JOLLIBEE

A red big bee! Jollibee!  In the Philippines, Jollibee has always been the biggest rival of McDonald's.

My mom is a good cook. She always prefer to cook for us instead of eating outside. Occasionally she will treat us to fast food restaurants when I was little but most of the time she uses this as a bait. For instance, I remember my mom will “force” us to wake up early in the morning to go to catholic mass. I will never wake up for church. I rather sleep in or play outside with my cousins instead. When my mom tells me, “If you get up for church, I will take you to Jollibee after the mass.” I will wake up as fast as a ightning, and get dressed in a blink of an eye. During the mass however, all I will think about was the crispy, crunchy, yummy chickenjoy and the warm gravy that goes with it.  Hmmmm... Just the name of it makes me drool. When I was little, I also get excited about the toys that came with your “jolly meal.” The  fast food

This was where I go to "Church"
when I was little
 Jollibee in the right corner:)

restaurants has a clever way of selling their products by  means of toy collectables. In order for you to complete the toys, you have to eat several times and purchase it with your order.

When I was in college in the Philippines, I had to move to the big city and live in a dormitory. I live and breath fast foods. Especially because my dormitory was next to Jollibee! My mother was not too happy about it, but I don’t have any other choice. I was too lazy to cook. Sometimes I would go to carinderia. Carinderia is a local eatery that serves viands for an affordable price. The disadvantage though was that, the cleanliness of how they prepared the food was questionable, but this is not a general opinion. Some carinderias are clean. So, the only choices I had back then was to get fat with fast food or to risk getting e.coli with carinderias. Also my friends first choice of food then was fast food. It was not fun, but the people with me that time made it a memorable experience!

My dormitory, and yes! that's Jollibee in the far left corner :)

Nowadays, my mom still cooks for us and packs us lunch to work. In fact, on my school breaks, I still go home and eat at home instead of buying junk foods. I’m not a big fan of fast foods, thanks to my mom! I crave my mom’s homemade foods more than anything else. And I think after reading salt, sugar, fat by Michael Moss I will be more cautious of what I put in my mouth. There’s still an instance where I crave for fast food. I don’t give in much with this temptation though, and try really hard to avoid it. Unless, I’m really stress out and I need some kick or a picker upper. Funny thing is, when I was in the Philippines, even if I eat whatever I want, I don’t gain weight. In here, when I eat, it feels like all the fats just go straight to my belly. Maybe its my metabolism, or maybe its because of the food contents. We’ll we will never know, because the food giants will never tell.

Philippines Vacation 2011 Jollibee

 

Opening of Jollibee franchise in Queens, NY