Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Lessons Learned

Last Friday I went to Katipunan with my friend Heidz for a food trip. I purposedly didn't eat any snack in the afternoon so that I would be hungry for anything wherever we would be deciding to eat. We originally planned to have donuts at Cello's first then go to Gateway, but then backtracked and just decided to have dinner in Katipunan as well.

We had dinner in The Old Spaghetti House, the Italian resto my friends raved so much about it that I wanted to give it a try, and so I had the chance to do so last Friday. But what I did nearly ruined my first eating experience there.

I ordered penne with creamy gorgonzola sauce just for the sake of saying that I was able to taste gorgonzola cheese. Good thing the taste wasn't as gorgon-ish as the smell (the cheese itself, not the dish), and I liked it until the creaminess got to me. When it seemed that it will take me forever to finish it, I added a bit of the pepper sauce (Caramba! brand) to a small portion and tasted it first. Well, it tasted great so I added some more to the rest and voila! I finished the pasta in no time. Yum, yum! All's well that ends well.

Lesson number 1:
If you like pasta with just the creamy sauce, make sure you really like it at hindi ka madaling maumay. But if you get tired of it pretty quickly, there's always the pepper sauce to zip it up.

After dinner, we went on to Cello's my most favorite donut shop ITWWW (in the whole wide world--heheh.). I ordered my usual choclate frosted donut and it was heaven. *dreamy sigh* No lessons for me here.

Whenever I eat, sometimes I just have to have something else that tastes different from what I previously ate. For example, if I had too much chips, I'd eat a chocolate bar or something equally sweet. Or maybe after a very creamy cream cheese/strawberry jam sandwich, I'd opt for half a calamansi with salt. Well, after the sweetness of the donut, I actually craved for something that's salty. (I know, I know. I'm a bottomless pit at times.) And what could remedy that but your nearest friendly McDonald's branch? And so Heidz and I traipsed once more along Katipunan Avenue to McDonald's and there I ordered shaker fries with chili cheese seasoning. And that's just the beginning of lesson number 2.

Imagine this: Heidz and I got a table beside the trash bin. I sat with my back to the trash bin; I was facing Heidz. There was a couple behind her who were also sitting face to face. Get it? Okay. And so, there we were, blithely chatting about work, future food trips and whatnot until...

Me (while sprinkling the seasoning on the fries): A talaga... *cough* *cough*
Heidz: Oo! At alam mo ba na si ano... *cough* *cough*
The Guy Behind Heidz: *speaking unintelligibly* *cough* *cough*
The Girl: *speaking unintelligibly* *cough* *cough*

And too late I discovered that I hadn't covered the fries completely while sprinkling the seasoning. One right after the other, the four of us started to cough and the seasoning's domino effect on us made me laugh and cough at the same time. I'm just not sure if it was all that funny to the couple behind us; the guy actually turned to look at who's the culprit (while still coughing). And in my mortification I just covered my face and wiped my streaming eyes. I would have apologized but I was also still coughing (and laughing).

Lesson number 2:
Don't buy shaker fries if you don't know how to sprinkle the seasoning. Or for any pepper or any other seasoning for that matter! Now I know that I don't really have to spend a lot for mace; spices in a sachet would suffice.

Yes, both of these experiences were definitely funny but now I know better. I was actually laughing earlier as I typed lesson number 2--that was definitely a riot. On to the next food trip!