Friday, April 6, 2012

The Adventures of the Dynamic Tatays Part 1: Ongpin's Churches and Food trip

A Food Trip and Mini Visita Iglesia in Ongpin
by: anakngkidlat

Brian had another lakad in mind and of course I was willing to listen if it can be done. He said there is a festival to be held in Makati called CARACOL. I thought "A festival in Makati? You've gotta be kidding". From his face I could say he is telling the truth. He even showed me pictures of previous festivals. Its funny that I'm a resident of Makati for the past 2-3 years and I had no idea about this. So we checked the net for the schedule. Based from the sites we have seen, it usually starts at 10 am so we thought of a side trip to go with it. Since I was also in the mode of buying a new camera, I wanted to check Hidalgo. Brian had made it much better by going through Ongpin after checking cameras at Hidalgo.

We met at 10 am just to see that it will start at 4 pm! Man we were way too early!

And we thought it was 10 am.. oh well
We had no choice but to had our itinerary turn upside down and we went to Hidalgo first. He checked for new lenses and bags while I did looked for my Panasonic G3 and sad to say there wasn't any (one of the reasons why I'm giving up on buying it). After checking for gadgets we went straight ahead to Ongpin with our first stop,  Church of Santa Cruz.
Historical Marker



With the Carriedo Fountain
The Church was made during the 17th century by the Jesuits with Our Lady of Pilar as its Patron Saint.




A devotee in prayer


Pieta


It was almost lunch time and I am so hungry that I couldn't have a decent shot. We have to look for budget friendly restaurants. (and Ongpin has a lot of those) Sadly, it was Sunday and most of them were closed and The worst part is that we had no map or guide to check.

The Arch of Goodwill

A lot these items are common here in Ongpin

Jade and other items usually bring good luck, fortune and health!
You may call it stroke of luck but we luckily found a restaurant that we have checked in the net prior to our trip: LGA Fastfood!



This restaurant serves delicious Chinese cuisine at affordable prices! Come to think of it, for at least 250+ pesos per person (as far as I can remember) we had 3 viands, yangchow rice and a 1.5 L softdrink!

Chopsuey

Lemon Chicken

Beef Hot Pot
Yangchow rice
Photo opps before eating
Man were stuffed!
And were not only the satisfied customers!
We were not yet done with our trip as I told Brian that there is another church here: Binondo Church. As we were looking for where the Church is, we stumbled upon a place famous for its Chinese Delicasies: Eng Bee Tin!

Home of the Best Hopia and Tikoy!
There are a lot of food to choose from. They even have innovated a fusion of Tikoy and Hopia : The Mochipia.

Hopia Heaven!
There are a lot of customers!
After buying our pasalubongs, we also found Binondo Church. We didn't noticed that we were so near the church.


The church also known as the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz (named after the first Filipino Saint) was founded in 1596 by the Dominicans not only to serve Chinese converts but also the Filipino natives.



There was a wedding ongoing when we went.

The Altar

One of the Station of the Cross figures 


San Lorenzo Ruiz



It was 3 pm then and we need to go back to Makati for the Caracol Festival. Although we were short on time, we had a blast! We also made sure that we will go back as we felt our trip was not enough =). Thanks to Brian of http://xplorerboyz.blogspot.com/ for some of the pictures featured on this post.



16 comments:

  1. hahaha... inuna ang hidalgo. i also do the same walking route pag pumupunta ako diyan. ganda din kasi ng mga simbahan tapos masarap pa mag foodtrip sa binondo.

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  2. naghahanap na po kasi ako ng pamalit sa camera ko po ngayun kaya po namin inuna ang Hidalgo heheheh =)

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  3. yan ang di ko pa na-try... food trip sa binondo... sana soon! :)

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  4. ayus...napost na oh...ako nasimulan palang...pero sana magawa ko na lahat...miss ko tuloy ang ongpin....wahahahaha...

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  5. @Mervs Its a must try po lalo n kung gusto nyo po ng Chinese food...

    @L.T. Ipost mo na kasi! wahahaha babalik p nmn tayo dun db?

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  6. everyone loves a food trip. bentang benta sakin ang binondo. sayang lang kasi ang tagal ko nag-aral sa intramuros pero never ko sinulit magbinondo.. hehe di pa ako fan ng chinese food noon.

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    1. Dapat po iinvite po namin kau ni L.T. sa Binondo kaso nagkahiyaan yata kmmi sa pginvite hehehe

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    2. sus bakit mahihiya? basta kainan sama ako agad jan. hehe

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    3. bwahahaha...pero totoo un nagkakahiyaan talaga kami...hayaan mo pre kaw na maginvite ngayon ky chyng...^_^

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    4. @Chyng dinaga yata kmi hehehe..

      @L.T. o sige ako mag aaya, kaw manlibre ah? wahahaha

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  7. Wow that lemon chicken looks interesting! I wanna visit binondo! I have a thing for anything chinese. that includes feng shui!

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    1. Thanks for the comment Shugah! We really had a great time in Binondo although we had to go back to Makati for the Caracol Festival. My tip for you in case you would visit is to get a detailed itinerary of places you would want to eat for there are a lot of restos in Binondo. If you could have a detailed map, the better. Our experience was based from luck that we have found LGA Fastfood and if ever we would go back, we would plan it better =)

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    2. wow seryoso? ang cool lng naman! :D Soon! id visit luzon pretty pretty soon <3

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    3. nde nmn po hehehe.. naalala ko lng po kasi ung lakad nmin para po kming nawawalang bata kasi wala kming guide. =)

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