Vietnamese Restaurant

     My husband keeps hoping the Thai neighbor will open a Thai restaurant in the area.  She cooks her Thai food at home so well, but is not inclined to selling it. She is in fact, returning to Thailand, back to a career put on hold by her husband's posting here.  A big loss, we will miss her cooking...oh, more than that, the pleasure of her company, of course.

     Attention, restaurateurs....there is NO Thai restaurant here. None that we know of anyway.  We are happy with places like Songkran Thai street food in BF Paranaque. That's the sort of place we seek.  We are certain we are not the only ones.

     There is also, strangely, just one Korean restaurant in Paseo de Santa Rosa. And none in the surrounding areas. We like Umni, a nook hidden in Paseo.  On our most recent time there (last night), the two ladies who wait tables, cook and roll kimbap ,greeted us happily.  Oh, they know us already!  A comfort, in this time of "growth" in the city.  

    Just the other day, the Rustan's express cashier also greeted me cheerfully, asking about my family.  Where has your husband been?! She asked. He was there so frequently before.  Well...of course, I replied, it's that other place at the corner...(the big South Supermarket).  Rustan's is far being the "little bookshop" of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks' "You've got Mail". But it still is the little neighborhood sari-sari store that's lost customers to the big guys.  Not for long, though...Shopwise is happening soon.

    ARG, INSERT LOST PHOTO OF LAGUNA CENTRAL/SHOPWISE CONSTRUCTION HERE!


     Back to the subject. In Alabang Town Center and in BF Paranaque, there is Xoi Vietnamese Kitchen.  Again, I am no food blogger. I will just say, we enjoyed the food. It was delicious. You know, in the way that my first bite's transported me to "Asia".  It's when the flavor's essences (lemongrass, hoisin, peanut, fish sauce...) sort of travel through my nose and I remember random times and places in Southeast Asia.  Plus I have been drinking black G7 Vietnamese coffee for breakfast everyday for a couple of months now..so I was happy with Iced coffee (with condensed milk). 

     We also tried it for the first time. It was dinner, and for lunch I had wanted pho in Pho hoa Ayala Triangle. The last time I was there was last Christmas. It was packed, there was a wait list. Today I saw it had closed down, covered with a tarpaulin sign saying Bread Talk will open there soon.

Tropical Hut hamburgers

     Why is the Tropical Hut fastfood restaurant in Paseo de Sta. Rosa still open? It can get totally empty some days. When we remember it's there (at the far end of the strip facing the highway), next to Razon's, we remember we like Tropical hut burgers and we would rather have these most of the time than Jollibee's.  I also love their chicken sandwiches, and each time we remember to go to Tropical for a snack, I remember how much I love them.

      The only other Tropical Hut I know of is the one in BF, Paranaque, attached to the only other Tropical Hut grocery I know.  If you are my age and if you grew up in Metro Manila like I did, then you would relate.  You would recall the Tropical Hut (original one?) at the corner of Ortigas and EDSA, across the POEA building. 

       I usually couple my sandwich with their mais con hielo.  I do wish they had sundaes like the other joints.  

       Who is the market?  Well, they were tuned into that FM station that plays annoying insane canned laughter, and this was playing. So figure it out.  What fun, though!

        Eva Eugenio! "Kay rami nang, winasak na tahanan...kay rami nang matang, pinaluha, kay rami nang pusong sinugatan...o tukso, layuan mo ako!"

      As classic as their burgers, I guess haha.  Kind of hokey but I like it this way.