyaki boy. bad decision really. the previous night we stood for almost 30 minutes before everyone trooped over to harbour city. we ended up falling in line for sbarro. i was happy really, you see i've always loved italian food but was a bit disappointed as they didn't have my roasted chicken and spaghetti combo that night. i decided to order the lasagna as i w...

the newspapers claim there's a global recession. really now? drop by ayala and people are literally lining up for expensive restaurants. walk inside and you behold a 40 foot tall christmas tree decked in opulent gold. even the dragonflies swarming around the tree are made up in gold with ruby eyes. yup, dragonflies. then again, christmas if often an escape from reality.

red, am near SM already, pick you up in front of starbucks, northwing. are you hungry? very. i didn't expect red to order sinigang na isda (fish chunks in a chili-tamarind soup base), lechon kawali liempo (pork belly fried to a crackling crisp), sinugba nga liempo (grilled pork belly), sinugba nga nokos (grilled stuffed squid) and torta nga talong (grilled giant eggplant, flattened, soaked in egg, topped with onions, seasoned in salt and pepper and deep fried) sinugba nga nokos since he's on a diet he didn't order any rice. right. i kept asking him if he's really sure about the order and he said: "yup. besides i'm not eating any rice" i totally forgot his previous answer: "very". sinugba nga liempo torta nga talong tinola nga isda so there we are, the waitress looking at us like we're escapees from a concentration camp and us getting our giant bibs out to dive into the food laid out in front of us. we didn't even bother to use knives, for...

japanese, korean, chinese, mexican - i've munched on a pretty wide selection the past few weeks (there goes the diet) because ivan and darryl are bent on having dinner (practically every night) with family and friends before they fly back to london. good thing i really can't join lunches otherwise it would be an eating binge the whole day. am just about ready to say "no" the next time they called for an invite but dinner last wednesday was special. you see, they wanted to get together family members and friends in cafe laguna. local food. i realized i haven't written anything about local restaurants although majority of my favorites are the ones that serve the naytib kind. and cafe laguna is one that no one should miss if they get the chance to visit cebu. the formula is old, the menu a bit of a cliche but it's something you'd want to do again, and again. and again. start off with crispy kangkong (swamp cabbage leaves) dipped in tartar sauce to whet the ap...

Ivan and Daryl came home from london and brought a surprise for me: a gorgeous black and white pair of sneakers from adidas, the Ibiza. I was so tempted to plant my feet on top of the table, throw my arms behind my head and rock the chair. then again, that's uncivilized, so i'll have to be happy with a furtive peek every now and then. Thanks I&D!

simone: hey! i read about you in the paper yesterday (Sunstar, 24 Nov 2008, A22) cacho: feck. i guess they finally wrote about THAT. whatever you read, don't believe a word. i wasn't there and i wasn't with the people they probably mentioned in the news... simone: huh? sure but you have a picture together with... cacho: double feck. okay, that wasn't me, that wasn't cuenco and that person you think looks like yoda IS yoda and that big fat tall guy is not mike a., that's jabba the hut. and i absolutely did not receive Php 500,000 pesos from Pandak. as cuenco said, it was all a joke. simone: uh, so that wasn't the 3rd mega Hilton Anniversary party? cacho: ah. oh. hmmm. that one. ah. okay... *blush* yeah, that was me. BUT i didn't use part of the 500 thousand to buy the uber delicious wagyu beef burger from Hilton!

it was an interesting conversation with friends who are in town from london. you see, they can't help but shake their heads when they have that occasional conversation with a brit whose idea of the philippines is some backward mud-flat where people still live in trees. for the love of whatever is sane, how can they imagine such inanity when a third of their nurses are filipinos? show me a country who can produce tree-top nurses and i guarantee you their civilization would be the most advanced. hmmm, so i guess every opportunity i get, i try to snap a picture of them in the terraces in ayala, inside the gorgeous mall and most recently, underneath the gigantic christmas tree resplendent with gold, gold and more gold! at the very least, if someone asks them if filipinos still live in trees we can tell them we do: gold trees. hmmp.

September 1, monday, eight in the morning and the jeep was crawling through the traffic that started from fuente all the way to downtown. it was a good idea not to bring my car, the hassle of going through morning traffic and finding parking in UC is enough to induce anxiety attacks. my half-sleepy reverie was disrupted by the jarring sound of Oh da weder outside is PAYTpol, (with extra emphasis on the syllable just before the last) but the fire es so BELATpol, (i am sure i heard this one) and since hmmm.. hmmm... hmmm. hmmmm... (i think they forgot the lyrics at this point) LEEEEET EEET SNOW LET EEET SNOW LEEET EEET SNOW! (chorus SHOUTING) that reminded me that Christmas season starts the first day of the BER months and the horde of boys hanging by the backside of the jeep serenading the passengers with their delightful caroling. curiously, the street lights and decors are late this year. even ayala, set up their tree late into november. if you want a feel of a grand Christmas, don...

considering that i've been living in cebu for the better part of four years, i haven't written about the famous cebuano "lechon". manilenos always ask for lechon every time someone from Cebu flies over. never mind that it is not exactly hand carry material, that and the oh-so-crispylicious-skin resemble rubber by the time the plane does a landing in manila. that aside, i was invited to a lechon party over the weekend. we're not celebrating anything, people just wanted to have a reason to gut some pig, stick them in a pole and roast them for hours over a coal pit. they also served the sinfully rich ginger-fragrant dinuguan (pig's blood stew) and puso , an ingenious way of cooking rice grains stuffed inside a coccoon made out of coconut leaves and boiled until it becomes glutinous and sticky. "puso" is unique to cebu and form half of a balanced diet: a barbecue in one hand, puso in another. suffice to say that it took less than an hour to devour the w...

one thing i've realized in manila is that places, people and events are very much the result of hype and very good public relations. saturday night i joined friends to have dinner in The Sizzling Pepper Steak in the new Terraces of Ayala Cebu. we had to wait for about ten minutes before they can sit us. fortunately, their guarantee of a fast heating hot plate made the wait much shorter before our orders were served. they are known for their Sizzling Pepper sets that has the mixed seafood, beef, pork and chicken variations as well as their own version of the salisbury steak that is paired with breaded chicken, shrimp or bacon. they do serve kiddie combination meals (on hindsight, after seeing euan down a plate, i also wanted to swap my order for his...sigh) - for more pics and commentaries, click on read.more andrew's tenderloin steak got served ahead of everyone else and it was interesting to note that hot plates are fitted with a carton tube that fits the rim - the better to c...

i was seven (or eight?) when i moved to bacolod city for studies and stayed with my cousins for two years. sundays usually start with mass then going back to the house for brunch. and brunch is not complete without crumbled skinless chorizo mixed with fried rice and egg. the sweet-spicy-garlicky-fiery-red bits of pork and meat fried to a carcinogenic-black-toast is one thing that i truly relish as that part of my childhood. breakfast today at offroads as i have to get the car cleaned (it resembles a black leopard with white dusty spots) and looking forward to the rain that inadvertently fall EVERY time i get the dang car washed. oh well, ordered myself skinless chorizo breakfast and for a moment, with every mouthful, smiled like a kid.

who would have expected to find bulgogi in a dessert place? postrio is known for its coffee and dessert selection that it was a surprise to find out they offer meals, sandwiches and other assorted eats that are not of the sweet or caffeinated kind. the dish is flavorful enough though it was too oily. the usual bulgogi dishes i've had use radish chunks to absorb most of the oil coming from the beef slices. on the positive side, this one had carrot slices that livened the otherwise brown dish, shiitake mushroom for that pungent smoky after taste and i am almost certain they had ox tongue chunks that got mixed with the beef slices. lengua is always a favorite and its strong flavors lent a fullness to every bite. yummy. do i recommend it? yes, just make sure you scoop out the oil. i love mixing the salty-sweet-gingery sauce with the hot steaming rice that came along with the dish. a perfect bite: stewed carrots, tender beef chunks, ox tongue and shiitake mushrooms on top of rice. the c...

Dyos Ko Lhoord. I had tears in my eyes and was gasping for air for a couple of minutes. I am so totally floored by this video. I swear, we filipinos don't take ourselves too seriously and I'm glad for that!!! He he he

aguinaldo is probably turning in his grave. under his name, dubious government officials are getting away scott free for any accountability and penalties for administrative cases filed against them. the doctrine implies administrative cases against any government official can be dropped with no need to serve the penalties if they are re-elected into any government post. it carries the understanding that the people willingly voted scrupulous idiots back into their throne. that makes us worse than idiots, nincompoops and morons. then again, a barangay vote in the philippines is just the equivalent of a starbucks coffee. brewed. plain. given the fact that litigation for these cases are not necessarily under the normal judicial branch but carried out by the ombudsman, any investigation and subsequent appeals can drag a simple case through the full length of an official's term. ergo, any findings positive on the decision that the said official is deserving of an administrative case is a...

Judith has been going loco over the ribs at El Loco so i decided to hie off and grab some for lunch. here are the pics. you decide. yumi. soft. tender. plain salt and pepper. no catsup. i will be back! ribs come with java rice, salsa and refried beans. the perfect carnivorous bite. tender meat with a bit of fat, salty java rice and the tangy flavors of mexican salsa. once you pop, you can't stop. here's my verdict: OK. get it? "Ok" El Loco G/F Skyrise Building 1 IT Park, Lahug, Cebu City Philippines

i was supposed to travel (by bus) to negros occidental last week but decided to stay in cebu because of the erratic weather. friday night my best friend called up if i wanted to join a trip to kawasan in badian. that perked my attention as it's one place i've been wanting to tick off from my list but i was having second thoughts because of the weather. in any case, i found myself getting on a v-hire van heading to simala early saturday morning. it is very filipino to have a religious icon somewhere inside any transportation and i spotted the sto. nino de cebu on the dashboard, i have a bible on my dashboard. perhaps to keep me sane when i get royally pissed at some stupid fellow cutting me off in traffic. i wasn't so sure if it was an omen, but the rain kept pouring outside. the balikbayans wanted to visit the shrine to offer thanksgiving before heading off to kawasan but i secretly believed they were praying for better weather. you see, one has to trek for a kilometer and...