U-belt Food Trek

Yesterday I walked my way to the University Belt area thinking of food and cuisines and what life really has to offer me. My food walk started in the morning after Andres requested Fried Chicken for breakfast so I prepared a simple mix of fish sauce, soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and calamansi for marinade. Then I dipped the chicken parts in egg and seasoned flour for that crunchy southern style fried chicken. Andres enjoyed it and I enjoyed it too.

Then in the office, I ate early lunch in preparation for my planned long walk to everywhere. I ordered Menudo and lechon kawali with rice combo and the taste was very homely. It was quite expensive however for seventy pesos. But in a bourgeois school setting, the price is peanuts.

Then I rode the LRT from Katipunan and upon existing the train, entered a new world. I walked inside a mall full of clearance sale and checked out the second hand bookstores along the streets while people watching, thinking what goes on in their minds as they walk. Then I got hungry again and ate at Mang Inasal Recto branch digging their 49 pesos one piece chicken inasal and rice. It was meditative eating of sort as I enjoyed thinking of life giving me the chance to experience most of what it can offer a person. From the fume ravaged Recto kiosks to the Bourgeois Hotel restaurants, I can walk and eat and breathe in these places. There must really be luck.

Then I walked and again rummaged through the books for sale and arrived in Sampaloc area and saw a school with a big wanted poster of people they find as trouble makers and they actually look like former stockholders of the school. Then I checked another school and was impressed with the marked improvement and upgrading of facilities. Feeling hungry again, I chanced upon a Kambingan store but goat meat was expensive so I settled for a Pork ribs adobo for 35 pesos. It was succulently soft to the palate in an adobo sort of way. Then I walked again towards Dapitan area and picked up Thelma in her work. Feeling tired and sapped with energy, she suggested that we go to Banawe and eat comfort food. I happily agreed and went to Mandarin Sky for a sumptuous serving of Shabu-shabu.

It was a whole day of feasting for the mind, body, and soul.

Globe Lumpia House

Globe Lumpia House brags the fact that they have no other branch in the whole world except the one in Raon (less known as Gonzalo Puyat St.). Alongside the electronic gadgets and fullblasting videoke machines for sale is a small eatery that only sell three items: Fresh Lumpia, Empanada, and softdrinks. No more, no less.

People flock the place (it is near the corner of Raon and Quezon Blvd.) like Quiapo devotees praying for a miracle only that they receive their miracles immediately once they take a bite on the precious, heavenly lumpia. Its like purgatory inside the sauna-like store as you patiently wait for your turn to be served but everything turns out heavenly once you greedily bite your lumpia oozing with peanut sauce or hide it inside your bag to take home. I saw how the Lumpia master prepare his opus and I timed it at 1 seconds. It has been this way since 1952.

Globe Lumpia preparation

ilocano cuisine at the back of UST

At the back of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas sits a pure unadulterated Ilocano restaurant that serves slam bang ilocano food that is right to the taste and pocket. M & M's Eatery is Ilocano through and through (I guess M & M's stands for Manong & Manang's).

I personally love their grilled pork mixed with spices that bring out the grilled porkiness of pork. Served with rice and their side soup, it is Ilocos sur and Norte combined in good old Dapitan Street. It is a pure ilocano delight because the staff speaks ilocano and the store is fronting the Maria De Leon Bus Transit that services the guess what, the fucking Ilocos route. How Ilocano can you get with that proximities to the Ilocos culture? They also cook the killer Papaitan with the soup thickened by pork entrails. M & M's Eatery is an unassuming restaurant that can give the big ones a run for their money.

Lost at the Eton Centris Sunday Market

Paco lost at the Eton Centris Sunday Market.