International Manila Book Fair x Midnight Mercato

I won't miss the nerd convention, so right after our Saturday class, with giddy anticipation and some freshly withdrawn crisp cash, we drove all the way to the other end of the metro.

Yes, (not unfortunately) this is our idea of "leisure" (from our piles of cases and codals). No joke.



Check out how lovely bookshelves are when they're filled with books. Swoon.




Look who we have here... our "friends" from IBON

The world's best-selling book


I find it paradoxical to find a cartoon DVD shop INSIDE a book fair.

This kid knows what he wants

I'm home!


Still haven't figured out how to read this book. Help?



Full-fledged geeks, certified kaladkarins.
Final tally:
1. Marc - 2 (Eric Gamalinda's My Sad Republic and Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo's Creative Non-fiction: A Reader)
2. Jojo - 2
3. Jackie - 2
4. Jo Ann - 1 (FH's Unplugging the Constitution)
and the landslide winner:
5. Gina - 7 (Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Code, George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons, Azarello and Risso's Once Upon A Crime...)

*****
Even when we have overflowing love for books, wrestling with and snaking through the book fair crowd was exhausting and famishing. Solution: Midnight Mercato.

The place is foody paradise. There's one for everyone's craving. For cheap but tasty dependables, there are lots of booths selling barbeque, isau, burgers, tacoes... basically everything. Name it. For desserts with a twist, there's this ice cream parlor with candied bacon and salted caramel flavors. Popular among my friends is the pan de bagnet sandwich.




French macaroons, voulez-vous?
As for me, I'm coming back for this one - among others:

Manang's chicken, the best spicy chick in the metro


Check out the line, all the way outside!

Midnight Mercato was a war for seats. We ended up eating in the parking lot.

I still wanted scour through each of the shops. Unfortunately, it had been a long day and it was still a long drive home, so we had to cut our already quick food trip short.

We all had to wake up early the next day (at least we though we will) to (pretend-)study

Will definitely check out Mercato again.  ☮