Hainanese Deli.. Whaat?

I was riding one of the blue ones.

Yesterday was almost panic day.  I just got this electric bill in my Manila apartment and I was already scheduled for disconnection!  Argh.  I had to haul my ass off to Meralco which was a long ways from the apartment.  I thought why not take the tricycle?  Yep even Metro Manila has tricycles.  Though these guys operate on the smaller streets where they're not such an inconvenience. Hehehe.  It was an experience though.  Not that I haven't tried one before but with the way these guys rob you in broad daylight.  I was charged P70 for that ride to Meralco.  Riding a cab would have cost me less.  But you know, experience, she's a bitch of a teacher man.


I made a quick stop at an ATM beside Meralco so I'll have money to pay.  Not sure if it was payday for some folks but a few people were lining up on the BDO ATM.  I don't really mind queues, if it's orderly and doesn't spring any surprises, then I'm down with it.  What vexes me when lining on ATMs is that people just throw away their common sense man.  This guy, who just withdrew a coupla thousand bucks from the machine was flaunting his money for everyone to see.  I mean counting it in the open!  And the ATM machine was right beside the Mandaluyong main street!  Dude, we get it, you got cash, but please put those filthy bills away!  We don't want to have to read about you in tomorrow's papers crying 'coz your stupid ass got robbed.



Anyway I got my moolah and stepped into Meralco which was just beside BDO.

Paying my bill was painless, there were hardly any people lining up and there were lots of cashiers.  Ah, if only banks were like this all the time.  Oh well.  Later that day, I immediately enrolled Meralco in my BPI account.  No more Meralco pilgrimage for me moving forward, thank you very much.

Since it was already lunch time when I stepped out of Meralco, I decided to hit the mall!  As in the Robinsons Forum along  Pioneer Ave.  I thought I should celebrate a little with a good meal seeing that I've been a good little boy and averted the disaster of having my electricity disconnected.

This time I took the cab.  It was cold, comfy, and like the tricycle, left my wallet a little lighter.

The Forum isn't much of a mall, which is a shame because it's beside Cybergate which houses thousands of Accenture slaves.  These are folks with the means to buy things as long as they're available.

After loitering around, I decided to check out the best restaurant that could perhaps offer me the best lunch of the day.  I disqualified the usual fastfood/pasta&pizza places and looked for the more exotic offerings of the mall.  I finally settled on Hainanese Delight after deciding that the chinese resto downstairs was priced a little too high for my taste.  HD seemed to me to be a perfect blend of not-the-usual cuisine coupled with a more digestible price.  I should have run for cover when the staff started bringing out their baons and started eating in one of the tables reserved for customers.  I think it's bad taste.  Especially if you're trying to invest in your brand.  If I were one of the owners of HD, I'll have the manager explain this to me.  Good thing I'm not. :)

I looked at HD's menu and immediately zoomed in on what they described as staple Singaporean food; Hainanese chicken + noodles.  I told the waitress if I could just go for the roasted chicken instead of the white one.  I dislike white chicken.  Had a bad experience with white chicken before and I woiuldn't want to relive that experience.  They were flexible enough to say yes, which I attributed to good training.  Same price anyway so no skin off your nose right?

I didn't have to wait long until my order arrived.  I also didn't have to wait long to conclude that these guys have no business cooking noodles.  The soup base almost didn't have any flavor.  I wonder where people get the idea that if you get boiling water, put in some fried onions it would taste good.  It doesn't.  It tastes like boiled water with fried onions.  The noodles was soggy which is a travesty.  What the hell did these guys do to the noodles?  Leave them there overnight?  The chicken however was as expected.  It's not earth shaking but it's ok.  It would have been great if there was chili, the one they usually serve in Singapore with your chicken rice, but no, that's all you get.  Oh well.  Looking at my bill, it was actually comparable to the prices posted in that little chinese resto downstairs so I guess next time, I'm going there.  As for HD, well I could may be try out their other items, but for sure I'll stay the hell away from those soggy noodles.  Ugh.