Starting the Year Right

Oh God. FINALLY connected to Blogger! Connecting to blogger the past two days has been what my friend Quintin calls a "test of character". There is some whack function going on with blogger man and it's taken a lifetime to connect. Some blame it on the Taiwan earthquake. Whatever it is, it is not cool.

But back to the wonderful life =) ... here's what I been up to ...

(Oh, but before that - I want to say THANK YOU to those who bothered to post comments to my first post - which really did not contain anything. And I feel very honored to have had WYSGAL herself be the very first. Holler to Wysgal - my friend Natasha had told me about you before I read your comment. She's in the know when it comes to the blogosphere. I'm totally new to the blogging world - my surfing's revolved around chubbyhubby, marketmanila, dessertcomesfirst and coolhunting. Of course, that's about to change!)

So, back. Jan 1, Monday, was Nana Meng's birthday. Nana Meng is the Nana Meng of Nana Meng Tsokolate. (She's pretty much the one who got me into food. Of course it was Letty Magsanoc of Inquirer who really got me into food writing... but that's another story.) She is my maternal grand aunt but she's the only one left alive of her generation so she is now mother to us all. She just turned 91 so we had a big party in the ancestral home in Sta. Maria, Bulacan with mass in the house and all with the Monsignor and two other priests. (Seriously, how many priests do you need.) Anyway, by this time I had been sick over a week but pushed myself to party anyway.

That's Nana Meng and lighting the candle is my gorgeous mother Carmelita aka Linda Carter.

So Jan 2 I was pretty much not breathing anymore. Too clogged. Eww. (Although surprisingly my taste buds weren't affected.) It was time to take antibiotics. However, I was gifted with a tray of badass puttanesca. It was from this young chef named RJ Ungco who had created the menu for Verve in Legazpi Village and is now running the Ponzos restaurant in Magallanes. Full of flavor. He just loaded it with every possible garnish for what my friend JC calls "an explosion of flavors" in your mouth. So, since you can't have a good Italian dish without wine, I pushed the Zithromax back by six hours and opened a bottle of shiraz. Had a marvelous lunch and slept the rest of the day.

(Naks. O di ba may photo na kala mo professional blogger. Kaso lang camera phone lang yan hahaha!)

Jan 3 Wednesday it was back to work. I was finishing an article on up and coming chefs and Sonja (of Cupcakes) recommended "the guy beside me", who is Carlo Miguel of Mezza Luna. Now even if this dude had already built a reputation for himself through catering, I wasn't about to write about any Carlo Miguel before tasting him - his food, what were you thinking?! - so I opened Mezza Luna the following day and had menu items Inez Veneracion (of Vargas Kitchen, if you are familiar - yes, she is helping out with Mezza Luna as well) recommended.

Now if you are a chef, the key is really to have a couple of killer appetizers so that you have your guests at first bite. That's what Carlo Miguel had. Inez recommended the Twice Baked Gorgonzola Souffle with Apple, Arugula and Candied Walnut Salad. Winner. The gorgonzola wakes up your taste buds. Then the candied walnut balances out the pungent (I like bold flavors ... even if they taste like feet hahaha) taste of the cheese.

Today, my editor Alya Honasan invited a bunch of us career shifters (actually I'm more like a rolling stone) to sit down for lunch at Mati to talk about ourselves for her column in Metro magazine entitled Talk. So I was fortunate to have for dessert what to me is one of Manila's top ten chocolate cakes.


So that's how the first four days of my year went. Maybe I am taking the metaphor of the Pig too seriously. But still. Don't count your calories. Count your blessings!