Lunch with Rene always includes a show and tell session with his latest discoveries. These are vintage Abel Iloko blankets produced by weavers in Ilocos Norte.
It’s dangerous to be around these things. I’m not even into fabrics but every time I see the stuff I end up getting more; I feel like I’m selling Manhattan. So now I have some fabulous table runners and I don’t even eat dinner at home.
Messy Bessy eco-friendly household products at the Rustan’s Flower Shop. They’ve got linen sprays, anti-mold and mildew sprays, insect repellent, all-purpose cleaning scrubs, hand wash and whatnot.
I needed a (cheap) birthday gift for a neat-freak friend. This gift set consists of laundry linen spray and an all-surface cleaner.
Abe Lincoln shorts my brother-in-law found at Landmark. I thought I’d seen some strange designs on shorts, but these are just bizarre. There’s something disturbing about wearing Honest Abe’s face on your posterior.
I found Secret Ingredients, the New Yorker Book of Food and Drink, at National Bookstore in Glorietta 5, P705. The anthology contains comic pieces by Woody Allen and Steve Martin, longer fiction by Roald Dahl and Julian, Barnes, a report on the Cheese Wars by Burkhard Bilger (The US FDA requires that all store-bought milk be pasteurized; unaged raw-milk cheese is “considered a birthright” in France and Italy), a profile of the wild food advocate Euell Gibbons, a buffet of articles on food. It reminds us that food writing begins with good writing.
I recommend the New Yorker anthologies over the complete New Yorker archive on DVD, which is user-unfriendly, paranoid about being copied, and hard on the eyes. It’s like doing research on one of those microfiche readers. Basically they just scanned every single issue of the New Yorker; good luck finding the article you want.
Army Navy burger at Glorietta 5. Where did I hear that this is Judy Ann Santos’s personal recipe? If it is, Juday can really cook. The burgers are juicy, with a hint of spice, and they’re served in foil wrappers that remind me of my childhood when some people said “ham-boor-jer”. Delicious. The burgers cost P135 to 235, and they also have burritos.
I’m a big fan of Pilot writing instrument—started using the V5 sign pen 15 years ago, and these days I always carry at least three Pilot VBall 0.5 pens. Today at the Pilot counter I saw this:
A Pilot Frixion pen with eraseable ink! Just rub the plastic tip against the writing and it vanishes.
The Pilot Frixion 0.7 retails for P77.00.
This is the perfect present for politicians who like to disavow any knowledge of their own deeds. It’s easier to erase a signature than a witness.
By the way, thanks to the Commission on Elections for enlightening us as to the real qualification for elective office: Money. Not principles or ideas or an actual program of action, just money. Well, “winnability”. Which is another way of saying, “Money!” Now we are rid of our silly illusions.
Horrendous traffic jams, nasty overcharging taxi drivers, long queues at the mall, bad service in restaurants as the staff is busy rehearsing their dance number for their company party. . .It’s the holiday season! Some survival tips:
Sugar. Lots of sugar.
Bibingka souffle at C2 Classic Cuisine, Power Plant Rockwell
Intense Leche flan, also at C2
PB&J tart at Lu, Joya building (beside Ice Cream Bar), Rockwell
Cheese. Can’t go wrong.
Raclette at Astralis, Power Plant.
The unique present.
Abel Iloko table runner. For inquiries, email rene.guatlo@gmail.com.
Books you plan to give your friends but end up keeping for yourselves.
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson, one of the funniest books ever written, available at National Bookstore in Power Plant, Rockwell. Then you can read the two hilarious sequels: Amazing Disgrace and Rancid Pansies.
Get Vladimir Nabokov’s The Original of Laura for your friends and then argue over whether it should’ve been published at all.
In the Literary Review David Lodge writes, “In the last two years of his life, which were marred by various accidents, illnesses and increasing physical debility, Nabokov worked on a novel called The Original of Laura, writing it, as was his habit, by hand in pencil on small index cards. It was unfinished – very far from finished in fact – when he died, and he had expressly directed Vera to burn the manuscript in that eventuality. Having rescued Lolita from the incinerator many years before, when Nabokov had a sudden failure of nerve about publishing it, his widow understandably hesitated to carry out his wishes with respect to his last work. The Original of Laura has lain in a bank vault for thirty years, the object of intense curiosity and speculation among aficionados, while Vera and the Nabokovs’ son Dmitri agonised over whether or not to allow it to be published. They finally decided to do so, and here it is.”
Copies available at NBS Rockwell, Glorietta 1, Glorietta 5, Greenbelt 1 and Shangri-La.
T-shirt you can wear with confidence because you’re not likely to run into someone wearing the exact same shirt. Although it’s happened to Raymond and me.
Striped T-shirt by Raymond Lee with artwork by Mariano Ching and Louie Cordero. P600. Order from elmondray@yahoo.com.
A while back I mentioned that I collect different editions of A Sport and A Pastime by James Salter. If you find copies of this book or others (Light Years, Dusk, Last Night, Burning The Days) by James Salter in bargain bins and book sales, could you send them to me? Please bring them to National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell and leave them for me at the Customer Service counter, or mail them to me care of Anvil Publishing, 8007B Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong. Don’t forget to enclose your full name and mailing address so I can mail you a book for your trouble. Thanks.
Koosi says: “I see coffee people. Latte, macchiato, cappuccino, espresso…”
The other day I went into a store to buy pressed powder. I have very oily skin, which is probably why I don’t have lines on my vast but very mobile forehead, but if I don’t de-grease my face my glasses start sliding off my nose. I looked at the varieties of face powder and was surprised to see only three shades available, all of them too light for the Filipino complexion. They were certainly too white for me and I’m paler than average because I don’t go out in the sun much (lest I explode).
This store is part of a worldwide chain, and they certainly sell more than three shades of pressed powder. I presumed that these three pale shades were in stock because they were in demand in the Philippines.
So I asked the salesperson if they had any other colors of pressed powder, and she assured me that one of these shades would do: it would “blend” with my skin and become invisible. She added that she herself used the lightest shade. Since she was tanner than I am, this accounted for the fact that her neck was considerably darker than her attractive made-up face.
Have you noticed that many if not most of the women in this city wear make-up too white for their skin tone? This leads to what is popularly known as the “espasol” effect, after the local sweet that is liberally covered in flour. It would appear that Filipinas believe themselves to be lighter-skinned than they actually are, either because they think they’re mestiza (or hoping that some long-dormant recessive gene will kick in) or because they have inordinate faith in their skin-whitening products. Interesting. Many of us think we’re white.
Wrote this in 2005; not much has changed. The Unbearable Whiteness of Being in the Hong Kong Standard.
Tassel earrings from an accessories store called Vivre in SM Maul of Asia. The store looks expensive but the merchandise is reasonably-priced. Can’t wear these earrings near cats, though; they go, “String!!! (or “Stringettes!!!”)” and attack.
We’re always looking for earrings, so if you spot an interesting pair give us a holler.
From the LA Times blog All The Rage: A Rather Novel Collection by Anthropologie, scents inspired by tea, packaged like books.
From Not So Humble Pie: Science-themed cookies.
And a subway station I intend to see for myself: Konsomolskaya in Moscow.
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