like butter my ass
Posted at 08:58 PM

so we were on the hunt for H, the holy grail of flip flops. what were supposed to be the ultimate last say in comfort.

there were 2 shops in rockwell we were told and so off we went on the quest. it's amazing how fast they fly off the shelves. almost none could be found. but in one shop they had a pink pair. not exactly the desired design, but good enough to try out for size.

very gingerly, i took them off the hanger and lay them on the floor. with much anticipation i put in my feet into H, the holy grail of flip flops. at that instant i knew exactly how they felt. they felt exactly like... my house slippers.

"hey," i say.

"well?" joanna asks. "are they really super comfy?"

"no," i answer.

"no?"

"no. here, try them."

and so she struggles out of her sneakers and sneaks a foot in.

"oo nga ano!" she exclaims.

like butter our feet.
 

 

the book tag
Posted at 01:17 PM

Number of books on the shelves:

Shelf in the living room: 300+, boring stuff. history, philosophy
Shelf in the middle upstairs room: 300+ of more boring stuff

My tall shelf: 200ish, mostly fiction with smatterings of poetry and nonfic
My short shelf: 50 something, again mostly fiction

there are some textbooks above my desk but those sooo don't count.

Those that I own/bought: the ones on my shelves - sayang pera ko sa boring stuff haha.

5 Last books bought:

1. Generation X, Douglas Coupland
2. How to be Good, Nick Hornby
3. Unto Thee, Mabi David
4. Disappear, Conchitina Cruz
5. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris

Book/s I'm reading now:

King Lear (checked out one scene and got hooked to the story)

That Nice Miss Smith (a reconstruction of the case of this woman who poisoned her husband and was found 'not guilty.' i figure it's educational more than anything else)

Last 5 books read (in no particular order):

1. Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (this one is brilliant, must read)
2. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler (quirky and fun. makes me want to check out the movie)
3. July July, Tim O Brien (loved this one - captures the spirit of an american generation)
4. Faster, James Gleick (nonfic taking apart the notion of time and how people nowadays are always in a hurry)
5. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (i want to go to the university of wisconsin and worship at her feet. this woman is too, too good)

Books I'll cherish (in no particular order):

1. my nancy drew hardbounds
2. the book of psalms (i would have said 'the bible' but leviticus bored the heck out of me)
3. my big muppet fun book (i considered being buried with it, but then ipapamana ko na lang)
4. bel canto, ann patchett (another woman at whose feet i shall worship)
5. fried green tomatoes, fannie flagg (if you haven't read it, you're missing something.)

the times, they are a-changing
Posted at 10:29 AM

bianx took the upcat yesterday, a full 19 years after i took mine. i don't remember anything about that day except that anet and paolo and i were on the same row eating nagaraya cracker nuts.

funny what can happen in 19 years. there are some things that don't change at all. U2 is still THE band for me (couldn't breathe while watching them on SNL last night), i still think the name demi is cool, and i get the urge now and then to buy a swatch.

then again some things can change so drastically i can't believe how things are different. aside from kicking a bad habit or two (or three), i suppose my biggest turn around would have to be from my bias against green skirts.

for reasons i can't remember, i had this running thing with maryknollers in high school. 'green skirts,' i'd say with contempt everytime i'd see them around katipunan. but now...

all my killers (and their mother penguin) are maryknollers. and so are my other two nieces. joanna is a maryknoller, and dez... paano na?

i am so sure my 15-year-old self will have nothing to do with the now-me.

 

the method
Posted at 10:06 AM

i'm writing a proposal for a grant that will allow me to finish a second collection of narratives. UP, being what it is, has only one form for scholarly grants and creative grants - so as i was giving the required information, i was momentarily perplexed by this section:

Methodology and Work Plan

you mean i'm supposed to have a plan? my basic strategy was to sit down - maybe with a cup of tea, coffee or a glass of grapefruit juice - and stare at the screen. possibly the following sequence could follow:

2. stare some more

3. give up and lie down

4. get up out of guilt and get back to staring.

5. type 5 words, delete 3. type 4 more and then delete 2 more 

6. give up and play a game

7. let computer rest because it's heating up from all the playing

8. read, then get inspired to write

9. get up and resume staring at the screen

i'm not so sure though if this process will win me that grant. 

with a song in their hearts
Posted at 02:04 PM

there's a messenger on campus who sings out loud wherever he goes. i run into him as i do my own errands - in the bank, at photocopying centers, at admin offices. as long as he's not talking to anyone, he's singing. he sings as he walks, he sings as he waits. as far as i can tell he has a pretty wide repertoire. i've heard him do the beatles, the carpenters, survivor, and the eagles.

the girl who cleans our house has a similar habit. she sings while she sweeps, while she wipes, while she mops - although in her case i can't make out the songs. either she's not in tune, or she's got a more eclectic line up.

everytime i see them i get this impression of sunshine in their hearts and joy in their lives. they always give this aura that life is so good and happy and nothing can ever get them down.

it's starting to rrrreaaallllllly bug me. 

creepiest places
Posted at 01:39 PM

reinvention
Posted at 04:10 PM

i started a blog to keep myself writing - basically a writer's equivalent of rehearsals. now i figure it might be fun to have some sort of point - or a theme thingy... so i'm transforming this into a food blog called 'the frustrated food critic.'

from now on the entries will touch on one of my favorite things - food  

the word means supper
Posted at 11:15 PM

some of the best spots in the world are those discovered entirely by chance. Cena in Greenbelt 2 is one of these gems. 

in dire need of nourishment at 3pm one day, we found to our dismay that pretty much everything in greenbelt closes from 2-6pm. close to death from starvation, we just sat in the first open place we saw - price and type of food be hanged. and thereby was discovered one of the best restaurants in metro manila.

Cena's menu is the type that you can close your eyes, run your finger through it and anything you land on will be a gastronomic experience not to be missed. the beauty of the food doesn't really lie in experimentation - they have a lot of familiar dishes: carbonara, steak, pizza - the culinary delight comes precisely how they can transform the familiar into the magical. theirs is the best four-cheese pizza i've tried. they have also elevated mashed potato to an art form.

it's not the cheapest of places. a regular meal will set you back around P500, while the fancier ones might swipe around P1,000 from your wallet. but it is certainly value for money. certainly not for everyday dining, but definitely the place to go when you feel like you need to be gastronomically pampered.

sarap to the bones
Posted at 09:43 PM

(para kay karlo, na malamang hindi nakakakain ng bulalo dyan sa san francisco) 

 if you go south towards batangas and don't stop for bulalo then you must be mad.

somewhere in santo tomas there's a road with a chain of restaurants: rose and grace, rose, and grace (sometime during their lives they must have had a falling out). and in these places is the best bulalo you can ever find.

bulalo actually refers to a cow's thigh and shoulder bones. when we mean the dish, we usually mean a heavenly soup made from these cuts of beef. the soup itself is actually nothing fancy. in it's barest form, it's just stock, a broth. but the speciality of it lies in the composition of the bones. see, these parts of the cow are just laden with really tasty chunks of ligament (which has a really good coarse texture), fat, and - most importantly - marrow. you don't know how flavorful beef can get until you've tried bulalo.

bulalo has to be eaten steaming hot and must be served with some thin instrument that will enable you to fish that marrow out of the bone. in the batangas restaurants, this instrument is more often than not a barbecue stick. it's not pretty but who cares, it serves its purpose. get the marrow out and lay it on a bed of hot rice all soaked in some of that gorgeous broth. 

on a cold rainy day, it doesn't get better than this. 

al dente
Posted at 12:49 PM

the term 'al dente' - or 'to the tooth' - has been used to refer to good pasta. the term means the pasta is firm, not tough, not soggy. firm pasta is important for two main reasons: mushy pasta is gross; and, two, firm pasta will hold with whatever sauce you put on it.

there's one restaurant that serves its pasta 'al dente' whenever, wherever: Cibo.

lately, it's become the most reliable place to grab a good meal. can't go wrong. from vegetarian sandwiches, to seafood pasta (in all sorts of shapes and sizes), Cibo is guaranteed to satisfy... for around P250 per head without drinks.

now and then i also crave for 'the sandwich with nothing in it.' it's actually a salami sandwich with lettuce and (i think) gorgonzola cheese. a bit on the light side (definitely for snacking only), but very very good.

as an aside, it's probably worth noting that if you want what we call a pepperoni pizza in italy, say salami, or ask for the different kinds of salami they have. if you ask for pepperoni you're going to get bell peppers. 

i so fell in love with the salami i decided to try it out on a pasta dish: rigatoni with salami, asparagus and cream. rigatoni is like giant penne so each forkful is a mouthful of delicious and perfectly al dente pasta.

breaking the fast
Posted at 08:52 PM

i have become, mostly against my will, a morning person. through some dastardly twist of fate i can no longer trace, i always end up teaching a 7am class. i generally don't mind because that means i get the rest of the day free... but gettiing up that early on a daily basis can be a real pain.

but then, getting up that early on consecutive days for breakfast is another matter.

although my stomach generally gets very annoyed at having to digest things before 10am, breakfast at Dome is something it will never complain about. more specifically, the country breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash brown, toast and dalandan juice is always welcome. nothing fancy, i'll grant that - but always hearty and well-prepared. topped off with a banana caramel waffle, and you've got the perfect start to a day.

the latest discovery is the breakfast buffet at Something Fishy, Eastwood. for P80, get your fill of tocino, tapa, longganisa, mami, palitaw, palabok, adobo, pancakes, scrambled eggs and rice anytime from midnight to 10am. yep, P80... plus free parking... plus a free car wash. now that has got to be one of the best deals in the metropolis.

so until i finally get to sample the fabled breakfast at the indra regent hotel, these stand as my two best bets for the first meal of the day.