It was the early afternoon and I was supposed to take a nap since I own my schedule already for not being part of the 9-5 corporate grind. My friend, however, is. We were supposed to rendezvous somewhere in Ortigas Center to go restaurant-hunting for a very late lunch.
It's not everyday that old friends catch up with each other's nitty-gritties in the city. It was fortunate that my globe-trotting friend had his daytime work adjusted to nighttime that month so he was available for a quick reunion. Jerwin is a Regional Implementations Manager for South America of a global company and he used to work for more than a year in Spain. He had the privilege of visiting Australia, Peru, a few Asian cities and other European countries because he loves to travel and experience the world. He's scheduled to return to Austria soon. We've been friends since grade school and I had the chance to experience different local destinations with him along with other friends when we were younger. As a matter of fact, we were able to trek a portion of Mt. Banahaw already.
Cocido MadrileƱo
Since we recently celebrated our birthdays a week apart, we reckoned that it was best to have a post-birthday snack at the newly-opened Boqueria Restaurante Chocolateria at the SM Megamall.
We started off with an order of the classic churros. There was an option for a dark chocolate and white chocolate dip. I chose the former as I was feeling sleepy that day and dark chocolates, I was informed once, are good for such a situation.
Pulpo a la Gallega
For a hefty meal, we had an enormous serving of Pulpo a la gallega, an octopus dish which is considered as one of Spain's ten best dishes to be welcomed by the rest of the world. I had a taste of the seafood meat smudged on a bread toast but Jerwin had the rest of the order. He obviously loved it.
We also had a large pot of Cocido Madrileño which is a chickpea-based stew that originated in Madrid, Spain and is considered as a national dish according to my friend. This one was what I had the most and filled my tummy that day.