Quick Treat at Ersao West Ave.

Do you love to eat quick Chinese food that is not as bland as the overly commercialized fastfood “Chinese” restaurant yet get your order as fast? Ersao, Taiwanese brand, might be the best for you. Eating or just bumming at Ersao is not new to me since I have been to one before the curious case is that I have never really tried anything from the restaurant other than the drinks. Curiously as well, I have never been to Ersao in West Avenue which is just near where I live. Since my growth group in GCF decided not to eat dinner and just go home instead, I decided to try Ersao West Avenue out. The place creeped me out a bit since there may be Christmas decorations in anticipation of the Holiday Season yet there are artificials cobwebs covering those anyway for the Halloween. Strange combination isn’t it? I am not the person who would back out because of a little “issue” so I found a table and sat down after I gave my order at the counter.

First to arrive was my order of taro milk tea with pearls for my drink. Taro milk tea is my classic favorite since when I first heard of it, I exclaimed: “A drink flavored with taro… as in the gabi I eat as a viand with its leaves for laing? That’s weird.” Yes, I was very much intrigued with the fact that your average gabi is actually a drink flavor as much as ube or purple yam is. Anyhow, long after that time I was weirded out, I love this drink and I would go back to Ersao for another one. Like your other classic milk tea drinks, I always take delight in scooping the pearls out for their chewy goodness. Saving the goodness for later, I set aside my drink to feast on the Pork Chami I ordered.

Remember my blog about the Chami of Kopi Tiam over at my Tumblr blog? Well, the only thing similar with this Chami and Kopi Tiam’s is that they have cabbage and carrots. Kopi Tiam’s Chami has thinner noodles, mushrooms and seafood while this one is pork with Chinese sausage nevertheless, Ersao’s Chami has a unique charm. After all, you really cannot compare oranges from grapefruits, right? Being hungry that I was, I chomped down my meal using chopsticks faster than I would ever eat in any restaurant using spoon and fork. What helped me finish the Chami was the fact that the noodles are flavorful. There is a rich pork flavor to everything down to the vegetables. I gulped all of it down with a sip of my taro milk tea.

To my delight, I found a traditional Chinese language magazine on the rack just beside my table. It was the Business Weekly Magazine with weekly economic publications for Taiwanese readers. I guess even Taiwanese businessmen love tasty fastfood meals for their past paced work. I read through some articles like analysis on the American economy, etc. These news still gets me even if I am reading them in Chinese. Ersao is located primarily in Quezon City in areas where there are a large number of Chinese living. There is another branch in Annapolis and Banawe, what is considered to be Metropolitan Manila’s second Chinatown after the centuries-old Parian District in Binondo. Ersao is open until very much into the night until the early morning at 2am.