Marhaba Makati

11-19 April 2012

Manila, Philippines

A week and a bit in Makati for work.

Stayed at the Mandarin Oriental, which was a little run-down. But the hotel really made up for it with the excellent service--- imagine the natural sunny disposition of Filipinos plus top-class training and multiply it by pride in their work-- priceless!

Unfortunately, being based in the hotel also meant that I ate at the same restaurant about 10 times (more if I woke up in time for breakfast, but that's not usually my thing so...). Don't all hotel buffet joints taste samey after a while, the world over? A mix of pseudo-local dishes,  a daily roast, western meals and a generic dessert counter. Reheat and repeat. Or perhaps am I just too pampered to appreciate the good things in life any more? (I'm writing this post in bed after a bad case of projectile vomiting brought on in part due to festive excesses, so excuse the moroseness!)

 

Halo Halo! A very traditional Filipino dessert--- very very sweet! It tastes like a Singapore dessert, Ice Kachang, but with ice-cream, coconut and other candied fruit. So pretty! But I could only have it the first day-- it was muy too sweet!

On the days i did manage to wander out of the hotel for my meals, didn't find anything particularly delicious-- although I did discover a love for Jollibee-- a local brand of cheap fast food which is neither nutritious or particularly tasty.

But I guess I was just nostalgic to relieve the memories of a previous trip to the 7107 islands when I walked in to pick up a late dinner of spaghetti and fried chicken. The spaghetti sauce was incredibly sweet, like candy even, but strangely it hit the spot.


I've realised that I do have a thing for eating junk food in hotel rooms...maybe its cos I was never allowed to eat in my bedroom as a child. Go figure.

Haven't (yet again) not done any research prior to this trip (too busy mugging for the work part of it, no doubt), I hadn't planned any side trip to Boracay or some such thing. In fact, was perfectly happy to laze by the pool, something I had never really found appealing (must be getting old)


'Nuff said

Then I felt guilty about not making full use of the weekend so arranged for a half day tour around the old city.  I really wanted to go for the Imelda Marcos tour-- the lady is such an intriguing 'personality' but it doesn't run on weekends WTH. The tour did cover a little bit of her reign--such a mark she had stamped on the city-- but it just wasn't the same as what the satiric walkabout would have done.


I have to say, the woman was really beautiful, no wonder Ferdinand snapped her up after just 11 days


Obligatory tour in Manila-- Street Procession, American Cemetery, Green Belt, Old Town, Jollibee in the very same colour scheme as Ronald McDonald, funnily enough.

Face

Greater Manila, 27-30 August 2012

This was my second time to Manila for business trip, but this time I was not staying in the city itself, Instead, we were put up at a tiny hotel in an industrial estate were the client was based.

The hotel was quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and was nothing remarkable apart from its unusual choice of purple satin pillow cases. Oddly enough, the only restaurant in the hotel had a Japanese name. It didn't exactly serve Japanese food though, so I couldn't figure that one out (although could be because of the Asahi plant nearby and therefore hotel trying to cater to the Japanese businessmen who stayed there).

I guess one interesting thing that happened on the trip was getting to taste a local Filipino delicacy sie-sie.


It's probably not something that I would have picked out of the menu myself, and I only tried it as I had a Filipino colleague who was doing the honours.

In a impromptu trip to the Philippines with Potato and Ms Lim years ago, we once bumped into a Caucasian guy on a long-distance bus, and he uttered the prophetic words "The Philippines has the baddest (sic) food in Asia". True enough, we ended up with fast-food most of that trip as we couldn't quite appreciate the local delights then. My opinion remains unchanged three trips in.

When the sizzling plate of sie-sie arrived, it smelled pretty good (how wrong can grilled meat go?) and was pleasantly unidentifiable. All of us gamely took a bite of the salty, oddly chewy meat which was neither good nor bad and tried to figure out what we were swallowing.

Turns out sie-sie is pig face, so all the chewy meat was the cartilage and bones. I suppose, being Chinese, this isn't too disgusting as food in the whole scheme of things. Have definitely eaten more gross stuff than pig's face  (fish eyeballs, innards come to mind).

I guess people who have pig's heads hung at their door by money-lenders can try to turn it into a meal to save money so they can pay off their debts faster?