What's up? What's new?
Award-winning Cebuana writer Cecilia Manguerra Brainard was the womanof-the-hour during the launching of her latest novel The Newspaper Widow at Ayala Center Cebu. The activity was one of the highlights of the Cebu Literary Festival spearheaded by Hendri Go of Little Boy Productions. Baby, as she is fondly called by friends like me, has a number of novels to her name and they are mostly based on actual happenings she has personal knowledge of. Among my favorites are When The Rainbow Goddess Wept and Angelica's Daughters. The Newpaper Widow, published by the University of Sto. Tomas Press is, according to National Artist F. Sionil Jose, "a master whodunit that is also a period piece, a social document, and, most of all, a literary jewel."
○○○ ArthaLand, a multi-awarded Filipino real estate developer has come to Cebu with its mixeduse, green high rise building called the Cebu Exchange. Strategically located along the main road facing Cebu IT Park, the new building will definitely be a distinctive presence in the area, once completed.
During its Investors' Day at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, ArthaLand vice chairman and president Jaime Gonzalez shared that Cebu Exchange is primed "to be a self-contained business ecosystem—a space for global outsourcing businesses, their partners, and providers to thrive in." Just as enthusiastic in presenting the technical and architectural features of the building were sales manager Ysabelle Golez and sales associate Francis Ernest Sun.
○○○ A new addition to the dining options at Radisson Blu Cebu is Sushisake. Located off the lobby on the left side, the cozy outlet offers the yummiest of sushis and the freshest of sashimis. Frontliners on opening day were SM Hotels and Conventions president Elizabeth Sy, executive vice president Peggy Angeles, hotel general manager Laurent Boisdron, Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, and Japanese counsellor Toshiya Yamada. Very much around too was New York-based Japanese artist Sophia Chizuco whose works are on exhibit at the hotel lobby until July 30.
○○○ Cebu's original dimsum resto, Ding How Dimsum House, has resurrected at the ground floor of Robinsons Galleria. After its closure 20 years ago, it was replaced with dimsum places like Ding Qua Qua, Harbour City and Dimsum Break. However the team running these dimsum restos thought it was time to bring back the original name as well as the recipes of long ago. Yes, the officers of Harbour City Dimsum House Co. Inc. led by chairman of the board Helen Uytengsu (the original dimsum queen) and president Raymond Kokseng, felt nostalgic and decided to bring to life the very first dimsum house in Cebu.
○○○ The newly-opened Gan Advanced Osseointegration Center (GAOC) at SM Seaside brings world class dental services to Cebu—from general dentistry to oral surgery, periodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics as well as cosmetic and laser dentistry... and yes, dental implant surgery. At the helm of the center is U.S.-trained dental surgeon Steve Mark G. Gan who has a team of competent dentists manning the state-ofthe-art clinics in Metro Manila and Cebu.