September tear sheets

I should have been uploading tear sheets years ago but I haven't. So I don't know how to do it right, and sorry for the scanning job. It occurred to me, after scanning these, that I should have just asked the art director for the digital files.

Yummy, September 2011.
Recipes and food styling by Jun Jun de Guzman.
Prop styling by Elaine Lim.

Real Living, September 2011.
Shoot direction by Issa Villar.
Words by Michaela Abrera.
Photography by Miguel Nacianceno.

I snuck out

With three more days of doctor-ordered bed rest, I went out to meet friends and get some Chinese food. I'm afraid of relapsing for the second time, missing out on more work, people, and real food. So it did take some rationalizing to decide to go out. This wasn't like the last time where, on day four, feeling all good, I decided to get back to work, and went shooting for four days straight. This was a quick, stress-free dinner, and then back to the house to serve the rest of my sentence.

Also, after day after day of playing online poker, going against the computer in Monopoly, The Wire (finally), and left overs, it was either I got out for a while, or I go nuts.

Anyway, here's crossing my fingers. The food was great though.

So I'm sick again. Apparently when the doctor said bed rest for seven days, she meant it. My mistake for interpreting that as bed rest for seven days but if by day four I feel good enough to work, I'll go for it. So now I get another seven day penalty, plus I'm getting the works: blood test, throat swab, etc.

But it sounds worse than it is. This second round of whatever this is isn't as bad the one I got two weeks ago. Fever's gone after two days. My nodes don't hurt so I can eat real food. In fact I'm craving for sandwiches. The nice type: fresh bread with real meat and good, quality cheese in it. Like the ones on Scanwiches.

HT: the cute swissmiss.

My body clock is shot from sleeping during weird parts of the day to having to wake up every three hours for the meds. I got up at 3am for the latest cocktail and since then, I've been awake thinking of all the things I'd like to taste when I can swallow without pain again. Swollen lymph nodes are a bitch.

1. There's lemon chicken, salt and pepper shrimp, and yang chow fried rice from North Park.

2. Original Recipe breast and wing, plus macaroni, from KFC.

3. The lechon that Anthony Bourdain had, which I can get if I sign up for one of Marketman's buffets... in Cebu. And every thing else they have on that damn buffet, like kilawin, sisig, rice wrapped in banana leaves, biko.

4. Seafood from dampa. Most probably grilled fresh tuna, salt and pepper shrimp (again) and lapu lapu cooked in sweet and sour sauce.

5. Peking duck two way from Spring Deer. Also mantis, from same resto.

So I'm actually sick. Sick for real, and sick enough to not be able to get out of bed. I had to back out of today's shoot and tomorrow's. Ever since I started working, I've never called in sick. Good thing that the editors were so cool about it. Now I have Friday's shoot to think of.

So far, I've been living on apples, oranges, and chicken soup. Last time I had chicken soup, I was probably eight. Also I've been taking over a dozen of my mother's alternative medicine pills every three hours. I was just so out of it, I couldn't even ask what they were for. Turns out they're some sort of immunity boosters (too late) and flu controllers.

When this is all over, I'm heading over to North Park.

friday

Well, there was traffic to begin with.

And then we found out that there wasn't a single ping pong table in the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. Which, by the way, also houses the Philippine Sports Commission.

Then we got pulled over by a cop on a bogus traffic violation.

But we got to bowl at MCS, and in between games, we had an awesome Japanese meal (my second for the day) at Little Tokyo. And I found out, after my meal and after feeling a bit warm, that my Japanese grapefruit soda was actually a beer with high-calorie content. It was on the packaging, I just couldn't read it. It might also be considered a girl's drink in Japan.

photo from this guy's drink review

Then we couldn't get enough players for a poker game.

But I got home early, found time to read, and got enough sleep. All in all, a good day.

i'll be fat

Fatter, to be honest. Anyway, so I tried The Baconator from Wendy's. Here's what it looked like in the ads:

And here's what was delivered:

Was I disappointed? Hell no. In this day and age, who really thinks they're going to get what they see on TV and on print. Especially when it comes to food.

Also, the Baconator was GREAT. How can you go wrong with the taste of melted cheese, greasy meat, and bacon? Bacon is awesome. There's nothing like wafer-thin, crispy fat attached to a dead and deep fried pig. In this world. You know what was really considerate and thoughtful of Wendy's to do? There was nary a superfluous, sacrilegious veggie in sight. None of that awful, sickly tomato liquid to run down your neck. No leaf of lettuce to dillute the taste. No pickle to make me gag. (I could've used some onion though.) And I washed everything down with a thirst-quenching Biggie Iced Tea. None of that sugar-free stuff.

Anyway, based on this spot on review, (which bases this on Wendy's corporate site) a Baconator, in terms of bad stuff, is the equivalent of each of the ff:

Sodium (1920 mg)

180 Pringles potato chips
132 Doritos Cooler Ranch chips

Calories (830)

10 Rolling Rock Light 12 oz bottles
4 Dodger Dogs
5 7-Eleven Cola Slurpees 12 oz
3 Chili Dogs from The Varsity in Atlanta
33 tablespoons of Oscar Mayer Bacon Bits
83 Life Saver Five Flavors candies
166 Starbucks coffees of the week 12 oz
4 Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts
Enough Pam No-Stick Cooking Spray to cover 138 10-inch skillets

Fat grams (51)

10 Dolly Madison Zingers
3 orders of A&W cheese fries
4 Dairy Queen banana splits
22 Oreo cookies
51 cups of Froot Loops
10 servings of KFC mashed potatoes with gravy
22 Mrs. Paul's Crunchy Fish Sticks
23 3 Musketeers funsize snacks
1 Sara Lee frozen cheesecake
6 ounces of Oscar Mayer hard salami
19 Chips Ahoy cookies
4 Jimmy Dean Pancake and Sausage on a Stick, chocolate chip flavored
68 Aunt Jemima microwaveable pancakes

A whole frozen cheesecake?! That means it's all good. But check on me in the morning.

looks

A good friend of mine finally launched her chocolate business, Risa Chocolates. They’re so good, I said that, next time, she should get me to shoot her products because I’d be happy to be work for food. It wouldn't be the first time.

So many of my friends are striking out on their own this year. They’re leaving their office jobs to set up their own businesses and work for themselves. Bad economy or not, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do and I’m all for that.

+++

Tomorrow, I’m leaving for what I think is the last working trip of the year. I was given the choice between shooting Iloilo and Bohol, and I picked Iloilo because I haven’t been. Only to realize that I have been, for an overnight quickie shoot. So now I get to stay a bit longer.

I was looking at the itinerary this afternoon, and it looks like a relatively easy trip. And I thought to myself, great, I can catch up with my reading.

That scared me. I’m turning into an old man who thinks trips are for catching up on reading and not for, well, travelling. So, while I still am bringing my copy of The Three Musketeers, I’m saving it for the downtime.

+++

There’s a reason why I’m re-reading one of my favorite Dumas novels (after Monte Cristo and Georges). It’s because I’ve read Musketeers and Man In The Iron Mask without realizing that they are the ends of a trilogy. I completely missed out on the middle book, Twenty Years After. Not only that, apparently Iron Mask is only a volume in a traditionally three-volume piece of work. So, damnit, I’ve got ground to cover.

PS William Eggleston is color blind. Crazy man.