Manila - Week 2 Update (Filipino Food!)

I finally tried some Filipino food last night - and loved it! A couple of us went out to dinner and shared a big platter so we could all try a lot of different things. The names are gone, but I tried some bits of pork that were lightly battered and fried with kind of a vinegar-y yet sweet dipping sauce, had some grilled squid (still gotta' get used to them serving the whole animal intact, looking like it just crawled out of the ocean and onto my plate by way of a BBQ grill), had some BBQ chicken that would rival my dad's, and some random veggies in a spicy-kinda'-sweet sauce. As my friend Julia said, it's ALL about that sauce - good stuff! Everything was delicious. For dessert, I had myself a cocktail - I've yet to find Makers Mark anywhere here :( - and picked at a bit of Jefferson's "mango slice" (which seemed to be mango ice cream sandwiched between layers of granola) and Julia's gelatin phantasmagoria (actual name is completely different and gone from my head). I've no idea, really, what was in that besides bits of gelatin, but she loved it; my reaction was more lukewarm since I'm not really into eating horse hooves. It seemed to be bits of green gelatin in coconut milk along with other stringy bits of white gelatin, or possibly some kind of noodles - ??? Anyway, looking forward to more Pinoy culinary pleasures for the next couple months!

Our Herald from the show started a poker tournament last night and after a rather strong start, I promptly lost about 400 pisos (or almost $9.00 US) - big spender, I know. We were all beaten by a newbie (had just learned the game 30 minutes before the tournament - !!!) in the first round, then by our Prince in the second, and I was out like a light shortly after as the game went until well after midnight. (What's with the old lady bedtimes still?) Lots of fun, though; I play a bit, but tournament play is quite different from sitting in for an occasional hand here and there and I could use a little more experience with the escalating stakes involved. Looking forward to adding a few pisos to my per diem every week! . . . hopefully. ;)

More later - I'm off to find some kind of lunch I've never had before.