WALKING ALL THE WAY WITH MANILA'S PIED PIPER
(Carlos Celdran's North Bank walking tour)





"Kindly walk this way."

With this simple phrase, Carlos Celdran invites you to leave behind the dingy, chaotic Manila you know, and step into the vibrant, interesting Manila that he knows.

Our meeting point this Saturday afternoon was along Escolta St. As Carlos explained, before there was Greenbelt and Rockwell and Eastwood, there was Escolta. Yup, believe it or not, this street was actually quite a happening place back in the 20s and 30s.

Carlos showed slides of turn-of-the-century Escolta building architecture, and the rapid changes brought about by our beloved American colonizers. Carlos liberally sprinkles his historical insights with juicy tidbits of gossip. He is quite theatrical, but never over-the-top.

Among his anecdotes was that of Heacock's Department Store, which, in his words, was the "Rustan's before there was Rustan's". From a simple one-story store, it eventually became a five-storey monolith. Turns out the owner, Mr. Heacock (but of course) was using his store as a front for his diamond smuggling activities from Africa, which he sold to the sugar barons of Bacolod.

We went on to Carriedo, Sta. Cruz and underneath the LRT at Rizal Avenue, the portion closed to vehicular traffic. Here, it is quite simply chaotic, where all sorts of merchandise were being sold in all these cramped stalls on all these narrow streets. Clothing, toys, pirated DVDs, you name it and its likely to be found here.

We made it all the way to historic Quiapo Church. Outside, street vendors sell merchandise sure to pique the interest of the most jaded person.

Let me see. . .what do we have here? "El Shaddai" Menthol / Eucalyptus / Sampaguita aromatherapy oils (does the Spa Association of the Phils. know about this?? :D); frankinscense and myrrh (not sure though if this is really the same as what the Three Magi brought to the manger); bottles of vile-looking liquid labelled "Pampa-regla" (read: abortificants), which Carlos describes as "pure poison, actually".

Not weird enough for you? Oh, there are anting-antings (amulets), which yours truly, being a wiseass, cracked "these must be made in China". Hehe ;-D.

What else? Gayumas (dried herb roots) for those wanting a solution for unrequited love; ihi ng butiki (lizard urine) for. . .i don't quite remember already! Carlos of course explained the pagan traditions behind all these, and how strange yet appropriate that these are sold right outside Quiapo Church!

So, make haste and catch one of Carlos' tours soon! Go! Don't run, but WALK this way, please.


(Please check out www.celdrantours.blogspot.com for a full listing of Carlos Celdran's walking tour schedules and rates)


P.S. I am deeply indebted to fellow blogger Senor Enrique, who graciously allowed me to use the above pic of a typical Quiapo Church vendor's wares. His quite interesting posts on Manila culture, etc. can be found at www.senorenrique.blogspot.com. Thanks!

MYSTERY OF THE RAPIDLY ESCALATING MEAL PRICE


During dinner with my long-time (since grade school, imagine that!) friend Sh. last week [see previous post about Zensho Japanese resto], we wondered why the eat-all-you-can price for dinner was PHP100 higher than for lunch.

I have also observed this for Alba's Restaurante Espanol, which charges PHP475 and PHP575, respectively, for their lunch and dinner eat-all-you-can buffets (including paella and cochinillo). Quite frankly, i've always wondered why they set different prices for the same type of meal.

The obvious answer is that there must be some special dish(es) available in the dinner buffet, which isn't offered during lunch time. But this doesn't seem to be the case for Alba's, based on the couple of times i've eaten there.

And i know that in the US, one can see from the menu of some restos that entrees are priced higher during dinner than for lunch. (One Japanese resto in SanFo comes to mind) So why this price difference?

Sh. and i formulated some theorems:

Is the dinner crowd generally more affluent, and can afford (or is willing) to pay a higher price? Thus, the resto is maximizing profits by charging more.

Or does the dinner crowd eat more food, costing the resto more money? Therefore, the resto charges more to maintain its profit margins.

Or does the dinner crowd take more time eating (unlike the lunch crowd, which is more likely to have to go back to the office, etc.), thereby reducing the resto's turnover, and forgoing income from people who wanted to eat, but didn't want to queue? Thus, the resto charges more to compensate for the foregone income from would-be customers.

Or perhaps it is more costly to serve dinner (i.e. electricity costs, security / parking attendant, overtime pay for waiters, etc.) than lunch? Hence, the resto charges more to cover the extra costs.

Or maybe the resto deliberately sets the price for lunch lower, hoping customers would eat during lunch time (i.e. "slow" period), instead of dinner time ("peak" period)? But this assumes customers are flexible and/or indifferent regarding when they can or when they want to go to the resto.

Sh. and i failed to find an explanation which totally satisfied us.

Can anyone out there provide the answer to this dismal economist?

G.U.S. NITPICKS!! (v. 9)

ZENSHO JAPANESE RESTO

It's pretty funny that this resto has been around for something like 7 or 8 years, by my count, and i live
fifteen minutes away from it, but i haven't been here ever. I guess you could say i see it every time i eat at the Teriyaki Boy right across the street, haha.

Anyways, as my bubbly kumare Sh. was treating for her. . .ahem, 27th birthday [fit of coughing], i suggested this place. And it turned out to be a pretty good choice.

A few steps from the door, we noticed their banner proclaiming their eat-all-you-can promo (PHP385 for lunch and PHP485 for dinner). Since Sh. and i tend to eat tons and tons of food whenever we eat out, we figured it was a good deal. You could say "Eat until bondat!" is our gustatory motto.

Turns out their set-up is that the waiters provide you a checklist of dishes included in the eat-all-you-can, and you tick off the items you want, and they cook it on the spot for you. So, it's NOT a buffet, where the dishes are under the glare of the spotlights all night and dry out as a result.

Sh. took care of most of the ordering, and amongst the dishes we enjoyed were the Oyster Motoyaki, Sukiyaki beef steak (which was quite tasty and chewy), Cuttlefish teppanyaki, assorted sushi, etc.

The Ebi tempura wasn't that great though; their sashimi selection was average; the Oysters teppanyaki didn't work at all (the oysters were drowned in some sort of weird-tasting sauce, we agreed); the lambchops were a bit tough, but flavourful.

For drinks, Sh. ordered their grape shake, which she found quite good. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a grape shake! :D First time ever i've heard or seen it, although Sh. insists Cibo serves one as well.

Zensho's conditions, by the way, are: No left-overs, no sharing (otherwise, you pay double the price).

Of course, the astute reader will notice that pricey items such as unagi, salmon, gindara, etc. are not included in this promo, and have to be ordered separately ala carte. But this is not unexpected, anyway.

Overall, it was very good value for money, esp. given the amount of food Sh.. . oops, i mean, we ate.
A return trip is quite likely.


(Zensho Japanese restaurant is located at the Dallas Commercial Building, T. Morato Avenue corner A. Roces Ave., Quezon City)