I suppose, one's palate changes, inevitably,
over time as one's taste buds experience a
wider variety of dishes.
On a recent visit to our beloved Butuan City,
we passed by the new Tita's Cafe on JC Aquino Ave (formerly
Zamora St) on our way to Jollibee's.
Judging by the occupied
tables inside, Tita's continues to
serve excellent siopao and mami . Their
winning formula of offering great
food at affordable prices to school-age
kids has created a huge fan-base, which includes
this writer-wannabe.
I was tempted to go inside and order
my regular early 80s fare and maybe
relive those memories of:
- using those pointy-holey-ended
containers to poke and pump catsup into steaming siopaos
- placing a dash of black pepper and
a couple of drops of 'patis'
on scallion topped bowls of mami
...woof, woof, woof...(naglaway na ko
as i write this)
But, our destination was
Jollibee's....(sadly, i never did find the
time to visit Tita's again...)
At Jollibee's, i ordered my old fave - palabok.
There was a time when I used to think that Jollibee's
palabok was so high in the awesomeness scale.
Instead, Jollibee's is now in my restaurant dogs list.
What i got was a rectangular styrofoam container with a
soggy mass (mess?) of noodles topped by super-oily extra-salty
orangy sauce. And after the first fork-full, Jollibees
was never the same. Thinking about it now still
makes me wince and shiver. Jollibees, BAH! you're in
my doghouse now!!!
On reflection, I am thankful i didnt
get to go inside Tita's during my trip.
Today, unlike Jollibee's, Tita's still
has a hold on a small part of my heart (or stomach?).
I believe, on that day, the food-angel steered me away
to protect my wonderful memories of Tita's.
