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Mostly Everything

When the executive chef invites you to a steak dinner, say yes!

This is Chef Rhey Huergas, Executive Chef for Friday’s. Do a search for him on Google or Bing and you’ll see that he’s media-decorated. I met him because he’s the cousin of a friend I work with. We were at Friday’s at the time (DOH!), the day was a bitch, and boy were we hungry.

He asked me if I liked steak. My face was like this:

When the executive chef invites you to have dinner with him, always say yes!

OK so I’m not a steak connoisseur but I love good steak — I’m not a foodie. I’m an eater with quasi-vampiric tendencies because I usually take my meat medium well. But I couldn’t look at Chef Rhey in the eye when he asked how I wanted it because I KNEW if I said medium well to a 500 gram t-bone, that would just ruin it all. And behind the kitchen, he’d probably be like this:

So I had it semi bloody. And you know what, I wish I had brought a better camera. This photo doesn’t do it justice.

It comes with 3 types of sauces. You can eat it without, but I just had to dapple it with the horseradish. It’s honestly the best I’ve tried because it’s in cream form, and not stringy like atchara. You know the whipped butter of pancake house? Something like that, but for steaks! And it’s maasim.

You know, I had a conversation with a friend recently. We talked about the best steaks. Lucky for her, the mother cooks a really good rib-eye and nothing beats home cooking. When I gave my list, I mentioned 3 restaurants: Elbert’s Steakroom, Antonio’s and yeah, believe it or not, Friday’s. She was like WHAAAAT??! I was like … yeah I know. Hard to believe right? Not that Friday’s has bad food, mind you. You just don’t go there for steak. And this led me to narrate my experience when Chef Rhey, preparing the 500 gram wonder. This is the same chef who was asked to cook adobo for his boss. But since he lived in the USA, he had never experienced creating this standard Filipino dish. So for months he researched, and after sacrificing his health for cholesterol (due to adobo and crispy pata) he invented the Friday’s Adobo which, to be quite honest is also really good. It’s a huge brisket steak, done adobo style. The fork just goes through. You don’t need a knife. He went on telling me how the dish won the appetites during “International Night” when other foreign franchises wold visit. It’s a hit in Japan and other parts of Asia. It’s probably in the menu.

I was so full! But he still served the adobo. And crab. I was allergic to crab. Besides, crabs are friends. When I dive, I say hi to them. Be good to crabs.

And after that, he still fed me!!! That’s the Friday’s Adobo I was talking about. I suggest you try it.

OK so you wanna know how much you should set aside for the steaks. Look at these prices:

T-Bone Cut
500 grams PHP 3,375
800 grams PHP 3,995

New York Striploin
500 grams PHP 3,270
800 grams PHP 3,890

Funny story: there’s a cat outside Friday’s High Street and he’s really fat. That’s because the foreigners feed a whole steak to this kitty. Catch a glimpse of him when you pass by. Sadly, kitty wasn’t around this time so no photo today.

P.S. I have a theory about food — especially with carefully prepared meals like steak. I think the preparation of food is very personal. It’s not like a fastfood joint where you have a main commissary and almost everything is just shipped and re-heated. So for steaks, I enjoyed Antonio’s and Elbert’s because I know these chefs personally (shot the menu for Antonio’s in 2006 and Elbert, though not a chef, knows his steaks — met him because of the local Mac group from way back). Same thing with Chef Rhey — there’s something about knowing that he prepared it himself just for you.

So am I right? Or do I suck as an eater? Basta, it’s good.

Categories
Mostly Everything

October 5, 9:00PM: Special Laglag Panty (at Bra) Rockeoke Night

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This is absolutely brilliant. I’m just reposting the whole thing!

Because you’ve always wanted to throw your undies at a rockstar.

From Facebook Events:

With close to a million people still in evacuation centers a week after Ondoy , there is an urgent need to provide female victims of Typhoon Ondoy with feminine clothes and products.

There have been numerous appeals to provide underwear and sanitary pads to those most affected.

Rockeoke:Laglag Panty (and Bra) seeks to raise funds and donations to purchase women’s underwear.

How does it work? On top of our standard Rockeoke mechanics (pick a song from the list/sign up/join us on stage), each table shall be given a writing implement + board and shall be asked to pledge underwear after every performance. The more intense the performance (in other words, nakakalaglag panty), the more underwear the table should pledge.

To make things interesting, you guys can bring underwear of your own (preferably not soiled and in pristine pre-bacon condition) and THROW em at the performers. Now that’s Rock and Roll!

The winner of this mock sing-off shall be bestowed with the Bacon Briefs Award and of course, bragging rights.

After all, marami kang pinalaglag na panty.

The Johnny’s will play on that night. Which means you can sing the following *NEW-ISH* songs

– Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon (HUZZAH!!!)
– The More You Ignore Me by Morissey (OH YEAH!!!)
– Some Like it Hot by Powerstation (AWESOME!!!)
– Pokerface by Lady Gaga (BOOYAH!!!)

You can view the rest of Monday’s playlist by checking out http://bit.ly/rockeoke

As always, we encourage people to reserve a table in advance. MAG:NET High Street opens at 10AM on Monday to take in your reservations. Call us at 8563400 or you may use our online reservation service at www.magnethighstreet.com.

hope you can make it =)

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Mostly Everything

Verzio Envii on Windows Mobile 6.1 Review

Verzio Envii

So I recently got myself a SUN prepaid kit. I had to. Let’s just say that a number of factors led to me finally spending P70.00 for a new SIM by recommendation of Kenna — figures she works for SUN — I had to get one for my blog to make it easier for people to contact me, whom I didn’t know personally.

The two three motivators were a series of seminars to be conducted for a non-profit group this coming Friday, a small social experiment with Jonas Diego, Fritz, Marcelle, Jeff and a few more bloggers for Axe (yes! the deodorant!). It’s a viral campaign they’re doing and I’m pretty hyped about it – the schedule is fit for a rockstar: invading three bars from 9 PM to 4 AM on Friday. I hope I can keep up with THE Fritz. And yeah, I opted to get a second SIM for this purpose, more for security reasons. Hyuk! My number is here.

Oh and yeah, the last motivator is really to find a SIM for my spare review phones. For the past couple of months I’ve been using my uMobile SIM for spare units. I mean why not, right? It’s the proper way to review telecommunications products without the hassle of swapping my SMART SIM (I’m on a BlackBerry consumer plan but the BlackBerry Pearl is still somewhere in Canada for repairs).

Confession time: I lost my uMobile SIM. Yep. Misplaced. Got blown away by the wind. Got sucked by the vacuum cleaner. Oh well. So I’m on SUN again (used to have a SUN SIM back in 2006 and boy the service was bad). I think everyone deserves second chances, albeit first impressions were not that happy – there’s no signal in my room. Between Globe, SMART and SUN, the latter has the weakest signal – no signal at all! On the upside it allowed me to do something really geeky and connect my phone via Bluetooth to the desktop and use the desktop SMS function that wirelessly transmits the message to the phone outside the room. Really unnecessary. But geeky though.

I’m reposting the Verzio Envii review I wrote a couple of months ago for MANUAL. Credit goes to MANUAL Magazine, July 2008 Issue. And might I add, it’s silly that I’m running my secondary line on a more advanced phone! Review after the break.

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Mostly Everything

Rockeoke, Disneyoke and now … ABBAOKE for August 2008

Gabe posted this on Facebook but it’s pretty priceless so I’m re-posting it here to help spread the word – as if Rockeoke nights still needs spreading. The point has tipped and mag:net’s ‘oke’ nights are now the talk of the town:

August 12 2008

August 12 features improv comedy act SPIT at 830pm and yet another edition of Disneyoke at 10pm. Disneyoke will have the theme “Songs by Animals and Other Inanimate But Otherwise Anthropomorphic Objects”.

As always costumes will be appreciated.

August 19 2008

August 19 features the much awaited ABBAOKE. Come dressed all in white. In groups of four. With dance steps. No prize, but we’re sure it will be priceless. Take a chance on us, starting at 10pm.

August 26 2008

And finally August 26 will again feature the marvelous comics of SPIT at 830pm to be followed by Mag:net’s very first TRIVIA NIGHT at 10pm.

And did we mention that all Tuesdays this month will be free of charge?

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Mostly Everything

Verzio Envii at P29,900 in Manila

“Love looks through a telescope; Envii, through a microscope.” – Josh Billings

The Envii

Hey folks, I’m back and posting between the sniffles. My seasonal flu is spot on with the weather change. Because of this I haven’t really had the time to fiddle with something that came through the mail – the Verzio Envii, which is Verzio’s first Windows Mobile 6 handheld. First saw this little thing at the Verzio store in Bonifacio High Street and lookie here – there’s finally one in the mail.