Last night I met up with the UE Square girls. Our meeting was a popular restaurant named Spize the Makan Place. I had never been there, before, though, so I took a cab to get there and the following conversation ensued between me and the driver.
Me: 409 River Valley Road, please.
Driver: Do you know where that is?
Me: Um no. But it’s for a restaurant named Spize the Makan Place.
Driver: (loud, irritated sigh)
I text Betchie to ask where exactly that place is as my driver doesn’t know. She calls to tell me that it’s near Zouk.
Me: It’s near Zouk.
Driver: Zouk is NOT in River Valley Road.
Me: Well okay, but it’s just supposed to be near that, maybe just on a different road?
Driver: No! Zouk is way over there (he points with his hand), so far away! Are you saying I should bring you to Zouk instead of River Valley?!
Me: No, we should go to 409 River Valley Road.
Driver: Then I will bring you to 409 River Valley Road, nowhere else!!
Me: (noticing the Spize logo at the side of the road) Oh, there it is.
Driver: Yes, this is River Valley Road! Your friend gave you wrong information!
All this time he was yelling at me. What an irritable cab driver. I was glad to pay him and hop off the cab. But my night with irritable guys was not yet over. I had another crazy conversation, this time with the waiter.
Me: Which one of these pratas is your best seller?
Waiter: (looking irritated that I’m asking him questions instead of just ordering straightaway) They’re ALL best sellers!
Me: No, I mean, which one is the most popular?
Waiter: They’re ALL popular!
Me: Fine, I’ll have the mushroom and cheese prata.
Seriously, guys, I just fell in a public place and injured my knee and have had no dinner at 8pm yet you don’t see me biting people’s heads off like that. Get a grip!
The place, by the way, was not at all what I expected. It was just a simple cafeteria-type place with a menu offering all sorts of cuisine from Thai to Indian to local delights, all at an affordable price. When the girls arrived, we ordered the roti john special, hot plate egg tofu with fresh mushrooms, sweet friend chicken, mee goreng seafood and black pepper beef hor fun (at the waiter’s suggestion). There was so much food, we had to take out a lot of them. My favorites were the tofu and the roti john. The tofu was so soft, reminding me of my favorite tofu steak from Teriyaki Boy back in the Philippines. The roti is an Indian cuisine, something I normally dislike, but this one was surprisingly okay.
After dinner we decided to take a walk because we were so full. We discovered that the place was actually near Great World City mall. So we headed in that direction and had pictures with the Christmas decorations which gave us the idea of posing with 12 different Christmas trees.
We finalized this plan over drinks at the Pump Room bistro bar, where we were served by a Pinoy waiter who was very amiable, the exact opposite of the ones in Spize.We also took pictures with Arlyn’s camera because mine was low bat. This was when they made the observation that I knew how to use her camera better than she did and that all the pictures I took were “without issue.” That’s what happens when you spend too much time taking pictures.
another effortless, issue-free shot