Category: Lifestyle

Wabi-Sabi Noodle House & Vegetarian Grocery

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On July 11, 2010

I’ve been hearing a lot about “The Collective” but had no idea what it was until last night.  It’s a new place in Makati City that has a lot of unique establishments all in one area all clustered together which is definitely why it’s called “The Collective”.  One of these such collectives is Wabi-Sabi Noodle House & Vegetarian Grocery.  The restaurant is a pretty cool place I must say.  It has a homey-feeling to it.  It can sit about 30 pax and serve only a variety of dishes.

The menu items available for order are so limited that I can actually list them down for you right here:

  • Lemongrass Iced Tea (Php 40)
  • Steamed Buns (Php 25)
  • Pot Smokers (Php 45)
  • Veggie Cracklings (Php 40)
  • Bahn Mi (Php 150)
  • Shoyu Ramen (Php 95)
  • Viet Pho (Php 95)

You get to order your chosen dishes at the counter & pay right away.  They will then serve your orders at your table.  I’m not sure if the one who took our orders was actually the owner but I think he was.

I almost wanted order each & every item on the menu hahahaha! Good thing I didn’t but anyhow, the ff. were the ones ordered in the table I sat in:

  • Shoyu Ramen (Php 95)

Seems like a japanese version of the ramen.  This however is a vegetarian soup.  Very tasty dish & the serving is just right.  These dishes are always perfect if the seasoning isn’t too much and oftentimes you can tell if the broth has been slowly cooked.  I think with this dish, they must have simmered the broth really long, which is good, because you can really taste the full flavors really combined perfectly.  The greens were most probably added just before serving.  It’s really interesting because the ingredients seemed as if there was meat in it even though it’s a vegetarian dish.  Great job on the execution of this dish.  I guess this is why they only have a few menu items.  The lack in quantity is made up by the excellent quality of the dishes.

  • Viet Pho (Php 95)

I didn’t order this but it looked like a Thailand version of the ramen.  I asked the one who ordered this & he said that it was good.  The Shoyu Ramen I ordered was excellent too!  I might need to go back to Wabi-Sabi again to sample this dish & decide for myself which one is better 🙂

  • Pot Smokers (Php 45)

Wonder what pot smokers are?  It’s actually just plain gyoza or more commonly called dumplings!  Looked so yummy!  almost everyone ordered this, I didn’t but I will when I get back.  The great thing about this dish is the contrast in texture that is added by pan searing the dumplings, as well as the great smoky flavor that is added.  Just too bad I wasn’t able to try it out, the sauce on it seemed delicious too, I wonder if it had a smoky sweet barbecue flavor to it, because that would definitely be a great way to top off this dish.

  • Lemongrass Iced Tea (Php 40)

A healthy drink & a delicious one too!  I can drink like liters of Lemongrass tea, yumyum!!

If you have noticed, there were 2 ramens served in Wabi-Sabi.  And they actually make a pretty big deal about just which one is better, because obviously everyone will have a different taste and favorite.  It’s cute that they actually put the preferences on the actual wall and named it “NOODLE WARS”.  Hahahaha!  Cute!  If I’m able to try out both, then I’ll definitely wanna be included in the war, hahaha!

And oh, before I forget, the place also sells some grocery items.  The place is great for people who wants to eat healthy.  It’s a vegetarian restaurant after all!

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Wabi-Sabi Noodle House & Vegetarian Grocery
The Collective, 7274 Malugay St., Brgy. San Antonio, Makati City, Philippines
(0918) 450-1714

Sala Bistro

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On July 9, 2010

I attended a very enlightening event by Intel & guess what?  It’s not just learnings that I couldn’t forget but also the awesome food that we had eaten that day.  It was my 1st time at Sala Bistro & I must say, the service, the restaurant, the food were all top-notch!

It seems to me that Sala Bistro caters mostly to private events.  I was too engrossed with the event & the food that I forgot to ask the people there if they are exclusive to private parties/events.  I did however enter at the wrong restaurant at first, though the signage has Sala Bistro in it.  The servers told me that I entered People Restaurant.  Apparently, the owner of People Restaurant & Sala Bistro is the same.  Maybe People Restaurant is their restaurant while Sala Bistro is for private functions.  Well, I’m not sure but that’s how I see it.

I loved the menu (Php 1,480++) that Intel has chosen for us.  It was a set menu with appetizer, main dish & dessert.  Details as follow:

  • Home Cured Salmon & Crisp Potato Cakes w/ Horseradish Sour Cream

This home cured salmon dish was really actually pretty nicely done.  Although I opted to not eat the salmon itself, and quite odd because it is the main focus of the dish, I did enjoy the rest of the components of the dish.  I usually like my salmon seared and cooked and not really cured, so I didn’t eat it.  Although, I can tell just by the taste of the rest of the dish, that it would have gone really great with salmon.  The horseradish sauce was really excellent, and the crispy potato cakes on the bed of greens offered great texture and a bit of richness and heaviness of being fried potato.  Actually, horseradish like wasabi really does add a great deal of flavor to seafood.  What a great concept of a dish!   Kudos to the chef on this excellent starter item.

  • Angus Beef Bistro Fillet w/ Cauliflower Gratin & Grain Mustard Jus OR

I did not try the Angus beef, but from the looks of it, the presentation and the pinkness of the meat, I think those who chose this dish did not regret their choice.  The cooking of Angus beef really has to be done right, not overcooked or it becomes tough, and loses its flavor.  Nor should it be seasoned too much, because you lose the great natural taste of what Angus beef should be.  Again, gourmet at such a great place, great price, I can’t stop raving about it, even if I haven’t tried the dish.  As with most anything when it comes to high end restaurants, the presentation is key.  One really does feast with the eyes first, and feast I truly did.

Roast Lapu Lapu Fillet w/ Leek & Pancetta Risotto

As I mentioned, almost everyone decided to go with the Angus Beef dish, but I decided to go the healthy route and went for the fish instead.  I was trying to be healthy and that day, I made a conscious effort of choosing the less popular menu item.  I honestly think I made the better choice, since I really do like risotto.  That bed of risotto was just fantastic.  Again, the creaminess of it, and the taste was a bit different than the risotto that I’ve tried before.  I think what really made the risotto stand out had to be the added pancetta which just added so much flavor.

And there’s nothing more than great seafood to go with risotto, and the tenderness, moistness, and the great flavor of the fish was just outstanding.  The ingredients were all blended harmoniously, I loved it!

  • Flourless Chocolate Cake w/ Honeycomb Ice Cream

I’m not really a great fan of chocolate, but honestly this dish was just a bit more than chocolate.  The layers of flavor, and once again presentation was just great.  The cake itself was rich, and I love the cracked texture of the exterior was just another part of a very unique dish.  Cake and ice cream really isn’t new, but when the ice cream is honeycomb ice cream, the combination is different, and may I say, DELICIOUS!  It’s definitely a rich dish, best to be savored.

  • Twinings Tea

We were also given a choice between Vittoria coffee or Twinings tea.  I’ve decided to cut down on coffee so I asked for the tea. 🙂   What a great way to end such a fantastic and delicious meal!

When it comes to fine dining, I also usually try to savor the initial bread or rolls that start off the meals.  With Sala Bistro, it’s as if they read my mind!  Gee, presentation was just great!   We had good choices of breads & if you’re not picky, you can try each of every one of them! :p

There were also a good selection of drinks in Sala Bistro.  They have specialty smoothies (Php 150) & also fruit shakes (Php 120-160).  I ordered the Red Grape Shake (Php 160) while Rowena who was seated beside me ordered Yogurt Honey Passion (Php 150).

The other thing that really stood out is their service.  It seems to me that their servers & personnel were trained well.  Each & everyone was accommodating, helpful & most of all, we actually felt their focus on the customer.  I was too impressed.  When I got seated, they helped me with my bag then kindly asked if I wanted to drink something.  Offered water without me asking & we didn’t need to exert any effort in calling them when we needed assistance.  I just wish all restaurants’ service are like that.  It would be such a joy eating out.

Overall, this is definitely a good recommended place to dine out if you want fine dining, great ambiance, delicious food, and amazing service.

Interested?  If you wanna book Sala Bistro for your private events, here are information that you will find useful:

  • restaurant can accommodate 80 guests for a sit down dinner & 150 guests for a cocktail party
  • their garden dining can accommodate 40 guests for a sit down dinner & 80 guests for a cocktail party
  • Private lunch events (11am to 3pm) – monday to friday (Php 55,000 minimum spend), saturday & sunday (Php 65,000 minimum spend)
  • Private dinner events (6pm to 12mn) – monday to friday (Php 110,000 minimum spend), saturday & sunday (Php 130,000 minimum spend)
  • Private garden events (5pm to 12mn) – monday to friday (Php 35,000 minimum spend), saturday & sunday (Php 45,000 minimum spend)

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Sala Bistro
G/F Garden Side, Greenbelt 3, Greenbelt Malls, Ayala Center, Makati City 1200 Philippines
(02) 729-7500

Knight and Day Movie Review

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On July 5, 2010

I can’t remember the last time I watched a Tom Cruise movie, but hopefully Knight & Day won’t be the last one for another long while until the next Tom Cruise movie that I watch.  Actually, I’ve been noticing that most of the movies these days showcase younger actors and actresses.  It really is refreshing to see a Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz tandem.

It’s sad that the movie is not doing well in the box office, because I feel that it’s really actually a very entertaining action comedy movie.   The plot was not realistic but definitely, it was entertaining & nice eye-candy with 2 gorgeous stars in it!

Not to give away too much, here’s a brief overview of the movie.   It’s about Roy Miller (Knight, which is his real last name) and it’s also about June Havens played by Cameron Diaz.  It follows the sequence of events of a chance encounter between these two characters at the airport where they actually run into each other twice.  Now, Knight is actually a secret agent.   And is about to be killed on the flight that he’s going to be on by a group of agents.  Another agent by the name of Fitzgerald who is heading the attempt to kill Miller/Knight, because of the chance encounter earlier at the airport, thinks that Havens is working with Miller, so he has Havens go on the same flight with Miller.

Havens is very much attracted to Miller, and during the flight goes to the washroom to freshen up. And while in the bathroom, the agents all try to kill Miller, but are unsuccessful and are all killed in the process. Havens comes out of the washroom and Miller tells her that everyone is dead. Havens only believes it after seeing the pilots dead, and the bodies start falling to their sides.

Anyway, they eventually end up crashing the plane in a field.   The movie is basically a fast paced chase, where we learn that Miller’s real last name is Knight, where his parents think he’s dead, and where Miller and Haven’s end up falling for each other.

The chase itself is basically about a perpetual energy battery called the Zephyr which is invented by Miller’s genius friend and inventor Simon Feck.

The plot and the sequence of events are not perfect, but it is fast and entertaining.  It’s not as serious as Mission Impossible because it’s meant to be a romantic action comedy.  I think Tom Cruise is underrated in this movie, and his performance is believable and definitely perfect for the role.  Diaz and Cruise were in that Vanilla Sky Movie like 8-9 years ago, so their chemistry was probably already there even before the shooting started.

Again, I hate how sometimes reviewers get too over themselves in criticizing movies like these as if all movies should be Oscar nominated to be taken seriously and to be enjoyed. They forget the goal of what movies should be to viewers, and that is the entertainment value.  With Knight & Day, you get a feel-good movie that I think we need once in a while, plus a little of that action and romance that is perfect for most viewers.

It’s still showing and if you want to relax and enjoy then Knight & Day is for you.

My Rating for Knight and Day: 4 out of 5 stars

Brain Twisters – The Answers

Posted by Finance Dude On July 4, 2010

Mr. Munger graduated law in Harvard and is in the Forbes 400 billionaire list. He is also the partner and longtime friend of Warren Buffett. He is second largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway.

These are his answers to the brain twisters last week:

1. This question was answered by Munger’s physicist son. “It can’t be anything requiring a lot of hand-eye coordination. Nobody 85 years of age is going to win a national billiards tournament, much less a national tennis tournament. It just can’t be. Then he figured it couldn’t be chess, which this physicist plays very well, because it’s too hard. The complexity of the system, the stamina required are too great. But that led into checkers. And he thought, “Ah ha! There’s a game where vast experience might guide you to be the best even though you’re 85 years of age.”

2. This was his answer: “Is this a low-priced store or a high-priced store? It’s not going to have a runaway success in a strange city as a high-priced store. That would take time. Number two, if it’s moving $500 million worth of furniture through it, it’s one hell of a big store,furniture being as bulky as it is. And what does a big store do? It provides a big selection. So what could this possibly be except a low-priced store with a big selection? But, you may wonder, why wasn’t it done before, preventing its being done first now? Again, the answer just pops into your head: it costs a fortune to open a store this big. So, nobody’s done it before. So, you quickly know the answer. With a few basic concepts, these microeconomic problems that seem hard can be solved much as you put a hot knife through butter. I like such easy ways of thought that are very remunerative. And I suggest that you people should also learn to do microeconomics better.”

3. “What’s different about that machine is people have used modern electronics to give a higher ratio of near misses. That machine is going bar, bar, lemon. Bar, bar, grapefruit, way more often than normal machines, and that will cause heavier play. How do you get an answer like that? Easy. Obviously, there’s a psychological cause: That machine is doing something to trigger some basic psychological response. If you know the psychological factors, if you’ve got them on a checklist in your head, you just run down the factors, and, boom!, you get to one that must explain this occurrence. There isn’t any other way to do it effectively. These answers are not going to come to people who don’t learn these mental tricks. If you want to go through life like a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest, why be my guest. But if you want to succeed, like a strong man with two legs, you have to pick up these tricks, including doing economics while knowing psychology.”-C.M.

4. This was the answer given by Mr. Munger:

“Is there some wave that Schwab could have caught? The minute you ask the question, the answer pops in. The Japanese had a zero position in tires and they got big. So this guy must have ridden that wave some in the early times. Then the slow following success has to have some other causes. And what probably happened here, obviously, is this guy did one hell of a lot of things right. And among the things that he must have done right is he must have harnessed what Mankiw calls the superpower of incentives. He must have a very clever incentive structure driving his people. And a clever personnel selection system, etc. And he must be pretty good at advertising. Which he is. He’s an artist. So, he had to get a wave in Japanese tire invasion, the Japanese being as successful as they were. And then a talented fanatic had to get a hell of a lot of things right, and keep them right with clever systems. Again, not that hard of an answer. But what else would be a likely cause of the peculiar success?…

“Extreme success is likely to be caused by some combination of the following factors:

  • Extreme maximization or minimization of one or two variables. Example, Costco or our furniture and appliance store.
  • Adding success factors so that a bigger combination drives success, often in non-linear fashion, as one is reminded by the concept of breakpoint and the concept of critical mass in physics. Often results are not linear. You get a little bit more mass, and you get a lollapalooza result. And of course I’ve been searching for lollapalooza results all my life, so I’m very interested in models that explain their occurrence.
  • An extreme of good performance over many factors. Example, Toyota or Les Schwab.
  • Catching and riding some sort of big wave. Example, Oracle.

Generally I recommend and use in problem solving cut-to-the quick algorithms, and I find you have to use them both forward and backward.” —C. Munger

5. Someone thought that they were paying the night shift by the hour, and that
maybe if they paid them by the shift, the system would work better. It worked!

6. When Mr.Wilson got there, he found out that the commission arrangement with the salesmen gave a tremendous incentive to the inferior machine. (power of incentives)

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About the contributor:
Finance Dude
The writer is a financial planner, investor, speaker and a self confessed cheapaholic. (Cheapaholic- a term he invented to mean someone who is addicted to being very cheap).  Send in your questions.  He will try to answer any questions you might have, preferably on finance and money matters.  Although he does not object to questions on love and relationships, he never had one and due to his extreme cheapness, will probably never have one (In case you’ll send it mistakenly, he promised to forward it to HeaRty).

Disclaimer: Advice posted in this portion is merely opinions and views of the writer.  It does not constitute formal advice.  The writer will not be responsible for any of your gains or losses. If symptoms persist, contact your trusted financial planner.

The No Nonsense Seminar on Finance Part 3

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On July 4, 2010

I shared with you before my experience when I attended the No Nonsense Seminar on Finance last year.  I did mention that I missed the 1st hour and would wish to join the next round.

Finally, it’s here!  There’ll be a session this coming saturday, July 10, 2010.  I have a schedule conflict but I’ll see if I can move my schedule so I can attend the very enlightening seminar.

For those who aren’t aware, The No Nonsense Seminar on Finance is a way for us to learn about investments, investment planning, investment risks in a practical, simple way.  The seminar is being headed by Randell Tiongson.

I can definitely vouch for Randell, I’ve been to his seminars and he’s truly a great speaker.  You’ll totally learn from him and it’s not nosebleed.  You will be able to reflect afterwards and start working your way towards smart investing.

There were also several people who shared their testimonial like Donita Rose, Dennis Sy & Cito Beltran.  Why not attend the seminar yourself?

The Php 1,300 investment is just so small with all the lessons that you’ll learn from Randell.

Questions like the ff. will be answered:

  • How certain investments work?
  • What are the differences between investment products?
  • How does one start with investment planning?

The seminar will be held at Victory Center inside the Promenade, Greenhills.  It runs from 1:30-530PM.  Don’t miss the chance!  Go & contact Jenny Ignacio-Magalong at jcignacio.magalong@gmail.com or SMS/call at +639391177856 to register 🙂

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