I was craving for kare-kare so I looked for a nearby Filipino restaurant. Island Pacific only serves this special dish on weekends. Since it’s an ordinary day, I went to a smaller Filipino grocery hoping they have ready-cooked meals that include kare-kare.
Swerte, they do. The place was more like a carinderia than a restaurant. I was turned-off by the condition of the dining area but I didn’t want to take home the food so I just sat there. There were only 4 tables and no other customers which I found ideal, para tahimik.
Hindi presyong carinderia
They sell frozen foods like lumpia.
They have a combo meal, two dishes for $7.99. I requested for kare-kare but the lady said hindi pwede. Kare-kare daw is only for a la carte orders and I have to pay extra dollar. I said “Okay”. She repeated “hindi nga pwede, may dagdag na one dollar”. I said “okay, I will pay extra”. I reiterated my first request for one cup of rice and instead of giving me two kinds of dishes, I just wanted kare-kare. She again said “hindi nga pwede”. I didn’t want to argue because I didn’t think I would win the argument. She looked like she was having a bad day so I just picked one kare-kare (plus one dollar) and sinigang na baboy. I only ate the kare-kare and the soup.
She asked if I wanted bagoong. Aba syempre, terno yan sa kare-kare.
There was a Latino guy who came in while I was eating. He looked like he hasn’t been to the shower for three months. His hands were on his pocket while looking around and smiling. I got so paranoid. Baka kako meron syang baril sa bulsa at bigla na lang akong holdapin. He checked out the food and spotted the turon. He asked what was that and if he could taste it. He bought a piece.
Nainggit naman ako. I also bought one turon for a dollar.
Let’s see what else do they have… Filipino movies .99 cents.
They also have saging (banana) and Goldilocks polvoron, in Tagalog pulburon.
The kare-kare was good, pwede na. It satisfied my craving. I want to eat kare-kare again next week. Mabye I will explore other carinderia. I actually just like the sauce, the tripe and the alamang.
