Filipino cuisine will
forever have a special place in my heart. I am not being biased or what but
there’s really something so comforting with eating Filipino food. Could it be
the umami?
One Saturday, I had a girls’ lunch out with my mom and
grandmother at Robinsons Galleria. Since my grandmother isn’t that adventurous
with food, we decided to head to Mangan,
a Filipino restaurant.
There wasn’t much people eating and it was lunch time when
we arrived. I guess those new restaurants at BGC and Shangri-La’s east wing are
eating other malls’ share of hungry tummies.
It didn’t took us long to decide what to order. We ordered
my grandma’s favorite Sinigang sa Bayabas
Bangus (milkfish) Belly (PHP280)
and Gatang Sigarillas (PHP120).
After some thought, I also ordered Lechong
Babi (PHP240) as it goes well with the veggies I ordered.
While waiting and munching on the complimentary crispy shoestring
sweet potatoes (where some were oddly wet), one of the servers approached us.
He shared that they are selling PHP300 gift certificates and if we buy now, we
get free puto bumbong. (It made me wonder if he saw my excitement when I saw
that they sell puto bumbong.) I then asked if the GCs have an expiry date and
true enough the GCs are valid until November this year. I told him that this is
against DTI rules as gift certificates should be treated like cash as it was
bought with cash, at full amount. The server just… smiled then asked if I still
want to avail of it. Uhm…
