How to do a Girls' Night Out at Lu

Granted, I am not one to do chi-chi when I absolutely don't have. I prefer steady bars with good food and cheap booze where I can show up in flip-flops and wearing no make-up. But there are times when the mood strikes - moments when I am up for a bit of a splurge. Usually these nights involve three major elements: my chicas, long catch-up sessions and Lu.

Lu is located on the ground floor of La Joya Building in Rockwell, right beside The Ice Cream Bar. The Moroccan/Mediterranean restaurant also serves as a bar when the clock strikes 10pm and has been my favored spot for a "lets-spend-s0me-cash" Girls' Night Out ever since my friend Jenina took me there.

The menu is quite extensive and the bar list adequate. I won't go into detail because I honestly haven't sampled a wide enough array of the goods to give you a good review. BUT this is how we do Lu:

Crispy prawn and shiitake spring rolls and Vietnamese rice rolls with curried chicken. (Php275)















Mexican Frites: steak, onion rings, mushrooms, pickled onions, a salad. (Php795)














And of course: our drink of choice the Frozen DiabLu... (Php285-ish if memory serves)



















To reserve, call (+632) 403-3991

Sleep working

I posted this in my old blog, Belligerent Bliss, almost six years ago. So much has changed since then.

It's three a.m. and I am walking down Ayala Avenue. It had rained hard earlier (like it had been since... forever) and I am careful not to get the hem of my pants wet. It's quite unbelievable really, the way my work has evolved into something that rivals industries with graveyard shifts. And I'm not even sleepy. 

My stomach grumbles, reminding me that it's been hours since I last ate (though it definitely does not look it). I want tapa or any other oily, MSGd thing that goes well with fried egg but the odds of finding such a meal given the hour and location does not look good. But after passing BOC, I notice that the Jollibee there is still open. I realize that both it and the McDonald's in Banker's Square are open 24 hours. My feet steer me inside. The slightly bored counterperson informs me that I was in luck - they were already serving their breakfast meals! Rice and cooking oil before dawn breaks! What joy! Thank the heavens for the thriving call center industry in this city. 

I take in the atmosphere inside the resto. Groups of people, probably down for a break from their call quotas, huddle together, sipping coffee and being as loud as possible. Outside, a small circle of people are smoking and littering the sidewalk with their hundred or so cigarette butts. They are trying to treat this hour like that of a normal shift, trying to reorient their body clocks as best they could with overreactions and tar. 

This blasphemous hour interests me. Whenever I take the jeepney home, I take note of the people around me, largely for security (need I flaunt my phone-losing record once more?) but also out of curiosity. I try to create storylines and collegiala dialogue based from their expressions and their non-verbal cues. (You can not not communicate people. Communicologists rule!) I see tired and sleepy guys, probably just ending their shift as a guard or a construction worker, hugging their worn backpacks. ("Manila is the answer to all my problems. I would rather be here with my fifteen children, living in a shanty than go home and suffer a provincial life. How droll would that be?") I see women lugging huge plastic containers filled with ice and fish from the fish market in coastal. ("This frickin' stink does not come off. Ever. And that bi-atch just ripped me out of five bucks. Again.") I see people with suspicious looks on their faces, as if they have just committed something that their spouses would make them regret later on. ("Let's see, which excuse have I not used before? 'Honey, I was ambushed by a gang of munchkins who insisted that I give them my salary and drink fifteen bottles of beer. Oh, and one of the munchkins wanted to test the shade of his lipstick on my neck. Munchkins are weird.' Yeah, that's sounds about right.")

I have always said that I can never take working, thinking properly at this hour. Yet, here I am, somehow functioning at a mechanical pace with the rest of the nightcrawlers. ("I am 30 pounds overweight na and I treat my house as if it is a hotel. My parents keep on giving me sad, hurt eyes, which distinctly screech, 'WE DON'T KNOW YOU ANYMORE'!")

The cholesterol hits my bloodstream and mates with the five cups or so of pure caffeine I had inhaled that day. I am filled with euphoria and a diligence to proofread the preamble to the Philippine Constitution. 

It's three a.m. and I feel lost. But alive.

Winging it

As trainers, we're on our feet and move around the training room for at least five hours a day. That, coupled with a measly 30 minutes for a lunch break, leaves us tired and famished, so we're always on the lookout for a place to eat at the end of our shift.

Bon Chon Chicken has always been one of our go-to places ever since it opened its first Philippine franchise in the Ayala Triangle in late 2010. A five- to 10-minute walk (depending on which route you take) from the Insular life building, it's located along the strip of restaurants in the Ayala Triangle, behind the Makati Stock Exchange building.

The facade of Bon Chon Chicken in Ayala Triangle.

Because I've been avoiding rice lately, I usually get the small order of the chicken wings. You get six pieces of chicken wings in a small order, which is essentially three wings. You can also get drumsticks or chicken chops (chicken fillet), if you're not fond of the wing part, or even a combination of drumsticks and wings. I also like ordering their kimchi coleslaw to accompany the chicken.

Diners can choose from two variants of the chicken: soy garlic or hot & spicy. I've tried both flavors, and I must say that both are excellent. The hot and spicy chicken is something I wouldn't recommend to people who have a low tolerance for spicy food. A friend of mine and I have a very high tolerance for spicy food and love drowning our food in pepper or hot sauce, but we gave up after eating a few wings. The spiciness of the chicken punches you in the mouth, and you're left with a tingly feeling even after your meal. If you love spicy food, I recommend asking the server to make your order half soy garlic and half hot & spicy. That way, you get to get your fill of chili, but without having to down a glass of soda after each piece.

On the day the pictures were taken, though, my friends a I decided to split a large order of wings. For 720 Pesos, we got 24 pieces of chicken! We asked the server to give us 18 pieces of soy garlic chicken and six hot & spicy wings. I had my usual order of kimchi coleslaw, and my colleagues followed suit.

Our crazy order—24 pieces of chicken wings (for three people) + kimchi coleslaw

The moment you bite into the chicken, you get a feeling of satisfaction from the crunchiness of the skin. The flavor is intense, from the skin to the meat, and the meat is perfectly cooked, very juicy and flavorful. I like the flavor because it's not too salty and you can taste the garlic, but the flavor's not too strong that you'll get tired of it after a couple of pieces. The kimchi coleslaw is the perfect partner; it has the refreshing taste of homemade coleslaw with a slight kick of spice. It's perfect for those who want a hint of spice in their food. Because the chicken is cooked perfectly, with just the right amount of flavor, you can't just stop after one piece.

Oh, the carnage. On a positive note: these chickens did not die in vain.

Non-meat eaters can also tag along with their carnivorous friends because Bon Chon now has seafood dishes! They've recently launched three new dishes: Fish tacos, shrimp rice box and fish rice box. The fish and the shrimp are cooked with the same coating they use for the chicken, so pescetarians (like Jacs!) can enjoy the flavor of Bon Chon with their meat-eating friends and family.

It'll probably be a long time before I get tired of Bon Chon Chicken. It's the perfect comfort food after the end of a tiring day, and it doesn't put a big hole in my pocket, too!

Bon Chon Chicken has two branches: One in Ayala Triangle, and another in Greenbelt 1, both in Makati City. Two branches are opening soon: One on Libis and one in SM Megamall A.