Ready, Get Set, Let's Go to Komiket!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Filipino Komiks Art Market (KOMIKET) will launch its biggest event of the year from October 14 to 15 at Centris Elements, EDSA corner Quezon Avenue, Quezon City.

Over 450 komiks creators, illustrators and writers, ready to share their newest works, will be present during the event. Meet and greet Komiks Superstars Arnold Arre, Gerry Alanguilan, Pol Medina Jr., and Manix Abrera, social media heavyweights Hunghang Flashbacks, Sskait and Libreng Komiks, art market favorites Gwapings ng Komiks, Ilustrador ng Kabataan, Patay Kung Patay, first-time creators from the 3rd Comic Book Creator’s Workshop, among others.

The first 1,000 attendees will get a free copy of KOMMUNITY, a komiks collection from some of the creators of the local komiks community. Artists and readers will unite at the KOMIKET TALKS: Readers Meet Creators. At least ten book club communities will meet and discuss with the creators for the first time. Get first dibs on the latest releases and bring home stickers, postcards, prints, zines and books in this affordable art market. 

Tickets are priced at 100 pesos each. Check out the Komiket Facebook page for more details.

Viber Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary of its Deleted Messages Feature, with Over 5 Billion Times Users Were Saved from Embarrassment

Viber, one of the world’s leading messaging apps is celebrating the two-year anniversary of Deleted Messages, which officially launched in November 2015. As of today, Viber announces that users have deleted a total of five billion messages thus far.

Viber understands that everyone has those moments when you hit send but realize you’ve sent the message or photo to the wrong person, or that you should have used a different word! For the past two years, Viber has prided itself on being the app that forgives and forgets, so you never need to worry if you accidentally send your boss a “NSFW” photo.

Viber’s Deleted Messages feature allows users in both one-on-one conversations and group messages to delete a message sent by accident immediately. Viber’s unique functionality allows users to delete messages for up to two weeks, even if a message had previously been read. Viber keeps an in-chat trace to let users know on each side if a message was deleted. The company is planning to roll out advanced features in the near future pertaining to this function.

Since its inception, Viber’s innovative technology has created market standards for others. Viber most recently launched its Chat Extension feature at the end of 2016, which allows users to access a range of top tier content through services like YouTube, Spotify, Vice, Booking.com and GIPHY from within the chat window to search, share and consume, eliminating the need for users to toggle between apps.

“Here at Viber, we are proud that users are enjoying the innovative features of our app, like our Delete Messages functionality,” says Djamel Agaoua, Viber CEO. “We love hearing personal anecdotes from users how this feature saved their reputation. We are very flattered to see other apps are following Viber’s path, and are introducing their takeoffs of Viber’s innovations that’s available for our users for a while. I’m certain the exciting features we have launched this year like our super popular chat extensions will continue to create an industry benchmark in the future.”

Culinaire 2017: Our Passport to a Flight of Flavors

Congratulations to Juan Carlo catering for winning three awards (Best Appetizer, Best Main Dish and Best Setup) at the Culinaire 2017 event held last night at SMX Convention Center Manila.

I believe Juan Carlo emerged as the crowd favorite as well last year. They have obviously been consistent with the quality and taste of their dishes even in small servings.

Juan Carlo was followed by Conrad Manila for winning two awards (Best Dessert and Best Service). There were 14 that night but the awards were all received by the said two caterers as voted by the attendees themselves.

Though the caterers had been designated to offer specialties coming from different countries (Germany, China, Japan, Korea, Italy, Turkey, France, USA, India, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand and the Philippines) to conform with the theme of the night "Flight of Flavors," where we had a boarding pass and passport accompanying us as we roam around our different culinary destinations.

But before all the tummy traveling treats, the management of SMX welcomed the attendees and presented the good news that happened, happening nd about to happen with their many venues from Megatrade Halls to SMX Conventions Centers here in Manila and other areas like Davao and Cebu.

Conrad Manila got Best Dessert and Best Service Awards

Juan Carlo Catering got three awards (Best Appetizer, Best Main Dish and Best Setup)

The caterers who participated were the same batch as last year but with the addition of three more (Kitchen City, M Catering and Fine Foods, and Manila Catering). The original batch are LJC Group Catering Service, Tamayo's Catering, TJIOE, Via Mare, Albergus, Bizu, Conrad Manila, Hizon's Catering, Josiah's Catering, Event Shaker Mobile Bar (the only bar) and Juan Carlo.

All caterers have given their best but still everyone was required to vote for their chosen ones to win five awards. It is also times like these that many would wish they have a bigger stomach. With 14 caterers (1 bar) offering delightful dishes, you could not really fit everything in one seating so I had to go through every dish offering half-way . Meaning, I had to eat only half or just a portion of everything so I would have room for everything. I felt I had this obligation to judge them well so skipping a caterer was not an option. My mission that night was to taste everything even if it means not being able to consume the entire portions of the dishes.

To be objective in my judgement, I had to sacrifice eating only half of that Churros, just a portion of that Slow Braised Beef Ribs and Roasted Leg of Ham, just a piece of that Azuki Pearls with Rose Jelly ..... you get the idea.

Juan Carlo's Beef Brasatto truly was tender and tasty deserving of the Best Main Dish win. Their Setup is equally superb since it attracts attention in just one look, while their Wrap a la Portofino appetizer is worth every praise.

Conrad Manila's dessert CO2 Soju Lime was quite unique for me and makes you want to return for more as your happy ending.

The organizers of the event know very well to offer finger foods and cocktails before the event started, and the final drink of coffee that was available for everyone at one side of the venue.

Culinaire is really an event I always look forward to. Being my third time at a Culinaire event has given me the opportunity to compare, and I could very well say that the event has been constantly improving every year. Congratulations to SMX for a very successful event.