Sunday

One step at a time.

I felt your wrath--in those serene eyes.
I felt the hail storm come down my heart.
I felt the handcuffs clutch
from your hand to mine;
they could not be broken,
when we separated ways.

Star Mall (trademark infringement not intended)

The New SM

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, 

but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

—Vincent van Gogh 

Big dreams beget big realities. The stars at night are creatures of the heavens that live up high in the sky. But no one knows when they come down on earth. Well, I believe they do.

Shakespeare in his fastidious drama, Julius Caesar, said that “the fault… is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” And so be it. We make our own stars. Theoretically, once a star is born, two things can happen—it lives on or perishes. It perishes—but it ignites a Super Nova that can live forever.

SM Marketing Team and/or the bosses.

The world is now infested with commercialism, with inevitable consumption. Those that believe that it makes us more of an underling, as Shakespeare would have it, are leaning into a fallacy, a hasty generalization. Commercialization is now a necessity; for how can we possibly live in this community without engaging in business? Almost everything we are enjoying right now—from the pencils and ball pens for school to laptops and mobile phones for office—is but a product of commercialism. It is us who make ourselves an underling, who sometimes refuse to accept development and change.

At a micro level, the Philippines has just given birth to a star—the SM City Novaliches. And who would have thought this blog is about a mall, anyway? Yes, this is about that mall. And it will have to boost commercialism in the Philippines; that is for sure.

My U.P. classmate (the one in green).. An investor in SM!! :)

As a background, the northern district of Quezon City is composed of Novaliches and is primarily residential. Fairview is the most famous area of Novaliches. The La Mesa Dam Watershed occupies the eastern portion. The La Mesa Dam supplies much of northern Metro Manila's water supply. Adjacent to the watershed is the La Mesa Eco-Park, where one can stroll and unwind at Metro Manila's only forest space. Also located in the park are convention centers, picnic areas, swimming pools, an orchidarium, and a large lagoon for boating activities. It was also the site of the rowing and dragon boat events for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games. Rowing is regularly done here. Also located here are three big malls: SM City Fairview, Robinsons Place Novaliches, and the newest SM City Novaliches.

The name Novaliches probably came from the name of a village outside Valencia, Spain. In the 1800s, the district was known as Hacienda Tala to settlers who cultivated the land and considered it a star ("tala") from heaven. The haciendero, Marquez de Novaliches, was given the title due to his services in the Carlist Wars of the 1800s. Novaliches was also a gathering-place for the Katipunan during the Philippine Revolution; a tree where Andres Bonifacio reportedly sought shade is still standing in the campus of the Metro Manila College - Jordan Plaines Campus. The town was once part of Rizal province before being ceded to Quezon City in the 1940s. During World War II, the La Mesa Dam and Balara Filters were prime targets for Japanese and American attacks, being the water sources for most of the northern part of Manila and Rizal. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quezon_City)

Ms. Ma-an (extreme right) and the rest of the marketing geniuses.

Novaliches City, as of this writing, has 97,976,603 residents. (http://www.tageo.com/index-e-rp-v-f2-d-m3365211.htm) Novaliches’ primary source of income and capital is undoubtedly its population, a great number of which are unemployed.

SM City Novaliches was launched on August 24, 2010 for tenant viewing (http://www.facebook.com/smnovaliches). It opened itself to the public on October 22, 2010. This plan for a mall originated when SM Prime Holdings, Inc. thought of building a P1.5-billion shopping mall on the five-hectare camping site of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, right in front of ABC-5 or the Associated Broadcasting Co. in San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City. SM Investments Corp. Chief Finance Officer Jose Sio said the company recently purchased the property. He said the company was finalizing the design of the mall and planned to start construction by 2009. SM Novaliches mall is SM Prime’s third in Quezon City, after SM North Edsa and SM Fairview, and the 14th in Metro Manila. The company earlier said that it planned to spend P33 billion over the next four years for the construction of new and expansion of existing malls. SM Prime is also looking to construct three to four malls in China over the next four years. (http://wikimapia.org/5217924/SM-City-Novaliches)

SM City Nova: Breaking Borders Beyond Industry

SM, indeed, is a powerhouse in the commercial industry in the country. How does it help our economy? Last I heard, the government of P-Noy is working on the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines. The center, which was under the newly-issued Executive Order No. 8, aims to accelerate the financing, construction and operation of key government infrastructure projects. P-Noy said that “there is a need to fast-track the implementation of the Public-Private Partnership programs and projects as a cornerstone strategy of the national development to accelerate the infrastructure development of the country and sustain economic growth.” I bet SM will not hesitate to cooperate with this project, because prior to the enactment of the executive order, SM has been consistent in its goals to help build lives and dreams by providing jobs to thousands of Filipinos.

Tenant Viewing, SM City Nova

SM City Novaliches, without a doubt, will open doors again for Filipinos who are losing even a bleak of hope to find jobs. It would not only welcome them to work, but it would also showcase hidden talents and skills of the residents of Novaliches. I am a fan of SM Taytay; and I, myself, have witnessed how the mall started fresh and voila, now an avenue for career opportunities and home-grown talents. I even had the chance to join a blogging contest just by dropping by the mall and eventually win third place (I’m not bragging lol, please see this: http://squallmongrel.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html). These are small things that ordinary people (like me) could appreciate: a sanctuary for the talents that they have; for their longing to be noticed someday.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Jason Alvarez, SM Brand Manager

I am so inspired to write this one, as I would like to contribute to SM’s aspiration to reach out to the Filipino community. And SM Novaliches, I know, will not fail us. Kudos to my SM Nova marketing friends, Jason, Ma-An, et al.! Show them that SM Nova is a star that will forever shine for the hapless Filipinos.

And so I believe, the newest “Super-Nova” of the shopping scene—SM City Novaliches—is not only the newest and most energetic venue for a Stellar Shopping, but also a living testimony of honest-to-good commercialism and social responsibility, "breaking borders beyond industry."

Recollection

Van Gogh, Starry Night

This time,
It is not going to be easy.
It is not going to be the way we want it to be.
It is not going to be alright, all the time.

But I have you.
You have me.
We have all
the stars--
if we look above.

And if we look up,
at the starry, starry night,
may be we would learn
to sketch each other's face
and look at each other
as if we're so near
even we're so far.

After it all

You.

There was a little time for myself. 

There was a space between my mind and heart. 

There was you. 

I listened to the music 

my ears longed to hear— 

the notes that were unheard of, 

the rhythm that could not be expressed 

by mortals, like me. 

And so I was a human; 

a creature, who fought, 

who lost, who dag his own misery. 

And so I was a human; 

whose heart beat faster and faster 

when opportunity 

knocked at the door of a mansion 

with a maze to get to the archer 

that aimed and hit this heart, 

with blood gushing and words unrecited.

The last thing I said

Get well soon.

P.S. In all honesty, I'd like to tell you that I could still not forget you. And to recognize you in my dreams. The memory of you just stands out...

Just forget about me. Thank you very much. And ignore this, if you must.

That is all

I wanted.
To be with you.

Hail

to the new feeling,
which has not changed
a bit.

I prose

Someday.

Till we meet again, I believe you.

But I will still hold on to this feeling. If you need me, I will be there; if you need me. I will wait, as I have waited. I'm so inspired by you. I will wait, not because I want you, but because I love you.

I'm sorry, I can't fight this feeling any longer. I will let it be. I will just let it happen.

I apologize for being so vulnerable, but this is just me.

Till we meet again.

There are a lot of things I wanna say to you.

One is that, you are loved. You are wonderful. When you're feeling down, troubled, I'm just here, we're here, your friends. Even though I'm not beside you, and even I don't know how I can help you, you are always in my prayers.

Take care.

P.S. This is all I know how I can reach you. Until this feeling fades away, pardon me if I have always been preoccupied with telling you how I feel. Until this feeling fades away. I hope you don't mind I message you, almost all the time. Just so when you want me to stop doing this, I will.

I will, just for you.

Who said

that words cannot evoke

the sincerest and most honest

feelings of a human being?

We are not cockroaches

that can live forever--

even in the midst of a nuclear

war.

We are not lizards

that crawl on the ceiling

waiting for their insect-prey,

and hardly can fall.

We are not a mimosa plant

that is touch-me-not

and closes its leaves

when it is visited.

We are things.

We are everything.

We are who we chose to be.

But we can even cry a river,

sail a thousand miles,

climb every mountain,

reach the sky.

That is because our hearts

and minds say the words

that are not found in the

dictionary.

We fold.

I wish that I wish

I am a dust in the wind.

I was dreaming that I was dreaming about you.
with you beside me--
giving me the best ice cream in the world.

I was dreaming that I was chasing after a child--
and when I had finally gotten to this child, the child grew up
so fast, turning to someone
who was you.
I shared with the child the creamy cone you had given me.

I was wishing that I could wish to be
with the person
who had me with one tap at the back
a smile
and those beautiful eyes and
calming voice--
nothing else but beauty.
and golden heart.

I wish that I wish I see you from above,
from an eagle's view;
and I attack with my claws
those that hurt you.
Your worries.
Your taxing hours.
Your headaches and pains and flus.

But I am just a dust in the universe.

Onus Probandi

is on my shoulders.
Tomorrow is another day--
and when I wake up,
I hope it wouldn't be
your far-flung image
that conquers my
degenerate mind.

I will learn to forget.
But I will not unlearn to
recognize you--
in my dreams.

The burden heavily lies
on my shoulders.

Semantics

Longing for you does not mean
I desire all of you.

It means I want to be with you--
and see the light in your smile
that beamed through my restless heart.

Fearing that I will make a mistake
is not what I felt;
It was just a stream of consciousness
that I let happen.
It all just happened.

I was not happy I met you.
I was mesmerized
when I met you.

Derailed

I shiver.
Your words flashed
memories of you and I
emblazoned on the
train station--
feet scurrying to the exit
that I hope
I can find
now.

When you saw me

It has been raining lately.
And I have been writing the words
that were borne
by our rendezvous--
with the time
and the feet
that walked on the roads
meeting, indefinitely.

I guess

we are not destined to be together
in a well-lit room, full of ashes
and drowned by alcohol.

I guess we are not destined to be together
in the midnight sky
our stars belong to irreconcilable
constellations.

I guess we are better off
as dried leaves
drawn away by the twin falls.
But who knows, perhaps
those leaves will meet again
in the sewage of elusive
coincidence.

I wrote this for you

What was important for me was to see you.

And see you happy.

What was essential for me was to be with you.

And smell your existence.

What was ecstatic for me was to see you.

And hear your voice.

Your eyes magnetized my eyes.

Three seconds was like eternity.

I don't know what was on your mind.
You don't know how you invaded my mind.
I get so weak hearing you say my name.
And talking to me.

But that day was special for me.

It was my present to myself:

To see your masterpiece

and to replenish this empty heart

with your breathing, your voice.

It's when you're near I don't feel

a stranger in the night.

The Circus Is Cheaper When It Rains

I’ve taken the same ride too many times.

I could fall asleep in the loop.

I know the clowns wipe the fake, makeup smiles off their faces once the show is done.

I know the lions sleep in cages at night.

I know the tightrope walkers have blisters on their feet.

I know the ringmaster doesn’t believe in what he yells to the crowd anymore.

I know the strongman, isn’t as strong as he once was.

I know the candy floss has always been, just sugar and air.

You are the only reason I come back here every night.

 

* * *

 http://www.iwrotethisforyou.me/2010/07/circus-is-cheaper-when-it-rains.html

Our Hollows

I was in deep slumber when you were not around.

I was dreaming of your arrival at my drunken place.

I had a cone of ice cream that did not melt.

You had me at one tap at the back.

You had me believed that you were my savior.

You were a seed growing inside my body.

We have never really met at all.

We are worlds apart.

We have been looking at each other:

with the universe between us.

My Changing World

Over here, over there
changes are everywhere;
changes that have end,
the world that suffers the world today.

The rivers, lakes and seas,
became dirty and worst
please stop your negligence, now!
or else you will be sorry.

Our forests, mountains and
trees in the past,
were blooming and growing;
but today I am wondering,
why now all is gone.

Many people get sick,
because of over population;
the epidemic spreads fast,
and many people die.

Many factories are built
but they cause pollutions;
they dump their wastes
into the rivers,
and many livelihoods there die.

I don’t know what to do now,
because I don't know what my
future environment is,
I must conserve and protect it
in our changing world.

***

This is my first poem published in our elementary school paper. The start of my random, unnoticed writing career.

Walking Around

It so happens I am sick of being a man. And it happens that I walk into tailorshops and movie houses dried up, waterproof, like a swan made of felt steering my way in a water of wombs and ashes. The smell of barbershops makes me break into hoarse sobs. The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool. The only thing I want is to see no more stores, no gardens, no more goods, no spectacles, no elevators. It so happens that I am sick of my feet and my nails and my hair and my shadow. It so happens I am sick of being a man. Still it would be marvelous to terrify a law clerk with a cut lily, or kill a nun with a blow on the ear. It would be great to go through the streets with a green knife letting out yells until I died of the cold. I don’t want to go on being a root in the dark, insecure, stretched out, shivering with sleep, going on down, into the moist guts of the earth, taking in and thinking, eating every day. I don’t want so much misery. I don’t want to go on as a root and a tomb, alone under the ground, a warehouse with corpses, half frozen, dying of grief. That’s why Monday, when it sees me coming with my convict face, blazes up like gasoline, and it howls on its way like a wounded wheel, and leaves tracks full of warm blood leading toward the night. And it pushes me into certain corners, into some moist houses, into hospitals where the bones fly out the window, into shoeshops that smell like vinegar, and certain streets hideous as cracks in the skin. There are sulphur-colored birds, and hideous intestines hanging over the doors of houses that I hate, and there are false teeth forgotten in a coffeepot, there are mirrors that ought to have wept from shame and terror, there are umbrellas everywhere, and venoms, and umbilical cords. I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes, my rage, forgetting everything, I walk by, going through office buildings and orthopedic shops, and courtyards with washing hanging from the line: underwear, towels and shirts from which slow dirty tears are falling.

–Pablo Neruda,

I "prosed" the poem.

I would just like to add this: When I walked around Vito Cruz, I saw amongst the garbage on the sidewalks used condoms. SO, one of the poem’s lines should read: "there are umbrellas everywhere, and venoms, and umbilical cords, and condoms." I hated seeing them. Photographs are on my mind.

Ice Cream English

Yes. We officially now have a NEW President. Yes, NEW, figuratively.

Here's to another entry I wrote a long time ago (the time I was predicting Noynoy would become a President). Another whimsical thought I weaved in the present--perhaps a family appreciating the beauty of language and supposed-to-be good politics.

One night, my brother and I bought some groceries. We had Ma Leng, two eggs (the other one was broken, the cashier put it underneath the Ma Leng can), two Lucky Me Beef noodles, monay, and Selecta Double Ice Cream (super chocolate and Double dutch).

It was a very late merienda. We ate monay with ice cream, or vice versa (if you wish). After my mother had taken her first scoop of ice cream, she told us, "Delicious mga anak." To which I replied, "Yeah of course mother. That’s our favorite." And my brother agreed with a "Yes!!" I asked my brother, "Do you already have a girl friend?" He answered "No..."

I asked "why?"

He told me, "Well I wanna be single and virgin forever," to which my mother reacted, "Oh my golly, my dear son, please have a girl friend. Or may be you want a boy friend, do you?"

My brother got irritated and squeezed his nose and said "My nose is bleeding."

Because of what? No English words can describe that.

Rain Stories

"I can feel them. Scurrying in circles around me, smaller and smaller circles like rats around a crust of bread or a piece of cheese. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the right moment. The moment when I slip up, when I make a mistake, when I get careless.

I can hear their feet. Some of them pass by the gate on the sidewalks; they think I can’t see them. Some of them are brave enough to rattle the gate; they bring my mail, my bills, they ask for donations. Some of them get into the house while I’m sleeping, and I wake up and I hear their feet on the stairs, yes I do.

I can hear their thoughts. The tall man, he knows. He’s not far…"

–The Serial Killer from F.H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller Circles

Running for cover, almost everyone doesn’t want to get wet on rainy days. Why so? For different reasons:

1. They are well-dressed (or over-dressed);

2. They easily get sick after wetting their heads;

3. They claim they are Gremlins (ayoko! dadami ako!);

4. They’re allergic to rain;

5. There is something with or in them which they don’t want to get wet; and

6. They think that today’s rain is now acid rain.

When it’s raining, one could stay beside a window pane, watch while it’s pouring, and think of the happy and sad days, e.g. with your loved ones. Then cry.

Or remember the days when your umbrella was blewn away by the wind.. And of course, skirts flying too!

Everyone prefers to stay at home during rainy days. Students rejoice when the news announces walang pasok! It’s good to eat tsamporado and tuyo, sinigang, sopas, and other soup delights to heat up our system.

Oh the rain reminds me that God wreaked havoc on this world to let us know that we shall not abuse freedom.

"There’s a rainbow always after the rain." –Rainbow, South Border

Re-Visit to the Ivory Shanty

Along the wayward, unsung heroes

We, again, crash on crystal life

full of gray sand

gray sand

tool.



From where we started

we come back

to the everlasting

pun and twists of

living the ironies of

death and resurrection.



Where the gray sand

is the priest, and black and white

do not meet or

nothing at all.



Go under your bed

and under your bed

is an invisible truth



That is--you.

Broken Poetry

When you think someone hates you, just stay silent. S/he would not do any step to initiate a conversation anyway, much less yourself. The simplest thing to do is to walk like a cloud. As William Wordsworth puts it, "I wander lonely as a cloud." Philosophize like that. Your world is all yours. No matter what happens, stay silent, stay silent.

There are possibilities that you will endure slight humiliations upon staying silent. Swallow them all. If you can do that, then you win the silent war. Use silence as a weapon. Do not let him/her stab you with his/her sinister dagger. S/he would do anything to destroy you–like the September 11 World Trade Center tragedy–a bitter destiny.

But there is a huge paradox. When you feel that you wouldn’t win the war, write a letter. Be sincere. Tell him/her what you really feel about him/her. Do not let him/her guess your reactions after s/he has read your letter. Stay silent as ever.

Let fate intercede, or pray that s/he wouldn’t hurt you violently. Sing a song while passing by his/her place. Walk like a cloud. Walk like you have never walked before. Maintain a consistent pace–not so fast, not so slow. Just feel like you are in heaven–everybody is looking up to you.

But always look down.

Looking down will make you comfortable. Pretend you are blind even your eyes are open. Do you remember what you have learned from the Bible? Your pair of eyes is the light of your body–which is the temple of the Holy Ghost?

This will be a bloody war. You will be an assassin. You can drop a bomb and turn everything into the smallest atom (if there is any). And then, put things back to their places altogether. Mix everybody’s feelings.

Back to the letter. When you write, be synaesthetic. Do you remember your Creative Writing workshops? Smell to see. See to touch. And touch to hear.

Say that you really did not want to start the war. It just happened. Say you can’t explain what you’d felt about him/her. Say that you are willing to spare him/her your packed lunch your mom prepared. Say it’s very special; and s/he is too.

"Let it be," the Beatles say. Bring everything back to life. Do not lose yourself just by thinking aloud. Think of a way to end the war; this silent war. Not until you consider this as a cold war, you wouldn’t think it’s got to end. Forgive yourself. You are not yourself. Think of another way. Be brave–not like Brave Heart or Lion Heart. Why don’t you try to utter a word? You can say, "Ahem" (chuckle, chuckle) or even whistle. You can PSST too, aimlessly. Let everything flow oblivious of yourself. Do not mind their reactions. Think of what they’re gonna think of you. A big irony, isn’t it? You can eat sampalok afterwards–then spit the seeds near their feet, then say "Oh! I’m really sorry!" Pick the seeds up not too fast, not too slow. Let everything flow like a fall.

You may grit your teeth.

Cest la vie.

Smell your perfume. They might smell you. They are watching you. Close your eyes but open your mind.

Open your heart to the truth.

You are..

alone

but

someone

is

watching

you.

Post-College Syndrome

I have been writing and appreciating poetry since my primary school days. I wrote almost anytime, anywhere. Some of it I have lost; some still with me. Now the following "disturbed" poem was the product of a post-college syndrome, which lingers up to today. This is "intertextual," so language majors say, and I can say, perhaps, very complex and raw:

(Notice I have images before or after the poetry--those are to approximate my perception of the contents of poems and those I wrote.)

I Have Sinned

A

mongrel

in the night

whoo-whooing–

man of culture, su-

percalifragilisticexpiali-

docious. He triggers the gun-

blade among the children of desti-

ny/advent children. Akin to faith he asks

the saint of labor why he is nowhere. Tonight,

the mongrel grasps the Beatles. Twelve Midnight.

He holds tight. Upright. Diamond tears in the chamber

react to ammos. World War. The Holy Mongrels:

the hollow men are his comrades. Legalese &

hotel. Partner. And, eureka. He meets The

One. Salvaged from Evanescence. Al-

low me to zell smile. His Guardian

Forces rejoice. The English Ma-

jor is The Lionheart--needs

sharpening. No more Dark

Matter & Black Materia.

Devour Ultimecia

For me. Miss

X

Mea Culpa

Birth of the New Man

Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali

What Happens

It has happened
and it goes on happening
and will happen again
if nothing happens to stop it

The innocent know nothing
because they are too innocent
and the guilty know nothing
because they are too guilty

The poor do not notice
because they are too poor
and the rich do not notice
because they are too rich

The stupid shrug their shoulders
because they are too stupid
and the clever shrug their shoulders
because they are too clever

The young do not care
because they are too young
and the old do not care
because they are too old

That is why nothing happens
to stop it
and that is why it has happened
and goes on happening and will happen again

--original in Polish by Tadeusz Rózewicz

You who never arrived

in my arms Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don't even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of the next
moment. All the immense
images in me--the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,
cities, towers, and bridges, and un-
suspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods--
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house--and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me. Streets that I chanced upon--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and, startled, gave back
my too-sudden image. Who knows, perhaps the same
bird echoed through the both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening?

--Rainer Maria Rilke

The Meaning of Simplicity

I hide behind simple things so you'll find me;
if you don't find me, you'll find the things,
you'll touch what my hand has touched,
our hand-prints will merge.

The August moon glitters in the kitchen
like a tin-plated pot (it gets that way because of what I'm saying to you)
it lights up the empty house and the house's kneeling silence--
always the silence remain kneeling.

Every word is a doorway
to a meeting, once often cancelled,
and that's when a word is true: when it insists on the meeting.

--Yannis Ritsos (translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley)

It was not so long ago

Come to the places where we rode your bicycle

And we both fell to a puddle of mud splashing earth in your face

It was not so long ago.

Come to the bridge where we started to think about your beautiful day

when your teacher said you have got the world in your hands

It was not so long ago.

Come to the train station where we were talking about breaking someone’s skull

and wondering what was inside it

It was not so long ago.

Come to the top of the hill where we flew our kites

that were entangled when the wind blew so hard

It was not so long ago.

Come back to the earth where our feet were coated with dung and mud —

When we did not care how we stank and stepping on the floors our mothers industriously swabbed.

But I cannot come to the time when we said goodbye on one violet afternoon, you flew away like our kites.

I am afraid the wind cut your string I was holding.

Then someone called me to do the dishes.

Grand WiFi Launch Bloggers' Sanctuary

TROPICAL HUT SPRING CHICKEN

A spring chicken is a very young bird with a high ratio of white to dark meat. Idiomatically, it could represent a person in the prime of his or her youth [http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-spring-chicken.htm]. But eating spring chicken would not take you to the fountain of youth, but simply will make your stomach full. Because in Tropical Hut, they serve one whole spring chicken, too. Sorry Max’s. I love Tropical Hut now.

A whooping P140 value meal and P130 solo, Tropical Hut’s Spring Chicken in SM taytay is more affordable than the one you buy at the improvised grilling stalls at wet markets and the street sides!

SNOWPY SUNDAE CUPS

An extreme taste bud tickler. A calisthenics of rich cream and vigorous milk. A monsoon of cold vacuum in the watering mouth. And that is how I define ice cream. And I found its meaning at Snowpy, of course at SM taytay!

If you’re fed up with dirty ice cream, go to Snowpy, it’s an ice cream cart with class. For only P12 for an ice cream cup, and P18 for a choco sundae with toppings, dropping by the food court will not be simple errand from your mother, girlfriend or boyfriend. It will be a habit.

Thanks Snowpy for bringing snow to our tropical mouths.

REYES BARBEQUE CHICKEN SOTANGHON SOUP

It has been raining lately. And we could find ourselves craving for hot coffee, tsamporado with tuyo, and especially, chicken soup! It can not only be found at home, but also at Reyes Barbeque—a haven of delectable Filipino cuisine.

Coupled with sotanghon, Reyes Barbeque’s chicken soup could satisfy your appetite and replenish your exhausted body, because of its soothing aroma and stirring taste. In Filipino culture, the table is incomplete without “sabaw”! Reyes chicken soup is one best choice to sip, when you come scurrying to SM taytay for a cover from a heavy rain and an empty stomach.

It costs only P26! Try comparing it to how much your mother spent for her macaroni soup.

BUKO NI FRUTAS BUKO JUICE

One buko a day keeps a urologist away! Buko ni Frutas, thus, brings a doctor to SM taytay.

Buko juice is rich in electrolytes that helps alleviate kidney problems such as UTI. I have loved drinking buko juice since I was a kid, because I was a UTI victim myself! I am a living testimony (or a saint) of the best health benefits of drinking buko juice; it does not only cure organ problems, but it is also better than water! So, when I’m lost in an island (with a cute chick I guess), I would survive drinking buko juice alone!

Here at SM food court, one cup of buko juice costs P19 for 25 oz, and P12 for 16 oz. Another affordable treat to yourself since you dropped by the mall to escape from the scorching heat outside, why not refresh yourself with the ever nutritious Buko Juice.

Just do not ask your guy friend, “pa-BJ naman!” when you are around the food court. He might crush your kidneys.

ONE SERVING OF TAKOYAKI

Takoyakis are muffins baked in a fishball stall! These nimbly created balls are lurking around malls. And I began to love them at SM Taytay’s food court, because that is where the nearest Takoyaki stall is from our town. Like Ruffa Gutierrez would have said, “meron bang Takoyaki sa Angono?”

I googled the etymology of takoyaki, and I found out that the word “takoyaki” literally means “fried or baked octopus” in Japanese. It is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, ponzu, mayonnaise, green laveraonori, and katsuobushi (fish shavings), first popularized in Taisho-era Osaka, where a street vendor named Endo Tomekichi is credited with its invention in 1935 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki].

So I guess it’s safe to say takoyakis are muffins because they are freshly baked on takoyaki pans’ cast iron with half-spherical molds. One will be amazed by how Takoyakis are prepared and finally served. It’s like you are watching a Kabuki cooking up Takoyaki balls! See it for yourself at SM Taytay foodcourt.

A serving of takoyaki in SM taytay costs only P15, P20, and P25 for 2, 3, and 4 pieces, respectively. As we say, barya lang!

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Apart from enjoying sumptuous choices of meals at the SM Food Court, one could enjoy more to stay there—free WI-FI. Every blogger’s dream..

I now subscribe to SM’s advertising cheer, ”Here at SM, we’ve got it all for you!”