Corazon

I've been trying more restaurants at the new wing of the Shangrila Mall, and this time, my friends and I dined at Corazon, the Spanish restaurant of Chef Florabel Co.  The interiors have a funky take on the turn-of-the-century Filipino style, and you can see bright wall colors mixing in with the simple table settings, and Mexican/Cuban style prints adorn the establishment.  The ice-cream cart has been used in other eateries of Chef Florabel (e.g. Elias), and it is well-placed at the entrance of this restaurant to greet guests once more.

The food is Spanish with a Filipino slant.  We had gambas and scallops for appetizers, and both the paella and lengua dishes were easily recognizable as Spanish dishes.  Grilled squid and tuna belly, however, are more like local fare, but who's complaining?  We wolfed everything down in like 20 minutes.

I found the food here to be better tasting than that of Elias, its sister restaurant.  Probably the head chef of the branch has a good rapport with the seasoning?  Work with a budget of around P650 per head, and you can have a good choice of viands to go around the table.

Boon Tong Kee

We celebrated Andi's 12th birthday at Boon Tong Kee (Quezon City branch) which is right beside its sister outlet Burgoo along Tomas Morato.  I had wanted to compare the taste of the local branch with the taste of the cooking in Singapore.  It was a good thing we arrived early, as parking in the area gets pretty hard to find by 7pm.  Our big group of 20 was seated at a long table at the rear portion of the restaurant, and this was just fine as it afforded us some semi-private space.  Gwammy was particularly thrilled because the egg-drop soup that was served as a tummy warmer was on the house!

While waiting for the rest of the family members, we started off with some dimsum treats so that the children's boredom would be quelled.  The staff was quick to point out some of their specialties, and the kids didn't have any objections.

The boiled chicken is the specialty of the house, together with the accompanying chicken rice, this is probably Singapore's best known legacy to the foodie community.  The bird was tender, and the skin was gelatinous in form, which is exactly what I look for!

And the parade of viands started--sweet sour pork, birthday noodles, beef fillet with black pepper, Chinese spinach with century eggs and salted eggs, fish sauteed in garlic, French beans, fried chicken, Dory fish in tausi sauce, cereal prawns, mussels and squid rings and coffee pork ribs.  How much more Singaporean can you get?

Staff service was excellent, we felt as if we owned the place.  I learned from the head chef that a whole team of Filipinos trained in Singapore for some 3 to 4 months before the local branch was opened, and I'd say that taste of the cooking here is already quite good, and the cereal prawns and the coffee pork ribs were clearly winners. However, having eaten in their Singaporean outlet, I'd say that the original stores have a slight edge, probably because of the quality of the produce.  For example, the local Chinese spinach is a truly more fibrous as compared to the one I tasted in Singapore.  Also, the sweet & sour pork ribs and the fried chicken were quite ordinary, just like those of nearby Chinese restaurants in the Tomas Morato area.  In fine, the bill of around P750 per head was reasonable for a good tummy-filling treat for all of us.

Pacific Rim

In the late sixties, I grew up watching Godzilla and other monsters romp off the seas and destroy half of Tokyo.  Well, these Japanese movies soon crossed over to Hollywood and effectively gave King Kong a run for his money.  The Gigantor and Voltes V robots came in a bit later (somewhere in the early seventies), and today's Transformer movies have also injected a very realistic imaging to the genre.  Watching Pacific Rim was a very heartwarming adventure for me; this Guillermo del Toro movie combined both Japanese creations and blended them well in a mixture of enough heroism, bonding and affection to pull off a teary-eyed finale.  My great find is Oscar nominee and Chanel poster lady Rinko Kikuchi, the female lead, who plays the co-pilot of the Jaeger robot-fighter who saves the world.  She is beautiful and stylish, packs a mean karate kick, and has got a lot of class. Moreover, in the tradition of Japanese drama, her facial acting is wonderful--look at her onscreen character and you can see that her eyes say it all!  I can't wait to see her next movie with Keanu Reeves.

Chet Baker

I haven't paid much attention to Chet Baker.  I knew him mostly as the trumpeter who slid from prominence to the abyss of drug-induced stupor.  I had vaguely heard his songs, so when I heard his rendition of I Get Along Without You Very Well being played in Harbor City, I reached out for a copy of the CD compilation.  He wasn't as well known as Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker, but his singing style, almost like a phrased narrative, struck me with a positive chord.  The Thrill is Gone, Time After Time, My Funny Valentine and Someone to Watch Over Me are just some of the standards that he sings with relative ease. The delivery isn't studied, comes across as like singing to oneself, which is in line with the fact that Baker didn't read notes, and played oido.  But the one song in the compilation that haunts me is The Night We Called It A Day, which is painful to listen to, almost grieving in tone and character.  Such a pity that the man slumped into decadence, but still, the world is richer with his music.

L' Opera

There's something about the interior ambiance of L' Opera at the Fort Strip that makes me reach out for a cocktail.  Some places I ask for a beer.  Some others, scotch.  But the lazy cozy feeling at this restaurant gets to me, and I instinctively ask for a Campari soda.

We had a family dinner with Jefferson and Alexandra, and I chose the place because of its roadside entrance, which is very convenient for Kong and Gwammy.  We started off with a meat pizza to share, and I had mixed ravioli (scallops and seafood), and scampi.  I understand that Michaela, Vicky, Monique and Annika had lamb, fish and pasta, but I was too engrossed in the conversation to take pictures of what they ordered.

We spent something like P900 per head for the meal, and thoroughly enjoyed the dinner. Given the setting, table finery and ambiance, I'd say it was a good experience for the kids.

Castello

Castello soft cheeses were on sale in Unimart, and I hurriedly pick a box each of brie and camembert for Monique, the cheese lover that she is.  Not bad for less than P200 each; it stays for around 3-4 days in our refrigerator, and then it's completely gone.  Great with bread or crackers.  The Danish company was started by the Tholstrup family in 1893, and was sold in 2006 to the Scandinavian combine Arla Foods (which also carries the Lurpak butter brand).

FJ Cruiser

* photo from toyota.com.ph

Vicky got a call from her friend at Toyota informing her of the availability of the FJ Cruiser, at a sticker price of just under P1.8 million.  I was pretty intrigued and mentally drooled over the prospect of driving this brute.  Classic look that pays tribute to the Cruisers of the sixties and the seventies.  4 wheel drive, automatic transmission.  Spacious interiors.  4 liter, V6 gasoline engine with enough horsepower to get out of any mountain trail rut.

I don't need it, but I sure want it.  Hell, yeah...