POp-Up KItchen = POUKI

Pop-Up Kitchen. A getting to be well-known joint in Tacloban - especially for the foreign development workers. I'm new to this place. My curiosity was just 'tickled' by partners from other development/aid groups around that I constantly get to meet (formally or informally) in the course of performing our respective roles in the Yolanda-stricken areas of Eastern Visayas. Yes nauna hira. As if diri ako local!

What really is this?
Well... ah... eh.., 1] a weird restobar - for us probinsyanos; 2] a cool rustic joint - for these foreigners I often see every time I come by; 3] an "o ano yan, mukhang okay ah" for folks from Metro Manila hehe!

Ganito kasi yan...

As a restaurant (or burger joint), this place is a small shack with some space (vacant lot) where the owners thought of cooking up stuff that they thought might be good to serve us visitors - customers.

As a bar (many kinds of drinks - straight, mixed or blended cocktails and freezing below zero beers), these kids (yep, the owners are all youngsters) thought of parking a big truck on the vacant lot, where the sides of the truck fold open to become the bar! Ganun lang. Not really attractive to many Filipinos, but something that foreign visitors quite constantly hie up to! Fridays are craziest. Expect longer lines!
I kinda think this 'style' is cool. Yeah coolness like no other. 'Wag lang umulan!

They use used-wooden-crates for chairs and tables. The same used-wood ("palo-tsina") pallets serve as "elevated flooring" on that corner next to the main counter or cooking area. They also even used a big wooden spool (that used to hold very long electric cables) placed on its side, and voila, a table! A log (or is that called driftwood?) was placed between two used crates and it became a study bench!

Things like those make the place cool(I think)!

Ah, the food?! OMG! The burgers are grilled and are tooooo big for me! They brim with ingredients like bacon etc etc. And of course, you will ruin your poise tryin to gnaw at them as they are so thick. Mahal din, at about P280 for the best burger! Plus, you are not given utensils but just a barbecue stick! Well, they will give plastic fork and knife set if you ask for them. But look around, no one asks for it. Diners just open their mouths wide and mangle the big burger hehe! Aliw! That, I think makes the place fun.

Not that I think this kind of joint will last in a place like Tacloban, due to the cost (high-end) and the setup (very rustic fun). Iba kasi ang trip ng mga Pinoy (or Waray), and let me not describe that here. But I do hope POUKI will last as long as I am here hehe. I am almost sure, when we development/aid groups start leaving the city, this place will start losing the crowds. Tacloban is not yet ready for this.

But for me, and those of you who might be in or round Tacloban, enjoy while POUKI lasts!

If you're lucky or charming enough, the owners' youngest bro can draw your face pronto, on the spot!

Like what they are doing in that pic! Mr. Oshkosh was not smiling at my camera. He had to maintain that smile for it to register in the sketch! Mr. artist is a true blue Waray (Taclobanon), who came home from the states where he studies. Talk to him in English to hear "wanna wanna gonna gonna" ek-ek!

Here's the back of that truck bar again, while there were no customers yet...

And that's the back of the waiters' uniform. Wasn't that a restaurant sometime ago somewhere?

I'll be back for more of this topic. Soon, I hereby predict hahaha!

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