North Park: chichi or not chichi? + a preview of what chichi is

A steamy bowl of Nanking Beef noodle soup from North Park

I skipped breakfast and lunch, as usual. I honestly do not know what I am doing. I want lose some weight but I am too lazy to exercise. Maybe I am too lazy to eat as well. I don't know, I've always been lazy.

Around three in the afternoon, I woke up to the sun peeping through the window. Well, at last, the sun did come out. Maybe the Annie sing-along I did yesterday worked. Anyway, I felt a bit of discomfort in my tummy; I was hungry. Yes, kids, chichi kids do get hungry, too - either by choice, by circumstance, or by plain stupidity. I'd like to believe it is due to circumstance because I just woke up.

I was craving for something light, and something hot. Soup, perhaps. I easily thought of getting a steamy bowl of noodles. I live in a place I want to call as the Chinese ghetto. I don't live in Binondo, I live in the outskirts of Binondo. I guess the Chinese people whom Binondo cannot accommodate settled in our area. I am not racist, by the way, I am part Chinese.

Since, I do not have money, I decided to go to North Park instead. There are other Chinese restaurants near my place - the long stretch of Banawe houses some of the best Chinese restaurants. But I am confined by the allowance I get from my parents, so I cannot take 600-peso daily lunches anymore, like I used to do.

North Park is far from being a Chinese restaurant, though. It's like a fastfood. A glorified Chowking, maybe? It is the epitome of Chinese fastfood. Chowking is the epitome of fake Chinese food.

I already have a staple order at North Park. I always get the Naking Beef Noodle soup with Hongkong Noodles and a glass of cold chrysanthemum juice. If I have money to spare, I order an additional tai pao. My order would cost me a little over P200.

There are only few people in North Park earlier, presumably, from the Chinoy middle class - the usual Chinese looking people that roam around Banawe, and of course, hwanas who enjoy having food trips in Banawe. Admittedly, North Park is far from being classy; nowhere near it. But it does not mean it is not chichi.

Friends have been asking me what chichi is. Chichi is not exactly classy; well, a bit. Chichi is actually a way of life. It is the constant struggle for culture and class; for pomp, prim, and propriety. Oh well, the previous statement is a bit of a stretch.

In layman's terms, being chichi is knowing that it is more chichi to eat in Burger King than in Jollibee; to go to Starbucks 6750 than go to Starbucks People Support; and to eat in North Park than spend almost the same amount in Chowking.

So, for me, North Park is chichi. After all, the party-goers of Makati would usually sober up first in North Park Makati Avenue before going home.

I hope my few, but growing readers, now have an idea of what being chichi is all bout. So later, folks. Stay chichi!