Pinoy Life At Large

Greenbelt’s most popular casual and fine dining restaurants come together in giving food lovers a taste of their signature dishes in one order. The Tasting Room gives diners the opportunity to sample their favorite dishes at a fraction of the usual price. There is something for all kinds of budgets. For instance, Italianni’s tasting room menu includes Spaghetti, Chicken Parmigiana, Sicilian Salad and soup for only P600.00 (US$14.46) Those who want spend more can sample Kai’s tasting room menu that features their Soft Shell Crab Roll, Roasted Grapes and Tomato Salad, Broiled Canadian Black Cod (honey-sake marinade, yum!), Sampaguita Sorbet, US Short Ribs Karubi Ishiyaki, Asari Saka Mushi and Pannacotta in Cold Mango Soup for dessert at P1,095.00 (US$26.37) per head.

So how do you avail of these treats? First, visit any of the following restaurants in the Greenbelt area: Kai, Mr. Rockefeller, Capricciosa, Bubba Gump, Max Brenner, Mezze, Gaudi, Fish & Co., Nu-Vo, Cyma, Tropezz, Italianni’s, Haiku, Solihiya and La Maison. Then ask for the Tasting Room menu. That’s it and Bon Appetit!

Enough talk. Here is what’s in store for you when you order the Tasting Room menu.

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Admittedly, I arrived at the IBlog4 summit after lunch, around 2.00 pm. Of course I had to prioritize my wife who needed to be taken to her gynecologist early that day. I was a little surprised to see a lot of bloggers in attendance. I can’t compare this with last year’s summit because I wasn’t there, but this one turned out to be better than I expected.

Here, I met so many bloggers of all shapes, sizes and persuasions. For one day it seemed that the great divide between bloggers was set aside. Big traffic probloggers and amateur bloggers were all in the same space breathing the same air and with the same concerns. Someone raised the issue of synergy between new media (bloggers) and the traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio, etc). Ideas and suggestions filled the Malcolm Hall auditorium as bloggers voiced their opinion, some expressed their disgust and dissatisfaction while others professed their love affairs with traditional media.

Bloggers are here to stay and our presence is too imposing to ignore. I personally believe that blogging should never be married to traditional media. Blogs should serve as a check-and-balance mechanism for traditional media, though this power can be used to skew facts and swing public opinion favorably or unfavorably towards a person (Malu Fernandez and DJMontano) or a business establishment. However, it is power that also needs to be regulated. IBlog4 is a clear indication that bloggers in the Philippines are organized, professional, policing their own ranks, and inherently altruistic.

Manolo Quezon is seen in the middle of the panel answering questions from enthusiastic bloggers.

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Tea connoisseur David DeCandia shared his tea blending secrets to a wide-eyed audience last night at the CBTL branch in Paseo Center. More than anything, this tea appreciation event made gave me the opportunity to sample various flavors of tea from different parts of the world. DeCandia did mention that the teas to be sampled were exclusively to CBTL and could not be found elsewhere.

This was not my first encounter with CBTL tea blends. Last year, I saw a movie at Greenbelt 3 with Noreen and each ticket had a coupon for free tea from CBTL. After sampling the other freebies, I realized Moroccan Mint was the one for me. It had a tangy mint flavor and a royal aroma that was quite distinct. I was trying to relive this experience, until I stumbled on something that was just as delectable, the Chai. For a non-tea drinker, this was a truly pleasant experience, considering that I had my own horror stories involving tea. There was no aftertaste and went down the hatch easily.

Shown here is the Tazo tea used by Starbucks.

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Last weekend at the Powerplant mall, I spotted the Salcedo Market crowd at Rockwell’s bargain souk, which in Arabic means marketplace. Despite the weather, people trooped to the souk with hopes of getting the most out of the big bargains, as advertised by the colorful streamers found throughout the mall. Though the crowd may be the same, the buys weren’t as fantastic and I thought it would be.

Some hard-to-find items may have been worth the visit. However, I still couldn’t get over the P50.00 (US$1.22) entrance fee into the Rockwell tent, where the non-food stalls abound. I really think they would get more foot traffic into the place if they let the concessionaires pay for the venue rentals. Experience tells me that markets with the entrance fees are actually more expensive than those without (like the wildly successful Salcedo Market and the Lung Center market.)

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Chef Philip Golding, a renowned restaurateur and beer expert, made some especially poignant claims last April 3 on Red Box’s First Beer Appreciation Night. Here are the ones that struck me the most:

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