The acclaimed actor gets back into blockbuster mode for the end-times spectacle 2012, and dwells on the frightening Mayan Prophecies people are obsessing about.

John Cusack (Con Air, High Fidelity, 1408) stars in Columbia Pictures’ new disaster epic 2012 as Jackson Curtis, a civilian who stumbles into the news that the world as we know it is coming to an end. v Jackson, however, is not a picture-perfect family man.

Suddenly the ref was empty after ‘Ondoy’. It was shocking to note the post-‘Ondoy’ prices of vegetables at 10 times the usual price. But the bar codes were not lying. Cabbage was priced P250!

EACH one of us who got wet from the Ondoy episode went through some kind of ordeal. Mine was lack of ingredients to make a decent meal. Although I did not get submerged in chest-high waters, some inconveniences were also experienced. The shortage of vegetables for a certain period was problematic and when they became available in supermarkets, what followed was my budget shortage to afford them, thanks to the new prices and the law of supply and demand.

The everyday cabbage and other Trinidad Valley and Nueva Ecija veggies became out of reach. Thus, the empty ref...or so it seemed, until we scrounged around the vegetable crisper and out came the last little bits of carrots, leeks and bean sprouts which were in “garnishing portions” only but good enough to compose a dish for the day. What dish?

WHO doesn’t have fond memories of grandmother cooking your favorite merienda? These are the thoughts that guide our taste buds whenever we get a yearning for a home-cooked meal. And these have guided businessman Rene Alcala in opening his Oma Restaurant and Bar near Tomas Morato in Quezon City. And, yes, Oma means “grandma.”

Alcala, who is in exports, was planning on opening a bar with his friend Leo Tiopes. However, rather than just serve drinks, they agreed on opening a restaurant, too, to have a chance to present innovative Pinoy cooking. After they found their chef, the young Kris Benipayo, two more partners came in, namely, Marina Martinez and Tina Templa-Pizarro. And then, the fun started.

It was Chef Kris’s idea to update popular bar chow like pizza and pasta using Pinoy ingredients. That’s why some pizzas have adobo, laing, longganiSa and kesong puti, while pasta dishes are, likewise, prepared with uncommon toppings, like tinapa flakes, corned beef and malunggay pesto. When it came time to name the dishes, rather than writing down the usual descriptions you read on menus, they thought of naming the dishes after their parents, grandparents, siblings and relatives. That’s why when you browse through the menu at Oma, it seems as though you’re reading through somebody’s journal or address book.

Alcala says the naming of dishes was arbitrary. For example, Roberta, the pizza topped with mozzarella, cheddar and cream cheeses and kesong puti, was named after his grandmother.