Tiffy: Cadbury Dairy Milk Sing for Joy Vending Machine

I always wonder why people sing everywhere here. As an exchange student in Japan, I would sing in my dorm room and the girl next door--an exchange student from Taiwan, would call me up and tell me that she can hear me sing. Back then I was thinking, "So?" Until I realized that she did this to give me a heads up: I might be bothering our other dorm-mates.


Here in the Philippines, if you pass by a store with a karaoke machine (magic sing, anyone?), you're 100% sure that there will be someone singing. If not the salesperson, then a passerby. It's innate. Sometimes I wonder, why do we do it? Aren't we afraid of other people criticizing our singing (albeit in their heads)?

And then I passed by Cadbury's Sing For Joy Vending Machine last month in Trinoma LOLOLOL

 Wondering what the commotion was about

Way to go marketing. This one's definitely something that people will line up for. Not only will they be able to showcase their singing talents, they'll be able to get free chocolate bars too!

A lot of people were taking pics so I took some too

There's also a Php 40,000 cash prize for the funniest rendition (they have a record of you singing! yikes!). Winners will be announced on January 16 and the top 10 performances will be compiled into a CD.

Sneaky sneaky

Therese in Taiwan: Happy new year 新年快樂!

I know we're already a week into January, so this is quite a late post.. but on behalf of Manila Foodistas, I want to greet you all a "Happy New Year!"

2011 has been such an awesome year for me - what with graduating, going to Spain, and finally coming here to Taiwan. It was also my first year celebrating the new year away from the Philippines, my family, and my friends. However, I was able to (finally) see the fireworks at Taipei 101 with my own eyes! Some wishes come true!

I want to leave you guys with this video I took of the fireworks display:



Here's to hoping that 2012 will be an awesome year for all of us!

<3,
Therese
Manila Foodistas

Herschel: A Night at Uno Pizzeria

I was enthusiastic to take on the challenge of covering my first ManilaFoodistas event last Friday night (did I hear a song?!) – solo at that, and while the gang wasn’t around to supervise, I came to enjoy the experience, with food as the star of the show.

Organized by the people behind OpenRice Philippines as a “mini-eyeball”, several site members and an assortment of guest bloggers and friends were invited to Uno Pizzeria to mingle, sample and most of all, have fun!

Uno Pizzeria Ristorante Bar, an Italian-American-Asian fusion-themed joint, is located at Pasay’s San Miguel by the Bay (behind the MOA complex, and near the MOA Eye that Nicole blogged about last week), among the offshoot of restaurants that lined the strip. The façade of the resto was painted in red and black, quite like a playing card suit, while the interiors were austere white (even for the chairs and tables).

The rest of the room is spacious. Neon blue lights accented the dining area, while fiery red donned the mini-bar. Mini-bar, you say? If neon lights, mirrorballs and DJs were any indication, let me clue you in later…

Pride of place: the bestseller, Four Seasons Pizza

We started the night with a hefty Four Seasons Pizza (that consisted of West Side Shrimp Pesto, Tandoori Chicken Mango, Uno’s White Pizza, and Ruby Ribs, if I wasn’t mistaken). Among the three out of four variants I tried out the shrimp pizza won me over, as I am perpetually in love with shrimps slathered with white cheese. Good thing they came out with a similar pie, the Uno's Seafood Pizza, entirely indulgent with calamari and more shrimp. The Tandoori Chicken Mango wasn’t bad either, if you’re into a more savory, Asian bite.

Uno's Seafood Pizza

Tender and delicious: Ruby Ribs

The main entrée came shortly, and it was a revelation. Behold the Ruby Ribs, said to be Uno’s specialty – it was a juicy piece of bones and meat, tender to the bite and the sauce seasoned just right. Our platter was served with ‘Tato Wedges, although the menu says entrees are to be served with buttered vegetables with your choice of mashed potatoes or rice, or pasta with soup.

(from left, clockwise: Pesto Chicken Parmigiana, Grilled Chicken Salad Wraps, Jumpin' Jambalaya, Chicken Barbeque Quesadillas)

And with that the night just got started. We had appetizers of Buffalo Wings (not spicy or crunchy as I assumed) and Grilled Chicken Salad Wraps (light and filling). The only thin crust pizza came, called Buddha’s Feast, as it was strewn with lettuce and tomatoes. Two kinds of pasta were served: the Pesto Chicken Parmigiana and the Jumpin’ Jambalaya (pomodoro-style, smattered with ham, sausage, shrimp and chicken). While being a noodle head, the accompanying sauces were quite an overwhelming combination – mildly sour (in the case of parmigiana), and not the usual savory tomato (with the Jambalaya). I felt that the flavors could have been improved, as the servings were good (for 4, at least) and the toppings adequate.

I was appeased by the next entrée, a juicy, smoked chicken chop with mild-tasting sauce. We also had Chicken Barbeque Quesadillas (tasty, filled with cheese and smothered by toasted but soft tortilla wraps). And in case you wondered, we gulped the bulk (there were so many!) down with iced tea and a couple of mixed-drink towers (Margarita and Weng Weng).

For the encore, it was apt to have a meaty deep dish pizza. Being an inveterate bread eater, I had no qualms with the quality of the pies. The baked dough was soft in texture, whether thin or regular or deep dish. As mentioned earlier, I preferred cheese-overloaded and seafood-strewn pizzas, although Uno’s other variations suited my tastes too.

Our party was rather small, but the beauty of holding an early dinner was that as the night wore on, the vibe of the place evolved. Featuring an in-house DJ, R&B grooves as musical ambiance played as we ate. Around eight, when we were just about full, some guests were pouring in looking for a quick drink (hence the mini-bar). And up until the crack of nine, the aural pace slowly crept with dance tunes and current pop ditties! The pizzeria was converted to a lounge by the sweep of an hour! As we left the room with a crowd assembled near the entrance, I had to say that under the spot’s initially relaxed demeanor lives a frenetic spirit. HT for MF

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Uno Pizzeria Ristorante Bar
Bldg G, Units 9-14 San Miguel by the Bay MOA Complex
Pasay City, Metro Manila 1300
Contact Number: 555-1174

Special thanks to Uno Pizzeria’s proprietor Alvin Ong and manager Girlie Herrera, and to the eager team behind OpenRice.com (Khaezel, Cecille, Dani & Raissa) for the evening.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed on this entry are those solely of the poster/diner. The opinions do not represent the consensus of MF, the featured dining spot, and/or third parties.)

Herschel: Freedom with food

By Herschel A. Tan

(Note to the Reader: This is to commemorate Hersch’s first-ever post as contributor of ManilaFoodistas. Show of hands for a welcome party, please – and cheers!)

How I came to love food, again: A personal heart-warming scene from my favorite foodie movie ever, “Ratatouille”.
No one was born a gourmet, not unless you grew up in some Napa Valley vineyard, had grass-fed cows grazing in your backyard and had restaurant critics as parents. All of us must’ve tumbled about this world armed with wobbly limbs, flailing arms and an uninitiated palate. Out of our five basic senses, the most promising one had to dwell behind our feeble mouths, like canvasses anticipating specks of a million colors.

My earliest memories of eating were bottles of milk guzzled up, Gerber and Cerelac squandered, and general squeamishness for vegetables (read: leafy greens, eggplant and the abominable okra), save for mashed squash, carrots and potatoes. It was a typical childhood of pranks and pickiness. Snacks were the only food I looked forward to in my lunch bag. I was a bad eater too. Until about the age of four I was still being unabashedly fed to, and with the television as babysitter it probably took twice the time for me to finish a moderate serving, so rice meals were often dunked in a bowl of soup (or even juice!) just so I can practically glob them down.

It’s not to say that I “hated” food. I was the proverbial fast food deferential, junk food-nibbling brat. I was content with good ol’ Chinese when we ate out, preferred fried to stewed, hastily settled for breads with cheese or egg over oatmeal or plain congee, and didn’t bother with anything that involved digesting it raw. Mom had to force it upon me to eat healthily at home – well, I took samples, and that was all. Elsewhere, especially without supervision and hesitation, it was my smorgasbord of choice (*insert evil laugh*)!

This went on for the rest of adolescence, albeit with a bit of reservation towards “the quick and the junk” because along with a propensity towards chomping plates of rice, I noticed that I was overweight already (add to that a billion teenage insecurities!) Because of my own drastic response to a very alarming appearance, I devised my first-ever weight-loss scheme. With the help of Dad as fitness coach, I had a lot less rice for the day, usually soup and bread for dinner, and attempted (the operative word) to exercise in the morning and have more “active” activities. It worked all right, as I desired to look at least passably memorable for the rest of high school (Proms and Graduation, among other trigger-happy photo opportunities). Slowly I realized the benefits of eating better.

Then this entire culinary blitz of the mid-decade came, and I was swept with the revolution. My weekly TV habit consisted of cooking shows (to a certain extent the hot chefs made them even more watchable), and my blogosphere was crammed with food journals. I began to enjoy food not just as a precursor to living, but in itself a pleasurable exercise. I was more conscious of my intake, and thought there were so much food wonders to be explored if I’d glance from above my ‘comfort food style’ of eating. And well, I gravitated toward the hobby of cooking!

Two milestones in my ‘foodie’ epiphany

It took a little movie involving a smart rat who loved good food to get me all worked up on my culinary interest. Ratatouille (2007), despite it being marketed for children, simultaneously spoke to people of all ages and walks of life – that passion, determination and a good dose of self-esteem can do you best – and yes, anyone can cook. The film was where I actually learned of kitchen etiquette and the hierarchy of chef-dom; and the protagonist Remy’s obsessive gourmand exhortations (figured largely in a scene where he demonstrates to his brother Emile the pleasures of good food) caught up with me and manifests (in my mind) whenever I do come across something unexpectedly delicious. And being an avowed Francophile, it wasn’t hard to love a film insisting on la vie Parisienne!

Another one was the fortuitous discovery of food literature. There was more to cookbooks and food
porn
blogs and highbrow restaurant reviews! One lacklustre afternoon at the university library, I chanced upon two slim volumes, Sarap and Tikim, by the country’s finest food writer, Doreen G. Fernandez, and through her wonderful essays on the synergy of food, culture and society (among other interesting discourses) I immersed into a world where food is stripped to its barest – tracing its origins, how territory and acclimatization dictates its preparation, and to paraphrase Ms Fernandez, how a panoply of the simplest ingredients can conjure a meal so exciting to one’s taste buds.

Perhaps the person who catapulted me to appreciate food on a most extraordinary level was the 20th century American writer Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher – she breathed new meaning to the maxim “To live is to eat.” M.F.K. Fisher lived large with her family and loved ones, and especially when it came to food – on her landmark tome The Art of Eating (a collection of five published books), she imparted her cherished memories in exquisite, evocative phrases, such as the entry “Define This Word”, when she dined alone at a lonely restaurant in France, and found herself the willing victim of a waitress’s affections and the chef’s recommendations. And a personal favorite, “A Thing Shared”, where Mary Frances, her sister and her father spent a blissful dinner by the roadside after a long trip to her great-aunt’s peach & pear ranch. Even with only a humble peach pie and a jar of cream, it seemed to to be a pivotal awakening to Ms Fisher on how she “saw food as something beautiful to be shared with people instead of as a thrice-daily necessity.”

I do wish that with my first serious foray into the food blogging universe, I may be able to evoke some wisdom gleaned from Fernandez, Fisher and their contemporaries (I’m raring to delve into food lit reviews!), as well as help dish out (pun intended) the best undiscovered eats in the metro with the rest of the ManilaFoodistas team! See y’all around!

(Postscript: I think I sounded like a food nerd on this post. While I may be obsessive when it comes to proper table manners, I am very partial to chocolates, half the pizza box, and a big bowl of fried rice. So relax, I don’t bite!)