Posts tagged food

Petrichor

Today is very boring.
It’s a very boring day.
There is nothing much to look at,
There is nothing much to say.

There’s a peacock on my sneakers.
There’s a penguin on my head.
There’s a dormouse on my doorstep.
I am going back to bed.

Today is very boring.
It is boring through and through.
There is absolutely nothing.
That I think I want to do.

I see giants riding rhinos,
And an ogre with a sword.
There’s a dragon blowing smoke rings
I am positively… bored.

Today is very boring,
I can hardly
Help but yawn.
There’s a flying saucer landing in the middle of my lawn.
A volcano just erupted less than half a mile away,
And I think I felt an earthquake.
It’s a very boring day.

—Jack Prelutsky, in one of the more memorable episodes of Arthur, undoubtedly one of the greatest TV shows ever

It’s a very boring day, indeed. I woke up a few hours ago to the erratic pitter-patter of water, collected from last night and today’s early morning precipitation, pouring from the gutter just outside my window. The air in my room was, and is still is, dank. Should I get up yet? But what would I do? I felt hungry but was too lazy to cook breakfast. Even the really easy yet gastronomically rewarding task of boiling instant pancit canton noodles and sprinkling special seasoning over them afterward was too much work for me to make me want to get up. Or, the task was just so menial that I couldn’t be bothered with leaving the comfort of my bed to do it, even if the end product was for my own personal consumption and mine alone. I turned on the TV instead to find Helen Mirren pulling a slightly subdued Anna Wintour in front of an unassuming assistant. Not in the mood for some bitchy-boss-from-hell movie, so I switched to another channel. And another. And another. I gave up my attempt at watching quality TV at the blank interstice between two obscure local cable channels. Now, I am still assuming my favorite horizontal position, casually typing on Daniella (my laptop) and tapping on Hedwig (my phone) to publish a post and reply to a Saturday morning text message greeting, respectively.

It’s a very boring day. So far.

Rain Check

I told myself I’d have dinner at my apartment tonight, but something about those giant golden arches at the intersection of Boni Avenue and Barangka Drive as seen from behind the driver of the tricycle that I rode on my way home made me change my mind. It was raining quite hard and I was feeling unusually yet pleasantly cold. It was a little wet inside my sneakers and the back of my favorite white Casual Friday shirt looked as if I worked up a sweat in it. In other words, the weather was just the way I liked it. So with my automatic open/close umbrella on hand, my trusty mailman bag over my shoulder, and my old pals, Chris and Caleb, in my ear canals, I went inside McDonald’s, thereby setting out to do what was essentially the cherry on top of another almost perfect day.

People-watching in a fast food restaurant on a rainy night proved to be quite a treat. The first persons that caught my attention were a preschooler and her nanny who I stood behind in line. The little munchkin was wearing a ladybug-inspired raincoat, and to say that he looked cute in it is an understatement. He was beaming at me as I attempted to take a picture of him using Hedwig. But just as I was about to click and capture his smile, her nanny, unaware that I’d taken an instant liking to her pint-sized charge, tugged at one of the wings of his coat and teased him with something she took out from the bag of food she just ordered. I lost the kid to a cheeseburger.

After buying a value meal and two McFlurrys, I settled into a seat by the glass window and went on with my hobby. Across my table was another child accompanied by her parents. She looked frustrated. She probably wanted the Hello Kitty toys on display but her parents wouldn’t let her have any. She was just about ready to tear up when her dad offered her some fries. She saved her tears for later, when she’d eaten all her food and remember that she wanted the Hello Kitty toys on display.

I abandoned the family of three to find two persons who, like me, were eating by their lonesome. They both looked happy, though, with every bite the teenage boy took from his burger and with every twirl the old lady made on her spaghetti noodles. I’d like to think I was just as happy chewing bits and tasting hints of Oreo from my sundae.

Outside, a trio of giddy schoolgirls began writing with their fingers on the fogged up glass window. One of them traced a vertical line, then drew a circle above it. The one on the middle wrote four letters. The last girl produced an umlauted U. Then, below the words, i love ü, they took turns forming the name, Patrick. Whoever this Patrick was, he’s one lucky guy.

I hailed another tricycle to take me to my apartment building. Inside the sidecar was a missing person poster. The piece of paper said the man pictured had been missing for over a week. Looking at his photo and reading his description, I wondered how a heavyset guy with braces, dreadlocks and tattoos could have gone astray. I glimpsed at the driver’s face as he steered the vehicle. The resemblance between him and the guy on the poster was evident. I asked him if he knew the guy. He just shrugged. It made me shrug, too. I guess I’ll never know.

Tapsi Quel

Tapsi Quel is a tiny eatery located on the corner of Sinag and Libertad Streets, Mandaluyong City. If you’re Filipino, then you most probably have an idea what the first part of the name means. If not, then allow me to enlighten you. Tapsi is short for “tapsilog,” a portmanteau word resulting from the combination of the Tagalog words for three items that make up a typical Filipino breakfast: “tapa” (jerked beef), “sinangag” (garlic rice) and “itlog” (fried egg). The second part of the establishment’s name, however, is a mystery. Neither I nor the next guy is exactly sure what Quel means. I’m guessing it’s the name of the family-owned ox whose meat helped build the place. Or the owners thought it’d be clever if they made the name sound like “popsicle.” In any case, Tapsi Quel is home to my favorite greasy spoon.

Aside from the world-famous tapsilog, Tapsi Quel, like most diners and restaurants that offer it, also serves other “-silog” meals, all with garlic rice and fried egg, of course, as their names suggest.

Chiksilog (chicken). Hotsilog (hotdog). Bangsilog (“bangus,” milkfish). Longsilog (“longganiza,” Philippine chorizo). Liemposilog (“liempo,” pork belly). Tuyolog (“tuyo,” dried herring). Tocilog (“tocino,” cured pork). Cornsilog (corned beef). Porksilog (pork chop). Masilog (Ma Ling, a brand of luncheon meat). If you fancy a greasy plate of any of these delectable dishes, make sure you have more or less P50 in your pocket, head to the small diner fronting Ministop and Bugong Roast Chicken, grab a monoblock stool and make yourself comfortable at the tiled counter.

Tonight for dinner I had my favorite, fortified-with-cholesterol liemposilog. I absolutely enjoyed chomping on the delicious meat, which, judging by its curiously dark appearance, was clearly fried in three-day-old cooking oil. Yummy.

Cache. Cookies. Cleared.

The past week turned out to be a particularly good one.

Item: For the first time in months, I actually enjoyed working. It felt like I was falling in love/like again with the job I applied for a year and a half ago. It’s a welcome change, considering that over the past couple of months I was on the brink of quitting. I even took a quiz online to help me assess my situation. The result was “Yes! Get out of there alive! Better start looking though.” AND “No, keep your current job.” 50-50. What do you know? Apparently I wasn’t the only one that’s undecided. Even the thing that I turned to to supposedly help me decide was.

After thinking it through, I finally chose to stay put. I just couldn’t shake off the prospect of receiving envelope after envelope of credit card and phone bills in the mail and not being able to pay them in between my current job and the next. Plus, the present state of the economy isn’t exactly conducive to successful jobhunting.

I chose to start over and stay. On my ergonomic chair. In front of my flickering monitor. Amongst soldering irons, printed circuit boards, signal generators and oscilloscopes. In the company of some of the best and funnest people one could hope to be teamed up with. And with hindsight, I’m glad I did.

Come to think of it, my rekindled interest in my job is also due to my newfound food fave, Arcor Tortitas. These deeply satisfying vanilla-filled cookies are available in the pantry-cum-honesty store in our office. It’s really hard not to get out of bed early and turn up for work every day when these little devils are waiting for you. Believe it or not, I quit Oreos for these.