Kaya

Nobody seemed to ask where's lunch today not until it was close to 1pm when Mimi finally came to my room. I was talking to my sister, Grace, on the phone as we tried to catch up on news about what's happening with our families. Grace finally hung up and I called up Rene to join Mimi and meet up with Jimmy at the back entrance of our building.

We asked Rene on what he feels like eating today. He suggested Yoshinoya, a Japanese fastfood joint at Parksquare. Mimi wasn't too excited about eating at Yoshinoya. Rene was restricted into thinking that Mimi would insist on a foodie place with salad on their menu for which Mimi promptly disputed. Rene suggested Marina but I told him, we would be paying more since, there were only 3 of us whose gonna share the bill. We ended up picking Kaya, a korean resto at G4 at the suggestion of Mimi.

We ordered the spicy squid, japchae and kalbi jim. We also had a side order for a kimchi. Spicy squid has been the group's favorite, though this was Rene's first brush with Kaya. The squid was always cooked to perfection and it's neither too hot nor too bland in its taste. Japchae or potato noodles was crystal in color with sprinkling of sesame seeds on top and chicken bits and shallots. I loved Kaya's japchae as its neither sweet nor too salty in its taste. Kalbi jim or beef stew is also another winner from Kaya. Its presentation was enhanced by the scrambled egg strips on top while its taste and texture have remained immaculately consistent every time we order this dish. The beef was so tender the meat literally separate from its bone and the stew was so good, I could soak my rice in it.

I had a fix of mountain dew to accompany my meal and I paid Php266.00 or (US$5.91) for this lunch escapade.

We went on our separate ways as Mimi went to the money changer and quick stop by Rustan's for some shopping. Me and Rene went around the mall, browsed through marked-down books on display and window-shopped for a new car model from Mitsubishi. This model was named Fuzion, Mitsubishi's answer to Toyota's family car Innova. Fuzion came in two variants, the jazzed up model with dashboard TV screen, eletronic gauges for tire pressure, climate temperature and such and the provision of the much needed safety feature, air bags. Can you imagine, the low end model does not have a single air bag at all? I really thought car airbags are a standard feature of todays cars, apparently not. Rene related that his new car does not have the airbag feature as well. He said, the next model from his newly purchased Honda City car was prized at Php100,000 more for an additional car feature of airbags and a bigger car engine difference of about 0.2 in displacement.

Well, Fuzion looked better than the Innova. It resembled a lot like the Pajero when seen from the front and it features bucket seating for its first two rows of seats. The high end model costs Php1.15 million, while the other model costs Php950,000. Rene joked that the Fuzion was more of a Daddy's car as opposed to the Innova, that's more known to be a mom mobile.

Jimmy drove us back to the office thereafter.