Sunday, December 17, 2006 Diet can wait By Stella A. Estremera Goin' places
DENG and I are trying to shed off a lot of unwanted fats, like globs and globs of them. Thus, we've been sweating it out three times a week for an hour playing badminton, trying (the key word here being trying) to lessen our food intake, and doing a little more exercises at home (At least I am. I have already given Deng an illustration of the exercise I am doing. She's still thinking about it, psyching herself up, maybe).
For the one month that we have been running around the badminton court, we've made a pretty good record of going straight home and not stopping for coffee and other stuff (the other stuff being the ones that are so good at producing globs and globs of fat cells), except when I drag Deng along to find those places I am obliged to write about for all ye readers out there.... Haaayyy!
Last Tuesday was one of those days when the fight against the globs of fats was lost. Deng came late for our badminton sked as she had to attend the birthday party of the husband of her friend Milette (aka Carmelita). She got away by promising to return after playing, with me along. I had no choice since Deng and I were supposed to check out a new place that night and so I simply had to tag along with her.
Birthday.... Pinoy-style: lechon, beef kaldereta, sotanghon... I was able to resist the whole lot (clap! Clap! Clap!) except that the lechon had already been "dismantled" by the time I arrived, and there was a mound of very tempting RIBS. Haaaayy na naman. We did survive the party with not much poundage gained and we went off to our target for the night... make that near-midnight. Cheesecakes Etc. along Jacinto Extension just after the new building that houses the HSBC Bank and PeopleSupport, if your coming from the direction of Quirino Avenue, that is.
Although it was already 11 p.m., Cheesecakes was still open (we would later learn that it closes by midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays).
Right there in that darn refrigerated display rack was a cheesecake, taller than your normal cheesecake size (very much like a real cake size, really), and surrounded like a fortress by rectangular slices of white chocolate. It was the epitome of sin. I just drooled, ruing those years of goin' places that has given me all the globs of fats that I now don as part of my costume. Deng went for a slice of a chocolate moist and a cup of hot tea. I ordered what intrigued me most -- flavored beer. I chose the green apple because the picture of the green apple on the flavor bottle looked nice (very judicious way of making a choice, I say). There's raspberry, blue curacao, kiwi, toffee nut, and peach.
The beer tasted like... shandy. Apple flavored shandy. The cake was rich, too rich for our already filled up and fat-jiggling state. But the conversation was fun. The building I learned is owned by Deng's elementary school graduate Zeny Martin (aka Zenaida, and Martin's her maiden surname). Zeny and her husband was there and we settled down to chat as they tried to recall and locate their other classmates, the likes of "Amorado Champorado" who now goes by the highly respected named of Ron Amorado, and yes, Camelita whom we were able to drag off from her car (after she and her hubby passed by on their way to her sister's home), and their moreno, gay classmate who is now a full-fledged woman complete with a husband or was it a lover. (Ay, buti pa siya. Kainis!).
It was a reunion of sorts for the three girls. I was the saling-cat. But it was fun listening to them as they recalled how they were as kids --- and most interestingly how their classmates were as kids. Hmmm... Grade school classmates should all be shot because they can recall details of your childhood you'd rather forget. Aside from cheesecakes, Cheesecakes also has other types of cakes and real food. Zeny says her favorite is sisig with rice. This deserves a second visit.
