incessant rambling

yummy, delicious, california maki, tokyo tokyo, a complete meal with mango, rice, fake kani (crab meat), roe, wasabi and a bit of kikkoman sauce. not. don't order this one, i love eating in tokyo2 but didn't particularly like the california maki. sour mango and a bit cold.

my friends know that i'm not particularly fond of sweets. but EVERY time i find myself in Seattle's Best i MUST order the coconut macaroons. it's disgustingly sweet, sticky, grainy, nutty, oily and faaaantastic. it's too sweet i swear ants get diabetes by having a bite. it's so sweet it reminds me of wena, disgustingly sweet but mildly annoying. order tea to go along and savor each tiny bit. don't hesitate the use the flat side of your fork to scrape whatever sticks to the... to the... (okay you fill in the name of the paper that you use to mold cupcakes)

A distinctive 'S' shaped double curve, commonly found on chair arms - that's the web definition of Cyma. for most, it's just the name of a restaurant that serves Mediterranean and one opened in cebu (the terraces, ayala) recently. i've always liked cyma in manila and decided to grab dinner in the place when i got the chance to travel for work sometime early august. if you're new to the place, you must order the gyro (somehow the waiter pronounced it as "hero") as that's a typical order. it's presented like shawarma with pita stuffed with onions, tomatoes, grilled meats and a special sauce that gives it a peanuty garlicky flavor. the most popular would be chicken and beef but i personally prefer lamb. you have the option to repcae the pita with lettuce to make your wrap a bit "healthier". if you're inclined, you can spread the gyro and cut it up into pieces very much like a side salad. ask for a slice of lemon and bit of olive oil ...

dinner alone is not unusual for me. dinner alone, in italianni's is a bit unusual for anyone though. specially when everyone else is with a date, family or group and i'm seated by myself, camera in hand playing with my food before wolfing down the meal. saturday night and coming from a long run in legazpi park, i went back to my unit in perla mansion to freshen up before deciding to head off to greenbelt in ayala for dinner. i was thinking of teriyaki boy (nah, had enough japanese for a while), tokyo tokyo (another japanese option), cafe mediterranean (was not really keen on pita and humus) and on and on and on. there are a number of boutique restaurants in greenbelt but i was underdressed to even get a table. whereas in cebu you only worry about the food, in manila, you worry about the food, your outfit, your budget and your date. italianni's eventually became my final stop and i settled on a table on the second level of the restaurant. at least if i get bored i can do som...

the indian food stall in legaspi sunday market is a real disaster as the food was not even remotely close to the real thing. frustrated, i searched for another indian restaurant near legaspi village where i stayed in my most recent trip to manila. new bombay and swagat were the closest. i heard horror stories of some undesirable life forms in the samosas of new bombay (uh, little thingies that had six or eight legs) so i told cat to accompany me to swagat. her first reaction was that it wasn't really that good. on the other hand, she mentioned that her group previously asked the food to be mildly spiced and it came back resembling "lugaw" (rice porridge) without any flavor. well, not really "lugaw" but it was rather bland. i was able to convince her to give it another shot but we made it a point to ask for the dish to be cooked spicy "hot". unfortunately, filipino definition of spicy is just loads of chili. the red variety. the murgh korma (curried ch...

The annual run for your heart marathon took off sunday, April 5, 2009, with hundreds of enthusiasts going through the streets of cebu in an effort to get a little bit healthier. in another location, i was going through the sunday market in legazpi village in makati for food finds that i can write about. near the entrance i spied a big sign that bannered ALTAPRESYON by the FEU Nursing college announcing some medical acivity related to keeping one's heart healthy. except that they're selling deep fried crunchy fatty pork rind. they claim it has anti-aging properties - you die young.

the absence of aromatic curry should have been a warning. i was looking at rogan josh (lamb curry) and i remembered the heavy flavors of cloves, aniseed, cumin, cinnamon and garlic tempered with the creaminess of yoghurt. despite its fiery red color, rogan josh is not necessarily "chili hot". generally, curry is the infusion of various spices that give your tongue that tingle. the common belief is that curry is the anglicized version of the tamil word "kari" which means sauce or gravy. south asian food is characterized by the fondness for curry or sauces. an indian stall in the sunday legazpi market served two dishes: rogan josh and palak paneer with a stack of roti (indian bread). i ordered two small portions and two roti to go and was a bit surprised to see the bill come up to Php 799. this better be good. if you've had the flu and ate something, food generally tastes like paper mush. imagine chewing on the paper bottom of a siopao.kitty confirmed my observati...

kitty suggested we go for fely j's in greenbelt 5. i can't go wrong with filipino food and fely j's is supposed to be the flavor of the month for manila foodiphiles. a five minute walk from bsa suites and i was on my way to getting us a table. there was a lot of people dining inside but there was no line waiting to be served. my mistake, apparently, the people that i saw lounging in an open area a little down from fely j's are actually waiting to be seated. seven groups waiting for a table is not exactly my idea of filling in my tumtum. i made my way to greenbelt 3 where a group called duende cuatro was playing some latin jazz in an open area. a lot of expats with exotic accessories in tow were dining al fresco, chatting (actually shouting) despite the noisy din from the four dwarves. we skirted the crowd and made our way to the second level of greenbelt 3 and headed to Recipes by Metro Cafe. catfish mango salad - strips of sour green mango topped with tomatoes, onions,...

i have fond memories of the kitchen. a common filipino phrase sums up my love affair with food: "lumaki sa kusina". that literally translates to "growing up in the kitchen" but is more commonly used to refer to someone who is uh... portly. you see, "lumaki" can also mean "grow fat". that aside, i literally grew up in a cooking environment as my mom ran a carinderia / restaurant. we used to play out in the fields all day and would come running in the restaurant, grubby and smelling like the sun. my brother and i would jostle in front of the food counter and point to the dishes that appealed to our fancy. i remember the cook shooing us as we try to grab a little more than what we're supposed to have. Breadwinner, Kitchen - Greenbelt 4. Crostinni with a variety of sauces. my sisters took over the restaurant after college and when they left for the US, no one from the boys took over the business. by that time, all of us have been deported to baco...

it is an absolute obsession to be thin. if you're human. the irony of it all is that we want our food to be rich, fatty, succulent and greasy. if you've had foie gras you probably remember the flavor us buttery, delicate and rich. in addition, you probably know that it comes from goose or duck liver. what most people don’t know is that in france, the goose liver achieves its buttery consistency by a process called gavage which translates to force-feeding. gavage results in an overly enlarged fatty liver. that is why, foie gras literally translates to “fat liver”. if you’re a beef lover then you probably know that kobe beef is derived from a process of over-feeding cattle and caging them in small spaces to limit their movement. on the plus side, kobe cattle gets a daily massage from their handlers, the better to promote a generous marbling of fat and meat. end result? wagyu beef literally melts in your mouth. which brings me to my next point, i was going around the legaspi villa...

i absolutely hate it when i can't do my usual workout. i get grumpy. traveling for work is a pain. it disrupts your usual cycle and finding creative ways to get some exercise can be a challenge. instead of doing my endless hamster run on the treadmill, i found myself going for an early morning jog in makati. well, not really jog-jog as i was a bit self conscious running through streets slowly filling up with cars heading to work. i did my runs in a park in legaspi village in makati where they conveniently built a jogging track. then again, that's not really my point for this entry. you see, legaspi village is one of the greenest areas in central makati. greenbelt is a few minutes of leisurely walk from bsa mansions and ayala made sure that there are pockets of greenery in and around the area. walking through the concrete jungle is not as hot and humid with trees giving shade and a breather from polluted air. i just hope that they won't tear down these parks for more buildin...

if you know your rizal, you should know the character Padre Damaso - a spanish friar who sired a bastard daughter with Pia Alba. you can very well infer that damaso was a horny priest who preyed on innocent filipinas. to say the least that it was a sinful affair would be an understatement. with that in mind, it piques my curiosity that a dessert place is named as Pia y Damaso. Located in the third level of Greenbelt 5, the small quaint place specializes in dessert. a bit pricey with each slice averaging PHp 160, every bite is equivalent to a dangerous illicit affair with the calories. which probably explains the name Pia Y Damaso. Personally the price is a bit of a put down, then again it's not just the food you're paying for but the ambiance. where else can you find a chandelier hanging in a private cubicle set for two inside a space roughly around 50 sqm? it's a good place to visit once but not a regular haunt. besides, i am not really a cake person. :P ----- picture one ...

if you're in the mood for quick and affordable italian, check out Piadina in greenbelt and sample set menus that has combinations of pasta and piadina. piadinas are pan-toasted, round flat dough similar to tortillas stuffed with all sorts of meats and flavorful herbs and spices. i had the Piadina con Chorizo Spagnolo with spanish chorizo, ham, fresh tomatoes & mozzarella. Pasta Italspagna with italian sausage & spanish chorizo in creamy tomato sauce was my choice of pasta (click on read.more) i am possibly one of the earliest patrons of this restaurant when they opened their first branch in robinsons' galleria. owned by an italian and his lovely filipina wife, the service was fast and interestingly personal as the owner usually goes around to greet the customers. perhaps it's just me but i think the original restaurant serve a much flavorful pasta than the one in greenbelt. my foodie companion got this yet unnamed pasta and piadina combination (cat? cat???) in any ...

A space right outside the entrance to Greenbelt 5 is set up to be a graffiti wall. it encourages street art and at the same time allow for the surrounding space to remain clean. I was so tempted to write my name on the wall. picture - courtesy of cat huang

the weekend market is something that has been done in different places: Chatuchak in Bangkok, Nandaemun in Seoul, Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur. weekend markets are insanely popular with the locals as well as tourists looking for THAT unique token you can't find in malls. Cast of Characters Mariano Garchitorena Cely V. Kalaw Italian Gentleman Miguel Ongpin with time to kill before my flight to Cebu, i met up with a friend to drop by the Legazpi Weekend Market in Makati. for the uninitiated, legazpi village is right smack in the middle of the makati central business district and is just a stroll from some of the more ah... affluent... side of the city. set in an empty weekend parking lot with mismatched tents providing respite from the sun, people milled around and almost always, holding a small plate with food tidbits. eating is the philippine's national sport, that and dodging cars when crossing the street. which brings me to a point. the weekend market felt like a retro snobbish af...