[Portfolio] Let’s Get It On: A List of Good Eats You Can Get from Metro Manila’s Motels
First published on Pepper on August 1, 2014. I am often asked if I had to actually stay in those places to do this piece. No, but I know even admitting that will only lead to more nagging doubt, wouldn’t it? Hehe! But I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. Scaled down to PG-13 from an R-13 raunchy draft thanks to editing by Pamela Cortez.
Click the pdf below to turn the pages.
Convict Cake: Bilibid’s Nameless Bakeshop and the Inmates Who Run It
Originally published on Marci 6, 2014 on Pepper. Words by me, photos and text editing with additional reporting by Lars Roxas. Photo editing by Mylene Chung.
It started with a joke. At least, I thought it was a joke.
I was late for a good friend’s party. I had missed the singing of the birthday song and the blowing out of the candles, but there was still a lot of cake. My friend cheerfully offered me a slice. “Would you like cake from Bilibid?” she asked. I didn’t believe her, being used to bouts of irreverence from my friends, but I did accept the cake.
She sliced me a piece from the spongy golden cake, its sticky yellow icing glistening under the flourescent light in their dining room. I was surprised at how fluffy it was. If she hadn’t said anything, I would have thought they’d bought it from a direct order baker. “No, really,” she insisted, “Bilibid.”
“How did you get this cake from there?” I asked. Little did I know that the answer would lead me from the comforts of their home to the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison.
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I tried it! The KFC Cheesetop Burger
KFC Cheesetop burger should work for cheese lovers, in theory. I like my burgers, I love cheese, the idea wasn’t completely appalling. I wonder why most of the criticism came from people who enjoyed Luther Burgers and deep fried twinkies…
So I headed out to the neighborhood KFC to try it out.
I was warned by fastfood junkie friends who gave it a go that the cheese did not taste like cheese.
Upon unwrapping, there was more cheese than I thought, which I appreciated.
But after the first bite, the foodies were right, it had the consistency and flavor of plastic. Even Easy Cheese tasted cheesier than this.
For the curious, I was able to eat it like a normal burger, without the cheese sticking to my fingers.
Past the novelty of the cheesetop, it was just an ordinary chicken burger. Not something I’d order again, even for PHP50.
And dammit to hell, they phased out the double down for this.