another 3.5 to four.

i was surprised that it was essentially a casual DIY Japanese restaurant. i was expecting something a little more formal, but it was all fun. the sizzling plate had this paper exceeding two inches from the top of the plate, which i find really smart. i've been burnt too many times by sizzling plates in the past, and having the paper around the plate really does provide that safety mechanism most sizzling places lack. safer for kids, too.

the idea is simple. they serve you food on a sizzling plate and you mix it yourself while the plate is still hot. it's actually like a much more toned down, casual version of the shabu-shabu. the aroma of butter melting and the pepper dancing on your pepper rice as you mix your food is... yummy.

i tried out the pepper chicken rice, and it's good. not great-great. but good. i mean, there's nothing new about it. the pepper rice tastes like any other fried rice, only with tons of pepper. the chicken, too, had nothing to exceptionally rave about.

this resto gets four stars from me, though, because of their shimufori steak. it was just so tender and really good, that you can even enjoy it without drowning it in sauce. it's definitely no wagyu, but still. am easy to please like that.

price is a bit steep considering it's just a glorified sizzling place. i thought they had huge servings, which would then justify the P175 + ala carte orders. then again, their plates do have those cool engraved marks on them, so i guess they didn't come cheap. *shrug*. and it's not exactly a homey place. there's a lot of people waiting in line so you can't really chill around a bit more than you'd like. it's more of an eat and run place.

but, yeah. it's a good place to eat at.

it's actually a range from 3.5 to 4 stars.

first, caveats should have to be made. if you're expecting more alien invasion-roswell-doomsday stuff to be in this movie, am telling you right now that's not what you're gonna get. no funny, green extraterrestrials for mulder and scully to hunt around this time.

that's because this movie is more character-driven than plot-driven, which the first one essentially was. without spoiling anything, allow me to just say that this movie is actually some kind of a really, really long x-files series episode. it's got the same mystery case to be solved, only with older and more mature mulder and scully.

but more than mulder, i think it's actually scully's story. if you remember in the first movie, scully was abducted by aliens and she was rescued by mulder. as they were escaping in the fields, a huge ass mothership flew overhead, giving mulder that much-longed for and pursued proof that aliens do exist and that his works have not been for naught. scully, on the other hand, the chronic non-believer and perpetual disputer of mulder, was groggy and only half-conscious because she was drugged up, thereby missing what could have been her ultimate disprover.

anyway. there. this sequel, while not delving on those past happenings, do put scully in a more intense spotlight as it is her who is now grappling with faith and belief or her innate lack of it.

all in all, i'd daresay that if you were an avid watcher of the tv series, you'd have deeper appreciation as to how the story was played out, and how the characters have developed or stayed faithful to their original renditions. there is growth, yes, but the unmistakable quirks of each character remain.

oh, and they're in love. that's all am going to say about that.

last night was not the first time i ate at santush. but it was the first time i had nothing else to say but "sarap!" for a good ten minutes, gobbling down the shawarma pizza (of course it took much longer than that to finish the whole serving...). after a while i just started to sound stupidly redundant i had to use another coherent one-word sentence.

me: galing!
tof: ng alin?
me: ng pagkakagawa nila neto

in other words, sarap!

there really is no other way to describe it, so pardon me for the seemingly utter lack of adjectives from my vocabulary. a few other choice words do come to mind, though: cheese, crisp, busog, butter, white sauce (which is actually garlic sauce, but white sauce is just more mysterious, so there). lots on the last two, mind you. right about now, i am spacing out just thinking about the melted butter and white sauce on that danged shawarma pizza. kickass talaga, paker.

the butter doesn't come with the pizza, by the way. i just grabbed it for myself from tof's rice. *shrug* i had better use for it.

***
i heard this guy on the table next to us boast to his friends that "memorized ko menu dito!" the competitive freak in me, fueled by the unbelievably crispy delight that was the shawarma pizza and ice cold beer, thought: "ako rin..gusto ko."

i didn't get to memorize the menu, but that will certainly just come as a natural offshoot of more visits to come.

santush is located at meralco ave and serves persian foodums. persian fusion, so goes their tagline. for a long time, the only persian place i trusted and went to was mr.kebab's at west ave. and they certainly got my standards high, particularly with the sauce (white souce!). i am no mediterranean dish connoisseur, but i'd have to say santush did a pretty fine job.

pretty fine, in fact, that i found myself craving for their kebabs the past couple of weeks. not just any kebab, but santush kebab. picky, eh? hehe. and now that i've met their shawarma pizza, am just about set to make it my top kebab place. just about, but not quite yet.

other must-munch for me would be the indian spiced chicken, chicken curry, and basically whatever kebabs they cook up. i've been reading reviews that the eggplant chutney is also a blast, but i doubt i'll ever try that.

am allergic to eggplant, that's why.

***
i give it four stars just because i haven't tried out everything in their menu. oh, that and they don't have chelo kebabs.. i think. i can't be too sure. i haven't memorized their menu.

this one's a lucky draw. we just happened to stumble upon it while choosing between juno and jumper.

the darjeeling limited has an all-star cast, from adrian brody, owen wilson, jason shwartzman, and anjelica houston herself, no less. it revolves on the story of three brothers who are trying to patch their relationships up a year after the death of their father. the darjeeling limited train is the backdrop for their journey across india.

the cinematography is so good, you can almost taste india. but i think what was the decisive glue factor in this film, apart from all the other elements that just perfectly blended well together (actors, setting, script), would be the soundtrack.

now, i've never heard of the kinks prior to this film. but when i heard their songs "powerman," "strangers," and "this time tomorrow", i knew they would be pivotal in shaping the rest of my days. their sound is the kind that has the uncanny ability to dictate your mood as you wake up in the morning until you sleep at night. and in this film, it did exercise that ability by dictating the mood of the film. light, whimsical, but at the same time pensive. almost excitingly trepidating.

at the end of the film, i left with a quiet smile on my lips. that was some awesome road trip.

this is a really funny, yet at the same time touchingly realistic take on teenage pregnancy. ellen page was the perfect actress for juno's character. she was cool, maturely immature, and... well.. cool. michael cera, for his part, still was successful in being his dorky adorable self. although i hope he goes beyond the socially-inept roles he's been getting so far, from arrested development to superbad, and now juno.

the rest of the cast, including jennifer garner, also sufficiently gave justice to the crazy environment that pregnant juno was in. the only worry i do have is that - and this is not to be morally righteous and shit - it makes teen pregnancy look cool. heck, because juno was cool.

there was hardly a moment that she showed weakness during her pregnancy, and the only time she shed a tear was after she gave birth. but after that, she goes back to being her cool, teenage self. even her parents hardly showed any surprise at the news that she's with child.

in all, the presentation and acceptance of the fact that she's a pregnant teen was treated rather casually in the film. but as i said at the beginning, it was a realistic touch. it approached teen pregnancy as a practical dilemma that they confronted and resolved with practical solutions.

if you're the type that would rather see a dramatic, soul enlightening kind of flick, then save your buck. but if you just want to chill and have a good time, and silently thinking it's better juno than you who got knocked up, then you're sure to have fun here.

okay, even without that schaudenfreude bit.

after months of waiting. i finally have it. *stupidly giddy laughter* thanks, dear! ^__^

***
yes. it is straight out a flat five. without hesitations. although i must admit 30% of that rating is based solely on my bias for the band (hehe. review ko to e! baket ba?), the other 70% is based on pure merit. the reason for that grade - apart from the now well-known fact that i am such a fanwhore of them - is that they've proven their worth as progressive artists. while retaining that distinctly udub sound, they were able to experiment with and integrate new elements into their music for the fourth album.

it is a coming to a full circle of sorts, and then going beyond. some of the riffs would seem familiar, as well as themes. Life Is Easy, for example, with its smooth reggae beat, is reminiscent of Sailin' from the Influence album. both also talk about the joys of being in the beach, although the latter is with a sexier .. erm... objective in sight, while the former is more on a personal and individual level of enjoyment. The lines "riding on the curl/ straight into the shore/ take it easy, take it easy/ under the sun/ having fun cuz life is easy/ life is easy" hint at songwriter/lead vocalist gabby alipe's newfound romance with the surf. meanwhile, their first single off this album, Guillotine, sounds like a track that crossed over from Embrace. it's got that aggressive Alert The Armory feel to it, from the lyric's forlorn surrender down to lalay's almost furious bassline.

the progression, then, comes in a delightful package of surprise in the form of track number 7, Evidence. Udub got soul'd. yes, they did soul. kinda. jazzy soul. funky-jazzy-soul. i was taken aback initially, and it took a good few seconds to realize i was still listening to the same album. for one, the sudden shift in mood and tempo came with no warnings at all. secondly, i guess i just wasn't imaginative enough to foresee that they could do soul. jazzy soul. funky-jazzy-soul. it's rather easy to picture them playing reggae tunes, but jazzy ones? not so much. still, they pulled it off, and i loved the way the sexy vibe meshed well with the song's lonely emotion. i would now say it was a good transitional piece - a warning or a preparation if you will - for their other notable fresh juice: Inside the Mind of A Killer.

how is this funky-jazzy-soul track a preparation for Inside the Mind of A Killer? because the latter track had kat aggarado of sino sikat guesting in the vocals, and Evidence's style kind of mirrors that of sino sikat's musical inclinations. if you have no idea what am talking about, look them up. it's danged high time you do.

these two tracks, i must say, are like fish out of water. but they're good fish and they're surviving great out of the water. in hindsight, i realized that these songs, which certainly will put you off track for a minute while trying to grapple with the sudden change in ground and sound, provide that same kind of breather from jon's stimulating guitar leads, lalay's efficient bassing, and janjan's hypnotic drum-poundings much like Give and Two Things did for Birth, Quiet Poetic for Influence, and A City of Sleeping Hearts for Embrace.

but for all the nakakacardiac-arrest lyrics and well-arranged songs' worth, my favoritest pick of them all would be the heartbreaking The Fight is Over. prior the release of the album, i've already heard this single, thanks to the live videos put up on youtube. as i was immersed and used to the more upbeat tempo of the live versions (which were criers in themselves already), the album version's more mellow approach proved to be more heart-wrenching. much, much more. maybe it was because the guitars weren't as demanding here, and the drums were more subtle yet calmly persistent. maybe it was because you could almost quite literally hear gabby's heart breaking on his sleeves soaking wet, as well as lalay's backups that were hauntingly yearning. maybe it was the floaty fluidity of the riffs and how the melodies just blended all together - straightforwardly yet oh so painfully sweet. it was heartbreak mush hotel at its finest, but devoid of the nakakaumay na keso factor. maybe it was all that. or maybe am just lovesick like that.

at the end of the day - ten tracks, actually - i say that urbandub's under southern lights is a dazzling display that every fan should not miss, and every unknowing listener should discover. i am glad they were able to successfully go beyond the pinhole that they were relegated in with their preceding albums - sounds-wise - and that they proved their words true when they said they had new materials coming out, while at the same time keeping true to their identity that fans know and love. we already knew them to be versatile, and this one just compounds that fact even more.

the two years of waiting, down to the last few minutes before i finally clutched this album right in my own sweaty palms, have been nothing short of worth it. oober. with this one, they definitely made waiting fine.

first recommended to me some three years ago, i only recently finished reading wei hui's debut as an international bestseller. in Shanghai Baby, Hui provides a frighteningly personal look at modern shanghai. not the one that you see on tv or magazines, but the one lying deep within the heart of a strongly stubborn and persistently growing modern new subculture.

closing your eyes to the setting, it would feel like it is just another story of a young adult trying to get by the fast lane of life, surrounded by the recklessness of love, lust, and art. the manner by which coco, the main character, sought to discover herself may even be described as masochistic. she recognizes that her love for her painter boyfriend, tian tian, is bound beyond this cosmos, but at the same time, she just has to get a taste of marc, her married german lover.

it is a dangerous dance with fire, but like a moth to flame, she is drawn to the enigma and the lethal sweetness of her trysts. she knows she could get burned - and she does - but all this she has already anticipated and worked out in her head. even the fact that she may end up losing both the men she's with, she understands and accepts.

it is, undoubtedly, a highly modernized take on 'torn between two lovers', and probably familiar. but then, you open your eyes and you realize. it is not set in some modern western city. it is set in Shanghai - that budding place where east and west meet and struggle to get along. not to be intimate and marry - but just to meet. like no-nonsense business acquaintances.

the display of cultural contrasts is so strikingly palpable (east vs west), it is no wonder the Chinese government reacted strongly against it, thus resulting to its ban in mainland China. for all the intents and purposes of preserving the traditional image of the country, Shanghai Baby does seem like a threat to the centuries of carefully woven traditions and lores.

then again, maybe it isn't the dichotomy of the east and west that has got China's bloomers in a bind. maybe it is precisely the exposed intimacy of the two that has got them worried. after all, the affair between the two cultures, as depicted in the novel, is utterly unabashed, it gives the effect of it being scandalous -- as if it were an illicit affair. maybe it IS an illicit affair.

on a more personal note, and echoing the description offered early on, coco is a frightening character for me. frightening, because her will and her desire for a free rein while at the same time searching to cocoon herself in the embrace of a lover (be it a person or a passion) whom she could nourish, and that who can nourish her, is almost a striking resemblance of my own struggles.

is there redemption in the end for all the troubles she willingly surrendered herself to? i would like to believe there is, as she was given the opportunity to truly ask herself who she is.

this book, i'd say in a nutshell, is one that is about finding the answer to oneself, losing the path to that discovery, before realizing that the question has not been asked yet in the first place. through there, maybe the real discovery can begin.

am not big on spicy food, so it's always been tough for me to get that mabie-friendly zing in mediterranean restaurants. but here with ziggurat, i think they got it just right.

inconspicuously lying in the heart of makati ave. in an unassuming alleyway in front of the citadel inn lies "the food temple", ziggurat. mainly, it serves indian, mediterranean, african, and mideast cuisines. the exterior of the place already gives you a hint of the exotic flavors being cooked up in its kitchen, with the vivid colors and funky trinkets on display that is unmistakingly mediterranean. and the inside, well, it's just smack right out of princess jasmine's private room.

apart from a couple of conventional western dining tables, there were pillows. heaps upon heaps of lavishly designed pillows sit atop an elevation that houses several low-lying tables. here, you will be having your fill with your behind comfortably cushioned by the pillows and the carpet. hanging from the ceiling are different colored lights that complement the reddish walls of the place. as far as ambiance goes, this one gets an A+ from me.

now as for the food.

we were kinda in a rush, so we only really had time to down and savor what was offered to us. since it was our first time, short of time, and running low on that rush for experimentation, we got the kebab platter which, as the name plainly gives away, is a plateful of a variety of kebabs: chicken, beef, fish, etc. then coupled that with indian bismati rice.

so it wasn't exactly anything new. but what got me excited with their menu was that they were ready to cater to four different exotic cuisines that could guarantee you that escape from the painfully mainstream mcdonald's or even more conventional restaurants.

and then there were the samosas. i have to say my affinity with the south asian pastry (more commonly found in india, pakistan, nepal, and bangladesh) comes with a wave of sentimentality. i first had a bite of samosa back in college with dear friends, and found it enticing, albeit spicy. and now, i am confronted with yet another chance to go brave on food. the serving of the samosas were generous, although we couldn't really say the same of the kebab platter and the rice -- at first.

upon serving, it looked small. but once you dig in, you realize it was only a deceiving first impression. the rich, smoky flavors of the kebabs, added with the garlic sauce, got us full even before we finished the plate. and lying down on the pillows would have been a great option, had it not been for the fact that we weren't alone in the restaurant then.

i recommend ziggurat for those out for a tasty adventure, who wants to get a feel and taste (and whiff) of the mediterranean without leaving the hustling and bustling confines of makati. it is a must-try, and i will be sure to come back next time, hopefully without that burdening rush, to enjoy some more of their dish, and maybe to go try out that hookah on the wall.

oh. and they're open 24 glorious hours a day.

*Muthafucka! Lupet!*

with this flick, the ten year old in me was unleashed. suddenly, i couldn't wait to get my hands on the jolly kiddie meals promo for transfomers. never mind if they don't really "transform", they just kinda swing their robotic arms from front to back. and it's just probably cheap plastic, too. but what the heck!

i'd have to say michael bay pulled off some kickass shit with this one. it is, undoubtedly, one of the better doomsday-action flicks i've seen in a while (albeit with a rather emo Optimus Prime).

when they said it was action-packed, they weren't kidding. from start to finish, it really was full of -- er -- action, with smartass, witty comments to boot. and having them cool pimped up robomobiles don't hurt either.

now i'd love to have a bumblebee camaro of my own. particularly the one that plays an apt song for every significant moment in your life. hehehe.