FOOD ADVENTURES

With no computer and little idea what to do next, it seemed like a good idea to just get out of the house and see the world around me. One of the things bound to be involved in any outing, in this place, is food. In this case, however, the food adventure actually began at home. It began with what is known as Pan De Sal which are Filipino traditional bread rolls. Like most things here, the name comes from Spanish and literally means "salted bread". According to Wikipedia, "It is a bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt. It has a soft, powdery texture and is eaten in a number of ways combined with numerous sandwich spreads."

I knew it reminded me of something I had eaten in Korea. I also read that originally Pan De Sal was similar to the French Baguette. There was a place called Paris Baguette in Korea that me and Jerry went to many times. Anyway, here;s how things work here. Starting early in the morning, sometimes as early as 4:30 and continuing until past 7:00, guys from the bakery will ride around on bicycles tooting their horn to let you know the bread has arrived. If you want it, you simply go out and get it. They usually cost anywhere from 2 to 5 peso (4 to 10 cents in US currency), though I heard it is even cheaper in some communities, and it always fresh and hot. AT lunch time, they often return, with different types of breads, some filled with sweet coconut paste or other interesting filling. I have to say I am already hooked.


We went out with a few objectives, aside from getting me out of the house. One was to get water, since the security doesn't seem to want to allow our water company to enter the subdivision to deliver to us. We believe it is because a competing water company is trying to monopolize the village. Anyway, we also went to the mall to return some hardware items Dylan didn't need for his music room project, as he has a full studio worth of equipment he has yet to setup. Upon entering the mall, though, we were immediately distracted by an all you can eat buffet, called "eat all you can" here, for only 298 peso, or about $6 US. This place as mostly local style cuisine and I can't begin to tell you how awesome it was. It had a full salad section with many types of dressings. There was an entire soup section, which boasted some type of rice porridge which was so good I lost count how many bowls I had. (they were small bowls though... really...)


They also had the main section where the big dishes sat. Here they had awesome chicken and some kind of beef stir fry, longaniza sausages and sisig. They had a few nice looking fish dishes, but I am not the biggest seafood fan in the world. I'll eat it, but it comes in last when there are so many other great things around. They had some really interesting looking fruit teas, like lemon and some kind of red fruit punch type drink, but I didn't try them as I can't drink the water here. My friend, Dylan, having been here for years, apparently spent a month, mostly on the toilet, intentionally making himself able to do so. He said the lemon tea was great. The other not so great.

We walked around the mall for a while after that. Amazingly beautiful girls were everywhere, smiling giggling, waving at us, some even inviting us to chat with them. We had a lot of fun, making me grateful to get out for once. Maybe the computer dying wasn't such a bad thing. Eventually I got thirsty and wanted a drink. We ended up at an Italian place called Sbarro's. This place had the most amazing looking deep dish pizza I had ever seen. We were more stuffed than any humans should be, though, so we couldn't partake. They had a nice beautiful bottled water machine in the place, which was my goal. I got a piece of garlic bread and the cheesecake pictured at the very top of this post, and sat mainly guzzling water. The atmosphere in the place was amazing and it had an incredible view of the forest, or jungle maybe, outside the window. It was grand. One day I will have to return to actually eat the pizza.

After that we continued searching through this huge place, finding technology stores, fashion boutiques and even video game shops. In a video game shop, Dylan bought an American Idol game for the Wii. They had a few things I would be crazy for, like Resident Evil 5 or Street Fighter 4 for Xbox 360, but his Xbox isn't working for some reason. I also thought I don't want to defeat the purpose of this time away from the computer I was given. Next we stumbled upon some kind of car show. We saw the latest version of my old car, the Suzuki Swift AKA the Geo Metro in America. The new one actually looked cool. Having recently come from Korea, I had to check out the Korean cars they had on display. The girls at the Kia setup were really nice and gave us all the information one could want about the cars and financing option available. Now I never saw the need for a car outside of America. Most places have great transportation options making it unnecessary. Here is not Cebu, though, and I can't just walk outside and flag a taxi and even if I found one, it would cost 5 to 10 times what it would cost in Cebu. I could see the value in a car out here, even though traffic is horrendous and it wouldn't be fun. Still, at the prices these new cars cost, I don't see myself picking one up any time soon.

Eventually we ended up in what I guess was the more muslim section of the mall. It has lots of little booths selling clothes, jewelry or cell phone accessories. Girls with their shawls on their heads were everywhere. We chatted with a few people and they always seem surprised that my friend, an American, would be a muslim. I guess they think all Americans must be christians. As the mall was closing we found ourselves in the Japanese store. I got a cool 1 liter pitcher for juice and some iron chop sticks. I got tired of using the little disposable wooden sticks for ramen. By the time we got home it was after ten PM. I had a mail from Pucc... I mean Jerry, asking me to jump on Skype, but it was already too late. Being two hours ahead, she was already asleep. Still that day changed my whole outlook on this place. It has me really thinking about my course from this point. Even when I do get the computer back up and running, I may not be interested in doing the same things. Whatever I choose to do next, I am sure it will make for a great adventure.