The Road to 40 Day 179/365: Fun Walks and Last Minute Preps

We’re back to our normal routines, and even had a chance to do one that we haven’t done before.

I’ve been walking Vino to and from school everyday that he had classes since he was three years old. When he was younger, he would excitedly share his day or something that he learned in school. Sometimes, he’d just ask random questions that I need to ask myself as well.

I remember a time when he asked me how echoes work and I had to Google it to make sure I’m not sharing some BS information. Over the years, he would learn to search for answers himself, and he would share it with me if he found it interesting.

On this day, he didn’t have his tablet with him, so he wasn’t distracted. He knew that he was going on a trip the next day, so he had a quiet excitement in him that I could feel. He was extra chatty and a bit clingy, which I enjoyed.

I told him I wanted to buy ingredients to cook for dinner. When given the choice between beef bulgogi, bistek, and the Tropical Hut beef copycat, he chose the last one.

We went to the supermarket to get ingredients. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to catch our bus and it was going to take a while for the next one. He was receptive with the idea that we would walk home.

We were throwing random thoughts at each other, like “what if I taught you that something that burns is ‘cold’ and something that freezes is ‘hot’?”

Growing up, I remember I had fun walking around the village with my dad at night. I feel like those were the times he shared some stories from the past, either with his siblings or with my mom. Even if there weren’t stories, it was always nice to just walk around with our dogs walking with us.

At some point, those walks just stopped. I don’t know how or when, but I don’t remeber it being such a big deal back then. Looking back at it as an adult, I think it was kind of a big deal not being able to do those walks anymore.

With Vino, I think I want it to be a thing for us. We don’t have to have heart to heart talks. I’m just happy to talk about nonsensical things as much as I would enjoy hearing his honest thoughts. I want him to be comfortable talking to me about anything, and I hope that these walks help build that connection between us well into his adult years.

When we got home, I remembered that we wanted to buy an Air Tag to put on Vino’s bag. Che said we should meet in Vivo and maybe eat there for dinner. I decided to just clean up a bit while Vino had a snack. Then off we went to Vivo.

Since she has crossed off everything in the packing list, there was really nothing else to buy except for the Air Tag. Vino was still full from his snack, and Che was feeling under the weather, so we decided to just head home instead of eating out.

I at least had ingredients for what I’m going to cook, so it was fine. Che slept a bit while Vino played with his friends online.

As requested, I cooked a copycat of Tropical Hut’s Quick Fried Beef.

Searching through Google, there are surprisingly no available recipes on this dish. I feel like it’s easy enough, and there are various ways Asians would cook stir-fried beef, so you would see available recipes for quick-fried beef.

However, I feel like Tropical Hut does it a certain way that evokes nostalgia for someone like me who grew up patronizing the place.

I think Tropical Hut is a more Filipino representation of a fast food chain more than Jollibee, but the latter was just more successful in selling itself. Like the Bee, Tropical has distinct-tasting burgers as well, and they offer truly Filipino dishes all day like daing na bangus and the iconic lumpia.

When we were in the Philippines, I had Vino try the Quick Fried Beef because I thought it was lunchbox-friendly. He liked it then, and I’ve tried to recreate it at least once. That one time was successful, so he requested for it again today.

I cooked kimchi soup for Che as well using the fresh kimchi we got from Kathreen and JP in Korea.

We got Vino to sleep early because we had an early calltime of 7am in school. As excited as he was, he was a bit tired from the day of walking and all the activities in school.

Tomorrow will be a milestone event for all of us with his school trip.