Thursday, August 27, 2009

A Different Kind of Cooking Event

Last Tuesday, I was invited to an event presented by Italian kitchen appliance line Indesit and men’s lifestyle magazine UNO at the Monogram Experience Center in Serendra.

It was interesting to watch a cooking “throwdown” between Atticus King, UNO’s VP, and pretty tattoo artist Sarah Gaugler. They were coached respectively by chefs Rolando Laudico of Bistro Filipino and Eugene Raymundo of Five Cows and Limones Restaurants.

Hosting the event was UNO Editor-in-Chief RJ Ledesma who was as entertaining as always. (Iiiks, I just realized I haven't got a shot of him in any of the photos I took! Sorry, RJ.)

The contenders were given a surprise list of items, furnished by Monterey, which turned out to be the usual ingredients used to make the popular Filipino dish Adobo. Both teams were asked to come up with an adobo-with-a-twist dish each within one hour.

The panel of judges included Nancy Reyes Lumen, food stylist and EIC of Cook Magazine, Norman Reynoso of Fabriano S.p.A., the exclusive distributor of Ariston and Indesit, and Malyn Molina Account Director of EON, the PR firm that organized the event.

In true Iron Chef fashion, the contestants used premium electric freestanding cookers from Indesit described to boast four electric plates that heat up rapidly through the fast-heat function which, in turn, easily maintain the heat regardless of temperature, wind or air interference. A large oven capacity of 58L and a built-in oven light provided the flexibility and space needed for the high-speed showdown.

Indesit’s tagline, “We work, you play”, according to Norman Reynoso, is very much applicable to UNO’s readers as the appliances will appeal to guys who consider cooking an enjoyable pastime.

At the end of one hour, two very attractive dishes were presented to the spectators. We were all given a chance to try out each dish after the judges did. Both dishes were yummy but the one made by Atticus and Chef Laudico impressed me more. The mashed potato with crunchy fried wedges was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. The judges liked it too and pronounced it the winner.

Since the cooking was done spontaneously, there was no written recipe I could follow. But, avid cook that I am, I plan on inventing my own version within the next week or two and surprise the food aficionados in our house (who else but hubby and the boys? :p).

Norman, Malyn, Atticus, Sarah, Eugene, Nancy

For Indesit inquiries, contact the Ariston showroom at the 4th floor, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, EDSA, Mandaluyong (631-8282) or the Monogram Experience Center, 2nd Floor, Serendra, Fort Bonifacio (856-2518). For information on UNO magazine, check out www.unomagazine.com.ph.

*Thanks again to Ana Gonzales of EON for the invite! :)

Monday, August 17, 2009

New Show at the SDC’s Digistar Planetarium

The Nido Fortified Science Discover Center at the Mall of Asia has a new planetarium feature called Dark Star. We watched the premier last Saturday and we learned some cool new things about space.

Before the show started, Dr. Armando Lee, a contributing editor of the Philippine Journal of Astronomy, talked about the different kinds of stars as well as other heavenly bodies. From him, I learned that a star’s life span is six trillion years. Our universe is merely fourteen billion years old and that our sun (which is actually a star, if you haven’t figured that out yet LOL) still has a long way to go.

Massive stars, however, have shorter life spans of about two to five billion years only. “Mass rules,” says Dr. Lee. “The bigger the star, the shorter its life.” He also shared with us that unlike normal perceptions that the color red signifies heat, this is not applicable when it comes to stars. Hot stars are bluish in color. They turn to yellow, then white, and finally, red as it cools.

Hubby and son beside the Dark Star poster

The show Dark Star is the story of a teenage girl named Subrah. She has been her father’s companion for the last three years in a dusty planet where he is studying the imminent end of a dying star nearby. When the star is finally about to explode and go into supernova mode, Subrah’s dad decided it was time to leave. Unexpectedly, father and daughter became separated.

I won’t reveal the rest of the story. Let’s me just say a lot of things happened which Subrah, and her robot Sweeps, must overcome by applying the scientific principles she has learned over the years but didn’t know could help her one day. Find out how she and her dad got reunited and how they were able to find the space portal that would finally lead them home to their own planet Bekenal.

The CGI effects were really great and the sounds, as always, were very clear inside the planetarium. I only wished the characters didn’t look too weird or too alien-like. But, that’s artistic freedom for you. After all, Bekenal must be very different from planet Earth.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

You've Got to See This!

I was glad to have stumbled upon this exhibit by chance yesterday.

If you happen to be at the Mall of Asia anytime between today and the 23rd, check this out. Lots of great award-winning photos to tug at your heartstrings or simply amaze you.


EARTHQUAKE IN CHINA





















FLOOD IN MYANMAR



A DROP OF BLOOD



Monday, August 10, 2009

Keyboard Makeover

I sometimes hate change when it comes to stuff that I am already used to. Take my computer keyboard. It's two years old and already has a lot of faded keys; most of the letters have become barely discernible to nonexistent.

Because I could type without looking at the keyboard, this doesn't bother me. But it's an issue for hubby and the kids. They've been wanting to buy a new keyboard but I was not ready to change my typing rhythm which I know would be affected if we get another keyboard because the key presses would feel different.

Frugal mom that I am, I had this bright idea a few months ago of filling in the missing letters with beige nail polish (because that's the only shade I have and we didn't have any correction fluid at the time) then covering it with clear polish so it would stick better. It worked for a while but, through constant use, the letters started disappearing again.

Imagine my delight at finding these stickers at CD-R King at P35.00 a set. There were only two design choices: High School Musical 3 or Winnie the Pooh (or was it Mickey Mouse?). I chose the first one thinking my kids might like it because they did watch the movies before. Boy, was I WRONG!

They first comments I got when they saw it was, "Ewww! Why did you buy that design Mom?!" When I told them I had no other choice, they (yes, all three of them who can speak) had the gall to berate me, "You should have bought the one with the cartoon character, whatever that is." Duh?

But, all's well that ends well, I kinda liked the finished product. The rest of the family can't do anything about it anymore. (Hey, it's MY computer and where I get my bread and butter!)

And you know, the slightly raised bumps on the top of the stickers feel good on my fingertips!

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Another One?!

 Student Fined $675K for Illegal Music Downloads

I still don't think excessive and unreasonable slapping of damages on a second person who downloaded music via a file-sharing program is the right step to take in combating music piracy. Why don't they go after the creators of the file-sharing programs instead?