First night out and farmers market

         Last night, my dad made reservations for Fely J's. A contemporary Filipino restaurant. But that's later. First we went to the Makati central park thing. We walked in the rain. It rains a lot here. We went the long way in order to get as little rain on us as possible. We still got considerably wet. Anyway, we ended up at a recently opened European gastropub where we met some of his Aussie and Irish coworkers. They like the place because it is one of the few places with good European beer. My dad even offered me a pint, but I left the choice whether or not I was going to have one up to him. He decided to wait until I hit 16, in 17 days. We chatted a while and then head over to the aforementioned Fely J's. 

       We walked through the mall to get to Fely J's, a kind of upscale, modern Filipino restaurant. We started off with shrimp cooked in olive oil with garlic and some dried chili peppers. Shrimp were perfectly cooked and the garlic was sweet and tender. Tasty. For the main course we had fried pig belly, overdone, but ok. Then we had a native plant, stewed in a creamy sauce. Not half bad. And finally, Singapore style noodles with calamari among other meats and vegetables. For a country that doesn't eat much spice, they were pretty well spiced. The meal reminded me of a typical Houston China-town kind of meal. 

       I was still pooped from the 24 hour plane flight, and so at around 7:30, we head home. While Dad and Rebecca went out for coffee and gelato, I believe it was, I went to bed around 8:00. 

       I woke up the next day at 3. Couldn't go back to sleep. I sat around in my room until 8 or so, when we all headed out to the Saturday market. We walked about a block and found the place really busy already. The Filipinos are a very industrious people, I could hear activity outside all night. 

      We wanted to eat before we did our shopping, so first we wandered the circuit seeing all we could see. At least a dozen Indian, Filipino, American, French, Germanic, Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian stalls. (Not a dozen each, but about 1.5-2 dozen in total) Several fresh produce stalls. Several fish and meat stalls. I was entranced by a whole calf being spit roasted. I had that with rice and a dark sauce for breakfast. I learned that veal is a white, not a red meat. My folks went to a nearby pancake stall. My dad had a bacon and a hotdog pancake. My stepmom had a nutella pancake. 

      Dad said that the pancakes that they had were more old European style rather than the flapjacks that we know and love. They were like sandwiches. We actually saw the guy putting together the pancakes. First, he had about an 8x4 pan with cylindrical spaces. Like a shallow cupcake pan. He was cooking buns almost. He  then dropped a small spoonful of filling in the first and third row of the buns. Then, he maneuvered out the unfilled buns with two bamboo skewers and plopped them onto the filled buns. Then he squashed them together to form said sandwiches. 

     We then proceeded to wander around the market buying supplies to make shrimp panang curry. All of the produce stalls had fantastic merchandise. Probably 20 different varieties of fruit, I think an equal amount of vegetables. There were also house plants for sale. Before we bought produce, we got a good loaf of pumpernickel from a Frenchman, and two packets of chorizo from a Spaniard. The Frenchman's wife, the baker, gave us a whole slice of whole wheat bread with sesame seeds and walnuts. Fantastic bread. My dad said it reminded him of what he had as a child in a German community. The Frenchman told us that his flour came from Germany, Austria, and France. It tasted like it. Wow.
      So we bought bright orange carrots, white and red onions, nice fresh shrimp, Indian mangoes, neon yellow bell peppers, small green peppers (no idea which variety), rambutan, a lychee type fruit with a red skin covered in little feelers, pimiento cheese spread, because my dad couldn't resist, and probably more, I can't remember.
        We plan on going back to the market for lunch, as I spotted whole roasted tilapia.