A Night of Indulging in Filipino Food with American guy 2019/8/19【61】

Day 3, morning.

Still, Manila is quiet in the "morning."

On this day, I headed to a popular cafe I had researched in advance.

It took about 15 minutes to walk from the guesthouse to COMMUNE.

I ordered American coffee and a salad bowl.

The coffee, made from domestic beans, was simply delicious. With this quality and quantity, it's a bargain at less than 300 yen.

The salad was honestly mediocre. Below the tomatoes, red onions, and tofu, it was mostly lettuce. The dressing was too strong and acidic for my taste.

In this cafe, I could comfortably use Wifi, which is rare in Manila. I called a GrabCar in front of the shop and headed to the tourist spots.

I got off at Rizal Park and walked to an area where historical buildings are preserved.

Along the way, the heat was too much so I took a break at Starbucks.

Right near Starbucks was the Philippines' oldest church, "San Agustin Church."

When I visited, it was lunch break so I couldn't go inside.

The buildings and streets in this vicinity are Western-style, making it feel like a different world.

A 10-minute walk from the church brought me to "Manila Cathedral."

Inside, there were a few locals and tourists sitting and praying.

In the light rain, I took a brief stroll around the cathedral and then headed to the next destination, Mall of Asia. I hailed a taxi on the street, only told the driver the destination, and upon arrival, I was charged only 100 pesos.

As the name suggests, it's a gigantic shopping mall, and it seemed like it would take a whole day just to look around.

I wanted a long-sleeve shirt, so I bought a sale item at MANGO. It's a Spanish fast-fashion brand, but it's not available in Japan.

After shopping, I had lunch at a place called Razon's. It's a Filipino chain, and I had heard that their Halo-Halo is delicious, so I decided to give it a try.

The dessert came before the rice dishes. This Halo-Halo was really delicious. You mix the sauce at the bottom well before eating, and I don't know how to describe it, but it's a taste I've never had before and it's addictive.

While enjoying the Halo-Halo, Lechon Kawali was served. It's a Filipino food where pork is fried crispy in oil and eaten with rice. It was very oily. Well, it's natural since a fatty meat is fried in oil.

After finishing the meal, I took a light stroll around the mall, picked up a taxi in the outdoor parking lot, and returned to Makati.

I got off at Greenbelt and took a break at Starbucks.

The paper straw gets soggy quickly if you don't drink fast. Haha.

With nothing particular to do or places to go, I decided to return to the guesthouse for the time being.

...

While cooling off on the bed in my room and thinking about the plans for later, I was approached by an older man staying in the bed across from me.

After some brief introductions and small talk, he invited me to dinner with his Filipino friend that night.

I hesitated for a moment but agreed. There was a possibility that he could be dangerous, and I was tired and wanted to go to a bathhouse, but I decided to go with the flow.

The old man called a Grab, and we headed to BGC. During the ride, we talked about work and family, but I felt a slight fear going out at night with a stranger overseas.

After getting out of the car, we headed to a restaurant called "manam" where we were meeting up.

There was a line in front of the restaurant, and among them were two friends of the old man. One was a lady in her 30s or 40s, and the other was a young man in his 20s. The old man introduced me, but I could clearly hear him say, "This guy can't speak English, haha." I felt a bit of regret for my language skills while admiring how Filipinos, with their native-level English, could converse easily with Westerners.

This restaurant seemed to serve Filipino cuisine, and the menu was filled with items I had never seen before. I left the ordering to the locals.

I forgot the names of some dishes, but we had salad, sisig, lumpia, stir-fried small squid, kare-kare, fried chicken, and a lot of rice.

It was a popular restaurant, and everything was delicious. Among them, kare-kare was the best. It had a mild peanut flavor with a bit of sweetness, a completely different dish from curry.

I was the only one who ordered beer. Despite his wild appearance, the old man didn't drink alcohol. He and the lady were drinking fruit juice. The young man had apparently had alcohol earlier and didn't want any more.

After finishing the meal, we took a commemorative photo and parted ways with the young man.

Then, the three of us strolled around BGC at night. I was full and didn't want to eat anything, but the old man kept insisting, "Brother, dessert is a must after a meal!!" so we went to a tapioca shop.

I bought a fruit tea at "Yi Fang," which is also available in Japan. The old man was drinking some kind of tapioca juice. I learned that tapioca is also called bubble in English. The old man kept repeating "Bubble, Bubble, Bubble," and I thought he had gone crazy.

The lady seemed to live near BGC (and work around there too), and we hugged goodbye in the end.

After it was just the old man and me, we took a taxi back to Makati and strolled around Burgos Street.

We peeked into the night shops facing Burgos Street, checking for attractive women, a noble (or vulgar?) game he taught me.

Like in other Southeast Asian countries, girls on the streets of Manila will approach you. But what surprised me in Manila was being pinched on the nose by women. I later found out that pinching someone's nose in the Philippines is a very affectionate gesture. Unaware of this, I kept shaking them off and running away. Haha.