Suroy-suroy generally means “to make pasyal” – that is the tag-lish infinitive. Seriously, suroy-suroy is leisurely walk, sight-seeing, stroll or simply getting-to-know-a-place. It is a totally useless enterprise – and because it has no use it is most meaningful. You just walk. And I did that this afternoon.
Earlier I mentioned that I went to Abreeza mall – nice posh mall. I decided to walk to feel the place and meet people minus the greet. I did not clock the walk but I surmise it’s a 30 to 40-minute leisure to home.
J.P. Laurel street is not as congested as Manila’s, there are no tall buildings so the pleasure is in seeing a vast expanse of sky which brings me to rant “We need cloudsman, so stop skyscraping the sky.” Anyway along the street I took a picture.
Along J. P. Laurel Street, Davao.
That is the fruit Durian to your right. You can eat the fruit on the spot like any street food.
As I was telling you earlier Davao food will surprise you.
Kwek-kwek served with sea weed and diced cucumber soaked in vinegar and sprinkled with salt.
Kwek-kwek is boiled quail egg coated with orange flour then deep fried. But the term was applied to chicken egg so long as it is looks the same. When I asked the girl attending the store what she calls what she caters, she said kwek-kwek. I said to her in Tagalog, “But you have seaweed and cucumber that goes with it, so it must have a special name.” She answered, “E ‘di sea-kwek.” Short for sea weed with kwek-kwek. Ok, sea-kwek-kwek, it might not sound edible but sooner or later it will grow into you. In case history becomes favorable to the label, the credit is to the girl.
Now, I want you to look very carefully at the food to your left.
Chicken skin and kwek-kwek.
Yes, that is deep fried crunchy chicken skin. I know, it is sooooo cholesterol, e masarap e. Tsaka ginto and chicken skin sa Manila. Do you know how much I paid for that here in Davao? Five pesos. Yes, five pesos of crunchy chicken skin. And do you know how much sea-kwek-kwek costs? Ten pesos. So I had a fifteen peso filling merienda.
I am not really into taking pictures of what I eat. Not that I eat live frogs or worms, but you don’t take picture of rice and fried fish and post it. Or go like, “OMG I am here at a restaurant with bulalo and rice, and look at the rice it’s so picturesque, look, the grains are arranged, like the chef painstakingly fixed it as if it speaks to me, what sublime artistry, definitely heavenly!” – DSLR, snap! snap! What comes to mind is we pay very little attention to the lowly rice most of the time di ba?
By the way the eatery is just in front of the office of the Department of Health along J. P. Laurel.
Anyway, for whatever reasons why we ever take pictures of what we eat, I’ll let you ‘see’ what I will eventually find here of interest. I’ll be using a cellphone cam so please bear with the quality. God bless.
sampalocmanila 