Savored: La Creperie Paris

Trying to lose weight is a battle with every meal. There are new good places to eat, hole-in-the-wall-friendly-to-the-pocket restos and what nots that it's becoming hard to keep up with my Foursquare to eat list without pooching out.

My dear sister just came back from Hamilton, New Zealand and I got hungry after an afternoon of walking around the mall. I've been eyeing Creperie Paris ever since my mother's friend gave it her seal of approval.

It's located in Unit 1 Sonrisa Suites, Juana Osmeña St., Capitol, Cebu City. If it's such a brainer to get there with the aforementioned adress, then it's right before Miss Carrie Santiago's boutique and other notable establishments along this street are Big Tom's, Penong's Chicken and with Best Western Lex Hotel Cebu in sight at the end.

The crepes that I'm used to comes with whipped cream and fruits. But watching Streetfood Around the World on Nat Geo educated me that crepes come with different fillings and it's just not dessert.

La Classique

Seeing this is a chef's specialty crepe that's meant for breakfast and it's got ham, eggs and cheese in it. And the crepe's made of buckwheat flour. Healthy!

The homemade salted caramel crepe

My sister had the homemade salted caramel crepe and she really liked it a lot. We paired it with lemon and lime infused tea. The ambience is nice with French music in the background, simple and homey decor and furniture that is simple and unassuming. Hope we could come back soon and try the rest of the crepes. You could get 2 at 285 pesos with 1 buckwheat crepe and the other of the sweet kind. You could also make your own crepe which is amazing.

So you could head down there with your friends and hang out and have a great time. Bon appetit!

FIFA World Cup 2014: Could Team Columbia Be It?

I got easily swept by the football (or soccer) fever with all the hype it's getting. Never mind the various protests Brazilians have staged but I agree that it's time to show the world who we are and that we are one as Pitbull energetically belts out.

Yes, I've been staying up late, studying, and hottie spotting. Did some visual check on the different teams and voila! Hello Team Columbia! So far they have been performing well with James (and no, it's pronounced Hames) Rodriguez and Juan Quintero scoring some goals. What sets this team apart is that if you look at their photos, they are actually grinning. Try browsing the different teams and their FIFA roster photos and often they would look as if they're having their passport photo taken, frontal mugshots or their most intimidating look.

Perhaps their team roster photo is a victorious portent, with the happy smiles that they all sport. Spain really sucked (probably they were thinking about their problems at home such as high unemployment rate, deploring GDP, abdication of their king and ascension of the crown prince, or their games were spot on siesta time). And what the hell, Portugal? Cristiano Ronaldo is such an underachiever and looks so unmotivated that we might want to smack his Ballon D'Or trophy on his head. If Portugal loses to USA then they might as well pack it up.

Is it just me? Or is it just that Pitbull's crotch area looks a bit tight? Couldn't help but notice since the video of this year's theme song gets played during half time. Just sayin'.

Belated Fathers' Day Post: To Dad, My Hero (Because Your Daughter is Clueless)

This is my belated Fathers' Day post. This incident happened a couple months back as I got in my car to head home...

I got to pop the hood of my car... for the first time (uh-huh, coz I don't know what goes under there and as long as it runs, that's all that matters to me)...

Dad: Where are your tools?

Me: Er... what tools?

Dad: Like for changing the tires

Me: I don't think I have any

Dad: It's in your trunk... that's how we fixed your problem before

Me: I wasn't there when you had it fixed

Dad opens the trunk and my yellow "tutu" from my PRACE christmas party waved at him (and he tries to hide his er, surprised look).

I'm all for Girl Power, etc., but I'm happy to leave car troubles to the guys. Thanks Dad for being my hero. What would I do when the meter doesn't show that the car doesn't have enough water or there's something wrong with the oil? (Yeah, I'm clueless like that, when it comes to car maintenance.)

Movie: Maleficent

Well, well...if it isn't the mistress of evil. They could not go wrong with Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. I know it's supposed to be the story of how Maleficent came to be the purveyor of despair, but her character in this movie couldn't measure up to the seething malevolence that Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent was.

Had it been in our local setting, there's no other actress who can pull it off to haute couture perfection (and no, it's not Bella Flores) other than Miss Celia Rodriguez.

Just like in the blueprints for Wicked, this movie is the story behind how Maleficent came to be, since we had no idea why she became the malicious, devious diva that she is in Sleeping Beauty. As the story goes, everyone had been invited except for her, to Princess Aurora's christening. Since nobody thought her to be of import, she decided to gatecrash the said party and bestow a "gift". I was really expecting her to utter "Back you, dogs!", as the king ordered his men to seize her and I wasn't expecting the three fairies to be such ninnies at all. In the animated movie, you could see how downright evil and mean she was bestowing her curse and doling out agony and despair to king. You'd know as she vanished  in the putrid green smoke that she wouldn't give a rat's ass what happened to the princess. Of course she kept tabs as to where she lived with the help of her spying crow, to ensure the fulfillment of the curse. There's absolutely no way she would be nanny to the beastie.

So you could see from the movie that she wasn't abused during her childhood in the moors, we learned that her parents were killed but she was no witness to it. Not enough to jack up the Evil Meter, don't you think? Being disillusioned by your wimpy, ambitious swain, who chopped off your wings named Stefan is substantial reason for revenge, but still lacking to sap all the goodness and allow the evil to fester inside and consume her. She could have just rebounded with the crow in human form who looked hotter than King Stefan or one of King Stefan's buffed knights. Had she witnessed the murder of her parents, been an outcast and bullied in the moor (ergo sad childhood), mutilated and betrayed by a hunky Stefan...now that would be a recipe for psychopathic evil. Ursula from The Little Mermaid was in fact more devious, cunning and evil, who pulled out all the stops for her plan, is more evil than this version of Maleficent.

The true love's kiss part...enters Prince Philip who looks like he's a member of 1D. I know the adolescents would totally dig his looks. But his "pakipot" attitude and the awkwardness of his kiss, nobody would wake up to that, buddy! Had he used some tongue (which I think was what the 3 imbeciles meant when they told her to kiss the princess properly), it would have done the job.

And why didn't Maleficent transform into a dragon. Why????!!! The valiant Prince Philip killed the dragon in the animated movie and in this story, Maleficent is shown to be not really evil and that's why she gets to live happily ever after too. And do you think the Prince Philip who looks like a member of 1D could wield a knight's broad sword? His best weapon would be a rendition of Best Song Ever!

As the credits rolled in the end, my ears were assaulted by the awfully morose version of Once Upon A Dream, sung by the queen of summertime (or should I say perpetual) sadness, Lana Del Rey (lighten up, will you?). She sould seriously give it a go singing the warped and grotesque version of Que Sera Sera which could be heard at the end of the horror flick Dead Silence and probably add it to her next album.

So there you have it, my take on Maleficent. Had it not been for Angelina Jolie and the innocence of Vivienne (who played the little Beastie/Aurora), then this movie's a dud.

Movie: The Other Woman

For some obscure reason, this movie was released without so much hype. Well maybe except for Nicki Minaj looking normal for a change. Had Kate Upton gone out with the kid from high school who asked her to the prom (after a very hyped proposal on YouTube), then she would have gotten into my good graces and expedited my watching of this movie. I got a text message from a very good friend who asked me to watch it with her. I asked "Is it any good?". "I dunno, Cameron Diaz is in it" , she said. Yeah, what about Cameron Diaz in this movie? She already had mommy roles, sexy girlfriend roles, cheating girlfriend roles, so what haven't we seen?

It was nice to see Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (name's a mouthful and I'm not sure I could pronounce it either) in a suit and looking oh so debonaire. Last time I saw this guy in a movie was in Wimbledon with Paul Bettany. Apparently he also was in Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom, but of course with the popularity of "Legolas" and "The Pirates of the Carribean" franchise, we wouldn't bother looking at those guys in minor roles. Recently, he was in Oblivion and the horror flick Mama, both movies I didn't bother to watch. This dear sir, is most famously known as the sister-fornicating-one-handed-kingslayer, a.k.a. Jamie Lannister in Game of Thrones.

The storyline is simple, with Cameron Diaz playing the role of the other woman, who had no idea that Nikolaj's character has a wife in the suburbs, played by Leslie Mann, who somehow plays the naive (and boring) suburban wife down to a T. Eventually she finds out about the illicit affair, confronts Cameron and annoyingly and pathetically befriends the other woman. During the course of the movie, Nikolaj does some more philandering and stumbles upon the voluptuous Kate Upton who now happens to be the current flavor. So as the story unfolds from one confrontation between the naive wife and the other women, they all agree to get even on the philandering husband. The storyline now shifts parallel to that of the First Wives' Club as they plotted and schemed to bring down the husband.

Just like any story, there are lessons to be learned and these are what I think they are:

1. Nobody wants to see you doing your business, as in NOBODY. You might think that it's okay to have a conversation with your other half because of all the years you've been together while doing your business on the potty, well this movie shows that it ain't pretty. Could be the reason why hubby went to another hottie.
2. Cry on the inside, like a winner. Definitely a yes! Whatever happens, you have to suck it all up, just like a winner.
3. Don't get mad, get even and leave the cheating dick broke.
4. Look out for the hot brother.

Yes, Gaga, you are one really lucky lady to bag this hunka-burning-love. But seriously, in the Philippine setting, can mistresses be friends with the legal wife? I think not. From other movie references such as Separada and A Love Story where Maricel Soriano plays the wife in the former and the other woman in the latter and both movies spanned at least 10 years apart, it certainly didn't happen. The later references would be No Other Woman wherein the wife (Christine Reyes) and the mistress (Anne Curtis) tried to outdo each other. And of course the soon to end teleserye The Legal Wife which grossed high ratings due to the brazen confrontations and cat fights that will do Jerry Springer proud. Or perhaps such occurrence has yet to be reported. If a kitten can suckle from a dog, then there's no reason why the wife and mistress couldn't be friends...at the bitter end.

So definitely look out for the hot brother. Haha!