Friend and Food

I met with an old friend last night. It has been a looong time since we last went out. Cruising along Tomas Morato (neither of us wanted to go any further), we settled in Chili's. We've always gotten along with where to eat, what to order, the pepper flakes in this or that, little things that really make dining out easier and more enjoyable. I ordered the Guiltless Chicken Sandwich and she got, well, everything else. We both adore American restaurants and it's almost always chicken burger and honey mustard for me.

Her cream sauce pasta didn't go so well. The spicy cajun chicken on top provided too sharp a contrast to the bland cream sauce and it would have been a warm welcome to the unctousness of the pasta, but the whole shenanigan lacked a bit of garlic and salt in that the primary taste was just of pepper spice and cream.

After being stuffed to the brink, we walked over to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Not my favorite dessert place, but I simply love their Chai Tea Latte. There's not one coffeeshop in Manila that makes it like CBTL does. But for the sake of it, I got Pistachio Sansrival to go with my chai. And it's good. The wafers were thick, only slightly chewy and studded with crunchy pistachios; it was light in my mouth with the toasted pistachios playfully crunchy while releasing their flavors althogether. It's a purist's sansrival, with nothing but real butter and nuts and meringue.

AH my chai. As perfect as I first tasted it years back. It's as spicy, as hot and still gives me the warm fuzzy feeling of having indulged in something so deliriously perfect. The rain provided the mood that automatically made me sit back and relax, bask in the cool weather while nursing my hot spicy latte.