My Silly, Happy, Wonderful World: Food Trip Weekends: Chinatown Detour

I had a wonderful time bonding with my mom last Saturday. After my breakfast date with E, my mom and I went downtown to buy some things for November 1st and look around.

Can I just say that I love Manila? Manila, as in the city ok? I especially love Ongpin, Manila's Chinatown. Yeah, my husband is looking at me weird right now and I know you're probably thinking how dirty, chaotic and unorganized everything is there.. But I grew up in Manila and I love its little nooks and crannies, the vendors on the sidewalk, the smell of food wafting out from little eateries scattered around the area. I wish I could go more often.

Anyway... My mom wanted to buy my Amah some food for dinner. Our first stop was Uno Seafood at Escolta to buy a tofu dish my mom loves. The tofu they use is pretty special, it's very smooth, very mild and really yummy. We also ordered some honey spareribs and roast pork which we had for dinner. I saw a table with two old women and they had this big dish that looks a lot like a giant pot pie. Intriguing, I think I'm going to go back for that. :)

Menu:

What we ordered: Braised Soya Milk with 3 kinds of Mushroom

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Our next stop was Mandarin Supermarket. It is located in the new building just beside Salazar Bakery. This place is the best!!! I was in Taiwan/ China/ Singapore heaven! I found a lot of my favorite food and drinks there along with some ingredients for cooking.

Cute escalator to get to the supermarket.

My haul:

My favorite lemon tea. Glad to have it inside my refrigerator.

Mushroom powder for a quick umami fix, sate sauce for noodles and ginger beer for lemon and gin cocktails.. Yum!

Instant taho powder! J loves this so I'm giving it a try. My favorite preserved Mandarin peel, sucker for all things salty, sweet and sour.

777 Ongpin St.,
Sta. Cruz, Manila

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We saw this milk tea place right outside the supermarket and we gave it a try. In typical Chinese-English translation done badly, this place was called Lovely Citea, i think.hehe I didn't get to clarify since the servers are pretty busy.

Drinks are comparatively cheaper.

I got the Iced Black Tea with Pearls and my mom the Hawaiian Yogurt drink. Both are surprisingly good, not to sweet with a pleasing tea taste. So good that my mom ordered another drink. haha You see where I got my takawness!

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There's also Formosa Bakeshoppe just a few steps away. They have Taiwanese style cakes and pastries. I took some pictures because the cakes are so over-the-top pretty!

This is a humongous 12 inch frilly girly cake and, for 1400 pesos, reasonably priced.

Cute pastries!

I love their cake boxes! So nice to receive something inside the boxes.

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Of course, I have to buy E some pasalubong from my lakwatsa with mom. I dropped by an old favorite, Wai Ying, and bought some frozen siomai and spareribs for those lazy days. I'm going to make spareribs steamed on top of rice with lots of good chili sauce for E soon. One of our favorite comfort food!

1237- 1241 Benavidez St.
Tondo, Manila

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We still had some time left so we asked to be dropped off at 999 mall at Soler St. (Side note: This is the street where I spent my early childhood. This was way before 168 and all these quasi-malls sprouted up the street and made it unbearably crowded.)

My mom and I made a beeline to Zhen Hu Fastfood stall (located at the foodcourt). They sell a lot of dishes but what we come here for is the Glutinous Rice steamed in bamboo containers.