On a sidenote...

Lately, I've been less inspired to write about food in the city. To me, it seems as if the restaurant industry has gone on a "food plateau." Gone are the days where new restos would come out with innovative concepts that blew our socks off. For instance, Cibo was the first to make dining in a trattoria trendy. Or Omakase started making their crazy makis in a stall by Christ the King a decade or so back before transferring to Libis. Or we even have Laudico who made private dining at home so classy...

New restaurants that come out just slap on what's "safe" on the menu, without a care of building its own character and establishing its place in the dining scene. It's either a new Japanese restaurant that almost always has fried maki rolls and agedashi tofu to call it "contemporary." Or some repeated twist to the classic kung pao chicken to term it "fusion." Or adding new terms to the same old gourmet burger started by Brother's. No one even bothers to expand the constricted world of cheeseburgers, fried rice, pasta, siomai and inasal to note that there might be a smorgasborg of food choices that may be explored. Perhaps it's not even the conformity issue, but because we can't afford to sustain the novelty and variety. I don't really know. But it's just a waste to let a lot of the budding and talented Filipino chefs be put to work doing the same thing over and over again.

With that, I'm waiting intently for the next food boom to happen.