4th Floor - Terminal 3
Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Pasay
21 November 2010
The night before, I told K we should be prepared for this day because it might be the most hectic of all the 14 days of this holiday, because coming from Puerto Galera, we needed to head straight to NAIA 3 to catch a flight to Iloilo City.
Despite the delays and slightly longer boat travel from Puerto Galera to Batangas Pier, we still were able to get there ahead of time. From there, one nice person told us buses parked at the pier will leave 2pm and if we wanted to get to Manila earlier, we could take his tricycle going to the Diversion Road where most buses bound for Manila were parked.
We arrived at the airport very early. So early K wanted to get the earlier flight, but the hassles of cancelling our original booking plus the fees we needed to pay made us stay at the airport and wait for the flight. So much for this being "hectic," haha.
For lunch, we checked several food places around the terminal and I was craving for pizza. However, K doesn't eat cheese, so we had to find another place. I told K I'd rather eat somewhere I haven't eaten yet, and in the end we chose to go for Raku Hokkaido Ramen House.
It was a busy lunch time. One staff asked us to line up and order first while they reserve us a seat. The problem was, people were actually taking a lot of time sitting and chit-chatting after their meals, so it took a while before we found a table. Actually, I have to commend the manager of the place - he was using one table to do paper works, and seeing our orders already ready and we were still standing, he started piling the papers so we could use the table, but we found another table, so he just offered it to another customer.
Pineapple Pork Curry Bento. K's meal. This was his third curry dish for this holiday... I reckon he really likes curry. Anyway, this reminds me of the Japanese Curry Mix we used to add to our curry dishes at home... with the added fruity goodness from the pineapples.
Chicken Karaage Bento. I truly don't know what makes this different (in terms of cooking and preparation) to the usual fried chicken... but I truly love Chicken Karaage! It's tastier... it had a light crisp yet the meat inside is juicy and tender. It sure paired well to the vegetables.
Gyoza (4 pieces). Just so I could taste Gyoza for the first time. Prior to this, I only knew steamed or fried dimsum, and tasting this, I think I am loving the combination of the ways of cooking. The fried part added texture while the steamed part gave body to the dish. I found it really flavorful, I didn't feel the need to dip it much on the soy sauce.
Japanese Ocha. They have two kinds of drink... I wanted to try the apple one, but it was a bit expensive, I decided to just go for this and the gyoza (having two items for the slightly same amount). It tasted like iced tea for me, though it had a different flavor, which I liked.
More and more people come to eat, so right after we were done, we quickly stood up and left the place just to vacant the table.
These pictures were taken using my slightly damaged camera. I couldn't zoom my camera as the sand inside the lens were preventing the lens to rotate, and while waiting for the plane to take off, the thing I feared for happened. I couldn't turn on my camera anymore. It hit like a ton of bricks - me on a vacation... setting foot in Iloilo for the first time, without my camera. I had to rely on my cell phone from there.
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my