No Judgment Dinner Club

This is the NJDC. That's me, Jordan, Cam-B, and Cielly. We are the No Judgment Dinner Club. Because we dine with no judgment. Which I still insist should go both ways: there should be no judgment for the guy who stays away from the rice because he's on a strict high protein low carb diet. But apparently, that's not on the agenda.

Last Friday, it was Dampa in Libis again. We were deciding on whether Dampa or someplace in Makati, and Dampa won by luck of the draw. Seriously. Cam-b tore up little pieces of paper, and drew the name of the place.

I must admit, the buttered shrimp this time around is much tastier. Last time we were there, they came out bland and watery. The tempura was amazing as well. Damn, just remembering those make me hungry now.

Also, we go way back. Eating has always been our thing.

That's us, eating out in Binondo.

Siege Malvar went to Dampa sa Libis with Friends from Law School

Last Friday, I met up with my friends Cielly, Jordan, and Cam-b for a movie. But we all came in too late for seats, so we headed out to have dinner instead at Dampa sa Libis.

Dampa sa Libis is one of those venues where you go to a nearby wet market to shop for fresh seafood, and then you pay some people to cook it for you. Cielly and Cam-b did all the shopping, and that's how we ended up with roughly 4 kilos of seafood to split between the four of us.

Here's the girls haggling:

Cam-b's calling it the No Judgment Dinner Club. With said judgment being that of gluttony. I pointed out that for a group claiming to have no judgment, the two of them were pretty hard on Jordan regarding how little he eats compared to them. A fact they promptly ignored.

We also have this thing where before anyone can eat anything, everyone has to help in deshelling the shirmps. Which were humongous as they swim in garlic butter sauce. Cam-B and Cielly both agreed the garlic butter sauce tasted watered down compared to the previous times they were there. I had no opinion, it being my first time in Dampa. But it did tasted lacking, with my point of reference being all the other garlic butter prawns I had in my life.

Cam-B and I noticed Cielly and Jordan were both wearing red. Which prompted both of us to look at what we were wearing, hoping to have some commonality. An accent, a button, a loose thread. 

"We're so competive, it's not funny anymore." I told her. Which was also the reason why we were totally on Where's My Water? mode all the way from Greenbelt to Libis.

Not to brag about it, but I'm gonna brag about it. I finished the game in one sitting. And Cam-b thought I wouldn't get past the "Higher and Higher" stage. Thanks to a really competitive spirit, and determination, and a lot of cursing.

"Boo, yah! Take that you m*therfucking crocodile," I screamed at the iPad.

"You can't get near Cob-b," she said. Cob-b is her nephew who she absolutely adores.

I agreed. "Yeah, I better not be around you guys when the kid's here."

Kids scare me. I think I never saw myself enough of a grown up to be entrusted with the care of one. My 9 year old brother is bound to outgrow me in a couple of years. I have the maturity of a 3 year old, give or take.  I would make a horrible dad. I should never be allowed to inflict my genes on anyone, unless the infliction is on their faces. I think by reproduction, I would cause humanity great harm. I'm scared of my future, hypothetical offsprings. They'd be the baddest mofos around, and I don't want to be responsible for the world where my kids would rule kings.

It was too much to think of over dinner. Unprompted too. So I went back to devouring the rest of the seafood feast they ordered. I wanted to get liempo and steaks, but Cam-B and Ciels reminded me it was a Friday, and being good Catholics, we were observing Lent, though with the feast before us, you would think otherwise.