Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Jollibee's newest Entertainment Channel

Jollibee, the country’s number one fast-food brand, is expanding not only around the world but also online with the launch of Jollibee Studios.

Jollibee Studios is the first content channel of its kind in Philippine QSR branded entertainment and aims to deliver quality content that is bound to make viewers cry, laugh, fall in love, and more.

“This all-new entertainment channel stems from the wonderful reception towards our latest digital content that we’ve received not only from our fans online but from global industry leaders,” said Arline Adeva, Jollibee AVP for Brand PR, Communications and Digital. “Even in the past, Jollibee has been known to be quite the storyteller, producing many of the country’s most memorable ads. And today, we raise the bar in storytelling and branded entertainment through Jollibee Studios.”

Jollibee Studios was officially launched on November 21, Wednesday in an exclusive event held at Metrotent Convention Center in Pasig City. The director and actors from the series unveiled graced the event, along with Jollibee executives, influencers, and media guests.

Jollibee has been dubbed a game-changer and the country’s #1 QSR brand in digital engagement. This is thanks to the slew of heartwarming content that have touched the hearts of viewers in the country and around the world and sparked conversations between the brand and its audience.

A creative digital powerhouse

Jollibee Studios brings together a team of creatives, directors, performers, and production professionals to conceptualize and produce compelling stories of Filipinos and with the brand.


Jollibee Studios houses the brand’s digital hits, including the well-loved Kwentong Jollibee videos, two seasons of the quirky, star-studded JolliSavers series 14/29: Petsa de Peligro JolliSery, and the exciting JolliDance Showdowns starring the brand’s most lovable mascot. All of these digital-led projects racked up impressive figures of views, reactions, shares, and comments on Jollibee’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The latest series to burst forth from the Jollibee Studios stable is Chickenjoy Perfect Pair’s One True Pair, a romance-serye with episodes under the direction of acclaimed hitmakers JP Habac and Antoinette Jadaone. Two episodes—both revolving around love and perfect pairs—will be serving the most relatable kilig starting November 22, 2018.

“By bringing together the creative and entertainment industry’s top talents, viewers can be sure that the content from Jollibee Studios is not only high-quality, but also features stories told in new, innovative ways,” added Adeva.

Award-winning channel

To date, the Jollibee Studios YouTube channel boasts of over 247,000 subscribers. 

“We earned those figures by ensuring that our content feels authentic, and touch on relatable experiences and situations that illustrate how Jollibee has touched the lives of generations of Filipino diners,” Adeva said.

To recognize this milestone, Google was present during the launch where Jollibee Studios was awarded the Silver Creator Award by YouTube. This is a recognition only given to content creators whose channels have reached the 100,000-subscriber mark.


“Pinoy netizens can expect more exciting, engaging, and heartwarming content to come their way in the very near future, all from Jollibee Studios so we encourage everyone to subscribe and keep watching!” concluded Adeva.

For more information on Jollibee’s latest digital content, products, and promotions, like Jollibee Philippines on Facebook, subscribe to Jollibee Studios (youtube.com/JollibeeStudios) on YouTube, and follow @Jollibee on Twitter and Instagram.

Flavor your Fun with Conagra Brands

Have you ever thought of a certain brand and it just made you smile? This has happened to me so many times but when I first heard of Conagra, I came up with nothing. I realized that I wasn't familiar with the name of the brand but when I received a package of what they had, I realized that I actually knew of them, I just didn't know directly that it was them. 



My brothers love Vienna Sausage, my Mom and I loves Peter Pan Creamy peanut butter spread, and M super loves Libby McNeil Corned Beef. B, on the other hand, loves the Chocolate Pudding from Snack Pack. 









For baking needs, these are some of our go-to products. The Blue Bonnet margarine just adds a bit more oomph in the pastries we produce. 




Discover delectable ways to get creative and make memories with Conagra Brands’ roster of quality products the whole family is sure to love. One of North America's leading packaged food companies with beloved brands including Hunt’s tomato products, Libby’s Vienna sausage and corned beef, PAM cooking spray, Peter Pan peanut butter, Act II popcorn, Snack Pack pudding and gels, Reddi Wip whipped cream and Blue Bonnet margarine, Conagra Brands lets you #FlavorYourFun with ease and share it with the people you love whenever you’re together.

Nokia 7 Plus

Yes, Nokia is back in the game and it has finally joined the Android world by launching it's very own line of new phones. One of which, we were lucky enough to play with for a couple of weeks.

This is the Nokia 7 Plus. One thing I loved about it is how it feels in your hands. Sleek, smooth, and easy to manage, it feels like it belongs in your hand. There's no awkward angle or edges and it just glides smoothly.


This one also comes with a dual camera. The main camera has 12 MP, f/1.8, 25mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF and 13 MP, f/2.6, 1/3.4", 1.0µm, 2x optical zoom.


I like that it supports Type C cable. I feel like it's more durable than the Micro.




PROs: The Nokia 7 Plus is good for an average user. It has enough memory and ram to perform daily tasks and run an average workload.

It's sleek so you can show it off and not worry about looking "baduy."

Price wise, it is also reasonable and will not break the bank.

Camera wise, it's average. If you're into hardcore mobile photography, this might not be enough but if you're an average user, then this phone is more than enough.






CONS:

Battery life is not strong enough if you have mobile data on the whole day. The processor also slows down when you have more than 10 apps open all at the same time.

The Nokia 7 Plus is a good intro for the Nokia line. It's good enough for the casual user but if Nokia wants to really engage the competition, they'd need to step up their game so they can also cover the heavy users and gamers.

beep™ card caps off a busy 2018

One of the things that I have continuously wished for after being able to go out of the country was for us to have something similar to the Octopus card of Hong Kong where you just use one card for almost everything. You can use it to pay for MTR, bus, groceries, fast food, and even restaurants.

It's fast, safe, and convenient.



This is what BEEP card is also aiming for.

beep™ is widely used today to pay for transport services.  It can be used in point-to-point (P2P) buses plying key cities in the metro, and recently, in public utility vehicles such as modern jeepneys and, e-trikes deployed in the walled city of Intramuros.  The beep system has recently been introduced in Mindanao via Husky Tours, which operates a fleet of buses between General Santos and Cotabato.

It was also this year, at 8-8-18 (August 8, 2018), when beep card hit its 1 billionth transaction in the light rail network (LRT 1, LRT 2, MRT 3) since inception in 2015, which demonstrated the reliability and robustness of the system.

In a bid to develop cashless communities, beep™ collaborated with Property Company of Friends (PRO-FRIENDS) to offer beep™-enabled resident identification cards for access to transportation to and from and within its masterplanned communities in Cavite — Lancaster New City and Bellefort Estates — and entry to their key facilities.  In 2018, St. Jude Catholic School became the first beep-integrated educational institution with beep-enabled ID cards that allow their students to purchase cash-free from merchants inside the campus and avail of Student discounts when they ride public buses and PUVs with beep acceptance.



To support this growing network and make reloading more convenient, beep™ card partnered with Coins.ph and EON by Unionbank to offer mobile app & Over-the-air (OTA) reloading, and China Bank for the first ever ATM reloading service.

This year also saw the launch of the beep™ app, which allows cardholders to track their transactions and check load balance, a feature that has been requested by digital savvy users.

“2018 has been a productive year for beep™ as it allowed us to form strategic alliances and establish more innovative ways to extend our service to a wider public. We look forward to to expanding our network through 2019,” Maher said.

Over 5 million beep cards are currently in the market. These cards are used to pay for fare at elevated trains and select transportation, toll fees, as well as for purchases at select retail outlets. More information about beep™ is available at its website and official social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Monday, November 26, 2018

Nanyang, a taste of Singapore in Manila

As you know, I was in Singapore 2 weeks ago and I indulged in a lot of Singaporean food. When I visited Nanyang, I had no idea what the cuisine was. I was just told that it would be good so I was truly delighted when I learned that it was Singaporean cuisine.


This is Kaya Toast and it comes with soft boiled egg. I was really apprehensive because soft boiled egg is known to be notoriously hard to achieve but I was really pleased to find out that they serve soft boiled eggs perfectly.


The fish ball noodle soup was another thing that I was apprehensive about. After all, fishball here and the fishball in Singapore are two very different things which is why I was really happy to see that they used legitimate fishball. I just wished that the serving was a lot bigger.


The chicken laksa was a little bit too strong for me. It was not hot but it was bordering between spicy and hot. Singaporean laksa is more spicy and not hot. It gives a zing but it's not overpowering. This one was a bit too overpowering for my taste.


The Shrimp Noodle was a little bland for me. I wouldn't really recommend this dish.


The dried fishball noodle was basically the fishball noodle minus the soup so if you're not a fan of soup, this is what you should get.


The Hainanese Chicken is good enough. It's not amazing but it's also not bad. If you're craving for Singaporean Hainanese Chicken, this will do to curve it.


The Kopi Teh Melaka is a good choice for those who like strong coffee partnered with milk tea and condensed milk. This was to my liking though not everyone will enjoy it.


Overall, I'd say that I'll go back to Nanyang if only for the kaya toast and the fishball noodle. I also want to try out the prawn laksa and see if it's better than the chicken laksa.


Nanyang is located in Greenbelt 5, Level 3, near Hobbes and Lande.

HongTeng



This is one of the many Chinese restaurants that has recently sprouted along Macapagal, near MOA Arena. M and I passed by this place once and on the second time, we found ourselves stopping to grab a bite because my Mom was feeling famished after watching ONE Championship.


When we entered, we had no idea that it was a hotpot place but soon understood that it was when we saw this setup.


These are the choice meats that you can choose from. You pay per plate so it can be a little steep. This is where strategy comes into play and you need to decide which one would work best on your hotpot.


This is the condiment area.


This is what we chose to include in our hot pot.



TADA!


You can also choose these hotpot staples and you pay per stick.


Would I recommend this place? I'd say yes if you have spare money to spend. The food was good, the service was great, and the ambiance would make you feel like you're in China.


It was definitely one of those random eat outs that were truly worth every peso spent.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Singapore Eats Round 2

Last time I was in Singapore, I was not able to try out the laksa. This time around, I promised myself that I would try it and on the 4th day, I did.


This Laksa was from a food court but it was sooo good. It was spicy but because it was not the kind of spicy hot that burns your tongue, I actually finished the entire thing.  Laksa is a spicy noodle soup popular in Peranakan cuisine. Laksa consists of rice noodles or rice vermicelli with chicken, prawn or fish, served in spicy soup based on either rich and spicy curry coconut milk or on sour asam (tamarind or gelugur). Laksa is found in Malaysia,Singapore, Indonesia, and Southern Thailand.


This was a meal we had in a food court named Cookhouse by Koufu. It's so amazing how the food in their food court can be so delicious. It can rival our restaurants here. Step it up Manila, step it up! They even had Buddha Jump Over the Wall in small portions, something that can never be had here in the Philippines. Here, you'd need to order 3 days in advance and pay over Php10,000. In Singapore, this bowl costs $8 only and it came with rice. $8 is less than Php320.



 They also had satay but unlike the previous one I had, this was just so-so.


Another place my brothers took me was Suki-ya which was near the Singapore Indoor Stadium.


This one is an eat all you can hotpot and though I've had similar hotpots in Manila, this one is equally nice. Make sure you have one of those Singaporean apps though so that the meal here can be a buy one take one or have a massive discount because this meal is about $20 per head.




The other places that we ate at was Tachihara. It's a brunch kind of place but there wasn't really anything memorable about the place. If you're into cinnamon toast, they serve a good one.


The most memorable place that we ate at was Ginza Tendon Itsuki. I am telling you guys, THIS PLACE ROCKS!


They only have two items you can choose from. We had the Special.


This is how it looks inside. Luckily, we were given one of the 3 tables inside because there were 4 of us. PRO TIP: If you are a party of 3, 4 and up, they will not let you in unless you are all complete.


TADA!!!! This is the most delicious tempura that I have ever had. OMIGOD it was so good that I promised myself I will bring B there because I know that he will enjoy the food so much since he loves tempura like crazy.


Last time, I did not tell you the name of the place where I found the Salted Egg Crab. This time, I can share with you the details.


So this place is located in Queenstown, near Ikea and is called Koufu.


This is the salted egg crab that I have been raving about. It's not cheap BUT it's so worth it. This one is $45.


The cereal prawn is another thing you need to order here. I'd say prepare to spend a lot more in this place but be ready to have taste buds go to heaven as well since the food is really good.


On the ground floor of BOSS Hotel is EPIC which is a fancy hawker place. I say fancy because it is air conditioned but the prices are still cheap.


This fishball noodle is SOOOO good. Really good. Amazingly good. Good enough that I made this my last meal before flying out of Singapore.



The Char Kway Teow has remained consistently good all throughout my stay in Singapore. It's like anywhere I buy it, it's just really good.


Here are the other posts that I've done about food places in Singapore.

Singapore Eats
Singapore Coffee Shops
Food Republic in Singapore
Kedai Killiney Kopi

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