Food in Chinatown

Sam and I was in Binondo this morning. We met at SM Manila, which is near Lawton. Had lunch in a Taiwanese restaurant that sounds like Yin Foo something. Her classmate Judith once brought her there and so she wanted to eat there again. She did most of the ordering, the only thing I had input in was the Yang Chow rice.

We had black chicken soup for starters and the chicken was really black - I learned that the skin of the local variety of chicken turns black when cooked. The soup's supposed to have medicinal properties much better than ordinary chicken soup (haven't heard of chicken soup's effect? why else would the spiritual books be called chicken soup for the soul?).

Then we had oyster omelette. I found it funny that the last time I ate out, I was also eating oysters. I don't know what you call the other dish, but it was basically "litid". It tasted good.

Sam being Sam, she ate slow because she likes to talk a lot while eating, I had to switch to chopsticks so that I won't finish ahead of her... I mean, you get more in your mouth using a spoon versus using chopsticks, right?

As we left the restaurant, we passed by some fruit vendors. We saw something that looked like a cross between an apple and a peach but is smaller than both. I asked the guy what fruit it was, I think he said macam. Funny thing is, when I asked what it tasted like, he told me he didn't know. I chided him for that and asked him how could he persuade others to buy that fruit?

Afterwards we went to Polland. I bought one Ma Chang and out of curiousity bought one pack Ube/langka hopia. Next stop was Bee Tin grocery. I bought some dried fruits (mandarin peels and champoy), and chorizo Macau, dried Tapa strips (sweet and chewy), and Haw flakes. I was curious at the liver chorizo but the salesperson (she must be hired help, I think if I asked the Chinese owners, I would have gotten an answer) didn't know what dish I could put that one in so I didn't buy. At Salazar street, we went into Salazar bakery and I bought some Mongo and Baboy hopia, plus the Lotus one which has salted egg inside. I had us detour to Eng Bee Tin Deli (there are many outlets of Bee Tin in China Town) to buy Ma Chang and different flavors of hopia which is supposed to be the best kind compared to Holland, Polland and Salazar.

It was around 2pm when we finished and we felt the hot sun.