Quiapo2 Originally uploaded by annalyn. The Pinoy food blogging event Lasang Pinoy focuses this month on "street food" and I thought what better way than to focus on one of my favorite public places in Manila: Quiapo. Although the nouveau riche would rather hang out in the sanitized confines of Greenbelt, I agree with Carlos Celdran when he said that "Quiapo shows you what Manila truly is ... dirty, noisy, colorful and full of soul." Maybe because the place is so rife with contradictions. As I've said before: where else can you find a Church where they ... Continue Reading...
Hotel living
Perhaps my celeb crush Keanu Reeves has his reasons why he prefers to stay in hotels and literally live out of the suitcase. This is what I did over the weekend: gather all my kids in a taxi for a very short 10-minute or so ride to this nearby hotel. We may have stayed only overnight but the break was exactly what I needed to do the things I wanted to do: not go to the market and plan the menu ( it was a given that checking in meant eating out), give the maid a break from her domestic duties, and simply get out of the domestic ennui we were in. It's not exactly ... Continue Reading...
I am a consumer, therefore…I am
dunkin' hazelnut coffee Originally uploaded by annalyn. The Fashmagslag, who is in my favorite city - New York - raved before about how good Dunkin' Donuts hazelnut-flavored coffee is. Darn, I was excited when I found out they have it in Manila too. Needless to say, I've been drinking cupfuls of them and it's my favorite coffee at the moment. Anong panalo ng overpriced Seattle's and Starbucks? A cup with a swig of hazelnut liqueur (or whatever they call it) costs only P33 bucks and is enough to send me to caffeine heaven. Other flavors available are French ... Continue Reading...
A Smokey Mountain homecoming
waving It has been 15 years since I last visited Smokey Mountain. As an aspiring journalist who was still in college, I went here to write stories about people living and getting their sustenance from the dump, families who actually rummaged the garbage for their day's food.The grim images of the mountain would not leave me for years. Forward to 2005: the smelly heap that haunted me a decade back is no more and what greeted me on this Sunday morning were rows upon rows of "low-cost" buildings, children playing in the streets and teenage boys running ... Continue Reading...
If these walls could talk
Speaking of motels, I have had a friend tell me that motels don't have as seedy a reputation in America as they do here in the Philippines. Correct me if am wrong but in there, it's really more of a lodging place for weary travellers while in here, it's the undisputed stopover of horny revellers. The motels here must be raking it in, otherwise why are they fully-booked on special "occasions" and why are the people who own them become billionaire-philanthropists, to the point of donating a couple of buildings to a prestigious university in Manila? Another motel owner is ... Continue Reading...
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