After work today a few of us got together and headed to Dencios for breakfast. As far as I understand it, Dencios is a local restaurant chain. You won’t find many western foods there, but if you like sissig and lumpiang shanghi then you’ll probably enjoy your meal.

When Paul and I took the trainees to breakfast here a few months back (it was Paul’s birthday), we took a table inside the restaurant. They don’t have air conditioning – just electric fans – so after a short stay the room was unbearably hot. The main room also becomes so noisy that it’s nearly impossible to hear the person next to you.

This time, we managed to score a table on the patio. For the first time in days, I saw sunlight. Alas, my joy was short lived. Within an hour of our arrival the sky began to darken. Since the patio is covered no one wanted to move inside – especially not with the nice breeze combined with electric fans outside. Tables were hastily shifted away from the edge of the patio and under the wooden overhang.

When the rain came down, it landed fast and hard. Back home, we’d describe it as “sheets of rain” or in some circles “buckets”. It wasn’t as hard as the rain that came with the typhoon and the storm was over in about 45 minutes but I’m definitely getting tired of rain. Similar rainfalls took place in the middle of the night in Makati yesterday. I only remember it raining like this once or twice when I was in India during monsoon season. I can’t imagine having to live with rain like this everyday for months on end. Then again, most people I talk to here can’t imagine living where the weather can dip to -50C (Winnipeg) in winter or where it’s still sunny at 10:00pm (Edmonton) in summer.

I know I haven’t done much except talk about the rain recently. Unlike my trip to India where my daily babbles often centered on food and religion, I just haven’t managed to dive whole hog into the food here. When I was in India, I tried everything I can get my hands on and loved a lot of it. Filipino food is, to my palate, quite bland or too sweet. I also don’t like a lot of fat on my meat, so there’s a number of dishes I’ve tasted that I’m really not interested in ever having again. Other things, such as balut, will never pass through my lips. I’ve no interested in eating a semi-formed duck embryo!

Technorati Tags: Manila, rain, food, balut

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