a date at Cafe Juanita

"So, you haven't answered me yet. What do you want for dinner? Casual which means burgers somewhere or fine dining?" Funny man drops this on my lap while I was happily sipping my Moonleaf drink. Hmm ... I pondered and took into consideration that we were both not really dressed for casual dining, the rain, and comfort and I answered, "I don't want burgers."

I asked him where we were going and he didn't really give me an answer. I was intrigued and a bit apprehensive. It all disappeared soon as I saw this sign and I had to stop a fangirl scream from coming out.

This place has been on my bucket list because a lot of people kept telling me to try it. However, I had no idea what the inside looked like so I was in for a very WONDERFUL surprise.

This is the entrance and this was were the smile on my face started and never disappeared. It was heaven for someone like me who is into kitchy items and colorful things. In my head, I was framing things already and envisioning what it would look like. I think I had too much fun taking photos though that I neglected my date for about 20 minutes. =( He was very understanding about it though. I hope.

The server called me to tell me that dinner was ready. After apologizing and explaining that there were just so many great things to take photos of, we started to eat. He was ribbing me about the soup getting cold and I started to worry. However, I thought that if he would get upset about it, then it means that he's not as calm looking as he presents himself to be. Luckily, he was still chill and laid back but I did make a mental note to limit photo time next time. Lesson learned.

He ordered for us and it was kinda cute seeing a guy who was confident about doing the ordering. He told me that I would like everything that we'd have and guess what? He was right.

pork binagoongan

sinigang na CORNED BEEF

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

You're probably wondering why there is Vietnamese food when its all Filipino. Well, I wanted pakbet salad as appetizer but it seems he doesn't eat pakbet so I remembered we had this at Johnny Chow and figured it was a safe bet. 

I honestly could have eaten the entire pork binagoongan by myself with two bowls of rice. Since I didn't want to appear patay gutom, I held myself back. It was funny though because he was telling me to finish everything because he doesn't want me rushing to McDonalds after. This was a reaction he had to my stories of dates where I wasn't too happy about the food and had to run to McDo after said dates.

The sinigang was cooked exactly the way I liked my sinigang. If you visit, it will be cooked exactly to your taste. Trust me on this. How? Visit the place and find out. 

As with any date that I have, booboo's are inevitable. This time, the chair fell when I stood up because it seems that the chair was not sturdy and my bag was too heavy. I thanked my angels that I wasn't sitting on the chair when it fell. I managed to laugh and brush it off.

The best part of the evening was the pianist playing songs. We had live music and it was just really ... dare I say ... romantic? Haha. I really appreciated it and when I knew the songs, I'd sing to it and he'd encourage me to sing out loud which I didn't. He requested that I sang with the pianist but it didn't push through. I wasn't too confident about my voice because I had a scratchy throat and didn't wanna scare away the patrons with my possibly off key singing.

However, I would sing for him if given the chance  and my throat isn't scratchy. Promise.

To end the night at Cafe Juanita, we had our photo taken. I asked him and he gamely posed. Plus points for the funny man.

This ends part 2 of the pre-Valentines date that I had with the funny man. :) Part 3 to be posted in a bit.

Happy hearts day everyone! Remember, love yourself before anyone else for how can someone love you if you do not love yourself?