bachoy lang pala katapat ko

if there was one thing that i felt bad about when i left my previous job, it was the fact that i would never again be able to eat the bachoy from my favorite stall in the food court. don't mistake it for la paz bachoy - the bachoy that i'm referring to is made of miswa noodles and liver and a little pork (i think) with a weird mucous-like (at least to my mind) consistency. i first had a taste of it college, when the food service in ilang-ilang would serve it on fridays. i loved it so much that on the fridays that they served it, i'd choose to stay in the dorm instead of going home, postponing my weekly trip home to saturday morning.

bachoy was ♥

i stopped eating it -- cause i couldn't find it anywhere -- after i graduated but the memory remained. so imagine the extreme joy i felt when, one wednesday, i saw liver floating in a sea of miswa at the tektite canteen. bachoy was back and i was going to eat it every single chance i get. and since i had (originally) planned on spending the rest of my natural and productive life in that firm, barring the store's cook refusing me bachoy, or the food stall going out of business, i was going to have bachoy every single wednesday (or thursday) that they served it.

so when i finally decided to leave, i couldn't help but say goodbye to my beloved bachoy. and, as luck would have it, they served bachoy on my last wednesday there, which i ate with gusto. if i weren't eating with the managing partner, i would have probably ordered a take-home portion, and portions to freeze when i needed more bachoy in my life. i was saying goodbye to a diet staple and it was crazy tough.

on my first day at the new job, i learned that food here was (1) cheap and (2) good. the canteen ladies knew everyone by name, and it wasn't long (four hours to be exact) before they learned my name too. i was happy, no, i was ecstatic. but at the very back of my mind, i was still nursing my break-up with my bachoy. they could feed me all the yummy kalabasa and sayote they want (their vegetable dishes are yummy too) but they couldn't make me forget about love affair with miswa and liver.

and then today, as i passed by the canteen to reserve my lunch (you can reserve in the morning so you get the food you want), there it was on today's menu: bachoy, P25. i thought, what's the likelihood that it'll be my miswa-and-liver object of affection. then i figured, i can order half, and if it isn't, then i could afford not to eat it, right? so i told the manang, a half order of bachoy please (to go with my chicken afritada and half rice), and she said, yes, soup would do you good, so i was thinking, oh, it couldn't probably be what i thought it would be.

but the best surprises are those that come when you least expect them.

guess what i just had.

chicken afritada. half rice. and my beloved miswa-and-liver soup.

if this isn't a sign that i had made the right decision moving here, then i don't know what else would do the job.