Not just horsing around

If you’re on Sky Cable, a male viewer, had previously noted the horse-racing coverage on Channel 76 and had consciously avoided going to the channels beyond the 50’s, it’s time to revisit the channel of stallions and mares, and discover how its world has expanded and now provides day-long entertainment! Rechristened the Makisig Network, chairman Hermie Esguerra and president Jake Maderazo have pulled out all the stops in making Makisig a viable cable alternative, while still pegging the horse-racing as their core raison d’etre.

As Bulacan native Hermie expounds, “The coverage of the races was about to be shut down, the quality of the coverage was poor and only highlighted the betting aspect. I made it a crusade of mine to save it, and do this by uplifting and upgrading the standards of how this coverage would be achieved. Also, I needed to make the channel commercially viable, planting the seeds for a channel that could stand on its own and have content that went beyond the racing. It was with this in mind that the Makisig Network was born. Fellow horse owner Jake Maderazo has all the network experience one could ask for, and sharing in the vision, he came out of retirement to make this niche network a reality!”

“On any given racing day, there is P24-million changing hands, and even if you factor in 35 percent going to the government, that’s still a thriving industry, and significant disposable income. Our network is directly servicing this industry and its predominantly male audience. I brought in seven new cameras for the coverage (even placing some behind the starting gate), state-of-the-art equipment, an OB van with microwave capabilities — all to make the coverage at par with what we see in the United States, Australia or Hong Kong. There, racing is a respected pastime. The parade is a spectacle, corporations come in and syndicate as sponsors for the races, the connection between horse and jockey is highlighted — it’s a social occasion, and the betting is only part of the story. It’s to bring this to the forefront, and address the doubts on the integrity of the races that I made the commitment and formed Makisig.” And if you think about America’s Triple Crown, the town of Saratoga, the Ascot Races in England and Hong Kong’s Happy Valley, you can see how right Hermie and Jake are, and yet how much of a challenge they face.

Jake adds, “We obviously can’t compete head-on with the 2 and 7’s of the world, so we’ll be marketing the network in a non-traditional way. What we have is a captive audience as our core, and with what we’ve developed to fill in the time when the races aren’t going on at the San Lazaro, Carmona track, we hope to make the network an attractive proposition for particular advertisers. As to why we called the network Makisig, Hermie and I felt that calling the network something like Macho would have been too Mexican or Spanish. We wanted to highlight how this is a truly male Filipino channel, and Makisig fit the bill. If we eventually export our racing coverage or some of our locally produced shows, Makisig will readily identify the content as ‘Made in the Philippines’.”

I tuned in the other day and caught the Macho Gwapito show of Rico J. Puno with guest Bayani Fernando, and it was genuinely entertaining, while still being informative. Still in its infancy, the network is hoping to make its mark with shows that dare to be different, and are tweaked for the male audience that a lot of major networks have largely ignored. It may be too early in the game to call the channel a success story, but in this world where we love to cheer for the Davids going up against the Goliaths, Hermie and Jake get my nod as tag team champions-to-be of the cable world.

Marvin’s Japanese adventure

For a lot of restaurant regulars, “going Japanese” has ceased to be some exotic, faced with trepidation, adventure in dining, and can be viewed as a form of comfort food. I know with my boys, eating maguro and salmon sashimi, having ebi tempura and agedashi tofu, are all as regular to them as eating adobo, or cheeseburgers and fries. There isn’t a week that passes that they don’t “demand” one meal to satisfy their yen for Rising Sun cuisine. Local movie and TV star Marvin Agustin knew this was happening to our eating habits as he made his foray into the restaurant business. The Sumo Sam’s that dot our urban landscape are testament to his and his partners’ vision and management acumen. Very reasonably priced, and yet providing a respectable level of service and variety, Sumo’s Filipino and Western-tweaked Japanese dishes are a winning formula.

On the second floor of the newly-opened Greenbelt 5, you’ll find their newest resto-concept, John and Yoko. John, of course, would refer to the famous Beatle, and Yoko, his Japanese artist/wife. And the resto is an engaging marriage of East and West — or in this case, East meets West meets Far East (and unlike its namesakes, we don’t have to eat like we’re in some Amsterdam hotel, in bed and naked!). While J & Y provides all the expected Japanese dishes we’d treat as favorites, and a number of Western staples given an Eastern modification, it’s in the presentation and preparation of the dishes that J & Y comes into its own, and shows just how ready it is to bend to the traditional eating habits of us Pinoys. For us Filipinos, eating is a socializing occasion, and we love to share our food, gushing about this or that dish and asking our fellow diners to taste and share.

Servings are always on the large side, and there are dishes that would be the equivalent of the “party” or group dishes we find in family-oriented eating establishments. Big in Japan is one such dish; there’s a heaping mound of steaming Japanese fried rice in the middle of the dish, and arrayed around we find fried oysters, salmon sashimi, chicken yakitori skewers, California maki and beef teppan. While this may not be traditional Japanese dining, it’s certainly a welcome relief for those of us who just want a little bit of everything — it’s a buffet on a big platter! You plonk the platter in the middle of a table for four, and just indulge!

There are other variations of regular dishes that dot the menu. My middle boy, Matteo, loves the Mt. Fuji steak: cuts of tenderloin beef, piled on a mountain of french fries, all dipped in a steak sauce gravy. Luca, ever the traditionalist, went for the sashimi and ebi tempura. There are also interesting bar concoctions, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find J & Y evolving into something of a bar and late-night hangout for Greenbelt 5 habitues.

For Marvin and his group, there’s always been this love for food and the readiness to experiment and “jam” on traditional presentation. They even have items like ribs, given a Japanese twist. It’s hearty, comfortable dining at a price that’s affordable, given its location and quality.