My Binondo Trip: An Afternoon of Good Food with Good Friends

Hello again! I was gone for a while to focus on my review for the bar examination held last November 2011. The bar exam was the one-time-big-time, make-or-break EXAM of my life, so I had to pour all my energy and attention to that humongous quest. Nevertheless, the wanderlust still burned inside me. The desire to taste the fullness of life never ceased, so I ended up searching for simpler and smaller pleasures--those that are within my budget and will not take a long time. And, what better locations are there for a short rendezvous than those just within Metro Manila?


The wonderful busy streets of Binondo



Our bar review classes have just adjourned and Jessie, my friend and fellow reviewee, was about to go back to Naga City. Hence, we thought that we should fulfill our long-time dream of going on a foodtrip in Binondo, otherwise known as Manila's Chinatown. One Friday afternoon, we--Jessie, moi, Kendi (byahera's roommie) and Czarina Mae--just went ahead with the plan. From Katipunan, we took the LRT going to Recto and then from Recto, rode a jeepney. We alighted in front of the Sta. Cruz Church, offered some prayers for our exam and then searched for the gate going toward Binondo, which turned out to be right in front of the Church.
Ni Hao Binondo, here we come :)


My adventurous, future lawyer friends: Jessie, Kends and Namie


Also a foodie and travel junkie: my roommate, Kends

Binondo is simply one unique, marvelous place in Manila. It glaringly shows the strong Chinese influence over our country's history and culture. Being in Binondo is like being transported to another place (to China, where else? :p). Its streets are swarming with Chinese shops of all kinds! From stores for charms,Buddha figurines and fengshui-inspired displays, to kiosks selling fresh fruits, vegetables, Chinese streetfoods, hopia, fried siopao, sugar cane juice and dumplings--all these can be found in abundance in Binondo. It was a festive sight indeed and we were there in search for great foodie locations. Our first stop: Kim Hiong Food Garden, which is located near the entrance/exit of Binondo gate in front of the Sta.Cruz Church.



Foodtrip Starter: Kim Hiong


Excited for the first bite


The menu contains an enormous variety (hundreds! perhaps) of food selections: noodles, rice toppings, soups, exotic cuisines (fried frog legs anyone?)...anything Chinese, you name it! We tried the restaurant's bestseller noodles according to one of its waiters, the stir fried beef noodles. I love the Chinese cooking at Kim Hiong. The pansit (noodles) was so soft and the sauce, flavorful albeit a little oily. Imagine a plateful of teeming, freshly cooked noodles generously covered in rich sauce served in front of hungry diners. We finished it in minutes hehe. Anyways, that was just for starters; a sample of what lies ahead and we were excited to taste more. Our next stop: Waying Restaurant.


Expectations met!

To those who would be going to Binondo, Waying is a must! On the outside, Waying looks like a really old restaurant. I'm reminded of a place where grannies love to have their morning tea and rice cakes or afternoon chats over a large bowl of hot noodle soup. It doesn't have the sleek and sophisticated look of modern Chinese restaurants. But, as the saying goes, don't be deceived by appearances! Waying is in fact a foodie haven. Seriously. It serves a great variety of delicious dumplings, noodles and rice meals that are all reasonably priced and are relatively affordable. If our budget will only allow, we would have tried so much more. However, being the cash-strapped reviewees, we settled with our best choices (and decided to just go back someday to try the rest hehe): hakaw - P60, shark's fin dimsum - P60, pork dimsum- P60, kebab - P60, chicken mami- P100, beef wanton mami- P100, and milk tea - P45.







Will definitely try these specialties next time

The dumplings were really great! Fast food dumplings or those which you can buy from foodcarts in malls don't even compare...Waying's was the real deal. The ingredients are fresh and they have none of those extenders added in commercialized foods.The noodles...mmmm...so hot and filling (I'm sorry I didn't have a photo, as I was already too busy eating hehe). Also, the milk tea was yummy and refreshing. It has the right blend of creaminess, sweetness and that earthy flavor of tea. Hay, I'm running out of adjectives hehe, so just better try it!


Galit-galit muna hehe


I heart this place


Before we went home, we decided to give the kalesa/caretela a try since Namie confided that she hasn't been in one. For P300, it wasn't worth it. The manong driver just toured us around the maze of streets in Chinatown, the ride barely lasted thirty minutes. Anyways, if it made us happy...oh well just charge it to experience.




Kalesa photos taken by a shaky hand :)


Also, don't forget to try fried siopao! It's one of Binondo's specialties and it's just P15 :) We paired ours with milk tea. I could have easily gobbled two, but I'm quite satisfied already. I made a mental note to buy some fruits from the street vendors, and also sugar cane and sugar cane juice but in our rush to get home before dark I forgot all about it. At least we get to shop for tikoy and other Chinese kakanin as pasalubong to our other housemate, Chris, who couldn't be with us.Truly, one afternoon is not enough to fully enjoy all the goodies that Binondo has to offer to foodies. Then again, there is always a next time.

Who would, in the middle of a review--for the bar exam no less--come up with the idea of going to Binondo out of sheer fun of a foodtrip adventure? Well, we did hehe. Just when I thought that I'd be byahera no more, my friends and I, all exhausted from the pressure of the upcoming bar exam, came up with such spur-of-the-moment lakwatsa. The good thing is that it made us really, really, really guilty that we had to make up for the lost study time and catch up and double our reading the following day =) Yet overall, the Binondo trip did us good. The trip was definitely the break I needed during the review and indeed, helped keep my sanity.