Binondo with the girls

Welcome to the shortest entry I could possibly publish in here. The narrative of my Binondo trip with the girls last weekend! As we are all familiar with, Binondo or Manila's Chinatown is especially famous during the month long celebration of Chinese New Year with all its dancing dragons and moon cake and tikoy going on. This happens every February and to be honest I've already planned on going this year to witness it during the festivities but sad to say I failed! So what better plan than to get the girls and lure them with endless siomai and hakaw. Sure enough, they responded positively and the plan was set!

We gathered at 8am in Illumina last Saturday. Left at around 9 since almost everybody was late *coughs* we used the way Marianne knows which is ride a jeepney with the DIVISORIA RECTO signboard, get off at ABAD SANTOS (tell kuya to drop you off in case you don't exactly know where it is) then take the overpass and walk towards the street going to your left. Upon going down, board a jeepney heading to LAWTON and then you'll see the old building of Metrobank from a distance, that will be your entry point to Chinatown or Binondo! Easy breezy? Don't bring a lot of burloloys or gadgets or anything that could basically be taken away from you that is expensive since it's almost anything like Divisoria. We don't want to judge but it's not wrong to take precautions as well.

 DISCLAIMER: Don't expect much from my photos since I've only got a handful and I'm not exactly proud of them. I WAS HUNGRY OKAY. And was afraid to begin with now that's a better excuse haha

Anyway, we just strolled around and since we were all hungry we bought fried siopao along the way. It's tasty and good. They say the best fried siopao/s can be found at SHANGHAI FRIED SIOPAO, can't tell you the exact location but you don't really have to know it anyway! Just feel the Binondo vibe, walk and get tired, have your most-ignored exercise, look around and you'll find your way to it eventually. Crazy as it sounds but you don't have to ride a pedicab to take you to the places. Walk and enjoy!

© Eds Villa

Shortly after we bought fried siopao, we saw Wai Ying and decided to have early lunch. The oink in me won over so I had beef wanton (P120), japanese siomai (P80), hakaw (P80), plain rice (P30), and siomai (P70). I was nearly begging my friends to finish it after I got done with a quarter of the wanton and siomai! They have big servings so better keep in mind when you order that it's to-share. You can go to a friend and order everything the both of you likes as you can get a bit of everything and it's a lot better and faster to shove down your throat!

That's my beef wanton's before and after shot haha
that's how I eat noodles. I slurp on the soup and eat everything after! :)

Marianne and Eds both ordered the spare ribs for P130 and Corina had the chicken-something. Missed out on the pictures yet again. Told ya I only have a handful! Except from the hakaw having too much of the wrapper, all of it tasted good and exceptional. Legit Chinese food indeed. We were so full after that we weren't even able to go to other restaurants anymore. Talk about 'food trip' haha

After Wai Ying we decided to walk around a bit to scout for jewelries since it's also a popular attraction in Binondo. They have commercial jewelries sold way down the usual price so if you want to burn at least some of the calories (and money haha) you previously acquired then this is one of the perfect ways to do it. We got milk tea shortly after, dropped by at Eng Bee Tin so we can get pasalubongs and headed back home!

There's one thing I learned in this trip though, go to Wai Ying order with a friend and don't make yourself too full so you can still try the dumplings at Dong Bei and egg tarts at Lord Stow's! Scout and buy jewelry so you can burn those calories but don't carry the money with you. Have your ATM card and withdraw it when you've decided just like what Marianne did.

Any crazy experiences in Binondo? Share it below!

Happy travels!

Love,

Faye