Coupon fail @ Lisa's and coupon success @ McD's!

Last weekend, my MIL stayed over at our place. Not wanting to cook, TC and I went to pick up some Filipino food over at Lisa's at this strip mall...

We would find two rude surprises...


The first was that my coupon wasn't accepted at this location even though it's listed on the coupon. More on this in a tiny bit.

The other location is in National City but I wasn't going to drive all the way out there.

Their prices are okay. The selection is not as extensive as JNC Pinoy Food Mart which is closer to us.

While persuing the menu above, TC pointed out this sign at the cash register.  I was still in line and figured we'd stay since we already picked out what we wanted. I didn't bring out the coupon or anything, saving me the embarassment, but I was disappointed that the coupon wasn't honored here. I was expecting to pay just $6 or $7 instead of $14, dagnabbit.

Damn you Lisa's....

Steam trays containing pancit, pork adobo, chicken adobo and binogoogang (pork with bagoong)...

Plus fried fish and FRIED CHICKEN SKINS!!!!!!

Our other unexpected surprise was the McDonald's in the strip mall was being completely renovated. I had some iced drink coupons from the mail that I wanted to use. Wanting to be efficient, I thought we 'd do a "two-fer" during our errand, but it turned out to be a bust....

Just my luck, eh.

Undeterred by this setback, we headed the opposite way of Otay Lakes Road, which turns back to Telegraph Canyon Road as you head West. I was going to use this come hell or high water! Plus it was hot and we wanted cold drinks...

The last time we were here was a few years ago when we had a McRib!

TC wanted a Mango Pineapple smoothie while I wanted an Iced Mocha.

Unfortunately their ice machine was out of commission but I was able to get a Frappe for me and Bert to share. Both items were size large and about $3.79 each, but yay for the 2 for 1 coupon, dudes.

Upon our return home, we laid out the Filipino grub in nicer serving vessels. Styrofoam doesn't do it for me.

The Bistek Tagalog with onions...

The (weak) Pancit Bihon.  Nothing beats my mom's version (or mine, heh heh). This was lacking in protein. I kind of regretted this choice but I was thinking more of what my MIL would like to eat.

Chicken Adobo - which I did not taste. These were drumstuck and chopped up thigh pieces.

The Binogoogang  - They use huge pork chunks for this dish. I chop mine much smaller and I don't use as much bagoong. They used regular green beans instead of Chinese long beans (which I prefer).
The dish I liked the most was the pork, but even that was a stretch. TC and Bert preferred the Bistek and my MIL liked pretty much everything.

Later that afternoon, I would make a quick run to Zion for our dinner...