KKK, Sidra and Razon's

September 16, 2006 was the 3rd time we went to MOA. They have a 3-day sale from Sept. 15-17. They’re open up to midnight as consideration to mall goers that have stronger spending guts, este lakas ng loob gumastos, during times like these due to the perfect alignment of the remaining eight planets of the solar system, a week after the demotion of Pluto as a planet, the normal working Pinoy’s salary day falling on a Friday and SM’s 3-day sale.

By the way, the solar system just lost Pluto as its 9th planet due to its small size (2/3 of our moon) and the shape of its orbit. It was demoted to a dwarf planet last September 9, 2006 and was given the name 134340. I wonder how this will affect Madam Auring and the rest of the fortune tellers. I guess they have to re-write their text books and reconsider their 2006 predictions – they also now have a good excuse why their predictions did not come true – “nawala kasi ang Pluto eh,” hehe. In the more realistic side, one of my officemate shared how her mother have to bring to school daily a copy of the newspaper with Pluto’s demotion just to let the student’s believe what she is saying which is against what is currently written in all student’s Science text books. She was also contemplating to erase Pluto on the big mural of the Solar System in their school and waiting for some official guidelines from the Department of Education. Huhu.

Let’s now go back to Mall of Asia. We parked in the North Wing parking building to familiarize ourselves to the location of the parking entrance, the parking exit and its appropriateness as parking area when hypermarting.

Lunch was in KKK. It means Kainan sa Kalye Kanluran. It got its name from the location of its original store in 74 West Avenue, Quezon City. They opened a branch in MOA. There are old news clips about KKK framed on the wall before you enter the restaurant. My wife like the native wall covering they have made from some plant similar to thin bamboos in appearance and how the upper end arches down near the spot lights.

They serve chichacorn in K ceramic plates while you wait for your order.

Lilia scolds me every time I scoop the chichacorn using a spoon. She said that I’m not being a good example to Hannah – she might imitate me and choke. KKK’s tag line is true! It is a food revolution. Sarap!

We ordered their best seller Inihaw na Liempo Bacon Cut (PhP 180). The grilled liempo are thin similar to bacon but not hard or crispy like real bacons. It is sprinkled with sesame seeds and the barbeque taste is delicious. It’s a wonderful dish. Even the atchara on the side is delicious. You should try this.

The Sinigang na Lechon (PhP 220) is also delicious. The lechon meat is tender and the balat ng lechon is tasty even though it is not crunchy due to being soaked in the sinigang’s tamarind soup. I never thought that lechon taste can blend well with the sour sinigang taste. This is also a recommended dish.

Their bottomless iced tea (PhP 55) is ok; the ripe mango shake (PhP 60) is ok. I love their bottomless sago at gulaman (PhP 55). The taste brings me back to my elementary school days where I buy a plastic cup of it (I believe it is less than PhP 1 then) after playing sikyo, jolen, patintero, tumbang preso or climbing trees. Haaaay!, those were the days. Just thinking what game to play and how to hide my injuries to my parents due to fear of cotton balls dipped in red merthiolate which we called gamot na pula (array!). Di pa uso ang Terramycin at Betadyne sa bahay noon eh. Sarap talagang maging bata.

After lunch, my wife introduced me to science of bed sheet quality and smoothness and its relation to thread count. The higher the thread count the smoother and more comfy the sheets become. We found Homeport bed linen products from Australia which the SM sales boys said were used as beddings in the house for the reality TV show Pinoy Big Brother. My wife and the sales boys were so convincing that we ended up buying 2 sets of beddings with 315 thread counts and colors to match with the curtains we bought 2 weeks ago. My wife told me that Oprah’s sheets have 400 thread counts and how you could just imagine how soft and smooth it is. I also learned about duvet covers and fitted sheets.

Hannah played in the big inflatable castle. For two minutes she was just jumping up and down in one place and not trying out the slide, the house and the puppets. We were shouting to coach her but she can’t hear us with all the noise. There goes our PhP 30 for 5 minutes - spent jumping up and down like what she does in our bed. Good thing one of the attendants guided her to the slide where she finally got hooked to sliding - she doesn’t want to stop and wanted more.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the windy bay walk watching the sun set while I got a free back massage from my wife and my daughter on my lap taking her afternoon milk. The area is also good for kite flying. You won’t run out of strong winds. There were a couple of kids flying their colorful kites with their parents. We should have brought Hannah’s kite.

The fireworks by the bay started at 7:00 PM. People inside the mall ran like crazy towards the bay side when they heard the fireworks begin – we included.

We went to Sidra and saw their Persian carpets and wooden chests. I love wooden chests (baul) and have long wanted to buy one to use as a center table with lots of space in it to hold stuffs. They have intricately carved baul from Persia made of Rosewood that have drawers and brass accents. I like the fragrance of Camphor wood better than Rosewood but the Persian owner said that the Rosewood fragrance will guarantee that whatever you put inside the chest will not be attacked by insects. Good selling point. However, the size we wanted, which should almost be as big as a normal center table is not in their shop. But they were willing to bring it to our home the next day just for us to see what it looks like – even if we decide not to buy it. We declined, afraid of spending PhP 28,000 for a wooden box for old magazines and other old stuffs. Their bauls are really the best I’ve seen so far.

Dinner was in Razon’s of Guagua for their famous halo-halo dessert. It was already 8:30PM but the place was still full and all tables had halo-halo. We have to wait for some table to finish.

We ordered sisig and tapsilog. They were good. The sisig is better than Stall #3 in Taste Asia. Another sisig variety that I like is the all-crunchy sisig of Poquito Mas.

Razon’s have been making halo-halo since 1908. Their store in Guagua, Pampangga is still open and for almost a century, the ingredients remained the same: sun ripened saging na saba, macapuno, and leche flan with a dash of dayap rind. I don’t know how they do it but the shaved ice never form hard ice clusters that is usually present in halo-halo of other restaurants. The spoon sinks easily all the way to the bottom of the cup so you can stir easily and enjoy your Razon’s halo-halo in a jiffy. Yumyum.

While waiting for the shuttle tour around MOA, we saw men on tall stilts walking around MOA playing with fire. Hannah called them giant boys. We never got the chance to ride the shuttle tour because every time it passes our stop, nobody wanted to go down. Hannah cried when we left the stop while saying “gusto ko sakay ng jeep.” She fell asleep afterwards.

We saw the stall of La Cocina de Tita Moning, the reservations-only ancestral home and fine dining experience near Malacanang palace that, like Antonio’s of Tagaytay, serves delicious, expensive dishes. A full course meal ranges from PhP 1,500 to PhP 2,000 per person and you should choose a menu 24 hours in advance. Absolutely no walk ins. You get to tour the Legarda Mansion before dining. Visit their website at http://www.lacocinadetitamoning.com. They have a gallery of who their guests were from 2003 and the current menus available. We also saw Highlands Steakhouse restaurant. This is the one and only branch of Highlanders Steakhouse which is located outside of Tagaytay Highlands. Now we can enjoy what those highlanders are having. Visit their website at http://www.tagaytayhighlands.com/ Entrees cost around PhP 600 to PhP 3,500.

Going home.