Monday, July 25, 2016

Urban Marche: Cash and Carry Weekend Market

There are several weekend markets in Makati today. A few of the posh villages here offer weekend markets for their residents and "outsiders" as well. One of the recent additions is Cash and Carry's Weekend Night Market called the Urban Marche. Marche, according Wikipedia is one of the 20 regions of Italy.

Urban Marche can be found at the parking lot of Cash and Carry in Palanan. The site is where the old "imported" shops were located.

There are stalls selling clothes, jewelry and all sorts of food. I seldom look at the stalls selling clothes and other dry goods because my primary purpose of going there is to eat.

Some of the food I've tried are shawarma, barbecue, pancit, pasta, Ilocos bagnet and  lechon belly. A couple of weeks ago, my doctors told me to cut down on oily and salty dishes. Grabe! It's really difficult lloking for healthy yet delicious food. But fortunately, in this weekend market, there is a stall that sells healthy stuff. Tuna pasta, veggie burger, etc.

The burger patties are made of puso ng saging. It's not really new for me because  my cousin used to make this in the province before. But I still liked the idea that they have it here in Manila.

Urban March is open Fridays to Sundays from 3 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

SOI restaurant: A Special Restaurant

It was so hot in my room last Sunday I decided to go to SM Mall of Asia to enjoy their free aircon. lol I got there at about 11 am and decided to look for a place to eat before they all get filled with lunch goers. I was choosing beetween Soi Restaurant and Ya Kun Kaya Toast. Since they are both on the North wing of MOA, I decided to just walk by the restaurants to see which has more vacant tables. When I passed by Soi I noticed that the lady by the door (part of the crew) possibly has special needs. Please don't think that there is something unusual with how she looks or she looks weird as how persons with special needs are depicted in television shows. She is not like that. Don't think I was being judgmental. There was just something with the way she talked to me that caught my attention.

She was doing stuff just like the other members of the crew were doing but it still made me ask for the manager to confirm. It turned she was not but the supervisor was there to answer my questions. I just confirmed with him if the lady was indeed special. The supervisor confirmed it. I asked if all branches employ them but apparently it was only at MOA. It was the manager's decision to give it a try.

You may be wondering why I was so interested to know. Well, I work with children with special needs. I know how frustrating it is knowing that after you train them, some of them will not end up having the same opportunities like the others outside. You teach them and train them how to do things the way they are "normally" done in the real world. Then they end up not being able to find jobs because no one will accept them. So it is really special for me to see establishments like Soi that employs people with special needs. Don't get me wrong. I do not have anything against those who do not accept them. They probably have their reasons. But I really appreciate those who do give them the chance to prove their worth.

So SOI, keep up the good work.

Anyway here is what I ordered. For less than 200 pesos I got this meal that comes with  glass of iced tea and a small saucer (yes, a small one lol) of appetizer.