Night-Table Books

I am currently reading Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. It's very exciting. I wasn't really minding it much, especially since I had prioritized reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies first. However, after mingling around Powerbooks in Glorietta 3 last Sunday, this book beckoned to me. Since it was marked down, there was no stopping me from purchasing it.

While in the topic of Powerbooks, I was finally able to purchase Selyo! I am so in love with it! It's a wonderful history of the stamps of the Philippines. Every Filipino philatelist should have one. And it is marked down as well, was able to purchase mine for only PhP 695.00.

A book I had recently finished is My Zombie My by Jack Wallen.

borrowed from http://zombieradio.org/?p=97

It's the sequel to I Zombie I, which I chanced upon while searching for free books for Kindle in Amazon. No, I don't have a Kindle as of yet, I am making do with Kindle for iPad in the meantime. I Zombie I was an interesting read, coming from someone who didn't enjoy World War Z that much. I guess I was kinda looking for a Zombie thriller that's told more as a narrative rather than a documentary. As soon as I finished I Zombie I, I checked online and My Zombie My was being sold for $2.99. Cheap enough, so I downloaded it.

I just finished it last Sunday morning, so naturally, I searched if the third installment in the saga is available. According to @jlwallen, it should be available this week. Keeping my eye out for it as well.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying Abe. And if Die Zombie Die is still not available this week, I will look for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to pass the time, maybe download it on Kindle for iPad to make it easier.

Busy Week Ahead

Busy week ahead. I have several Christmas parties to attend, 2 of which I am the organizer. 1 party will be held in a farm, and there are 2 which are right after the other, but are located in 2 different cities! Will try to kerp everyone updated, though. Enjoy the holidays!

Selyo, Philippine History in Postage Stamps

Ohmigod. I was walking past Greenbelt 4's Powerbooks the other day, and I remember seeing this book. It's entitled Selyo, Philippine History in Postage Stamps.

borrowed from kabayancentral.com

I remembered it just now, because I'm watching a documentary on Pearl Harbor, and the show mentioned Roosevelt fixing his stamp collection on the moment Pearl Harbor was attacked.

I've been collecting stamps on and off since I was in grade school. Philately is one of the things that relax me when I'm extremely stressed. However, nowadays, it is a hobby that I fear is slowly dying, because people don't send mail anymore. Communication is now done at an instant, via email, or text messaging.

I am hoping that the hobby picks up, and I pray that I don't wake up one day to find that stamps have gone extinct.

I ended up calling Powerbooks in Greenbelt 4, and they have 2 copies available, but they're both dog-eared. The woman from Powerbooks referred me to look in the National Bookstore in Greenbelt 1, Glorietta 5, and Rockwell, though, as they may still have copies available. The book costs PhP 695.00, which is marked down from PhP 900.00 according to the book barista (that's what I call the Powerbooks people).

So the search is on for this book. This will be my personal Christmas mission for myself. Hoping that I will be able to find it before the 25th. I'll keep you guys posted if I am able to obtain a copy.

APMC Luau Christmas Party at the Intercon

Danny had his Ferragamo Opening at Greenbelt 4 yesterday, and I had our company's Christmas Party at the Intercon. The theme was Hawaiian, and everybody came in their best Hawaiian shirts! Of course, I truly believe that I should have won best in costume. I was wearing a French Connection shirt with a pink/salmon/old rose/mauve Gap shorts, and newly purchased beige boat shoes, especially for the event. To top it all off, I matched the attire with my white Technomarine watch.

However, those voted for best in costume wore gaudy, oversized Hawaiian shirts. Well, c'est la vie.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Our company is composed of a lot of employees, so this is my 3rd Christmas Party in Intercon. We usually hold these in Intercontinental Manila, as it is one of the few ballrooms that can accommodate us. Will post more Christmas parties, as I have a lot to attend to this holiday season.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mamou Too in Rockwell

Several months back, I was able to try Mamou in Serendra. I didn't really enjoy it that much, to think we ordered steaks at that time. Thus, for the longest time, I was trying to avoid trying Mamou Too in Rockwell. Tonight, finally, I gave in to the first seating at 6:30PM.

Apparently, during weekdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Mamou Too is the place to be for dates. Unfortunate for us, the restaurant was small, and the tables, being miniscule also, were placed so near the other tables. So, being a date place, we fell witness to the awkward trappings of the couple's first date right next to us. Yes! Don't you just hate it! The guy trying so hard to be pa-cool, the girl trying so hard to be pa-sosyal. Spare us the agony, Mamou, get a bigger place, and get bigger tables!

We proceeded to order from the back-to-back menu handed to us.

Danny and I were a bit hungry from the stress for the week. We ordered Mamou Iced Tea. I was surprised, apparently, the iced tea was refillable. Didn't taste like your usual run of the mill powedered iced tea.

Love the whole wheat bread that they served us, or was it molasses bread? I forget.

For starters, we ordered Lorenzo's Truffle Cream Pasta. It was dee-vine! They were not cheap on the truffles at all! And for the price it was being pegged at, I shoulda ordered more to go!

Danny ordered Lamb Tapa which came with a side of some sort of salsa, and balsamic vinegar.  If this were my dish, would've preferred the sunny side ups well done. That's just me.

I ordered the Roast Pork. Pretty good. I would've wanted to order the Kurobota Katsu or Sinigang, ergo, anything Kurobota, but they both weren't available. So I had to make do with the Roast Pork.

Pretty weird that I was craving for pork, though. The waiter kept on recommending the chicken dishes, but they weren't fillets, so I said no. I must be channeling my inner Annabelle Rama because I was looking for baboy!

The restaurant's hostess, or resident intern, chatted us up over dinner. Probably because she didn't want to bother the first-date-couples, and was able to convince us to try the Key Lime Pie. Oddly enough, I was eyeing the same dessert when I first glanced on the menu, probably because I heard it mentioned in True Blood or something.

This time around, I enjoyed dinner at Mamou. Save for the tables, and the first-date-couples, my experience was close to perfect. Had no complaints about the food at all, even if they weren't pure Italian or Japanese. We ordered, apparently, a lot by their standards already as the waiters were having a hard time placing the dishes on the table, and I didn't even have my Paul Smith clutch on the table. So I guess, it was the table's fault then.

Keep you posted for more!

For everyone's reference:

Mamou Too Rockwell
L R1 148A Lopez Drive,
Brgy. Poblacion, Makati
tel. no. 822.6218 / 0917.806.2668

Wine, Yogurt, and Sushi Evening

Had a pretty toxic start to the day today. Had a board meeting that I needed to attend. It started at 9:00AM, and ended at 2:00PM, no lunch-break in between. Of course, I had to leave by 1:30PM, because I had a feeling I wouldn't be as productive for the day had I stayed on until the end. Had issues to attend to pa up until the last minute, and would've just been fine clocking off at 6:00PM to go home, take the car out by 7:00PM, and pick up Danny. Good thing that things took a different turn to an otherwise horrid day.

Danny, with his officemates, attended the formal opening of Pinkberry in Manila. The first Pinkberry shop here in the Philippines is located in Greenbelt 5, right next to Mr. Jones. There were a lot of people and a lot of photographers, so I couldn't take much pictures for that event. Here are my usual unusual shots, nonetheless.

Of course I would always notice the lighting fixtures. Seems like I've seen these in a different establishment, but it still works nonetheless.

Their flooring was quite unique. It reminded me of the flooring of a 1980s garden. Lana, Danny's officemate in Rustan's, commented it was a bit difficult to walk on them if you were wearing stilettos. I wasn't able to take a picture of these, though.

I took photos of the flowers that were used on the tables, and the giant one placed by the doorway.

 

I wasn't able to take pictures of the food set up outside, as there were so many people. There was a band playing, and it was such a mess of waiters, wine glasses, and serving trays, so we chose to stay inside instead. Good thing we were able to ask the waiter to keep the rose wine, red wine, and appetizers coming. The appetizers were fairly good. They were a bit on the cold side when it reached our table already, but it's perfectly understandable since it was a bit humid outside, and extremely cool inside. Here's a picture of the appetizers, all by Chef Laudico's BFAST, the same restaurant in Ayala Triangle Gardens.

And the weirdest part, we were drinking wine, with yogurt! Of course we had to sample the various yogurt flavors of Pinkberry. The yogurt came in Green Tea, Chocolate (which didn't agree with my taste at all), Mango, Pomegranate, and Watermelon. I was able to try the Green Tea and Pomegranate flavors.

They had such a wide array of toppings, I was having a hard time initially choosing what to put on my yogurt. I settled for blueberry, kiwi, strawberry, and, the most divine of them all, mochi! Here's a picture of the toppings. With these in front of you, you'd be confused as well.

The evening did not stop at the formal opening of Pinkberry. Who would be satisfied with appetizers for dinner? Naturally, we headed off to Sugi for a somewhat later dinner than usual. Still taking advantage of the sale they have ongoing until January 15, 2012.

Danny, Lana, Mitch, Junjun, Margs and I all met up in Sugi from Pinkberry. We had the usual Sugi fare. It was the first time I saw the decorations in Sugi, which is a color motif that I am actually using in Manila Tower in the Residences at Greenbelt.

I had my usual Sashimi Teishoku, and Danny tried the Chirashi Sushi. We ordered these two to compare the differences. The Chirashi had 2 more different varieities of sushi, whereas the Teishoku was a complete meal with soup, and pickled vegetables.

Danny's Chirashi Sushi

My Sashimi Teishoku

We also ordered Tenpura Teishoku, which is also becoming a fast staple in Sugi dinners.

Here's something new that we ordered, Kaki Gyuniku Steak. It was tenderloin steak with bacon and oysters, DEE-VINE!

There were more orders from the rest of the group, but everybody was such in a mood to eat, I wasn't able to take pictures. The evening, however, didn't end there. On the way to the car to go home, we still did a little window-shopping on the side. I took the chance to take a picture of a shoe that Bianca, my sister, might like for her prom. Bianca, this one's from Topshop, you might want to check it out. 

Time for bedtime now. Well, I'll be reading a novel I downloaded on my Kindle for iPad, I Zombie I. Keep you posted for more!

Kitchen's Best for Dessert at the Fort

After the uber-satisfying dinner at Shi Lin, we left our cars parked in the building and took a short stroll to Kitchen's Best, just around the corner from the Chinese restaurant.

This was my first time to eat in Kitchen's Best. I enjoyed the red interiors and the ornate chandeliers in the coffee shop. They had their Christmas decors up already too and of course, the desserts were divine!

I ordered the Snicker's Cheesecake, which was to die for! The cheesecake base on its own was perfect already, but add the Snicker's bar pieces on top and it was heaven.

Danny ordered the Concorde, which was the perfect complement to my cheesecake, what with its subtle sweetness.

I wasn't able to take a picture of Derek's cake, but he ordered the White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Cheesecake, which had the same cheesecake base as mine, but had a very different twist to its sweetness with the macadamia nuts as topping. Austin ordered Chocolate Obsession which was totally death by chocolate.

Love the desserts here. Would love to buy one whole Snicker's Cheesecake to take home. Keep you posted for more!

For everyone's reference:

Kitchen's Best Home Patisserie
G/F McKinley Park Residences Condominium,
3rd Avenue cor. 31st Street,
Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig