Binondo revisited

        Last Saturday (which also happened to be Valentine's Day), Rap and I embarked on a perilous quest to discover a mythical town inhabited by mutant pineapples, noodle-pullers, and, the most dangerous of all, Chinese people.

        Rap and I had been to Binondo before, albeit separately. I had gone during a field trip for my Philosophy class some two years ago (and I blogged about it here), while Rap's last visit was some four years ago, for an English class activity. But despite the time that had elapsed, Binondo still seemed as familiar and charming as ever.

        We took the LRT2 all the way to its last stop in Recto. Pretty decent station. Well, except for the really dark and sketchy parts.

        I know it was a risk bringing my bulky camera along on this trip, but I didn't want to have to bring out my tablet every time I wanted to snap a picture! Anyway, I kept it in my bag when I wasn't using it, and the bag stayed with Rap.

        When we got out of the station, we asked around for directions to Binondo Church. A helpful guard told us to get a jeep bound for Baclaran and tell the driver to drop us off at Divisoria, which we did. The fare was eight pesos each.

        The jeep stopped at a footbridge with a huge tarp featuring Erap's grinning face, telling us that we were in the Divisoria market. Cool!!! I thought. I had always wanted to go to Divisoria.

        Divisoria has a reputation for being a haven for pickpocketers, so I didn't dare bring out my camera at this point. Hence, no pictures of the cool stuff we found. Which is such a pity, because I saw a lot of cool stuff! Where else can you find underwear for P30??? There were also booths selling wigs, tassely jeepney ornaments, and good morning towels. I didn't end up buying anything, but just looking at all the doodads and knickknacks made me feel like I had gotten so much out of the experience. [Okay I'll stop narrating this part because I don't think it will interest anyone but me (but do speak up if you want to hear about cheap plums, silver letters, and a smartphone black market).]

         Rap goes to Divisoria on some occasions to visit his grandmother, who manages a textile store somewhere there. Because of his familiarity with the place, he became the navigator (even though I was the one previously tasked with printing and studying the map). Sure enough, after some minutes of walking around (and me marvelling at nearly everything), we found the textile store. We popped in for a bit and said a quick hello to his ama.

         Back in Divisoria, we resumed our quest to find Binondo. After about fifteen minutes of walking through crowded streets, booths filled with various odds and ends, and the endless bleating of "YES MAAMSIR," we finally reached a clearing that no longer looked like Divisoria. We quickly spotted the Binondo Church, telling us that we had arrived at our destination.
       

        Our timing was perfect. Because we had gone the week before Chinese New Year, we got to enjoy the streets adorned with these festive lanterns without having to elbow through a sea of visitors. I also felt a little more safe in this area, so I got to take out my camera and snap away.

        Also, because it was almost Chinese New Year, the streets were paved with vendors selling "lucky" items.

Carved gabi. For luck.

Bundles of... um, palay?  

        Our original intent was to go on a food trip with some sightseeing on the side. We had made a map and a list of places to visit, in no particular order. The first stop on the map was Cafe Mezzanine.

Some pretty neat juxtaposition going on here.

        I had actually done some pretty extensive research on places to eat and things to order, but of course I had to forget to write any of that stuff down. So we just asked the waitress what was good and, upon her suggestion, ordered the xiao long bao (P180 for 10 pcs). For the gastronomically illiterate (like me), xiao long bao is what happens if you crossbred siomai and soup. It's like siomai filled with soup.

        Sadly, the service was pretty bad. Rap and I waited long, and a family who arrived later than we did even got their order (also xiao long bao) first. It also took very long for them to get us water, and after repeatedly asking to get us utensils, I had to go over to the counter personally to ask for them.

        Anyway. To eat xiao long bao, take a soup spoon (you know, the big, curvy porcelain kind that Chinese people use), and scoop up some vinegar. Then, with your chopsticks, carefully place a single bao onto the vinegared spoon. Pierce a hole on the bottom of the bao using a chopstick, and watch with a satisfied smile as the soup slowly begins to leak out. Slurp up the soup-vinegar mixture and then pop the remaining bao into your mouth. Chew, swallow, enjoy.

       In the case of Cafe Mezzanine, the deliciousness of the xiao long bao made up for the bad service. It was chewy, the soup was soupy, and the flavor was yummy (see, sentences like this are the reason I have no future as a food blogger). I'm not very hard to please when it comes to food, moreso dimsum, so naturally, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Although it did leave a weird fatty taste in my mouth afterwards. While I'm the kind of person who would rate Chowking's pork siomai chao fan as A+ and consider it fine dining, even Rap, with his discriminating palate, said he would give this dish a near 10/10 (the bad service factored in to the equation a bit).
       
       Trivia: All proceeds from this restaurant go into supporting the firefighter operations.

       Our next stop was Dong Bei Dumplings. I was supposed to eat here during my last visit to Binondo, but the restaurant had been full. Today, all of its tables were occupied, but the management asked a lone customer if she could share the table and she said yes.

             Dong Bei Dumplings makes all its dumplings fresh, which is why the prices are a little high for a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The service was good too - we got our dumplings within a couple of minutes of waiting. Although the cleanliness of the place is questionable, to say the least.

             Aaaaaaanyway. Setting aside all my fears of gastrointestinal disease, the dumplings tasted yummy.

Mixed pork and kuchay dumplings - P120 for 14 pcs

             I thought they tasted a lot like the xiao long bao we had previously, and I, with my underdeveloped gastronomic abilities, found them still to be delicious. I would've liked a little less oil though. Rap however thought the dumplings had a weird aftertaste.

               Back on the streets of Binondo, while walking to our next destination, we passed a grocery store selling Chinese stuff and decided to go in for a peek.

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           Okay it's safe to look now. Rap bought a pack of preserved mangoes from here, and not the kind that's been dried and sugared. I'm talking about the kind that was soaked in some sort of salt vinegar mixture so that it tastes kind of spicy and sour and salty. I didn't take a picture of it so you'll have to use your imagination. A half kilo cost P80, enough to sustain us both.

Castanedas being roasted. 

Stuffed pangolin. This might not be entirely legal.

Deer goat thing.

Now for some harmless hopia.

Kumkuats.

Lucky baby pineapples.

Really big fruit. And more kumkuats.

Very wintery.

???

This dude is carving gabi to make lucky items for suckers discerning consumers.

Again: ???

Mutant pineapples. The pineapple equivalent of siamese triplets.

Okay I just HAD to take a photo of this. My first time seeing a parking meter in the Philippines!

At first I wasn't even thinking of touching these kumkuats but because they had to tell me
THREE TIMES not to touch them, I wanted to touch them.

         Noodle time! We (well, I) didn't expect to find our next destination, Lan Zhou La Mien, on the street we were walking on. This restaurant wasn't on the lists I consulted, but Rap added it to the itinerary because he had eaten here before and loved it.

         The place is known for its hand-pulled noodles. I'm told that the difference between hand-pulled and factory-made noodles is that hand-pulled noods are stretchier, and when you bite into them, they have a satisfying snap. 

One order of the beef lamien costs P120, and the picture above is of just one order split into two bowls. So a big bowl of delicious noodles is really about P60 per person!

            Of the three restaurants we visited, this was the most sulit. We split one order of beef lamien (P120), and the serving was more than enough for me. I couldn't finish my bowl, even though I really wanted to! The texture of the noodles is noticeably stretchier and they have more recoil. Okay I know that sounds weird but recoil seems to be the best way to describe the way they snap after you bite into them. The soup was also delicious! Flavorful, beefy, with notes of basil. Just thinking about this makes me want to go back. Literally salivating right now.

            La Mien was the perfect cap to our food trip. In total, we spent P480 for our meals. (This isn't  counting the P80 we spent for preserved mango though).

      Mezzanine xiao long bao - 180

   Dong Bei dumplings -     120

   Lan Zhou beef la mien -  120

  Grass jelly (mine) -           30

      Canned Coke (Rap's) -      30    

TOTAL -                         480

           Which is the equivalent of P240 each. Not bad, I think. And transpo? Here's what I spent:

(Getting there)

Bus from Ortigas to Cubao - 12

LRT2 from Cubao to Recto - 20

Jeep from Recto to Divisoria - 8

(Going back)

Trike from Divisoria to Recto - 30 

       LRT2 from Recto to Katipunan - 22            

TOTAL -                            92

            Adding up everything, including the mangoes and combining both of our fares, the whole trip cost us 744 or 372 each. Just right for my budget. 

             Now I'm saving up for the next big thing, which is the batch outing in Sagada. Guess it's gonna be corn dinners for me for the next couple of weeks. Tschüss!