Eating Chinese food does not make you Chinese

Saturday, fortunately I do not have work today. But being the workaholic person that I am lately, I want to be productive and I know staying at home would not let me do that. The bed, couch and television call me when I am at home. I decided to go for a drive to Intramuros in Manila and go to my favorite coffee shop there. Not really sure why I call it favorite but I like going to the coffee shop.

From bullets to coffee

They transformed this old bunker in Intramuros into a nice coffee shop. I do not know how this bunker was used before but I just have this feeling that it was also used to store and keep bullets. The place was always peaceful when I first discovered the place. But now local and foreign tourists frequent the place.

Cityplace (look, the billboard is in Chinese)

After finishing ang pinag ipunang grande cup of green tea frapuccino, I decided to do more driving until I passed by Binondo/Chinatown. Here I saw the old project I handled in my first job. With my previous employer I handled payment collection and customer relation for the Cityplace project at Binondo; it's a 60-story twin-tower condominium at the heart of Chinatown. When I started no one wanted to handle the account because it had problems with the city government and most important of all, language barrier with the unit buyers because they were all G..I.’s ore Genuine Intsik. These are Chinese people who migrated to the Philippines from China. There is this one time that I had to talk to a certain client and since I know na G.I. sila, I asked the help from one of the bosses of sales who knows how to speak Chinese to come with me and be my translator. I told him what I wanted to happen and he did all the talking and negotiations for me.

People always think that I am Chinese and some even talk to me in Chiniese. So what I did during our meeting is what I always do when someone is talking to me in Chinese, I just smile, nod my head, pretending I understand what they were saying. Hehe. ☺ And it works! =p

Had dinner with Abhie Saturday night and we ate at The Legend Seafood. The food is very tasty and the price very reasonable.

The Legend

SHRIMPS

Appetizer na ulam na for me

Though it is meant to be an appetizer, the assorted cold cuts they serve in Chinese restaurants is already an ulam for me. I like the century egg, the white chicken, the jellyfish and the minced ginger with oil that you place over the white chicken. Ohh this is making me hungry.