RSSStarting the journey with airport food
Nov 09
Rubbish, Top of my head, Travel review, Travel No Comments
My wife and I embarks in our first out of town trip today for the last 3 years. Our plane leaves at 730 so we were at the airport by 5am to avoid any checking hassle. It was a good thing as the group of passengers ahead of our queue took a while as the counter crew, to their much chagrin, tried to explain to them the concept of “allowable hand luggage”.
We were done with the checking procedures by 545am. With stomachs grumbling, we scouted the food stalls and the choices were a bit meager: a rice/noodle vendor, go nuts donuts, Krispy Kreme donuts, Mrs fields cookies, chaikofi cafe, and two kiosks of a sandwich vendor. The rice-chowing Asian in me made the choices clear: rice toppings for me.
The pickings were limited as most of the menu items are not available. I settled for chicken asado toppings with coke in can, and my wife ordered the two pieces of siopao (asado and bola-bola) with bottled water. The bill was Php310. Pretty steep price so my expectations already rose up.
The food came in quickly. The asado came with 3 quarter inch slices of chicken with asado sauce and spring onion bits. The siopao were the size of teacups.
The food fare was, for lack of a more positive adjective, “geared towards the international palate”. The chicken was butter soft. Oh wait that was the plastic spoon and fork that came with the meal. You have heard the joke about siopao being made from cat meat? Well this is different as the siopao feels as hot as a cat’s nose. My wife’s first bite was a smorgasbord of flavor: she couldn’t identify the flavor. She ended up not finishing the second siopao so it was up to me to get our money’s worth. I am grateful for the Chili oil in the table because I don’t know if I would have done without it.
What’s good with the food? The coke in can was cold, and the Chili oil has the right spiciness and bite.
What was bad? Everything else. Next time you are in the area, choose the branded franchises as you would know what to expect. And don’t listen to the instincts of a hungry stomach.
The kiosk’s name is “Let’s Chow” with the tag line “mapapa-chow ka” (i think a weak play on the wow expression). All I can say on that is “pu-chow naman o” (my play on a local curse phrase). If I paid thrice the amount of a similar fate from 7-11 then I expect the flavor to be as good.