The ActiveTalker

It was a Saturday again and I was able to influence my lunchmates (classmates) from my graduate program to eat where I like to eat. I was able to lure them this time to an eatery I just discovered the last week. It looks just like a normal sari-sari store in Valencia St. at first glance, but if you’ll look closely, it has an eatery inside. The name of the place is Pampanguena’s Eatery (the name suggests that the food they serve is inspired by Pampanga’s cuisine.

I ordered, as the title suggests, a kare-kare or a pork stew in peanut sauce.

It was good. What made it more special is the shrimp paste that came with it. It was prepared with chunks of meat in it. Although it can stand on its own as a meal, it made the kare-kare taste better.

Overall, it was good. Although the kare-kare had only a few pieces of vegetable on it, I still enjoyed my lunch.

Every Saturday, together with my classmates, I eat at one of the “hidden treasures” outside the Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ Graduate School campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila. It is a place named “Looban Eatery” or literally, an eatery in the interior area of the district.

For 40PhP (roughly 1US$), you can feast on a meal consisting of a meat and a vegetable viand and a cup of rice. But last Sunday was different, they ran out of vegetable viands so I opted for Lechon Paksiw (roasted pig cooked in vinegar, garlic and salt.) to go with my Sisig. This time, instead of the usual 40PhP, it was 59PhP as I also added an extra order of rice.

The Lechon Paksiw had a large chunk of pig fat and I can’t seem to notice the taste of the vinegar. The Sisig was good, it even had bits of crunchy pig skin. Overall, I give it 9 stars out of 10. It was good and it sure filled the hole in my tummy.