Lunch Time at the Office

Office workers in the Philippines await lunch time during their daily routine.  Aside from the opportunity to rest from the onerous work load and relax with friends, lunch time affords the chance to taste sumptuous meals.

When it comes to food, I bring packed lunch most of the time. One day I craved for soup so I went outside and bought some pares. Also the Tagalog word for 'pair,' pares is a hearty soup that includes bite-size pieces of beef (meat and "sinful" fat) flavored with a spices including ginger and sibot (a mixture of spices including star anise, cloves, and cinnamon).  The customer can freely put scallions, chopped chili, toasted garlic, soy sauce, and other condiments to suit his or her taste.

Realizing that I brought packed lunch that day, I opted only for the soup part of the pares.

Plain pares

My packed lunch consists of rice, hard-boiled egg, boiled okra, and fried dried squid with banana as lunch.  What made the pieces of okra special was that those vegetables were harvested from our backyard. I took the liberty to use the boiled egg and squid as topping for the pares soup.

I supplied the egg and squid toppings for the pares

The combo meal I designed proved to be sort of weird