Dampa

One of the best moments I spent with Tita Luday this year was when I tagged along her reunion with her Canada World Youth friends whom she hadn't seen in 30 years! Not only did I hear about Tita Luday and Oncle Michel's movie-worthy love story, I also got to eat at the Dampa.

Roughly translated as a "small place", the Dampa is a seafood market and a group of restaurants in one place. You go to the seafood market and choose the food you want, pay for them, then choose a restaurant that would cook the food according to your instructions. This is similar to what anton of anton blogs shared recently. http://anton.blogs.com/awesome/2005/12/the_perfect_dam.html

However, the Dampa in Ortigas had better food. The sinigang was delicious and so were the other dishes. They also had a stage where I suppose a live band could play but on that weeknight, they simply projected a video of a Beyonce concert on a screen. I enjoyed the experience so much that our family just had to experience it first-hand.

We went to the Original Dampa in Paranaque because it was nearer to our place. We first went to the market and got live crabs, and other shellfish. Total bill came to P700+. We then went to Aling Tonya's resto because this was the resto Tita Luday and I ate at in Ortigas. The Sucat Dampa is smaller and simpler in terms of design but I surmise that this is because the place was originally a no-frills market and carinderia where poor folks could come to have fresh seafood. The concept took off and evolved into airconditioned restaurants which was eventually copied in other places.

Let me start off by saying the food was delicious. There really is nothing better than fresh seafood!

We had a huge bowl of halaan soup with ginger and chili leaves...

Emote na emote! Here's Twinx capturing what no words can say about hot soup on a rainy evening...

We also had shrimps and scallops cooked with butter and garlic...And of course, huge steamed crabs like what we had in Silangang Nayon. The crabmeat had a sweet, succulent flavor that still makes my mouth water.The total bill for having the food cooked + rice and soda cost us P500. Very affordable! This is an experience we are definitely including in our "Next time you're in the Philippines" plan for our balikbayan relatives!