I’d been bugging Sarie to eat at Peanut Butter Company for what seemed to be one million years. I’d first heard about the place from Marla’s LJ, and I was kind of hell-bent on trying out the food. (Turns out one of the people I went to school with, Mike Parker, did the awesome branding, too.)

Not exactly a peanut butter fiend, but the idea of mixing it with savory dishes, as well as rumors of flavored peanut butter, made me want to try it out. We went to the branch in Paseo Center, and basically feasted as much as two short people can.

A rundown of things we ate:

Cold Asian Noodles! Mine. I can say ‘no’ to very little sesame-related products and/or requests. For example, a creeper that hollers “Open Sesame!” to our door would get a ‘no.’ I love the taste of sesame, though. These noodles have a great richness to them, but I would probably get the sauce on the side, though, since it felt like it was drenched in it. Good thing the sauce was good. More sesame than peanut butter-y, but I dig it.

BBQ Wings with Rice (Sarie’s) & an order of Box of Chips (to share, but I ate it all). I didn’t get to taste the wings, but according to her it was good. Not very peanut butter-y either, but still, the wings held up. The potatoes were good. Less flavored than Shakey’s Mojos, but I think you can eat them with some sort of PB-mayo dip. (Unfortunately, I hate mayo. Still yummy on their own, though. Balanced out the sesame rain on my pasta, I think.)

Marshmallow PB Sandwich. WE HAVE A WINNER. I wanted something sweet after my lunch, and was drawn to this item instantly. I have an enormous sweet tooth. My body’s probably running on sugar. Anyway, this sandwich did not disappoint. Perfect toasted bread (thick slice!), a generous serving of marshmallow fluff, and a hint of their creamy peanut butter. I was in heaven. Sarie had a couple of bites, too, and she is kind of a sandwich-hater. I know, preposterous!

We also tasted the Curry Chicken Spaghetti, and it was okay. Edible and flavorful, but I don’t think I would order it again.

The best part about all of this is that you get to take the goodness home! Peanut Butter Company bottles all of these peanut butter variants, and sells them for affordable prices. I bought their 50g (I think?) bottles at Php 55 each. I got Cardamon (Cardamom?), Green Tea, and Sesame. They have regular peanut butter, though, and they come in creamy and crunchy. Marla took a photo of the available flavors, which I am nicking for your convenience. The bottles look tiny, but I suspect they will last longer. They also come in bigger jars, but I wanted to sample a lot of flavors.

For breakfast today, I ate toast with the green tea and cardamon flavors. I am thinking about eating another couple of slices once I’m done writing this. Would it be worth the calories? HELLZ YES. I don’t know any happy person who counts calories. (Just kidding, but ugh, I need my toast, leave me alone.)

I guess I am slowly turning into a peanut butter fiend, but I am so frakking excited to try ALL OF THEM.

Peanut Butter Company is located at the first floor of Paseo Center (cor. of Sedeno Street and Paseo de Roxas), and near the IMAX theater in SM North Edsa. The Paseo branch closes at 5PM on Saturdays!

I do not think it is a franchise of New York’s Peanut Butter & Co. I’m pretty sure it’s local, and that is why I love it even more.

I just finished reading Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit From the Goon Squad” and you should know that this is not a review so much as a congregation of Things This Book Made Me Feel. I think, before I will be able to write a proper review, I would have to revisit the novel again (which I don’t mind, because I thought it was beautiful) or talk to other people who’ve read it. I thought it was brilliant, because aside from making me care about what—and oftentimes, who—she was writing about, Egan also utilized so many different ways of telling a story, fitting of the characters, the stories, and the circumstances.

Most of all, this novel moved me to want to start writing again.

Currently, my writing has been limited to tiny snippets of semi-fiction and to-do lists, some scenes that would play out in words and paragraphs, but would stay in my head, eventually disappearing forever. Example: a smattering of notes for a YA novel I have had in my head for a while. Another example: a collection of short fiction that I never quite managed to complete.

I used to dream about having my fiction published, and writing a column for some magazine or broadsheet or online tendency catalog group. That was what I always wanted to be, but I think I really just am more sensitive about my writing than my design work. I never really published a lot of my stories, but I wrote all the time. This was the journal I used to bring around with me from when I started college until the end of sophomore year:

Right now, I’ve still been writing, but the level of documentation from then is so much different. It was very entertaining to read through: often funny, sometimes sad and painful. But I loved it because it reminded me of how real those feelings felt at the time, and it showed me a) that it really does get better, and b) how much I’ve grown up, even if sometimes, it doesn’t quite feel like it.

I’ve been writing in tiny notebooks (Field Notes is obviously the brand of choice, LOL), and while it is awesome for to-do lists and keeping me in line when it comes to productivity, it’s not particularly helpful for me when I want to write. Maybe that’s just an excuse I’d been formulating. Maybe it’s not in the tools, but in the want to write, in the desire to keep track of everything, in the love of telling stories.

Sometimes I think that maybe I was never meant to be a writer. This years-long dry spell is a little bit ridiculous. But, Egan’s writing jolted a desire I’d been nursing from before I could even remember: to put thoughts and ideas and lives into words. It moved me to want to start turning possibilities into actual, tangible writing. Maybe I’ll come up with something crappy, but that’s O.K. The important thing is that I always just try to be better. It’s better to come up with creating something that could possibly be good, than giving up before even getting started.

Something from a person whose work (and opinions!) I admire, Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.

And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.

It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.“

And so, my personal mantra, until I die:

The thing with using film to take photos is that you have to be patient and diligent, and I am neither of those things. These photos were taken with a disposable black & white camera (Rollei Retro400) on March 9th this year. Cat and Macky spun~ at Future in Cubao X. I don’t actually know what made me go to this thing, because aside from being a hermit, I am also kind of wary of new and unfamiliar social situations. Alas, I went and I am glad I did!

Here are some photos. So much has changed since then, but I’d like to think that the switch in velocity was a good one.

About the camera: it’s OK! Some photos looked a bit washed out, but it’s good for what it is. I ordered it from the Lomography online store, which ships to pretty much anywhere. It was easy to use, but there was not a great range of things you can do with it. It really is just a fuss-free, point-and-shoot, black & white camera that you can forget about after you’ve used it. I would get another one if I manage to get another chance to.

More photos under the cut! Continue reading BLAST FROM THE PAST: CUNNING LINGUISTS….