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My favorite things in 2012
2012 is about to end and be remembered as one of the best years in our lifetime. Sure, nature wreaked havoc, as it always does every year. In the Philippines, we’ve seen devastation from the Habagat...
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Brillante the nonconformist
It’s always hard for me to give a critique of a Brillante Mendoza movie. Whatever he’s done defies the principles I hold dear as an avid moviegoer. I love the magic of film, and how it transports me...
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A Grandparent’s Love
27 years ago today, my grandfather Pedro Sangil died. His death came as a surprise, because we thought he wasn’t ailing, and looked healthier than most septuagenarians. His wife, my grandma Beatrice,...
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Love and Death
By tomorrow morning, Manila time, we’d know the Oscar winners. 2012 has had a great haul. You have your favorites as I have mine. Argo is the most entertaining, even if it feels like an episode from...
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Pampanga’s Best-Kept Culinary Secret
Who is Dennis Lim, and why did he cause so much stir amongst my foodie friends last Saturday? He could well be the best Pampangan cook of his generation. The Lim family comes from San Fernando where...
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Remembering Chino
My brother Luis Chino would have been 44 today. We lost him one summer in late March 1974 in a drowning accident. The circumstances that led to the unfortunate episode are still vivid in my memory....
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Someone had so much fun with a pizza menu.
Thanks to my chatty brother who told his friends from Angeles City that my group of foodies would be sampling Dennis Lim’s feast in San Fernando, we received two complimentary giant pizzas from Good...
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Lessons from Beijing
I wasn’t excited at all when I was told to go to Beijing for 5 days to attend our agency’s global summit. I remember not enjoying my first visit there 10 winters ago. After being holed up in a hotel...
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A Tourist/Traveller in Shanghai
A tourist, one writer wrote, is just someone who complains. On the other hand, a traveller is one who sees everything else is the same back home. Disdain pours forth against those who inspired...
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Xibo: An Expedition to a China I Never Knew
What was the saddest thing that you experienced in your travels? Mine was Phuket the year before the great tsunami. I booked a four-night birthday break and it rained straight for 48 hours. I didn’t...
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Ipoh Stopover
So for the nth time I flew to Malaysia last week for a short 5-day break. Before that, I got the familiar “Huh?” from friends who knew I’d be KL-bound. Malaysia never gets some loving from Pinoy...
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Preserving Sekeping
After that sumptuous bean sprout chicken meal, Morgan, our cheery Canadian friend of Argentine descent, took us to a historic place in Ipoh town that he read about in an inflight magazine. This was...
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Clove Hall: Where pictures don’t lie.
The bane of an Internet-dependent traveller’s existence is a deceitful hotel website. For how many times have we checked into a hotel that didn’t match up to the online photo spread? Here are examples...
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A Lithuanian paints Armenian
We Filipinos are often told that we’re naturally creative. In the visuals arts, it’s the Filipinos who are making a killing when Sotheby’s holds auctions in Singapore and Hong Kong. Our modern art...
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Don’t be a wuss. Try Nyonya.
I’m not one of those people whose first meal in a foreign country is at McDonalds. Some tourists’ first instinct is to check whether the fries are the same as the ones back home (one friend was even...
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The Houses in St. Vincent Place
It’s so ironic that the richer places in the Philippines are the ones that care less about preserving cultural heritage. Smaller municipalities like San Fernando Pampanga, Pila Laguna, Vigan and...
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The Hardware Société
If you’re a brunch or breakfast lover, you’d be spoiled for choice in Melbourne. I didn’t get insights regarding Melbourne’s obsession with breakfast and coffee. I guess because Aussies chika a lot,...
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Lessons from Istanbul
Istanbul had never been known for civil disobedience until the sit-in in Taksim Gezi Park started in May 2013. Eventually, it turned bloody, with cops dispersing the protesters violently. For several...
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Bad lighting
Manila is not lacking in street lamps. They’re all over. They’re just not lit all the time. So they never serve their primary purpose of lighting public spaces sufficiently to deter crime. City...
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The Ever-Consistent Dennis Lim
Two weekends ago, I invited 7 of my friends to San Fernando Pampanga to sample the cooking of Dennis Lim. I had written and raved about my first dining experience at Lim’s place, and I wanted them to...
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