Working for the weekend!

When I say I’m working for the weekend, I think this is just the sort of weekend I mean!  I started off Saturday with a trip to the Salcedo market (which is mere blocks away from the apartments!!), where they have all manner of foodie goodies.  A whole group of us went there just before lunch.  We took a walk around the market to see what we could find before picking out some lunch.  It reminded me a little of the St. Paul farmer’s market, with all the fun piles of veggies and fruits.  There were some that I had never seen up close and personal, like this jackfruit…

There were lots of meat products for sale, and lots of fish.  There was an impressive kebab assembly line at one stand…the kebabs would start on the right, and as they cooked, people would roll them to the left, basting them every so often.  By the time the kebabs made it to the far end, they were ready to be sold!

There were lots of grilled fish running around, as well, like these catfish (which were quite tasty!)

There was also a whole cow slowly roasting on a spit (I’d have taken a picture, but there wasn’t much left to it but bones, which looked a little scary!).

Everybody found something for lunch at the market and then sat at the tables under the awnings in the middle of the stalls to enjoy!  I tried the catfish (which was quite good!) and I even tried a tiny bit of Prince’s frog (which was OK…kind of a rubbery texture).

After lunch, we piled into the vans and headed to the Mall of Asia (MOA for short!) for a little bowling.  I started off well, getting a strike on my first throw, but it went rapidly downhill from there (I didn’t even end up breaking 100!)

While we were at the mall, I tried a mango crepe (on Rico’s recommendation)…it was fantastic!  They take a large crepe (a healthy 14″ at least) and plop a scoop of mango ice cream on it, then roll it up into a cone around the ice cream, top it with chunks of mango and slivered almonds…to. die. for.

After bowling, our group split up a bit…some folks went to see Avatar (in 3D at Asia’s largest IMAX theater), while Allie, Jessica, and I met up with Rico and wandered a bit before heading for shabu shabu.  When wandered outside to the bay side of the mall, there were tons of people out and about, and even a few walking on water…

Well, OK, maybe tumbling moreso than walking!

It was getting close to sunset so we grabbed a cab and headed further up the bay to catch a good view.  We got out at the Malate Church (an old historic church, I’m told, though I’ve never been inside).  There was a small concert going on at the Baywalk there, and we stopped for a few minutes to listen before heading off to take pictures and watch the sun set.

I think sunset by the bay is one of my favorite places in Manila…so gorgeous!  And there’s always something interesting going on (like the concert we stumbled on!) I even caught the sunset in this brass instrument (is it a tuba?  a french horn?  I really can’t say) as we walked past the band…

After the sunset, we headed to Lau Chan to meet Jing for shabu shabu, which is a type of hot pot.  I gather (from some light googling) that shabu shabu originated in Japan, and that “shabu shabu” translates as “swish swish”, which is the sound it makes when you’re cooking it.  We sat at a table that had a hole cut out of the middle and then a burner on a stand set into the hole.  A pot of broth (we got satsi and another basic broth) was put on the burner and as it simmered, we (well, Rico did all the work) added various ingredients, like corn, needle mushrooms, lapu-lapu, squidballs (YUM!), watercress, scallions, and fried bean curd.  Fantastic.

All in all, a perfectly relaxing Saturday!

See more photos here…

~ by shannon on 1 February 2010.