Jun asks me what I would like for breakfast. How would I know? What do you eat for breakfast here? I don’t
suppose I could get some vegemite on toast? No? Bacon and eggs……? Possibly
not. Ok, what is a traditional breakfast
here? I want to begin my time here by
trying to fit in to the Philippine way of life, so why not start with
breakfast! As I had suspected, my day is
definitely going to begin with rice. This is ok, I can do this, I love Asian
food. There have been times that I have
dug in to left over Chinese for breakfast (OH YES YING CHOW LEFT OVERS!!), so I
am sure I can do rice for breakfast.
Garlic fried rice (yes, garlic at breakfast….) is going to
be accompanied with egg (breakfasty), whole grilled tomato (prefer them in
half, but I can deal with that) and Longganisa (What? Oh, Filipino
Sausage). I’m not a big fan of sausages,
probably because Australian sausages really aren’t that good. (My brother
Adrian would whole-heartedly disagree with me on that one.) They are just too
salty and so with my past experiences with sausages from home I wasn’t too keen
on having sausages for breakfast. It
turns out these mini sausages are sweet! SWEET! Yay! I am surprised with how
much I like them and I’m relieved. I didn’t
want to offend on my first proper day in the Philippines.
I thought it would be appropriate if I ate like a native so
I joined Jun in eating with a spoon and fork….. A spoon substitutes the
knife. You cut the food with the side of
your spoon, then push the food off the fork with the spoon, scoop it all up
with the spoon and shovel it in to your mouth but not before dipping it in
Pinakurat (vinegar). They love the
vinegar here, it seems to accompany everything, so why not have it at
breakfast? We ate our meal out on the
terrace upstairs. It’s not too hot today
and I think that I can handle this weather, not as humid as I thought.
After the dishes have been washed up, we (Jun) are getting
ready to go to Tagaytay (Ta-gay-tie).
Tagaytay is about an hour drive up to the mountains (Jun insists its 45
min but on both the way there and back it took over an hour each time). Jun’s Dad own’s a holiday home there and so
we are going to spend a few days up there.
We pull in to the estate (past the
guards who have been informed of our arrival), which is mostly a retirement
place for Filipino-Americans. It’s so
quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of “the outside”. We arrive at their holiday home, which could
be confused as a home due to its size and we settle in. Since it’s been a while since breakfast we
decide to go to find something to eat and I think it would be best to try
something local. We go to a tiny food
stall just off the roundabout. It looks good, it has the same name as the Dim
Sum place next to my favourite Ying Chow back home, Kowloon which has nice food,
so that’s promising! I stay in the car while Jun goes to purchase the food. I am putting my trust in him to get something
I’ll like. He comes back with Shark’s
Fin Siomai (Sho –mai), Bola-Bola and Asado with Salted Egg (both are siopao,
pronounced “Sho-pao”). Hmm……. Not really selling it to me but I will try it
when we get home.
First I try the Shark’s Fin…. It’s chewy and not too
fishy. I dip it in Soy, Calamansi
(similar to lime) and Chilli Oil. It helps with the taste but I’m not really
digging the texture too much. It was
much like a dim sim but a little chewier.
We have 3 of them but I am quite content to stop at the 1…..
Next, the one with the salted egg. The outside is very sweet bread. There is a lot of bread compared to the
filling. Normally I LOVE bread, but this
really was too sweet for me. The
filling is sweet chopped pork, which I quite like. The last is the Bola-Bola, which is also pork
in sweet bread but it has a similar texture to the Shark’s fin so I let Jun
finish it. All in all, not as impressed
with this Kowloon as the one back home but I had to try. After all, what’s the
point of coming to a new country if you don’t try? You could discover something amazing that you
have never had before.
With all the excitement for today you would think that the
day would be over. Oh no. Not when I
discover that you can have an hour massage for under $10! I am going to get me
one of these!! We cruise up and down Tagaytay looking for a reputable place
which we eventually find. They are
booked out for an hour so we head over to the chain store take-away for a bit
of Chic Boy. We eat grilled chicken flattened on a skewer (bones and all- Inasal) and
enjoy eat all you can rice. We are serenaded with two guitarist/”vocalists” who
seem so know my whole ukulele! (hmm, gives me an idea….) We tip them 20 pesos
(50 cents) and head back for our massages.
My shoulders are so tense and I can’t wait for the knots to
be worked out so that the headache I’ve had all day will finally go away. We are called for our couples massage
(apparently Mr and Mrs Lazo….. hehehe) and enter the room. Now, I have had a few massages in my time so
I cleverly slip under the towel while Jun lies on top of his. Smug me laying there is then told by a
slightly embarrassed masseuse that I actually need to lay on the towel and the one for on top of my body is at the
end of the table…. Whoops! Fail.
At what we presume is the end of the massage, we are left
alone in the room without a word said. I
guess this is the end…. Do we just get dressed? Where is this tip envelope they
mentioned? Why didn’t they touch my
shoulders, the source of all my tension and the whole reason for getting a massage?!!
We get home and Jun has to do my shoulders anyway. Lesson learned, won’t be
going back there and wasting another $10. Yes, that’s right, $10 and THAT is an
expensive massage!! Usual price in Manila is around $6. I think I will be
getting a massage every week but specifying neck and shoulders. NECK AND
SHOULDERS….Maybe I should learn that in Tagalog……..
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| Breakfast! |
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| Chicken Inasal from Chic Boy. |
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| Go me with a fork and spoon! |
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| Shark's Fin Siomai |
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