Filipino Sojourner: beef pares

I finished my assigned work after a few days of wandering around Camarines. So, It was time for me to go home by traveling 10 hours or more from Naga City to Manila. I went to Naga City public terminal and rode a Philtranco bus there. The day is sunny and my trip is fast but boring. I fell asleep after few minutes of watching the changing landscape outside the bus window.

I woke up when I felt that my bus is coming to a halt. We had a stopover at a small restaurant located somewhere along the provincial highway in Quezon province. It is lunch time so I joined the other passengers to eat a lunch at the restaurant named as Pares Express.

Pares is a Filipino dish that literally means “pair.” This dish is composed of beef stew and a bowl of soup that are served together with rice. I haven't tasted beef pares for a long time now so I decided to order one at this restaurant. To my dismay, I discovered that at that time Pares Express only offers these dishes:

They have menudo, afritada, eggplant cooked in coconut milk and another vegetable dish. They don't have beef pares or any variation of the pares dish. It seems like it is a pares restaurant that doesn't offer any pares dish.

Because of this, I just ordered menudo and a cup of rice, which costs at around 70 pesos. It is expensive considering that what they gave is a small plate of menudo. I can buy a menudo dish and a cup of rice in Manila for a price of 40 pesos. It seems like the owners of Pares Express took advantage of the fact that hungry passengers have no choice but to eat at their restaurant.

Pares Express is possibly one of the usual stopovers of Philtranco buses. Our bus driver and the bus conductor has a special table at that restaurant.

Pares Express also has pay toilets that passengers can use. Toilet use is 5 pesos per person.