La Mesa Grill

A few weeks back, a friend brought Crispchon to the house which she got from La Mesa Grill in Trinoma, North Edsa. Although the lechon skin was no longer too crispy, it was good enough for me to want more. The downside of that take-out was that the restaurant gave too few pandan-flavored(colored?) wraps, but it gave several different dips, cucumber, leeks and kutchay leaves. And the lechon was sliced to bite-sized pieces.

Last night, wanting to have more of the treat, my husband and I proceeded to Trinoma. By then it was almost 9 pm, but we were determined.

La Mesa Grill can be reached from the first floor parking lot via an escalator. From the second floor parking lot, it can be accessed by going through the mall's corridors, a bit of a long travel, and then going out to the open air where there are several restaurants to choose from: Bacolod Chicken Inasal, Super Bowl and a few others.

La Mesa Grill offers two options in terms of dining locations: outdoors or indoors. It is reminiscent of Barrio Fiesta or any other Filipino-themed restaurant in that it isn't pretentious in terms of decor. The walls are lined with continuous benches with backs, facing individual, uncushioned chairs. The ceilings have bamboo-like light fixtures suspended from beams. If one isn't too particular about five-star surroundings, it's okay. It's clean and the service is good.

As there were just the two of us, my husband and I ordered the 1/6 portion of the crispchon, crispy catfish salad, bangus belly in a sweetish sauce and seafood rice. Everything tasted very good and the portions were sufficient. We could have done away with the bangus belly as the crispchon, catfish salad and rice were more than enough.

Our waiter decided on the sauces for our crispchon and we're glad we relied on him for the choices: garlic (possibly garlic in yogurt or sour cream), hoisin (like the ones served with Peking duck two ways in Chinese restaurants) and liver (like for ordinary lechons).

As the waiter prepared our crispchon himself, everyone turned to look. The slab of pork was laid on a wooden board, the skin sliced off with some meat before being sliced further into smaller pieces. He then rolled the wraps around the slices accompanied with cucumber and leeks. We told him not to bother about the kutchay. As he didn't really extract all the pork from the bones, we had take-home leftover lechon which we'll be having for lunch later, complete with the sauces. I don't think he sent wraps though, a pity.

All in all, the waiter rolled 10 to 12 crispchon wraps and they were more than enough for my husband and me but we finished them. The dish could have been shared by three people, actually. And note that when you order crispchon, you're asked what part of the lechon you prefer. I think we ordered the head part because that's what came with a lot of skin per our waiter. the other choices were the belly and I forgot what. These ones would have more meat. As I mentioned earlier, the waiters are very cordial, especially the one who wrapped our crispchon. His name was Brian and he's a provincemate. He hails from La Carlota and has waited on tables in various restaurants: Gerry's Grill or Dencio's, Bacolod CHicken Inasal and now, La Mesa Grill. what an odd coincidence - they're all Filipino-themed. I asked if he also cooked but he sadly said he didn't. A pity really in that many chefs started out as food servers. I encouraged him to observe the cooks and he also thought he should.

As we were leaving the restaurant, he saw us and rushed to open the doors. For sure we will be back, but much earlier so we can tell for sure whether then the restaurant won't challenge our vocal cords. The noise quotient was just so high -- the crowd consisted mostly of people from the office and there was music with vocals piped in.

TEXTBOOKS

There are textbooks and there are textbooks but one which I highly recommend for grammar, especially elementary grammar is the series Voyages in English. In the Philippines, reprints are available at the Bookmark office in Makati only, as it's Bookmark that publishes the said series. Though I never used it as student, I became familiar with the book when a tutee of mine from an exclusive girls' school brought it to the house. I was amazed that it still existed as I had seen similar books in the house when I was much younger. My older sisters were "raised" on the series.

The book contains not only grammar lessons but a few poems and an occasional script. There are very short stories as well that somehow or other present values without their appearing as "hard sell". The series was first issued by the Loyola Education Group and is therefore Catholic in orientation. A blurb on the series from their website reads:

Writing & Grammar Grades 1-8

The revised 2006 edition of Voyages in English for grades 1-8 continues the 60-year history of teaching students the fundamentals of writing and grammar in a logical, coherent fashion, reinstating the strength and rigor of the original program. Recognizing and responding to teachers' talents and time restraints, this new edition provides exceptional teacher support in a flexible format that makes it easy to assess and plan lessons according to students' needs.


The books contain lots of exercises per topic and have an index—features I want to point out to show my frustration with Filipino-published books which, more often than not, are devoid of indices or have very inadequate ones.

MEDIA BLUNDERS

This morning I saw on TV a plug for today's Sis episode. It was read aloud as it appeared on the screen thus: "Mother's knows best!" My gosh.

Several months back, I also caught a blunder on the news on TV where the first name given for a public figure was not correct. That time I called the TV station but I was no longer able to follow up to determine whether they corrected the error.

I also pointed out to Howie Severino how a media personality would always introduce himself as "Ako naman si ****" even if he spoke first. The word naman implies being next to someone/speaking after someone thus. Howie said I was very perceptive to have noticed that, which made me hope that the media personality would change his self-introduction, but no, he's still at it.

Still another oft-repeated blunder is "And now, here's Joey and Vic." The correct expression there would be "Here are Joey and Vic", but I guess, "here's" is preferred as it's monosyllabic? duhh.

Yet another media blunder goes something like: "Mia wants Mr. Frank Cruz to see her exhibit. He is his father." People mistakenly use the gender of the pronoun following rather than the gender of the antecedent. The correct expression should read, "He is her father." I pointed out this perpetual blunder to a broadsheet, but it recurs every so often.

Oh well, tao lang, except that these errors are so elementary.

The Google Story by David A. Vise

A few months ago, I bought The Google Story but it wasn't until a few days ago that I began to read it. The story of LarrySergy is fascinating, to say the least. And how Stanford University is presented -- wow! While there is not a chance I'll get into that school, based on what I've read, I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who is creative, has a lot of drive, is brilliant.

The book is generally easy reading and hard to put down. It reveals the story behind Google which anyone who has Internet access has clicked on at one time or another and taken for granted. It writes of the brains, heart and soul behind the search engine's success.

Green Jokes

I find green jokes offensive. Not even for the sake of being "in" will I pretend to enjoy them. I'll take any name-calling directed my way for that stance with a smile, but join the fray? Never.

Years back, I was tutoring this Grade Six boy who made a big deal of how tightly clothed his female teacher was. He described her in great detail and refused to stop even when I told him to. I was so disgusted and was not concealing how I felt, still he persisted. The next time he did this, I told him "that's it. I refuse to tutor you any longer. Just tell your mom what happened." He was teary eyed, but I didn't flinch.

This afternoon, a boy told me of a green joke a teacher in school told his brother's class. When I saw the teacher, I expressed my dismay about what I learned. The butt of green jokes are usually the female populace, and the joke he told was no different. while I'm no feminist, I take offense at sick jokes, regardless of their object of derision.

Why do people crack green jokes? There are so many jokes one can share that can elicit laughter, guffaws even, etc. without their having to be green. Men are men, one might reason. But when they crack green jokes about women, does it mean they have forgotten that their mothers and sisters are female? Maybe they don't like their wives, but for heaven's sake, what about their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts?

It saddens me when I learn someone I know is no different in this regard. It doesn't amuse me at all. It's not cute. It's sick... and sickening.

The Downside of Remote-Controlled Apparatus

Being disabled, I am grateful for remote-controlled apparatus. But do they have downsides as well?

Years back, I bought a Philips electric fan that had a remote control. A year or so later, the remote control went kaput. That was traumatic so I opted to avoid buying another until I saw one made by Kolin. Same story, before long it was kaput. But at least, both fans continued to work even if their remote control features were history.

Even farther back than the time I got the two electric fans, I bought a National (now Panasonic) aircon unit with a remote control. It was working well until two days ago. I had pressed the off button of the remote control but I could still hear the aircon humming along. I asked my husband to turn the aircon off manually but still we could hear the motor running. Wishing to save on power costs, I asked my husband to pull off the plug.

Though yesterday was a holiday, I was pleased to hear the service center take my call. I was happier still when they sent their men to check the unit. There was nothing wrong with our aircon, the men said. Problem was with the remote control. Yippee, I thought, it won't cost so much to have it repaired then. I was out in the sala while the men were in our bedroom.

After they left, I entered the bedroom. Aircon was on but the room wasn't cold, not even cool. My husband said the men couldn't fix the settings beyond Automatic, 18. I thought automatic meant it would cool at some point but it never did. The aircon was on for hours but there was no cool air forthcoming. I asked my husband to turn the unit off and bring in the fans. My optimism refused to get the better of my not getting cold/cool air but paying Meralco for the power running the aircon which wouldn't cool.

So now it's one open window and two electric fans in the room. I pray God will spare us from respiratory ailments from the lack of aircon coolness. So far, so good. God has been kind.

Meantime, I called the service center. The lady referred to as Ma'am Rio said she'd call me regarding feedback on my remote control. I called a second time, she no longer took my call but the girl who answered me said Ma'am Rio would call me up. She didn't.

Time to complain to the dailies?


Moral of the story: if one has to buy a remote-controlled apparatus, make sure it has a manual feature as well. Will make sure the next time I do, otherwise, I'll simply get the manually operated model. arrghhhhhh

GOODSPHERE

Sinusitis used to be a perpetually recurring malaise for me and I was resigned to live with it forever. Then I discovered Goodsphere. (Please take note that I'm not a paid hack of the product but it really works.) Initially I was attracted to it because of its visual appeal. Essentially, it's a glass bowl with a blue, green or white cover. It sits atop a white LED plate that colored the water in the bowl. At the time the color was either blue, green or red orange. The scents were good. So, over a year ago, I bought our first set which came with 10 bottles of differently scented oils: lemon, tioman, citromint, lavender, etc. I've been using it since to clean the air in the bedroom. Sometimes, when I suddenly sense my nose is stuffy, I glance my Goodsphere's way and see that it hasn't been turned on. When I told this to my friend she said "maybe, it has a drug?" I don't think so. What I'm sure of is that it clears my nasal passages and makes breathing easier without any oral decongestant having to be ingested. My asthma attacks haven't been as severe either, thanks to Goodsphere, I think.

The set we bought cost P4999 for the bowl and the sampler set, the LED plate cost an additional P1800. We didn't know it then but yesterday we asked and it's good for a 50-square meter area. Yesterday, we saw a smaller model for a 35-square meter area and it cost P3000. This time the LED plate changes colors perpetually unless a knob is activated to leave it stationary. The colors range from dark blue to dark pink to violet to yellow, orange, red, light blue, dark blue and so on. They're fascinating to look at. This smaller set we bought came with a sampler set of 3 different scents. While the bigger model can stay on 24 hours a day, the smaller version is good for only 8 hours per day according to the salesman, but 12 hours according to the brochure. The downside of this product is the expensive scented oil. A big bottle costs from P1200 for P1500, which is the cost of the Eucalyptus scent. I asked why it was more expensive and the salesman said it was more strongly scented. To save on the oil, we don't follow the instruction of putting in a cupful each time. We also don't change the water daily but only when the level goes down to the minimum. For more details on the product, check out the following link: http://goodsphere.co.uk. We bought our two sets in True Value, Shangrila.