Pao Tsin, My old Fave

My mother brought home a couple take outs of Pao Tsin last night. I missed this stuff. Last time I had this was way back in September 2007 when I still worked for San Miguel Properties as a real estate agent for their newly opened Real Estate Department. I ate it with a workmate Josh who was also from the same college I studied. I never realized that Pao Tsin would get big enough to have franchises around Metro Manila.

Back in college my classmates and I ate this stuff almost every single day. It came out around 1999 from what I can remember. We at it at the school canteen. It was part of my regular school diet, including Mcdonald's, Pupung's, Kaibigan near La Salle Main, the food area at the back of our school near St. Scho, and occasionally Chowking and Tapa King.

So Pao Tsin's been around for quite a while now. Ten years, perfect time for me to write something about it. Pao Tsin didn't have a big place at the canteen, it was just a small booth thing. But they sure packed in the customers, students would line up like crazy during breaks.

Back then Pao Tsin didn't serve rice or anything else but steamed or fried dumplings and their gulaman. It didn't even come in this nice black packaging as shown above. It was in a plain disposable paper oblong plate, just like the ones you get when you buy fishballs or squidballs off the street. They'd pour their ToyoMansi sauce and of course one would normally ask for extra chili because they never give enough. I would buy the rice at the nearby booth at Pumpernickels where I would normally buy my soda or iced tea and the occassional hamburger. Now they serve rice and noodles and a few other things. Looks like they've grown quite a bit.

I sure miss school. Heh.