Tag: Joseph L. Garcia

FILIPINOS are famously a romantic people, and so the wedding becomes the highlight of the lives of many people, taking years to plan, incorporating fantasies fermenting in the soul since childhood.

DEPENDING ON where you place the accent, the word saya in Tagalog can mean two things: it can mean a skirt when emphasis is on the first “a,” but when you pronounce the “a” a little bit longer at the end, it means happiness. A fashion show which will be held on Sept. 22 at the Grand Hyatt Manila brings both meanings together with Baro at Sayá by Awit at Laro.

SOMEONE ONCE told me that a good breakfast was a sign of a good life: someone has spent time, money, and care to make sure you’re properly nourished in the morning. Of these three options, Manu Mano, a small bakery in Banawe, Manila, chooses to occupy the space carved out by love.

HERITAGE is such a loaded word these days, and in the face of a rapidly changing world, preserving a legacy seems ever more urgent.

THERE’S A belief that the many golden apples mentioned in Greek mythology — the food and playthings of the gods — were actually oranges from the East. Also, just in case you want to know, the name of the color comes from the fruit and not the other way around. Now, the fruit is grown everywhere, with 2018 data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization stating that 73 million tons of oranges are grown worldwide.

THE Japanese seem to have a golden touch when it comes to design and manufacturing. If one looks at examples of Japanese design, the result is almost always intuitive, as if they have read the customer’s mind. The little touches they add, and a deep understanding of ergonomics solve problems people didn’t even know they had: for example, knife handles with certain angles that allow for cutting in any direction, or else rounded corners in simple objects like toasters so as not to seem obtrusive (or painful when one hits their hand against it). They have a skill in taking something foreign -- like jeans or whiskey -- and improving upon it, making it seem even better than the original.

MEAT CONCEPTS Inc., the group behind KPub BBQ, Thai BBQ,Ogawa, Oppa Chicken, Modern China, and Rico’s Lechon, among others, is opening several new concepts this year: a Chinese hotpot restaurant, another Cantonese concept, a steakhouse, and a Korean stew spot.

SKIP the line at Bo’s Coffee with a chatbot called Botty.

FAIR-SKINNED, brown-eyed, and dark-haired, Ai-Da speaks with an English accent. She wears a white long-sleeved blouse and black trousers. Since April, she has been studying her subjects and sketching them using her bionic arm in a company in Cornwall, England.

LET’S TAKE you back to the late ’90s and early 2000s, when climate change was a far-off fear, spaghetti straps were de rigueur, and we all had hope for the future (which is why we all dressed in plastic and glitter). The Syquia Apartments in Malate, once some of the most luxurious in Manila, served as a home for upmarket bohemians. The residents -- photographers, actors, editors, writers, designers, artists, and other creatives -- opened up their apartments for wild block parties, with each apartment having a unique theme. The parties were eventually put to a halt after a series of petty crimes.

THE YOUTH are our future, so the Fashion Design and Merchandising students of the De La Salle College of St. Benilde (DLSU-CSB) showed the possibilities of the future of fashion through their culminating fashion show and exhibit, Sinulid, now on its fourth edition.

GIN IS a drink that transcends classes and space. It could be found in the hands of cosmopolitans sipping classic G&Ts, or spilling on the streets from shots taken after work. A new gin called Archipelago by Full Circle Craft Distillers Co. shows off the full breadth of the Philippines, from all classes and spaces, distilled in a single bottle.

FLUIDITY, as a term, expresses the ability to change. Fluids take the shape of their containers; and can be seen in various forms, either in a liquid state, or as a solid or gas. Glenfiddich, as a single-malt whisky (and thus a fluid), is expected to do the same.

PABLO PICASSO once said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Some people, like children with cancer, don’t have the benefit of everyday life that they can shake dust from. Salcedo Auctions, through its subsidiary Gavel&Block, is helping out children with cancer through a benefit auction on July 20, in partnership with the IWantToShare Foundation.

FASHION and dance both serve the same purpose: to glorify the human body and display it at its zenith. Keeping in mind this goal, Ballet Philippines, for its 50^th anniversary gala on Sept. 29, will feature a 50-piece couture collection in a fashion show from renowned Filipino designer Michael Cinco alongside a new dance by Alden Lugnasin, inspired by the Swan Lake ballet. The show will be held at the Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom.

THE PIECES by renowned jewelry designer Roberto Coin -- who went into design after a successful stint as an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry -- are undoubtedly pretty, but are they smart, and as a bonus, even kind? That could be argued; and you’re welcome to ask some of his clients, a very long list that includes Oprah, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama.

THE seasons are here to remind us of our place in the universe. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter occur due to the Earth’s axial tilt, and humankind's existence revolves around this cosmic phenomenon. The seasons also remind us of the passage of time, how things that blossom will die someday, and, perhaps, be reborn in the future.

WITH THE opening of Seda Hotel BGC’s second tower comes the reimagining of its signature buffet restaurant, Misto.

THERE’S something to be said about the continued human adoration for flowers. No matter how beautiful a flower is, it will eventually die. We continue into a noble and futile effort to love something that will never last. But here’s a thought: what if it does last?

IF IT’S true that good deeds make you glow, then it’s probably a good idea to stock up on things that help the planet.

HOME COOKING has a way of connecting us with a purer version of ourselves. Before the world left us all scratched, somebody loved us and prepared food for us. We guess that’s the magic of Milky Way Café, where each dish brings us back to our mother’s table, when nothing yet could go wrong.

THERE IS not question that by nurturing the planet, you nurture your kids. Nestle’s subscription service, with the help of goodfood.ph — think of it as having milkmen like the days of yore — makes it easier for parents to do the same.

TO THE beat of pumping pop music, Martivo’s name appears on the screen, dressed up in rainbow shades and leopard prints. In glittery pink shorts, a coat with a pink bow, and rainbow-printed socks, Martivo steps out on the runway. Martivo isn’t a model. He’s not here to play; he’s here to fight, and he wins. He’s out, loud, and proud — and he can beat you up.

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13)

WHILE French wine is already a category well within itself, an understanding of the regions from which the various types are produced can give the drinker a deeper insight into the wine. Within every bottle, after all, is not just fermented grape juice, but the history of the land and its people.

WHEN YOU eat too much, you’re called a glutton. When you eat too much French food, however, you’re a gourmand.

ICE CREAM inevitably leads to sweet experiences: mostly because it helps to make you sweeter (in disposition, and through the perception of others, mind you) as a person. Five studies from The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that “people believed strangers who liked sweet foods... were also higher in agreeableness.”

IS IT possible for anyone to truly have it all? Gloria Laura Vanderbilt; socialite, artist, writer, and designer, died in her Manhattan home in June 17, 2019 aged 95. The life she led sought to answer the question.

IT’S EASY to blow P500,000 in a day. You can buy mounds of jewelry, buy out a store, or drop a downpayment for a car. Integrated entertainment property and rich people-playground Okada gives you a new way to spend P500,000 in a day, and we’re not talking about the casinos.

IMAGINE the rays of the sun, which give life to all things on earth, being harnessed in a machine that heals your body. That’s the promise of Vital Dome, an infra-therapy ecosystem machine.

FRANKLIN Delano Roosevelt is believed to have said: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

EVERY TIME someone judges me for reaching for a bottle of Ginebra San Miguel (because I’m not handling a more expensive bottle), I point out the gold seal on the label (itself a work by National Artist Fernando Amorsolo). The gold seal is a Monde Selection medal awarded by Brussels-based institution International Institute for Quality Selections. Ronald Molina, Assistant Vice-President and Marketing Manager for Ginebra San Miguel summarizes the sensation: “The only thing cheap about Ginebra San Miguel is the price.”

ITALIAN chic is captured in every glass of Negroni. The drink was first mixed in Florence with gin, vermouth, and Campari liqueur, requested by a count from his bartender (the drink was eventually named after the count, whose last name was Negroni).

IT’S easy to write a love letter to a city like Barcelona in Spain. The capital of Catalonia, it was settled by the Romans and its age shows in its architecture built upon centuries and centuries of care and a reverence for beauty. Barcelona has also served to nurture several artists, including the famed Surrealist Salvador Dali.

TO RESIST change is to resist the world. Boracay’s 2018 six-month closure changed the face again of the once-pristine island, fighting back against over development and trying to regain the relationship with nature that drew people there in the first place.

SOME PINS are worth more than others. After gaining a Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 1 Award in Wines, one would be given a blue pin. That doesn’t sound like much, but, as Bel S. Castro, Assistant Dean for College of Hospitality Management for Enderun Colleges, said “...in the UK, you cannot work without this,” pertaining to the thriving food and beverage sector in the United Kingdom.

ELIZABETH II, Queen of the United Kingdom, was born on April 21, 1926, as the eldest daughter of the then-Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Born during her grandfather George V’s reign, she was born third in line to the throne, then her father ascended the throne in 1936, after her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to prevent a constitutional crisis in his desire to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.

WHEN you have a child, 10 years sounds like a milestone, but then there’s a lot more to cover. Ten years isn’t quite 13, when they traditionally enter puberty. Ten years isn’t 18, when they reach legal age. In the watch industry where hundred-year-old giants continue to rule the game, what does 10 years mean?

THE MID-2000s were a great time to be a certain kind of designer. The full effects of the looming financial crunch that would define the latter part of the 2000s would not be felt yet, and it was okay to be rich. The shock and vulgarity of the early 2000s, playing with reality TV and the early days of mainstream internet have slightly worn off. Styles in this present decade have sobered up, but the years before it showed a special kind of wealthy wearer: she wasn’t the teen in metallics and glitter of the early 2000s, best exemplified by Paris Hilton. This was a buttoned-up rich girl with a sense of fun, say like the present Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

OF ALL the facets of culture and history — think language, clothing, art — food is usually relegated to the sidelines. “It’s always going to be there,” we say to ourselves while it disappears from our tables, replaced by global selections that are easy to prepare, easy to eat, and are easily forgotten. Food does not deserve this position, for it is the fuel that forged revolutions, gave sustenance to communities, and, today, continues to build the nation.

IT’S always a toss-up in the kitchen between equipment and skill, and then nutritious or delicious, but with a new line by Tefal, you can finally get the balance of having both.

HAS IT really been that long since Grace Kelly was said to have uttered, “I favor pearls on screen and in my private life”? The famous American actress wed Prince Rainier III of the small principality of Monaco, becoming Princess Consort, lending her image to the small nation. During her husband’s reign, reforms to the constitution changed the country’s economic gambling base to its current role as a tax haven for the rich. This then gave the country a reputation of expensive living. In any case, the princess died in 1982, leaving behind a legacy of quiet elegance.

JEWELRY can melt even the hearts of the coldest cynics. The shine and sheen of precious stones, according to a study by Belgian researchers, turn on the brain and tap into the primeval search for water, explaining our attraction to shimmering surfaces.*

THE LONG lines snaking around Pasig’s Arcovia when Popeyes opened last week is solid proof of how much Filipinos wanted the Louisiana-style fried chicken.

THE International Food Exchange (IFEX), is going to run from May 24 to 26 in the World Trade Center Manila, and if you are going remember the following seven words: banana, cacao, coffee, coconut, mango, pineapple, and tuna. These, according to the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), are the country’s Premium 7. The Premium 7 were selected as the country’s top food exports, based on supply, according to CITEM’s Executive Director Pauline Juan.