Ninong

I am so back!

After a week of hiatus, I finally found the time and motivation to write this latest blog.  The holidays create quite a frenzy everywhere, most especially at work because of the long break coming.

The Christmas season also brings about a series of partying left and right.  Food and booze abound.

But because I have come to a point in life where disco music to which I used to dance 'til the wee hours is already noise to the ears, I now prefer to just have a hearty dinner or coffee with friends.  Age does tame people.

The first of my series was a dinner with, of course, my ETS.  I had to see her first because she's the busy one, always out town.  I called her up and with the golden rule in mind, she suggested to try Orchard Road Restaurant at SM Megamall, she being a sucker for Hainanese Chicken.

While on the counter, we were struck by this dispenser of a very pink beverage which we were told to be Rose juice.  Yeah, that rose you give or receive during Valentine's.  While we were on the path of trying new things, I knew for sure that this one would be more like perfume than a drink to me.  The lady in the counter must have seen the dilemma in our eyes so she offered free taste.  It was great of her to do that because it would spare customers from paying for something they would regret later.  The juice was okay but I really couldn't wrap my mind around drinking a flower, so I just settled for Chin Chow (black gulaman), which is sea weed, which is a plant. lol.


So we had Hainanese Chicken for ETS ...

and Roast Chicken for me.

We also had Char Kway Teow, which is, as ETS put it, their version of Pad Thai.

All three dishes were good and very affordable at 165, 165 and 185, respectively.  ETS particularly liked the sauce for her Hainanese, thick as it should be according to her.


Of course, our meet up would not end with just one activity, so we went straight to this foot spa which she suggested even before our dinner.  According to the blogs she read, it will send one to seventh heaven, and we wanted to put it to the test.

Beijing Foot Spa is located 3rd Floor 008 Silver City, Frontera Verde Drive corner Julia Vargas St. Ortigas, Pasig City, a few cartwheels away from Tiendesitas.


We were both impressed by the interior of the place, most especially of the room assigned to us.  You have your own TV attached to your lazy boy in which the audio is built in.

We were actually a bit confused when we saw the robes and shorts in the room and we had to ask whether we needed to change, after all we were only going to have a foot massage.  We were told to change and wait for our therapists.

Shortly, they came in with our house tea.

And this is where it came from...

lol!


I am a self-confessed massage addict but I never had foot spa before, and this one I will definitely have again.  I like my massage to be hard and that's what I got, although ETS told me when we were left for a moment that maybe her pressure points were oddly located that some of the strokes were a bit too painful for her, although there were strokes that really gave her goosebumps as told in the blogs.  The therapists were both very polite and quiet, I don't really like a therapist that chats me up during the session.


All that for just 500.


At the counter, we have to pay and leave some for tip.  After I filled up my payment cum feedback form where you also indicate the tip you want to leave your therapist, I noticed an uncomfortable silence, the calm before the storm.  All the while, she was throwing invisible daggers at me.


As soon as we left the spa, ETS harangued me for putting her on the spot.  Turned out that she was only supposed to tip 50, but she saw how much I was going to tip and was forced to give as much.  She called me ninong for giving what she taught was very generous.  She was following the American tipping scheme, so 50 was already off the charts.  I had to educate her about tipping, the Filipino way.  Great that she followed suit, or else we couldn't go back to Beijing, she would have been marked, BIG TIME! hahahaha!