I love San Juan. 🙂 File photo taken during one of my trips to San Juan City Hall.

This photo takes the top position because of the sheer size of the fish on the left. The name of the stall is Alvin’s Fish.

These are from Alvin’s Fish stall. I bought mussels, P150.00 per kilo (US $3.00). They were juicy and tasted so fresh!

My heart skipped a beat upon setting my eyes on Venus SJ Sengco stall of green and leafy vegetables with a smattering of colors. As an avid (former) meat-eater, I did not know that vegetables would have this effect on me. I bought a kilo of eggplants, three carrots, okra, squash, and string beans for P127.00 (US $2.54). They were so vibrant and gorgeous. I know I should not use gorgeous to describe vegetables, but they were. They tasted even better than they looked. ☺

Fresh fruits! That guyabano in the middle shelf looked ravishing.

Fresh lemon and orange drinks. A 22 oz. glass of lemon or orange juice costs P50.00 (US $1.00), a combination of lemon and orange drink costs P80.00 (US $1.60).

Cold drinks all: cucumber lemonade, peppermint with kalamansi, blue lemonade, and lemonade.

Ationg’s Fruit Shake Station. I have not seen so many combinations of puree shakes, they even offered shakes with Oreos and Graham crackers in them!

Lokalitea – All-Natural Turmeric Tea in Lemon Grass, Pandan, and Calamansi flavors, P65.00 (US $1.30). I bought the lemon grass variety, and well, it tasted like turmeric tea and lemon grass (I grew up in Iloilo with lemon grass in my backyard, which the older people added to rice, chicken, and lechon, and it is one of my all-time favorite flavors). I felt healthier with one swig of Lokalitea. For more details, please contact Henna at 0916-2670606.

Organic Favorites’ Wild Raw Honey and Hillsview’s Mangosteen Kalamansi Concentrate and Mangosteen Tea All-Natural Drink. Even with the clumsy honey incident in Sagada, I still have two bottles of honey from Baguio City, so I did not deem it necessary to buy more honey, wild or otherwise. For more details, please contact Henna at 0916-2670606.

Nanay’s Choco Brazo Spread and Cheezy Brazo Spread (top), and Nanay’s Bulad Flakes, in hot and spicy and original sauces (bottom). For more details, please contact Henna at 0916-2670606.

Gng. Bukid products are also available in Sabado Mercado. They also have a stall in Sidcor Sunday Market. The carrot cake, P100.00 per slice (US $2.00) was lusciously yummy. I do not have a photo of it because it split while in transit. I bought the homemade peanut butter before, P220.00 (US $4.40) per bottle, and it is as healthy as it is tasty. With proper storage, the shelf life is longer than expected.

That day I learned that Challah is pronounced as hallah. ☺ Earlier, I toasted three slices of Gng. Bukid’s Challah and spread a generous amount of First Harvest’s Salted Coco Caramel on top of each, paired it with a glass of orange juice, and a banana. Let me say that it was a good breakfast.

G. Bukid himself, Sir Mike, who also speaks Spanish, and his Spanish is better than mine. Contact Dalagang Bukid Food Enterprise through:Phone: (02) 847-1113 / Mobile: 0916-2860900 / Email: gngbukid@gmail.com / Facebook: facebook.com/gngbukid. You can also visit ginangbukid.blogspot.com, for more information.

Cookin’ Maria Tapa Atbp’ng Babalikbalikan Homemade New Zealand Beef Tapa. Their pickled ampalaya (bitter gourd) costs P120.00 (US $2.40). For more information, please contact 0939-27663689.

JA’s A Piece of Cake offers cakes, cookies, sweet bars, customized cakes and cupcakes. I bought kalamansi cupcake, P17.00 (US $0.34) and malunggay cupcake, P15.00 (US $0.30). They were both dense. The kalamansi cupcake had only a trace of kalamansi flavor (to be fair, I like my citrus-flavored food to be acidic, like rinds galore), but the malunggay cupcake had a profusion of malunggay bits. These are sneaky ways to make kids eat something healthful. For more information, please contact JA Ricafrente at 0908-8602248.

JA’s A Piece of Cake’s chocolate chip cookie, fudge brownies, revel bars, and brookie (the lovechild of a brownie and a cookie). I asked the kind lady manning the booth for the best bar available, and she said it was the brookie, so I had one.

Panaderia Pantoja’s products.

Masing’s bibingka puto bumbong, and salabat.

Jojo Kambingan, a plate of two viands plus rice costs P150.00 (US $3.00)

Lutong-bahay viands for sale at Sabado Mercado, San Juan City

Juan Longganisa’s longganisa from Lucba, Vigan, Alaminos, Cebu, and Aklan, among others.

Before January 2017, the plate of food above was one of my favorite breakfast, with less vegetables and more longganisa. Balut (?) and Miki-Lucban, also from Juan Longganisa’s stall.

Native chicken and native chicken eggs. Based on my experience of buying fresh and cooked native chicken in Metro Manila, they were almost always old and rubbery. These turned me off from buying native chicken further. I grew up in Iloilo surrounded by chickens, I fed them, cleaned their poop when they entered the house, made them fight (I know, evil me), gathered the eggs for breakfast, and when the time came, watched them being butchered, and ate them with glee (usually with lemon grass or chopped stalk of banana or whatever it is called). My standard of native chicken and eggs is that, and it is barely equaled by the ones sold in the city. Maybe these native chicken and eggs were better than the ones in Iloilo.