Ilustrado Restaurant and Café in Intramuros, Manila has come up with a five-course Valentine meal — the amuse bouche is Beet and goat cheese arancini; a choice of three appetizers namely Mushroom duo, Jamon and melon, and Salmon mille-feuille; Roasted tomato soup; cucumber melon sorbet; entrée choices include Australian lamb ribs, Barramundi fillet, and US beef tenderloin; and for dessert either Chocolate Fantasy or Berry Bavarois.

THE FIRST flames of love are nothing short of magical. But what happens when the flames die down? Through the years, lingering smoke and smolder between two loving individuals is all that’s needed to stay together, and that sexy, calming ember is captured perfectly by the Valentine’s Dinner offering of 22 Prime in the Discovery Suites.

AFTER merely a year of operations, “glorified turo-turo” restaurant concept Bench Café, is set to open more locations within the year after its second branch opened in Greenbelt 3, Makati City this month and the success it garnered at the flagship branch in Bonifacio Global City (BGC)in Taguig.

THE 15-year-old snack bar brand, New York Fries & Dips (NYFD), is looking to appeal to a wider range of customers this year as the brand, now under a new management, aims to open 100 branches nationwide, according to a company executive.

MADRID — Spanish celebrity chef Ferran Adria is to reopen his once world-famous elBulli venture next year — but not serving food.

THEATER FANS from outside Metro Manila now have a chance to see a story of love, deception, and power as M. Butterfly is set to tour six cities this year.

MANILA in 2019 is a bustling concrete jungle where the middle class and urban poor strive to have decent life, but in reality its streets are riddled with victims of extrajudicial killings, nine-year-old street urchins used by drug peddlers, inefficient public transport, and other inequalities and injustices.

RESORTS WORLD MANILA’s musical Ang Huling El Bimbo will return in March and this does not only mean giving a chance to those who missed it the first time around, more than this it is an opportunity to tweak the script and some songs, and to improve character development.

FRINGE MANILA celebrates its 5^th year as the Fringe Festival comes out of the peripheries during Philippine Arts Month. From Feb. 7 to March 3, Metro Manila’s open-access, multi-arts festival will once again present an inclusive program line-up that reflect the culmination of the five years of Fringe Manila.

LONDON — British artist Tracey Emin is unleashing an “emotional timebomb” at her latest exhibition, homing in on what is important to her as she faces what she calls the third stage of her life.

EXPENSIVE yachts that double as floating art galleries can lead to unexpected and costly mishaps.

LOS ANGELES — Alfonso Cuaron was named best director by his peers on Saturday for his semi-autobiographical film Roma, cementing his front-runner status ahead of the Oscars in three weeks time.