Nolita

The new Bonifacio High Street Central offers a breathtaking al fresco view of the Fort. Numerous restaurants line up this area, and Nolita is one that deserves much recognition. Upon its opening, we  saw Twitter reviews raving about the authentic New York style pizzas they serve, so we knew we just had to try it. Nolita is another restaurant haven created by James Patrick Santos who is also behind the success of Borough located in Podium. It's no wonder that Nolita and Borough offer the same vibe and are very reminiscent of each other.

Everything here is self-service so get ready to meet a little inconvenience. If you order a lot, you would have to bring all of those yourself to your chosen table. This was one of the few disappointments we experienced here. The pizza is sold per slice usually at Php200 and up. Seeing just how pricey the slices are, we were ready to dig in to amazing authentic New York style pizza.

The first that caught our eye was the Spinach and Artichoke pizza (Php 220) which we knew we just had to order. It was really good and had the perfect balance of flavors. We loved the fact that the artichoke was served in chunks, which made us want to gobble it all up. One downside though is the amount of oil in the pizza which is probably enough to cause a heart attack.

The second one we ordered was the Chicken Parmesan Pizza (Php 230) which was just as good. The chicken chunks were a treat to eat and they were very generous with their serving.

We were just very unhappy with the price of the pizzas since it seemed a little bit too expensive for the serving itself. The taste of the pizza is a big thumbs up but it still remains overpriced for a mere slice. It's not very sulit when you come and eat with your barkada, because upon computation, two slices of Nolita pizzas can equate to one big box from another pizza chain. Although quality remains very good, Nolita should be more realistic when it comes to their prices.

What's even better than pizza? The combination of beer and pizza! A good bottle of San Mig Light will greatly compliment your meal.

These are the interesting interiors of Nolita. We really loved their decorations.

The steps on how to order and eat your Nolita pizza:

All in all, we enjoyed our Nolita experience and we encourage everyone to head here to satisfy their New York style pizza cravings! Let us know how your experience goes! :) Happy summer!

5 Master Crammer Techniques

Admit it, hell week brings out truly the worst in us. The crankyness, mad fits, group bitching, and endless rants on Facebook statii and Twitter updates sums up just about every student's week of death. Every professor is unreasonable, every lazy group mate becomes an enemy, and even the toughest friendships get tested under the institutionalized system otherwise known as school. The breadth and magnitude of every final paper, test, and presentation carries so much weight on final grade so of, course you decide to start it..... at the very last minute. Most students have already earned their Masteral degrees in Cramming way before their college graduation rites are so dearly bestowed on them, beat that! Of course, if you are a master crammer, you must also know the 5 Master Crammer techniques to fully maximize... your master crammer time:




1.)Switching to Facebook when you've decided that you've gone into a deep black hole preparing for Finals. Just a few clicks to check the news feed won't hurt right? Wrong. Before you know it, you've spent a good total hour clicking away. Oh, and look! Another interesting update!


2.)Ranting on Twitter how hell week has turned you into a zombie. 3 seconds in, and somebody has replied explaining the same sentiments. Another 3, and a few more replies! You are determined to fully explain how unjust and unreasonable this workload is that you begin to reply, retweet, tweet, tweet and tweet some more. Then, you check back on your original tweet and figure that 1 hour ago might be some lapse in technical judgment by the Twitter team. So, you decide to tweet about it, and then... the tweeting goes on.



3.)The  "crap-I'm-hungry-better-grab-something-to-eat" mode before fully diving into your work. You figure, food will give you more energy, which will make it easier for you to get things done right? Another wrong! A few bag of chips here, a few rice with ulam there, and you're on your way to munching yourself away into your bed. You bring your notes along with you and convince yourself that memorizing will be a lot easier now that you've finally converted all the sugar you've eaten into energy! Simple science! Then, you surprisingly feel sleepy and give yourself time to rest your eyes. Before you know it, it's finally 7am, and there you are, struggling to find your notes in your laway covered pillow. Yup, it's Finals day and you've got 3 hours before your first class.



4.)The power nap that turns into a full fledged snoozefest leading to the morning. Every excuse of a power nap is one way to escape into dreamland without ever finding your way back to reality aka studying again. The glorious sleep that enthralls you forces you into a force field of dreams that will be a thousand times better than equations, readings and your notes.





5.)The worst by far, the "group study" that perpetually turns into pig out x inuman craze. We all know how this goes! Grab some food in the fridge, pop some beer, and look intently in your notes as if you were actually studying. A couple of Foster the People songs later, everybody has gotten engaged into another conversation about Battle Royale vs. Hunger Games. Before you know it, the night has turned into kwentuhan instead of actual studying.


Aren't we all too familiar with these 5 master crammer techniques? We're all currently basking under the summer sun, but once school knocks around the corner, we all know what we will be turning to. The only good thing about summer is that these master crammer techniques morph into master bummer techniques! At least this time around, we do it guiltlessly! Hooray to summer and boo school. How has your summer been so far? :)

Staying Creative:Tip #1

We're launching a new section in The Culture Vulture Project called "Staying Creative". It's basically all about learning how to observe, document, and share the culture you see around you. Here's the first installation on this series:

Admit it, once or twice we’ve all been caught in the trance of stepping into school supply heaven otherwise known as National Bookstore. For us Pinoys, there can no other store as complete as the Pambansang Bookstore (not even Muji, which actually is one of my favorite places too!) This is where my love for notebooks actually stemmed from. Sometimes, I’d have to actually stop myself from purchasing another notebook knowing that I have a ton more at home that are still left unopened! For any aspiring writer, carrying a notebook with you at all times is necessary to document all your lightbulb moments in. You just never know when it’s going to happen! The trick is to carry a notebook small enough to keep in your bag and a trusty pen. You’ll be surprised by the amount of things you can actually write, no matter how messy your notes can be at the end of the day. You don’t even need to write down full sentences, just scribble down keywords you think will be essential in helping you write later on. Truth is, the use of the notebook is actually spiraling down with the rise of our ever trusty laptops which can be a faster way of documenting our thoughts. But think of notebooks like old-school love letters as opposed to text messages and e-mails, isn’t the former a lot more romantic? Wouldn’t you prefer a suitor to court you like the old-school way? Romance is the kind of feeling you can’t establish with a gadget as impersonal as a laptop which can be generalized to practically every human being living on this planet. Romance is buying a number of notebooks with pretty covers, and writing on it just randomly. That’s the beauty of being a writer, you get enamored every single day with the romance you make with your own words in your own notebook. If you want to keep yourself creative, buy your own set of notebooks now and tell me how it goes!

Happy reading… and writing!