The Chiconomist

happy holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:42:00 +0000

Just one more sleep and it's Christmas Eve! There's something about a whole lot of glitter that gets me in the holiday mood. I wonder if Santa has me on his nice list this year ... wouldn't be nice to find one of these glittering little somethings under your tree?

Wishing you and yours holidays that positively sparkle!

tank tops / bracelet / clutch / shoes / blouse

stocking stuffer deal: old navy

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:22:00 +0000

Still chipping away at your Christmas list? I got a headstart on my shopping this year and did an online shopping blitz a week ago so I finally have a relaxed lead-up to Christmas. But I know what it's like to be stressed out to the hilt with both the holiday rush and the bank account pounding. If you're still on the hunt for stocking stuffers, here's a deal that I hope will ease your stress both ways. Groupon's got a deal for $20 worth of Old Navy goodies just $10! What can you get for under $20 at Old Navy? Here's a little sampling ...

This deal is available until December 24 and can only be used in Old Navy stores. If you haven't checked it out yet, click here now!

online sale alert: kate spade

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:16:00 +0000

Currently salivating over these adorable, albeit slightly impractical, items in the massive Kate Spade sale going on in Gilt right now. Sequined duffel bag, anyone?

If you haven't signed up for Gilt yet, click here. Happy shopping!

today i'm loving: the fannings

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:07:00 +0000

How gorgeous are the Fanning sisters on W Magazine's December issue?

Forget Christmas trees and sprightly elves ... nothing puts me in a holiday mood like a glitzy magazine cover!

hunter boot sample sale

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

The Hunter boots sale just started on Gilt! How fast can you click?

If you've been hiding under a rock and haven't signed up for Gilt yet, click here to join.

it's the first of movember

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:37:00 +0000

Having been raised by a faithfully mustachioed man, I've always been quite amused by the stuff. It takes commitment to grow a 'stache—just ask my dad who, for all of my 30 years on earth, has been utterly faithful to his chosen facial 'do. A good mustache gives a look of authority and can even strike fear into those who dare cross it's path (just ask my high school suitors who were subjected to some of my dad's infamous mustachioed rages back in the day).

A good 'stache can even change the face of men's health—or at least that's what the Movember movement hopes to accomplish. This quirky campaign was conceptualized as a means of drawing attention and funding to prostate cancer research, and is supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong. Last year's Mo Bros and Sistas raised a whopping $7.5 million!

To register, visit the Movember website by clicking here. And if you just like crazy mustache art, check out the Etsy stores where I found all sorts of fun stuff pictured above!

Mustache art via Beardowear, jakes90, OnePinkPoppy, sweetperversion and thepixelprince

drop dead gorgeous

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:45:00 +0000

I'm so in love with this Tom Ford window display at Bergdorf Goodman right now. It is an outrageously decadent portrait of delicious exhaustion.

That's just what I'm feeling right now after a jam-packed, super fun Halloween weekend. The ridiculous snowfall and slush that hit the East Coast on Saturday did not dampen our spirits. Our Halloween party went on as planned and a surprising amount of party-ready friends packed into our downtown apartment for a crazy good time. On Sunday, I got a lovely surprise as my dear friend Zoe called me offering tickets to a soccer match between the New York Red Bulls and the LA Galaxy. Although our home team lost, I finally got to set eyes on Mr. David Beckham who still has some amazing juice in those hunky legs of his.

I am exhausted to the bone but deliciously so. It was a fantastic weekend.

today i'm loving: pink tresses

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Ever since I saw Viv at Ish & Chi's lovely pink tips, I've had pink hair on the brain. It could never work for me because a) pink hair doesn't fly in a conservative workplace and b) I would look like a Harajuku girl all day, everyday. But I like to daydream. My dabbling in pink will have to be limited to perhaps a Halloween costume involving pink hair. Or I could just drool over these images from BCBG Holiday catalogue all day ...

trick or treat: les glaceurs

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:26:00 +0000

I'm not usually big on Halloween sweets but I gotta say, these spooky cupcakes that my roommate Mitch brought back from Les Glaceurs in Montreal were a pretty great treat!

Our dessert crazy friend Bads, who seemingly makes it her mission to sample every sweet thing that crosses her path, begged Mitch to bring back these cupcakes—and thereby started an inconvenient addiction. The red velvet cupcake had a lot of fans but I fell in love with the marbré au fudge—that would be the cupcake masquerading as a grave, which is made of marbled chocolate and vanilla cake, and topped with cream cheese frosting and a chunk of homemade fudge.

I love how these cupcakes are both delicious and plain adorable! Les Glaceurs designed these just in time for Halloween and makes a host of other designs from Christmas to Hello Kitty themes.

The Les Glaceurs website boasts more intriguing treats like scrumptious looking s'more cupcake and a sinful sounding moist chocolate cake filled with salted caramel and topped with chocolate ganache.

One day I will come for you, mes chéris ...

Les Glaceurs is located at 453, Saint-Sulpice Street, Montreal, QC H2Y 2V8, Canada and at 1245, University, Montreal, QC H3B 3A8, Canada

spooked

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:23:00 +0000

I may be a little bit obsessed with Halloween right now. Just a little.

Last year I did some marathon Halloween partying; this year, we're making the party come to us. The lovely roomies and I are in Halloween party planning mode so I've got pumpkins and ghouls on the brain 24/7. I had some work to do tonight but instead I found myself perusing some chillingly amazing pumpkin carvings by Ray Villafane, caramel apples and spider cakes at Williams-Sonoma, and boozy pumpkin milkshakes (among TONS of other Halloween-themed cocktails) by those crazy ladies at Fashionably Bombed. I can hardly wait for the trick or treating to begin!

Are you ready to get spooked?

today i'm loving: bergdorf goodman's shoe obsession

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:11:00 +0000

I am just loving this campaign, which puts together two things that I love: shoes and the city of New York!

While I normally eschew shopping for traveling and eating well, a change in season inevitably gets my fashion mojo going. But for now, while I chip at my credit card bill, I'll limit my obsession to Bergdorf Goodman's Shoes About Town page, which collects lovely Instagrams that show Louboutins flitting about the farmers market and snakeskin Gucci platforms parked on Park Avenue. Enjoy the shoe porn!

i heart matilda

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:05:00 +0000

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.

mad eats at madison square eats

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:13:00 +0000

Have you ever been faced with so many good food choices that your brain shut down and you ended up eating Cheetos for dinner?

Yeah, me neither.

But I did come pretty close to it Thursday night when I dragged the gang to Madison Square Eats for a post-work noshfest. The night prior, I had such a mad craving for the Vinh Asiadog that I looked up Asiadog locations. I've only ever encountered Asiadog at flea markets, concerts and festivals but to my glee, I found out that they have a regular outpost in Nolita. To my even greater delight, I realized there's a mini food fest beside Madison Square Park called Madison Square Eats that's going on until October 21, 2011, and Asiadog was one of its awesome vendors.

So right after work, we made a beeline for Madison Square Eats. I must have wandered around aimlessly for 10 minutes as I racked my brain on what deserved space in my belly the most. While I thought about it, I had the Sydney from Asiadog and some sort of delicious amber ale fresh from the tap at Cannibal. I thought I could figure out what sort of beer it was by looking at their restaurant menu but holy crap! Have you seen that beer menu?! Go take a look. When I'm done gushing over Madison Square Eats, I am so planning my Cannibal invasion.

The Sydney doesn't compare to the Vinh (which deserves a post all its own) but I wanted to try something new. It was pretty yummy, topped with a refreshing relish of mango, red onion, cucumber, cilantro, peanut and fish sauce. A Thai spin on the New York dog.

Mitch picked the Wangding, topped with pork belly and onions, which looked pretty darn awesome. I'm gonna have to try that next time.

I was extremely tempted to get one of the Red Hook Lobster Pound's lobster rolls but $16 for a roll seemed steep (specially when there's a food fair with stuff like $9 pizzas and $4.50 fancy beef dogs). But they looked amazing! Check out that generously buttered roll just overflowing with massive chunks of lobster.

I got the lobster mac n cheese instead, which was pretty awesome. Basically they take some mac n cheese, toss it with a generous helping of the massive chunks of lobster they use for the rolls, cover the whole shebang with cheese, and then blowtorch the cheese into lovely melted goodness. The blurry, terribly lit picture doesn't do it justice but it's a good use of $9 and great for sharing.

Also vying for stomach space at the fair are Fatty Snack's pork buns. For $9 you get two buns overflowing with pork goodness and a soda. De-lish.

To top it all off, dessert! I tried Mitch's waffle from Wafels & Dinges topped with bananas and smothered in Nutella. Amazeballs of course. Bar Suzette is also at the fair whipping out wonderful crepes, as well as Momofuku Milk Bar, which was already closed by then. The lunch crowd must've cleaned them out!

After all that nomming, it would've been prudent to have some lovely tea from Spices & Tease's amazing selection ...

But of course I didn't do that. I had more beer instead. Nobody's perfect.

I have to say that Madison Square Eats is one of the best food fests I've been too. It's small but the selection of vendors is top-notch. The tables and umbrellas are blanketed in Marimekko prints, which ups the cute factor tenfold. And on the day we went, the crowd was small, chic and friendly. I definitely foresee coming back again and again in the next few weeks! Check it out if you haven't gone yet!

let's do brunch: kittichai

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:09:00 +0000

It's been brought to my attention that people who work in kitchens generally loathe brunch. I've been on the receiving end of a disapproving "Oh, you're one of those people" comments followed up with a self-explanatory picture of some cook's tattoo featuring a popular brunch item and the words "Fuck brunch." I sympathize. I would be pissed off too if I had to drag my hungover ass to work on a weekend afternoon to make other hungover bastards some poached eggs.

But I can't help it. I am one of those people. I like brunch. And if it's a boozy brunch, I might even have to use the word love.

I thought my feelings about the Sunday afternoon we spent at Kittichai illustrate my unconditional love for the boozy brunch quite well. It's certainly not the best meal you'll ever have in your life, but there's just *something about unlimited cocktails, food involving eggs and the company of friends that makes me so happy.

*and by something I do mean unlimited bubbly

At Kittichai, $25 gets you a brunch item and unlimited Bloody Marys, bellinis and mimosas. The brunch choices are:

Smoked salmon, grilled naan bread, classic accompaniments
Asian five spice french toast, thai basil and fruit compote
Kaffir lime leaf pancake soufflé, lemongrass butter
Eggs benedict, penang curry hollandaise with morning glory
Kittichai omelette, thai sour sausage, jumbo lump crab
Kittichai Pad Thai, shrimp, garlic chive and peanuts

If your main goal is to day drink and maybe have some eggs, go for this option. The servers are excellent at keeping your glasses filled but the food is pretty lackluster. The most enticing thing on our table were the eggs benedict but since Anthony Bourdain has scared me off hollandaise for the rest of my life, I wasn't having it.

While the yellow curry potatoes on the side were tasty, my Kittichai omelette was frankly quite tragic. I've never seen such rubbery eggs outside of an airplane ...

But by then I'd already swigged a lusciously spicy Bloody Mary and a bellini so I really wasn't too upset.

If you're not feeling like too much of a lush, I would suggest foregoing the boozy brunch prix fixe and ordering a la carte. The chili-smoked hanger steak and eggs plus either a Bloody Mary or a Thai iced tea should be a great combo. We ordered the chili-smoked hanger steak to share and I am still salivating at the memory of it.

To cap off our meal, we ordered the banana spring rolls with burnt honey ice cream, which erases all sadness over inadequate omelettes.

With a few strategic a la carte orders and A LOT of bellinis and mimosas, we ended up really enjoying our brunch. See that's how it is with love: you don't need perfection because you will find a way to make it work.

Kittichai is located at 60 Thompson Street, New York, NY. Phone (212) 219-2000 for reservations.

designer for less: missoni for target

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:40:00 +0000

It took superhuman self-control but I managed to clear out of the Target website with just two things: the sleeveless shift dress on the left below and those cute printed shorts on the right.

My shipment arrives sometime next week so I'll let you all know what the real deal looks like. The website keeps going down but I had a few precious minutes of good luck at around 1:30pm today. As of that time, there were still a good amount of shift dresses, shorts, skirts and bags. The hoodie above is still haunting me but I decided I don't need to be in head to toe zig zag, do I? The adorable Missoni bike is all but a memory but there are still iPhone cases, homeware and luggage all ready to wreck your budget ...

If you're able to get on, make sure to shop as quickly as possible as the website is still pretty shaky! Good luck!

the plaza food hall by todd english

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:56:00 +0000

When we were young, a food hall (or food court, as we call them in the Philippines) was akin to a culinary Switzerland—a place where my parents could take all the kids with dissimilar cravings and feed them without too much drama. All our folks had to do was give us money and we could get whatever it was our tummy desired: pizza, tempura, hamburgers, Mongolian stir-fry, halo-halo. And we could all still sit down at one table and eat as a family. But food halls in the Philippines are very much like their traditional American counterparts: usually located in a shopping mall and chock full of fast food stands—not exactly what one would think of as haute cuisine.

My view of food halls changed somewhat when I got to eat at Marché in Singapore some years ago (funnily enough, Marché actually hails from Switzerland). Built to give you the feeling that you are eating in a European market (or in some parts, a Swiss chalet), the ingredients are fresh and the food just-cooked.

Lately here in New York, the idea of what a food hall is has been turned upside down in my head yet again. In recent months, a few gourmet food halls have popped up in the city that are bears little resemblance to your momma's food court. Last night, I ventured with a big group of friends into The Plaza Food Hall by celebrity chef, Todd English. This food hall boasts eight specialty food stations as well as numerous gourmet delights to tempt any foodie shoppaholic.

My friend Jammy specifically requested the table in the demo kitchen when she made our reservation so our party of 7.25 (myself, three couples and a baby) had plenty of space to devour food in. Boy, did we need that space because we ordered quite a bit of food!

The Restaurant Week menu was available and seemed to be a good deal. The lunch menu includes 4 pieces of fried oysters with caviar creme fraiche, lemon zest and micro cilantro as an appetizer.

Add to that a Bianca pizza and a mini cheese cake for dessert and it's definitely not a bad deal for $24.07. For dinner, they change it up with half a dozen fresh oysters, and a choice between the Bianca pizza or roasted prime rib for the entree, plus the same cheese cake dessert. You could do worse with $35.00.

Seduced with the bounty of choices from the meat and seafood grills, the sushi bar, the dumpling station and the pizza station, we decided to order a la carte. My mom always tells me I shouldn't make decisions about food when I'm starving and she's always right. In a state of starvation, I went with the Food Hall Burger and its half pound american kobe beef pattie, fried onion, grilled bacon, roasted tomato and gorgonzola, all slathered in barbeque sauce.

It was good but the prime rib sliders, described in New York magazine as "piled with ribbons of tender meat, dripped with a rich Fontina dressing, and served on fresh brioche buns", probably would have been a better choice. Three of us ordered this burger and while it did the job, it wasn't the best any of us had ever had.

I didn't dwell on this too much though because the mac n cheese blew my mind. Is there anything better than macaroni, pulled pork and caramelized onions all slathered in melted aged cheddar? Ok lots of things are but none come to mind while you're dishing bite after delicious bite of this goodness into your mouth, I promise.

I had my hands full (literally) with my massive burger plus the mac 'n cheese so I didn't really get to taste everyone else's food. Consider the rest of the post as food porn. Coco and JM ordered the special: a flat bread pizza with pork belly bits, green onion and sriracha.

Jammy and Sancho ordered one of their favorite pizzas: fig jam, prosciutto and gorgonzola on a rosemary crust.

There were a couple of rolls from the sushi bar on the table, too, but I haven't had a yen for sushi in awhile so I didn't try any of them. Thought they looked pretty (and yes, I'm sorry that's all I have to say about them). Mica had the lobster roll in the picture below while Jammy had the dragon roll further below.

All in all, a very good meal. It's hard to find a chic place where one can eat good food at reasonable prices, get seated as a fairly large party painlessly and not be rushed out. So I'm grateful to The Plaza Food Hall for providing a bunch of high school friends and their significant others a great spot to catch up over a good meal.

The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English is located at 768 Fifth Avenue (at Central Park South), New York, NY 10019. Phone (212) 986-9260 for reservations.

cocktail hour: angel's share

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:39:00 +0000

One of the things that makes summer exciting: the profusion of bright and shiny new summer cocktail menus. As taken as I am with winter-perfect concoctions involving whiskey, egg and spices, there's something exciting about a refreshing tipple made with vibrant summer fruits. A couple of weeks ago, my cousin Melissa and I went to St. Mark's Place to enjoy the grilled goodness at Yakitori Taisho and then have some delicious cocktails at Angel's Share. Angel's Share is a speakeasy of sorts that's only accessible through the Japanese restaurant Village Yokocho. They have some truly exceptional Japanese bartenders that take their craft very, very seriously and I just love it there.

It was a humid Tuesday evening so I immediately gravitated to this summery drink: Watermelon Man. Made with organic cucumber-flavored vodka, fresh watermelon juice and a sprig of basil, it was deliciously refreshing and deceptively strong.

Melissa picked the Velvet Scene, a drink apparently conceived by pastry chef Chika of Chikalicious. This effervescent drink contains Tanqueray gin, fresh kiwi and fresh grapefruit juice made just from the sweet pulp, all spiked with a bit of honey and lavender.

The most memorable drink of the night, however, was the Cheek to Cheek, which had us so intrigued that we didn't want to share. It starts out typical enough for a cocktail: white rum, muddled berries, fresh lemon juice and white cranberry juice. But then Vincotto is added in—slow-cooked, non-fermented grape reduced until its sugars have caramelized. And then comes balsamic honey, yoghurt and mascarpone foam, and suddenly you're in dessert territory. Is it a cocktail masquerading as dessert or vice versa? I don't know, but it is decadent and delicious.

If my evening at Angel's Share was any indication of how the rest of the summer will turn out, it's gonna be a sweet, sparkling and deliciously tipsy one!

Angel's Share is located at 6 Stuyvesant St., 2nd fl, New York, NY, 10003.

cocktail hour: clover club

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:21:00 +0000

I find that a very well-made cocktail can be as satisfying as a delicious meal. So when I read about the first ever NYC Cocktail Week going on from June 15-29, I was beyond excited. Adding to the anticipation was the fact that some of the city's best cocktail bars are participating: Clover Club, Death & Company, Employees Only and Lani Kai. The deal is that you get two cocktails plus an appetizer for just $20.11—pretty sweet considering most specialty cocktails at such establishments run from $12-16. The event benefits City Harvest's fight against hunger and The Museum of the American Cocktail's efforts to preserve mixological history—and I do so enjoy drinking for a cause!

The problem is that what I love about going to these cocktail bars is the experience of perusing extensive cocktail menus or in cases when there is no menu, spilling obscure cravings to the bartenders and waiters and allowing them to surprise me with something incredible in a glass. This doesn't necessarily lend itself well to the restrictions that understandably come with Cocktail Week's prix-fixe arrangements.

I trekked over to Brooklyn one Thursday night to join my cousin Melissa and her boyfriend Ben for cocktails at one of their favorite spots: Clover Club. We went there brimming with excitement at the prospect of Cocktail Week but our hopes were quickly shot down when we were told that the special menu was only served before 7PM and after 10PM. We asked to take a look at the menu, nevertheless, to see what was being offered. On Clover Club's NYC Cocktail Week menu:

COCKTAILS (Choose two)
New York Sour
Bulleit Rye Whiskey, lemon, orange juice, red wine
Cloister
Tanqueray No. 10 gin, herbal liqueur, grapefruit, lemon juice
Hotel Nacional Special
Zacapa 23 Rum, apricot liqueur, lime juice, pineapple juice
Jack Rose
Applejack, lime juice, grenadine

APPETIZERS (Choose one)
Crisps
All right, so they are potato chips ...
but they are tossed in duck fat and
served with a truffled crème fraiche.
Deviled Eggs
Classic deviled eggs, served three ways:
topped with smoked paprika & garlic breadcrumbs,
crispy bacon croutons and mushroom duxelles.
One of each.

These drinks and snacks sound lovely enough but once I browsed through the extensive cocktail menu, so many wonderful things jumped out at me and I realized that I would not have been happy sticking to the abridged Cocktail Week menu. There were so many intriguing drinks waiting to be tasted and I didn't mind paying a few extra dollars for that privilege. For my first drink, I chose the signature drink, the Clover Club, and with my first sip, I fell in love. Any place that has an egg white in its signature tipple is clearly my soulmate. The Clover Club contains gin, dry vermouth, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg white, and is oh so very delicious ...

I can't recall what Ben's drink was but it was bright, refreshing and perfect for a humid summer afternoon ...

After tasting Ben's excellent drink choice, I thought I'd follow suit for my next drink. Ben ordered the Barrymore Room off the menu and I did the same. This was definitely my kind of drink with rye whiskey, an egg white and some mysterious but delicious friends comprising the drink. I seem to be embroiled in a love affair with rye whiskey and egg these days (I recently had a particularly delicious concoction in Milk & Honey involving rye whiskey, champagne and an egg yolk! LOVE.). It's out of control.

For her second drink, Melissa chose the Blush Baby, which seemed very promising with its mixture of rum, demerara syrup, lemon, blackberry, raspberry and rosé wine. From the look of it, you expected a drink just bursting with berry flavors ... but it tasted kind of watery. It was just okay.

For his last drink, Ben ordered the much maligned and mistreated Mai Tai. If you've only had this in, say, a Cancun all-inclusive resort which shall remain unnamed with an odd fellow named Greg, you'd probably hate the stuff. At its worst, a Mai Tai will contain cheap rum, artificially-flavored juice and that godawful darn sweetener. Over at Clover Club where the ingredients are legit, the Mai Tai sparkles with rum and fresh lime juice and makes you just want to lay out on a sandy beach somewhere with cocktail in hand.

Cocktail Week or not, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at Clover Club. Admittedly, the Clover Club would be quite a trek for a Manhattanite and I'm quite sure that even a serious cocktail enthusiast from Manhattan would rather squeeze into one of the tiny cocktail bars in the city for a tipple rather than trek out to Brooklyn. I live in the Financial District, however, which is a skip and a hop to Brooklyn so I am much more inclined to come back for more. I thought that the Clover Club's expansive digs dressed in vintage sofas and leather booths were a nice, relaxing change from Manhattan's lilliputian bars where you sometimes have to battle for seating space. The existence of this gorgeous bar with even more gorgeous drinks definitely adds to Brooklyn's ever-growing draw on me.

Clover Club is located at 210 Smith St between Baltic and Butler Sts, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (718-855-7939)

wanderlust: the 8 restaurant, macau

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:49:00 +0000

I love dimsum. I love the mayhem of it: the little Chinese ladies pushing around metal carts loaded with dumpling- and bun-filled bamboo steamers; the aggressive and usually elderly women who accost the pushcarts before they even reach their tables to ensure they grab the best stuff first; and the way the pushcart ladies shove those steaming parcels under your nose, demanding you decide right now whether you want this or not. It is pure heaven for me to spend a weekend afternoon surrounded by this madness because it means I get to eat one succulent dumpling after another until I am dizzy from sheer gluttony.

The Eight Restaurant at the Grand Lisboa in Macau is quite different from the dimsum experience I'm accustomed to. For one thing, this Cantonese/Huaiyang cuisine-focused restaurant boasts of not just one but two Michelin stars. It is housed in one of the most over-the-top and opulent casinos in Macau, with sleek and modern interiors by famed Hong Kong designer Alan Chan. No little ladies with pushcarts here—but over 50 types of dimsum are, in fact, served in these luxe digs during lunch.

The restaurant takes its name from the number considered most auspicious by the Chinese because it sounds like the word which means "to generate wealth." The Chinese consider the number 8 so lucky, in fact, that they started the Beijing Olympics at exactly 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8PM on August 8, 2008. So it's no surprise that a casino such as Grand Lisboa would pick this lucky number as the name of its most heralded restaurant.

My in-the-know friend Tamara picked this place when I told her I wanted to eat really good Cantonese fare. We came to 8 Restaurant right after swan-diving off the Macau Tower so the first order of business was getting some celebratory drinks. I was stunned when they brought us the wine list.

I was so intimidated by that list that I choked and ordered a beer instead! Next order of business was to get some food inside our grumbling bellies. We quickly devoured the standard dimsum favorites we ordered, like steamed shrimp dumplings and siu mai:

We had some spring rolls, which are always delicious ...

... these spring and summer rolls were phenomenal. Our server recommended this and it totally blew us away. Basically, they've taken a crisp fried spring roll and enveloped it in a layer of soft rice flour wrapper. The wonderful textures just take this roll to a whole other level of deliciousness. I would jump off another tower just to have one right now.

After the dim sum, we got down to serious heart-palpitating business. We had roasted goose, which I was really excited about. Roasted goose is a dish I associate with vacations to Hong Kong because my family and I used to bring an entire roasted goose back to the Philippines every time we took a trip to Hong Kong. We love it that much and this one lived up to my expectations.

Because we do love us some pork, we had to have barbecued suckling pig. I love the perfectly crisp skin, which is attached to the tender meat by a very thin layer of fat. It is served with these cute little rice cakes at 8 Restaurant.

Finally, there was some pigeon, which had been poached in homemade soya sauce. Tender and delicious, albeit freaky for Westerners, I can imagine.

Michele and Tamara were generous enough to treat us for lunch so I don't quite know how much our meal cost, but according to Tamara she was surprised at how reasonable the prices were considering the restaurant's 2-Michelin star status. So if you find yourself in Macau jonesing for some solid Chinese food, definitely pay 8 Restaurant a visit. The food is excellent and the decor jaw-dropping—no pushy ladies but an experience to remember, nevertheless.

The 8 Restaurant is located at the second floor of the Grand Lisboa. Phone (853) 8803 7788 or visit the website for reservations.

beer chronicles: birreria

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:18:00 +0000

Oh beer, how I love thee. Let me count the ways.

I am one of those people who, at the end of a long and tough day, finds solace in an ice cold brewsky.
After running 26.2 miles over the course of 5 hours last November, I stood for about 2 more so I could tip back a couple of the good stuff.
I'm quite positive that the sight of a well-stocked beer aisle or a bar tap with a large variety of brews makes my eyes twinkle far more than the Barney's shoe sale rack.
I was once the hostess at Loreley, a German beer garden in the Lower East Side. While it may have caused a bit of confusion among patrons who did not expect the hostess to look like an anime character, I had mad skills at handling highly inebriated folks. And I got to drink a lot of delicious German beer.
I find it very difficult to take a man who doesn't drink beer seriously. The sight of a man sipping a fruity drink beside a girl chugging a beer (a tiny one at that) is just sad.
At any given time, I will most likely have more questions for my server about the beer selection than today's specials.
If I ever became filthy rich, the only thing I'm positive I'd want in my dream home is a wall full of taps with all my favorite brews.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. I love beer. So it recently struck me that it's been a serious oversight on my part that my beloved brewsky hasn't received some special love on my blog. Well, all that changes starting now with my new section, Beer Chronicles. With beer spots spreading in New York like an epidemic, I'll have lots of ~~excuses~~ opportunities to drink up and share my favorite finds with you.

To kick off this new section, let's start with the hottest, newest beer spot on the island: Birreria.

Birreria is the crown jewel of the Italian marketplace behemoth that is Eataly. I'd been wanting to try it but the first time we came to Eataly, it wasn't open yet. Last Monday, I was wandering past the Flat Iron building carrying a bag of groceries and thinking about what a beauty Manhattan is during the golden hour when I realized a friend of mine from Manila was standing right on the street corner. Paolo convinced me without too much arm twisting to join him and some friends for a brew and some chow at Birreria.

It was surprisingly busy considering it was a Monday night. We had to line up and check in with a host at the ground floor, who took down the size of our party and a cellphone number they could text us at once there was a table ready. We got the text about half an hour later and finally got on the elevator which would take us to the rooftop. Once there, it turned out our table still wasn't ready and we had to hang around a bit more. Finally we were seated and again, a bit more of a waiting game for a server ... for beer ... a long wait for beer.

But once the beer and food arrived, all memories of waiting seemed to vanish. We started with a delicious brew recommended by our server, a Belgian-style brown ale aptly named Raison d'Etre by Dogfish Brewery. For $20, we got a carafe of the good stuff, which fills four of their glasses up to ye high.

This was my first time to try a Dogfish Brew and I have to say, respect! It's a complex beer, with fruity notes and caramel-like sweetness coming from beet sugar and raisins, but with a shade of bitterness to round out the flavor. It also packed a pretty strong punch at 8%. I liked it a lot. As much as I love beer though, this plate utterly and completely stole the show ...

That, my friends, is the most succulent and flavorful piece of pork shoulder I have ever sunk my teeth into. Beautifully marbled with fat, braised in beer to tender perfection, sweetened with a dash of apricot jam and given an extra kick with the side of mustard, it is pure bliss in a bite. At first, I was taken aback that such a tiny plate was priced at $19 but after tasting that stuff, I'd say it's worth every penny. I would come back to Birreria over and over and over and over again just for this. Apparently, Birreria gets its pork from a farm in Iowa where pigs are raised in the wild and fed clovers, grass and herbs. If this is what happy pigs taste like, then run free my dears.

The cotechino sausage that we ordered was really yummy as well but nowhere near as transcendent of an experience as the pork shoulder. This, I think, is a tad overpriced at $19. I mean, come on.

We sampled a few other beers, one of the most memorable being the Palo Santo, which we had to order since it's practically named after our visiting friend. This beer is serious business with an alcohol content of 12%. Also a Dogfish brew, it is an intense, unfiltered brown ale swirling with flavors of caramel, vanilla and good old Paraguayan Palo Santo wood—the material used to create the wooden brewing vessels used for this beer. Good stuff but so strong that they will only serve you half a Teku at at time for $7. The boys liked it.

We finished the night off with the Baladin Al-Iksir, a solid Belgian-style brown ale primarily fermented using whiskey yeasts. Lighter than a Palo Santo but rich and intriguing, nonetheless, I found this to be a great introduction to Italian beer.

Overall, I really enjoyed my Birreria experience. And because I have absolutely no ability to stay away from life-changing pork and a beer selection with depths that need to be plumbed, I will surely come back. It's probably not for everyone. I would say don't come here if all you're after is the view (the Empire State building view is a tad obstructed by the mechanisms for a ). And it's probably not the place for you if what you're looking for is that communal, lager-sloshing, Oktoberfest-type beer garden experience. Birreria is definitely more of a restaurant with an impressive selection of beer than a beer garden that happens to serve food. But if the thought of savoring an exotic selection of craft beers and top notch food makes your heart skip a beat, then this place is for you. Take it from the sign below, which sums up what this place has to offer quite nicely:

I, for one, can't wait to get back on that roof! Thanks for the treat guys!

Birreria is located at Eataly, 200 5th Avenue (entrance on 23rd Street), New York, NY 10010. Reservations for parties of 6-12 persons will be accepted beginning July 1, 2011. Phone (212) 229 2560.

chic eats: the breslin

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:17:00 +0000

As a passionate and unabashed carnivore, I'm ashamed that it wasn't until April that I finally dug into The Breslin's meaty menu. Liza Ilarde was in town so we rounded up some former MEGA girls for a get-together at this chic little English-style pub. While the wait can be long and the quarters a smidgen tight, The Breslin agrees with me. For one thing, they have a great beer list with both local craft and classic English brews. And then they have a dreamy menu of bar chow that includes delights like this lovely plate of crispy sweetbreads and spiced lentils. Absolutely delish!

Our non-meat-inhaling friends went with scallops and an herbed Caesar salad with anchovy croutons.

But the winning order of the night was Minelli's: the Terrine Board featuring intriguing varieties like guinea hen with morels, rabbit and prune headcheese, liverwurst and a classic pork pâté, all served with pickles, piccalilli & mustard. At $32 for a board, it is a great spread to pick on while enjoying good beer and even better conversation.

Almost makes me want to wish for a gloomy day so I can skip the beer garden and squeeze into a cozy pub for some great beer and grub ... almost.

The Breslin is located at the Ace Hotel, 16 West 29th Street (near Broadway), New York, NY 10001-4502.

cel vs. food: elbert's steak room

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:33:00 +0000

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

doing good: japan aid bag by two oranges

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:22:00 +0000

One of the most used items in my closet is the humble canvas shopping bag. I love using them for everything from toting groceries to my Spanish workbooks. During my last whirlwind Cali-Philippines-Hong Kong-Macau trip, the canvas bag I bought at Coachella was every bit as handy in the desert of Palm Springs as on the 11-hour bus ride to Sagada. Canvas bags are awesome for traveling and even just carrying around in your purse as they take up so little space and weigh nothing.

I'm an even bigger fan of canvas shopping bags with a cause. Philippine brand Two Oranges has created a Japan Aid bag in an effort to raise money for our Japanese brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. Months since disaster struck, they are still in dire need of help and every little bit counts.

The bags are priced at P250—that's less than $6! Proceeds will be donated to the Japan Earthquake and Relief Fund of the Philippine Red Cross. For more information on ordering, visit the Two Oranges website.

cocktail hour: amor y amargo

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:30:00 +0000

"Without the bitter, baby, the sweet aint as sweet."
- Vanilla Sky

A few months ago, Zoe, Amanda and I went on a quest to get chummy with bitters. During olden times, these alcoholic herbal infusions were used as folk remedies. In today's cocktail world, these spirits give your aperitifs and digestifs a bit of flavor and dry zest. Over at a tiny bar in the East Village called Amor y Amargo, bitters are the star of the show.

I had a flashback to a boozy evening with Zoe in 2010 as soon as I saw the countertop of the bar. Formerly Carteles, this was once a good spot for procuring Cuban sandwiches before heading up the hidden staircase for a rum punch at Cienfuegos. In typical New York fashion, this tiny 8-seater joint has turned into a bitters bar less than a year since my last Cubano in the same spot.

Our education in bitters started with a sampling of the Bittermens Very Small Batch bitters sold at the counter. We were told to rub a drop between our hands and smell it before tasting another drop. I thought it was amazing how much flavor is packed into such a very tiny amount of liquid. Then we put in our orders for some small bites and drinks. I was quite pleased with my order. The crispy garbanzos with crumbled morcilla ($6) packed a nice little kick and a satisfying crunch. The Americano cocktail on draft was pretty delicious. Yes, you read that right: they have a cocktail on tap. The Americano is a mixture of sweet Vermouth, Campari and soda. It was refreshing and had a lovely mixture of the bitter and the sweet.

My memory fails me on what exactly Zoe and Amanda ordered for drinks but I'd hazard a guess and say Zoe had the Bittermen's House Gin & Tonic ($12) with her artichoke salad ($8) while Amanda paired her white bean and oil poached tuna salad ($8) with À L’Ancienne (Cognac old fashioned with Bittermens Spiced Cranberry Citrate).

The truth is, I can't recall their drinks too well because I really preferred mine! I quite liked my second drink, too: the Mud Season, a mixture of zucca amaro (a rhubarb bitter), mirto (an Italian liqueur made out of myrtle berries), sweet vermouth, rhum agricole & Bittermens hopped grapefruit bitters. It had a caramel-like sweetness to offset the bitters, which I liked. I would definitely come back if only for a taste of the sweet vermouth on tap described on the menu as "an adult version of sangria" and dubbed life-changing by more than one fan.

I would recommend coming here with cocktail enthusiasts as it is definitely bar geek territory and bitters aren't for everyone (yet). Please don't force an appletini-loving friend to take up precious space at the bar. Leave that chair to me and my sweet vermouth.

Amor y Amargo is located at 443 East 6th Street (between 1st Avenue & Avenue A), New York, NY.

the perfect red lipstick

noreply@blogger.com (celine) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:03:00 +0000

It took some time before I felt comfortable wearing red lipstick.

As a ballet dancer for many years, I thought of red lips as stage makeup and found it weird to wear it out in the "real world."

I suppose, it takes some growing up to be able to wear red lips with ease. In my early 20s with very little life experience, I felt like a little girl playing dress up when I would attempt red lips.

But now that I'm just a month and change shy of 30 and my ingenue state is rapidly slipping away, I'm feeling very comfortable with scarlet lips. I don't need a special occasion to wear red; I will put it on even when I'm just spending a Sunday afternoon shopping in Soho.

It helps that I've found my perfect red: Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupté in Red Taboo. It's a rich, blue-based red that stays put even after one glass of wine, two bottles of beer and a massive pot of mussels (true story). While it's not exactly cheap at $34 a pop, I think it is worth every penny. The texture is so rich and luxurious, and this particular brand keeps lips moisturized. I love it to pieces.

What's your go-to red?