Adobo Flakes and Monggo for My Birthday
On my last birthday, my goal was to have a different menu on the banquet. The other goal is to do it on a tight budget. It was my fourth birthday celebration in the office and I always give surprises. Somehow, they expect something different and out of the box.
AM snack or Late breakfast. Nilagang Munggo. Boiled green beans or beans stew could be the closest English translation I can give after 15 minutes of Google-ing. . Not gulay na munggo. It is a staple serving at wakes - when the days extends to more than 4 nights. The first three nights are for Arozcaldo, Sopas and Lomi. It was the first time to serve nilagang munggo. I had them at the PM snack of my birthday three years ago. I just changed the time of serving.
I cooked it. It was so simple. Monggo. Water. Sugar. Milk. Boil them altogether. Served with paborita and kupeng, it was divine. As I put it, after cheesecake this is the next best thing in life. They all loved it - almost. Those who have gout and arthritis loathe me. Precisely, they got the idea - that I served that so they are still full during lunch time. In that way, they can settle with small serving during lunch.
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Lunch. I used to ask the help of my Aunts to cook for me but they are so pre-occupied with a lot of things to accommodate my request. I have to settle for the ever dependable caterer in the area. I ordered Fried Chicken and Beef with corn in cream sauce. To order from a caterer is quite mechanical. To put personal touch to the banquet, I added my own dish - Adobo Flakes. It was my brother in-laws recipe but since I incorporate my own twist so what I served was my version.
PM Snack. I really didn't intend to prepare for that. I thought they would still be full by then and I want to get away with the usual pancit or pasta. Ideally, I was expecting for leftover which there was none except for the potato salad.
Dinner. I was talking about our office so the treat was limited to those three times. At home, I was so elated that my sibling took charge for me i.e. the expenses and all.
Message of thanks..
When I was at my previous job, I usually receive gifts from the clients - uraro, jollibee or chowking value meal and even whole party treat for my birthday. That was then. Now, my work does not involve customer service so it is such a breeze of magic when people give food.
Recently, there were two separate occasions when we people expressed gratitude through food.
1. One of my most favorite food is "bubuto" or "boboto". Around 3pm a familiar lady arrived unannounced - in a rush. We have guests that day - auditors, which means that we have to give our full attention to them. We were on the middle of looking for the office's assets which should've been existent at moment the auditors ask. The lady who just arrived (an officemate's sister) kept on bothering us.
"Tulungan nyo ko, sumabog ang bubuto". It did not explode. She lost grip of the bilao of bubuto which was wrapped in a yema wrapper, just how we see offerings on Sunday Masses. the next scene was me trying to salvage the part which did not fell on the floor. Goodness! we still have the 1/3 part.
After the reenactments which was done around 6 times, the lady finally explained what she brought in. It was her token of appreciation to the kindness that the staff showed to his brother. Kuya John almost did not survive his ordeal. He was in paranoia. He apparently recovered.
2. Amid the talks of being only office which does not have Valentine's Party, none of the simplest plan prospered. We were about to accept that Vday should just be celebrated with the loved ones, when the On-the-Job Trainees saved the day. They completed the required minimum training hours days before. They just came back to say thank you by means of 1 bilao-ng pancit malabon.
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Birthday Treat/s!
I lost two phones in less than a month - first on October 20 when my alcatel glory dispappeared in my son's minion bag and second on November 18 when my alcatel one-touch slipped in between my wallet and book on my hand.
Practically, I have to settle for budget friendly new phone i. e. an un-android phone without camera. likewise this means an inactive blogging life.
Just to have an update I am posting the un-copyrighted photos of occasions in our office.
1. This was the snack treated to us by an officemate on her birthday last October. She already served us a breakfast days earlier but she could not bear not to surprise us on her exact birthday.
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| Sandwhich and Ice cream - one of the things I find it difficult is to estimate how much ice cream to serve. |
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| I love ice cream! |
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| this is the same treat, but on a different angle. |
They usually say Puto and Dinuguan tandem is divine but for me, I just don't get it when I eat dish with anything other than rice.
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| this was the puto... |
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| and dinuguan. |
-end
Panauhing Pandangal (Guest of Honor)
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Lapu Lapu is a usual centerpiece of banquets and the hosts intend to have that attraction
last until the end of the day. More or less, if you're not the guest of honor you are likely not
welcome to take a piece.
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One of the most abala moments of employees' lives is when they're going to have visitors in the office. I learned about that way back as a child. My mother used to be ngarag on those times. One of the last times she did was when my father told her to prepare a banquet for Ms. Cynthia Villar around the time Sen. Manny Villar was planning to run for President on his first try. They were roaming around the province and my father was supposedly few of the people that the entourage was going to meet.
I remember that we were already at hard times then but had prawn and crabs as prepared meals for them.
***
Oftentimes, that is one of the things I imagine to experience once I get to realize my dream to become a successful person - maging panauhing pandangal, as they say. My wife used to be a boss in her office. We get special treatment on fiestas of her subordinates. I sort of figured out that there are dishes served to us which kept from other ordinary visitors.
I am still an ordinary government employee but in some ways there are instance that I do get special treatment. I do fieldwork in some government offices and being offered to have coffee never fails to excite me. Just the offer. I have the conscious effort to decline. I was properly briefed by my mentors. Arriving at your itineraries at lunch time is such an awkward situation. Avoid doing that. I hope people take it positively that I am notorious in turning down offers to have lunch.
***
Fast forward to present. I'm amazed how the team in our office works every time we have visitors. In my early years in the office I don't take part in those instances. It was only last month that I got so involved. I must have been their apprentice. For few reasons, I was tasked to arrange for the preparation of food for the visitors from the Central Office. I was in charge not only to transact with the caterer but I also had a say on choosing the dishes. There were few instructions.
1. The guests are from Manila and we are in Bataan, they are likely to expect seafood in the menu.
2. Make sure to have pork, chicken, fish and vegetable so that if some of the guests do not eat one of them, they still have other options.
3. The guests are our bosses. The objective is not only to satisfy them but also (sorry for the term) to impress them. Lapu-lapu is usually a banquet's centerpiece - make sure to have that as part of the objective to impress.
4. Lastly, expense is the last concern because aside from the food, we have to accomplish what would be required of us from their official business.
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| Tortang alimasag. |
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| We ran out of idea for chicken. We settled for the basic - fried chicken. |
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We ran out time for the preparation of a desert. We also fear that the caterer
would if we ordered a salad. Banana is healthy. Last minute request from the
caterer was mixed-fresh fruit which is not in photo.
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| headshot for the torta. |
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Shrimps which is the basic hipong puti. Not prawn. It has white-soft meat
unlike prawns which have thicker texture of meat.
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We did not hear much response about the food from our guests. They must have been used to being treated specially or they were just so focused on the purpose of the visit. What I am definite about was that we enjoyed also the food - even the day after. Sobrang dami kong nainum na sago hanggang kinabukasan.
Going back to my first story, Mrs. Villar did rounds in Bataan that scheduled date but the meeting with my dad never happened. I don't not know where have the prawn and crabs gone.
RECENT FOOD TRIP 2: Buko Sorbetes, Binalot, Fruit shake
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This is the new place in Angeles which I have yet to know what it's called. It's sort
one-stop dining area where you can find almost all restaurants in the city.Middle: It's selfie basically because my wife does not like taking picture. The shot with dramatic light effect was not intentional. Right: the condiments at Binalot Restaurant. The vinegar is authentic cane vinegar. |
Last weekend we were invited to a birthday party which we don't know how to get to the venue. We decided not to push though and my son got so upset. The good thing about it is that we'll have more time to go malling instead of being confined in a party waiting for the games and show to be finished.
The things we imagined to do that day were - eat out, stroll, buy elmo's school uniform, let him play in a pay-playground and have dinner at the new Dainty. She thought that it is an additional dainty restaurant. We found out that the old one has been closed for the new one since they are both in the Nepo area. I have yet to know the name of the place. It is sort of the summary of the restaurants in Angeles - found in one place.
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The queque was intriguing. We dared to find out if the
long line is worth it. We had an order of coco-sorbetero
in a coconut shell.
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| Left and Right:Ang binalot at ang tinalupan. |
We settled for Binalot. There's a back story of how we decided to dine there. There was a binalot stall (not a restaurant) outside Nepo Mall. On one of our visits, my wife was too excited to find such. She was so upset when the waitress told us that everything was out of stock. Months later we are seated on a newly open Binalot restaurant which was last weekend. I like the interior design. The seats and tables are classic. The design is Filipino which is a must for a traditional Filipino binalot. I just find some parts of the place to be high maintenance. The ceiling is adorned with baskets and other weaved articles which are prone to dust. The wash area is an old poso. The pump is real but the function is not. Customers might need assistance from the crew to find out how it works. I like the counter table and its background which is made of pieces of wood put together as collage wall. I don't have pictures. My wife told me not to take pictures. The sound of my camera phone is distracting to other patrons.
I had bagoong rice and pork. My wife had adobo. Both binalot. I love the serving. Lots of rice means there no need to have separate order for my son. The serving comes with salted egg -the oily/greasy type that I like. We even had extra order of itlog na pula. What I really love about the food is that the taste of the dishes are ordinary - no more, no less. If adobo and bagoong pork were done with a twist, it no longer passes as authentic Filipino food. We are on tight budget so we had service water.
Ultimately, I love their vinegar. My mother used to travel a lot for work. Most of these, she brings home vinegar of that place. One of them tastes like what they have in the restaurant.
On our walk towards the parking area, we chanced upon friends who just came from the party. They asked us why we did not attend. We don't know where the venue is.
***
Last Sunday, we were in Marquee Mall but agreed to have dinner at home. We're in for a light snack but for a not-so-light priced bread in Breadtalk. We usually have P15 donuts on ordinary days and Breadtalk goodies for special days. Last Sunday was special. We were so busy choosing the best valued-bread when we found out elmo was not seating in the dining table as we expected him to be. We found him in the playground so we settled to have our snack on the fountain area. We are familiar with tea stalls but the fresh fruit shake stall is new to us. I had to probe first if the flavors are powdered or real fruit. We ordered right away from combination of fruits as found in the menu. You could have two kinds of fruits in one shake. Papaya, Orange, Mango, Apple, Banana, Melon and Watermelon. The options had to be trimmed down to few when most of the fruits were not available. They even had this one fruit but the crew does not want to peel it at that time.
I just love fresh fruit shake. The experience compensated for the inefficiencies.
***
Aint'-ie Dainty
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| May mention ako na "fancy restaurants", actually masarap pakinggan at common naman ginagamit na adjective for restaurant, pero di ko pa natingnan what do we really mean when we say "fancy"? |
Going home, I pass by Balibago where It is such a sight seeing all those fancy restaurants. Dainty Asian Cuisine is likely to catch your attention. Exterior and exterior design can be viewed at the same time because of the glass walls. More or less the cafe in Nepo area follows the same design.
It was such an intriguing place for us since we moved to Angeles two years ago. The look is intimidating enough that we didn't try to dine for the longest time. Then, my wife told me that they had ordered for take out from dainty - realized that indeed quite expensive. What was interesting is that it does not look like an Asian Restaurant. For me, I thought it could pass for a french or an italian restaurant. From then on, I had an objective to have a dine-in experience.
At the start of year 2013, we finally settled to dine at Dainty for our wedding anniversary. I came all the way from Bataan that night and arrived at around 9PM. My wife by then starving, had quick snack at a tusok-tusok. She could no longer eat on the dinner proper. She got full from tokneneng and isaw from the sidewalk.
The next experience was on Dainty Cafe just this weekend. The car was parked where Dainty is abot-tanaw. The agreement was to order only one dish to avoid a large bill but we ended up ordering almost exactly the same set of dishes from the last time we visited the place. We had lumpiang shanghai, chopseuy and yang chow (minus the zipo egg), for the ultimate reason of having the least prices among those found in the menu.
Taste wise, the dishes taste chinese. I mean we cook spring rolls and chopseuy at home which taste Filipino - they do it the chinese way. So categorically, the food is more than ok. I just have a very little problem with the crew. I think there is enough numbers to serve the customers. It was just quite difficult calling their attention. The Nepo cafe is quite small, the crew must have been more attentive finding out if customers need their services. Anyway, they are generally friendly and polite.
Overall, the experience is fine and our next objective is to try the other dishes - even if it takes one dish per visit. This means we are coming back.
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| Left: It's not that I found my best angle for this photo, this was the best I can take so as to photograph myself. Selfie shot eto, hindi lang halata. Notice the beautiful background. Right: My wife and Elmo as I try to get an artistic shot with the lamp. |
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| I love the tables and chairs. |
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Take two! we ordered them before and ordered once more - spring roll, chopseuy and yang chow.
Susie, who?
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| My apologies for using the same photos from previous blog posts. |
I was so eager to share this story with my office mates with my typical exaggerations. Actually I don't make things controversial, I make them interesting.
As for sharing this for the blog, I have lots of hesitation. For security purposes, this is the sanitized version of weekend outing. Saturday morning, I met up with this person for us to get a ride. I did not doubt that I was about to meet a fine person - he would not let us tag along for the trip if he is not. To my surprise, I got messages of apologies on my phone for making us wait for a while.
He was just as cordial in person offering lots of food the moment we stepped in the car. Few more minutes, I learned that he is associated with Susie's cuisine. I mean "The" Susie's cuisine!
By the way, we talked about lots of things but I was not able to have the courage to ask who Susie is.
As an aftermath of that encounter, here is the anthology of my trysts with the restaurant long before I met him..
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