i heart matilda

The weather has been gray and gloomy in New York lately and it's making me crave color. So I'm really digging these chic separates by I Heart Matilda that come in invigorating, poppy hues.

Sadly (for me and everyone else in the US), I Heart Matilda is a Philippine brand and is not yet available on our side of the world. I know of it because my dear friend, Jessica Gallegos, is one of the amazing women behind it. And I swear I will bug Jess relentlessly, on behalf of America, to please get these cute threads across the Pacific and into our closets.

For those of you in Manila, I Heart Matilda will be at A Trendsetter's Bazaar in Rockwell from October 7-9, 2011. To be kept in the loop of their new collections and where to get their awesome stuff, like their Facebook page by clicking here.

cel vs. food: elbert's steak room

During my visit to Manila last month, I had the pleasure of paying a visit to Elbert's Steak Room, an elegant establishment tucked in a nondescript building in Salcedo Village. Finding the place proved to be a bit of an adventure, as I breezed right past the third floor and ended up on Sagittarius Building's rooftop! It was worth the trouble though as Elbert's Steak Room is definitely paradise for a carnivore like myself.

In addition to the beautiful meal, I had some lovely company. Hosting our little group was Liza Ilarde, the eternally chic editor-in-chief of Style Weekend who is also Elbert's wife. Also joining in on the steak massacre was Katrina Holigores, editor-in-chief of Expat Travel and Lifestyle Magazine and one of my all-around favorite people in the universe. Liza and Katrina were my former colleagues back in my publishing days at MEGA.

Every steak order at Elbert's Steak Room comes with a soup and salad. As if our meal wasn't sinful enough, the soup that night was a delightfully rich French onion soup. We assured ourselves that if we had our two glasses of red wine, we would be fine. According to Katrina, red wine is a vasodilator and would help our steak fat-laced blood slither through our veins despite the overindulgence. So getting our drink on was a good thing, as long as we kept it to two glasses of wine. What Liza and I wanted to know was, how big is this glass that studies speak of? I could totally deal with it if were the size of, say, Jules' beloved Big Joe or Big Carl.

But I digress. The point of the evening was to indulge in some delicious meat, and that we did. I followed Liza's example and ordered a rib-eye while Katrina went with the filet mignon. I had planned on going all out with the porterhouse but after the heartstopping salad of foie gras and grilled eel that I had the night before at Opus, I feared for my cholesterol levels. The rib-eye turned out to be just perfect. It was cooked a beautiful medium rare with the outside nicely seared and the inside juicy and still rosy—just the way I like it. The meat was nicely marbled with fat and oh-so-juicy. It didn't stand a chance.

There are too many places in Manila where meat gets mercilessly cooked to a dry pulp so I can certainly appreciate the value of having a legit steak room like Elbert's where one can get a properly cooked steak with good wine. Prices for steak dinners run from P1800-2900 (approximately $49-67) but for the quality of meat served, I think it's only fair. The next time you feel the need to show a steak who's boss, I recommmend paying Elbert's Steak Room a visit.

Elbert’s Steak Room is located at 3/F Sagittarius Building III, 111 H. V. de la Costa Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City 1227, Philippines

derek ramsey

So yesterday a bunch of us girls went to watch I Love You, Goodbye over in Jersey City. For the most part, I loved the movie but I was not crazy about the ending. I don't think it makes sense. It's just the Filipino penchant for happy endings at work, I suppose, but it just seemed so forced.

I loved the movie largely because of the extremely hot Derek Ramsey. I never fancied him before but in this movie he's just WOW. So intense and, in the words of his namesake Derek Zoolander, really really good-looking. My friend Abby told me to look up Derek Ramsey's Lucky Me commercial. She said and I quote, "Sana ako na lang yung sabaw", which roughly translates to, "I wish I was the soup." You'll see what I mean ...

Me being a Filipina living away from the motherland though, I was torn for a few seconds. Did I want him or did I want the soup? I haven't eaten lomi in YEARS! That's pretty yum too ...

It's another freezing day in New York. I only braved the cold for a bagel and coffee (seems to be my new morning routine—and yes I'm aware of how fattening bagels are but it's my breakfast and lunch), and am now just gonna spend the afternoon catching up on my favorite blogs and lazing about. Hope you're enjoying a chill Sunday!

i love you goodbye

My dear Filipino readers, especially ones like me who are living away from the motherland, please indulge me for a second with this post as I have been watching nothing but TFC for the last four days ... have you seen the trailer for I Love You Goodbye? Are you dying to watch it as much as I am?

Can't believe what a gorgeous young woman Angelica Panganiban turned out to be. Still can't help but think of her as this wide-eyed child star and now she's acting in roles like these! I have to say though, I am still thoroughly creeped out by her pairing with Gabby Concepcion. She must be even younger than his real-life daughter KC! Gah! Kinikilabutan ako. But then again, I guess that's what the plot is right? Girl falls in love with much older man, then falls harder for a man her age who lets her go because he feels inferior to the much more successful older man, older man proposes to girl who accepts, girl meets older man's daughter who's just about her age, and then meets daughter's beau who is ... gasp! Her lost love who is still madly in love with her! Did you follow that or did I lose you? Oh the twists and turns of Philippine cinema ...

I wish I could see this movie as soon as it comes out! The pittfalls of being overseas sometimes ...

dampa

Eating steps away from a fish market is one of life's biggest pleasures. In Tokyo, I had a phenomenal meal at the Tsukiji fish market. In Manila, I shared some incredible feasts with family and friends at the dampa. The word dampa literally means a hut or hovel in Tagalog, but it's come to refer to restaurants that surround a seafood market where one can have their just-bought, ultra fresh seafood cooked. I went to two dampas during my visit, and while both meals were delicious, I found the dampa by Mall of Asia to be the more superior of the two. We started our meal with green mango salad, a combination of diced green mangoes, tomatoes, onions and bagoong, that shrimp paste that only Filipinos can seem to love. I crave for this dish constantly because Filipino mangoes (green and ripe) are impossible to get in the US, and no other mangoes taste like them. When green, they're eye-puckeringly sour and lusciously crunchy. All these ingredients, when mixed up, are the perfect accompaniment to any Filipino dish.

Another dish that I constantly crave for and thus ordered incessantly while in Manila is suahe. Suahe is a variety of shrimp that's small with sweet, succulent meat. My favorite preparation for suahe is just steamed, which you can then dip in a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar. At the dampa, we had it sauteed in butter and garlic which is still delish, of course.

Not my most favorite dish but good for a splash of color for this post: pinakbet.

This, however, is one of my favorite Filipino dishes. Inihaw na liempo, or grilled pork belly. Needs no further explanation.

And finally, the dish that people go to dampa for, and that I still dream about (especially on days like today where dinner consists of cup noodles). At dampa, you can order kilos upon kilos of crab legs and have them cooked to your liking. We got one kilo cooked in butter and garlic, and another in chili. The chili was a tad too spicy for me, but the butter and garlic variety was pure heaven. The meat was fresh and flaky, sweet and juicy, and just soaked in buttery, garlicky deliciousness. Man, what I would give for just one pincer right now. YUM.

Hinahanap-hanap kita Manila ...

the good, the bad, and the utterly sinful

I went back to the motherland for the first time since I left three years ago. And because there were so many delicious things that I hadn't had in years, I threw all restraint out the window and just ate up a storm. When my aunt asked what I'd like to eat as soon as I got there, I shamelessly asked for lechon, pig roast on a spit and dubbed by Anthony Bourdain as the best roast pork he has ever had. You cannot imagine how much joy I got from eating this.

The next day, my dear friends Mica and Ria took me out to lunch at Fely J's in Greenbelt 5. We started off with some yummy sisig, which is chopped up parts of the pig's face seasoned with chili, liver, onion, calamansi and vinegar. If you're not Filipino, your mouth ceased watering at the words "pig's face", I would imagine, but this is some amazing stuff. So good Anthony Bourdain said it's worth coming back to the Philippines for.

For (one of) our main course(s), we ordered Crispy Pata, deep-fried pork's leg. Crispy Pata is one of the best things in the world. The skin is fried to a delicious crisp while the meat is just delectably tender and juicy. Dip in a sauce of vinegar, soy sauce, crushed red chili and garlic, and eat with garlic fried rice. Sweet Jesus.

On a dinner with my girlfriends (+ boyfriends and hubbies) at Cafe Juanita, three of us shared the guilt on this utterly sinful dish. This, my friends, is aligue pasta. Aligue is crab fat. This was SO good. It took every ounce of self-control to keep myself from ordering a plate just for myself. The sauce was rich, buttery and creamy .... so delicious.

Another guilty pleasure was some inihaw na liempo from the Dampa near Mall of Asia. Long before pork belly became all the rage, Filipinos were already enjoying grilled pork belly. Slabs of pork belly are marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, ground black pepper, crushed garlic, and a bit of sugar or a splash of 7-up, then grilled over charcoal. SO GOOD.

The last evil thing I consumed led me straight to bed at 1oPM on a Saturday night. I had my aunts clucking their tongues and shaking their heads at me for this. See, high cholesterol runs in our family so I was really tempting fate here. But I couldn't help it. I had to order the bulalo when we had dinner at Lorenzo's Way in Greenbelt 5. Bulalo means bone marrow, and the dish consists of a comforting soup with beef, bone marrow, and vegetables. I had all the bone marrow to myself. I scraped it all out and mixed it with my rice, which I then ate with the beef. Ohmygoodness.

Sometimes being bad is just so, so, so good.