Italianni's Restaurant at the Veranda, Eastwood Mall

My dear friend, Katey, has just been offered a job at the country's premiere print media group.  And with unforgiving deadlines to beat, vibrant articles to produce and fresh ideas to bowl, she has our wishful regard for excellence. As an editor to editor, I am welcoming her with an open arms, and shackled brain. Hahaha. Editorial job will elude your sought-after sleep, most of the time. 

Lately, she asked me which Italian restaurant, the most expensive that is, that I have dined in. I couldn't think about anything that may subscribe for the price category, and besides price point is a very subjective perception. 

So I thought of L'icontro Ristorante Italiano, Carpaccio Ristorante and Italianni's Restaurant. They may not be pricey but they were the A-list as far as mainstream Italian fares are concerned. 

My journalistic nerve is grinding my gastronome to try the latter since that is the closest as to where I work. After all, the last time I have been to Italianni's was several years back during our get together with highschool classmates. 

Italiannis, as some friends fondly call it, a fast-food for the rich. 

Courtesy bread. 

Olive oil for the appetizer. 

Lasgna. 

Quattro Stagioni.

Pork Belly. So soft and tasty, I think they're using young pork. 

Green Mango Shake to conclude my dinner. 

The price is actually an average price range comparing to all restaurants of this type. So the verdict? It may not pass for Katey's most expensive flair. 

Cafe on the Ridge at the Taal Vista Hotel

Didn't I tell you that Tagaytay has been my favorite quick escape from the cosmopolitan frenzy arising from the hustle and bustle of the daily urban life? The spontaneous urge to whisk away is a breeze at a 2hour long drive at a maximum. 

And while it is apparently far from the metropolitan reach, this mountain city's tourist development has slowly been morphing the mountain ridges into an extended leisure spot, so I wouldn't mind spending an entire week end without bringing along anything except for a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, chargers and credit card. I can easily grab clothes and toiletries at a nearby souvenir shops and groceries. 

Lately, I have been to Taal Vista Hotel to take my lunch. That English-Tudor mansion style hotel which used to be a bastion of Philippine history has retained its intrinsic charm among the natives and tourist alike. I am of no exception. 

The name of the resident restaurant is Cafe on the Ridge, essentially because it is sitting right where the ridge is, fronting the majestic Taal Volcano and lake. It was week end, rather a long week end, so I expect lots of people around. Nonetheless, the climate is perfect for my subtle relaxation. 

Their buffet spread speaks of a Filipino Heritage Cuisine with a little blend from other continental taste. 

Salad supplements. 

Salad section. 

Variety of salad.

Main course. 

Halo-halo section. 

Desserts section. 

They mix their own gelato. 

Centerpiece table. 

Carving station presents. 

Again at the carving station. At every buffet that I have been into, I will always go first to their carving station. That's because the most expensive entree is usually at the carving station and you know my rule of thumb, go with the most expensive first. 

Lechon de leche. 

Tanguige and veggies. 

Grilled pork belly and veggies. 

I love the green and thin slice of meat combination of this dish. 

Squid and veggies. 

Gelato. While I really like Gelato from both Gelatissimo and Caffe Ti-Amo, I don't like the one served here.   

My salad. 

My desserts. 

Fruit medley. 

Caramelized banana. 

Concluding my meal is a halo-halo. I wish they have more ingredients. 

Bed and breakfast joints have sprouted all over, and I think Cafe on the Ridge offered one of the prime places to try. With live entertainment and a cultural dance presentation, it was like what it was few years ago when the place was still a heartland of strategic secret meetings masquerading as nightly revelries from the social elite and colonial luminaries. I particularly like the live entertainment as they were reminiscent of the Trio Los Panchos(Youtube them out if you don't know them). Their music might be a passe from contemporary airwaves but this is a thematic hotel, with hispanic influence to boot. 

Samsung Galaxy Slll: Style and substance in one

The alpha phone smackdown between Apple and Samsung seemed to be getting a burning intensity as Samsung incessantly keeps on releasing blow by blow by its product introduction hereto and fro. 

Samsung Galaxy S3 is the latest addition to Samsung's ensemble of powerpunch devices, while brewing from its kettle are Galaxy Note 2 and probably a new tablet iteration. 

Following the runaway success of its predecessor, the Galaxy S2, S3 has the new set of bells and whistles to make your head turn. So let's start pointing the lusters one by one:

Though the huge 4.8inches Super AMOLED, Gorilla glass-armed screen has a size cut short compared to the monstrous Galaxy Note, it has its own advantage, for one, it is meant to be a phone with the default feature in mind, handheld comfort and weight-friendly portability. 

Prior to its release, rumor says that it should be sporting 12MP as compared to the average 8MP of the Galaxy S3, instead it had the same camera specification. Still decent sensor delivers quality still and video shots and can even shot at a 1080p video. The front camera has a 1.9mp and can shot at a 720p. Not bad huh.

Slapped with an Android Ice Cream Sandwich, it has to have a good set of hardware to be able to comply the stringent processing requirements of the ICS-supported application. So then Samsung decided to put in Quad Core 1.4Ghz Cortex A9 with 1GB of RAM. The storage capacity comes along with 16/32/64GB variant, but I have only seen up to 32GB in the Philippine market. It can be expanded up to 64MB though through the microSD card.

Connectivity and multimedia options include Wifi 802.11a/b/g/n, NFC, GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth. Some other rafts of features include S-Voice for the command and dictation features, Smart Stay for eye tracking, Dropbox for an extra 50GB cloud storage, SNS integration, S Beam as Samsung's answer to Android beam and wifi direct. One thing that I particularly like is the live preview which previews the video thumbnail in live action. 

On the outside, while I love the texture of the Galaxy S3 especially the marble white variant, I still love the design implementation of HTX One X. 

Summer Palace at the EDSA Shangrila Hotel, Manila

Our business unit / department is teeming with celebrities, the latest addition I fondly call A. While  I have had my fair share of TV guesting from talk shows and news programs, they have been mainstay casts of a TV program, so inserting myself into their fixation is probably a century's sneering contempt. 

I particularly like two of them, one I call J, a male celebrity who was once taunted as a leading man of Jewel Mische, and the other A, a top 5 victor of a reality television show and has been a product endorser of known slimming brands. With the two of them in tow, I felt like being squashed at the centripetal point, J being a gadget lover and A having a knack for fine cuisines.

Lately, A messaged me about EDSA Shangrila's Summer Palace Dimsum promo. And being a cosmopolitan hyena that I am, I am so bent in dining out for a lunch of an epicurean Chinese cuisine, so I dragged along a colleague of mine, LT, with me. She's a dimsum connoisseur, I am a buffet piranha so I was thinking our gustatory combination is perfect for this moment. 

You will be ushered by the two ladies dressed in long Chinese royal cheongsam. The inside of a restaurant evokes a grandeur of Chinese heritage, from the round tables to centerpiece decors, to wall paintings, reminiscent of those Chinese shows aired on RPN9 every Sunday morning when I was 9. 

Our table, it can probably accommodate 4 largely depending on how many plates are you going to consume. 

Here goes our the first dimsum to "grace" our table. 

Meatballs. I think I would have loved this had this been deep fried. 

Har Gao.

I love their Siomai. I have eaten three trays of these. Too bad they don't have a Xiao Long Bao, it would have been my first. 

Spinach. My second love. 

Spare ribs.

Siopao.

Steamed scallops. My third love. 

Chicken feet. I usually don't eat this but for the sake of trying it out, I took the challenge where LT didn't. 

Egg custard.

And the fried variants, two for each kind, Spring Rolls, Radish Cake, Taro Puff, Fried Dumplings and a lot more. 

We can't help but to grab a soda just to make a grandeur burp. 

And concluding it with a tea in a ceremonial drinking. 

We have to head back to the office. LT was full. I have eaten decently and sufficiently, but not really full. Yes, I told you I have a long stomach that when unbridled can probably reach up to the moon. 

The time we were here is that they didn't offer  yet the soup, noodles and desserts, but I have heard that the promo set right now is inclusive of those. Oh well. 

T-Mobile's MyTouch by LG

The Philippine shore's SMART Communications call it Netphone, the Globe Telecommunications call theirs a Cloudphone, leaping into the global arena's T-Mobile, they call it MyTouch. Different names, same apple. 

For quite a while, T-Mobile's LG MyTouch lines once earned a notoriety among the consumer to have showcased only high-tiered models of phones. Now, they have summoned the techsmiths of Huawei to churn out phones aimed at a budget-friendly public. 

Coming in with two flavors, slate and slide out QWERTY, they were surprisingly a good phones with a jaw-dropping specifications. 

Powered by Android 2.3, it is slapped with 1.4GHZ Qualcomm MSM 8255 processor complemented with a 1GB of RAM. The storage capacity is 4GB internal memory with an expandability option of a MicroSD Card slot. The device runs on Bluetooth, GPS, and an 802.11b/g/n Wifi variant. Under a good lighting condition, the 5MP camera snaps out decent takes. In a less-than-ideal lighting environment, it's another story. 

My verdict, this is a capable phone nonetheless, and it has its own target demographics. Since I am a shutterbug for most of my mobile life, I am hoping that they would address a glaring design flaws especially on the camera side. I am hopping a better sensor and a good flash. But for its price, I may as well rest my case.