The Dampa Experience

If there was a Beyonce experience... Then we had a Dampa experience. The tickets for Beyonce's concert cost thousands... Well, We only spent 180 bucks for our birthday dinner for our dear friend Katrina in Dampa Ortigas.

It was my first time to dine in a dampa. For the benefit of those who dont know what a dampa is, I will spill some details. Dampa is a common name for a place with a wet market where you buy your raw foods, mostly seafoods like C-amote, C-acao, C-ucumber, C-hicken, C-hippy, etc. etc. etc and those edible plants and animals you find in the C like lato(green weed that looks like small grapes), shrimps, crabs, squids, and fishes(Ill choke you Inday if you'll correct me) with restaurants nearby that will cook(not free) your freshly bought items to your liking.

Chel, Kat, and I bought:
1kg smaller prawns
1kg bigger prawns
1kg mussels
500g First Filipino Hero Fish (FYI: Lapu-lapu)
1kg "GAY" crabs (And YES, there is a "Bakla" variety of crabs)

Then we brought it to the restaurant and ordered how it would be cooked. While waiting for our food we "half-surprised" Kat with a gift. She said later on that she had a hint that we might give her the Doraemon stuffed toy since its her favorite. And after a more than half an hour of waiting the food came.

Half of the smaller prawns became HALABOS and the other half just steamed. All the bigger prawns turned into TEMPURAS. The mussels as baked tahong. Half of the gay crabs bathed with tausi while the other half went to the steam bath. Lastly, Lapu-lapu became sweet and sour after a losing battle with the chef.

Thank You, Lord for the very sumptious seafood feast.