Cash & Carry Mall, Makati City: Let's Unwrap The Secret of "Binalot"

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and I'm home bound. Staring blankly ahead, just making my way, making a way through the crowd". It was like this song from Vanessa Carlton, like a thousand miles. It was last week when we had to run an errand, we quickly went out of the bus and chose to walk because of the traffic jam just to make sure that we would get to Cash & Carry Mall on time, an unexpected walkathon. We were amid of searching for a much lesser and affordable branded perfumes that time when we decided to crawl for food first. Hahah, just figuratively!

Our eyes roamed around the food court and a unique fast-food caught our attention because of its name 'Binalot'. There were other famous food vendors like Sbarro but due to limited time we sat here with no hesitation, we also felt that it would be lovely idea to have a filipino dishes for our lunch. 

This is really a must try! And thanks to my colleague and friend Salie for the treat! (Photo credit to Tham)

So what is 'Binalot'? In Tagalog or Filipino, it means "wrapped", a traditional local method of wrapping and serving dish in the Philippines using leaves, most common is banana leaves and the most popular when styro packed lunch boxes were not yet invented. 

Sisig- 99pesos

Tapa- 119pesos

Although it was a short time when we ate here. It was worth it to try something unique yet taste good foods and really close to the heart of many filipinos even outside the country. It's nice to see a quick service restaurant serving local and very filipino dishes like adobo, tapa, sisig, tocino, longganisa, salted egg, etc., a somewhat outside the box place to eat and different to the usual "one-piece chicken meal". Thumbs up for giving us ultimate filipino food experience. For more details, feel free to check www.binalot.com