Summer Food Haunts

Lunch at Chicken Bacolod Shopwise. I always have grilled chicken (pa-a) with the customary sawsawan (condiment mix) of soy sauce, lime/calamansi and chili. Transfer to nearby Razon’s for halo-halo (shaved ice mixed with generous toppings of leche (or sweet milk) flan, saba bananas (plantains), shredded macapuno (young coconut meat) and the honest-to-goodness creamy delights of carabao (water buffalo) milk.

Move on to Figaro (I avoid Starbucks Araneta, it’s horribly jologs—the decibel levels approximate that of a typical Chinese tea house’s where everybody seems to be simultaneously shouting and cackling at the top of their voices) and relax and read newspapers while sipping a coffee jelly float topped with vanilla ice cream.

A few hours later, have merienda or mid-afternoon snack (tea time, for the British) at Ted’s Old Timer La Paz batchoy (Ilonggo-style noodles) generously sprinkled with crunchy pork cracklings, inside Ali Mall. They have the best batchoy this side of Manila (but nothing beats the original Ted’s at the Iloilo public market near SM Iloilo).

For dinner, nothing beats Bellini’s inside the Marikina Shoe Expo for pasta (I always have the seafood pasta wrapped in aluminum foil to lock in the seafood juices—take note, Bellini’s prepare their own pasta, so the texture is different compared with supermarket pasta) and crunchy thin-crust pizza. (The difference is very much like fresh miki, or egg noodles, versus the sun-dried miki noodles). Plus, the restaurant always gives you a shot of their sweet, dessert wine (I think it is port wine).

If you have more than enough dough to spare, then Italianni’s spinach formaggio (Che, did I spell this right?—we never fail to order this) and the mountainous salad are wonderful as well, although really, the servings are meant for people who weigh at least 200 lbs.

I avoid Rasa at the Coliseum. The food tastes awful. I think the name says it all: Walang Rasa. Especially the noodles. Euww. They give you complimentary noodles, and it tastes just as awful as their main noodle dishes. All you could taste is the soy sauce. The Hainanese chicken is okay, though. I haven’t tried the chili crabs. Mighty expensive and besides, I kinda have a slight allergy to it (itchy nose), I think. Or maybe I just couldn’t afford it. (One time, Titus and I wandered into a restaurant along Pasay Road. Extremely expensive, something like a thousand a piece for each crab!)

I also avoid that seafood restaurant with a pirate theme at the back of Shopwise fronting SM. Not only do I find the theme corny (staffers wear pirate costumes a la Johnny Depp in Pirates in the Caribbean or Captain Hook in Peter Pan, yeah right, whatever), I do not find their “boodle” meals—food is laid out on a bed of banana leaves which make the experience so…uhm, tribal, what is this, a set from Survivor?--appealing at all. The same goes true for Cakes & Ales. Hello? We weren’t even colonized by the Brits. I deliberately avoid phony restaurants that try to pass off as first-world wannabes.

The chocolate cakes unimaginatively served with plastic forks and paper plates along with your industrial coffee at the Nescafé counter at the Gateway food court isn’t actually bad. It is actually a good alternative to the overpriced and overrated Starbucks nearby-- sans the ambiance, of course.

The Mandarin Oriental desserts at the Gateway 2nd Floor are way, way too expensive. Also, I dare not try Leonidas expensive Belgian chocolates (at a hundred bucks a pop?). I’m not a sweet-tooth anyway so I’m not dying to try it. I’ll live.

A good alternative is the Singaporean bakeshop BreadTalk. They serve an aromatic freshly-brewed coffee and a nice selection of desserts (I like the Ube cake).

I hate going to Makati or Ortigas so it is always a welcome relief knowing that Gateway Mall at least has something to offer other than the food court-slash-beerhouse at the Farmer’s Plaza basement.

Every Wednesday night I jog at the Marikina Oval. I always have dinner afterwards at the really unassuming Krung Thai restaurant at the back of the public market. The fried chicken sprinkled with sesame seeds, when the cook is in a good mood, is to die-for. If you have company, try the shrimp tom-yum soup. It’s different from Sukhothai’s but equally flavorful. The restaurant does not use the local ginger: they use galangal which is slightly less pungent. There’s torn lemon leaves and lemon grass (I think). I’m a perennial customer. The waitress doesn’t give me the menu list anymore.

All this talk about food is making me hungry.