A few days ago we decided to visit Oar House, our favorite pub during residency and hellowship, located somewhere in Malate. It is quite small, and by 8pm it is usually full of doctors drinking, laughing, and whining. Ergo, not pandemic-friendly. So we stood outside at 5pm until the doors were officially open, and we had the place all to ourselves.

For nostalgia we ordered eggplant parmigiana. It was still good, but Sonny Lizzo Balwani delos Santos wanted the dish to be boiling hot. We ordered cheese sticks and expected the sidewalk kind with strips of cheese wrapped in lumpia wrapper, but we instead got a more deluxe variety, supposedly with edam (not Eden) cheese. Eden still tastes better. Finally we had isaw, which was pretty good.

The gold standard of isaw stalls for me is still the one located near Ilang-Ilang dorm in UP Diliman, which served bright orange isaw and other innards dipped in a plastic cup of vinegar. Yum. Mrs. T and I hated the ones being sold in front of Kalayaan Dorm, and we weren’t blown away by Mang Larry’s. It was in that Ilang-Ilang isaw stall where Smoketh saw Tiya Pusit eating ice cream back in 2002. Without a second thought Smoketh approached Tiya Pusit and asked for a picture with her using her Nokia 7650.

A bit surprised at this recognition, Tiya Pusit snickered, “Pati ba naman sa akin magpapapicture ka pa?”

“OF COURSE!” Smoketh beamed. We DEMAND that Smoketh rummage through her diskettes to look for that important piece of history!

Categories: Blogs