The Adventures of Flo and Chubbs to, at, and fro the Cookbook Kitchen

The night started innocently enough.

Flo asked me where I wanted to have dinner and I muttered, "Something chicken...," remembering a high school classmate who wanted to read the Chicken God's Wife by Amy Tan. It turned out I was referring to The Cookbook Kitchen.

Being that I was wearing a very green girly dress and high heels, we set off to catch a cab. After waiting in the queue for several minutes, getting a worrying phone call, and seeing a sight that was *a bit* depressing, I ranted to Flo in the cab. After a while, I decided to myself out loud, so that Flo, the taxi driver, and the whole world could hear, "I shouldn't be sad; this is a great year!"

Little did I know that the night's adventures have just begun.

The Cookbook Kitchen is snugly located in a residential area in Mandaluyong. These days, though, a road leading to the cafe is closed for construction. This means that our purpose for riding the cab was totally defeated, as I was walking blocks and blocks in, yes, a very green girly dress and high heels.

What's more, when we got to the road construction site we were forced to choose between wet cement and actual dirt. As our heels were sinking in the compact earth with every step, I said, "Flo, that's wet cement. Better here than there, or we'd be stuck til morning." It was a very good point, I thought.

After going through the road block, we realized that we had another problem: We were a bit lost. So there we were walking in between a massive house where giants seem to live and this thick hedge, not unlike the ones in the Triwizard maze. The last street sign that we checked did not match to the directions in Flo's phone. But after a while... Lo and behold! A sari-sari store! We're saved!

According to the guy at the sari-sari store, we were just two blocks away. As we walked away from the sari-sari store and nearer to our destination, I said, "In fairness, hindi siya pangit." This was welcomed by Flo's unsurprisingly loud laugh. In less than a split second we were chorusing in laughter. "Nawawala na nga tayo, yan pa iniisip mo!" She was amused, as she always is, with my unusual behavior.

When we finally arrived at the Cookbook Kitchen, we were as hungry as ever. We decided to order CBK Chicken and Adobo Pasta. The ambiance was very homey; a place for the family or for nights out with the girls. This particular night spent with a great girl-friend. And so in between mouthfuls of very delicious chicken and adobo pasta, the talking of the-things-that-girls-talk-about-in-nights-out ensued.

After all the good food was gone to the very last bit, we got a cab back to the office. Again, one would think that the story ends here. But as we were riding the elevator to our floor, the lights suddenly turned off midway. I swore loudly, waiting for the panic to rise inside me. Flo took hold of a railing in the dark. We thought there was a blackout and that the elevators stopped functioning. But when the elevator doors opened with a flood of light, we realized that we were brought up to our floor safely.

And here is where our story ends: Flo and I scared to our wits, but considering the night as a great adventure nonetheless.