Way Down South.

Besides going to Boracay in 2006, this was the only time I get to ride a plane and leave Luzon. Davao was extremely beautiful. The air was clean, people were extra kind and nice and Samal Island was a real sight for sore eyes. Forgive me, I haven’t done this for a while but hey, let’s start with the food.

You can’t visit Davao without trying some durian (good thing you can’t smell ‘em now, right?). On the second day of our trip, we went snorkeling in Talikod island and getting there required you to get on boat. After getting to Coral Park and done with a little snorkeling, John, my cousin was given a big piece of durian. The boatman insist that John eat some since it will be his first time tasting the stinky fruit-city slickers don’t just eat durian right away. When I got back to the boat, John already had two bites of durian and he wanted me to try it-so I did. It tasted like a very sweet slab of corned beef, I kid you not. I suggest you try it; I’ll let you know if I ever try eating it again. Haha!

If you’re not the stinky fruit type, I suggest you try a little more something extreme. Eat a croc. Yup, C-R-O-C, the animals that Steve Irwin was always wrangling with. It was not that taboo for me since I look at it as if crocodiles were farmed for multiple purposes like getting their skin, eating their meat and preserving the species. It’s all good. We had Crocodile sisig. Sisig is a Filipino dish made from parts of pig’s head and liver, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili peppers, but in this case, they used crocodile meat. It was good since crocodiles are really meaty, like almost no fat. I only felt muscles in my mouth. It was a really hard meal to chew but it was worth a try. I was actually looking for frozen crocodile meat that I can take to Manila so I can crocodile adobo, but there was none available.

Getting back to the city proper, we hunted down the best place to eat since we would want to steer away from the regular McDonald’s and Jollibee, we ended up eating at Coco’s and Lyndon’s. Coco’s had a T.G.I.Fridays vibe to it, they have great food. I had their Chipotle Burger. I expected good food since the place is visually appealing-plus it tastes impressive and the serving was huge. What surprised me were Lyndon’s ribs; the local told us that you’d be able to eat baby back ribs/steak for less than 200Php. That Davao local was heaven sent because those were the damn best ribs I had-ever. It was so juicy, flavorful and it was cheap beyond imagination. We had the 500gms ribs; it had corn and a cup of rice with it. The ribs were already covered in sauce but they still gave us extra sauce in case we still want more. Let me tell you now, I’d go back to Davao just to have the ribs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have one happy tummy. Hopefully we’d have more food adventures to come. Here are some pictures of our trip.

The stinky but delicious fruit.

The Binturong, a popcorn smelling bearcat. It smells like buttered popcorn.

The sea eagle. It's a bad boy with big ass wings. I got to touch it. Rock on!

Lyndon's Worst Ribs, as they call it. What an irony.

The Batman style zipline position.

Monfort Bat Colony. Estimated to have 2million bats ion this colony.

Crocodile Sisig. Crikey!

Turning JAPANESE

Moshi moshi! Here's the thing, I've been crazy over burgers lately. It doesn't matter if it's cheap or it's expensive-I want it. Well, most of the ones I ate were pretty cheap (Hahaha). Anyway, after getting my burger fix, I'm a little obsessed with Japanese food. Everybody likes tempura so I veered away from it. What I do like are the different kinds of maki, sashimi, and what have you. I do it more because I get amazed on the chopstick and/or sushi etiquette. I think I’m ready for the real sushi bar experience. Having that said, where can I find a sushi bar? Konnichiwa! Arigato gozaimasu! Terriyaki Boy will help me with my sushi lust for now.

Here are some of the things I ate just to fulfill my stomach of it's Japanese craving;

California Maki

Philly Cheese Steak

Norwegian Salmon Sashimi

Gyoza

disclaimer: I'm as lazy as an old dog. These are not my pictures. :)

Everybody's Manang (Old Lady)

               Firstly, I would like to apologize for the crappiest picture of this blog’s entirety. I got some pictures from the net just so we can have a clear picture – pun intended. My sister and I went specifically to buy Mexican hand wraps since she was about to start boxing. I emphasized Mexican just because of the comfort and performance it provides when you’re engaging in a full-contact sport. Anyway, it took her about 10 sports shops and she still can’t find any. I know for a fact that there should be at least one Mexican hand wraps since I had one before unfortunately leaving it at Elorde. Bummer.

                Anyway, the first part of our search went dry, I was just craving for a burger; but my sister insisted that I need to try Manang’s Chicken. One cool fact is, a few weeks or days back, she gave me the company’s story on how Manang’s recipe became Manang’s chicken. It’s definitely a good buy and it’s not the regular chicken you can make at home especially if you can’t grab a hold of the recipe. Hope I gave you an idea and try experimenting at home. Haha, I’ll try getting in touch with my friend who studied culinary in the states.

Here's how it should look like.

Here's the crappy pic I took. I'm sorry.

There’s a First Time for Everything

            I’m not ashamed of saying I don’t have a nightlife-I’m a day person. This is slowly becoming a lie as I get out with old high school friends. December 17, 2011, this is the date I can say “We went out to a bar and grabbed some drink” instead of getting wasted in a house-which to me was a better idea just because of better and cheaper booze.

The following events happened around 12AM-1AM (I always wanted to use this ala 24 line). We started the night at Izakaya, grabbed some beer, and checked the crowd. It was a nice place, a little too small but people were A-OK but we need that group thing going since we’re also a group. After hitting a little dry spell, we went out to Cable Car to check out the scene. My friends knew some people we were still checking girls out and trying to get to talk to them but everyone was with someone. Its not what you see on TV just like Home Shopping Network, that’s how bad our statistic was. Nevertheless we had a great night drinking with ourselves and playing foosball. Since it was really late and we were still supposed to hit another bar, we decided to hit Mercato for a quick bite and then go to the next bar. It was around 2:30AM when we got to Mercato and we walked around a little to check what would be good to eat. It was almost closed and we (and by “we”, I meant I) saw this huge burger. I immediately said I want a burger if it’s not that 12-incher, I still want something heavy after not eating for 7-8hrs.

There was a long debate if we would be getting the 12” burger and we did after saying that we don’t have balls if we didn't try it at the very least. Run Burger Run, having a running themed burger stand called it The Marathon- if you eat it; I think you’d need to run 42k just to burn it. By the way, I doubt if two people can eat it in one sitting. Anyway, before or right on the first bite, we got our picture taken by this beautiful RBR lady (which I forgot to ask the name, so rude of me, so RBR, if you may, can we please have all your names at that particular time?) to make things official. So there we were with the Marathon and we had it sliced 3 quarters and 2 1/8ths just because Jared and Jiggy didn’t have the marbles to even try devouring a quarter. With all honesty, I think I finished my part around 7-8 minutes Jiggy didn’t even come to close finishing his. Jared downed it. Paolo tapped out when there were about three bites left. Kudos to the guys, nevertheless, it was a great battle with a cow. While I was washing down the burger with soda, The RBR peeps told us about their plans on making a gimmick for the Marathon something about speed eating. So cutting it short, we gave our two cents (while burping discreetly) so we would have a small part of its history.

Cutting this shorter; burger was great, really moist, really tasty and super sinful. What’s great about it is there was nothing “new” or unusual about it; it was basically lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, beef, caramelized onions, and bacon. There was nothing crazy about it besides the size, I loved the simplicity. And for those of you who can’t imagine how big it is, it’s as big as a regular steering wheel and about 4” high.

I hope to see you soon Run Burger Run peeps. Really enjoyed the experience. It wasn't just big, it also tastes superb. Kudos!

Here's a link to their Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/runburgerrun  )

High School was so-so. Saturday was EPIC.

My high school was alright. Whoever said that high school was the best four years of their life hasn’t been to college-although, yes, your friends in high school would be a different breed of friends. This epic night was cancelled two times and we’re just really excited to pull something off like this, so rest assured that there is more to come. Paolo Descalzo, who studied culinary in the states, took care of the house and food. Jared Briones, a nursing grad from St.Paul now taking law in Ateneo took care of my ride and a Johnny. Jiggy Marquez, (I forgot what you took in college) took care of the main booze, an Absolute Kurant and half a bottle of another Johnny. Emer was there for attendance, kidding, bro.

The night started around 9PM. We met up at the Antipolo city hall to follow Paolo via convoy to his house. We got to their house and all of us were at awe to see this beautiful house surrounded by just a few other houses. I would describe it as a Moroccan-beach house in a subdivision in Antipolo. I was really hoping there was a pool in the property just to complete the resort feeling. Every wall was painted pastel, red, maroon and other earthy colors. The feeling was complete, it was really cozy and comfortable for me that I can sleep wherever and I just feel so at home.

I'm not entirely sure what they were and what ingredients were included but they were damn good! We chowed down on these:

Bread with tomatoes, cream cheese, garlic(I think). It was so good!

Mashed potatoes, pasta with bacon and some papaya (i think, again), some chicken with lime (I'm still not sure) Haha

Cinnamon apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.

                Again, I’m not entirely sure of what it’s called but Paolo cooked really great; I would almost want to be there every weekend, or every other weekend just to eat what he cooks. I almost felt I was in a resto that I only see on TV since I just eat wherever-that’s the ambience his house and cooking gave us.

                After eating and before starting the drinking sesh, we took a stroll the subdivision and tried checking out the view from a hill near San Beda Taytay. It was awesome-so awesome that I can’t hold my pee any longer and peed on the hill while admiring and smiling on the view. The skyline was amazing and there was nothing like it I’ve seen. You can actually see Makati, Taguig and other cities buildings color the dark blue sky. It was perfect, the company, the food, the house-everything. It was so good in fact; we decided we should do it every month and try to add something new so we can grow as a crew. We will be doing this again soon, boys! 

Since I really wanted to share what we ate, here's the chef you made the wonderful food.
"Ano ung kinain natin?" = "What did we eat?"

Much Needed Break

                MAC Tycoon Medical Depot went on a company outing-slash-team building and it was so fun even for a newbie like me. It was wonderfully chaotic since it was the first time the company held such an event. We went to Laiya in San Juan, Batangas in Casa Dolores which is a very wonderful place. It had a snorkeling spot, beach volleyball courts, jet skis, banana boats and kayaks which I really enjoyed. The only thing missing are the bars lined up at the shore but the people were loaded so no worries. It was an overnight affair so we ate after travelling for about 4hrs from Bambang and everyone was dead hungry so we ate some binagoongan, grilled chicken and booze were flowing from 10:00pm to about 4:00am.

                We had hard drinks, to watch out for the girl’s figures and for the guys to get the right buzz. They had El Hombre tequila and a lot of Emperador Light I got hammered just after 2 bottles of tequila and 2 bottles of that Emperador, we were 6 in the rotation. Anyway, after getting hammered, I went to bed with a big smile on my face and some stories I really enjoyed. We woke up around 8:00am just to enjoy the beauty of the beach and upon waking up; I have the biggest hangover that I thought I can shake off after swimming. I got to a deep part of the beach, tried to tire myself on the cool water – didn’t happen. I went back to the shore and it got worst so I lay down on the sand, Islander slippers on my head and tried to keep last night’s dinner on my stomach. I succeeded after about 20-30mins of staying still. After getting well and enjoying more of the cloudy day, we went back to our cottage and we found Mr. and Mrs. Claus waiting for everyone. They bought lechon and I just thought that it was going to be a good lunch, but it didn’t turn out that way - it was better! Better in a way that we ate that lechon for breakfast, I mean, c’mon, who gets to eat lechon for breakfast. And the rest as they say is history. I had lechon, longganisa and some of that binagoongan leftover for breakfast.

The tasty binagoongan.

The wonderful breakfast scene after the morning swim.

The succulent lechon.

And some of the tastiest longganisa I've eaten. 

Photos taken by Pong Castillo.

The Quest Begins

         I have a serious craving for pizza and burgers, since I already wrote a piece about Yello Cab and their pizza and pasta, I think it's time to write something about burgers. I will be joining a challenge next weekend and I'll win that challenge for sure. It'll be at Burger Avenue and I already made some calls for my sister Pong and her friend Marj to come with me. I'll write about it for sure and expect a video eating that 1 pound bad boy.