We went to Compostela weeks ago for the family day event in our subdivision, which was held at Boardwalk. Boardwalk is located like 300M away from the public market.
So I went to the market to see if I had some luck finding some fresh fish for ceviche aka "kinilaw," something to perfectly go along with our grilled pork steak aka "sinugbang baboy."
Compostela Public Market is quite a small market but something unique about it is it's located near the sea like duh. :)
After getting all the ceviche ingredients, I looked for a "painitan." I was in another good luck when they still have "sikwate" (chocolate drink) and "puto" (sticky rice cake or something.)
I thought I went to the wrong venue when the lounge of waterfront were full of women in burqa. I was invited by a friend to his graduation in Waterfront so I was expecting like people in casual or formal dresses; but seeing the women in burqa, I thought I might be in a Muslim wedding. Then, I snapped at myself of how my "cultural" exposure can be so narrow.
So I then realized that the college of medicine of SWU is quite a mix of different people: there were a lot from Mindanao, then Arab, African, and in the India area countries. It was somehow my first time here in Cebu to be a Christian, I feel like I was a minority. It was weird that I could remember my few Muslim friends, and this is probably how it is to be like them in this majorly Christian country.
(Feeling the odd one out in the row of women in burqa.)
But though Christian was somehow a minority, the school still had a baccalaureate Roman Catholic mass. That was weirder. @.@
All the time during the event, I could not help but to keep looking around. I was just amazed looking at different burqa styles.
There were women in beaded accessorized burqas. They're probably a royalty?
Then on the other side are women in all-black dress and burqas.
(My photos are really bad as I was "stalking" mode.)
And burqas in different shades...
They were a different kind of fancy.
Congrats again, Jossy. I knew him first in the tech startup scene, then he gave me a glimpse into their Nigerian / Kenyan and his other homies running team, and then now he finally's done with his medical school.
Hopefully, I'd also be invited to his neurosurgeon specialization graduation... keeping my fingers crossed, it will be in London. @.@ That would also be another kind of fancy. :)
I was excited about going to Makati but PMS (pre-menstrual shurva) hit me big time. When I played this Carol Banawa song throughout the flight, and tears rolling down my eyes for no reason, God help me!
It felt like I then hated everything. I kinda snapped at Mark in front of the staff at Wildflour. He ordered matcha tea, and I was scolding him because I was just damn sure that he would not like it and the staff was staring at us. And, Mark looked like he wanted to be swallowed by the earth. @.@
So looking back now at that popular tita's of manila-ish cafe Wildflour, I'm not sure if I don't like it because I was having PMS when I went there or maybe it's really an overrated place.
And, most of all, I hate all the "mug shot" photos taken by Mark.
And why this so fancy restaurant is most popular for their cronuts?!? It's like why would people waste money dumping sugar on their mitochondria and that sweet matcha milk tea in this gedemit fancy expensive restaurant?!? I WANT VEGAN SHAWARMA!!!
So that's PMS for me. (It got me thinking That I could probably come up with a very interesting food / resto review when I'm on PMS.)
We had lunch courtesy of Chay at a Japanese resto. It's so unremarkable, i don't remember the name. (This is PMS still talking.)
Another meltdown was This was before election, and for the first time I had this drama discourse of my disappointments of the government inside Toby's cafe. I was ready to cry for P*T*NG INA NA GOBYERNO ITO, HINDI MAN LANG MAKABIGAY NG INSTAGRAM-WORTHY NA PUBLIC MARKET! Hindi na sana kailangan ako magpunta ng Toby's o Wildflour, pwede na sa Painitan na lang sana! Pang puto lang naman talaga ang beauty ko, hindi cronuts!
PMS really sucks or was it really my true colors?!? @.@
Anyhow, dinner went well at this highly recommended sushi place by Chay (I forgot the name.). It was my 1st time to be in where it felt those sushi resto in Japanese documentary movies.
John Bailon talking about their bitcoin-based product.
Mylene Magleo of Paynamics
Magellan Fetalino of AUDEEN
Salarium guy was also there to share quick update.
And i was happy to see Brian Tan Seng at the event. One of the few people tech people I would bump on both tech events, and running events. He's a 100 miler ultramarathon runner, and he's coffee geek!
It was somehow a perfect end of the day. We went to 98 Labs, office of Brian, somewhere nearby the Acceler8, and had cupsss of coffee!
The following day, we did not go home without getting goi con, mini shawarma.
This was my first time to be inside the Taboan Public Market, the famous pasalubong center of Cebu especially for its dried fish. Before, it was Nong Nardo who I ran to when I needed "bulad" for pasalubong because he has a lot of suki in Taboan.
Anyhow, out or curiosity, I went there and pick up some few pieces for a friend.
CHOICE PARALYSIS was my main problem when I got there. It was rows and rows, and stalls after stalls of dried fish inside and outside of the market.
This was the shop Nong Nardo suggested to me. It must be really popular because it has these framed of celebrity clients hang(sp?) in their shop.
By the way, there are shops there that accept credit cards. Mostly the shops that are located across the Taboan Public Market.
I went more around the market before making any purchase. I always find "Merkado" (public market) to be fascinating. I felt every thing in it is instagram-worthy because there's just so much color, character, life, and that certain kind of smell which smells of no-BS hardwork.
Then I stumbled upon a "painitan" (i dunno if it's the equivalent of a cafe) inside the market. After experiencing the painitan in Dumaguete, I'm getting more curious about our "painitan culture" like hashtag #painitancrawl. :)
The painitan owner also offered me tips on where to and what to around Taboan Public Market.
So protip 1 from the Manang, basically all the dried fish in Taboan are the same. If you want a bit of a lower price, get your dried fish inside the market where the sellers have no stalls.
Protip 2: Mondays are when the fresh supplies arrived.
So I ended up buying from this shop as referred by the friend of the friend of the Manang painitan. :)
Manang painitan also showed me to where to get some good tableya.
And as protip from Manang Tableya, legit pure cacao tablea melts so keep them in a cold temperature. :)
After attending the launching of Pansitpoetry of Karla Quimsing (you can order via email kquisming@gmail.com or at Kapehan Ceferina), we were inspired to do something about writing. So I thought of doing something like the Balakhak poetry reading and Storyteller Night at Happy Garaje. We're going to write our own story then share it at the end of the month. But the willing participants were just Meg and I.
Happy that we're able to make it in our first edition last April. And when the boys saw the popcorn and mountain dew, they're now interested to be part of it. But they said that it should be Doritos and mountain dew next time.
So my story was "What's the password?" as read by Meg, please see video.
Below is Meg's story, copied as is from her notes.
Title: The Penguin that wanted to fly.....
It was a cold winter day and a snowstorm was coming, And so the Penguins around the area were scared, so they quickly went inside a cave that they found, but one of the mother Penguins was struggling to get inside as she was pregnant. The father penguin was helping the mother penguin as she struggled to walk, as the snowstorm got nearer. The Penguins waiting on the cave for the mother and father Penguins was starting to get impatient, but the parent Penguins were successful. And so the other Penguins made fire while the others went to cover the cave, while the mother penguin went to sit near the fire to warm up. It started to get nightfall, and one by one the Penguins
got tired and went to look for a good area for each of them to sleep.
The next day while they were sleeping the snowstorm begun around the
area, they were hiding. The Penguins would have slept longer but some strange noise was coming inside the cave and so the Penguins woke up, to look for the source of the noise. They found out the noise was coming from the mother penguin, the mother penguin was having her baby....... After a few hours, there were know a new penguin in the pack and her name is Penny. The snowstorm was still raging on outside and the mother penguin
was trying it's hard to warm her new born child. After a few days Penny
started to learn how to walk and do other stuffs. As the snowstorm
raged on, Penny learnt how to speak, understand others, and eat. As days
went by and the snowstorms didn't show any hint of stopping and the one
day it finally stopped. The Penguins were relief to found out it was finally over and some of the Penguins journeyed outside to see if it's safe enough to go outside, the Penguins
that went outside finally came back and said that it's safe to go
outside know. One by one they went outside and finally Penny went
outside and the first thing she saw was a beautiful Albatrosses,
petrels and all kinds of beautiful birds flying over the shore, she
never knew animals can fly high up the sky and so she started to flap
her wings but she just can't fly and so she dashed to her parents and
asked them why they can't fly and her mother told her that it's just
what Penguins are not allowed to do. Penny was
really disappointed but she made it a lifetime ambition of hers to fly
up the sky and flew with the other magnificent birds that she just saw
and travel the world using her big wings. And so she practiced and
practiced but she just can't fly, she even asked some birds in tips on
how to fly but the birds will just say Penguins are not meant to fly, the other Penguins
are not any help either they will say the same thing the birds would
always say. But she was determined to fly, and fly higher then any penguin has been. Then years went and go but she was still determined to learn how to fly and she still hasn't stop her longtime wish. Until one faithful day the birds felt pity for the penguin,
Penny, and so they made a plan to help Penny. They called Penny to a
small hill and told her to jump really high and so she did but what she
didn't know was that the birds hold onto her back using there scaly
feets and the birds flapped there wings and the little penguin
was amazed and how amazing it felt to fly up in the sky, she felt she
was free from all of her burden, free from everything, she wished that
this day will never end, and all of the Penguins
saw her, Penny, Fly high in the sky they couldn't believe it and her
parents were so proud that her lifetime wish came through and cheered
her on and she felt herself smile. But sadly after a few more minutes
the birds started to get tired so they landed and flew away before Penny
saw them and as they flew away the birds felt proud for helping Penny.
All of the Penguins wanted to meet the only living penguin that can fly. And from day onward she has become a legend. It became to an inspiration for other little Penguins to learn how to fly too. And to this day the Penguins are still finding new ways on flying for it has become an inspiration to Penguins all over the word to finally use there wings and fly. THE END!!!!!
