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Yvonne Strahovski. She plays CIA agent Sarah Walker. Hot. So Hot.
Joshua Gomez, who plays Morgan, Chuck's best friend- I just love the Morgan-Chuck dynamic.
Sarah Lancaster, who plays Ellie, Chuck's sister. A different kind of hot, but hot nevertheless.
Chuck's other friends from the Buy More.
Adam Baldwin, who plays NSA Agent Casey here, but for Firefly fans, he will forever be the ever-lovin' Jayne.
Lots of geek references (more fun if you're an actual geek yourself), lots of eye-candy for both chicks and dudes, and all that great flavor you've loved from The O.C. (courtesy of Josh Schwartz and McG).
From what I may have probably read somewhere- the sandworm used in this Halloween episode was the actual sandworm used in Dune :) gotta look that up.
Chuck has already been nominated for the People's Choice Award: Favorite New TV Comedy! Woohoo! Way to go Chuck!
In Part 2 of this continuing coverage of the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour, organized by Yehey- the country's premier portal and search engine, we visited TriNoma's 2nd level. The easy favorite was La Maison. Also visited Cabalen. We had three more levels worth of food merchants to visit and half an afternoon to go.
By now we realized that twenty to thirty minutes each leveljust wasn't going to be enough, if TriNoma and Yehey wanted us to cover all the restaurants on the list. The list indicated five participating establishments on the this level- which meant a scant five or six minutes per resto- and that's hardly enough time at all.
Someone in the group I was rolling with suggested we be more strategic about it: pick a few good ones- restaurants we haven't tried before- and spend at least a good leisurely ten minutes to sit down, hang around a bit, get to know each other some, take some pictures, and basically have some fun.
I have to agree it was a pretty good idea. The first stop was Pampanga Restaurant Abe- "where good friends dine", it said at the entrance. A few bloggers were already there ahead of us taking pictures and sampling the food. It offered Filipino food- but had some very unique and interesting dishes. There was this impressive looking pla-pla (a fairly large-sized tilapia fish) dish on the table, as well as a roast chicken, and what seemed to be kare-kare.
I've had the chance to try out Abe in Serendra (wasn't that the very first branch?). While the restaurant positions itself as a bastion of Capampangan cuisine, they also serve other interesting dishes from other regions of the Philippines.
After taking some pictures, I grabbed myself a plate and got just a little bit of rice to eat with some binagoongan (pork stewed in shrimp paste), lumpiang pica-pica (egg rolls) and tried some of the relyenong mais (stuffed corn patties). One of the Abe staff politely explained that the relyenong mais is actually a pattie made of a mix of corn and shrimp meat bound together with egg and flour- a pretty interesting dish that went rather well with what we were already having.
Our next stop was a mediterranean-cuisine restaurant not too far away called Hossein's Persian Kebab. I remember seeing one of its branches along Makati Avenue, but never had the chance to try it out. The staff kindly directed us towards a table where they talked about the food they wanted us to try that afternoon- some pita bread, mediterranean-style salad, beef kebabs, with sides of hummus (ground chick-pea paste) and mutabal (eggplant mash with yogurt). Bring it on, I say!
The Hossein's staff directed us to our seats. I took pictures while the others waited for the food. See, what I liked about Hossein's was that they had us sit down, and then served us in small little groups. There were bloggers occupying two or three tables- and it was a nice chance for us to share food among new friends, even from separate tables. It was then that we finally had the chance to talk about what we did for a living, and swap stories and basically get to know each other.
Over pleasant conversation, I had myself a small plate with a beef kebab and some pita bread and mutabal. The staff graciously offered us more, but we had a couple dozen restaurants left to check out, and we needed the extra tummy space.
Interestingly enough, our little band of bloggers has remained intact up to this point. Shown in the foreground of the picture are husband-and-wife team Michael (the online forex trader) and Myra (chef and food stylist). In the background are our online buddies Michael and Christine (who deal in toys). Not shown, but very much around (see the last pic on this blog, taken in Haiku) were Jomar, Jolou and myself.
At any rate, we had just about enough time to check out one other food merchant on this level before moving on, so our next stop was the quaint little Japanese restaurant next to Hossein's called Haiku.
Just like the resto before it, the staff led us to the showcase table. You have to give these guys points for presentation. They used this intricately-arranged salad for a centerpiece, with some wine and an interesting-looking sashimi plate right next to it. The staff then allowed us to hang out for a while and take some pictures of the place, while they prepare our sampler salad-and-sashimi plates.
Personally, as a dude, I prefer more-filling meat dishes and steaks to lighter fare like sushi, sashimi and salads. But I have to hand it to Haiku- the salad they served us (I think they call it The Best Ever salad- gotta check if I got it right) was downright delicious! My fellow bloggers were busying themselves trying to figure out what's in the salad, but I just wolfed it all down because it tasted quite alright.
We finished our plates just as another group of bloggers were on their way in. Anne, our helpful little guide from TriNoma, joined us at Haiku, and advised us that the fourth floor had a lot of heavy-hitters. Apparently, the two groups before us all had a grand time there- and naturally, we were curious and excited to find out for ourselves.
With that, we gathered our gear and headed upstairs. Oh, and we took the stairs this time to burn off whatever we could to make more room for more food!
More of the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour coming up, as we explore the fourth level of Ayala's newest mall in Quezon City. You can check out my other write-ups of the Bloggers' Food Tour here:
These were taken during the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour, organized by the good people of Yehey!
It was an entire afternoon of fun- not only were we given a chance to meet fellow bloggers, and bring home cool prizes and giveaways, we were (most importantly perhaps) given the chance to taste the best TriNoma has to offer!
Overall, I'd say it was an event well done. My only regret, I suppose, was that I could only fill my tummy with so much food (and believe me, it's a rather huge tummy), and that I wasn't able to check out all the participating restaurants.
Feel free to grab some pics to use in your blog, just don't forget to give me cred and link up with me. Also, if you want me to link up with you, send me a quick email- tell me who you are, your URL, what you do and where you're from (unless we already know each other).
Here's my blow-by-blow coverage of the Bloggers' Food Tour:
Part 1 of 5: Getting to Trinoma. The Bloggers' Food Tour is on!
Others To Follow (Sizzlin' Pepper Steak, Jack's Loft and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company)
To all our participating restos, Yehey!, TriNoma, and my new blogger buds- thank you for the wonderful experience.
Cheers!
Renzie Radio Exec, Small Business Owner, New Media Enthusiast. Visit "Blog, Blogger, Bloggest!" - http://renziebaluyut.blogspot.com Add me up on your Facebook and LinkedIn while you're at it :)
While I was DJ'ing back at 99.5 RT in Metro Manila, I felt really fortunate to have been able to soak up on some really good music. I was already in my early 20's then- and having grown up in the 80's, I tried to play as much new wave as I could for 24K Friday.
I remember the first time I was browsing through the old CD warehouse's selection of hard-to-find CDs, and virtually got bowled over when I saw this one compilation (which was worth php850 back then! well played, CD warehouse, well played...). Among other great new wave stuff, it had this lesser-known new wave tune. "Stay" has been revived quite a number of times, but the original version remains as one of my favorites to this day.
I fondly look back earlier this year when I discovered Battlestar Galactica. Well, more like re-discovered. I remember getting interested in the show when it first hit local Cinemax in 2005, but never got to follow it enough to get a good grasp of the story.
When I took my retirement from the last radio station I worked for (which was Mellow 94.7), I found myself with, interestingly enough, a lot of spare time on my hands. And it was this one particular Veronica Mars episode which sort of inspired me to 'acquire' a copy of the re-imagined BSG from the very start.
After the four-hour mini-series/pilot, I immediately fell in love with it- it was sci-fi, but not campy, it had chicks, a compelling storyline, interesting characters, and enough action to keep you locked in.
And locked in I was, indeed. I was able to finish all 40 episodes- the first 2 seasons + the webisodes + the first few episodes of season 3- within a month of watching the pilot, thus bringing me up to speed and current with what's showing in the US/UK. I wasn't just locked in, I was incredibly hooked.
Season 3 wrapped up by the end of March (with a killer season-ender, I might add!), leaving a gaping hole in my chest where the Galactica should be.
So you could imagine my surprise when I found out- just today- that the prelude to BSG Season 4 already came out!
The prelude is called Battlestar Galactica: Razor. Why it's called "Razor", I have no idea just yet, but I intend to find out. It currently has seven (7) 2-minute Flashback episodes + two (2) full episodes thus far.
I've already seen the Flashback episodes and -well- it's like my obsession for BSG all of a sudden came back to the fore.
Man, I can't wait to watch the other two episodes...
Fall season this year in the US had given us quite a number of interesting shows- Reaper, a re-imagining of The Bionic Woman and Flash Gordon, Private Practice (that Grey's Anatomy spin-off), The Sarah Connor Chronicles- right on top of all your other favorite returning TV series.
One show that has, undoubtedly, got me looking forward to a new episode every week is NBC's Chuck. Bravo, NBC, totally good call, picking this show up.
I best describe it as Alias-meets-The OC-meets-40-Year-Old Virgin. Straight out of their success with The OC, Josh Schwartz and McG team up once again, but instead of another young adult drama, they came up with a nice little comedy- and it frackin' works!
End result: you have a TV show that's fun and entertaining. Lots of eye candy for both chicks and dudes (man, I've been a fan of Yvonne Strahovski since episode 1- woohoo!), lots of funny geek references (even funnier if you're a geek yourself), lots of witty exchanges and a killer soundtrack.
Remind me to get you guys a soundtrack listing in the not-so-distant future.
The show has been running for a little over 5 episodes now, and so far, it never fails to entertain. Too bad NBC has taken down all its clips from YouTube. But, hey, all is not lost- you can have a taste of Chuck on the main NBC website right here!
