I still remember how I was invited to join the team. I got a phone call back in 2006 from Alya Honasan, SIM’s editor in chief at the time. I still remember the Nokia handset I was holding. The Magazine was being re-launched with Leica Carpo as publisher, she explained, and would I be interested to write about food. I jumped at the opportunity and immediately said yes.
Christmas being just around the corner, that annual challenge of throwing a dinner or finding the perfect Christmas food gift is upon us again.
It’s that time of year again when we have an excuse to gulp down as much beer as we want.
The Mandarin, which closes this month, leaves us with many great memories.
He came with a resumé that is hard to top: having worked at Spain’s El Bulli, the only dining place to hold the title of “World’s Best Restaurant” five times as listed by the S. Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant Awards (2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009); and Denmark’s Noma, which beat El Bulli in 2010.
“The lights by the corner (on Makati Avenue) are pink and our food is Asian, hence the panda,” explained the waitress when I asked why the restaurant is called Pink Panda. Actually, the lights are red, hence the term “red light district.”
Under the expanse of a limitless sky and rocking in a speedboat on what seemed like an endless sea, I suddenly realized how insignificant our existence is.
Friday night and the place was packed. Actor Christopher “Boyet” de Leon was having a drink with one of the owners by the restaurant’s bar. In a separate section was love guru Baby Cruz with family. A head-turner who looked very much like Plinky Recto stretched her long legs sideways, leaning against a wall.
It seems the Koreans have discovered the formula for world domination: Beat the Americans at their own game. Every game. First, technology. Samsung has proven to be a worthy adversary of Apple. Next, entertainment. Psy conquered the entertainment world with his YouTube hit and in no time had no less than the legendary Madonna gyrating with him onstage to Gangnam Style. And finally, food. Koreans are conquering the world one fried chicken franchise at a time with “the other KFC,” as in Korean Fried Chicken.
“Gusto ko lang makapag-aral (I just want to study),” said a scholar of Tuloy Foundation—an organization that sends street children to school with a special curriculum designed to rehabilitate them through a systemic approach for growth and development.
