our next stop in my Big Binondo food WOK is this hole in the wall shop (can only seat about 12 persons) that offers unique siomai in chinatown, they made it by hand, you can actually see how they make the siomai and instead of the usual steaming, they boil it just like how you'll cook palitaw, and they also grind their own pork so you'll really get 100% meat. even though i dont eat vegetables, and their siomai is full of leaves i dunno, i still love its taste (must be also because i love eating siomai). they also serve hot tea that is delicious too.
and they have another version, it's kinda like fried siomai but they presented it differently like a pancake and it taste good too!
this is how they acutally prepare their siomai, right in front of the store.
Our first food stop in the Big Binondo Food WOK is at Cafe Mezzanine which is located at the corner of Ongpin and Yuchengco streets. This place is also dubbed as the fireman's coffee shop since the owner is an active officer in the chinese firemen volunteer association and the walls of the shop is adorned with firemen's hats! We were even encourage to don the hats and pose with a nuzzle and pretend we are firemen :)
They served us kiampong, it is salted fried rice with peanuts (my first time to eat this food) and we were also served with soup, and was advised that kiampong is best eaten by pouring the soup in the rice, for beverage we were handed iced brewed coffee. by the way, its an eat all you can rice.
At the ground floor is Chuan Kee food store which is also very busy at the time we visited.
Meet Ivan Man Dy - our great tour guide who is very nice. I really had fun while nibbling our way through Chinatown, thanks to this great chap! I'll be posting more of my wok-ing tour, i recommend you guys join one of his tours to learn something new and appreciate our history. If you want to join one of his tours check out the schedule here.
Chinese have lots of tradition when celebrating the new year, which we filipinos have also acquired, as you can see in the photo above, there are vendors selling a lucky pineapple adorned with sintores or dalanghita. according to the chinese, pineapple is a lucky fruit
walsking around chinatown, you'd also notice vendors selling garlic, ginger, and taro, with red ribbon tied to it, am not exactly sure what these root crops represent but io guess the cihinese also consider them lucky.
and of course, whenever new year is coming we always have to have fruits... lots of fruits
the charms and ornaments are part of the cinese tradition, most feng shui experts would recommend a certain jewel or glass or ornament that you should put strategically in your home.
and the star of the table - the delicious tikoy! made of sticky /glutinous rice and is usually round, most chinese give tikoy to friends and relative on new year's day because it is believed to be lucky.
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