LINE unveils new TVC starring Super Junior’s Siwon

 From the LINE TVC

Last night, I saw for the very first time the TVC of LINE on local television. I thought to myself, there might be thousands of Filipino K-Pop fans who were screaming upon seeing that TVC.

Well, delight yourselves K-Pop fans as the TVC will be running for a long while. LINE, the world’s hottest mobile messenger, signs up Siwon, the lead singer of the widely popular Korean boy band Super Junior as their newest brand ambassador.

Filipino K-Pop fans have already seen and heard Siwon live when the Super Junior band came to country to perform last April 2010 and February 2011.

Through the TVC, Siwon vividly shows how LINE can be excellent communication medium that connects beloved friends and family wherever they are in the world.

Siwon and acting Patricia play the role of a couple separated by physical distance. Because of LINE, they have are able to communicate and become closer despite the distance. LINE’s social digital platforms allow Siwon and Patricia to exchange virtual stickers that help them express their feelings and thoughts toward each other.

“Oftentimes, I am away from home, so I miss my families and friends a lot. But sometimes I am a bit too shy to express my feelings. Since I started using LINE, it became much easier for me to exchange my feelings with my families and friends, even when I am far away in other countries. LINE stickers are very expressive and perky, so if you use stickers, you can express your feelings more effectively than using just words,” Siwon remarked.

Siwon further added, “I think LINE is an excellent communication tool that keeps the relationship between you and your friends and family even tighter, because it is possible to communicate subtle emotions through LINE. Now, I can’t imagine life without LINE.”

Lee Jin Woo, General Manager of LINE Business Office at LINE PLUS explained, “We at LINE have always been open to innovative and creative ways to put our mobile messaging platform out there and to reach as many people as we can. Starting with this TV commercial, we plan to cooperate with various Philippine local businesses and brands for more localized offerings in order to provide a more exciting and enriching experience for Philippine users.”

Through the continuous release of diverse features, LINE has become widely popular worldwide, reaching 140 million users globally. LINE has also shown a strong presence in western countries as it has hit 10 million users in Spain. Furthermore, LINE is constantly achieving great success from globally-acclaimed features such as LINE Camera, which has recently hit 30 million users, and LINE JELLY which is the newest LINE Game starring LINE’s beloved characters.

You can access LINE through their website: http://line.naver.jp/en/ or mobile platform at http://line.naver.jp/app/en/. To be always updates with the latest, check out their social media network:

LINE Facebook page
LINE Official YouTube Page
LINE Official Blog
For LINE Partner

About LINE
LINE is a smartphone app which allows users to enjoy free calls and messages to one another, both nationally and internationally, regardless of which mobile network provider they are using. Launched in June 2011, LINE has more than 140 million users worldwide. It has also been ranked no. 1 in 43 countries in the free app category including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Macau, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Latvia. LINE provides fun stickers that feature characters with distinctive personalities, games that enhance interaction with friends and foster friendly competition and Official Accounts that enable communication on a real-time basis with favourite celebrities, public figures and corporate brands.
For more information visit: http://line.naver.jp/en/

About LINE PLUS Corporation
LINE PLUS Corporation, the world’s leading mobile platform innovator, is a joint-venture entity between NHN Corporation and NHN Japan newly organized on March 1st, 2013. As a global smartphone life platform provider, LINE PLUS services LINE and its family applications to bring together innovative mobile messaging tool and new communication lifestyle. LINE PLUS Corporation was created to promptly react to the rapidly changing mobile messenger market and to strengthen its global business based on the industry expertise of its parent company furnishing a wide range of innovative and convenient online services along with optimized decision making structure, personnel system and organization culture.
LINE PLUS Corporation is located in Seoul, Korea.
For more information, please visit http://www.nhncorp.com/nhnen/index.nhn.

Weekday Buffet Bonanza at Market Cafe, Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila

The weekday buffet bonanza at Market Cafe, Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila is perfect for vacationers and office workers. It’s a treat of epicurean delight.

From Monday to Thursday, diners can feast on a wide selection of freshly cooked Western, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Filipino cuisines and enjoy a special price of PHP990 net per person for lunch and P1099 net per person for dinner inclusive of free-flowing soft drinks and local beer.

Diners can choose from a wide variety of dishes, which include an abundant choice of appetizers, hearty salads, premium cuts of lamb and beef, fresh or baked oysters, salmon, oven-baked pizzas, pastas, sushi and sashimi, freshly made tempura and a sinful selection of homemade ice cream and desserts.

A new promotional price offer at Market Café
From Monday to Thursday, diners will receive as much as 40% off on the daily lunch and dinner buffet. Offer will run only until 30 June 2013.

For more information, please call the Food and Beverage Reservations Centre on +63 2 247 8666 or make your booking online by visiting manila.casino.hyatt.com. You can also make reservations through e-mail at cath.mn@hyatt.com.

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Ocean’s Harvest at Marriott Hotel Manila

Cooked seafood on ice

Fresh catch of the day

Marriott Hotel Manila is giving its guests a new dining experience: a seafood buffet every Friday and Saturday from 6:0o p.m. to 10:30 p.m. all year-round.

Called Ocean’s Harvest, this seafood buffet offers diners numerous fresh seafood and can even request the chef to have their choice seafood cooked their way. For only P2,300, guests can indulge in a sea of mouthwatering seafood dishes.

Sweet and sour crabs

We ordered first the sweet and sour crabs. The sauce of this dish is divine! It has the right amount of sweetness and sourness that coats well the crab meat and tickle the palate.

 Wizheart orderd this pampano with just the simple soy sauce.

This pampano dish is like a home-made dish made to taste gourmet-like. The fish is so tender and it tastes so good when eaten with the slightly caramelized garlic.

An assorted of seafood

We had a plate of grilled assorted seafood. The squid, the shells were so fresh that when grilled are to die for!

Lobster in garlic and butter sauce

This lobster in garlic and butter sauce is a must-try. The lobster is so tender and juicy and compliments really well with the garlic and butter.

 Seafood lasagna

Marriott Cafe’s seafood lasagna is another must-try. I just love the mixture of seafood and its sauce. Rich and cheesy!

M Cafe’s gelato

What a perfect way to cap the seafood dinner with a gelato. I had a mix of gianauja amara and Palawan walnut. It was just so delicious!

If I were you, I’d go and have your own Ocean’s Harvest experience at Marriott. You can start your dinner with a piping hot soup of shrimp gumbo in lemon grass cooked Tinola-style. Or you can have the steaming hot pot of sinigang in local miso or tamarind alongside talakitok, maya-maya, head prawn local clams. Whatever suits you.

The Ocean Surf Market Style Buffet Menu includes fresh salmon, tuna loin, local tanigue, pompano, talakitok, lapu-lapu, maya-maya, shellfish, jumbo prawns, half shell local scallop, local clams, jumbo squid, suahe shrimps, blue marlin, and local gindara. You can also have your fill of slippers lobsters, local blue sea crab, curacha crab, prawns, mussels, and white shells. All of these you can have cooked your way. Not to mention the friendly and very accommodating chefs at Marriott.

Here we are, happy about our simple grilled fish!

If that isn’t one awesome dining experience, I don’t know what is.

For inquiries and reservations, call (02) 988-9999.

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ABOUT MARRIOTT HOTEL MANILA

An inviting beacon set in the world-class casino entertainment complex of Resorts World Manila, Marriott Hotel Manila is the place to work and play. Ideally located in Newport City across Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, it is a convenient 15 minute drive from Makati Business District and Bonifacio Global City. Affording a splendid view of the adjoining 18-hole Villamor Golf Course, it boasts 342 exquisite guest accommodations that offers luxurious bedding, in-room safe, mini-bar, high-speed Internet, air conditioning, 40″ full high definition LCDs with IPTV, videos on demand and jack pack plug-and-play system. The hotel features excellent dining options such as Marriott Cafe, Cru Steakhouse, Java+ and Lobby Lounge. Leisure facilities include Quan Spa, Health Club, Salon and Newport Mall. With a Grand Ballroom and several meeting rooms, Marriott Hotel Manila is also the ultimate destination for meetings and events, from weddings to gala dinner celebrations.

Tasmanian Salmon at The Fireplace

Are you craving for Tasmanian Salmon? Then head for The Fireplace at Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila.

Chef Noel who exquisitely crafted a menu that includes this Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon sees to it that it is served to you with only a fine texture and taste.

Native of the pristine unpolluted waters of Tasmania, this famed Atlantic Salmon makes up only around 1.5% of the world’s salmon production. Enriched with omega-3 and proteins, discover the richness of this Atlantic salmon variety with selections like roasted herbs crusted salmon with creamy spinach, peppered salmon steak with cognac pepper cream sauce and more. Each salmon dish starts from Php800 to P1600.

Top this sumptuous plate off with the luscious Hot Chocolate Soup, which is  rich, velvety and creamy dark chocolate is topped with a scoop of cracked pepper vanilla ice-cream. This unique chocolate creation is a signature dessert at the Fireplace.

It is a perfect way to cap your day.

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About The Fireplace
The Fireplace is an upscale grill room offering perfectly cooked prime meats and seafood. A perfect spot for wining and dining, the restaurant charms guests with its elegant brass interiors and open kitchen concept. In full view is a large wood-fired oven where chefs prepare their culinary masterpieces. A wine library with a vast collection of European and New World wines is another attraction. With its relaxing atmosphere and excellent cuisine, The Fireplace provides a dining experience like no other. For enquiries, please call +63 2 247 8666 or email cath.mn@hyatt.com.

About Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila
Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila is a five-star hotel surrounded by Manila’s culturally-rich and well-preserved historical points of interest. This 33-storey mixed-use complex offers 376 elegantly designed guestrooms and accommodates the largest number of suites in the bay area, including 58 specialty suites and four presidential suites. The hotel features three innovative and authentic restaurants, a pastry shop, an entertainment outlet, four floors of Regency Club accommodation, as well as the most stylish and advanced event spaces in town. Fully-equipped recreational and premier gaming facilities are also on the premises. The hotel is only a few minutes from the international airport, convention centre, top tourist attractions and the city’s business district. For more information, call +63 2 245 1234 or visit manila.casino.hyatt.com. LIKE us on Facebook – facebook.com/hyatthotelandcasinomanila.

Caribbean Footwear Launches the Urban Safari Collection

Last April 3rd, Caribbean Footwear launched its Urban Safari Collection at Red Mango, Greenbelt 3. Print and summer always go together well, you know.

Everyone was excited to see the new collection and we were not disappointed. The color, the design is again unique to Caribbean Footwear.

For the uninitiated, Caribbean Footwear is a local brand but with world-class quality. The brand invested in good research and technology to come up with a footwear that blends art and science. Three things that the brand is proud of are: comfort, durability and creativity.  Importantly, it has a no-slip technology.

Check out the Urban Safari collection here.

Decadent Graduation Cakes at Café 1771

It’s graduation time and with it comes plenty of celebrations. And what are celebrations without decadent desserts like those of  Café 1771.

 Café 1771 offers graduates and families its home-spun cake creations by Pastry Chef Arnold Bautista. These petite cakes are 6-inch round sizes good for 8 to 10 persons. They are perfect for gifts.

Upon seeing the Evasion cake (P270 net) (pictured above), you would want to dive into an evasive combo of white and dark chocolates with cream cheese  and fresh  strawberry  in a lightly crispy  feullentine at the center. It’s not too sweet  yet amazingly creamy.

For certified chocolate lovers, this Rose Noire (P250 net) is a delightful surprise. Lavish layers of Valrhona dark chocolate with hazel nut praline that sits on a crunchy crust, this chocolate-loaded creation also comes with a surprise at the center: a croquantine for some crunch and dark chocolate flavor with a distinct praline taste.

This Gianduja Truffle Mousse (P250 net) is light, pillowy, and comes with a nutty center combined with the dark and white chocolate praline flavors.  Structured with elements that will surprise the palate, its sweetness comes from the base made of chocolate sponge then followed by marshmallows with cashew nuts and topped off with chocolate mousse as a velvety finish.

Of course, you don’t want to miss the signature dessert sugar-free coffee pie (P220 net) of 1771 Group of Restaurants. This coffee pie is an epic recipe from the family of Executive Chef Vicky Rose-Pacheco for over twenty years. This addicting secret is in the crisp texture of the combined flavors of Dutch cocoa and coffee with cashew nuts. And with no bells and whistles or outré ingredients, this version is sweetened with coconut sugar and lightly dusted with cocoa for an awfully memorable dessert minus the guilt.

For advance orders, call 631-7340.

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Café 1771 is located at 1771 El Pueblo, ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Operating hours from Monday to Saturday is 7am to 10pm while Sunday is 7am to 3pm. For inquiries, call 631-7340/470-6559/0917-8660442. Café 1771 is a member of the 1771 Group of Restaurants that include Chateau 1771 in Greenbelt 5, Sentro 1771 in Greenbelt 3, Sentro 1771 in Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, WB 1771 & Sidebar in El Pueblo Real de Manila, ADB Avenue cor. Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

On the The 4th Philippine International PyroMusical Competition 2013

We caught the second to the last weekend of the 4th Philippine International PyroMusical Competition this year. It was more of a last-minute decision coming from the WorldBex in The World Trade Center.  I only had my trusty iPhone with  me, so pardon the grainy photo above. For much better photos, check out their SM MOA’s Facebook Page.

Anyhow, we went to SM  Mall of Asia with our P100-tickets purchased online by the husband’s colleague. I had a mixture of pleasant and unpleasant experiences during that Saturday.

Let me start with the pleasant ones:

• The entrance to the P100-ticket area was well-manned. It was not congested and crowded, as I was expecting. I thought since it was the general admission ticket, there would be pushing. But there was none.
• When we got inside, it was also not crowded. It was not humid. It was pleasant.

Now the unpleasant ones:

• The show didn’t start at 7PM as indicated in the ticket and in their banners. It started at 8PM.
• The sound system should also be heard (loud and clear) in all ticket areas, in fact better if the whole open area of SM MOA. It is an international show after all. We couldn’t figure out what the emcee was saying. The music was not clear in our area. Even if we got only the general admission ticket, we still went to see and paid for the show after all.
• The presentation interval was about 30, or was it 45 minutes. After the presentation of China, we had no choice but to wait for Australia’s presentation. The momentum and excitement would be better sustained if the presentations were done one after another. But, those I know who have gone to see the show before us,  had a different experience. They were saying that the presentations had only a 10- to 15-minute interval. I am just not sure what happened that weekend.

For those who are planning to catch the last group, Canada and Philippines, this weekend, here’s what I recommend.

• Choose a restaurant where you can get a good vantage point to see the show. It is still a better option for me than going to those viewing areas and had to wait long. At least in the resto, you’ll have food and good seating.
• Prepare for the deluge and crowd of people at SM MOA. From parking areas to the mall and back, you had to queue. We had to take the stairs from ground to the rooftop parking.
• This is an international show, let’s make it that—from sound system to venue arrangements.

Food Writing Workshop with Amy Besa

Amy Besa, co-author of Memories of Philippine Kitchen, is meeting with writers and bloggers for a Food Writing Workshop. The goal is to learn how to research and write about food effectively.

Invited guests will speak on their culinary journeys and expertise, which will add zest to your stories. At the end of the workshop, participants will produce an article for newspapers and magazines.

This three-day workshop will be on April 4-6, 2013 and is priced at PhP 5,400 inclusive of lunch and snacks.

Enderun Colleges is located at 1100 Campus Avenue, McKinley Hill Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. For inquiries, please call Florence Elumba at 856 5000 local 505.

Magical Easterland at Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila

Do you know that Easter is the most important occasion in the Catholic Faith? Today, then, is the best time to plan for Easter Sunday.

Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila has prepared for you an Easter celebration that will highlight a magical family adventure. From 11AM to 3PM on Sunday, March 31, Le Salon will transform into a magical enchanted garden where both children and adults can enjoy candy fairies, wizards and dwarves. For only PHP800 net for both children and adults, the experience will not only involve delightful magical characters but also sweet and savoury food choices personally hand-picked by Executive Chef Josef Miklavc and his team. Fruit Magic’s refreshing fruit shakes are also available featuring their most popular concoctions.

Some of the featured activities will be:

• face painting
• meringue egg decoration
• balloon twisting
• pin the magic wand
• magic hat
• eggs in a pot
• an exhilarating show by a wizard performing feats of magic and illusion

And of course, to stay true to the form of Easter, an Easter egg hunting will cap the afternoon activity. All children will get to “eggs plore” in the Mystery Egg Hunt, with carefully tucked-away incredible prizes, including an overnight stay in a guestroom with breakfast buffet for two at the Market Café.

Of course, no one is leaving the party empty handed. Prizes and surprises await all guests, which include Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket, Sqwishland, ShellCore, Faber-Castell Philippines novelties and IFEX notebooks, ABS-CBN publishing’s Working Mom, Cars and Spider-man magazines, plus Worlds of Fun and Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila gift certificates.

For goodies and snacks, Fibisco Chocolate Chips cookies, Oishi, Chips Delight, Smileys, Egg Bites, Trolli Gummi Candies, Yakult, Selecta Moo chocolate and milk drink, Lucky Me Special, Monde Specials, Nestle Professional, Purefoods Fun Nuggets and Tender Juicy Hotdogs, Magnolia Ice Cream, San Miguel Foods Inc- Great Food Solutions, Clara Ole, Smuckers, Treetop, Coca-Cola Softdrinks, and Jack N’ Jill Snacks such as Star Pops, Knots, Quake Bars, Star Fruits, Wiggles, Yammy Chocolate Chewy Candy, Cream-O, Magic Creams Junior and Presto bring their most-loved products as a take-home gift.

To kick the Easter party up a notch, families can combine fun and feast by dining at any of the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila restaurants and taking advantage of the special rate of PHP 400 net!

Official media partner for this event is Easy Rock 96.3, just the rite rock.

Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila is located at 1588 Pedro Gil cor M.H. Del Pilar St., Malate, Manila.

For more information, please call the Food and Beverage Reservations Centre on +63 2 247 8666 or make a booking online by visiting www.manila.casino.hyatt.com. You may also email cath.mn@hyatt.com.

About Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila
Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila is a five-star hotel surrounded by Manila’s culturally rich and well-preserved historical points of interest. This 33-storey mixed-use complex offers 376 elegantly designed guestrooms and accommodates the largest number of suites in the Bay Area, including 58 Speciality Suites and 4 Presidential Suites. The hotel features three innovative and authentic restaurants, a pastry shop, an entertainment outlet, four floors of Regency Club accommodation as well as the most stylish and advanced event spaces in town. Fully equipped recreational and premier gaming facilities are also on the premises. The hotel is only a few minutes from the international airport, the convention centre, top tourist attractions and the city’s business district.

For more information, please call +63 2 245 1234 or visit www.manila.casino.hyatt.com. “Like” us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/hyatthotelandcasinomanila.