Math and Marketing

I have often pointed this out -- how so many Filipino retailers don't seem to have heard of the tag line "Cheaper by the dozen." Then last night I was awed. At Planet Sports in Power Plant they were selling shuttle cocks for P620 per dozen (Wilson brand, I think) or P120 per piece. Now the seller knows his math and marketing. Good for him. Earlier, from The Sweet Life in the food court, I got 4 lovely looking cupcakes in a pink and white box: P55 each I was told, but when I paid for the 4 pieces, the lady charged me only P200. And how quaintly the cupcakes were packaged. Inside the big box was a carton platform with four holes that snugly held each cupcake. Brilliant idea in that this prevented the cupcake from moving around or getting in each other's way. Cool.

We had dinner at Cafe Mediterranean. The girl recommended kebabs: husband ordered fish, I order chicken. I noticed they didn't have pork. IT was 830 pm then and I was hungry so I thought of ordering appetizer. I asked the waitress how long our kebabs would take to cook, she said 20 minutes. She should have warned us.

Anyway looking at the appetizer list was discouraging for someone whose companion has gout: choices included hummus, which is made of garbanzos; a dip with eggplant, which is also a no-no for gout. The only item which seemed all right and which I saw a father and daughter feasting on had parsley, tomatoes and onion, served with one big pita bread.

So we got that. But a minute after it came, so did our kebabs and guess what, the dip we ordered was a side dish in our kebabs. We was robbed! Although not the waiter's fault because we ordered the kebabs from a girl, while the appetizer we ordered from a male who attended to us subsequently. Just had to have the dip packed for take-home, though we ate the pita with the dip served on the side. At Cafe Med they have this garlic dip which is yummy. Years back when we ate at Cafe Med, we took home one order of the dip -- P180 I think but it had to be refrigerated and consumed within 3 days. It never was and to the trash it went. Re the kebabs, the fish was more tender and tasted better, but there were fewer pieces. It was also cheaper.

Speaking of service, the other night when we ate at Fish and Co, I wasn't really feeling up to eating because I don't crave fish that much. But husband wanted fish so I said yes. Ordered seafood chowder, he ordered sweet and sour fish. As I couldn't possibly just stare at him while he ate, ordered mussels cooked in garlic and butter.As I prefer to have soup with a cookie or bread, I asked if I could order bread. The waiter who overheard me talking to the waitress said, the mussels came with bread. How nice of him, so I was able to save money there. I just had to wait for the mussels before I could take the soup.

The seafood chowder was okay, my husband gave me some of the fish, nice and soft on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. The mussels were huge -- I surmise they were imported. The lemon butter sauce was generous, one could take it like soup. I had only 3 pieces of the mussels and took home the rest. They still tasted good at home because of the generous amount of sauce.

As usual, I brazenly asked for Endearmints which they thoughtfully give to guests after the meal. (Minggoy's gives Mentos.) Endearmints, I read up, is made in Africa. According to the waitress, I could buy some for P15 each but I would rather not spend that much when I can ask for free, haha.

At any rate, as we were leaving, one of the waitresses handed us a gift certificate for P500 which we can use in our next visit provided that we order something worth P1000 at least. Not bad, huh? Burgoo used to give chits that entitled one to appetizers, too. They no longer do.