moro in the city: A Chinese Valentine

Our first Valentine together so we decided to spend it with the other ladies in Chef's life: his grandmother, his mom, his two sisters and their househelps :)

The plan was to go to Cubao so that we can:
1. Buy the leather shoes at Marikina Shoe Expo for Chef's Gala Night
2. Do the marketing at Farmer's Market

We parked at the Gateway Mall because I had a restroom emergency hahaha. While there, Chef texted me to say that he too needed some time in the loo. After, he told me to meet him at the parking and I sensed something funny.

I got there first and he came after 5 minutes holding my favorite milflores wrapped in abaca :)

We left the flower in the car to wither este so that we can walk to the Marikina Shoe Expo without exposing it to the sun and dust. We got Chef's shoes which is a Cordova, pure leather for only PHP 700. I was disappointed that I didn't get it for PHP 500. Tsk tsk my negotiating powers is getting rusty.

It was around 4pm and the last meal I had was at 10. I was really hungry so we decided to grab a quick bite at Bellini's. I have very fond memories of Bellini's from many years back so I was naturally excited to go back there again. Unfortunately, the fond memories will only remain in my memory because for one, the service sucked big time. For a small size of pizza, we were made to wait for 30 minutes! And two, food was super blah. We ordered Onion pizza so at the minimum we were expecting pizza with mozzarella and caramelized onions but no, we got quick melt and sweet tomato sauce with a little bit of half cooked onions. In fairness, the espresso was good according to Chef. But for PHP 300, I thought that was highway robbery.

Anyway, since it was getting late, we jogged to the Farmer's Market to get the ingredients. As it was also Chinese New Year, we decided to have Chinese :)

Fresh produce from the Farmer's Market

Young garlic