Our College Takeaway

Episode 10 - In the Middle of the Night

“This night market is so fucking huge!” I exclaimed as I gaze upon the Diego Y Cruz Night Market, my jaw dropped as I look around the place. It’s a wonder in the midst of the night.

“Told ’ya this is going to be beautiful in the middle of the night!” I turned to Arjim, smiling at me in complete sincerity. It seems like he’s enjoying on seeing me this way.

There’s all sorts of neon lights shining upon the darkness, the place passed the retro vibe check. The names of each stalls are projected by the twinkling LED lights of a variety of colors. There’s a sign saying, “Moxie’s Shawarma” with red lights all around the stall and that the name board of the stall is made with these lights.

There’s also this stall saying, “Lex’s Ukay-Ukay” all hyped up with a combination of yellow and blue lights that has both turns and timing when they shine.

We both walked around and I finally saw the strawberry jam that my Tita Eve is talking about. Sixty pesos per jar, a reasonable price and they gave a promo—two for a hundred pesos so I bought two, one for Tita Eve and one for me.

I felt a sense of nostalgia while walking around the night market, especially when I’m with Arjim. I remembered the time when there was literally no one with me, it was on our field trip in junior high. Pio did not attend the trip because of their financial needs, so I’m forced to go for the grade incentives.

“Let’s go eat some Chicken Inasal! I know a resto around this night market, they sell the best ones around San Roque!” I heard Arjim, I just smiled and I nodded—I’m indeed hungry that I said yes immediately.

We both walked around the night market, seeing different stalls and we bought a variety of stuffs along the way. I bought some tee-shirts and sando shirts to wear at the dorm since I only have a pair of three I brought here with me aside from the clothes I use for coming to school daily.

We reached the resto, it was named Caldo’s. The vibe of the resto was even beautiful than I imagined it would look like. It is a vintage-retro style resto with hanging lanterns serving as lights in each table for the customers. The place is not that crowded, it was easy for me and Arjim to find a table.

The table was even vintage in style, even the chairs. There are napkins placed on the center of the table together with a set of utensils placed in a small steel bucket. A bottle of soy sauce and chicken oil is also placed beside the utensils.

“Waiter!” Arjim called and a staff of the resto soon arrived giving us a menu.

“Well... well... for isn’t it Arjim! It’s been a long time since you last ate here, good thing to see you.” the waiter spoke, smirking at him.

“Oh, Sandy, it’s just been two days. I have no time to go here since I’m busy at school.” Arjim answered the waiter, it then looked at me and he smiled as he asked Arjim once again.

“It seems like you have someone with you today...” he smiled.

“Oh, this is my friend, Dace. He wants to check out the night market so I took him here, we’re just gonna eat dinner and we’ll both continue on exploring this place.” Arjim answered.

“Dace, this is Sandy, a friend of mine here at Caldo’s.” Arjim introduced me to the waiter, I just smiled and I nodded at him.