Wow I missed my blog! So many happy moments happened for the past weeks but then, our office blocked blogger.com; reason why this blog was not recently updated. Too tired to blog at home, sorry. But I promise, I'll try my very best to blog more often.
Anyway, why did I choose my Dong-Bei (or Dong Pei) experience over a lot of other experiences for the past few weeks? Mainly because it's about... FOOD! Yes, food. There's nothing so special about the place, but when we were there, I can feel the Chinese aura! :-D Last Friday, my "soul sister" Margaret decided to go on half day because both of us were uber late. But then, Friday sickness struck us and the next time we knew it, we were already at the Quadricentennial Photo Exhibit of University of Santo Tomas. Right, I was in UST. And, that was the first time I visited the place. I was amazed really, because the campus was so huge! They even have food complex with McDonald's, Jollibee, Hen Lin and other famous fast food places! I just felt bad because I did not have my camera with me to take photos! Well, I'm not ready because it was an "impromptu date" with my friend. Lesson learned: always bring your camera, even if it's just point and shoot :-) From the main gate of the school, we walked several steps to Beato Building (I guess this building is for Fine Arts students) and my cousin welcomed and lead us to the exhibit. My cousin told us that it was a "mini" exhibit but when I asked her how many photos were posted, she answered "400". WOW! 400 nice, drool-worthy photos! Then I missed my camera... By the way, UST is a nice place for photo shoots :-) After too much ahs and oohs from us, I asked Meg and her boyfriend to bring me to a dumpling place. I told them that there's this must-go dumpling place in Binondo, I just forgot the name. Then they searched it from their iTouch and Dong-Pei (Dong Bei) was #1 in the search. Before reaching Dong-Pei, we passed by St. Lorenzo Ruiz Basilica and Meg and I were just so happy because a wedding was being held at that time. We witnessed the ceremonies and then we waited for the second wedding to take place... It was a Christianized Chinese wedding by the way. After watching two weddings, we finally reached Dong-Pei. It was just one of those hole in the wall places in Binondo. It was not a fancy place, actually it only has four tables. I was so excited to eat and taste their wonton noodles with dumplings!!! The noodles was "hand-stretched" (Handiwork noodles in their menu) and the dumplings were being made just across our table! We also had their version of "pancakes" and it was so good! Plus, their
sawsawan of vinegar and soy sauce was a little bit sweet it compliments the pancakes. We also had Wong Lo Kat Chinese herbal tea to add "authenticity" in our Chinese Dumpling lunch. After eating at Dong-Pei, we walked and walked and walked on the stretch of Ongpin St., unconscious of the pain on my right foot. We passed by Eng Bee Tin, Salazar Bakeshop and the shop that sells fried Siopao. But we didn't buy any of their goodies because I don't want Mom to know that I did not report to work :-D We also checked out the store that sells a lot of preserved fruits. That time, I was PMS-ing so I was craving for Kiamoy (red plum) and Haw Snow... However, they have it in large packs so I didn't purchase any of those... But I promised myself that if I'd go back to Binondo, I'll buy one bag of Kiamoy! Yum!
After all the walking we did the whole day, was a whole body massage at home! Too bad, I still can't let the masseuse touch my right foot even if it badly needed the massage.
Some of the photos captured by my trusty mobile phone:
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| The workers making the dumplings. They're just at the table right after us. |
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| The Menu written in English and Chinese |
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| At the back of the menu was a newspaper clipping about the place |
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| The menu posted on the wall |
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| Yummy wonton-noodle soup! |
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| Dong-Bei's version of pancakes |
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| Chinese herbal tea (it tasted like leche flan's syrup or arnibal in tagalog) |
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