The Food in Cebu and Bohol

Photo Courtesy of Riziel Cabreros (And her plate of delicious delicacies too!)

Remember the first day in Cebu? Well, if you do good for me. (HAHA) If you don't, then here's a snippet of the highlights.

We just came from Manila and managed to tour Mactan Island. After so we headed to Cebu City and were ready to eat at the buffet lunch served at Crowne Regency Plaza when Ziel realized she forgot her wallet at the hotel. Long story short, we were hungry, tired, and ready to eat each other alive but had to run home to get the money. So bye-bye Zielork (Ziel+pork, if I ever end up eating her. LMAO)

Given that we've been hungry for some 5 hours now, it may be assumed that"nalipasan na kami ng gutom" (how can I say that in English that'll get my feelings across? dunno).Maybe, we (I mean, I) got tired of being hungry. But of course at that time, I couldn't care less. All I knew was that there's a mountain full of food and I'm famished. I ogled at the sight before me. And what I do best when I ogle, I dive in, divulge, and overestimate --- sort of the traveler taking everything in (literally and figuratively).

In other words, I gave myself too much serving of every century egg, baked shallots, braised chicken, penang rice and the other what-have-yous I cannot remember.

So let's fast forward a bit. We talked a lot for the rest of the meal and I've reached my 15-minute food attention limit. There lying on my plate was a full meal able to feed 2 kids. (There are people who die of hunger. Crap, I knew that). Good news was, Ziel finished up her meal good and clean. Thank you Lord, there still exists the balance of nature.

Check out the place. 18th floor of Crowne Regency Plaza Tower II. This is where all that food happened. It's not a good photo so bear with me.

Wang Shang Lo serves Buffet lunch from 10am to 2pm daily.

Here's the long-line of temptation.

The story of the first day foodfest did not end in an anticlimactic mood, moreover we went home in high spirits. When you visit Cebu do not forget to eat at Larsian food strip, a place that caters to a wide number of stalls serving grilled chicken skin, pecho (chicken thigh), isaw (chicken intestines, sounds disgusting but is actually a gratifying surprise), barbecue and more sumptuous grilled food on a stick. And of course, the puso, a Cebu local delicacy also known as the hanging rice.

If you hail from the Northern regions of the Philippines the distinct physical look of this delicacy would remind you of the classic suman, rice cake wrapped in dried banana leaves. The puso thereof is made of cooked rice wrapped in woven coconut or banana leaf pouch. The best part of the Larsian expedition is the kamayan style of eating (eating with your hands)! When do you get to do that? Well, not most of the time that's for sure.

Larsian is a great chill-out place where you could drink beer and feel the Cebu vibe right in the puso of the city.

Here's the layers of Cebuano pecho. Yum-yum! Photo Courtesy of Riziel Cabreros

Heres' my plate and this time I ate them, ATE THEM ALL!BWAHAHAHAHA. I miss Cebu.

So now you must have an inkling that this is the famous puso.

And this is how I roll, Cebu food trip style. Don't dare disturb.

After 10 minutes. Full?Check. Happy?Check. Pretty?Um (I'll get back to you). With Joe.

Here's another pose, an even more orchestrated "we're too cool for you, fool" pose.

Ah, and here's a photo when we had so much fun about everything under the artificial sun (aka lightbulbs)

Then here I am, happy, full and of course slobbered all over the chin, notice some of those dark spots are sauce(s).

Here's the Cebuana tourist, Johanna Poblete.

Then here's Ziel, who took most of our photos since me and Joe had a lot of catching up to do (We haven't seen each other for years).

Let us skip the sleep. On with our Bantayan travel on the next day. The beginnings was as uneventful as it was memorable. Our two hour wait at Hagnaya port for the next Roro ride gave way for a once in a lifetime experience.

It was the 7th heaven of street food, the monumental allegory of dirty grilldom. Yes, I had a taste of the best, most tasteful and distinctive barbecue priced at 10 pesos that I (or anyone else) will and have ever tasted. Love it, love it, miss it.

For you to smell even the slightest aroma of heaven in your mouth envision tiny pieces of meat precisely cut into thin bite-size pieces, looking delightfully on their own. Then add marinate with the right amount of soy sauce, tomato sauce, and some secret ingredient sauce sprinkled with pepper and coated with a thin layer of oyster sauce to top it off. Mmmmm. Finally, bake them into perfection with the right temperature, passable tricycle pollution, (deplorable but) tolerable smokers' smoke and the precise number and manner of fanning. Yep, best ten pesos I've spent.

Sadly, we were not aware of its importance and no photos were taken. The inset picture is not of the barbecue made from heaven since we were hungry and too delighted to remember taking photos. Boohoo.

Once you've had a taste of the best, the worst will kill you. Before checking-in for the Roro ride, we decided to have another barbecue session (just for the kicks or was that for lunch?) with another store (assuming it was of the same ambrosial quality). Obviously, lightning does not strike same place twice. We were dismayed, worse, we fell from heaven face down to the hell of grillhood. The barbecue were like screws in my mouth. (I can hardly chew them into pieces!). It tasted like charcoal as if the meat disappeared on the hands of the wrong griller. Dang, I hated that barbecue, I wish I bought the rest of the barbecue(s) of Manang from the best barbecue stall on the face of the earth. GRRR.

Anyway, we ate banana cue after the best barbecue and before the worst (HAHA. sounds bitter). That's just too many cues in a paragraph. Banana cue is made of kind of banana that we call, saba (banana used for cooking) rolled in brown sugar and deep fried. The banana was good, not great but it passed the test of edibility and was miles better than the friggin's barbescrews!

That's a ba...wait for it....nana cue (LOL).

The Bantayan Island food trip did not happen because we arrived at 1pm and can only travel the little island for 2 hours so we did not waste any on eating (waste??what waste??).

Moving on, for the last tour day we had another buffet lunch at the Loboc River floating restaurant cruise that was a part of our Bohol tour package. After learning a lesson from talking while eating I took the high road and shut my mouth (for the talking) and opened it wide (for eating). It worked! I ate everything on my plate (except for the chicken, but Ziel wasn't able to finish it either so that's no longer counted.food-lawyered) and actually enjoyed it all. Hmm, best of them was the chewy green seaweeds. Believe me, try the most bizarre looking food and be gratifyingly mistaken. At the end of it all, you've got to taste the experience.

The food of fun. Wee!Burp!I'm done.

Last tip for travelers, buy a big bag of soda crackers, Skyflakes, Bluskies or Rebisco crackers and water because when you're walking or hiking or simply in a bus with no food, it'll ruin your trip. Enjoy the food and drink safe water. :))

-Pau