JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

The gnu camera is going on a real road test: I’ve been named the official blogger of the Hillary Rodham Clinton visit. This time I have no excuse for the picture quality, so I asked my camera-fanatic friend Uro for a tutorial. (Granted one could just set everything to Automatic, but where’s the fun in that? I can hear the late Mang Dick Baldovino pointing at me and cackling. Also I hate reading manuals.)

But first we wanted to try the P555 All You Can Eat Dimsum Buffet at LiLi, the fabulous Chinese restaurant at the Hyatt Manila. It’s on Mondays to Thursdays from 12 noon to 5 pm. (The P555 is a steal—the check for a regular meal at LiLi can cause vertigo.)

At most buffets everything is laid out on tables so you end up heaping too much food on your plate and gorging yourself. (Meanwhile the food sits there forlornly, and as a germ-phobic friend once pointed out, getting breathed on by all the diners. Who are talking while reaching for the food. Think about it. ) At LiLi the waiter comes to your table with a card listing all the available varieties of dimsum—about two dozen kinds—and you check the items you want. Your food is served fresh and hot from the kitchen, in small portions so you can try as many kinds of dimsum as you like. For instance the crispy pork belly arrives in a plate of ten perfect 1 x 2 centimeter rectangular slices 1 cm thick so you can restrain yourself from pigging out. There are these rice balls that are crunchy on the outside, with taro, pork, and vegetables inside. The food is not oily. Everything tastes exquisite.

Another friend observed that if you’re eating good food prepared with care and presented beautifully, you are satisfied sooner and don’t have to eat as much. It’s true of the dimsum lunch at LiLi—after one or two pieces of a particular dish you are content. I suspect one reason people (the ones who don’t have to worry where the next meal is coming from) overeat is that they can’t taste what they’re eating, or they’re not happy with it, so they have to eat more in order to be sated.

My favorite dish: Barbecued Chicken in Phyllo Pastry. Savory and sweet, like having dessert for the main course.

LiLi also offers a P555 set lunch on weekdays.