Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

I had written my personal review of Jolly Bubble as a Taiwanese-style coffee shop . During the pandemic before clearance, I would usually order their bento boxes (read my review here ). A recent item that was added to their menu was called Taiwanese peppered beef with smooth egg. In Chinese, it's called 黑椒牛肉配滑蛋 (Pinyin: Hēi jiāo niúròu pèi huá dàn). I'm sharing a few Mandarin tidbits here and there since I'm trying to learn more of the language.  It's under premium bento so it should be kind of pricy. Since it's a coffee shop so expect a higher price (read why here ). It should be around PHP 250.00. A price that would burden me in my student days but not in my professional days. The size is justifiable since after eating it--I simply am in full mode. I drank it together with pineapple citron oolong tea. So far, I believe this is my current favorite. Sure, I do love their mapo tofu with egg. I also love their chicken g-pai meals. I think this one is a must-try for be

I got to eat for the first time at the Yukga Barbecue Grill. Granted, the servings are rather huge and I was alone--I decided to try their delicious seolleongtang. It's around PHP 400.00+ and the serving was rather huge. It would be more advisable to bring a friend to share the bowl if you're a tiny eater. I remembered trying seolleongtang at some Korean restaurant (forgot the name) which closed down some time before the pandemic. I think it was located at The Greenery in Mabolo.  For those who have no idea what seollongtang is, the Korean Bapsang website shares this detail: What is Seolleongtang   Seolleongtang is a milky beef bone soup that’s made by boiling down ox leg bones for several hours until the broth becomes rich and creamy white . This broth is a staple in Korean households, especially during cold winter months. Legend has it that this soup was created because King Seonjong of the Joseon Dynasty wanted to feed a large number of people after an ancestral worship rit

I wanted to write more about Chinese education. I did write about the constraints that hit Chinese education . I had problems with how too much memorization became the focus. With Chinese, there's also the world of reversible words which change in meaning . In English, we can compare that to the anagram where switching letters change the meaning . For example, evil and vile may be synonymous but live and evil aren't. In Chinese, we can have two characters getting swapped which may either change the meaning entirely or change to a related meaning. Remember that they may be related but they don't have the same meaning. I could remember how the Hokkien calls visitors lang ke and while we called the customer ke lang. Both are people but both have a different purpose. I got into the LTL Mandarin School website and found reversible Chinese words. I won't tackle it all here because 164 words would mean I'll have to write an entire lecture. I think one of the biggest probl

Previously, I wrote about how the Philippines can never get rich by blaming its richer Asian neighbors . Right now, I think I want to write this new short where I'm talking about the anti-successful people mindset. I remembered a couple of people I met in college who had this bad habit of saying, "It's the fault of the rich that we're poor!" I was often told that I "bullied" them because I was one of those whom they call "may kaya" (those who are better off). Such statements happen when I also mention something like, "Do you people wonder why you have little to no money?" I must "applaud" the stupidity of the argument that says, "It's the fault of the rich that we're poor!"  Why is it common for some poor people to rudely generalize the rich as insensitive people while they're the victim?  Psychology Today  presents this on why some people will always blame others . It's really something when you th

PC Worth Facebook Page, CTTO Here's a meme that's most likely just free domain from Facebook. I was running out of ideas until I found this funny meme on Facebook. There's the term MARITES which means Masters in Arts in Relaying Information Through Exaggerated Storytelling. It's a shame to any decent woman named Marites that the name has a negative connotation. There's even the use of Ken and Karen as a negative name for a reason. I keep reading through stupid comments on Facebook that say that having FDIs provide the Philippines with telecommunications is an automatic breach of security. Even worse, they still use the China scare as if China's the only place in the world that can provide the Philippines other services. Some idiot even said that maybe Elon Musk might steal information from Globe and PLDT. What would Musk get if he steals information from there? Musk is already a well-known international businessman unlike those of Globe and PLDT! People keep com

It may not be Singapore day yet, it's still July and that event is in August. However, some people are now raising placards all over again because the 17th Philippine president is none other than Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Som people tend to quote from the book  From Third World to First . I did buy the book last year and started reading it slowly. I did get a slow read when it came to the late Lee Kuan Yew meeting the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. The description of Marcos was anything but flattering. I read the book and LKY mentioned that he was not confident that Marcos Sr. could pay back the money. The Philippines wasn't in the "golden years" as some would like to make it out. Yet, it seems that the only time LKY is ever mentioned is whenenver it's about the Marcoses and tends to be ignored when it's about how the Philippines can improve. Parliamentary system is often viewed in the wrong way Whenever Singapore is mentioned, I tend to talk about the parliamenta

iStock It would be nice to talk about the typical blame game in the Philippines. I could rememeber that, as a child and a teenager, I had this habit of blaming people I dislike that I failed an exam. The reasons are mostly imagined. What I remembered in my later college years was when I met a couple of super irresponsible students. They had this attitude to say something like, "My parents don't care if it'll take me 20 years to finish my bachelor's degree." Some people even say something like, "It's the fault of the rich that we are poor." It was a backfire when I told such people, "Isn't it any wonder why your finances are down? It's because your parents don't even value the money when they don't care if it'll take up to 20 years to finish college!"  Understanding the blame game and why it feels so good Psychology Today presents this on why some people will always blame others . These findings can help understand the st

Tealive Asia, the man in the picture is CEO and actor Fikry Ibrahim, hoping to see him in the Bangsamoro Region soon I did write a few articles about Tealive. These were about my experience at Ayala Central Bloc , how I'm currently fascinated with Tealive's palm sugar series , and the origins of Tealive in Malaysia . The current CEO is Fikry Ibrahim of Malaysia (above). Ibrahim was made Chief Expresso Officer (CEO) of Tealive . I felt that I needed to write this article because I found what might be a new business opportunity for developing Mindanao. I did some research on palm sugar and ended up writing about the Masarang Foundation in Indonesia . I advocated for ease concerning equity restrictions where certain industries only allow FDIs to own less than 50% (such as the 60-40 arrangement) to allow them to invest without having to look for a Filipino partner. I'm still against the sales of land to foreigners like a mall owner doesn't sell their spaces to tenants. With