Machine

I am like one.  When I am programmed to do something, I have to do it or I go haywire.

Last night, I was supposed to meet ETS for a food trip in Marikina.  She read my blog about my recent food trip with another friend to two and a half amazing restaurants and she craved for Chuka Soba.  Being the unofficial tourism minister of Marikina, I got really excited and thought of bringing her to two other restaurants in Marikina where she has not been to.  She’s already tried Café Lidia, and loved it, and Café Feliz, as mentioned, is only half as interesting, at least based on some of the dishes I’ve previously tried.

So imagine the horror of getting a call from ETS that she couldn’t make it.  And because I would certainly self-destruct if the program was overridden, I decided to push through with the food trip with Maginhawa Street in UP Village as a target.  Fortunately, PDG, another friend, called and asked if I was available that day.  I knew days before that anytime this week I’d get a call from her because Harry Potter is currently showing, so the call was impeccably timed.  We agreed to meet in Eastwood Libis.

PDG is one of my two dear friends from MBA days who I made a pact with that we won’t eat in the same restaurant twice, or if we don’t have a choice, we won’t have dishes we’ve already tried.

We got the 7pm Harry Potter so we had plenty of of time to hunt for a restaurant to try.  As usual, we had to scour the entire enclave for that until we agreed to finally try Cyma Greek Taverna.  I am not entirely sure and failed to ask if it was also her first time to try the place but based on her later reactions, it was.  Anyway, I looked at the menu and I found the dishes quite pricey.  We agreed to try Tonnos Salata (Fresh Green Salad) and Roka (Arugula) Pasta.

And we were pleasantly surprised to be served this first…

It was a humongous serving for a Solo size.  I could only imagine how big the Family size is, we could have been served a whole garden already.  That explains the price tag.  I did not initially intend to blog about anything “mainstream” but it was a blog-worthy monster of a dish, so I grabbed my phone and clicked away.

Next served was Roka Pasta, and we were a bit disappointed that it was not as much compared to the Salata.  We thought that this is where they got even for that green leafy overload…

I am not a meat lover but I cannot eat a dish that has not a least a hint of meat in it.  Any food isn’t quite complete without it.  Voila! This particular pasta dish was so flavorful that I didn’t have to think about meat for a second.  It was already very good as it is considering that it only had arugula leaves, pine nuts and a whole lot of garlic as main ingredients.  The taste made up for the small serving at 300+ a plate.

All in all, it was great as all first times should be.  PDG loved the salad, she almost finished everything.  I was already full after three glasses of the house blend iced tea so I could not be the “plate-cleaner” that I usually am.

It was then time for Harry Potter which I refuse to comment about.  Afterwards, it was time for coffee to cap the night.  This time, we tried Cafeccino.  It has a very cozy but a little “corporate” ambiance, great for a nice chitchat without having to strain your chords to compete with the group next table as you usually experience in, say, Starbucks.  We had Flat White hot coffee and Crème Brulee.

It was good but I still prefer our good old-fashioned Leche Flan.