The One About The Binondo Food Trip (Part 2)

After a filling breakfast at Wai Ying, my friends and I proceeded to Binondo Church just so we could finally see it. Hehehe. On our way to the church, we saw several of those famed purple fire trucks parked on the street and with no one manning the trucks...well, we just couldn't resist...

Picture time!

A friendly reminder :)

We finally got to the church. Pia took really nice pictures of the church.

Anyway, it was so hot in the church that I got hungry already and so we then went to our second chow spot.

Cafe Mezzanine is a coffee shop that is being maintained by an official of the East Binondo Volunteer Firemen's Association.

We were initially at the ground floor but after knowing there were milk teas upstairs, we went to the second floor which was much cozier, thanks to the airconditioning.

We ordered their green milk tea and ube (purple yam) siopao.

We weren't too happy with the food. The siopao at Wai Ying and also the one at North Park are way better. Plus the service there was really bad. The staff weren't too attentive. And so, we gave Cafe Mezzanine...

Three stars

One star

Two stars

But wait! We had more of Binondo after visiting Cafe Mezzanine but that's in the next post... :)

The One About The Binondo Food Trip (Part 1)

Last Sunday, my friends and former co-teachers at The Learning Connection preschool went on a gastronomic adventure in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. Its busy streets are lined with tummy-filling, hole-in-the-wall chow spots. It was also the perfect opportunity to test drive the Binondo food map that I purchased some months ago.

And so, armed with an empty stomach (none of us ate breakfast that day), off we went to Binondo with our map and our salivating taste buds.

Teacher Pia

Teacher Ginger and I

Our first stop was Wai Ying in Benavidez Street. Teddy Bird introduced me to this little eating haunt some years ago and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. Since then, I have brought my family - and now, my friends - to this gem of a tea house.

We had their pork siomai. It was REAL siomai in the sense that the pork was chopped, not ground, making it really tasty.

We also tried their hakaw which was bursting with shrimps!

For me, Wai Ying has the tastiest congee. It doesn't need any condiments to enhance its flavor although I did put some chili on mine because I wanted mine to be spicy.

Their radish cake was crispy on the outside and soft, creamy, and melts-in-your-mouth on the inside.

Walking around Binondo...

Hmm...where to eat next?

The tarpaulins came to life... Hahaha!

Anyway, because the food in Wai Ying was super good, here are our ratings (0-lowest, 5-highest):

Our first stop left us feeling full already but we were raring to go and try out more eating places. But I'll tell you more about the Binondo feast in my next post (Suspense effect. Hahaha!) as well as a crafty project that went along with it! :)