Eats more Pandesal in the Philippines!: Day 5

Triple 5 today - May 5 and also our 5th day in the Philippines!

Rina and I just rested today - planning on stuff to do and never getting them off the ground. Riel went to Puerto Galera, Mindoro for his company's team building retreat, Roselle went for her yoga while Aix attended her classes. That left Lara, Rina and myself home alone.

Rina played with the dogs and chatted with her siblings in San Diego while I waited for a family to pick up their package. Aix later texted asking if we're up for Mercato tonight at 10pm. By this time, Roselle had whipped up a quick dish of spaghetti for dinner, but since its only 6pm, we just had a light dinner - making sure to make room for Mercato at the Fort.

We arrived at the Fort 9ish and dropped off Roselle to meet up with her friends while the three of us (Rina, Aix and yours truly) walked around High Street. We had Jamba Juice to quench our thirst and walked around some more, checking out the car show (Bimmerfest 2012) and other activities going on around High St.

At exactly 10pm, we headed towards the empty plot where the tent place of Mercato is. It looks surreal from afar as the full moon (supposed to be supermoon) glared down on a big tent with aromatic smoke of grilled goodies emanating from the tent in the midst of tall buildings.

As soon as you get in, the spread is just tantalizingly delicious - you just can't decide what to try first, and this is just a few steps of getting in! We decided to just walk around first and not get caught up with a dish or something but that didn't worked out as we got hooked on a serving of thin slices of port belly deep fried to crunchiness perfection. They bait and hook you with their free tasting strategy!

We got our initial fare and headed to the dining area where they play live music. I had my isaw and gulaman, Rina tried out the rice burger and buko juice while Aix had her mozzarella filled patty in a bed of lettuce. Second round was more of a challenge - we couldn't believe that just those servings could be so filling - must be the smell of food that filled us up.

Aix went and got lumpiang sili and Rina and I just stared at each other to see if we're up for another round. I got up and got me a clam chowder while Rina ordered a beer-flavored ice cream - it really tasted like beer but without the hangover. Such a good idea though, you wouldn't need to chill your beer and you can either lick it or use a spoon to have it. There are other pub-inspired flavored ice cream like tequila and Bailey's - what would they think of next?

The food was great and we're definitely heading back wiser and hungrier (no meals/snacks at least 12 hours prior to Mercato).