Aida’s Chicken in Manokan Country-Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

What comes into your mind when u hears Inasal? For me it’s Bacolod City. I’ve never been there but my friends always say that Bacolod is the place for delicious Inasal. Inasal is an Ilonggo term means grill.

We arrived in Silay International Airport around 8:25pm, our hotel was in Bacolod City. My tummy was already crumbling. My sister and her friend, who is a true blooded local, Negrense, told us that we can try the Inasal in Manokan Country. Wow so it means chicken is the specialty. Manokan Country, an entire building of carinderia-style restaurants selling a variety of grilled foods, but mainly the famous chicken inasal.

  

 

My sister’s friend brought us to Aida’s Chicken. It is an ordinary looking carinderia, decorated with Masks, used from the local festival called Maskara Festival. Aida’s chicken Bacolod was awarded as best restaurant in 2012 by Esquire. Sounds interesting right? Ordinary looking restaurant but awarded as best restaurant.

The waitress told us that their best seller is the pechopak, it is the breast and wing part of the chicken. We ordered 5 pechopak and 4 cups of steamed rice. The friend of my sister said that the best way to eat the steamed rice is to pour the chicken oil, the oil coming from the chicken while it is being grilled and salt. LOL sounds super unhealthy? You can choose not to try it, but I tried it. I set aside a small portion of rice then poured a little of chicken oil and put a dash of salt. It tasted good why not. It can’t be found in Manila and we were on tour so try new things.

The pechopack was cooked well done. Juicy and delicious till the bones. Dip in the sauce, vinegar, calamondin  and soy sauce. Perfect chicken grilled for me. The prices are cheap for a tasty food. 

Aida’s Chicken

Manokan Country

Fr. M. Ferrero St. cor Rizal St.

Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

El Ideal Bakery the oldest bakery in Silay City

Silay City is in Negros Occidental it is known as the Paris of the Philippines. It is famous for the Spanish old houses, which is the main attractions for the walking tour around the city. After the walking tour we were tired and hungry.

My sister told us that we should try the oldest bakery in the city was founded in 1920s; it is called El Ideal Bakery, pronounced as “el idjal”. It is a must try when in the city of Silay, home of the famous Guapple pie. El Ideal specializes on traditional Bacolod biscuits and delicacies such as quinamuncil, sinambag, biscocho, banadas, broas, galletas, pacienca, piyaya and more.

It was around 3:00pm when we were there. We noticed that during snack time, merienda, locals dine in there. It’s not just a bakery but a refreshment store too.

  We ordered guapple pie, buko pie, egg pie and batchoy.

Guapple pie is made of thin sliced guava fruit, flour blended with cinnamon powder, sugar and milk.  It is topped with powdered sugar. The sour taste of the guava and the sweet taste blended well plus that taste and aroma of cinnamon made it different from other pies. Since it can only be found in Silay City take time to enjoy and savor this sweet treat. At first we ordered two slices then we ordered two more. We wanted to bring some to Manila but we were scheduled to go to Iloilo first and the hotel that we were in had to fridge.

Buko pie is made of sliced thin of young coconut, flour with sugar and milk. The taste of young coconut and sugar made it refreshing. Although the buko pie of Laguna tastes better.

The egg pie was just okay.

I really love noodle soup. Any time of the day I can eat noodle soup. So I tried Batchoy, a famous noodle soup of Ilonggos. It is made of noodles, with strips of pork meat and green leafy veggies topped with crunchy chicaron, popped pork meat. I loved the taste of the soup itself, it was yummy.

El Ideal is located in 118 Rizal St., Silay City, and lower ground of the Cesar Lacson Locsin Ancestral house.  Negrenses treat this bakery as part of their lives.

118 Rizal St., 6116 Silay City, Negros Occidental.

Tel. No. 034-4954430

Barkadahan Grill-Cagayan de Oro City

Before we left Cagayan de Oro City, we had a lunch in Barkadahan Grill. It’s located in the Plaza Divisoria. They offer Filipino dishes, grilled food is the specialty. We Ordered Sinigang na Baboy(Tamarind soup with pork and vegetables), Sinuglaw (Grilled pork belly and raw malasugui fish soaked in vinegar), Pancit Canton (sauted noodles) and Sariwang Lumpia (fresh vegetables spring rolls).

 The crews in here are not so customer oriented ones. Not so polite. There is animosity for us or it might be because we are speaking in National Lanuage. My sisters know Ilonggo and Hiligaynon so they can understand their language a bit but not much that’s why I let them do the ordering most of the time.  We didn’t order drinks we opted for service water, when the crew served the food we told him that we need 4 glasses of service water. He just pointed the water dispenser. In manila even it’s a self-service restaurant, service water is served together with the food. Then if the customer wants more water he could just stand up and get the water from the dispenser. That’s why I told my companion maybe this is a Japanese restaurant that customers should serve themselves and even clean the table before going out. So we just made fun of the situation instead.

We enjoyed the food sinigang na baboy,which tasted good. We are fond of soup that’s why it was nice that it served hot and right for our taste.

The sinuglaw is a coined words for sinugba at kinilaw. Sinugba means grilled and kinilaw is soaked with vinigar and other spices. It was not a pop for me. It’s really an extra challenge for me trying raw food. Grilled pork belly tasted good but when it was mixed with the fish couldn’t really eat it.

Pancit Canton tasted well when was still hot but when it was cold, it was too salty.

All of us liked the Lumpiang sariwa specially the peanut sauce, it made the spring roll stood out. The ingredients blended well.

The restaurant has a good ambiance and we noticed too many are dining in.

Some convenience store in the Divisoria Plaza and even few citizens on the streets, were helpful they took time to talk to us and guided us where we would go. One word that I loved to hear when we were there was the world “Balik-balik” meaning balik kayo or come again.

Thanks Cagayanons for the wonderful experience. You taught us too many lessons and that travel is all about, a learning experience.

Address:

BBQ Joint and Filipino Restaurant

Plaza Divisioria, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental 9000

Tita Fannies Liempo & Chicken Haus (Since 1999) Cagayan de Oro City

On our second night in Cagayan de Oro, we looked for a signature restaurant in the city. The people we met on the streets told us, Steve’s Barbecue, Tita Fannie’s or Barkadahan. We already tried Steve’s Barbecue so we decided to try Tita Fannie’s. It’s a restaurant, which serves Filipino dishes. My sister asked for their best seller. They recommended Liempo de Lechon, it is a deep fried pork meat, tinolang malasugui, and Halo-halo sa buko.

Liempo de Lechon is not a super pop for me; I can find it here in Manila, too many of this kind, although it tastes good too.

 

Liempo de Lechon

 What I liked most was the tinolang malasugui, it’s a ginger soup with fish, the taste of the fresh fish plus the ginger and some ingredients blended well.

Tinolang Malasugui

The Halo-halo was not too sweet, just right and i loved it that way. We learned that the ingredients of it were cooked from the scratch; they don’t use the commercial ingredients that can be bought from the grocery.

Halo-halo

 It’s a plus point that their crews are friendly and accommodating. They can speak in our National Lanuage, Filipino or Tagalog with ease. Forget about the accent, it doesn’t matter as long as we can understand each other. We dined in, in some restaurants but some were rude, I even tried to speak in international language but still they spoke in their own language. I don’t take that against them they are just like that; maybe they just wanted us to learn their language fast. LOL that’s part of the adventure. This branch has a free wifi internet connection too although we couldn't connect because too many diners at that time. 

While we were engrossed talking about our experiences for the tour, our attention caught by a voice then when we looked at the counter bar, there was a guy serenading the diners while his companion roaming around to ask for some donation.

Our night ended with a nice food and good ambiance.

Address:

Corrales St. cor Hayes St. , Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental 9000

                                           

Steve’s Barbecue “Capturing your taste for Barbecue” – Cagayan de Oro

Usually when we are in a short trip, we see to it to look for the best restaurants that serve the local delicacies, which we can try. The taxi driver we hired for Bukidnon trip suggested that we should try Steve’s Barbecue. It was established in the year 1977. One of the old restaurants in the province.  As the name of the restaurant says, their specialty is grill food. I asked the waitress what their best seller she said the grilled ones, so we ordered breast part of the chicken or locally known as “pitso”. The meat was cooked till the bones and juicy. The meat is marinated well. The perfect dip is the usual mixture of lemon, soy sauce and chili pepper or “siling labuyo”.

After the brunch (breakfast and lunch), we proceed to the adventure of the day, Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon. Here we come.

This is the location of the Steve’s Barbecue

J.R.Borja St, Cagayan de Oro, Region X, Philippines

Awesome Tsokolate con Crema by The Manila Collectibles Co.

My sister and I joined a postal heritage tour last month. Part of the tour was dropping by at The Manila Collectibles Co., a cultural gift store. I asked the sales clerk among the spread that they have what is the bestseller; she said the Tsokolate con Crema. I bought one bottle for 200.00 pesos. I got curious would it be like chocolate spread like what we have in the grocery store?

 When we reached the house I tried it right away. It is creamy with a chocolate taste but it tastes more of a coco spread. If you could try the coco spread from Bicol region it is like of that. The Tsokolate con Crema is good for those who have sweet tooth. Chocolate spread the Filipino way. 

Rice Puto and Sinapot or Baduya (Banana fritters) of Ligao, Albay

The first thing one would notice when entering or leaving Ligao, Albay is the array of stores selling native delicacy like rice puto stuffed with different flavors, Pandan or Macapuno. I wanted to try it when we were on our way to Sorsogon but we were in a hurry to reach camalig that’s why when we were returning back to Manila, I didn’t want to miss the rice puto and Sinapot of Ligao, Albay, that’s why even we were still full, we dropped by.

Sinapot/Baduya

 We bought makapuno (another variety of coconut which has a soft coconut meat) and pandan flavored rice puto. It is a steamed cake made of rice flour stuffed with fruit jam. Each pack has two rice puto, the price for Macapuno flavored is 3 packs for 20 while the pandan flavor is 7 pesos per pack.

Sinapot or Banana fritters in Bicol is different from the rest of the country because the banana used is usually not too ripe plus rice flour instead of wheat flour to keep the banana cuts intact plus there is no sugar sprinkled, just the natural sweet of  banana.

Both native delicacies are best to eat while hot.

Our trip was definitely a food trip!