eatership

GLOBE FAIL, PART 2

2012-02-05T02:11:00.000-08:00

Not a food post, but one that concerns a number of us.

I have an iPhone 4 that I purchased myself and I have been using it with my Globe subscription since October 2010. Around mid-2011, I noticed that the signal on my phone would drop, especially when I would enter the basement of a building or an elevator. To get reconnected, I’d had to turn my phone off and on. This became an annoyance and finally in December 2010, I took the bother of going to the Globe Business Center at the Shang Mall to have my problem fixed once and for all.

I was lucky to have been attended by Gladys Rojas. She even gave me her cell number so I could call her if I encountered any problems with my phone. She explained to me as someone who was herself an iPhone user, she had experienced the same problems that I described that day. A day or so after my visit to the Globe office, the signal on my phone improved.

Early this year, the signal went awry once again. Having had a pleasant experience at Globe’s Shang office, I went there again. This time around, I was attended by another CSR, who tried to bluff herself through my problem. It was obvious that she knew next to nothing about my problem, and I asked for a supervisor. Ms. Rojas assisted me and she changed my SIM, changed some settings on my phone and asked me for feedback. Again, she told me that my problem was unique to iPhone users. I asked why nothing was being done about this problem and she said that Globe was addressing it. For a time, the signal was good. Then it went kaput again. And again, I went to Globe’s Shang office. This time around, Raj Rendez attended to me. He gave me the same explanation: that iPhone users had been complaining about weak signals, dropped calls, unreceived text or that was shown as sent but did not reach the intended recipients. Again, he promised to keep me updated on the progress of my complaint. On January 26, 2012, he sent me a text telling me that he had endorsed my complaint to technical and that he would keep me posted on any progress. So far, I have not heard from him again. On February 2, I texted him for a progress report because my connection problem persisted. I did not receive a reply.

In the evening of February 3, 2012, I was in Trinoma and my signal went bonkers again, despite the fact that I did not enter any basement area or elevator. I turned my phone off and on. A little while later, I received a call from my sister, wondering why I had not texted or called back, or why my number had been unreachable since the evening of February 1, 2012, after my Mother had an accident. This really upset me. For two days, I was clueless as to what had happened to my Mother, because of Globe’s continuing failure to provide me the service that I contracted them for. I immediately called Mr. Rendez. His phone was ringing, but he was terminating the call at each of my attempts to call him. The same went for my attempts to phone Ms. Rojas. I even texted them, informing them that their failure to update me on my long-time complaint and the failure of Globe to provide me the service that I had paid for had caused me grief.

So what does a hapless consumer like me do? On the one hand, I want to terminate my contract immediately. But what option is then open to me? Proceed to Smart, where the service is not any better? Should I file a breach of contract suit against Globe, and be a foolish David to their smug Goliath?

Today, I’d had to turn my phone off and on twice.

And the saga continues.

Christmas: The Season of Sharing, Giving, and in the Philippines, Over-Eating!

2011-12-13T01:24:00.000-08:00

So far, I've been to 4 Christmas get-togethers this year, and there was an over-abundance of food at each one. At the latest one, I actually skipped eating altogether, because I had just come from another one that featured lots of Pinoy food (one standout: crunchy pork chop served on a bed of laing), a limbo-rocking MILF, an over-competitive Charader, and a sweetly generous friend. Those last three descriptions actually belong to just one lady.

One of my favorite culture, food and travel writers, Tracey Santiago, recently asked me what our Noche Buena tradition was back home in Ozamiz. I was pleasantly surprised that she actually featured my brief writeup in her website. Thanks, Tracey! The other featured writers wrote very interesting pieces, and made me long for home, my childhood, and the food that I associate Christmas with. Thankfully, my parents are coming over for Christmas, as they always do, and I will be able to relive some of those memories with them and the rest of our family.

Over the next few days, I will share with you more Christmas food memories. What's yours?

YAY!!! Sassy Lawyer and MarketMan made it to Saveur's Worldwide Feast: 55 Great Global Food Blogs!!!

2011-09-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

On September 18, 2011, I wrote a tribute blog to MarketMan and The Sassy Lawyer a.k.a. Connie Santiago-Veneracion, two Filipino blogs that I read and admire.

Yesterday, Saveur Magazine, which describes itself as "a magazine for people who experience the world food first," featured the same two bloggers on its annual list of global blogs that they like, saying,

"Here at SAVEUR.com, we spend lots of time reading food blogs — and it's no surprise that we've found smart, gastronomically-inclined bloggers in virtually every country on earth. These writers are committed to celebrating regional recipes, restaurants, techniques, and ingredients; we draw on their sites as culinary guides to everyday life in specific places all over the globe. (We're also moved by how many region-specific sites are written by expats who maintain a connection with their homeland through food: Korean cooks living in Australia, Greek cooks living in the Netherlands, Indian cooks living in Peru, and more.)

"These 55 blogs comprise our must-read list in the international food blogging community, but surely there are more. Share your favorites with us in the comments. — The SAVEUR.com Editors."

I am so happy for Market Man and Connie (sorry guys, we are on first-name basis. We went to law school together, after all, Connie being a year younger than me). They deserve this added accolade: they write well, they know what they write about, and you can read from their blogs that they have an unmatched passion for life, expressed through food.

And kudos to me, for one-upping Saveur by two weeks!

Yeah. You know it. I'm gloating ;-)

GLEE - NOW ON IT'S 3RD SEASON X SESAME STREET - NOW ON ITS NTH SEASON

2011-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Been a fan of GLEE and SESAME STREET for the longest time. GLEE came out when I was 47 and scouring the 'net for upcoming shows. The first trailer was just so engrossing that when the show finally premiered, I just had to watch it and have been following it since. I like its take on the underdog, a theme that is universal and especially close to the Pinoy heart, and of course the actors are all good.

SESAME STREET came out when I was in college. I had no business watching it but learning about those letters and numbers and values through those muppets was really fun to do. Many from my generation still can sing the "IT'S A LOVELY ELEVEN MORNING" song. Then there was the MUPPET SHOW. What's not to like, right?

Which is why I couldn't resist sharing with you this video:

GREAT GANI!

TRIBUTE TO THE SASSY LAWYER AND MARKET MAN: THRICE-COOKED LIEMPO

2011-09-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite food blogs are Market Man and Sassy Lawyer's. Market Man knows serious stuff about food. Plus he got featured in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Plus he's Bisaya. And Sassy Lawyer? She’s that and more: mother, blogger, foodie, photographer and law school friend. But the last is not the reason why I like her blog.

One of the best things about their blogs is that they feature recipes that they themselves have developed, with methodology meticulously described. Plus illustrated with the most tempting photos. I'll never be anywhere near them, but I can try.

Today's blog is all about one of my favorite food items: pork, and my take on one of my favorite pork dishes, pata tim, which is cooked by first steaming the pork leg, then frying it, then finally braising it. Steaming is preferred over boiling because this will keep the meat from coming apart.

I chanced upon a nice slab of pork belly at Cherry Foodarama on Shaw and I thought: I'll do a liempo tim, my way, and document my cooking journey ala Market Man and Sassy Lawyer.

Along with the pork, I bought red Chinese cooking wine, good oyster sauce (check the ingredients and get the brand that has oyster juice as the first ingredient), tengang daga and canned mushroom.

This dish takes time and perseverance but the praises you will get at eating time will be worth every effort you will have put into the preparation of this dish.

FIRST STEP – MARINATION: I rubbed the slab of liempo with freshly-ground black pepper and sea salt. I then prepared a marinade of 1 cup Chinese wine and ½ cup oyster sauce, and in it I placed the liempo’s top half for one hour and the bottom half for another hour.

Marinating the liempo

SECOND STEP – STEAMING: I mixed the marinade with an equal quantity of water and used this as my steaming liquid. Every 15 minutes or so of the steaming process, I poured the steaming liquid over the meat. I didn’t let the water run out in the 90 minutes that I steamed the liempo. At the end of the steaming process, I collected the water with the rendered fat. Check out the amount of fat that I collected.

I used a bigger steamer than what's in the picture.
See how good to eat the liempo is after the steaming?

THIRD STEP – BROILING: The third step is supposed to be to fry the pork, but I wanted to take the less sinful route so I used my turbo broiler. I popped the steamed liempo, set the turbo broiler at its lowest setting for 45 minutes, and another 10 at its highest. Tip: to make cleaning easy, put in about 2 cups in the broiler to keep the drippings from cooking into the metal. Again, I collected the fat from the broiling process and boy, was there a lot!

The liempo in the steaming liquid, after refrigeration and the fat collected. And thrown away.

FOURTH STEP – BRAISING: I placed the broiled liempo in a good-sized pot with 2 cups red Chinese wine, 2 cups oyster sauce, 2 cups water, the tengang daga, a mid-sized can of mushroom and set the stove on low, and let the everything braise for about an hour. I don’t know what I did right but the meat never fell apart during the braising. I occasionally added water to the braising liquid to keep it from burning. About 45 minutes after the braising, I added a cup of sesame oil and let the liquid reduce further.

Good enough to eat after the
broiling, but...And again, more fat!

FIFTH STEP – PLATING: What to match with this rich dish? Recalling how many cooks marry two cooking styles, I thought: why not prepare a pancit base for this dish in the Italian style? I got some white pechay, sliced it and some pancit canton. I took the meat out of braising liquid, added about a cup of water, let it simmer, then tossed the pancit canton in. I corrected the taste with oyster sauce and sesame oil. When the pancit canton was nearly done, I put in the pechay, covered the pot for about 3 minutes and served the pancit on a platter, and placed the Thrice-Cooked Liempo on top.

The final product had a nice sheen to it, and when cut, the meat was tender and juicy. Must try again!

If I had any decent knife skills, I would have sliced the bones away from the meat and sliced the liempo. Maybe next time.

NOTE: The cooking process could take more than a day. After the steaming, I refrigerated the meat so I could continue the cooking the next day.

This recipe is by no means perfect but it was hit at our Sunday lunch and my cousin, herself a formidable cook and foodie, asked for the recipe, so yeah. It is good!

UP NAMING MAHAL

2011-09-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

I'm proud and privileged to have had my college and graduate studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman campus. Until now, I still have - good and bad - images of Ikot, blue books, laid-back days and bad food. And to my dying days, I think I will still remember what my student number is.

And this song will forever be embedded in my mind:

UP Naming Mahal

Now will someone make a video of UP Beloved?

OVERWHELMED!!!

2011-09-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with food, but a lot with one of the many hats that I wear, which is that of a lawyer, and by extension, as an alumnus of the UP College of Law. Our batch is celebrating our Silver Year and our college its Centennial. By tradition, the Silver Jubilarians are the ones who organize the homecoming and its related celebrations.

Part of our Batch's plan is to establish a scholarship and non-academic staff endowment fund. This is a tall order, considering that it takes upwards of P700,000 per annum to send one student through one year in law school. To raise the amount needed to get us to this goal, our Batch thought up a Hollywood Walk of Fame-type of UP Law Alumni called the Centennial Walk Project, and to launch the project, the hard-working and clever co-Chairpersons of the Project, Fe Concepcion and Fortune Balasbas, thought of doing a fun run around the academic circle, which will be called RUN FOR THE WALK. Didn't I tell you they were clever? And smart?

The tough part was looking for sponsors, so each of us went our own way to find some. Ms. Diane Rosales of Via Mare generously donated money for our breakfast, Ida Ramos and Jamie Sanico of Beiersdorf gave us a full line of Nivea products - which is also celebrating its Centennial, my bloggerina friend Candy Dizon gave a loot bag of kikay items for the lady runners, and Randy Manaloto and Olivia Dizon of PEP Group gave us PEP Publications and gift certificates. The response to our call for support has been overwhelming: from the UP College of Law leadership headed by Dean Danilo L. Concepcion, the University, and our media partner GMA News. And the Dragon Boat Team that did us proud in Tampa, Florida agreed to grace the Run, with no connections. Our Batch President, Grace Quevedo-Panagsagan, just made a cold call on the Team's leader. And they were in.

And this is just a partial list.

As of this morning, 126 runners have pre-registered to run tomorrow. We expect to see so much more. I am happy to see a lot of UP Alumni pooling their resources to help us help future generations of UP lawyers, and the administrative staff that will be supporting them.

See you all!

GONE FOR A WEEK!!!

2011-08-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

My blog-pusher Randy will hold this against me: breaking my promise to have a post a week. And this one seems like just a filler, but really, this video was such an attention-grabber I had to post it.

I will definitely blog about my recent trip to Ozamiz, where Randy and my other friend Gerard joined me for a foodfest. Plus I got to sample a new tourist destination (and it's not Hoyohoy). Keep on reading this blog!

Meantime, check this out:

Fun, amazing, witty!

COMING SOON! Movies I'm looking forward to watching.

2011-08-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

As a kid growing up in a small town in the 60s and 70s, watching movies was THE thing to do. There was no internet then, there were no video games, there was nothing to do in the weekends, unless there was a birthday party or fiesta or some such event. Even then, we would always watch movies. Two movies in one go. All four (later 6) movie houses showed double features, with the main feature having been shown about a month in advance in Manila and the second feature shown much, much, much earlier. Think HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 doubled with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. There were even times when we had triple showings of movies.

Between the features, there would be about thirty minutes of "extras" or what I know now as trailers. In the Martial Law years, propaganda about how great Marcos and Imelda were were shown along with the trailers.

These days, one doesn't have to go to the movies to see trailers. youtube and imdb.com are great resources to check on upcoming movies. Sadly, some of these never make it to Manila. Happily, there's amazon (and Metrowalk. wink, wink).

Here's my current list:

1. THE WOMAN IN BLACK - slated for a 2012 release, theater aficionados will certainly bitch about how different the movie is from the play which it could be based on. It's possible that the screenplay is based on the book on which the play is based. Regardless, the trailer looks fine and Daniel Radcliffe couldn't have gotten a better postgraduate role than this. Horror is my favorite movie genre so I'm really looking forward to this.

2. HYSTERIA (2011) - Words fail me. But I'll try. Nope. Words fail me.

3. THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE (2011) - speaking of Martial Law, remember the nasty rumors of someone being just a changeling, and...Well, this rumor seems to run parallel to this movie's plot. A history boy grows up, again to a good postgraduate role.

4. CARNAGE (2011) - when GOD OF CARNAGE opened on Broadway in 2009, it was tough to get a ticket to the show. After all, it had an all-star cast: James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis. when it opened on West End in 2008, it was also a runaway hit, not only because it featured Ralph Fiennes, but also because the play itself was well-reviewed. I'm just curious how the movie adaptation will turn out. After all, it has 4 great actors in it, including the amazing Christoph Waltz (yes, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS' Hans Landa).

UPDATE ON "GLOBE BUSINESS CENTER FAIL"

2011-08-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

On August 10, 2011, I wrote this blog http://eatership.blogspot.com/2011/08/globe-business-center-fail.html in reaction to how Globe's employees at their Business Center at the Shangrila Mall had disrespected the Lupang Hinirang by chatting and remaining seated while it was playing. I complained to Globe's OIC, Ms. Gladys Rojas, who said she would elevate the matter to her manager. Based on my past history with Globe and writing letters to them, I had given up on this and thought this was a hopeless case and a lost cause.

Surprise of surprises, Globe proved me wrong.

I called Ms. Rojas on another matter today, and after dealing with that, she reported that after her report, a staff meeting was called and a text blast was made to all Globe employees about the proper decorum when the Lupang Hinirang. This was really a bright update to this day.

I'm happy that Globe did the right thing. And I'm happy I stood up as a Pinoy. We all should. After all, the flag and our national anthem are symbols of our nation and of us. We should not let anyone disrespect these symbols.

Mabuhay and Pilipino!

Manolo's (August 12, 2011)

2011-08-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

In one of my earlier posts, I said that I feel so lucky to have so many Chinese friends because of my affiliation with the Manila Jaycees. I should amend that to, "I am thankful to have many friends from the Manila Jaycees." Why? Because the Chinese and Manila Jaycees in general are among the best foodies around, with prodigious appetites at that. I am always clued in on new sightings in the foodie landscape, and which are worth trying and which are crap. Mind you, these friends go for both dives and gourmet destinations, so no restaurant is spared.

Boquerones

A good, old friend from the Manila Jaycees, Toto Villavicencio, recently decided to enter the restaurant business. He is one of the proud new owners of that sisig-centric Pinoy restaurant, 1521, at their new location at Burgos Circle at The Fort. When Toto invited us to try out his restaurant, he introduced us to Manolo Torrejon and Robby Goco, then went on to rave about his dinner at Manolo's eponymous restaurant. According to Toto, his dinner at Manolo's lasted for 5 hours, with fresh oysters and USDA steak topped with foie gras. They both had me at 5 hours. So plans were made to celebrate the birthdays of two friends, Rami Villavicencio and Paul Co, at Manolo's. Manolo himself recommended that we go on a Friday because that's when the Oysters are flown in from Capiz.

The thing with dining at Manolo's is that it is not a commercial enterprise. Manolo, or Manny, trades in artisanal coffee grown in Benguet. His restaurant is strictly by reservation only. Another issue with the restaurant is that it's not the easiest to find. Best to download the map from Manolo's facebook page. The restaurant is no-fuss, and I imagine that the chef-patron could whip up a customized menu for you. The experience was akin to being invited to someone's home whose cook prepared a very good meal for you.

The chef patron,
Manolo Torrejon

Bottomless Manchego c/o Paul Co

Armed with scotch and a wheel of manchego cheese from Paul (who was a no-show), and three bottles of cabernet, off we went to Manolo's. Upon our arrival, we were served crispy boquerones, which the chef-patron made with local tuyo instead of bacalao: soaked, shredded and deep-fried. While we were chatting away, Manny sliced up the manchego for us to munch on, along with the first official starter, bowls of moules mariniere: fresh mussels cooked in white white, cream and onion, served with warm baguette from the neighborhood Elsie's (not Anita's) Bakery. On such a dinner like this, everyone throws caution, diet, doctor's orders, wife/girlfriend/partner's advice out the window. So after partaking of the mussels, we sopped up our baguette in the sinful cream sauce.

Fresh Capiz oysters with three sauces

Moules mariniere

From the princess of bivalves, we went to the queen of bivalves: fresh oyster from Capiz served with three sauces: mignonette, chimichurri and cocktail. I had to try all three sauces, then wondered if there was some pinakurat. Manny graciously provided Robby Goco with lemon and hot sauce. Then the feast continued with the Pasta Bottarga, my first to taste this delightful dish. Robby explained that Manny makes his own bottarga (salted and dried tuna roe), since it is not easily available here. Chefs being chefs, Manny and Robby made it appear that making bottarga is the easiest thing in the world: get some tuna bihud, salt it, then sun-dry. This dish was fantastic in its simplicity: it was just the dried tuna roe, sauteed in olive oil, served with spaghetti with a squeeze of lemon. I just wished that it was served with no cheese, being a seafood pasta. The cheese overpowered the flavor of the bottarga, which should stand on its own. Nonetheless, I hankered for a second serving.

Then came the meat of the matter: the steak. With foie gras. Perfectly salted and grilled, drizzled in its own fat, served with baby potatoes and asparagus. What can one ask for? What's that? Paella? Two varieties? Valenciana and Negra? Coming right up! I liked it that Manny didn't eschew the tutong or burnt bottom, which is what some restaurants do. I understand that the Negra is a must-have when dining at Manolo's. Well, I venture to say that the Pasta Bottarga is another must-have, as is the Tiger Prawns Simmered in Red Egg Sauce and Curry Leaf. This latter dish, that was served along with the Garlic Butter Crabs to end our meal, is another delightful first-time dish for me. The salty bits of red egg, and the robust flavors of the curry leaf were perfect with the prawn.

A night at Manolo's is not complete with his aromatic Benguet coffee, served with Swiss Chocolate Cake baked by his sister, Elise. I would have wanted something citric to cut through the rich tastes simmering in my palate, like a lemon curd or a kalamansi sorbet.

At the end the dinner, we all had smiling faces, happy countenances, content bearings and clogged arteries. Not to mention reeling brains from the alcohol that was downed.

Still and all, it was a night that will be remembered for a long, long time. How about that oyster night, Manny? Kinilaw, fritters and cake. I'll bring the cookies and ice cream. Not made from oysters.

The birthday boy surveying the

remains of our prandial carnage

Happy birthday, Rami and Paul, and kudos to the chef! And thanks to Louie Orosa for the pictures.

Manolo's is at 2759 Daang Hari, United Hills Village, Parañaque City. Telephone Nos. +639088827913 and 8811828.

REVISITING AN OLD FAVORITE: R&J BULALO (8-8-11)

2011-08-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

I don't know what possessed me Monday evening but I suddenly had a hankering for good old bulalo. Among my favorite bulalohans are Sosing's Carineria on Dian and Zobel Roxas in Makati City, Hoseña's on Libertad, Mandaluyong City, Rose & Grace in Batangas and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Diners in Tagaytay City, Aviles in Laguna, Abuhan in Cebu City and R&J on Boni, Mandaluyong City. R&J was the closest to me at the time of my craving so R&J it was.

This place is an in-your-face carinderia so sosyal types need not go. Sit at will upon arrival, and watch the PBA on two 23-inch tube TVs and listen - whether you'd care to or not - to a dissonant karaoke singer while perusing the menu. I have never tried anything else at R&J so I settled for the Special Bulalo and a cup of rice. My order arrived faster than I could say "UTAK!" There it sat, a huge bowl of broth, in which a few leaves of pechay swam, along with a good-sized piece of shank and generous hunks of tender beef. Perfect with your self-made sawsawan (dipping sauce) of patis (fish sauce), kalamansi (Philippine lime) and chili.

The broth was perfectly hot, with a dark sediment made up of boiled meat. I found the broth too salty, but the top note of onion was perfect. Now to the meat of the matter: the utak or the marrow.

Growing up in a beef-centric household, bulalo or nilat-ang baka (literally, tenderized beef), was a staple on our table. Mom always made sure that there was enough shank to go around, and part of the fun of partaking of this treat was the many ways by which the utok (literally, brain, but referring in this case to the marrow) would be extracted. Lucky was the family member who got a shank that was cut through on both ends because all he needed to do was to blow that utok out from one hole through the other. If only one end was cut through, then the utok would be extracted using the narrow handle of a teaspoon.

My shank that evening was cut through on both ends, and was about 4 inches long. It was utok heaven. Pouring some broth over the extracted utok and eschewing any dip, I cut of a bit and slowly made it melt in my mouth. Butter. Beef fat. Cream. A bit of caramel. Those were the flavors I thought I got from that first bite. Then I thought of my 49-year old body and what that delightful 4-inch utok was doing to it. Oh well, what are ampalaya and doctors for.

Utok and rice and bulalo broth. Heaven on a plate.

I am looking forward to going home to Ozamiz and partaking of my Mom's unique take on nilat-ang baka. She makes it with "veal," with thinner shanks, with the broth made thick with gabi and sour from some overripe tomatoes. Ginger and onion tops off the broth components. The utok may be thinner, but that's not really a bad thing.

R&J BULALO is a 24-hour carinderia on Boni Avenue, right beside/behind the Petron Gasoline Station across the Mandaluyong City Hall on Maysilo Circle. No reservations are taken, and food can be ordered to go. But hey. Why deprive yourself of the experience of watching a current basketball game on retro TV while the next table is full of karaoke krays singing Celine Dion's discography away. Badly.

GLOBE BUSINESS CENTER FAIL

2011-08-10T05:15:00.000-07:00

(Image from http://new-slang.com)

I've been a Globe subscriber from the time I first got a cell phone in 1996. When asked why I've stayed put, I always say it's because it has the least bad customer service among the 3 telcos. To be fair, Globe's CS for postpaid account is quite good, but turns to horrible when you are a prepaid user. Also, do not get Globe as your internet service provider because they really suck at this. Take it from me and many more who are disgruntled Globe Tattoo or home- and office-based subscribers.

Anyway, I normally pay my Globe bill online, but decided to switch to going to Globe Business Centers so I can use my credit card and earn points. The first time I did it was the other month at the SM Makati Business Center. I was early. There were no other customers and I had my turn at the cashier's right away. When I got to the counter, the cashier did not so much as look up to greet me. So I asked for the manager and pointed out this disrespectful and rude conduct of the cashier. The manager apologized, but the cashier did not. I guess the cashier's DNA did not include the polite gene.

Today I went to Globe's Shangrila Mall Business Center. I got in at around 10:55 a.m. and the office was still closed. The Globe security guard, who was very polite, said that they would open right after the playing of the Lupang Hinirang. I thought this was fantastic of the Shangrila Mall management to instill nationalism and patriotism on mall employees and patrons by starting the day with this ceremony. When the Lupang Hinirand was being played, I stood at attention, as did the security guards inside the Globe office. However, all of the employees inside remained seated, chatting and laughing away. I really got upset. It reminded me of the time when I went to watch a movie and a group of noisy Koreans remained seated and noisy when the Lupang Hinirang was being played. I shouted, "Hey Koreans! Shut up! And stand up!" I was ready to call 117 if those disrespectful visitors had remained seated. Thankfully for them, they did as they were told.

Back to Globe.

I was really upset at the employees' disrespect for the National Anthem and all that it stands for. To make matters worse, when the Globe office finally opened for business and I went to the Cashier's cubicle, I was not even greeted a good morning. I wonder if this is the institutional culture of Globe: disrespect. I immediately asked for the manager and Gladys Rojas attended to me. I explained to her that it is a crime to not stand at attention when the Lupang Hinirang is played. I explained to her that as a Filipino, and one whose father fought in World War II, I felt insulted that her co-employees just chatted and remained seated all throughout the playing of the Lupang Hinirang, and act that was after all punishable by law. To her credit, Ms. Rojas apologized and promised to do something about it, although I have my doubts about whether she actually would. Her excuse is that the anthem is not audible inside, and yet when it was playing, the security guards stood at attention.

I may be labelled as overzealous, and so be it. I make no excuses for being a proud Pinoy. I love my country and I love the Philippine Flag and the Lupang Hinirang as national symbols. It is probably in this light that the drafters of REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8491 or the "Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines" (full text at http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno8491.htm) stated that "Reverence and respect shall at all times be accorded the flag, the anthem, and other national symbols which embody the national ideals and traditions and which express the principles of sovereignty and national solidarity. The heraldic items and devices shall seek to manifest the national virtues and to inculcate in the minds and hearts of our people a just pride in their native land, fitting respect and affection for the national flag and anthem, and the proper use of the national motto, coat-of-arms and other heraldic items and devices."

Globe, shape up. You can't be complacent, especially with the impending merger of Smart and Sun. It's bad enough that one of your image models is Vice Ganda. Don't compound matters by not training your people to be respectful. At the very least.

THE EMPEROR’S NEW RESTAURANT

2010-09-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Where are the masks you had on on opening day?

A few weeks back, a well-travelled friend was so excited to announce that Crystal Jade, one of her go-to restaurants when in Hong Kong and Singapore, was opening its first Philippine branch in Greenhills soon. She urged me to try it. She was really enthusiastic about its xiao long bao and la mien, items both made part of the restaurant’s name. I also heard that there was usually a one-hour line to get a table and the only way you could get a reservation was if you were with a party of at least 8. So I suggested to my Monday Talk Holes Dinner Club that we try this much-anticipated restaurant out, and I reserved a table for 8. I was told that they take reservations only for 6 pm or 8 pm. I chose the latter.

The best show in Greenhills these days

The restaurant was crowded outside with diners waiting for a table and kibitzers checking out the goings-on in the kitchen, viewable from the sidewalk. It reminded me of the old Shakey’s, where one could watch how his pizza is made. We got a table for 10 and I was told by our friend who got there first that the previous occupants of our table were told that another group was booked for their table at 8. We got our table just before 8 pm.

Diners with no reservation

The restaurant was crammed with people: waiters, busboys, diners milling about and it was not at all a relaxing feeling. I did not even bother going to the bathroom, lest I be rudely bumped into again by the manager (who did so without stopping or apologizing. I guess he felt he was too busy running a busy restaurant to be bothered).
The famed xiao long bao came. And we ate our share right away. Our common verdict? Where’s the broth? Xiao long bao (or siaolongpao in the Binondo restaurant where I first tasted this amazing delicacy) ought to have broth in it. We thought it was just this batch. We ordered a total of 3 baskets, and none of the baos served us had broth. And the wrapper was undercooked.

Going out with a big group is a great help when assessing restaurants because you have the convenience of ordering a lot of dishes. Here’s what our party had:

• Sauteed String Bean & Minced Pork With Olive (P249) – My Lola Tacia used to cook this and it is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. I liked Crystal Jade’s version. Without olive. Like Crystal Jade's.
• Noodle with Beef in Spicy Soup (forgot the price) – This one was a real winner. I don’t know why we Filipinos love soup so much even if we’re in a tropical country. Great broth, great noodles. What’s not to like. The broth was especially rich and I would go back for more of this delight.
• Poached Beef in Spicy Sauce (P290) – another good choice. Unthinkable that we finished this without having any rice with it. This dish is really more of a soup, rather than beef with some sauce.

The really bad order of salted duck that we got

• Nanjing Salted Duck (P198) – Really, really disappointing. This is a chilled dish that was tough and rancid. I removed the skin from my second piece, but the fishy/rancid taste prevailed.
• Crispy Eel in Wu Xi Style (P288) – I can imagine eating bowl after bowl of this scrumptiously crunchy dish with lots of ice-cold beer. Really good. Dangerous for those who are on a low-carb diet as this one calls for an equal quantity of rice. But we held fast to our no-rice vow.
• Braised Pork Knuckle with Pancakes (P888) – Crystal Jade’s take on hong ma and pata tim. A bit small for a big group, and can be consumed by 3 PG guys. Comes with small white buns with an unusual shape. The sauce calls for rice. Again, we did not succumb. Despite it being so good and fatty and sheeny and…
• Xiao long bao (P158) for 5 pieces – as mentioned, a great big fat disappointment
• Radish pastry (P98) – I think this restaurant has a good pastry chef. Except for one of our desserts, all the other dishes that required fried crusts turned out good. This one was very savory, with a filling that was redolent of that sweet, pungent smell characteristic of friend scallion.


Bean curd skin shrimp roll, part nang: bad compared to part chit.

• Deep-fried bean curd skin roll with shrimp (P135) – another favorite of mine is bean curd skin. Our first order was so good we asked for two more plates. After all, who could resist perfectly fried bean curd skin with a perfect filling of shrimp paste? Perfectly fried food should not have a greasy mouth-feel. If fried food comes out like this, it means the oil was at the right temperature when the food was fried. Sadly, our second orders were just the opposite: greasy, flat and limp.
• Fried pancake with scallion (P98) – this reminded us of fried Malaysian flat bread. Really savory but must be eaten when hot. Once this cools down, the flakiness disappears and is replaced with an unpleasant tough texture.


One of the saving graces: good pata tim

• Deep-Fried Souffle Ball with Red Bean Paste (P128) – this was also good. A filling of mongo paste with some mashed ripe banana, enveloped in a golden flaky crust.
• Red Bean Paste Pancake (P128) – this one was sad. Really sad. The pancake (more like a crepe, really) was overcooked and dry. The filling suffered as well.

Our group gave an 8/10 rating. I liked it that save for the dessert, Crystal Jade’s food did not have a sweet tinge to it, as in some Manila restaurants. The braised pork had just the right balance of sour and salty. I did not like it that our waiter forgot to place our dessert order, twice. Or that the air conditioning conked out. And that the food quality varied from order to order.


Crispy Wu Xi-style eel. Yum!

Will I give it a second visit? Probably, when my friend arrives from her trip. Would I recommend it? For its la mien and pata tim, yes. But definitely not its brothless xiao long bao. If you must go, go early and get a reservation (5706910 and 5706912). If your party is small and are told that you’d have to wait for an hour for a table, don’t bother. It’s not that great of a deal. As one friend of mine said, “We should have just gone to Gloria Maris.”

LAU CHAN SHABU-SHABU RESTAURANT

2010-09-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

It was my Kumpare Stephen Choa's birthday last Saturday and he rounded up the Monday Night/Talk Holes Club for dinner at one of our group's favorite restaurants: LAU CHAN SHABU-SHABU! It started out as a hole-in-the-wall on Mabini St., across the Hyatt Casino. We had been there about two to three times, had a good time each time, which is why we have become repeat customers. I have recommended this restaurant and this has never failed to satisfy everyone. And why not? The service is great, the food is good, the prices are good, but the parking sucks. And they don't charge their sukis corkage so you could actually have good chablis with your Chinese food. However, they allow smoking and this could be a big no-no to those with kids, allergies and issues with the supot national anti-smoking law.

Lau Chan has prospered and has decided to open a new branch: on Mabini Street. Now how odd is that, right? The new digs is fancier, parking is less of a hassle and everything else still satisfies. Best of all: NO SMOKING! And oh, the wait staff now wears fancy red-motifed uniforms. Plus, an ala carte menu is on hand to complement the photocopied (mimeographed?) menu for the shabu-shabu treasures.

The satay broth to me is still the best. But they also have seafood, beef, chicken and vegetarian. Inexpensive to the point of mysterious, the menu is exhaustive: kidney, chicharon, polonchay, mushrooms, beef, pansit, tito, bola-bola: name it, you can shabu-shabu it. (Shabu I was told is an onomotepeic of the sound that one makes when swishing ingredients in and out of the hotpot). From the ala carte menu we ordered spicy ribs, fried dumplings (must-try) and the mundanely named but divine-tasting bacon shrimp, which reminded me of the camaron con jamon of Star Cafe in Baguio.

Part of the shabu-shabu experience is the fun one derives from mixing your dipping sauce out of the toyo, satay, minced garlic and chili that is given to you, plus the custom-made dinner that each one can derive from the ingredients boiling away in the pots. At the end of the meal, when you think you've had your fill, try sampling the broth from each pot and you get a very complex and hearty soup that's been flavored with every vegetable, meat, noodle and intestine that had been cooked in them. Truly a fun and worthy experience. I'm definitely going back!

The new Lau Chan is on the western side of Mabini in Ermita, Manila, between P. Faura and Arquiza streets. Street parking is available.

LA CUISINE FRANCAISE

2010-09-17T00:14:00.000-07:00

It's quite a tall order for a restaurant to call itself THE FRENCH CUISINE RESTAURANT for so many reasons. For one, you present yourself as THE one. Therefore, anyone going through its doors would understandably have very high expectations of such a restaurant, especially if you have seen its stall at the Salcedo Saturday Market and heard of its formidable reputation as a foodie's stall.

Belying its tiangge origins, La Cuisine Francaise is decked out as a full-on restaurant with a menu that features bistro fare. I was excited to see cassoulet, pot au feu and bouillabaise. I was determined to order one and encourage my lunch buddy to order one of the two others. When he asked what pot au feu was and I told him it was bulalo, he smirked. But when I told him that cassoulet had duck, he then got excited. We were given a plate of four canapes as the amuse bouche and we found the bread bad. Not bad as in off, but hard, dry and generic. Not too worry, I ate only the pate and the sausage and skipped the bread. We were then given a bread basket with pretty curly butter with our order of tri-colored fish pate, pork pate with blue cheese and duck-orange terrine. Bad, good, ok.

For our main course, I had the bouillabaise and my buddy the cassoulet. I have had home-made and restaurant bouillabaise. What I like in a bouillabaise is the earthy and robust flavors provided by the spices and citrus, with the added punch coming from the rouille, to complement the fresh flavors of the seafood used in the making of the broth. Sadly, the bouillabaise in La Cuisine Francaise is big disappointment: it had no character, no flavor and no fresh seafood. The scallops were especially tough, rubbery and stringy. And don't get me started on the dismal broth.

My friend was unhappy with his cassoulet, although I thought the duck was ok.

The dessert on display in the chiller looked interesting though. Were I to give this restaurant a second visit, I would probably stick to coffee and cake. Too bad, because the service was very friendly and efficient, and the location is good. If Gordon Ramsay were to come to this restaurant, he would probably suggest that it rethink itself as a simple bistro: no fussy color schemes and potted plants and synthetic fabric for its linens. A more simple wine list (and why is THE French Cuisine Restaurant parlaying American beer?!), a more simple menu, and a more simple look.

La Cuisine Francaise is on the Sedeno side of the first floor of the Paseo Parkview Condominium in Salcedo Village, Makati City.

FOOD CRAVINGS

2010-09-01T00:39:00.000-07:00

Since I was a child, I have always had a sweet tooth. I think I took after my Mom in this regard. I remember she would actually eat a teaspoonful of sugar if there was no dessert or fruit to be had. I never got that bad, but I do remember that Mommy used to take orders for birthday and wedding cakes and I was the unofficial "finisher" of whatever batter or frosting was left in the mixing bowl or spatula or mixing spoons. After the cakes were baked, I would scrape the crust that was left on the baking pans. And this did not stop me from eating the finished product either.

I was also very fond of salty stuff as a young boy. I wouldn't/couldn't eat anything without ginamos, the Bisaya version of bagoong. At that time, ginamos was ambrosia, the one element that completed each meal that I took. My yaya 'Nang Carmen tried to get me to stop my ginamos habit, but she failed, notwithstanding the fact that she was a tough cookie. So tough that among the help, she was the only one who could get away with talking back to Mommy. Exasperated, 'Nang Carmen took me to the mercado (palengke) one day and took me to the smelly dried fish section, where the ginamos was also sold. She pointed to me row upon row of recycled Baguio Cooking Oil cans, filled to the brim with the fantastic and familiar fermented aroma of my beloved ginamos. Never mind that the surface was bubbling (I now would like to think from the ongoing fermentation), or that the color was an unappetizing brackish puce-grey blend.

Ginamos sold by the taro in a wet market. In my childhood, the ginamos was stored in huge recycled Baguio Cooking Oil cans

(Image courtesy of vjsaintz.candijay.com)

None of this mattered to this (erstwhile) diehard ginamos fan. Until 'Nang Carmen pointed out the rust that line the cans, inside and out, and told me, "Tan-awa nang mga lata, gipang-taya tungod sa ginamos! Gusto nimo tayaon imong tinai? Na hala, kaon pa ug daghang ginamos!" (Look at how badly-rusted the cans are! That's because of the ginamos! You want your insides to rust away? Go ahead and eat more ginamos!) Well, that was my first does of aversion therapy, and 'Nang Carmen was not a good yaya for nothing. From then on, I have been avoiding ginamos and nothing can make me touch it now. Unless there's ginamos, biyasong (Bisaya lime), siling kaguko and nilung-ag nga saging hilaw (boiled unripe banana). Otherwise, when I look at ginamos now, it doesn't look so appetizing anymore, on a plate, much less when it is in a plastic pail (the Baguio Oil cans have since been phased out in favor of plastic).

A typical Bisaya painit (merienda) of boiled unripe banana with a ginamos-sili-biyasong/kalamansi dipping sauce

(Image courtesy of webbistro.blogspot.com)

I'M BACK!!!

2010-09-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been away for far too long. No excuse. No excuse at all. But can I just tell you that I forgot my password? And that it took a long time for me to figure it out? Thank God google simplified its password recovery protocol.

Will be posting stuff soon!

MJC IN NEWARK, NJ

2008-04-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Finally, after many postponements, we met for dinner at Iberia, a popular rodizio restaurant in Newark. Yes, BG. Newark. But not the Polly Lat side. Your side. You see Newark - while largely black - also plays host to a huge Iberian-Latino community, hence the proliferation of restaurants serving food that our palates are familiar with. The rodizio in Iberia is excellent, gut-busting, and costs 1/3 of Plataforma's fare. We also had the seafood paella (the menu said it was a 2-person serving but we couldn't even finish half of it).

The restaurant hosts Lions meetings, hence the thumbs-down picture.

Tonight was really fun, especially for Bong, who hasn’t had direct MJC contact for 4 years. Steve Baltao was supposed to join us but had family duties to deal with. Ginger looked blooming in her 4th month of pregnancy. Bong looks and is the same, give or take a few white hairs and a new pair of reading glasses. Rami gave Philip and Bong a recap of MJC in the years that they were away. Philip and Bong told of stories where their MJC experience served them in good stead. Philip is now the Assistant General Manager of a Marriott Hotel in NJ, and Bong is with a dental clinic in Queens. And I am still unemployed.

Miss Manila!!!

YAT'S INTERNATIONAL WINE CLUB – May 29, 2007 (first visit)

2007-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

In the 90s, there was a Brit chef by the name of Philip Golding who became a celebrity of sorts in Manila: he cooked well, was photogenic and recognizable as the onscreen model for a brand of pasta, if memory serves. I thought he had disappeared, because last I heard he was chef-patron of the now defunct Azzuro in Glorietta (now occupied by Banana Leaf), and it was a surprise when my friend invited me to Clark today to send off her niece and boyfriend at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and for a long lunch at Yat’s, helmed by the very same Chef Philip Golding.

Chef Philip came to Manila because he had a Filipina wife whom he met in London. By his account, the future Mrs. Golding fell for him – literally – when she slipped on the kitchen floor of the restaurant where he was working. He invited the winsome Cebuana to dinner to make up for his gaffe and 11 years later, they have made a life for themselves and their two boys in the Clark Economic Zone, with their base of operations at the YAT'S INTERNATIONAL WINE CLUB in the Mimosa Compound.

Yat’s is serious about its wine, proof of which is its wine cellar that holds a veritable king’s ransom in wines, ranging from a very, very rare and very, very expensive bottle of a 1900 Premier Grand Cru Chateau Margaux obtained by Yat’s at an auction. It is not for sale, but in case you’re interested, the bottle carries a tag price of P1,062,800. Yes. You got them zeroes right. The wine steward offered the bottle for me to hold. Like I dared; if I break it I’d have to liquidate all my assets and I’d still be only halfway paying for that bottle. If you’re working on a tight budget, you could settle for the 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc: a steal at P600,000. Or a bottle of Heidsick champagne salvaged from a ship that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1906. This will set you back by about P400,000. All of these rare wines are kept in a humidity and temperature controlled room, and the more affordable selection in a separate room. The house wine is a fine Farnese which goes for P200 a glass. Guess which wine I got to sample at lunch today? And oh, have you heard of vintage beer? Yat’s carries a selection of fine triple-fermented beer and today I got a taste of UN FIN DU MONDE from Montreal. I never tasted beer this good: the top note is apricot with an equally fruit-like nose, and a refined finish I never thought possible in a beer. It comes corked, presented and chilled like a champagne bottle, and appears to complement most food choices.

Chef Philip’s philosophy is to serve people who love their wine, with fine food to complement their fine wine choices. And boy, is the food fine. Our group included a friend who is a food writer, therefore our group was accorded preferential treatment. We sat at the main dining room but were later asked to take a table at the members-only Burgundy Room. Each of Yat’s dining rooms has a different menu, but Chef Philip told us that he and his highly efficient and friendly staff would be more than happy to accommodate any diner’s culinary whim – so long as they have the ingredients in stock. Or they could serve you “dampa” style. Bring your own foie gras, alligator meat, or any special ingredient and you can ask Yat’s to cook it for you.

The service is a story unto itself: our party of 5 was served by 3 waiters, one of whom wore cotton gloves throughout the service. Last I saw highly formal service in Manila was at the Rotisserie of the now-defunct Manila Hilton in 1982 when I was taking my practicum as part of my HRA curriculum.

The menu is pretty interesting, and prices are understandably on the steep side (think of P3,000/per plate if you are to get a soup or appetizer, a glass of wine, an entrée and dessert), considering the high quality of food and service that Yat’s provides each guest. The grill items are especially good (the wagyu tenderloin is to die for – literally – it’s fat marbling is unbelievable). I had an espresso of plum tomatoes and my fellow diners who had the broccoli cream and capsicum and coconut cream soups declared them delicious. Our starter of chilled lobster infused with a sardine sauce was a surprising delight, literally an amuse bouche. This was followed by a delectable and creamy mango sorbet, preceding my porterhouse and veal osso buco combo, which was served with pan fried baby potatoes, a remarkable mushroom risotto resonant with cream and butter notes, and sautéed fresh garden vegetables. The serving size was hefty, and so was my appetite. The presentation left a little to be desired for a fine dining restaurant, as did the quality of the bread served (I am very particular with my bread, and in my opinion Prince Albert and Le Souffle serve the best bread in town, but that’s another story), but this quibble was silenced by the excellent over-all food quality, and totally forgotten by the time I finished off my plate of warm chocolate espresso pudding with a buttercream crust served with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Yat’s serves exotic stuff, like kangaroo and alligator meat. Not very popular choices but appropriate for the serious foodie. Go and take the trek to Clark. It is worth the trip of about 70 minutes each way, or plan a side trip if flying through Clark or going to Baguio. And if Chef Philip is around, he will probably sit down with you and regale you with an extra that is off-menu: his impassioned stories of gastronomy, what’s going on in the local and international hotel and restaurant industry and future plans to make Clark the foodie hub of the Philippines. I look forward to the opening of The London Pub, also in Mimosa, featuring English fare like bangers and mash, prepared “right proper.”

Yat’s is open for lunch daily and closes at 11 p.m., and major credit cards are accepted. Reservations are not necessary, unless you plan to book the entire place. It is a fine dining restaurant (remember, the waiters wear gloves) so don’t expect to be welcomed if you are in shorts, sandals or wife-beaters.

HONG TAI YANG RESTAURANT – first and last visit: April 30, 2007

2007-04-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

For the 3rd consecutive week, my Monday Talk Holes Club will try yet another hotpot/shabu-shabu restaurant. Cheaper daw than King One, per our Chairman, CJ Tan. He was in China and couldn’t join us, so, off we went to Macapagal Avenue, again at the Mall of Hobbies.

Hong Tai Yang (which means Red Sun – rather Japanese in imagery for a Chinese restaurant) is set to the very back of the Mall. You can’t miss it: there are many signs that will lead you towards the right direction.

It boasts of all-you-can-eat hotpot food “WITH 100 FRESH INGREDIENTS!!!” for a mere P395. No free drinks, but it does have a free halo-halo/fruit platter/ice cream station which King One does not have. This is a huge place, accommodating up 10 150 diners at any given time. The décor is tacky and perfunctory: marble slabs looking like so many tombs in rows, with holes in the middle to accommodate gas-operated hot pot stations. The nice thing about Hong Tai though is that each diner gets to have his own hotpot (again, no Sichuan broth!) and unlike King One, also has an additional flat grill plate. There are indeed 100 ingredients to choose from: meats (not of the best quality though), fish, shellfish, shrimp, crab (there is also a chafing dish of stewed crab), dimsum (made mostly of flour and lard), veggies (no golden mushroom), eggs, variety meats, corn and bottomless rice. Drinks are not complimentary. The array is visually impressive but that’s just about it.

The 100 selections An 8-person table has 8 pots and 2 grills

Sadly, for all its variety and seemingly reasonable price, Hong Tai did not impress us. Goria Maris is expensive but you feel sulit. Lau Chan, on the other side of the scale, is cheap but good. King One is a really good bargain offering true bang for the buck. Hong Tai was just, well, cheap. Some of the shrimp had an off odor, as did the crab. The meat, despite being paper thin, was tough because it had no marbling. The “butter” that was given to us for the grill was actually just colored vegetable shortening. And not a good one at that. The staff was eager to please though, and the bathrooms clean, and parking free, but none in my group saw himself going back there or recommending the place to friends and family. One even made the dire prediction that the red sun would cease to be in 6 months. Sayang. It’s the first restaurant pa naman that I’m blogging about na may pictures.

HONG TAI YANG RESTAURANT – first and last visit: April 30, 2007

2007-04-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

For the 3rd consecutive week, my Monday Talk Holes Club will try yet another hotpot/shabu-shabu restaurant. Cheaper daw than King One, per our Chairman, CJ Tan. He was in China and couldn’t join us, so, off we went to Macapagal Avenue, again at the Mall of Hobbies.

Hong Tai Yang (which means Red Sun – rather Japanese in imagery for a Chinese restaurant) is set to the very back of the Mall. You can’t miss it: there are many signs that will lead you towards the right direction.

It boasts of all-you-can-eat hotpot food “WITH 100 FRESH INGREDIENTS!!!” for a mere P395. No free drinks, but it does have a free halo-halo/fruit platter/ice cream station which King One does not have. This is a huge place, accommodating up 10 150 diners at any given time. The décor is tacky and perfunctory: marble slabs looking like so many tombs in rows, with holes in the middle to accommodate gas-operated hot pot stations. The nice thing about Hong Tai though is that each diner gets to have his own hotpot (again, no Sichuan broth!) and unlike King One, also has an additional flat grill plate. There are indeed 100 ingredients to choose from: meats (not of the best quality though), fish, shellfish, shrimp, crab (there is also a chafing dish of stewed crab), dimsum (made mostly of flour and lard), veggies (no golden mushroom), eggs, variety meats, corn and bottomless rice. Drinks are not complimentary. The array is visually impressive but that’s just about it.

Sadly, for all its variety and seemingly reasonable price, Hong Tai did not impress us. Goria Maris is expensive but you feel sulit. Lau Chan, on the other side of the scale, is cheap but good. King One is a really good bargain offering true bang for the buck. Hong Tai was just, well, cheap. Some of the shrimp had an off odor, as did the crab. The meat, despite being paper thin, was tough because it had no marbling. The “butter” that was given to us for the grill was actually just colored vegetable shortening. And not a good one at that. The staff was eager to please though, and the bathrooms clean, and parking free, but none in my group saw himself going back there or recommending the place to friends and family. One even made the dire prediction that the red sun would cease to be in 6 months. Sayang. It’s the first restaurant pa naman that I’m blogging about na may pictures.

GLORIA MARIS HOTPOT RESTAURANT – first visit: late 2005, latest visit April 23, 2007

2007-04-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ahem. I’ll make yabang here. The first time I tried the Gloria Maris Hotpot Restaurant was with Mother Lily, the matriarch of the Philippine movie industry. We were in discussion of the script for WHITE LADY (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0757953/) and she decided to meet at the newly-opened restaurant, instead of in her house. My writing partner remarked that Mother must like us because she never conducts showbiz meetings in restaurants, always in her residence. This was over and above the fact that our first meeting with her was at the Shang Palace, where she fed us plate upon plate of the house specialties. Which she did again at Gloria Maris.

Gloria Maris Seafood Restaurant is among the best Chinese restaurants in town, simply on the strength of its excellent service, outstanding food quality and – all things considered – reasonable prices. Also, to celebrate in Gloria Maris bears with it the patina of “being-in-ness.” It is highly popular among Fil-Chi as the preferred venue for engagement parties, birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms and other small family celebrations. The Greenhills restaurant has 3 sections: the seafood restaurant which has a main dining hall, private function rooms and a huge ballroom on the second level, the eatery section where one can partake of fantastic Chinese dishes at really reasonable prices (their jumbo siopao, which can feed 2 hungry cargadores and is my all-time favorite comfot food, is priced at less than P80). Their noodle dishes are especially good, as are their cold cuts. The third section of course is their hotpot restaurant, which I believe is the first in Manila to serve the humble fare in a Modern Asian setting and using only non-heating microwave (?) cooking plates.

One can choose between sets or individual plates of uncooked ingredients and the usual choices of broth (sadly, no Sichuan). If you are only 2, then individual plates is the way to go. The smallest set is good for 4 (as far as the menu is concerned), but can actually feed about 6 men and is priced at a reasonable P1,200 for 5 sticks of fresh shrimp, some fish, squid, assorted seafood balls and a variety of vegetables (winter mushrooms!). There is also a meat plate with fatty beef, pork and chicken. The service is efficient and friendly (a waiter will come over to peel the shrimp for you) and the acoustics are good – even with so many people around, it’s never too noisy. If you have room for a sweet, order the fresh taho, served in a wooden tub with an accompaniment of syrup and sago. If you’re on a budget, skip ordering drinks. I think this is a rule of thumb in places where the food is cheap: the restaurant marks up their drinks (cf. Mandarin’s Paseo Uno, where a can of Coke will set you back P220, inclusive of taxes and service charge vs. it’s buffet price of P1,400).

Gloria Maris Hotpot is worth repeated visits. I have been there several times since Mother Lily’s treat, and have brought a balikbayan friend who raved over the food, and was there again last week. There is something truly convivial about gathering around a table with good friends and cooking your own food, making your own sauce and chomping the night away.

KING ONE – first visit: April 16, 2007

2007-04-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

My friend Candy Dizon YM’ed me one day: “I’m an addict.” Knowing how kikay she is, I knew it wasn’t an addiction to regulated substances that she was referring to. True enough, she gave me the link to her blog, http://www.adventuresofcandy.blogspot.com. You should check it out: it’s breezy, funny and, yes, kikay. She’s been very prolific and in a week’s time, came out with blogs and content that rivaled mine – which is about a century old already. It’s because of Candy that I have been motivated to push myself into writing 6 blogs a day – as has she.

So Candy, thanks, and here goes:

My Monday Talk Holes Club has been on a mission to sample all the shabu-shabu/cook-your-own restos in town. And why not? One of group’s favorite places is LAU CHAN (on M.H. del Pilar off cor. Malvar – same block as the Pan Pacific Hotel). The food is cheap (count on spending about P300/person), the selection diverse and the service friendly (we once got away with free fruit platters when we (mis)represented one of our buddies as Col. Kamantigue. Little did they know that the only drilling this colonel does is drilling cavities. He is after all, a dentist). However, LAU CHAN is strictly for those who fancy holes-in-the-wall because the place is drab, harshly-lit, very noisy and always packed with happy Chinese diners. I emphasize Chinese because you know what they say about Chinese restaurants: if it is packed with Pinoys, then the food is no good (cf. Chow King).

Having tried Lau Chan, we ventured to the unusually-named Mall of Hobbies on Macapagal Avenue, fronting the PNB Building. The Mall in itself is interesting. It is taking up on Tiendesitas’ lead by putting up a section for pets (I got my nephew’s shih tzu a nice “Burberry” collar and leash for only P150), with a lot of shops catering to multi-level marketing, a spa, and a Census sub-office. Also located in the same complex is a branch of the popular Julia Vargas ihaw-inom place, Jay-J’s. The Mall of Hobbies is truly worth a visit – and perhaps a re-naming. But I’m going off course.

Upon entering the mall (open parking is free and abundant), we immediately sae several large and bright sign announcing: “KING ONE!!!! Eat-All-You-Can!!! Drink-All-You-Can!!! Only P399++” Well. How could we resist! It’s located near the Census office and has very few seats and no reservations. The place is nicely decorated and features a bar in the middle where all the ingredients for the shabu-shabu are prepared in the open and placed on platters on a conveyor, much like how most cheap and on-the-quick Japanese restaurants serve their food. We were 6 that evening and were told by the friendly staff that besides the shabu-shabu, a group of 4 is given a free ala carte item. Wow! Truly a bargain! In fact, we were given a dish of King Dao Pork (good) and squid teriyaki (too much batter but hey! Why should I begrudge this freebie?). The drinks are Quickly style: brain-freeze fruit-flavored slurpees with sago in the bottom, served bottomless style. Iced tea is also complimetary, but sodas and all other beverages are not. The selection of meats, seafood and vegetables is excellent, fresh and varied. We had fatty beef, lamb (both sliced very very thin), sweetish suahe (small shrimp), crab’s claws, an assortment of mushroom (including my favorite winter mushrrom), leafy vegetables, broccoli, caulflower, ad infinitum. Sauces were also plentiful, with sate being the favorite. What sets King One apart from the other hotpot/shabu-shabu restaurants is that it has the usual chicken, seafood, vegetarian and sate stocks to choose from PLUS, the Sichuan broth. Very aromatic, very savory and just spicy enough for the more adventurous diner. Moreover, the cooking plate is the microwave (?) type that won’t burn fingers – a very important factor for family diners.

What King One is missing are private dining rooms or alcoves for big groups and families that want some privacy for their celebration. A minor quibble, but hopefully will be addressed when King One branches out to a bigger outlet.

On top of it all, King One has clean bathrooms. And oh, did I mention that the service is very efficient and friendly?

FOOD TRIVIA (from wikipedia.com):

Shabu-shabu is prepared by submerging a very thin slice of meat or a piece of vegetable in a pot of boiling water or dashi (broth) made with kombu (kelp) and swishing it back and forth several times. (The familiar swishing sound is where the dish gets its name. Shabu-shabu roughly translates to "swish-swish".) Cooked meat and vegetables are usually dipped in ponzu or "goma" (sesame seed) sauce before eating with a bowl of steamed white rice.

Once the meat and vegetables have been eaten, leftover water from the pot is customarily combined with the remaining rice, and the resulting soup is usually eaten last.

The dish is supposed to have originated in the 13th century as a way for Genghis Khan to efficiently feed his soldiers. Mongol troops gathered around a large pot and cooked together. Thinly sliced meat was used for its short cooking time, which allowed the Mongolian army to conserve its limited supply of fuel.

ENOTECA GALILEO – latest visit: March 4, 2007

2007-03-05T01:14:00.000-08:00

“Everything happens for a reason” is among my favorite sayings. In 1999, I bought a condominium unit on Libertad St. in Mandaluyong City. This took a long time to finish and about 3 years ago, I was finally shown the apartment for inspection. It was an upsetting experience on many levels, mostly because the apartment did not turn out according to my expectations, and this after a two-year delay in its delivery. After the inspection, I got so hungry and saw this small shop at the back of the Reyes Gym on Libertad cor. Calbayog. It was odd seeing the sign ENOTECA GALILEO right beside a shop that sells UBE PUTO. I went inside and saw a charming bodega-type setup, with the walls of the small area lined with different Italian wines and goodies, and a deli chiller with all kinds of cheese and cured meat. There were tables, but the server informed me that they only had simple panini, savory grilled Italian sandwiches, cheese and cold cuts. ONLY???!!! Bring it on! And so began my discovery of the delights offered by Galileo.

On subsequent visits, we discovered that Galileo had expanded to include a bigger dining area and more items on the menu. The fare is simple but good and the prices attractive. Moreover, the ambience is just so conducive to great conversation. If booking a party for 10, ask for the innermost sala, where a repro of Botticelli’s Venus Rising From The Sea presides over the dining table.

What I miss is the Sunday brunch, which was introduced to me by my regular Sunday brunch buddy Jennifer Dee. For only P250, one got mortadella, pancetta, assorted cheese, a simple salad and assorted Panini, with bottomless cups of hot chocolate so thick it will blow the eh out of all the hot chocolate you have ever had.

On our latest outing, we went for the brunch but were informed that they no longer served it. Instead, they had their set lunch and dinner menu, also a steal at P400 which will give you a soup or a salad, a meat and cheese platter, pasta, coffee and a glass of wine. The soup was thin but the platter generous, and the pasta all interesting: choose from mushroom, 3-cheese and asparagus. And the hot chocolate is still available at P100 per cup. Sadly, no dessert, but the deli has some cakes which you can order for service.

The deli in itself is impressive, with fresh buffalo mozzarella and parmigiano regiano shipped in weekly, along with other cheese varieties and cured meats. If you’re into Italian food, Galileo is the shop for you.

The service is friendly and prompt, but there is only one, albeit clean, restroom. Our sala’s aircon was busted when we were there but we had so much fun that it didn’t seem to matter. Parking may be difficult during weekdays and getting there may be confusing for those who do not know the twists and turns of EDSA and Mandaluyong’s interior roads.

GALILEO in Mandaluyong is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. but is closed on Mondays. They take Visa and Mastercard. Call 5320482 for reservations. GALILEO recently opened a bigger branch on Pasong Tamo in the La Fuerza Building.