incessant rambling

intramuros, 2003 i was going through my old files and realized that i never posted some of these photos i took of intramuros, the walled city of Manila. decided to do some re-work on the shots and converted some to black and white.

i've come full circle. bantayan in cebu is the only "must-visit" place that haven't checked in the four years i've been living in this island paradise. from north to south, east and west, i've practically toured the island. but i never got the chance to visit this "famous" place. the closest i did was on a company outing to San Remigio but i wasn't particularly impressed with the beaches then. fortunately, i got invited to join a trip to bantayan and although it wasn't really a photographer's trip, i was able to get some interesting pics of the tourist spots in the island. (click on read.more) if you're planning a trip to bantayan you must catch the 2:30 AM bus trip from the North Bus Terminal to Bogo and San Remigio (Php 70). The bus drops you off at the Hagnaya port by around 6:00 AM, enough time to grab some breakfast and board the ferry that leaves at 6:30 AM (Php 150 aircon section). by 7:30 AM you dock on the port of Sta. Fe in...

okay, i'm not going to post pics of main dishes for this one. am not really a "starter" type of eater as i'd rather go for the main course. on the other hand, there are a number of appetizers that i absolutely love. chicken samosas in tsai. it looks like fried dumpling. this one gets served with a lemon-infused cream dip. this is definitely not indian, chinese or italian. love this! and if you're looking for great appetizer you can try this crispy, paper thin bruschetta topped with tomatoes, garlic, minced basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and some parmesan for that salty counterpoint. this one's from la tegola. i can literally finish off a plate of this delicious appetisimo! (i'm making up my own words, so don't write back and tell me this is not italian)

i've never really took notice of this small carinderia (food stall) right across off-roads although at one point i was considering making an investment to rent the place for the same purpose. it was too early to go home and i didn't feel like having dinner in off-roads so i decided to pop by the place to check out the food and got myself some chicken afritada and crispy breaded pork chop. forget the swine flu, i can't resist having my pork dishes. this one with a dash of soy sauce and kalamansi lemon makes for an appetizing dinner. yum yum.

i don't know the cute little tot, just saw her playing by herself in Tambuli beach resort in Mactan. Couldn't resist taking a snap of her.

true indian globalization has happened that the ancient practice of yoga has been adopted by different cultures. and in any adoption, props, methods and postures are adapted to suit the local practice. Take for example the case of the Indian Asana Yoga pose that uses benches and other props. This method usually takes 1-3 years to perfect. now observe the mexican yoga adaptation: 3-4 hours to perfect with alcohol as a stimulant. and the true first world adoption of the same yoga pose comes from the british version: 6 minutes to perfect, complete relaxation and uses a boxing glove as an accessory.

i wanted to try a new place and judith recommended tsai in crossroads. it was a quiet sunday lunch and there wasn't much people in the restaurant (in fact, it was just the three of us). we ordered salmon and sun dried tomatoes as appetizers. judith got the molo soup while ron settled for the creamy mushroom soup. for main course, i decided to get some bangus belly that's topped with an onion glaze and served with green mango and bagoong on the side. reminded me of recipes by cafe metro. despite her size, judith is a meat eater and devoured a whole plate of beef salpicao that looked utterly tempting. ron wasn't too happy with his peppered beef steak (it did look a bit dry and overcooked). i am not sure i'd really recommend the place but it would be nice to sample some of that salpicao! just in case you're wondering, tsai means tea - and the place serves gourmet tea from the classic darjeeling to the more exotic lipton, errr... gun powder tea. i probably should go bac...

ask any filipino who is the patron saint of cebu and most would answer "Sto. Nino". the Sinulog, arguably the largest and grandest filipino fiesta, is dedicated to Sto. Nino and this reinforces the thought that the Child Jesus is the patron of the province. which is not exactly right. The Lady of Guadalupe, a persona of the Virgin Mary, is the patroness of Cebu. last holy week i took my boss to visit the cave in Langub where the original image of the Lady of Guadalupe was found by a local trapper of chicken sometime in the late fifties(?). the story goes that devout followers of the Lady of Guadalupe kept the image inside a cave up in Kalunasan to ensure that it is not confiscated and destroyed by Japanese invaders. after the war, the image was left to memory until that day that the local trapper stumbled across a cave overrun by shrubs that covered the entrance and the hills that surround it. if you're planning to do a trek to Langub, you may want to visit the Guadalupe ...

have you ever gone on to google and searched your name? a bit egotistic but there's a thrill as to what you're bound to discover. you never know, old resurrected enemies may have been keeping a blog about you! in any case, i came upon an interesting post from a blogger regarding a trip i made to leyte for a presentation to the Philippine Society of IT Educators and Philippine Society of IT Students. I'm attaching a quote: "Just wanna share what happened to me one of these days. We attended the PSITE and PSITS Joint Congress last March 4, 2009. That’s last Wednesday. We had two speakers there. The first one was Mr. Dennis Tagamolila from Aspire/Aegis People Support (Cebu). He’s a Senior Manager *forgot the full title of his position* of the said company. He’s still young. Beside me on that convention was ann [dwickedme.uni.cc]. We were silent at first and then I told her “oh ann! that man looks ‘bigatin’”. She said “yeah, me too thinks he is.”ahahah! But honestly he’s r...

this one's really late. i went up Good Shepherd with my boss who was in town as he wanted to experience some of the filipino cultural and religious activities during holy week. i decided to have him go through the Stations of the Cross in banawa since i haven't been up that trek. it turned out to be a fantastic photo op as the place is gorgeous with rolling hills, trees, blooming flowers and life sized sculptures depicting the stations. the only disappointment is the array of vendors littering the place that turned an otherwise sombre experience into a fiesta. i'll probably schedule a visit when it's all settled down. enojoy!

i've written about pinoy comfort foods a number of times and adobo is a recurring theme. on a recent visit to Bigby's, i ordered the Chicken Adobo in Gata while Red ordered the Sizzling Pork Belly. Red is "borderline" diabetic (that's what he claims) and I was afraid he crossed the border after consuming the sizzling pork belly. you see, even ants are prone to develop diabetes with the all-cloying-palate-killing sweetness of the glaze they used for the dish. on the plus side, the portions are generous and can be shared by two (midget sized adults). in contrast, the gata (coconut cream) lent a creamy texture to my chicken adobo dish that is complemented by hints of ginger and spicy hot chili. a perfect match to hot sticky rice. then again, i've always had an affair with gata in all sorts of dishes. the only disappointment is that the chicken portions are small, shriveled, tough and a little bit burnt. I am not sure how they prepared the dish but it looked like ...

one would probably think that a restaurant named green house (casa verde) would be the fave of herbivores. ironically, the biggest seller of this old-must-visit-place in cebu city is brian's ribs. don't get grossed out, most of the dishes are named after the fave dishes of family members of the owner. brian's ribs are huge pork rib portions that are soft and glazed with a tangy (tamarind?) sweet sauce. i can only bear to have this dish every other month as i'm not really a fan of sweet viands. this dish is perfect for your me-tarzan-you-jane days, bring a club to complete the image. in fact, my other fave dishes in this restaurant are meats of the four legged variety (except for the crusted oh-so-tender mahi that's also referred to as dolphin fish - but wait! darn, sounded like a tv shopping ad - it's not really dolphin, it just looks like one) the other day, i picked up my best friend in the hospital and we can't decide exactly where we wanted to have lunch...

do you see the similarity? lozada aka the penguin! if you ever watched batman, you probably know he beat the crap out of the penguin and sent him to jail. i'm not saying that mike defensor is batman, as there's an ominous aura around him that can rival a dark sith albeit packaged in a yoda-like body (uh, short?). on the other hand, his case against lozada aka penguin is another fodder for idiotic publicity. heck, i am even writing about lozada. the (b-movie)famous lozada alleges that mike told him to drop his (kidnapping+zte = scam) song and dance number. all throughout his Sound of Music production, his horde of penguins toddle around him to rally support that's growing as thin as the hair on top of his head. lozada's days of skipping over to st. scholastica to deliver his swan song to impressionable young (and not so young) ladies is nearing the finish line. the penguins should keep a watch over him as he just might end up with "family number three". AND if ...

i'm not particularly fond of having my pics snapped as it reminds me that i still need to shed more pounds. it can work both ways, inspire me to run tireless circles in the gym to lose more weight or it can cause severe depression. i just ran five kilometers yesterday and i'm still depressed ha ha ha. anyways, posting a pic of myself in the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol after the signing ceremonies participated by Gwen Garcia, Cebu Provincial Governor together with some partners in the IT, BPO and Government Agencies. A call to arms is given to help the increasing ranks of unemployed Cebuanos.

i've learned my lesson. i wasn't so sure how i was going to tell the waiter that i wanted Le Charcroute and my companion gave up all pretenses of trying to sound french and pointed at the dish named Boeuf Bourguignon. if anyone was listening, they must have assumed we're cavemen who managed to murder every single food item in the menu of Le Maison. The only thing that we got right was Tomato Chowder and Wild Mushroom Soup. thank the food-gods they named it in english. i took a particular sadistic enjoyment in asking the waiter to pronounce each and every difficult food name in the list. it got so bad he ended up with a lock jaw. totally nosebleed. it didn't help that his accent was rather uh... beri depekult to understan in the first place. it wasn't a surprise then that the food lived up to its name. if you can't pronounce it, there's a big chance you won't be able to really eat it. the soups turned out fantastic but the main dishes was a total let down...