Face-off: Heaven & Eggs vs. Conti's

In the green and yellow corner, we have Conti's. This is the pastry shop and restaurant famous for its long lines and cakes. It almost needs no introduction.

In the yellow and blue corner, we have Heaven & Eggs. Relatively soft-spoken compared to Conti's, its only recent claim to fame is its Michael Jackson-themed menu offerings - apart from that, they offer a menu festooned with pancakes, omelettes and various other viands.

How do these two very different establishments fare as restaurants? Mav and I decided to find out.

First we went to Conti's in Serendra. I decided to order their Fish and Chips with Honey Mustard Sauce, while Mav went for Grilled Pork Chops.

Fish and Chips with Honey Mustard Sauce

Grilled Pork Chops

Surprisingly we were very disappointed with both. The honey mustard was the definition of the slang term "weak sauce" - French's makes more flavorful stuff - while the fish used wasn't really suited for such a dish. The only saving graces were the expertly done fries. Mav didn't find the pork chops all that special either. They certainly weren't the kind of viands you'd come specifically to a restaurant for.

Next we went to Heaven & Eggs in Eastwood City. I wanted to try something different, so I got Thai Chicken and Vegetable Omelette, while Mav tried the best-selling Manila Spareribs.

Thai Chicken and Vegetable Omelette
(served with potato saute and a side order of pancakes)

Manila Spareribs

The omelette was wonderful. It had a rich taste, but all the herbs and flavors worked well together as one dish and complemented each other. Mav and I loved the side-order pancakes - they were milky sweet and smooth, good to go even without maple syrup. The spareribs were just as great. Succulent and cooked to near-perfection, the only way H&E could top these was to make the meat so tender that it falls off the bone. We walked out of the restaurant pleasantly surprised at how satisfied we were with their food.

Heaven & eggs doesn't seem to be an oxymoron after all. We have no idea who Conti is, but perhaps he or she should stick to making pastries and cakes and give the restaurant bit a rest.

"Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo"

"Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo"

Gracey, Paolo C., Cora, Jho, Jacky, Jona and I watched “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” last night. We figured we should catch it before the movie theaters stop showing the 2006 Metro Manila Film Festival entries and replace them with stuff like “Eragon.”

The girls were enjoying themselves, laughing their guts silly while I was criticizing the movie from a film theory perspective—the stuff I learned from and had to submit every week in INTROFI in college. (Warning: This is not a casual observation of the film but a technical one.)

I found it odd that Jose Javier Reyes intentionally used shallow focus and kept the emphasis on Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo, especially at the beginning. The supporting actors like Derek Ramsay and Lui Villaruz were going to be given important roles and lines anyway, so I don’t understand why they had to appear blurred in the first 30 minutes, unless Reyes wanted to drive home the point that Judy Ann and Ryan were the only actors worth paying attention to.

Reyes uses a toned-down montage technique in “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” to good effect. It certainly doesn’t distract the audience with rapid-fire cutting, and it didn’t bore them by overly long takes either. Shot placement deliberately avoids jump-cuts and seems well-done.

Judy Ann’s acting was good. She fleshed out Anj’s traits well and did not shirk from the less savory stuff, such as a scene where she lets out a loud fart in front of Ryan’s Jed, much to his disgust. Ryan was a little more one-dimensional and I consider his acting merely adequate for the role, but effective nonetheless. Both of them, however, pale in comparison to Gina Pareno’s charismatic portrayal of Anj’s boorish mother-in-law. Pareno is not known for her comedic prowess, but all the laughable things she does will make audiences think otherwise. She is totally comfortable in her role and runs away with it, almost stealing the show.

There are still some “duh” moments in “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” where the solidity of the writing shows some cracks, most of them delivered by Gloria Diaz and sadly compensated for by her rubber-faced antics. Not everything is explained sufficiently either, such as Jed’s knack for collecting Batman toys and keeping them in mint condition. Not all Pinoys will understand that collectors like Jed treat these as investments, and taking such toys out of the box rapidly erodes their value to other collectors, so even a line or two about this fact should have made it in there. Lastly, this movie’s ad placement is too in-your-face. What is this supposed to be, a movie or a 120-minute advertisement? There are ways of making the promotions more subtle.

Still, I like the little things the writers did to emphasize the importance of the marriage aspect. Jed and Anj are not shown having sex until they are married—a welcome respite from most other films that influence audiences into sex outside of the marital bond. The insistence of the couple to do things independently, without intervention/interference from in-laws is remarkable, too. The infidelity aspect of the movie felt a little undercooked, however, especially as it made for a slightly flawed climax.

Overall, this is a good movie, the kind of which should be made more often. Still a bit rough around the edges, perhaps, but “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” ranks up there with big-name marquee foreign feel-good comedy films in many aspects. Films like this offer a beacon of hope for the Filipino film industry.