The best thing about Manila is that there’s a lot of food establishments where you can eat your hearts out. There’s expensive, then the usual fast food chains, then the super cheap carinderias you can find in almost any street. For our Ulayaw bonding last April 1o, we opted to have a very late lunch at one of the turo-turo in Victoria Street — the next street after the cobbled-streets of Urdaneta, near the 500-year old San Agustin Church.

What attracted us to this place is the grilled tuna fish that we saw on the street. The whole head cost us Php100. We figured if we went to any Dampa, this would cost us around Php300-400. So we’ve got a very good bargain. It tasted like tinapa they have in Bicol, according to my good friend Kaye. I was able to bring home the leftovers of this fish.

We also ordered barbecued liempo  and egglant salsa to compliment the grilled tuna fish. The eggplant salsa, which came with bagoong, red onions, and fresh tomatoes, only cost Php25!

Grilled seems to be the theme of this particular food trip as we also ordered stuffed grilled squid. Now, I didn’t like it as much as the liempo, perhaps due to the marinade, but between the six of us, we still managed to finish it off.

All these – a grilled tuna head, eggplant salsa,  grilled stuffed squid, 4 orders of barbecued liempo, 8 orders of plain rice, and a bottle of ice cold 1.5 Coke – cost us only Php451! I am not kidding you! This is probably the cheapest meal I’ve had during an Ulayaw EB.

But you know one thing I have learned from this EB? It’s better to tire  and starve yourself before going on a food binge! The food tastes better and you’re grateful for the chance to finally get some food into your rumbling belly.

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