So how is everyone today? Last week, J found a recipe for Garlic Fried Chicken and White Gravy, so we tried doing that, and it wasn’t very successful. Heh. The gravy was lumpy (we didn’t have a whisk!), and the fried chicken got burnt. It was still a pretty tasty meal though:
white gravy, brown rice, garlic fried chicken, sauteed spinach
J was apologetic but I was just glad I wasn’t eating something out of a can. (And he was successful in the next attempt! Too bad I wasn’t there to take a photo.)
In quick beauty/kaartehan news, I bought myself my first BB cream. Stick. BB cream stick.
This is Radiance. If you’re fair-skinned, pick up Fresh. Maybelline’s Clear Smooth BB Stick (PhP 249) blends well and leaves a powder finish, but I’m not sure if this is cruelty-free. What BB cream/stick do you use?
We checked out the book bargain bins, and I got this book for PhP 115.
And Flipside Publishing editors talk about their picks for 2012. Editor Kristine Reynaldo (with her pretty glasses) picks The Viewless Dark and says it made her cry. Watch the video at the source.
We got really hungry looking for a good cast-iron skillet this weekend, so:
Sebastian’s Leche Flan Ice Cream Pie (The Podium) is a must-try. Butter cookie and orange zest crust, a thick layer of Leche Flan Ice Cream, and a thin layer of leche flan. Just look at it.
We also tried the fish & chips at Chuck’s Grub (SM Megamall). I’ll return for the snapper and sloppy fries.
And I must tell you that J poached some fish perfectly on our monthsary. :)
The movies then:
Les Miserables (2012)
I have not seen the stage musical nor read the book, but I know the songs and the character roles and the flow of the story. I was bitterly disappointed by Russell Crowe’s singing. He’s a brilliant actor, but the singing is just – oh Lord, how it distracted me from enjoying this adaptation. I just, I can’t. I’m sorry. It is horrible. “Stars”, a powerful song, loses its power, and Hugh Jackman’s talent is eclipsed.
To love the film you need to get past it, but he is goddamn Javert, okay? I mean, come on! Sacha Baron Cohen (Monsieur Thenardier) sounds way better.
Editing is also a problem. The film feels hurried. It feels more like an extended music video than a film.
Anne Hathaway (Fantine) brings a rawness to her songs that is jarring, but works here. Amanda Seyfried is brilliant as Cosette, with her sweet, sweet voice. It’s her singing that I will keep returning to.
Jeff (Jason Segel) is 30, unmarried, unemployed, and lives in the basement of his mother’s house. He believes everything is connected. One day, he receives a call from a man looking for someone named Kevin. There is no Kevin here, he replies, but after the man hangs up, Jeff becomes convinced that “Kevin” is a message from the universe, and he needs to find him. Thus starts an eventful day with his brother, Pat (Ed Helms), Pat’s wife Linda (Judy Greer), and Jeff and Pat’s mom (Susan Sarandon).
This is a sweet film with an ending that may feel too deus-ex-machina, but we allow it because we love the characters so much, and sometimes, like Jeff, you just have to believe.
I received some pahabol Christmas gifts from Visprint last week. Surprised and touched. I love this notebook.
Ah, the apartment. It’s an endless work-in-progress. I should stay away from groceries. Got these cute laundry baskets from Rustan’s Shopwise.
The curtains are from his ma. It fit the earth-toned motif we accidentally got going on.
And new hair! Of course. My hair was so thick and heavy I decided to have most of them chopped off. Became a mascot for the salon’s Permanent Blowdry service. (“Look at her hair! Ang ganda di ba?”) It was entertaining and weird.
I gave J a link to some easy marinades, and he found one that made the chicken taste…expensive. Haha!
Around midnight we had a McDonald’s craving, but the Globe signal was so bad in our place that the operator couldn’t hear our orders.
So, good job, Globe. You just saved our arteries.
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PS Watch Archer! It’s been described as Arrested Development meets James Bond. Some familiar AD voices there. (And Jessica Walter voices a character that looks like Lucille Bluth – just look at the photo.) It’s irreverent, and hilarious as hell.
I wanted to try Yabu: House of Katsu just to see if it’s worth all the hype, but it’s branch is all the way in Megamall. I like good food, but I don’t like good food that bad.
Then a new branch opened in Mall of Asia.
There were only the two of us, so J and I were able to get seated quickly. (Yabu, located on the second floor in the South Wing of MOA, does not accept reservations. We went there on a weekday. Be ready for a long wait if you’re going there on a weekend night.)
Potato and egg salads for starters.
We had the Kurobuta Pork Set (“3/4 inch cutlet made from rosu or pork with a trimming of fat. Kurobuta, also known as the Black Berkshire pig, is the world’s finest pork. It is called the kobe beef of pork, due to its rich marbling, softness, and flavor”, according to Munchpunch). We loved it. Very soft and tender, and not heavy at all despite being deep-fried and covered in bread crumbs.
The set comes with soup, fruit, pickled veggies, horseradish, unlimited rice and cabbage. I love it that they leave all the dressings, spices, and sauces at the table.
Some people I know celebrate their birthdays for a week, even a whole month. I just eat a lot at home on the day, and then it’s business as usual.
This weekend, though, felt like an extra helping of blessings for my new year.
Friday, the completely unexpected GeekFight win
I’ve heard of GeekFight, and I have friends who have joined GeekFight, but I have doubts about my geek trivia skills. I know some things, but just basic info, certainly not the esoteric ones that get asked in hardcore trivia shows like this.
J found out that the Committee GeekFight for Nov. 9 is themed “Power of Myth” – Philippine myths, Greco-Roman and Norse myths, religions ancient and current – and he seemed to have great faith in my knowledge, which of course made me more nervous. I almost backed out the night before, thinking of the hassle of driving to Quantum Cafe and finding parking on a Friday night and losing.
Well, I’m glad we went because we won.
The Modron Squadron!
We won! On our first game! It’s hilarious how our attitude changed from “It’s okay we’ll just wing it let’s just drink beer and have fun” to “MOTHERFUCKER WE HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS SHIT COVER THE FUCKING WHITEBOARD”.
In the D&D universe, “Modrons resemble geometric shapes with humanoid limbs and represent a living, physical manifestation of law without regard to good or evil.” (Wiki)
Twelve teams fought in “Power of Myth”.
A highlight from the event:
Q: How is the monster from Cloverfield classified by the DOD?
Someone answers: Isa syang class-S na halimaw.
Crowd: “TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN!”
Needless to say, I had a fun Friday night.
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Before the game, we tried Quantum Cafe’s food. These are really good:
Full Shroom, pizza on whole wheat (PhP 190)Kare-kareng gulay! (PhP 220)The kare-kare comes with sinantolan instead of the usual bagoong, but it’s a fun alternative.
I’d like to return to Quantum Cafe just to try the other dishes.
Bwakaw features a heartbreaking performance by Eddie Garcia as the aging homosexual, Rene. It is a beautiful, sweet, affecting story told with grace and control. It has the elements that can very easily allow it to lapse into a cloying melodrama – a dying dog, a lonely old man – but it never does. Instead it finds brightness in a sad life, and inserts humor in the most absurd situations. (How incredibly funny is it to see Gardo Verzosa constantly fanning himself?) And something must be said about the amazing cinematography: J said the film is so immersive that he half-expected to find himself in San Pablo after stepping out of the Film Institute. I agree. The people I saw the film with had this look in their eyes after the show, like they had just been clobbered over the head. Maybe they were expecting the same thing, the San Pablo of Bwakaw: wind-swept trees, unpaved roads, an old man with a dog in his arms riding a tricycle home.
I loved the final image of the film: Rene walking up a path and disappearing into the trees. We are not told where he is going, but at least now we are sure he is going somewhere.
Am I glad I got the chance to see this film on the big screen.
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After lunch at Chocolate Kiss, we headed to the Christmas bazaar. I got these beauties:
Bracelet (PhP 70), ring (PhP 100), peacock-cock-cock earrings (PhP 100)
While in UP, J kept hiding his cell phone screen from me while texting. I wondered about that. He usually even lets me read his texts.
We got to their house, and found out why:
Surprise!
J was with me in Bulacan, and noticed the conspicuous absence of cake during my birthday. So he asked the family to buy me a cake, and more besides.
My thanks to J, J’s ma, his Tita Jo, and the rest of the family for the surprise dinner party!
Sunday, something new for my nails
I regularly have nail polish applied to my toenails, but not to my nails, because I’m a klutz and I chip them easily, sometimes even as soon as I step out of the salon.
So I tried UV soak-off gel nail polish, which the advertisements (and my friendly neighborhood salon) promise will last for two weeks. Mani-pedi using UV gel nail polish is more expensive than using acrylic nail polish. Mine cost PhP 550 at B&W Beauty Salon.
It’s more expensive in the bigger salons, I’m sure. (Some salons, I heard, offer the service for PhP 500 just for the manicure.) That’s a con, but the pros are 1) the polish will last longer, and 2) it dries instantly. No need to ask someone else to open your can of soda after meeting with your manikurista.
I didn’t take pictures of the procedure, but the UV machine looks like this:
No work on Friday! We have planned to go to Tagaytay or Baguio, but logistics problems prevailed, so that will have to wait till we enter my birth month. :)
Speaking of my birth month, J got me some early gifts, including this pair of earrings. Whee.
J’s ma got home from a long vacation in the US. We got bagels. This is turkey ham, sun-dried tomato cream cheese, carrot and pineapple cupcake. Boom. Calories.
Have you tried Sebastian’s crazyawesome crazy-awesome flavors? Try Green Mango with Bagoong (fish paste; this is actual bagoong on the green mango ice cream) and Balsamic Strawberry (strawberry ice cream with balsamic vinegar syrup).
Lovely sky from Sunday afternoon. Look.
Don Jaucian talked to some horror writers and asked them what local stories they find scary. Answers from Yvette Tan, Ian Rosales Casocot, Karl De Mesa, David Hontiveros, Douglas Candano, and moi. Read the article on the Philippine Star.
Eliza Victoria 