My First Binondo Food Trip

I would like to thank my 5 tourguides (Ralph, Vlad, Joko, Maricris and Mike)  for making my first Binondo food trip last Saturday fun and memorable. It was a very exciting day for me because the last I was there was years ago with my family and the only thing I remember about it was going to Binondo Church for Visita Iglesia and eating pancit and siopao in a resto with a name I couldn’t even recall.

We met at Binondo Church at lunch time. The proper name for this beautiful building is Minor Basilica of St. Lorenzo Ruiz.

Mass was ongoing when we got there and several hours after, there was a wedding. There was a Chinese guy singing an unfamiliar OPM lovesong as the bride waled down the aisle. No picture of it to share. Hehe.

Joko decided we eat at Wai Ying. It’s in Benavidez Street, a short walk away from Ongpin corner Salazar.

We ordered soychicken mami (100php), beef mami (100php), dumpling mami (100php),

mixed meat congee (100php),

chicken feet (70php) I did not eat this because it reminds me of earthworms

zhachiang or spicy noodles (100php)

hakaw (80php), radish cake (80php),

Peking duck (550php for half kilo),

sugarcane juice (60php),

and almond jelly (70php), milk tea jelly (70php) and black gulaman (70php).

I loved everything and surely, I will be back for more of their delicious and afforable food! Hopefully, the next time I go to Wai Ying, I can already eat rice ‘coz their fried rice looked promising. Yeah yeah yeah, I couldn’t help but look at the dishes the people from the nearby table were having!

The service was quick and polite. The ambience is what you would expect from a Chinese eatery, steady and noisy at the same time, hehehe. Another Chinese resto stereotype, the floor was dirty, but hurray! the washroom was clean. The floor, I’d blame it on the rain that day. When Vlad and I went out to smoke, our shoes got wet and muddy so maybe we were also to blame for making Wai Ying’s floor grubby, hehe!

We waited for the rain to stop. When it did, we went to 999 Shopping Mall (beside 168) to burn the calories we gained from our inexpensive delicious feast.

And after bargain shopping, we went to Dong Bei. They said the best (cheapest) kuchay dumplings can be found here so I had no choice but say yes. All for the love of kuchay!

And they are right! I loved Dong Bei’s kuchay dumplings (100php)! I look pretty happy in this picture, right?

Their kuchay pancake (100php) was also great!

Also their bestseller, xiao long bao (70php). Yipeee for me, the soup inside the dumpling didn’t burn my tongue! :p

It’s only their beef and tomato soup (90php) that didn’t quite satisfy my tastebuds. The broth was too bland. I liked that the beef’s tender though.

We just finished our food and Dong Bei and didn’t hang there for long because of the brownout. The whole street didn’t have electricity that time. So, yep, it was a quick romantic candle light dinner with friends.

Before we set off to Gilmore for videoke, we paid a visit to another must in Chinatown– Eng Bee Tin. Sure, there are Eng Bee Tin’s all over the metro, but I guess it’s more exciting to visit the one in the land of its makers. Mas feeling authentic. Hahaha!

Because I wasn’t in the mood to eat hopia or tikoy or mooncake, I grabbed 3 packs of mocha mochi that I will blog about some other time. I also bought a pack of tofu chips that I already ate but too blah to be blogworthy. the last thing I noticed as i was paying for my purchase was this.

The Golden Buddah! If you’re wondering where the Lucky Cat is, it’s not here. And it’s not Chinese as many think it is. What Lucky Cat? You know, the Welcoming Cat, the one that waves? It’s actually Japanese. It’s called the Maneki Neko. I did not learn this from the guys in Eng Bee Tin. I learned this from Wikipedia. Just thought I’d share it here. Hehehe!

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Special thanks to Mike Bahrami aka The Persian Guide for the pictures! 😀

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listening to: Parokya ni Edgar – Order Taker (one of the songs from our videoke session after the Binondo food trip)

Posted by Iya Santos on November 8, 2011

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