I have a New Year’s Resolution and that is no fast food for a year. But there’s always an exception. I have a 24 hour exception which means I can eat fast food for a day. And I’m about to use that 24 hr ticket to fast food.
I was dragged by my friend to Pasig on the 27th of June. I showed a humongous disinterest on his bidding. It wasn’t like he was persuading me. It seemed that way. But I came around when I learned that Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen was around the area. There’s no time to lose. My childhood was waiting for me in Pasig. In Arcovia city, to be precise.
Few days before our trip, we had brief discussions if whether I should go or not. It had been pouring for days, which made me curled up on my bed and finished the book, Modern Lovers by Emma Straub.
The on and off discussion made me eager not to accompany him on his two-day seminar. What would I even do during his seminar? Sit in the car? Sleep until the carbon monoxide poisons me? Spoiler alert: That was what happened except for getting poisoned by CO.
We drove earlier than breakfast. We even got lost because the Waze’s satellites weren’t working in the area especially in C3. Thank goodness for Google Maps of Android and we arrived ten minutes late in his seminar.
I stayed in the car, ate the fluffy part of pandesal and discarded the hard burned crust, observed the people observing me, turned the car on and off because I don’t wanna die of CO poisoning while I sleep, got interrupted by the 10 am heat of the morning. 11 am and I thought that I had enough of this shit. I got my bag, surrendered the car key to my friend and found myself riding a tricycle. They said that the nearest mall around is the Robinsons. And when I got there, crap, it’s a Robinsons supermart. Noice. Haha. And to rub salt on the wound, it started raining the moment I got off the tricycle. Just wow. It was quite overwhelming.
I roamed around to check the public market square. I sat and checked my phone’s GPS for a nearby park, museum, mall, oh God just give me anything to kill this boredom. I was out of my wit, until the nearby mini mall near Robinsons opened.
A violet-labeled store greeted me. What I missed about living in Manila was the abrupt stroll in Binondo. The food. The traffic and honks of cars. The culture. And since I was in a place faraway from Binondo, I might relish on eating some custard salted egg yolk siopao. The last time I had these babies was in February in Cafe Mezzanine. The fluffy pao fresh from the steam with hot lava custard salted egg yolk left a new palate on my tongue. I have to taste it once again. And I did. I was underwhelmed, or probably I was expecting too much and that lava pao disappointed me. But either way, it wasn’t as good as Mezzanine’s. I checked the filling and it was a suspension of lava on oil. Damn, diarrhea’s on the way. It wasn’t just the lava pao, but the pork dumplings as well as the grass jelly were abysmal. I won’t be back, I promised to myself.
After a disappointing breakfast, I strolled around the mall. I tried to amuse myself by checking stores. One store, Vente, sells everything for PHP 20.00 (barely a dollar). I got two plastic containers for our remote controls, bills and what-nots that litter our television case. It was a nice deal.
Amidst my endless desire to entertain myself, I felt my stomach grumbling. The alarm of lava beneath a volcano wanting to erupt gave me the urgency to find a room for comfort. I was barely on the toilet when it erupted. Thank you lava pao. Smiles sardonically.
I can see clearly now that my first time having fast food in six months had undesirable effects. I had foreseen it. Strike one: Diarrhea.
Lunch. I ate in the same fast food. Sweet and sour fish. It was bitterly raining so I had no choice but to eat in the same fast food that gave me diarrhea earlier. The dish had a taste of artificiality. What I learned in my six months manifesto of real food is that food should be prepared fresh. Everything should be organic and instant and canned are a big NO. And I think I become sensitive on identifying authentic food from synthetic. Strike two: Artificial and synthetic.
After long hours of boredom. I decided to return to the seminar and stay in the car instead. It was quite rainy. I turn the car’s engines on and read Modern Lovers. I have to finish the book before returning home.
Then came the most anticipated meal. Dinner. We drove through the traffic of Ortigas (45 mins. to an hour), found ourselves in Arcovia, and entered the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. I waited in one of the long queues. I was looking for calamari rings but to my disappointment it wasn’t in the menu. I remembered dining in Popeyes and having those heavenly goodness when I was just a kid hence it was a big disappointment for me. But hey, no biggie; we had a meal set instead.
I don’t know if it’s just time passed by or I’ve tasted better meals, but Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen had failed to impress me. Their chicken was plainly salty. The gravy atoned for that extreme MSG. The cajun fries were fine, actually, I think fries were the only good ones I had. Crabby Crab Soup had a tinge of tin/aluminum taste, it was a mashy heavy suspension so I guessed it was straight outta can. The last chance on salvation on my acerbic semi-review is the buttermilk biscuit. And it failed to do so. But honey was as good as the others. Strike 3: Plain salty, extreme MSG, instant soup
This entry is not sponsored and I’m not, in any way, discouraging you on eating in Popeyes. Also, I’m not a critique, food blogger, nor a chef. Taste is something subjective. It always depends on the person’s perspectives. I’m just trying to recollect and review my first fast food in six months, my 24 hour exception in my resolution.
I learned from my one day exception that I have become conscious on what I eat; That fast food is bad and that I have a boundless hunger for real food.
Hey There Faye 