THE HAUNTING IN PANAY AVENUE (Roces, Cubao III and Binondo)

The Holy Man from Brussels was in Bacayao with a bottle of blended holy water by himself to bless The Unholy gathered for a drink in that unholy hour while somewhere, the disgraced reporter and fake visionary from Banfield shared a plate of lechon, inihaw na pabo, adobong kambing and kalderetang manok tagalog while being serenaded with a Hillbilly Elegy by a two-man band from Kentucky's hill country and a strip of Ohio's Rust Belt.

Sure, the Black Crab from Sweden painted Wednesday night's barbecue and isaw with Munoz green but it was in Pochok Bangusan where Don Alejandro Roces wrote the story of a grilled milkfish drowned in a green tomato-celery (and bits of onion) garnish and drunk memories from the kitchen of Ihaw Balot Plaza that was displaced by baked green mussels and calamares from the paluto stalls of the Dampa sa Farmers Market in gentrified Cubao.   

Thus was how the cards played in Panay Avenue when the Snowpiercer reached Manila as LRT 2 but Jolly Dada Eatery's palabok and halo-halo were gone when it reached Recto via MRT 3 and LRT 1  where the saints of Tayuman played with the surgical tools from Bambang before Melanie's coup d'etat in Episode 9 of Season 3 and a lunch of Delicious' chami, asado and dry kikiam in Binondo as Room 101 was finally secured and furnished. 

Thus was how Part 1 of Season 4 concluded  when the citizens of Ozark descended upon the SIDCOR Sunday Market for an all-Ilocano breakfast of inferior dinakdakan, authentic dinardaraan and tinuno nga tarong nga naidumudom ti bugguong.   

On this week, the Phantom Biker left the pieces of broken friendships along his usual trails before escaping the weariness of the pandemic with a third trip to the capital and returning to the company of real friends and a really good bilao of pansit malabon that will put Pastora and Jolly Dada to shame.