Every Valentine's day we do not celebrate it in restaurants. We do not go out on dates or take a few walks. It's not because we are against of the celebration but mostly because of what happened the last Valentine's day date.
During our first 4 years together, we used to go in a battlefield of lovers every Valentine's and yes, we knew about reservations but since we were only students at that time, our budget was limited and could not afford such an expensive reservation. We would walk at SM North EDSA or Trinoma stretch and check on every restaurant for a space to eat, the restaurants we're always jampacked and we would end up eating at home instead. This gave a huge frustration to my bf as he wanted to give me a memorable Valentines, and up till the last time we tried, he almost got into a fight as some men with either girlfriend / wife was staring at me to the point that it angered their partners. My bf of course did not want my Valentine's memory to be a disaster so he decided that we would never go out during Valentine's day. For more than 10 years, we would celebrate Valentines day at home, he would often cook my favorite meals and give me presents at home. This gave him a peace of mind and less pressure because he could cook whatever I crave or wish for, but till this Valentines day of 2019, we were left of no choice but to dine out again and why? I wasn't feeling well because of my continuous work and he was dead tired from work too, this time he couldn't cook anymore.
In the afternoon, we went to our usual sizzling place and gladly, there weren't much customers at that time. We were able to dine without difficulty of lines, it was a big game changer, but at dinner another dilemma came in, I could no longer ride too far from our home and I do not want deliveries since I am already feeling sick, fast food would worsen my condition. In a quick moment, we thought of the newly opened dining place a few steps away from home. I was in doubt at first because when I tried two of their dishes on my first two dines, it wasn't to my taste, but we need to eat since I need to recuperate and he needed energy for his work.
He thought of trying out other food on the menu, he ordered Pares Mami and Pork silog for me, then Pares Mami too for him, around 60 or 75 pesos per order. We were welcomed warmly by the usual persons who cooks and serves us everytime we dined in. It was cold every evening and the changes in climate worsens my condition, people on a hurry go down the jeep, hurry home and stopped by to watch the newly opened place, most of them order take out as they are too tired to dine.
There weren't much customers and we were able to choose our own place to sit, I love their wooden tables, it definitely adds character and style. The first food served was their Porksilog, I took a bite and paired it with the garlic rice. The meat was juicy, full of flavor and breading gives a salty covering to the meat, the garlic rice gave an asian touch in my mouth and then I whispered to him, "I found my favorite". He was actually staring at me the whole time as his order hasn't arrived yet. I continued bite after bite and the next thing I knew the next order was delivered shortly.
Pares Mami's bowl was to our surprise, I thought it'll just be any medium sized bowl, but for me, one bowl would be good for two! I immediately cleaned my spoon of rice and swiped into the Pares mami soup, the warm garlic beefy soup woke up my senses and warmed me, the best part was they placed a good amount of onion leek which when I started to sip and my throat cleared!
I next tried their noodles, they were longer in length and width was somewhat bigger than the usual noodles, I thought that it might be difficult to chew but this assumption proved me wrong, they were soft and easy to chew, since the noodles are different from usual noodle sizes, I felt that it satisfied my hunger immediately. I looked at my partner and then I noticed that he was already indulged in his Pares Mami too.
I smiled and noticed that the staff were also playing great songs in the background, they wanted us to enjoy the night and because of that some passersby couldn't resist and ordered too. We were on the middle of enjoying the meal when we were surprised to hear my partner ordering Bagnet Silog, I was delighted to see him enjoying an appetizer I guess, it took only a short while, his order was served and I offered him to have a piece of my meal in exchange of his. Well, that's my way of telling him I wanted to know his meal's taste.
We were on discussion of how good pair we had for the first meal when I halted and went quiet while chewing the newly ordered meal, Bagnet. I felt at loss and defeated, the skin was crispier than those of my porksilog, meat melts with fat in my palate. We were silent for sometime, I knew he was also analyzing every taste of this meal, but for me, I am already on a pictured anime defeat cry, he had chosen a real winner.
Our drinks was a large sized mountain dew and it was kept cold because they have a good freezer to store them, chugging down till the last drop on the cup, the sweet carbon felt like a reward for a job well done. I felt the whole experience was too perfect, it was different from what happened to us every time we would try to dine in to restaurants and would go home tired, annoyed and hungry. Hopefully, this changed my bf's sour memory of our past valentines dates outside, I told him that it felt like broke our tradition of our usual Valentine's celebration. At first he felt hesitant and said "but it wasn't a fancy one" then followed "...but we had a wonderful time, ambiance, meal and were welcomed, it was all worth it.". I smiled at him and told him I felt better, which I did and wrote down this almost short story blog, you can very well say I was inspired too.
Pictures to follow, I didn't bring any cameras with me as I wasn't feeling well holding on to anything.
