Great Food then Balut

Mike at work.

For work, I finished working on one part of my shot and now moved on to making a mask for Hugh Jackman’s character. For lunch I went to Vienna Kauffehaus again with Suzette. I tried their ox tongue dish which was decent. After lunch I went to the Coffee Dream coffee shop to get a cappuccino which was surprisingly good. Now being in a major city here, I’m experiencing a lot of good coffee shops. Coffee shops that are above average from when I was in Los Angeles. It’s strange because when I first arrived in the Philippines I thought all they drank out here was instant coffee.

Rob and I, feasting on the good food at Chick-an.

A pile of chopped up lechon (roast pig). It was delicious.

Pork blood was tasty, and went well only with rice.

After work, Norman—one of the owners of HPI—organized and took us out for a great dinner. A bunch of co-workers and I went to Chick-an which was a good Filipino restaurant. The ambiance felt like a good authentic Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles. Food was well prepared, in good proportions, cheap, and very tasty. Some of the things we ate were lechon (roast pig), buttered scallops, pork blood (like Chinese style), various chicken dishes, garlic crabs, and large mango banana shakes. I thought there was little to be said for Filipino cuisine from what I experienced around, but this restaurant disproved my belief.

Back at the QC Pavilion at the "philippinelifemates.com" suite, a worker falls gently asleep.

Suz, going to light one up.

Rob, thinking really hard if he wants to eat the balut. He lost a bet with someone and had to eat a balut, eventually.

After debating about if he should eat it, the chick in Rob's balut flopped out. That made his decision not to eat the floppy, slimy, dead chick. Notice the beak and legs. It's more like a 18 day old chick than a 16 day.

Bartender Ginesa at Wineshop has a chat with Mike.

Next, we drove back to Wineshop where we had a few drinks including a Tanqueray and tonic, and some beers. The guys there even managed to get me to eat another balut! It was the hardest one to swallow this time tough because I saw how nasty Rob’s balut was. He ended up not eating his and apparently I ate a part that I wasn’t supposed to eat so I chewed on the nasty thing for about 10 minutes. Talking to others, it seems the balut I ate was more of a 18 day old (21 days they develop feathers and bones) than a 16 day. I think that’ll be the last time I eat that stuff—too nasty.



- jason