Andok-flavored ice-cold drinks, anyone?

I HAD A MEETING in Ortigas Center†on August 27 and I took the opportunity to touch base with two good friends, Karen and Aileen.† They were to meet for lunch in Mega Mall that day so I invited myself into their lunch date.† I couldn’t bear the thought of two of my lady friends, both of whom are single and available, going out for a lunch-out together.† I have to go to their rescue.

I am usually not choosy when it comes to lunch places but on that particular day I was really hoping they would not choose one of those pasta places.† They must have guessed.† I was glad to find out that they chose this apparently new place called Jatujak, a small Thai Restaurant in Mega A ground level, near Toy Kingdom.

I generally like Thai food, especially the Filipinized ones (i.e. not overly spicy).† Thai food falls under my “can’t go wrong” category when looking for a lunch or dinner place.

Jatujak offers the usual Thai cuisines (e.g. Tom Yum Goong soup, Pandan Chicken, Bagoong Rice).

We didn’t order Pandan Chicken (for a change), but we did order Bagoong Rice and Tom Yum Goong soup.† We also ordered Sate Chicken and† and Crispy Pork.† All very good.

They have a few distinct offerings of their own, of course.† Let’s take for instance their Lemon Grass Bottomless Ice Tea (which I mistook for Dalandan Juice because of its yellow color).† Karen ordered it and offered for me to take a sip just to “try” it.

I liked it.

Of course I couldn’t resist to give a punny answer when Karen asked, “So how’d you find it?”† I said, “Great! Taste very much like Andok’s litson manok.”† From then on I would refer to it as Andok-flavored dalandan juice (I still can’t get myself to call it Ice Tea).

Price is generally reasonable.† Regular menu items range from P150 to P300.† Our total bill (there was just the three of us) was just less than a thousand.† Just about what†I expected.

A little Trivia.† The name Jatujak is obviously taken from the famous weekend market in Bangkok, which is also sometimes called Chatuchac or Chatuchag.† The “English” spelling shouldn’t be a cause for concern since it is just a phonetic approximation of its Thai counterpart.

Chatuchac’s (or Jatujag’s) “look and feel” is very similar to Manila’s Divisoria or ParaÒaque’s Baclaran except that it is supposed to be open only on weekends.† Why else would they call it a weekend market?† I had the opportunity to visit Chatuchac (or Jatujak) Weekend Market several times during my 6-month tour of duty in Bangkok in 1996 as a software programmer in IBM.† #