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by Philipina A. Marcelo
So, after almost a couple of months, I finally spent a Saturday afternoon not glued in front of the TV tuned in to the Sports Channel - watching either tennis or soccer, relaxing. :) The US Open wrapped up last week... the Davis Cup is on, and the UEFA qualifying rounds are on, too... but I wanted a breath of Mall and Restaurant air for a change - so to the Mall and restaurant I went with two sisters - in our house clothes, too! Talk about "relax"! :)
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Shopping
So, on an older sister's suggestion, we went to check out the "Homeworld Warehouse Sale" at the SM Megatrade Hall together with a younger sister! Older sis "abandoned" her husband for the weekend to go bargain hunting with us! :) We found good items... I invested on some wooden furnitures - beautiful and artsy ones... and more than 50%
off on their sky-high prices, too! So, I got a very good deal! :) That's the great news... the not-so-great news is that I will have to wait 10 days to have my purchases delivered. But that's fine 'cause I requested the manufacturers to give the pieces a retouch here and there to get rid of a few indiscreet scratches - maybe the reason why they were on sale. And, I think between me and my two sisters, we bought a gazillion of curtains! =) We got 50% off on most items - quite nice, too. So, yeah... we went a little crazy. :) But hanging our finds on our windows later made us feel that all five hours of squeezing ourselves through that intimidating "mob" of "ferocious" bargain hunters was worth every single hour! :) ***
Eats
We originally planned to dine at some fancy place at "The Podium" - some plush place at the Ortigas Business Center. However, after depositing our purchases in the car, we were just too excited to see how the curtains would look like on our
windows. :) So, we decided to just go ahead and eat at a nice restaurant close to our Village... and so, we drove home. And then, approaching Quezon Avenue along EDSA, we passed by the new "Eton Centris Walk" with all the glowing "mushroom heads" around - looking as if a space craft landed there! Hardcore Trekkers that we are, the place intrigued us, and we decided to check it out and eat there instead. There was a limited choice of restaurants - Italian, Vietnamese, Thai and a few other chains. After experimenting on an Italian dish in my own kitchen last weekend, we were open to other options. So, we decided to eat at "Asya", a Filipino-Asian Restaurant. The ambiance was quite nice and the service was good. It was unique in that the head of the backrest of one of the chairs at every table was a drawing of an Asian person - Arab, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, etc. We chose a
table with an Arab man's drawing - my younger sister's idea. :)The food was good. We started with my younger sister's choice of crushed crispy catfish appetizer, garnished with thin green mango sticks, a variety of chopped nuts, chili and lettuce. It came with a vinegary dip with chili mix and chopped spring onion. The catfish was on the salty side... but when mixed with the garnish, wrapped in lettuce and soaked in the dip, it tasted heavenly! The texture was perfect, too! We then continued to titillate our taste buds with prawn Tom Yum soup. I thought I knew Tom Yum well... but the way Asya made theirs was interesting - the spicy spikes were delicately balanced by the rich flavor of coconut milk and the sourness of chunks of red tomatoes. The surface of the soup was lined with a thin membrane of coconut milk where finely chopped chilies were adsorbed. Sipping it was in itself a wonderful experience, with the sour taste, spiciness, and the coconutty flavor all blending in my
taste palate in an interesting swirl - it was so good, I didn't realize I finished three servings! :) My sisters and I then chose a dish each to share... I chose Pad Thai, my younger sis chose breaded Lemon Chicken, garnished with crunchy greens, and older sis chose Bagoong Rice, which came with unsalted scrambled eggs and smoked fish cooked in a sweet marinade, and garnished with chopped lemon grass, green mango strips, caramelized onions and crunchy garlic.
The Pad Thai looked too pale for me, but tasting it... the flavor was definitely not pale! The blend of Thai and Filipino spices balanced the fish sauce, it was hard to tell if it was even there, which was perfect for me because I do not really appreciate it whenever fish sauce becomes overpowering in a dish. The mix of bean sprouts and chopped nuts provided a crunch that complemented the noodle texture, which was just perfect. The chicken was excellent - very tender and tasty underneath a thin breading... and the lemon sauce was not overly sour - it has pale sweetness to it that eases down the palate just when it was about to scream "SOUR"! And chewing on the greens and the thinly sliced cucumber washed the palate - getting it ready for more tastes experience. The Bagoong Rice gave just that - the fermented fish ("bagoong") posed a salty challenge, but was balanced by the neutral taste of the unsalted scrambled fried eggs and the band of garnish that also provided a
variety of textures and defined tastes. Together - the "bagoong ensemble" made an exotic taste that was absolutely irristible! :) Needless to say, we were totally satisfied that we even skipped dessert! :) The servings were so big, too, that we needed brown bags to take a considerable amount of left-over home.Later, we walked off the carbs around the Centris Walk - watching the "mushroom heads" turn green, yellow, blue, purple, pink, and then back again! We had fun people-watching, too... and figuring out what the Eton Centris developers have in mind with the place's Zen facade, a carousel right by the entrance, and a Trekker touch at the square where the restaurants are... and, oh, a kiddie train rounded the square, too! The Asya staff shared that there will be bump cars at the square soon! Hmmm... interesting! :) We made a note to come back when the bump cars are up and running.... :)
So, yeah... time well-spent indeed! We did have a great time... not sure about my brother-in-law though who ate lunch left-over for dinner! =)
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