This is a rant. A rare, now once-in-a-blue-moon rant. So don’t read it if you don’t like rants.

This morning, I drove to the office at our Yakal Street Zubuchon outlet and arrived before 10am. I was surprised to see 3 cars already in the parking lot even before the restaurant opened, and on inquiry, was told that the cars appear to have parked there as early as 630am, one later at 7am and another yellow car, later still. Our guard was away from the parking lot when they snuck in to park. We have CCTV cameras so we can pinpoint the exact time if we had to. This is clearly a private parking lot of a private business, and it is for the use of our dine-in customers, when they are actually dining in. We have some 16 spaces that are much coveted in parking-scarce Makati, and during busy Friday lunches, we could even use another 10 more. So suffice it to say that our parking spaces are essential to our customers who are dining in. So I made sure that the drivers were not actually in the restaurant (they couldn’t be as we were closed) and by 11am, when the parking lot was filling up with cars of customers, it was clear that these three cars were just plain “trespassing” and using our parking lot as though they were entitled to it, regardless of the fact that they were inconveniencing others, couldn’t possibly have a legitimate logical explanation for why they were there, and worse, they were just plain trespassing.

So at about 1130 am, I taped this sign to each of the three windshields of the cars, now some 4+ hours illegally parked in our parking lot:

“THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY.

ILLEGALLY PARKED CARS WILL BE TOWED OR FINED PHP300 PER HOUR FOR INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.”

In addition, I then parked my car directly behind two of the cars and effectively blocked them in until the point that the parking lot otherwise emptied out and they could get out with little difficulty. My purpose was to make sure they knew that what they had done was unacceptable. If we had another car, I would have blocked the third car as well. Meanwhile, over 250+ guests (in at least 60+ cars and by foot) arrived for lunch, and parking was pandemonium. We could have very easily used the 3 spaces currently occupied by “mystery early morning parkers”. I looked up towing companies, but they tend to tow from public streets only. I thought about calling the police, but why bother with the hassle just yet.

I attended some meetings, then met my brother and sister-in-law for a long lunch at Zubuchon. Two p.m. goes by, then at roughly 3 p.m. the driver of the yellow car that was unblocked, took off my taped notice and told our manager it was offensive and he drove off, unchallenged (I was still eating dessert). “OFFENSIVE???” are you kidding me? What a #$%%@@#(!! IDIOT. Under what possible explanation could you justify parking in a private parking lot, for some 7 hours, while others could very easily have needed it, and you think it is US that is OFFENSIVE? He also claimed he asked permission, even though the restaurant was closed, and when we pointed to two CCTV cameras overhead he just skedaddled out of there like a bat out of hell. I regret not taking a photo of his plate number but I remember the car, and I know it has tried the same tactic once before but I happened to be in the parking lot delivering flowers early one morning so I asked the guard to politely request that they find other parking arrangements.

A few minutes later, the drivers of the two other blocked cars arrived, and our guard just told them to wait until the blocking car was moved, since they weren’t supposed to park there anyway. Basically, I made them wait until we were finished, some 30 minutes later. In retrospect, I should have just let them wait until 11 pm, or 8 hours for their unauthorized use of the spots for 8 hours. No confrontation, no hassle. But instead I went outside and asked them this simple question “what makes you think you have the right to trespass on private property, park your car, leave it for nearly 8 hours while inconveniencing dozens of other people, and think they were acting appropriately???”

PARKING OFFENDER #1 : A LADY DRIVER

The gist of her reply was this, not verbatim “sorry, I parked before 7am, and I eat here EVERYDAY so sorry nalang, but can you move your car now?” to which I replied, “you did not eat here today, and you left the car for almost 8 hours, and you are basically trespassing… If I leave my car there for 8 more hours so you can’t move yours, until 11 pm, then you will know what kind of inconvenience you have caused others…” To which the reply was “kasi, I have to leave now, I have no yaya, I left my child who is at home, I have to leave now.” Still no acknowledgement of any wrongdoing, no admission of her completely defenseless position, and followed up with the “my husband works for the PNP…” to which I answered, “then even more reason you should be aware what the laws are and why we should follow them.” Honestly, now, PNP-husband, child left-at-home alone? What does that have to do with anything??

PARKING OFFENDER #2 : A MALE DRIVER

He says, mid-conversation with the lady “private property?, you are a restaurant, how can this be private property…” (MM rolling his eyes) “it’s certainly not public property as in the roadways, and it is not owned by the government, so yes, you are indeed trespassing and on private property.” Then he counters with “you are offering a service, you are not customer friendly.” to which Mrs. MM answers, “you are not a customer now, and you weren’t eating for 8 hours straight.” To which he laughingly says, “you weren’t open at 7am, so how could I eat here?” OMG, DOES THE PHRASE LOW-IQ KIND OF LOGIC ENTER YOUR PSYCHE JUST NOW? Then the clincher was “I am with the press…” to which I said “good, what agency so I can record and send it to your publisher so he can decide how pathetically gormless that argument is…” Pray tell, what important press-worthy article was he chasing and writing for 8 hours: “How to park illegally and worm your way out of it?”

THEN BOTH OFFENDERS, IN UNISON, claim with dramatic flair, “but we eat here EVERYDAY…”, so basically, their argument is that they are ENTITLED TO FREE AND UNFETTERED use of the parking lot whenever and for as long as they want… even when neither ate there that day. Nor do waiters remember their faces, and believe me, our waiters remember faces of our regular customers quite well. And besides, that isn’t the point, here, is it? And finally, one of the final comments are, “I WORK FOR XXX INSURANCE, AND WE “ALL” WON’T EAT AT ZUBUCHON AGAIN.” They attended whole day meetings at a nearby head office of XXX and the consequences of their actions be damned, basically. To which I said, “please do not ever come back, we would prefer to reserve our parking spaces for customers who don’t feel entitled, act inconsiderately, are illogical, and prone to name-dropping while trespassing on private property…” And soon enough, other cars left and the two parkers finally left, after waiting some 40 minutes against their 8 hours of parking illegally.

So my point is, where is this supreme sense of entitlement coming from? Why are they in any way entitled to special treatment, because they (possibly) once or twice or regularly ate our food? Now they can avoid the minimum PHP400 parking fees on the street, by just parking themselves in a private spot without asking or seeing that was inappropriate? Do they NOT UNDERSTAND the concept of being inconsiderate, that by their actions they were inconsiderate to several other legitimate customers who couldn’t park in those spots while they dined at the restaurant on a very busy Friday lunch? Is logic so sparse in our society today that they really didn’t see anything wrong in their actions, and instead make up excuses why they are SO RIGHT and that it is me that is causing them headaches? Huh? And the name dropping?? PNP husband? Press? That’s supposed to change the logic or arguments at hand? Funny how they all lost their bluster when I said to our staff standing around “to call the local Makati police station just a hundred yards down the road and have them meet these folks…” Ridiculous.

Meanwhile, my evil thoughts included things I could have, and should have, done rather than getting my knickers in a twist, so for future reference, what do you think??:

1. I should have asked our lechoneros to dump 400 sacks of charcoal around these cars, tell the car owners we just got a delivery, had nowhere to put it, and so we had to store it around their cars that were illegally parked near the entrance to our lechonan/charcoal storage areas. They were welcome to dig their cars out from under the charcoal rubble, and leave when they could get into their vehicles and clear a path.

2. Deflate their tires. I have to check with a lawyer, but I think that could be defensible since they were trespassing to begin with, but I have to seek counsel on that, as it may cross a line, so strike that option…

3. Buy a tire clamp from some Amazon or other on-line source (OMG, I just checked, they are only PHP1,500 or so, I WANT ONE OR TWO!), and just clamp their tires down until we can get their cars towed away.

4. Drop a gallon of paint from the roof above, possibly splattering it all over the cars, and when asked, tell them, “if you weren’t parked illegally there, you wouldn’t have a problem.”

But I jest. Just JEST. Really? :)

In the meantime, since it seems they VOLUNTEERED where at least one of them worked, I am thinking about writing a letter to XXX Insurance management, Mr. RH, the CEO, and Mr. JK, the Chief Human Resources Officer, to ask if one or two of these cars in the photos above are company-issued vehicles, or belong to one of their 3,000+ employees or agents, and to kindly ask them to read this post and ask XXX staff to think before they park their vehicles illegally and cause inconvenience to many other people. I’m sure 99% of XXX insurance employees know this was just plain wrong. I, too, am in the service business, but I do not under any circumstances have to suffer fools. Even if it means losing two or more customers as a consequence of THEIR OWN FOOLISH ACTIONS. Particularly fools that are acting entitled, who are patently inconsiderate, unable to discuss a topic logically and argue a point factually, name-dropping trespassers. If either RH or JK replies, I would be happy to send them the full plate numbers of the cars shown above.

The recap, for cliffs notes readers:
1. You trespassed when you entered a private parking lot.
2. You knowingly parked without asking and receiving permission to do so while you attended to business at another company/location down the street for an entire business day.
3. You clearly had an option to park on the street, and pay parking fees and a stay limit of 3 hours by Makati parking authority rules.
4. You left your car in our parking lot for 7+ hours, regardless of inconvenience it would cause to legitimate customers who dined with us at lunch time today.
5. You neither admitted you were in the wrong, and instead used non-sequitur or invalid arguments of “coming early and no one was there, to I left my child unattended at home, to I had a meeting and needed to park somewhere” that are childish, inappropriate, and well, just plain stupid.
6. You did not dine-in before, during or after your 8-hour parking escapade today.
7. You somehow thought it was useful to name drop that your husband was a PNP employee, and the other parker was with the press?! Seriously? I’d love to see an article in the press about what you did. Remember, I have video of it all.
8. You showed absolutely no remorse, or worse, real understanding that what you did was just plain wrong, indefensible, and frankly, stupid.

I hope you guys learned your lesson today, though I sincerely doubt it.

The post Entitled, Inconsiderate, Illogical, Name-Dropping Trespassers… appeared first on Market Manila.

Apparently, it all started with my totally innocuous brief instagram post the other day with a photo of our Manila menus with the caption “Our Manila menus have just arrived… and the work site is crazed!”

A few hours later, a well-meaning instagram follower must have read my post and decided to spread the news (not necessarily in this order, as I don’t track these things so intently) and a post went up on Yummy.com’s page, then Spot.ph contacted me to ask a few questions and they posted an announcement on their page, then booky.ph posted a revealing post that tracked down our restaurant address to the number of the street (a fact even I was unaware of until then), then ABS-CBN.com, then MB.com (Manila Bulletin), then several other apps and sites, then the following morning, a post on Inquirer.net.

LET ME BE CRYSTAL CLEAR. WE NEVER CONTACTED THESE PUBLICATIONS OR WEBSITES TO ASK THEM TO POST AN ANNOUNCEMENT OR PHOTOS. WE NEVER TALKED TO ANY OF THESE OUTLETS EXCEPT SPOT.PH THAT INITIATED CONTACT WITH ME BY TEXT TO FACT CHECK. WE NEVER PAID NOR HAVE WE GIVEN ANYTHING IN KIND TO THESE OUTLETS AS FAR AS I KNOW, AND I DO NOT PERSONALLY KNOW THE PERSON WHO CONTACTED ME FROM SPOT.PH. Zubuchon is GRATEFUL for their unexpected posts that have apparently been broadcast to some 500,000+ people who follow their feeds, websites, pop-ups on facebook pages, etc. And if only 1 in 10 people even vaguely glanced at this exposure, then a whopping 50,000 people in and around Manila (and elsewhere) have presumably heard that Zubuchon plans to open in Manila soon… And all that mileage for FREE. Thank you social media.

So how did booky.ph get so much detailed information when we never gave them any? Apparently, they read the instagram posts I wrote, they read our Facebook page, they intelligently searched instagram high and low for another reader who had posted a photo taken in front of a tarp at our Makati construction site. They messaged that person and asked for an address. The person replied it was Talisay street. If you google Zubuchon Talisay street, you are led to a mynimo job posting our HR people placed to hire staff that identifies the specific street address of our upcoming restaurant. So you see, while some folks are so sure there is a conspiracy of some sorts, some simple sleuthing leads to facts and likely hypotheses as to how information (and in this case totally factual information) is obtained, mostly with the click of a few keys on your computer or phone.

These social media posts almost all used the same photo of a plate of our lechon, taken WITH attribution from our facebook page. None of these sites (except Spot.ph) contacted me or our GM to cross-check facts or details, nor did we have any input into their choice of words. And honestly, I don’t even really know why this is news, it must have been a slow news day. WE DID NOT FEED, REQUEST, SOLICIT any social media exposure, though I repeat, we are certainly pleased they saw fit to mention us… But these were their headlines, which are the apparent source of the brewing maelstrom:

Yummy.ph : “Zubuchon is Making Its Way to Manila” — factual

Spot.ph : “The 5 Emotional Stages of Discovering That Zubuchon is Opening in Manila” — Catchy and unusual, perhaps some might think a bit OA, but it’s their choice, no?, and it is based on the writer’s opinion, as well as a factual claim that we are opening in Manila.

booky.ph : “Cebu’s famous Zubuchon opening in Manila Soon!!!” — “FAMOUS” is perhaps a word that has gotten knickers in a twist. Famous is defined on Dictionary.com as being : “having a widespread reputation, usually of a favorable nature; renowned, celebrated” So for whatever reason, booky.ph chose this adjective, WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. But when someone calls you famous, are you supposed to punch a gift horse in the mouth? Of course not, you accept it quietly and graciously. WE have NEVER ever referred to ourselves as being FAMOUS. Ever.

ABS-CBN.com : “Cebu favorite Zubuchon to open in Manila” — “FAVORITE” is another adjective raising the hair on people’s necks. Favorite is defined as “preferred before others of the same kind”. We had NO SAY in anything that ABS-CBN.com chose to write. And “favorite” is an adjective they chose, WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. So if you have a beef with it, take it up with ABS-CBN. We have NEVER ever referred to ourselves as being a FAVORITE or CEBU FAVORITE. Ever.

Primer.com.ph:“It’s Confirmed! Zubuchon to open branch in Manila.” — factual

Inquirer.net : “Cebu’s famous Zubuchon to Open Branch in Makati” — “famous”, same issues as booky.ph above.

The unexpected social media coverage that apparently originated by my posting a photo of our menus on my personal instagram account has apparently stirred up a hornets nest. And my goodness, the vitriol (defined as “cruel and bitter criticism”) is spewing like the sulphuric acid that they used to throw at people in 1800’s Great Britain. To attack and throw acid on someone is also known as vitriolage, I learned something today.

So let me address the key issues as I see them, and those that our staff feel I should reply to:

1. ARE WE THE “FAVORITE” OR “FAMOUS” CEBU LECHON? As I state above, we never claimed it, we never said it, we never wrote it anywhere in our Facebook, website, materials, interviews, etc. NEVER. So if you have a beef with the adjectives used, take it up with the folks who wrote the pieces. And if it bothers you that someone describes something as such, dig deep to figure out where that feeling comes from and what to do about it. As Mayor Osmeña apparently posted today on Facebook “the one thing we learned is that Cebuanos don’t like being told what their favorites are” or something to that effect. I wholeheartedly agree. Thanks Mayor Osmeña, and so happy you dropped by at lunch two weeks ago at the Ms. Universe swimsuit event at Jpark Hotel. We hope you enjoyed the lechon skin at Zubuchon. We know you love all kinds of lechon, from all of Cebu’s best purveyors. :) If there is anything to be learned from this brouhaha, Manila press should be wary of declaring what provincial folks preferences are, lest it seem like Imperial Manila is dictating something to the understandably proud Cebuanos. Sensitive, are we?

2. DID ANTHONY BOURDAIN DECLARE THAT HE ATE “THE BEST PIG, EVER!” in Cebu. Yes, he did in 2008, but which was aired in February 2009. And he wrote it in a book I still have on my bookshelves. And he said it on camera for an episode that was played for a global audience of 180+ million people. And actually, he was kind enough to say something nice about the Cebuano lechon he tasted on at least FOUR SEPARATE RECORDED OCCASIONS:

“Best Pig, Ever!”
Anthony Bourdain, 2008 (program aired Feb. 2009)
No Reservations, Philippines

On the hierarchy of pork he’s eaten around the world: “Puerto Rico’s lechon is great. In Bali, the lechon is even better. And in the Philippines, the lechon is slightly better than that. It’s the best of the best.“
Anthony Bourdain, October 2009
Interview by Frank Bruni of the New York Times
Food & Wine Magazine Blog

“…it doesn’t get better than that…”
(referring to the roast pig he ate in Cebu)
Anthony Bourdain, 2013
Interview in Promo clip for Parts Unknown, CNN

“I had really fond memories of the last time I had lechon in the Philippines. In fact, not to kiss your ass, but it is the finest pig I’ve ever had.”
Anthony Bourdain, 2016
Parts Unknown Episode filmed in Manila

So while you may/may not care or agree/disagree with him, he SAID it. And it was a boon for Cebuano lechon. It was a boon for Filipino food. It put the city and the dish on the global stage like never before. I received over 500+ emails requesting more information about it in the months that followed. We hosted several local and international TV hosts who visited Cebu in the wake of Mr. Bourdain’s visit. No matter what you feel about Mr. Bourdain, what he did and said about Cebuano lechon was kind, positive and helpful for Cebuano and Filipino food. Period. Did you not want that for the food from your beloved home province? Did you do anything to advance Filipino cuisine 8 years ago before it was cool and chichi to do so? Did you agree to host an unknown stranger who emailed twenty times beforehand and explain and answer anything and everything they asked (before they disclosed who it was?). Did you prep your place of work for a visit that included 8 crew members and four cameramen? Did you spend the money to show them the best food you could personally muster? Did you give them a tour of a local dried fish market and previously visit it three times and try and learn as much about dried fish as you could so you were prepared? Did you do this all proudly with no expectation of anything in return? Probably not.

The exact same recipe for the lechon we served Mr. Bourdain is the same recipe we serve at Zubuchon today. And it wasn’t until nearly a year after we started to sell lechon, repeat a YEAR AFTER in 2010, that we sent Mr. Bourdain a message to ask his permission to use his quote “Best Pig, Ever!” and he graciously and quickly replied just a few hours later, that we could, of course, use the quote. We aren’t bragging, we are simply using a factual quote from a well-thought of culinary ambassador with global experience. And an extreme penchant for pork. Why that riles people is for them to figure out. Surely if he said that about any other thing he ate on his Philippine trips, those folks would be proud to state it as well. What’s it called, a crab-like mentality? And honestly, I would have thought by now, 8 years later, he would have found another pork dish that would have pleased him more than our roast pig that we served him on a balmy afternoon on a hill just behind the Cebu State Capitol…

3. BASHERS SAY, “ZUBUCHON ‘IS NOT’ a CEBU LECHON”

So what, pray tell, is a “CEBU LECHON”?? If one goes back just 30 years, few if any Cebu lechons used MSG, a flavor enhancer, and a shortcut instead of a myriad of natural, locally grown stuffing ingredients. I have nothing against people who like MSG, I am simply stating that Cebu lechons of yore didn’t have it at all. Cebu lechons from the 1960’s and before that had a paler skin, and if darker, were likely painted with a liquor popular in local towns, like Talisay lechons, for example. Go back 100-200 years and you realize soy sauce was more of a luxury, probably imported, and not in common use in lechons or adobo, for that matter. Go back further than that, to say the time Magellan landed, and you are talking simple spit roasted pig, with salt, possibly coconut water, some simple herbs and spices. Or at least that would be a historian’s best guess, not counting documentary proof from Pigafetta, Magellan’s chronicler. So what version of Cebu lechon are you referencing?? And why LIMIT IT TO ONLY ONE version? Who is to say that is the ONLY VERSION?

Besides, we created ZUBUCHON, precisely because we wanted to do our own version of a lechon. Not just to copy and do what others were already doing well. To innovate, to go back in time in some senses (no soy sauce, no msg, just coconut water, etc.) yet tweak it a little bit by adding rosemary and using a bit of olive oil. What is so odd with that? The name was taken from a 16th century map, which we actually own, that refers to the island as ZZUBU or “ZUBU” when we registered it. So even there, we reference the past, and try to ring true to it, with a modern twist, as I have repeatedly written. So no, our intention was not to make the same old, same old, which millions of folks love, but it just wasn’t our intention. So we called it ZUBUCHON. And you know what, I think it has every right to be referred to as a Cebuano lechon if you wanted to. Certainly just as much right as a lechon that is stuffed with green onions, garlic, a cup or two of MSG, lots of salt, brushed with bottled soy sauce and roasted over coals. Who said the latter type is the only lechon worthy of being referred to as a CEBU LECHON? It might be more popular, but it has no exclusive right to the moniker Cebu lechon. None. It’s like saying there can be only one version of Adobo.

Folks who bash so vociferously should perhaps note that Carcar lechons are often stuffed with pasyotes, or epazote, a marijuana looking like herb that came with Mexican sailors brought over during the galleon trade some 300-400 years AGO. Do you hear the bashers saying that’s an odd herb? That Carcar lechon isn’t worthy of being called a Cebuano lechon? Grow up. Take off your blinders. Broaden your minds. Educate yourself. Study some history. It’ll make your arguments more credible, substantial and believable.

4. “THE ONLY FOLKS WHO EAT AT ZUBUCHON ARE TOURISTS.”

This is one of those apocryphal assertions that will be believed by folks who think Elvis is still alive, the Loch Ness monster is real, the world is flat, and that all foreigners, outsiders, people unlike “us” are evil. Where does this lack of logic and xenophobic behavior come from? We have run Zubuchon for nearly 8 years now, and so you must understand we are in the best position to know our customer base. Here it is:

– Roughly 20-25% of our restaurant guests are local and foreign tourists. Of that figure, roughly 2% are foreign tourists, and say 23% or so are Manila or other provincial based tourists. We are proud of this. We are so happy guests come from all over the place. And we don’t automatically think tourists have bad taste, which is what haters seem to suggest when they say we only serve tourists who couldn’t possibly appreciate well-prepared food.
– That means, a solid 75-80% of our restaurant guests are locals. And they are locals who have come back to us time and again. Otherwise there is no way we could have opened up 8 restaurant locations in just 5 years. Bashers only need to visit our SM mall locations to see if their bizarre assertion that 80-100% of our guests are blonde and blue eyed, or only speak Tagalog, Ilocano and Chabacano. :) Seriously. Tsk. Tsk.

And better yet, when locals bring tourists, you should hear what they say, they sound downright proud to be hosting them for a meal at Zubuchon. So while you may wish to make yourselves believe no one like you eats with us, then we are happy that no one like you eats with us. We are happy to serve the guests who happily come to eat with us. We will never make everyone happy, nor will we satisfy the myriad of personal tastes that abound in the province. Duh.

5. “MR.BINAMIRA IS NOT CEBUANO”

This one makes me laugh. And makes my grandmother turn in her grave. First of all who cares? Is it not possible for a non-Cebuano to excel at making a Cebuano dish? The logic is so flawed one would be forgiven for thinking intelligence, or lack of it, is an issue. Does Margarita Fores, a friend, an Ilongga, self-trained cook not have a right to excel at Italian food and become Asia’s Best Female Chef? Is the best rated restaurant in the country not run by a Spaniard at the helm of the kitchen, serving Filipino inspired dishes? Does the Chef at Antonio’s, another highly rated restaurant and also an Ilonggo I believe, not make brilliant continental inspired dishes? Are not some of the top restaurants in Cebu, frequented by many of the upscale bashers run by non-locals serving local and international fare? Should Mr. Gokongwei not excel in food, real estate development and airlines in Manila just because he is originally from Cebu? Should the Gotianuns not likewise run a real estate conglomerate based out of Manila because they are from Cebu? Are the Aboitizes evil for having moved their corporate headquarters to Manila from Cebu and control business all over the country? Of course not. That’s just absurd. ABSURD.

For the record, I was BORN in Cebu, which technically makes me Cebuano. I moved to Manila and grew up there. I went to school in Manila, then to university and graduate school abroad. I lived and worked in places like Singapore, Jakarta, New York, London, Riyadh, Mumbai, Melbourne, Vienna, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Bangkok, Washington, DC, etc. I moved home in 1995 and started to spend a lot of time in Cebu in 2000 or so. My father was a Patalinghug, of the Opon (Mactan) Patalinjugs. My grandmother used to say her family went back several hundred years on the island of Mactan. There certainly are enough mayors and civil servants in that family, and roads named after them. My mother was a Veloso-Abueva, her mother from another established Cebu family, tracing her roots back to the Velosos who have lived here and Leyte, etc. for centuries. It’s a huge clan by now, I gather, and includes a rather infamous member of late. My wife’s family is Cebuano in roots as well, and is related to several of the folks that bashers might refer to as true blue CEBUANO. My wife, daughter and I hold Philippine passports, and never anything else (unlike the significant number of wealthy folks including Cebuanos who hold dual citizenship for convenience). So I am curious just where this concern about my being Cebuano or not is relevant or useful??

6. “ZUBUCHON MUST SPEND MILLIONS AND EMPLOY A BATTERY OF MARKETING/PR EXPERTS AND FIRMS”

Hahahaha. That’s the funniest thing ever. Our marketing department consists of one young wonderful staff member for nearly 15 outlets (restaurants, kiosks, drive-thrus). She also happens to have won the best song/songwriter award for a Visayan pop artist two years ago. And she is paid a modest salary. She does all our posters, Facebook posts, radio ad placements (she wrote and sang our Zubuchon jingles herself), packaging, stickers, menus, etc. with the help of our GM. We have an outsourced graphic designer, who did our logo 8 years ago, and does work for us to this day. We have NEVER employed an ad agency, a PR person, etc. We do not pay bloggers for posts, but we have hosted bloggers local and foreign, mostly at the request of the DOT, and we have also hosted television shows, movies, documentaries. We buy newspaper ads very rarely, usually to announce a new store. We have appeared in over 20+ newspaper and magazine articles, and NEVER ONCE DID WE PAY FOR THEM unless they were explicit advertisements. So you see, folks who think we actually spend money for the coverage we have gotten, WE DON’T. Doesn’t that just burn you up in a big way? This most recent vitriolic brouhaha is going to actually HELP us, despite your attempts to jointly push down Facebook ratings, leave vitriolic messages to dishearten our employees, etc. Because in the end, most publicity is good publicity. And all I did was put ONE INSTAGRAM post with a copy of our menu the other day. Now that’s a PR lesson for the PR professionals. How to get a message to 500,000 people for zero pesos. SAY THAT AGAIN, ZERO PESOS. :)

7. WHAT ZUBUCHON THINKS IS IMPORTANT TO US. Not what you think should be important.

1. We helped bring positive attention to Cebuano lechon. We innovated and charted our own path. We developed a new brand. We upped the ante with respect to lechon dining in Cebu. Before we opened, how many lechon restaurants were bright, airy, clean, air conditioned, frequented by locals and tourists alike? How many followed after us? Be honest. We introduced menu items and new products that are widely copied today. We re-introduced old products and dishes that we took inspiration from those who came before us.
2. We buy as much of our ingredients locally as possible. We use only backyard raised pigs. No commercial piggery pigs. We use as much local stuffing ingredients (except a few herbs and olive oil) as possible, spending upwards of PHP500 in stuffing/ingredients for each pig. We do not use ADDED MSG, and while that may turn off a large chunk of the market, that is WHO WE ARE, and there’s lots of room for other purveyors who prefer the MSG route rather than achieving flavor the old-fashioned way. If they are so proud of it, why don’t they scream “WE ADD LOTS OF MSG” to our lechons so locals and tourists alike will know that’s what they do??
3. We treat our people right. We have paid fair wages and all benefits from the beginning. We are 82% permanent staff, not ENDO. We have had NO BROKEN SHIFTS SINCE WE OPENED FOR BUSINESS. We don’t pay piecemeal like others who might pay say PHP50-100 a lechon they cook. (But if they burn it, they fine staff and sometimes make them pay for it.) We have relatively low employee turnover, more training than most places, and we gainfully employ nearly 300 staff members who in turn support over 1,200 family members. So in short, we have employed lots of Cebuanos very decently.
4. We try to provide good customer service. And while we often have shortfalls in this area, we do try harder and train more than we ever have before…
5. We are proud to be a Cebu-born and based company, and we look forward to opening our first restaurant in Manila.
6. We are NOT the biggest lechon company in Cebu, by far. In fact, we are only 4th or 5th in terms of lechons cooked. But we never aspired to be the biggest. We just aspired to do things our way, the best way for US and our clients. And we know we will only ever appeal to a small proportion of the dining population. We are happy with that. Not sure why others can’t be too. Whatever did we do to you to earn the vitriolic responses you so proudly place on our Facebook page, for others to see and know that you are so angry…

So before bashers get smug about throwing stones left and right, I ask the simple question, “Why Doesn’t Everyone Just Strive to be Better, not BITTER?”

Innovate and invent and create better products.
Raise the quality and standards of everything that you do.
Employ more people and employ them well — pay better, no broken shifts, pay all SSS, Philhealth & Pag-Ibig on time.
Build local brands rather than just look to everything imported.
Think of more productive and positive ways to spend your time.
Actually do something that benefits others who need it more than you do.
Be proud of what’s good, not denigrate others to make yourself feel more superior.
Understand what factual, logical and defensible assertions are.
Grow up.

Finally, I have always been asked by interviewers, friends and family what constitutes a great lechon? And my answer, and I think I have been quoted on this on more than one occasion, has always been… “Any lechon that is properly sourced from more natural surroundings, is stuffed with fresh ingredients (no MSG, my personal preference), and cooked with love over natural coals, and eaten while the steam still rises from its butt, is a great lechon.” I have enjoyed great Filipino lechons in Bacolod, Cebu, Bohol, Manila Legazpi, Palawan, Mindoro, Boracay, Quezon, Batangas, Manila, Tarlac and Ilocos. And great international lechons in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. And no, I NEVER, EVER said Zubuchon was “the best pig, ever”, Mr. Bourdain kindly said that for us, multiple times. Thanks again, Tony. You and I seem to be pissing off a lot of petty, envious, illogical folks lately. :)

The post Why Doesn’t Everyone Just Strive to be Better, not BITTER? appeared first on Market Manila.

The Picasso Museum in Paris was closed for several years for a proper refurbishing. We just happened to visit Paris a couple of weeks after the museum had re-opened, and Mrs. MM had the foresight to book tickets on-line. So one crisp and bright Sunday morning, we headed to the 3rd arrondissement (within the Marais) to see what it was like.

The courtyard outside the entrance to the museum was PACKED with people, and we momentarily hesitated at the sight of so many people until ushers showed us almost directly to the door, what with our on-line booking in-hand. Take heed of that tip, if headed to Paris, book your museum tickets in advance, you will have practically no wait time at all.

The building has been completely cleaned up, and the interiors are bright, light, airy and a perfect setting for the wonderful art displayed within.

I think I could totally live in a house like this… :) The detailing on the moldings, cornices, ceilings were just beautiful. The modern lighting fixtures at first seem out of place, but in fact, highlight the beauty of the building without distracting like a ginormous chandelier might do.

I have always liked Picasso’s paintings, though I was perhaps familiar with a more limited and more visible timeframe of his art. This early pointillist like painting was something I wouldn’t have guessed was part of his portfolio… La Retour du baptême d’après Le Nain, 1917.

Other early works range from more traditional outlines of a portrait, to highly linear and modern takes on the same subject matter.

Displayed in the same room are these linear metal sculptures that appear in some of this paintings as well.

This large colorful painting, Le Baiser or The Kiss from 1925 is more representative of the Picasso’s often seen going on the block for tens of millions of dollars, or in Modern art museums around the globe.

My photos here capture but a tiny fraction of the pieces on display at the Picasso museum. It’s amazing how prolific an artist can be, and he has hundreds of pieces scattered elsewhere on the planet as well!

Mrs. MM like this Portrait of Dora Maar.

While I thought there was something bizarre but appealing about this painting.

Nu couché et homme jouant de la guitare or Reclining nude and a man playing a guitar from 1970 makes me wonder if Picasso every really did have friends who lounged about in the nude while presumably clothed guitarists strummed nearby. I can’t imagine just reclining on the solihiya weave on our wooden couch in the living room in the buff… maybe I don’t have enough artistic genes in me… :)

I really liked some of his dark and mostly black pieces. I could see them hanging happily on our living room walls, if only he hadn’t become so sought after. The folks who bought his art to begin with must have been real pioneers and they enjoyed his paintings for many decades until it became clear their descendants would make millions off of a single canvas.

The museum isn’t limited to Picassos alone. There are a couple of rooms of paintings donated by the artist or friends of the artist. This Modigliani is classic…

…this landscape by Gauguin is beautiful.

There were several Renoir’s, but they have never really floated my boat, if you get my drift.

How could I not take a photo of this hunk of meat or Nature Morte or Still Life by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin?

And what about this Henri Matisse, Bouquet de fleurs dans le chocolatière 1902 or a Bouquet of flowers in a chocolate pot? Where’s the batidor?

And finally, I leave you with this Still life with Oranges, 1912, also by Matisse. The verdict on the Picasso Museum? Beautifully done. A must visit. And the neighborhood is one you will want to spend time in as well.

The post The Picasso Museum, Paris appeared first on Market Manila.

If you try and book one person on some regional flights, they quote you X. But if you book a couple of people, suddenly the price rises some 15-20% PER PERSON, not just 2X. In other words, it costs you much more to book as a couple (literal, or a couple of friends traveling together) than it does to book single journeys. That is particularly surprising as their current promo is that you can save if you travel with a bunch of friends…

I was so shocked by this seeming incongruity, that I made sure and tried several iterations, flipping back from single journey to a couple traveling together. I even bought a single journey. Then tried to book another single on the same flight, and indeed got the lower fare per person! THAT IS BAD ASS OBNOXIOUS! The week before I got nailed and paid more for two passengers. This week I would have done the same for three folks from the office, but wisened up and bought them individually. Forget that logic makes you think the prices would be the same, or even more rationally, that they might give you a break on prices if you are more people traveling together, but to intentionally charge you more for two people traveling together when you can book them separately and pay less? It just cements my growing view that the DUMBER THE CUSTOMERS, and the MORE OPPORTUNISTIC the BUSINESS OWNERS, the more money is to be made in the Philippines.

So wise up folks. Let your friends know. Check the single journey price and the double journey ones before you book. And I just now checked the domestic flights and for the few destinations I checked, they don’t seem to do the same thing. But be wary nonetheless.

The post A Dirty Little Airline Ticketing Secret… appeared first on Market Manila.

You gotta love Filipino ingenuity… We can be fairly handy when it comes to fixing things, or coming up with solutions on the fly. Our mariners around the globe are reputed for their abilities on ships and engine rooms, and our crews and professionals all over the place likely come up with ingenious solutions time and again. So one has to wonder why we don’t invent more things, formally improve on existing products, and go all the way and patent these so we preserve the value of the intellectual capital. Instead, we are often known for simply just copying the latest and greatest craze. Take “boneless lechon” for example. A product I and wrote about in 2008 (a simple modified porches with local flavorings) and officially launched in 2011 as a “Boneless Liempo” and later “Boneless Zubuchon” is now ALL OVER THE PLACE, in at least 300+ locations in Cebu, the Visayas and Luzon as well. And just look at those street side examples where one guy offers something and within a year 14 neighbors are offering exactly the same thing…

But I digress. Just take a look at this novel approach to moving around the city in a wheelchair. This guy altered his motorcycle so he could be wheeled up and drive himself to work or wherever he wants to go. Amazing. Loud applause from our car as I spied this on a major street in Cebu! It probably doesn’t meet ANY safety standards or rules for transport of persons with disabilities, but do you really think a cop is going to stop this guy and give him a hard time? For nearly a year, we used to have a guy in an electric wheelchair drive himself on the MAIN ROAD (we have no sidewalks) at 10kph to reach our Escario branch to lunch on some lechon. And he was in his 80’s! I wonder if he would like this contraption or if they would race down the avenue at full throttle… :)

The post You Gotta Love It… appeared first on Market Manila.

This is my horoscope in today’s papers (Philippine Daily Inquirer):

“LEO – Your work routine will be interrupted today, perhaps because of computer crashes, canceled meetings or staff shortages. Allow extra time so that you can cope with the unexpected.”

And this was the reality of my day:

Upgraded my MAC to the latest software this morning. That took two hours. Then I decided to look in on my photos, and it so nicely suggested I move them over from iPhoto to Photos. I momentarily freaked out as it seemed I had somehow lost some 15,000 photos from the last 18 months alone (not to worry, you say, I have 14,700 or so backed up on my desktop and an external drive) but then finally figured out how to move them over, that took another two hours as well. But they lost organization and tags, and now it’s just organized by date I took them. And for some reason there are now 2,000+ duplicate photos that I have to eliminate almost one by one to clear up precious memory space (finished with 1,000 of those, took nearly an hour). Then, I decided I should publish a post, and realize that Photos is NOT iPhoto, so it took me an hour to figure out how to bloody resize a F%$#&! photo. I swear, this is the revenge of the younger generation on a middle-aged man with no desire to turn techy at this late stage in my life. :)

At any rate, all will be well, and at 7pm on a Saturday, I have done nothing but computer stuff the entire day, with a brief break at lunch to doodle with my new toy, a small portable brick oven to some mixed results, which hopefully I will be able to post on on the blog at some point, when I get over the latest technological hurdles. Ah, managed a photo or two for this post, yahoo!

I am thinking of hiring a tech student this summer with brilliant MAC skills to just get my computers and files in order. That is this generation’s equivalent of an old boss during a summer in college who once hired me on the side to balance thousands of cheques from her chequebook over a 7 year period and she paid me $100 a day to do it. I finished the task in about 5 days, earned $500 but found several errors from her bank so the lady was refunded over a thousand dollars as a result. She paid me $500, she got over $1,000 back. Go figure, life just isn’t fair. Needless to say, she was extremely pleased with her young apprentice. And needless to say, when you rifle through one’s cheques (in those days) you learn a whole lot of private information that you probably shouldn’t be privy to… :)

Note: you cannot imagine how long it took me to write and publish this post, some 8-10x longer than normal. That’s it for the computer today, I am off to binge watch my latest obsession… Shonda Rhimes new series “How to Get Away with Murder” – Season 1.

The post Believe in Horoscopes? appeared first on Market Manila.

I recently ran across an article that claimed that human attention spans are shortening significantly and that humans clocked in with attention spans (or ability to focus on something before getting distracted) of just 8 seconds on average in 2013 (down 40% from 13 seconds in 2000), or 1 second less than a goldfish’s ability to concentrate on a task!!! Sure, it could be apocryphal, but it demonstrates a point I have been harping on for years, that the kids today flit from one thing to another, without gaining sufficient depth. And I shouldn’t just target kids, adults are like epileptic wasps on crack as well. When this blog was new, the average visit to the blog lasted 4+ minutes. Today, it is closer to just 1 minute, even for older posts, and it just tells me that people don’t even read most of the post, since I haven’t really shortened my posts that much and I blather on as before. That’s why I often get comments at the end of a lengthy post describing a recipe and the question is “Do you have a recipe for this?” or “Where did you buy this?” (when it is all imbedded in the post) to which I often bite my lip and twitch my fingers to avoid wishing the heavens strike down the Attention Deficit Disorder afflicted reader with a bolt of lightning!

This blog never needed vast readership, it didn’t thrive on visitor statistics, it didn’t have a commercial bent and therefor all the standard metrics didn’t really matter, or did they? They simply kept reminding me that there were folks out there who were still interested, that there were cyber friends I had never met who kept coming back year after year after year. And who knows how many people have eaten meals from experiments and recipes I have posted over the years…you don’t know how much of a high that gives me, I only hope I didn’t poison many of them. So to marketmanila.com and to all of you, a sound round of applause. Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for chiming in with intelligent and knowledgeable input, with empathy and caring in times of disaster, and with a common bond that boils down to food. I never thought I would make it this far, and I have occasionally felt my creative well had run dry, but you have all helped to keep me pumped up. And while I don’t post as often as I used to, I will continue to do it (sometimes, sporadically) and keep the blog up until that point that it just doesn’t make sense anymore. Or until the day that folks no longer drop by.

And as a THANK YOU to readers, in the next few days or so, I will be raffling off a few of my cookbooks and the ultimate prize, a custom-made, denim-lined, leather-trimmed rattan market basket with wheels made by S.C. Vizcarra which probably retails for a couple of hundred U.S. dollars abroad. And you can’t buy it retail here either, it must be custom ordered. Stick around and let the games begin…

P.S., those of you who won bottles of sister’s jam a few weeks back would be pleased to know that several of her entries to this year’s competition in England won medals, so you were eating from batches of gold medalist jams… I meant to do a post on that but I can’t seem to open the photo she sent me a while back.

The post Marketmanila’s 4,000th Post… appeared first on Market Manila.

Not quite a shroud. More like an old chaise lounge cushion laid right by the pool. I was flipping through a cookbook after a dip in the pool and left this impression. :) We tend to hate crowds and the inevitable traffic that come with them, so we got a jump start on the throngs of people who make the exodus from the city to the sea shore… We left for the beach on Monday and just got back to the city earlier today (in record time and no traffic), after passing one procession that meant we had SERIOUS BLOOD SPLATTERS all over one side of our vehicle. I was amazed they still do that re-enactment of self flagellation in this day and age, but kudos to the volunteer sinners is all I can say. Let’s not go there.

We hope you enjoy the Easter holidays however you individually chose to do that. I miss the days when our daughter was young and we decorated easter eggs and organized elaborate egg hunts on Easter Sunday (wasn’t it always Easter Monday when YOU were growing up? who changed that?). Or earlier than that, attending masses where folks still got dressed up (including some in foreign countries with easter bonnets or hats were still in vogue). I also distinctly recall fainting and being literally dragged out on the main aisle of the Baguio Cathedral by my mother one Easter mass when I was say 8 years old, how embarrassing is that? I was revived with a cold bottle of coke in the parking lot. :) This year we are home alone, and will be joining friends for lunch on Easter. But we will be sending good vibes to our daughter, who as a freshman in college, has been given the highly unusual honor of covering the 137th Annual Easter Egg Roll on the South lawn of the White House on Monday, the 6th of April 2015 for her school newspaper. She called to say her security hurdles (she is a foreigner with no social security number) had just cleared and her press pass was ready to join the thousands of folks who will hunt for easter eggs and play games with the President and First Lady as hosts. I have to email her that all that training as a kid in our backyard should come in handy if she is to manage getting one of the coveted white house eggs on Monday. Hahaha. She’s there with a camera and pen and pad, but Dad wants her to elbow eager 4-year olds from large bushes to find a special egg, and better still get a selfie with the President or the First Lady… She has about a 1/3,500 chance of that happening. I would just be worried that with thousands of guests for the day, my wonderful lawn is going to be seriously trampled on, and STAY CLEAR OF THE ROSE BUSHES!!! :) Happy Easter to you all!

If you search easter/eggs/meals on marketmanila that will take you to nearly a dozen old posts on easter eggs, candies, cookies, goodies and meals…

The post Have a Good Easter Holiday Break… appeared first on Market Manila.

I have heard some ridiculous things, and I am well aware of the sorry state of our public education system, despite real attempts to improve it in recent years. And I have set up a private school and assisted in running the administrative side of things for a while, so I am not speaking completely out of turn. But this is graduation week (as was last week) for most schools in the Philippines and I just have to write something on some of the absurd things that have come to my attention in recent days.

First, why can’t schools FRIGGING SCHEDULE THEIR CEREMONIES MONTHS IN ADVANCE? It seems many public, and some dubious private schools, cannot or do not want to confirm a graduation date and time until the last possible moment. This is crazy. What if parents are traveling (and not just a leisure trip abroad, but say a business trip to Dagupan)? What if they have to file their leaves weeks in advance? Shouldn’t the school have a calendar at the start of the year and stick to it unless force majeure like a nearby volcano erupts and buries the school gymnasium or a massive flood sweeps away the whole teaching complement occurs?

Second, what are with all these last minute fees that you have to pay, or you can’t march? Is that even legal? And couldn’t they have foreseen that earlier in the year? And what of the folks I had dinner with last week whose daughter graduated from college and was asked to pay substantial fees for a graduation dinner for graduate and family members, but when they got to the venue, the teachers and administrators (who apparently didn’t pay) ate up most of the food, and there wasn’t any left for the guests or students? That’s just pathetic.

But perhaps the most amusing/annoying thing to come across this morning driving through some back streets in Cebu was this vision of 100-200 high school students traipsing along a sidewalk, each with mono bloc or white plastic chair above their heads. When I asked what this vision of ridiculousness was, I was told, each student had to buy or borrow and BRING their own white chair from home or they couldn’t sit at the graduation ceremonies, held at a nearby public gymnasium. OMG. Seriously? Our public schools don’t have enough money for plastic chairs for assemblies throughout the year, and to honor their graduates at that final culmination of their academic studies? Good grief. Graduation is most certainly not more fun in the Philippines…

Both photos by JD.

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In effect, he said “I have never seen downtown Manila streets so clean, there isn’t a shred of garbage, there is so much repainting going on, there is so much stuff cleared away, IT LOOKS INCREDIBLY GOOD. AMAZING. FANTASTIC. But why did they do it? For a visiting WHITE GUY. Why can’t you do it for yourselves? Why aren’t Filipinos proud enough to keep their own surroundings clean and tidy? Why just this temporary show that belies the daily truth?”

Then in the days that followed, I listened with increasing incredulity at the planned holiday and transport movements in order to ensure a hassle free visit for the Vicar of Christ…

Basically, we had to declare 3 non-working holidays that cost the economy BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of pesos in productivity and increased cost to companies. We had to cancel several HUNDRED SCHEDULED FLIGHTS and inconvenience tens of thousands of passengers, and hundreds of thousands of commuters, in order to ensure that there is 5-6 hour no drive, no flight zone around the intended arrival of the pontiff. In no other civilized nation have I heard of the local officials having to bring traffic to a virtual STOP for 6 hours for any visiting dignitary or set of dignitaries. And worse, when they did they “dry run” a couple of days ago, they still had serious problems and couldn’t get the schedule down pat.

And forget transport movements, we were the butt of international press and derided by many for the PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED plan to make our police officers and traffic aides SHIT AND PEE in their pants, literally, with two adult diapers provided per person. And I listened on the radio during the Black Nazarene procession to radio commentators ask policemen how damp their diapers were. SERIOUSLY?!

But I hadn’t planned on writing about the Pope’s visit at all, until this UTTERLY UPSETTING ONLINE story found its way to my attention, and it was just the straw that broke this camel’s back…

Basically, it seems authorities have been rounding up, caging, jailing and handcuffing ragamuffins and beggars in Manila to make sure they cause no trouble, or are kept from the eyes of the visiting Pope. This is an utter EMBARRASSMENT and a SHAME to a country playing host to a man who is supposed to be the ultimately example of Christian values, humility, simplicity, charity, etc. Does the Pope know authorities are handcuffing children to poles using his visit as the excuse for the atrocious inhumane treatment?

But really, how low can we, as a nation of people go? Are we too incompetent and unable to keep our own streets clean on a daily basis? Do we only clean up our acts for visiting white people? Or visiting VIP’s of any color? Are we too stupid that we can’t manage infrastructure requirements that can handle the visit of an important dignitary that will attract millions of people to see him or her? Do we have to spend BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in pesos in opportunity cost and lost so that our roads are free of the mayhem and traffic and commuting nightmare that MILLIONS OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS must suffer through at least two times every single day of their working life? Are we so unable to plan a major event that we have to CANCEL HUNDREDS OF FLIGHTS AND INCOVENIENCE MILLIONS ON THE ROADS as the best solution to clearing a reasonable path for the entry of a dignitary into our midst? Do the roads really have to be EMPTY along the procession route for a total of 6 HOURS BEFORE THE PONTIFF IS EVEN SCHEDULED TO PASS? Can we not treat our policemen and women with dignity and schedule their shifts so they have time to take a bathroom break every hour or two? And are we no better than the Marcos regime that was famous for covering up sight lines to squatter colonies with plywood boards and painting them white? I just noticed the quintessential view from the bridge on Tramo street of the squatters in Pasay across a waterway that is open for all to see — but the Pope isn’t passing there on this trip.

And the billions of billions of pesos in opportunity and actual cost? Couldn’t we have built thousands and thousands of homes for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan instead?!? Why has it been over a year and so damn little has been done to spend the funds that have been set aside, offered by international donors, etc. for the benefits of those affected by the storms? And let us not sweep under the carpet the fact that the majority of Filipinos live in poverty or near poverty conditions, that we have an estimated 500,000+ ABORTIONS in this country EVERY SINGLE YEAR, that we have fairly high crime rates, and we have one of the most thriving cultures of gambling for a mostly catholic nation, one of the larger ones on the planet.

I am thrilled that the Pope chose to visit the Philippines and is traveling to Tacloban, and I am sure millions and millions of Filipinos are pleased he is coming as well. But until WE figure out that God or the gods are NOT GOING TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS, rather WE ARE THE ONES THAT HOLD THE KEY TO SOLVING WHAT AILS US AND OUR SOCIETY and God just observes and perhaps coaches us how to act in the face of adversity, we are probably just going to sink deeper and deeper into the appalling abyss.

The post Seriously, how low can we go??? appeared first on Market Manila.