Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Mexican Food Search Over: Hermanos

Let me preface this by saying that the best Mexican food in the Philippines can be found in Cebu at Maya Mexican Restaurant. I forgot to bring my camera when we ate there so I'll have to blog about that at a later time, however, if you are in Cebu please check them out... http://theabacagroup.com/maya-cebu/

Now. After over a year of trying different Mexican spots all over Metro Manila and Luzon (Orale' Fort, Chihuahua Makati, Ristra's Greenhills, B&T Ortigas, Iguanas Angeles, Agave, Cantinas, Mexicali, etc.) I can honestly say there is only one place I would go to if I need something resembling Mexican food.


Hermanos Taco Shop reminds me a lot of the hole-in-the-wall joints all over California. It isn't great, but we aren't looking for the Taqueria experience I grew up with, just a good percentage of it, and Hermanos fits the bill.


The menu isn't too overloaded like most places in the Philippines. Honestly every time I walk into a restaurant I expect to see a burger, fried chicken, and some sweet spaghetti on the Menu, I was glad to see them keep it simple. I thought about getting the carne asada fries but I was scared that they might use camote (sweet potato) instead of the regular russet


Carne Asada burrito: Easily the best burrito I've had in this country. I shared the other half w/ Mia and was still pretty full. It was a little bland, but I blame Mia for asking for the salsa and sour cream on the side. I think it could use a little more herb or heat, but I generally think that about everything.


Carne Asada nachos: The good part is that there was plenty of it, and after that burrito ,finishing off this plate was a task indeed. Also they had fairly decent chips and guac. The bad news is the cheese, watered down nacho cheese and shreds of quick melt. I can accept the usage of nacho cheese over melted jack simply due to the costing of such ingredients, but quickmelt cheese should be banned from existence, I flat out hate the stuff. I probably won't order this again.


The damage wasn't too bad considering the quantity. When we go back we'll definitely get another burrito, but probably order the tacos instead. That being said its hands down the best Mexican food on the island, you can try to argue otherwise, but you will lose that argument.



Medical Adventures

After sleeping in considerably, we found no blood leaking through Larry's bandage. Let's trace back to last night while we were cooking dinner.

Dinner: Corned beef with cabbage & sauteed potatoes in salt and butter.
Mood: Both of us tired as hell, ready to pass out before 9PM.

Incident: Larry was reaching to grab a plastic cup and knocks a bottom heavy, glass cup from the shelf. Immediately, profanities are exclaimed and both of us doing that weird tippy-toe "avoidance" dance that never really helps. I hear him say, "Aww, @*^%!!" Looking over at his foot, there is (no joke) blood, spurting/dripping everywhere-- fridge, rug, floor. I look at his foot and the biology nerd in me is quickly assessing artery?! vein?! Screw it, we need to apply pressure. I grabbed a fresh towel and told him to hold it down while I throw on appropriate clothing for a hospital setting. After turning off the burners, removing all the food, sweeping a pathway through the glass, I grabbed both our wallets, phones, and keys, ready to take him downstairs. Obviously, in this quick flurry we weren't on the same page and he wanted me to go out of the way downstairs to tell the guard and for them to hail a taxi. I indulge him and get downstairs and the front desk is trying to figure out what hospital he should go to and I just said he's bleeding pretty profusely so I suggest the closest one as the injury is far from his head and his heart we don't need a high class hospital. I get back upstairs and wrap his belt over the towel and I hear the guards running down the hall. To our surprise, our favorite guards show up and they all did the mouth-drop at the amount of blood on the floor. They help him up and take him downstairs to the taxi that awaited us. Kuya took us to Quirino Memorial Medical Center which was in Blue Ridge and it took about 5 minutes which was nice.

Emergency Room: The ER guard quickly grabbed a janky wheelchair and wheeled Larry over to the Surgery area. I say area because it really is just an assigned area.. Anyway, talking to the nurse and tell her what happened, she says to me I have to enter the patient to the Encoder. WTH is the encoder? This fool is bleeding on your floor! Anyhow, I find the encoder and he asks me random questions and finally gives me Larry's ID card and entry form. I give it to the nurse, she says she needs to suture him and the waiting continues. After about 15 minutes, the nurse gives me a prescription slip with an array of goods on it. She proceeds to tell me I need to go to the pharmacy either in the hospital or outside right now in order for her to stitch Larry. Apparently, the hospital is low on supplies so she suggests going across the street to get the stuff. Oh goodness.. so I run across the street hopping between 3 different pharmacies in order to buy all this stuff: anti-tetanus, syringes, gauze, tape, lidocaine, etc. That street wasn't too busy vehicle-wise but a lot of sketchy characters hanging out. I get back and we are still waiting. Mind you we got to the hospital at 7PM and didn't get stitched til about 8:30PM. Across from us is a line of beds with 2 patients per bed. There were people just sitting and waiting for help but there was nothing doctors could do. Anyhow, finally we go to the adjacent "Trauma Room" and a guy with a laceration on his leg is sitting on the bed and Larry sits next to him to get stitched. The intern, Nikki, offers to sew Larry as she saw we live in the same building! Jokes fly about her being the one to take his sutures off in a week and after her shift, she's giving us a ride home. Nice girl indeed and she does suturing all shift long. Five stitches later, we find out that this is a clinic, that's why it takes forever to be seen. No one gets paid to do what they do and it's pretty cool that they give their time to help others as much as they can. After the tetanus shots, we were all ready to go and despite some confusion on releasing a patient we get home a bit after 9PM.

Home: A congealed, bloody, glassy mess. After sufficient sweeping and lots of scrubbing, the kitchen was clean. I had to run to Mercury to get his antibiotics and more gauze. I found this sweet metal cane in the corner and bought the thing since it would also be a good thing when he has gout. Get home, and now we're both super hungry so I finish off cooking our corned beef and cabbage. The potatoes were no longer good and had blackened =( We ate and still hyped off the events, we decided to watch 28 Days Later.

Bandaged foot
Bloody towel and belt initially used
Patient ID Card
Bloody foot
Suture buddies
No glass!
Making dinuguan
Suturing process
Dinner left half cooked
Death by glass
Bloody mess
Raspberry Jello, anyone?
Good morning!