Patriotic

The tiny bamboo snack counters dotting Rizal Park sport the colors of the Philippine flag of white, blue and red.




So do the popcorn carts.




I think they should have a little yellow for the sun and stars too. And I don't mean the Aquino yellow ribbon or the cheese popcorn.

Chinese pastry

Probably the best Chinese bakery in the metro is Ho-land in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. Their specialty is hopia, flaky puff pastry filled with a sweet mung bean paste—delicious, especially when freshly-baked. They also have mooncakes, tikoy (a glutinous rice cake), peanut cakes, and other Chinese delicacies. They've also expanded the hopia line by introducing new fillings. I think their original hopia is still the best, however.

Convenience

The University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman shopping center is nothing fancy. It's just a long, narrow cinder block of a building with small shops on both sides of one narrow corridor, but it's definitely a boon to its students, faculty and staff. Aside from the optical and computer shops that you can see in the photo, here's a short, top-of-the-head rundown of other stores and services found there: photocopying and bookbinding, key duplication, tailor, dressmaker, grocery, U.P. souvenir items, gift shop, barber shop, and laboratory glass supplies. Everything that young college students need.

The king of sending

The Philippines' answer to UPS and FedEx: LBC. Its international destinations are not quite as extensive but its fees are much cheaper. It also has two services which the other two do not offer, both aimed at our large population of overseas workers. The first is money remittance, which is necessary in this country where most of our people do not have bank accounts. The second is the balikbayan (returning countrymen) box, a box of a specific dimension which is sent from another country to the Philippines and which can be filled with anything and everything non-perishable no matter the weight. It is sent by sea so it can take up to six weeks before it reaches its destination but it's usually the only way to send heavy things back home.

Narrow opening

THEME DAY: OPEN AIR MARKET • Alright, I'm cheating a bit for the City Daily Photo theme day today. Metro Manila has several well-organized upscale weekend markets nowadays (markets where rich people don't mind being seen at), but I was too lazy to go out on a Sunday morning just to take pictures since it's the one day in the week when I don't have to wake up early for work. So here is a view of a quite unintentional open-air market: an alley in Manila's Chinatown in Binondo. Contrary to what its narrow, busy streets look like, Binondo has one of the highest land values in the metro. So it is hardly surprising that stores and vendors use every available space to set up their merchandise, and that includes alleys and sidewalks.




Go virtual shopping with CDP bloggers around the world. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

We live here

Eunilaine Foodmart is our neighborhood grocery which is only a 15-minute walk from our house. After shopping, when I already have my heavy grocery bags, I just take a tricycle back to the house. The company that owns Eunilaine has another grocery elsewhere in Quezon City and a pharmacy which is built into their two buildings. Eunilaine has been in our neighborhood for many years and I've seen it expand, go digital and change layouts so many times. This past year, a branch of Save More Supermarket opened just a couple of kilometers away. Save More is a large chain owned by the even larger SM Group of Companies, the same company that has a gazillion, humongous malls all over the Philippines, aside from many other kinds of businesses. I don't know how it has affected Eunilaine, but I think it's too much to hope that it didn't have an impact on "my" grocery's sales. Eunilaine's banner sums up well how I feel about the situation: "Why shop at Eunilaine? We live here, we bank here, we work here, we hear mass here, we do business here, our children study here, our good friends are here, it makes sense shopping here, we love it here."

And That's My World!

Strapped

A new kiosk that I recently discovered in some malls here, Asprey (which has nothing to do with the British luxury goods store) has nothing except watch straps. They have straps in leatherette, rubber, plastic and real leather, all the colors of the rainbow, and a wide range of widths. Even if the way the strap is attached is unusual, they will accommodate the replacement request, spending time carefully slicing tiny portions out of the tough leather.

Child magnet

Kentucky-based Dippin' Dots has been available in Manila for several years now. I have yet to meet a child who doesn't like their ice cream.




But really, how can one resist such fun ice cream dots?

School books

One of the two stores at the foot of yesterday's pedestrian overpass from the Ateneo de Manila University is, appropriately enough, a branch of National Book Store (NBS), the Philippines' largest bookstore chain. When I was growing up, NBS sold almost nothing except textbooks and school supplies; anyone interested in other kinds of books had to look elsewhere. NBS has had to expand its literature selection during the past two decades because of intense competition, but whatever people think of the company, no one can deny that it provided Filipinos one great service. Over the decades, NBS has had contracts with American publishing houses to re-print their textbooks and reference books exclusively for the Philippine market. They are printed locally on inexpensive paper and sold for hundreds of pesos less than their higher-quality American counterparts which have to be shipped in. If it weren't for National Book Store's textbooks, the cost of private education in the Philippines (which is already prohibitively expensive for most Filipinos but much, much better than our public education system) would have been even higher.

Cash flow

The sari-sari store is a distinctly Filipino phenomenon. At least, I've never heard of any other country that has anything like it. Literally, the word sari-sari just means "variety" and they are variety stores, though in a limited way—they sell snacks, canned goods, toiletry products and stationery supplies from rooms and kiosks usually built into the owner's home. But what makes them different from convenience stores and supermarkets is the fact that you can buy everything by the piece—one piece of candy, one cigarette, one foil pack of crackers and, in this particular sari-sari store, one egg. We have a word for it: tingi. The closest English word I can think of is piecemeal. And it doesn't end there. You can't afford a 100-sheet pad of paper? You can just buy ten sheets. You just need a single serving of soy sauce, vinegar or cooking oil? They will pour out what you need from the bottle into a little plastic bag. At least, that's what they used to do when I was younger. Manufacturing companies have addressed the cash flow problem of the majority of Filipinos by packing liquid, cream and gel products into sachets, and they're all available in sari-sari stores too.




Jacob dear, you once asked me in my Happy at Home blog if we have large refill bottles of liquid soap. Not in retail stores, unfortunately. As you can see, our products tend to go the other way, size-wise.

Big business

Skin whitening products are big business in the Philippines. Except for those with strong Chinese or Spanish blood, most Filipinos are medium brown (kayumanggi) to dark brown (moreno). Needless to say, many Filipino women are not happy with that fact and go through great pains and expense to lighten their skin tone. In fact, we're the only country I know of that advertises glutathione as a skin whitener rather than an antioxidant or detoxifier. The neighboring Laneíge (South Korean) and Shiseido (Japanese) stores in Trinoma caught my eye because their most prominent window displays are for skin whiteners.





I find it especially ironic because the tourists who come to our many beautiful beaches spend hours and days sunbathing trying to get the darkest tan that they can get.

In our neighborhood

This is a typical section of our village's main road and shows well the wide mix of residents in our barangay. On the left is a big house, probably with no garden at all because the house takes up the entire lot; the house isn't new but it is very well maintained. Next is a smaller house almost hidden by the repair shop on one side and a profusion of plants on the other; the owner of the house either owns the repair shop or leases out the space for extra income. On the right is a bakery, which also sells softdrinks and other snacks; no fancy pastries and cakes here—just soft buns of different kinds: plain, buttered and sugared, or flavored with ube or chocolate. Our main road is supposed to have four lanes but as you can see, the businesses have staked out parking spaces from the outer lanes.

Home supermarket

As I mentioned when I posted a picture of the Ortigas Home Depot, the concept of one-stop home improvement centers is relatively new in Metro Manila, though they are quite common now. Ace Builders Center, an international franchise, is a daughter company of SM, that proponent of gigantic malls, and their stores can be found in all of SM's largest malls. Unlike Home Depot, Ace doesn't carry the bigger construction pieces like lumber or doors, but you'll still be able to find most of what you need for home improvement projects. I can spend many happy hours in this store, including drooling over power tools that I have yet to gather enough courage to learn how to use.

Lighthouse

I've already posted a photo of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street during the day. At night, it is a veritable beacon for book lovers like me.

Proudly Pinoy

Way back in June of 2008, I posted a photo of one of my favorite mall stores which specializes in Philippine handicrafts. Happily, I discovered a similar shop, albeit smaller and therefore with fewer choices, very near our house. The Turista Shop sells small handcrafted wooden furniture and home accessories, woven baskets and mats, handmade paper, jewelry, soap and candles, and bottled delicacies and non-grape wines from all over the country. I love going there every now and then just to see what's new.

Aglow

I didn't even know that Manila had a shop dedicated exclusively to Murano glass until I saw this in the lower ground floor of Sofitel Philippine Plaza. I didn't go inside for fear of breaking something, but even through the windows, the glass was breathtaking.

Deli-cious

European deli meats are still not a common sight in Metro Manila. Usually imported, and therefore expensive, they are carried only by large supermarket chains and a few deli shops located in upscale malls or neighborhoods. Earle's Delicatessen is unusual in that it makes its own sausages and deli meats. This is from their branch at The Columns Ayala. Owned by a brother and sister tandem, Earle's has a German master sausage-maker as a consultant who comes here twice a year to teach their staff how to make deli meats authentically. And when you buy any of their sausages and hams, they will ask how you want it cut: thin, thick or shredded. It was the first time I encountered such a thing. This Earle's has nothing to do with the UK franchise—the brother in the team just happens to be named Earle too.

Twenty-four hours

Ministop is a 24-hour convenience store franchise from Japan brought into the Philippines in 2000 by the Robinsons Group. It is the direct competitor of the older 7-Eleven chain, which opened its first store in the Philippines in 1984. I don't know which of the two has more branches in the country or even in the metro, but I see more Ministop branches in the places which I pass through everyday.

Heaven

Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City has five floors of books, from the basement (science fiction, fantasy and graphic novels) to the fourth floor (music CDs and audio books of different genres). Starbucks has a coffee shop on the third floor, where the lower balcony with umbrellas is. The top floor, which also has a balcony but with plants, is a large events space perfect for book launches, writing workshops and poetry readings. Bring your own caterer.

Legoland

Since I always take the cooler route through Glorietta whenever I walk from the Ayala Station to Greenbelt, this was the first time I saw this building: The Link at the Ayala Commerical Center. The last time I was out here, the lot that it's standing on was still part of the open car park beside the Makati Shangri-La. I have no idea when The Link was built or what is in it other than the restaurants and service shops which can be seen on the two lower levels. I like how it looks though, like it was built out of Lego® bricks!