Happy Taste With The Fam (Manila Food Trip)

October 18, 2023

Foods, when shared with loved ones taste better. Indeed, it's true. For many years, I've been bonding, eating, and having fun with myself abroad. That's too boring to imagine. But imagine eating with the family at one table. That's a wonderful moment, even with the simplest food.

Life in the province is simple, as is the food. So having this kind of food trip is rare, especially since our place is far from the city where most restaurants are located. I cherish every moment like this, where I am with my family members eating at the same table.

While processing some paperwork in Manila, we usually stop over at a place to eat our lunch. We usually visit Ali Mall in Quezon City. From there, we would ride a jeep to Camp Aguinaldo. That's our convenient way of transporting. Beforehand, we would visit a restaurant to eat our lunch.

This was taken at Chooks Restaurant. I never thought there was one because I only saw Chooks chicken barbecue stalls for take-out orders before. Honestly, we felt disappointed with the food, especially the Chook's yellow rice. It didn't taste good, and some ingredients didn't seem to complement each other.

Bro with mom. She looks happy riding on the escalator. As if she was freed from being isolated in the province, lol.

The next day, we stopped over at the same mall and visited the food court. There we saw Baliwag Lechon Manok (Roasted Chicken). We didn't order roasted chicken this time, but other sets of food on the menu: pork barbecue with pinakbet for me, fried bangus with pork sinigang soup for my mom, and octopus with dinuguan for my bro.

While eating, I noticed the coffee stall next to us selling Biko bumbong which is new to my ears. Biko is one of my favorite Filipino delicacies, while bumbong is from Puto bumbong usually seen outside churches during the Christmas season.

The Biko Bumbong is a combination of biko and puto bumbong. Aside from latik and grated coconut, the biko has a purple color, the same as puto bumbong, and is topped with cheese, which adds flavor to the dessert. I honestly like it. I ordered the biggest size for takeout and the middle size for our dessert after eating lunch.

The takeout was for my nephew and sister-in-law. But when we got home, we all shared it the next day since there was a lot of food for dinner that night. It was left behind but was served perfectly for breakfast.

The food trip didn't end because I saw yet another interesting food to taste. I saw Gugu Manju Korean mini cakes on the other side of the food court that looked enticing. I thought my little nephew would love them. It has three different fillings: custard, chocolate, and strawberry.

I ordered custard and chocolate Manju mini cakes for takeout. The mini cake has a corn shape. It looks cute and tastes good.

It comes with a big bottle of iced matcha latte. It was my choice because I wanted them to taste my favorite matcha tea. But it was so big that we all shared it.

My mom was craving bobba tea, so I let her taste it. But she didn't like it because it was too sweet. I liked the matcha, but not too much sweetness, even though the sugar I ordered was only 50%. I would probably order a lesser one next time.

Due to busyness in respective work, we often take things for granted that we put less time in such moments of being with the family at the same table. Now that I have some time, as much as possible, I want to spend quality time with them. As the adage says, "The flow of water that has pass will never pass again." So just live each day meaningfully with your loved ones ☺️.

Thanks for your time.

(All photos are mine)

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