Echo Cafe

time check: 7:00 am

The day before was packed with an early breakfast date somewhere in Manadaluyong which I will be writing about after I get the food pictures from Alan's phone, a coffee and magazine-reading date and sadly, a shopping date. "Sadly" not because I am all Ilocana about this (meaning stingy, kuripot and all) but I detest going to malls especially on weekends. My weekends are sacred and malling on weekends is a sacrilege. And then late in the afternoon, I went home to a houseful of cousins from the province doing last minute shopping for the opening of another school year and though I love them and I love their energy and loudness and enthusiasm and I cherish family moments like this, my lola self simply wants to have some time by her lonesome. Good thing, there are two days in a weekend and the next day, on a beautiful Sunday morning, I got all "selfie", woke up early and headed to Eton Centris. My Sunday morning agenda included the following: a) explore the Sidcor Sunday Market; b) have breakfast in Echostore; c) work out. Check. Check. Check. While the Sidcor Sunday Market experience is an all together different and exciting account, this piece with a rather long introduction (I am so sorry) is about my breakfast date with myself in Echo Cafe.

This photo was taken before the store opened and while on my way to Sidcor. I loved how the early morning sun cast its light towards the columns and I am restraining myself to get all poetic about this. Haha! I love love mornings! My intention was to highlight the "we serve breakfast" pronouncement because that is the loveliest thing a establishment can say aside from xx% off or buy 1 take 1. Haha!

The Echo Eton branch is both a cafe and a store (which is pretty much how the brand is set up). It is a feel good place because of its advocacy of a sustainable lifestyle - their products are organic and therefore friendlier to the environment. Read all about them in their official website. See the clock? It reads past eight am, I spent a really good time in Sidcor, it took me almost an hour to just look around and appreciate. :)

I chose to park myself at the table by the counter. I purposely chose the spot where my skin will be touched with a little amount of gentle sunshine. I have not eaten a meal by myself for a long time and I am all excited about this. Weird noh? Haha! I love it that they were playing 90s music (muddled with hip-hop beats from an ongoing Zumba class right outside the cafe :) ).

The green wall is easy and refreshing on the eyes. I took this picture to capture the posters which profess the company's advocacy, I think. My vision is failing me.

What I had for breakfast:

Homemade tapa with garlic rice, egg, mango shreds and hot mint tea.

The meal was incredibly satisfying! I was just halfway through this wonderful breakfast meal and I was already full. It must be the brown rice. Or the meat. Or the tea. Whenever I eat solo, I always make sure to bring with me a reading material. I did not bring a book with me this time because I am still deciding what will be my worthy next read. What I did bring are two magazines (about travel and about home interiors) and a newspaper bought from Sidcor Market. The headline is about the Serendra blast - may God bless all those whose lives were taken and who were hurt by this incident.

Valrhona Sans Rival. I was salivating over the calamansi lime-pie but I thought it was too early for something sour. So I chose my favorite of all types of cake - sans rival. The store offers two versions though: pandan sans rival and valrhona sans rival. What to do with too much choices? Consult the waitress - so I ended up with the wonderful and deadly combination of thick dark chocolate and a no-fail sans rival and for a moment, I forgot that I was alone and kept on muttering, "God, ang sarap!". I will definitely go back to the cafe if only for this heavenly breakfast dessert experience. :)

I believe we owe it to ourselves to indulge in me-time just to make sure that everything is okay. We underrate at times moments like this because after all, we are social creatures built to connect with other creatures. It's nice to pause once in while. Tune ourselves up a bit. And then when we are okay from within, we manifest this okay-ness, upsize it a bit to something "wonderful", and this wonder we share with the world. On a beautiful Sunday morning.

To superb solo time and beautiful Sundays!

All Sunshiny,

Tina