Tattoos and chocolate.

This week was pretty much the usual. Spent my time at home working on my article for The Philippine Star, after not appearing for the previous Saturday's edition because of the lack of space. It felt really nice to be back, even though I was only gone for one edition.

Monocle (November 2010), Dazed & Confused (November 2009), Wallpaper (June 2010 and February 2010)

To celebrate, I went with Nikko to a magazine stand that sells back issues of Monocle and Wallpaper, two magazines you don't usually see in your ordinary bargain bookstore. I must admit I went trigger happy because I bought one copy of Monocle, two of Wallpaper, and one Dazed & Confused. The mall isn't really known for fun (the logo of some stores were still the old ones, especially Penshoppe), but I did get my latest copy of Rogue in their National Bookstore. The issue with KC Concepcion on the cover is incredibly hard to find so imagine my joy when I found heaps of it in said mall. Went to SM Mall of Asia for dinner, where we ate at Wham! Burgers, an underrated burger joint. I'm not sure, but it's always empty whenever I go.

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander did not disappoint - her Oscar nomination was well-deserved (photo from here)

On Friday, I was in Shangri-La Plaza with Myk to watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I bought the book two weeks ago and fell in love with it so I invited Myk to watch it with me. He hasn't read the book but he enjoyed the movie that he also watched the first adaptation with Michael Nyqvist (of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol). The movie was gripping and for someone whose attention span is that of a five year old's, I didn't get bored even though it was almost three hours long. It was directed by David Fincher, with the soundtrack created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - the three people responsible for the greatness that is The Social Network. We had dinner at Bon Chon (packed as usual) and dessert at Secret Recipe. The cakes there are really divine.

Harold's Cheese Bar from Machiavelli Chocolatier. It's not too sweet but it's packed with deliciousness

While I was in the mall, I also got Harold's Cheese Bar from Machiavelli Chocolates, a local chocolatier that liberally uses local ingredients. The Harold's Cheese Bar is dark chocolate with Malagos Blue Peppato cheese (mildly-aged cow's milk cheese with whole green pepper corn) from Davao. It's really chewy and delicious without the cloying sweetness of cheap chocolate. It's going to be big, especially now that Kris Aquino made an order for PNoy's birthday.