at el hogar filipino

this is one of the things i did on my birthday... go to el hogar filipino building along juan luna st. in binondo. it is my most fave building there coz even though it's in a totally unkempt state (which is the understatement of the century, btw), i believe this place has a great potential. after all, countless commercials, music videos and tv shows have been filmed here. but strangely though, the building's beautiful mess makes it all the more enticing for me.

as you can see, the video is in sepia tone, which makes the place look really ancient. (i actually forgot to set it back to color, that's why. lolz) and if i were you, i guess i'd lower the volume. ;-)

pig face

this cute pig-faced bun caught my attention while walking along ongpin street. it's sold on a stall outside MXT (maxim's tea house) for P23. as i'm a bread person, i bought one and wasn't disappointed. the bun is filled with yummy pork asado (with no taba, may i add), and the bun itself is a bit sweet and has a nice chewy-ooey bite to it as well. its eyes are raisins. isn't this pig face just cute? love, love, love it. =)

pardon the plastic lol. =)

ying ying tea house pt.2

after what seemed like eons (about 6 months to be exact), i was able to go back to the places i love most in manila: binondo and intramuros. ;) it's also about the same length of time since i had an honest-to-goodness food trip. haha.

back in february, my friend h and i discovered ying ying tea house at the corner of dasmariñas and yuchengco (formerly nueva) streets in binondo. it was still on its soft opening at that time, and when my bro and i went back there today, the place was up and hopping with lots of customers. and yeah, if on my previous post on this resto didn't have any photos, well, i now dub this one---

a food trip with images. yay!

when it comes to eating in chinese restos, i usually order the same stuff: noodle soup and dimsum (usually siopao). so this day isn't so different except that for dimsum, i ordered something funky-sounding: ham soy kok, which is glutinous rice ball with pork filling. at P50 for 3 pieces, i can say that it was really filling, no pun intended.

funky-looking too, eh?

pork filling

the noodle soup i ordered this time around is exactly the same item i ordered the first time: wanton noodle soup. i noticed some changes though, like the won tons weren't that tightly packed like they were before, but still big just the same. still for P80, it was worth it.

wanton noodle soup

pictured here are: clockwise, l-r: wanton noodle soup, fried dumplings with sweet and sour dip, chicken feet and pork and century egg congee.

the fried dumplings cost P120 for 8 pieces. 8. large. packed. tasty. pieces. dip 'em in the sweet and sour sauce... heaven.

for P90, the pork and century egg congee was filled up to the bowl's brim. very, very filling, with lots of pork slices, century egg and garnishings.

chicken feet, chicken feet... as i'm not partial to this, i didn't even try it. but as with the other items we ordered, one order of chicken feet gives you 3 pieces at P55 per order.

and so, as it was when i first ate at ying ying tea house, every bit and morsel of what my bro and i savored today was very filling and satisfying. and yes, easy on the pocket. just make sure you order what you can finish, though. my bro and i were stuffed. thank goodness for the free house tea. even so, you can be sure i'll be back there for the third time. and the fourth. and the fifth...

wednesday wramblings part 2

after heidz was done, we left PNU with growling stomachs. so where were we to go? if you have read our minds, you would know where we went: binondo. ;p

here's a little un-secret of mine. whenever i'm in someplace whether familiar or unfamiliar and i'm not... familiar with the how-to's to get to my destination by public transportation especially by jeepney, i walk. i don't care how long it will take me as long as i arrive at my destination provided i'm going at my own leisurely speed. more often than not i get to my desired destination albeit a bit walked-out and sorta smoked like an eagle with all those jeepney fumes everywhere. if someone's with me, it's important that he or she would not mind walking. another thing that i like about walking is that i get to experience new things, which, in this case, leads us now to--

a new food trip without images. bow.

we originally planned to try out polland bakery along escolta, but discovered to our dismay that there was no place to rest our weary feet. what else can we do but to leave and continue walking down nueva (now yuchengco) street. when we reached the corner of dasmarinas street a strange yet wonderful sight filled our eyes: dimsum containers are stacked by the dozen on a counter along the sidewalk of dasmarinas street, and beside the counter of dimsum containers sat a steamer. ladies and gentlemen, the newest food stop in binondo is called ying ying tea house, and it just opened last week, at the corner of dasmarinas and yuchengco streets. judging from the number of people eating there we decided to try it out as well. with all that walking, who wouldn't go hungry?

the interior of the tea house is cozy though it's a bit warm on the ground floor. fortunately it has three levels though i have reason to believe it goes up to the 4th floor of the building. the second level is simply a room for large private parties (it can sit up to 15 pax at most from what i saw, with a large round table and a lazy susan) while the third floor is more spacious with another area set off for large parties as well. we got a table on the third level where we were the only customers until it filled up after about an hour.

here's what we ordered:

moi: wanton noodle soup (P80) and shrimp cheong fan (P60, 3 pcs. per order)
heidz: lemon chicken with rice (P90)

let me start with the lemon chicken. presentation was so-so, with the breaded chicken placed beside the rather large cup of rice and watery lemon sauce that was obviously poured over the chicken just before serving. and because the sauce was a bit watery, most of it was soaked up by the rice. maybe it would look better if they mixed the sauce and chicken up a bit so the white bits of cornstarch wouldn't show, and it would look more glossy. the portion of rice and chicken were at par with each other though and it's filling. in addition, the taste makes up for the presentation.

the wanton noodle soup is a different story. the soup was steaming hot, which means it came from a continuously simmering pot because if it didn't, it would have turned cold much faster. the five pieces of wanton that top the soup were quite surprising as they were packed solid with meat which, for me, took two bites unlike other wanton which i could pop whole into my mouth and still manage not to look like a chipmunk. ;-) the kind of noodles they used is my favorite kind, the long, thin egg noodles same as what le ching in greenhills uses. don't be deceived by the medium-sized bowl. the serving might just look little but i tell you the noodle soup can be good for two--i was just halfway through the meal when i already felt full--and i haven't even started on my share of the cheong fan yet.

i first tried cheong fan in a dimsum resto in texas last year. it was so good that i was happy when i also found it on the menu of some chinese restos here, and i couldn't wait to try it. at ying ying tea house i chose the shrimp cheong fan. each cheong fan only has two shrimps apiece and i only tasted more of the semi-sweet (at least, to my taste) wrapper as it was kinda thick. to me it seemed like a salty-sweet kind of dessert.

the prices at ying ying tea house are very affordable, which ranges from P55 (mostly dimsum, dessert, drinks) to P400 (mostly for the short orders and takeout).

heidz and i were so full afterwards, we needed another round of walking. i will definitely come back to this resto to try more of their food.

stay tuned for part 3... :-)

binondo dreamin' pt. 2

shrine of sto. cristo de longos

the first two markers indicate the place where a deaf-mute chinese laborer found an effigy of the holy christ of longos in a well a little over 200 years ago. he was said to be miraculously healed from his affliction. the effigy is now in binondo church where more miracles are attributed to it.

nosebleed alert!

the description on this one is more concise.

the door where the second marker is placed (left side). behind it are stacks of crates, boxes and sacks. (smells musty, too.)

don't you just love old houses? i do. the older, the better. and in the san nicolas district of binondo, a lot of prewar houses have survived the test of time. but looking at them today, i don't think they will last any longer, with the wear and tear of the natural elements and of course, human neglect.

a bahay na bato that has seen better days :-(

another house that's crying out to be restored. i'm just glad my lola's house is well preserved, from the roof to the capiz windows to the very floor we walk on, unlike this one. :-( if i have a lot of money, i'll fund the restoration myself, house by house.

derelict house sandwich, anyone?

this marks the spot on san fernando st. where teodora alonzo, the mother of our national hero, jose rizal, once lived. i say spot because the house is gone and this is the only marker left to let the people know where famous people from the past lived. just like the door at sto. cristo de longos (3rd picture) behind the big green gate here is a vacant lot stocked with lots of crates and boxes and... a growling dog. come to think of it, juan juna's house, as well as the marker, are now nonexistent in another part of this district.

i know i should be proud of this place no matter what state it's in, but it makes me sad at the fact that it is slowly falling into more ruin, if not total oblivion. i mean, where's our sense of history? culture? nationality? i don't claim to be an expert on this, but then again, maybe even by just restoring some of the remaining old houses, we'd be able to recover a bit more of our national pride. (and tourists won't just go to vigan to see the wonderfully restored ancestral houses there when we have our own share of them right in our city.)

note: thanks to snglguy for the pics =)

binondo dreamin'

When you're alone
And life is making you lonely,
You can always go downtown

so goes the song "downtown" by petula clark. i am neither alone nor lonely, but i definitely wanted to go downtown, which in this case, is binondo. aaacckk, so corny, i know.

aaanyyywayyy, moving on...

this must be my nth post about binondo already, but the place is just chock-full of hypnotizing nooks and crannies that still need to be explored so i can't help but return there again and again.

last saturday proved to be a good time not just to tour binondo, but to meet up with blogfriends snglguy and beng as well. it's my first time to meet both of them. sngl, who grew up in the area, proved to be an engaging tour guide who led us through a merry walk through the narrow streets with eat-all-you-cans, sugarcane juice, black vietnamese porky pigs, old houses, and even hardware stores with questionable names (i mean, who would name their store king of screws? obviously, it's a store that sells mainly screws. oh well. ;P). as for beng, bless her heart, though she wasn't able to bake the brownies we were hoping she would bring, whipped up a batch of her equally super-duper-mega-ultra-melt-in-your-mouth chewy chocolate chip cookies. i do think in due time she'll be able to put up her own bakery. i'm also glad to have found a kindred spirit in her.

we ate lunch at emperor villa, which, for less than 300 pesos for their lunch buffet, was a real steal, but unfortunately, due to changes in their policy, they won't be refilling the trays after 1pm. suffice to say, we've had our fill well before the time. we (i, rather) even had some more room for dessert.

at the emperor villa

fueled with sugarcane juice at one of the stalls along ongpin, we went on to florentino torres street to los ambos mundos, the OLDEST RESTAURANT IN THE PHILIPPINES. it's been around since 1888. isn't that great? another novel thing about the restaurant is that the owners of the restaurant have four vietnamese potbellied pigs pampered to their heart's content. as for the food, we still have to try them sometime soon.

look at them piggies snooze in the sun! (the other one is in the background, not so visible)

holiday madness ramblings

nope, it's not christmas as the title might imply. yesterday was a holiday (national heroes' day) and it was... mad. because the boss let us off work earlier than usual, i followed my friends heidz and lay to quiapo, where they're shopping for prizes for the linggo ng wika festivities in their school this week.

carriedo, quiapo:
the ride to quiapo from megamall was a bit surreal. after waiting for passengers for the longest time over at shangri-la, the driver finally drove off. i fully expected the senseless traffic jam once we neared legarda, but wonder of wonders! the fx sailed through the flyover to legarda without the hassle of almost-empty jeepneys that clog the narrow street every single day. i got to quiapo in no time at all. there weren't that many people around too, so it was easy to get around. hooray for holidays!

i met up with heidz and lay over at jollibee carriedo where they planned what prizes to give their students--purses, pens, keychains, etc. i just kept quiet most of the time as i was absorbed in finishing my spaghetti, only giving suggestions when they ask for it. anyway after much deliberation, they settled on native candy instead. yeah, baby! =)

of course a day in the old manila area isn't complete without food. so after buying the candy, we went straight to ongpin... somehow.

ongpin, binondo:
now, i consider myself to be pretty good in directions, but somehow my sense of direction gets muddled whenever i'm in the quiapo/binondo area. maybe it's because of the narrow alleyways that look the same and the throng of people that never seems to disappear but then again, quiapo won't be quiapo without the crowded narrow alleyways. so when lay asked me how long it would take us to walk over to ongpin, i said it would take us about 20 minutes if we walk through escolta.

since none of us wanted to lug the heavy bags for that long, we took a taxi instead which brought us around plaza sta. cruz no more than five minutes and--- surprise, surprise! the gate to binondo suddenly loomed right in front of us. even if we walked along plaza sta. cruz instead of along escolta, it would still have taken us less than 20 minutes. heck, less than 10 minutes! it was a very good thing that the taxi driver was very nice about it and even laughed along with us (AT me and my very excellent sense of direction, to be exact). never mind the P32.50 that we paid.

so we walked along ongpin and entered the new eastern garden restaurant, home of the best fresh lumpia since 1950. one can get a small but filling fresh lumpia for only Php28. the lumpia was good, but it would be tastier had it more peanuts and garlic. (at least, according to my ever-dependable tastebuds)

turistas to the core! heidz and me eating the fresh lumpia

of course, one small fresh lumpia won't satisfy our cravings, so we walked a little further up over to tasty dumplings, which was actually on the other end of ongpin, just on the side of binondo church. this wasn't my and heidz's first time to eat here, but it is for lay. we weren't worried that lay might be disappointed if the dumplings aren't as tasty as the name implies, because the dumplings ARE tasty. and yes, she wasn't disappointed.

kuchay dumplings

fried dumplings (the empty plate beside it was the one with the kuchay dumplings)

tsay ma pao

after. ;-)

we were supposed to order a noodle soup but we were already full. ;)

postscript:
i am so glad i followed the girls to quiapo after work, or else i would have bored my brains out if i went home right away. but i did not go with them to sm centerpoint anymore after binondo as i wanted to rest already. good thing i did, because when i got home the lavandera told me the washing machine just quit running. but that's another story. btw, the pics are courtesy of lay. thanks girl! =)

lakaran galore ramblings

i've been dying to walk along the streets of quiapo once more even though i didn't have an exact plan where to go. i saw my chance yesterday when my friend heidz asked me to accompany her to the salon earlier in the afternoon. i warned her to wear comfy shoes as we're going to walk... not really aimlessly, but ya know, just walk wherever our feet bring us. =)

LOST IN QUIAPO
on the fx ride to quiapo, i told heidz about globe lumpia house which serves really good fresh lumpia for over 50 years. we instantly craved for it and i immediately texted my pa where the eatery is located. he replied that it's just on the street behind quiapo church but he doesn't know the name. i should have listened to him right then and there and went directly to that street. but noooooo. there were just too many people and stalls around that we did not see where the lumpia house is exactly. or maybe it's just me and my semi-bad sense of direction. anyway, we passed by ma mon luk--and we went back and forth along quezon ave. asking people where it is, and they all replied, "banda roon pa." eh san nga yung "banda roon"? we were so hungry by then that we just gave up looking for it and just walked over to carriedo by way of sales street (where we saw the philippine school of criminology) and bought these japanese cakes with cheese filling. back on familiar ground (at least, for me), we passed plaza lacson and went over to escolta where we went on to the promenade. we saw one of the new boats on the river just leaving the escolta station and for fun, we decided to ride the boat on our way home.

TASTY DUMPLINGS (AND PORK CHOP RICE)
one japanese rice cake for each of us ain't enough so we ate dinner at tasty dumplings in ongpin. both of us got the humongous pork chop rice and i ordered an extra of kuchay dumplings. yum-yum! after polishing off our food and an hour of chika, we walked along ongpin as heidz wanted to buy a mooncake. i bought red monggo hopia and ube hopia (for my mum) at eng bee tin, then we went on to salazar bakery. it was my first time inside salazar bakery and i can say that i sooooooo love the chinese music pouring out from the speakers. heidz finally bought a lotus cream with 1 egg mooncake while i bought lao po pia (sweet heat cake... don't ask, i don't know what this means either ü). i asked the girl at the counter where i can buy a cd of chinese music and this chinese woman who's manning the cash register answered "galing yan sa china." oh ok. i really wanted to buy one ever since i was bombarded with chinese music at the malls in KL (which was about to celebrate the chinese new year at the time).

CRUISE IN THE DARK
we were just in time for the next trip going to guadalupe (8.15pm). the station in escolta is well-lighted. and inside the boat? FREEZING. it's like we stepped into an industrial-size freezer where the meat is kept. the seats are also made of hard plastic so... it's very cold... ^^;;
the boat also reminds me of the supercat i rode going to ormoc, leyte from cebu as it looks exactly the same except for the seats. i would have loved to look out the window and see the sights, but as it was already night time there wasn't much to see except for places that were lighted--and there weren't many lighted places anyway.
the trip took longer than i expected because the boat was running slower than its maximum speed of 17 knots. the officer i spoke to said that it's due to the speed requirement when plying the river--to make way for the other barges as well as to prevent creating large waves that might cause the smaller boats to capsize.
out of the six stations from guadalupe to escolta, four are already operational: guadalupe, hulo, sta. ana and escolta. the other two--lambingan and pureza will open mid-2007. hopefully the ones extending up to the marikina river will open at the end of this year or early next year.
the trip from escolta to guadalupe took 55 minutes. it's quite longer than i expected, but then it was a good experience. there were only a few passengers (8 in all) so it wasn't like rush hour at all. it was actually like mrt and lrt2 when they first opened. i sincerely hope that this river scheme would click with the commuters.

SHANGRI-LA MALL
heidz and i separated at mrt shaw and i met up with my family at shangri-la. where was my family eating dinner? mong kok express!