Ultimate Bacolod Food Trip- 21 Restaurant

God sends meat. The Devil sends Cooks.
- John Taylo




Journeying to Bacolod with naught but a handful of tips in tow, we know that we shouldn't miss on 21 Restaurant's Super Batchoy. For the clueless, batchoy is a local Visayan noodle dish made with pork organs, shrimp, pork cracklings, meat stock and veggies. The closest batchoy that one can savor these days is actually the "just add hot water" variety that you can buy from stores.

I've always been a batchoy fan. My dad used to buy me batchoy from the local carinderia next to our place in Quezon City when I was down with the flu. Batchoy was my Chicken Soup. And whenever a restaurant offers batchoy in their menu, I have to taste it. But nothing really comes close to satisfying my batchoy frenzy, until I took my first whiff of 21 Restaurant's Super Batchoy. And this, my friends, is the start of my addiction.


Thanks to our friend Eisyl, who graciously took us around Bacolod to taste the exquisite goodness of 21's Batchoy. We were never quite the same after that eventful day.

Love at first sip.
The best batchoy I ever laid my senses on.
The aroma of the soup speaks of lovingly-boiled pork/beef/chicken bones over  slow fire.
The noodles speak of good quality egg and flour.
The rich, creamy, bubbly broth touched my soul.
Ahhhh... I could file for a divorce and marry this batchoy.

What makes the best batchoy?
Up close and personal.
Slivers of pork liver, doused with pork cracklings and meat in a bubbly, creamy broth.

Don't let this bowl fool you.
We thought that the Super Batchoy is good for one serving... it was more than that!
2-3 people can actually share a bowl of this superb noodle soup, depending on your appetite.
I downed a whole bowl all by myself.
The soup was ecstatically tasty, my tummy was bursting at the seams but I can't seem to stop from eating.

Superb Batchoy.
We learned that this is an heirloom recipe handed down from one generation to the next.
I would love to get my hands on that recipe!
But then again, I believe it's more of the technique they use in cooking this  dish.
The Super Batchoy is the pinnacle of all batchoys --- imagine bone marrow in the soup (which explains its creamy taste),  freshly cracked egg and lots of chicharon! 

Fortunate to meet and greet one of the owners of 21 Restaurant, Paolo Araneta, who happens to be the friend of our gracious host, Eisyl. (seated from left to right: Nikka, Feje, Paolo, Eisyl, Yours Truly and Swity)

Margarita Surprise!
21 Restaurant also offers cocktails.
This large (and I mean GINORMOUS) margarita is heavenly.
We were buzzed right in the middle of the day.
Enough to cap off our sumptuous batchoy overload.

Crispy baby shrimps with sinamak vinegar.

If I weren't THAT full, I would have enjoyed more of these baby crustaceans.
They were flavorful and crispy, best paired with their sinamak vinegar as dipping sauce.

Fruity Achara to complement the baby shrimps 

21 Restaurant's Super Batchoy capped off our 3D-2N stay in the City of Smiles. It was the perfect dish to send us off. Not to mention that the prices of their dishes were very reasonable, and the servings were huge enough to share. Next time we find ourselves in Bacolod again, this will definitely be on our list. Highly recommended to family and friends who will be visiting Negros.

I wouldn't mind going back again and again to this place. I found my love in Bacolod. Forget about those hacienderos and the fabled good-looking guys (we hardly found none, hahaha! see in my next post about our epic fail of clubbing) of the City. THIS is more than enough to  make me smile.

After all, this food trip started my addiction. Who cares about diets? I could always start again tomorrow.





Special thanks to the following: Eisyl and Paolo for the gracious treat. Nothing beats Bacolod hospitality.

Bacolod Food Trip -- Gluttony at Its Peak

Life is sweeter in Negros.
- from a coffee mug in Bacolod


The City of Smiles has more to offer than its rich culture and heritage of azucareras and haciendas.
We found ourselves ten pounds heavier, with satisfied faces as we trooped to Negros and headed to savor what the island offers best: Food! Food! Glorious Food! (yes, like the Broadway hit Oliver rendition).

Of course, what tops our list is as follows:

1. Authentic Chicken Inasal 
- This, we found our niche at Bacolod Chicken House in Lacson Avenue (sorry, no photos taken we were so hungry we forgot our manners over lunch) and the best one of them all is at the Manokan Country (Nena III ni Beth) at the Reclamation Area just behind SM Bacolod (again, no photos were taken because we were ravishing, my apologies)

The verdict? Both Chicken Inasal versions were GOOD but the BEST one of them all is the chicken inasal of Nena's at Manokan Country. It was succulent, juicy and namit (local for delicious) and instantly won our palate. The chicken was cooked right --- no blood residues (ugh, how I hate the sight of blood on my meat!) and the flavor seeped right through the bones. No wonder this is called "Manokan Country" (Chicken Land). You get your chicken done just the way inasal should be.

2. Calea's Cakes and Pastries.
- This quaint cake and coffee shop is right across Bacolod City's premiere hotel, the L'Fisher. It was adjacent to boutiques selling clothes, wines and accessories. The building was aptly named Balay Quince. We have been told that Calea offers the best cakes and pastries in Bacolod so we made sure it was on our "must see and eat" place.

Calea's Caffe Mocha
A coffee-based ice blended drink.

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce
This had me at first bite. I nearly had a heart attack from the sugary goodness of this wonderful cheesecake.

Blueberry Cheesecake
OMG. The blueberry sweetness mixed with the creamy cheese and cream on top of a nutty crust blew off my mind.

Black Sambo.
A gracious layer of cream, gelatin and chocolate bursting with rich cocoa flavors.

Trio of Desserts.
Blueberry Cheesecake, White Chocolate Cheesecake, Black Sambo.

Calea's Mocha Frost
Blended with Chocolate Ice Cream.

We left Calea with a sugar rush and went back to the hotel, waiting for our friend who came in from an afternoon flight. When she arrived, we all decided to try out the Pala-pala in Bacolod, famous for its Dampa-style cooking. We boarded a cab and was brought to 18th Street Pala-pala. It turned out that it wasn't the Pala-pala we were supposed to be in. But anyways we had our dinner and ordered buttered shrimps, chili crabs, grilled liempo and adobong lagang (lamp shells, as we were told). The food were not that delectable (they were just OKAY) and we got to have our first taste of the local lagang shell (which actually tasted like squid, with a tougher consistency).

Feasting on a smorgasbord of freshly cooked food.

Ho-hum butter shrimps

I make better chili crabs than this one.
Smothered with store-bought Jufran Chili Sauce, and presto! They call it "chili crabs"!

Fortunately, this liempo tasted good but was so thinly sliced.

3. Cafe Bob's
- The original Pala-pala, we found out later, is actually near the port area of Bacolod and serves cheaper and more delicious food. Not quite satisfied with what we had for dinner, we decided to walk the mile down the street and look for Cafe Bob's. We found ourselves walking the stretch of Lacson Ave. and wounded right in front of the comely doorsteps of the Cafe. Unfortunately, there were no gellatos left in their fridge so we helped ourselves to another sugar sinfulness of cakes, pastries and tea.

Cakes, cakes and more cakes greeted us through their display counter.

Choose your poison!
Mine was a slice of pistachio dacquiose (not shown here)

The abundance of sugar plantations in Bacolod made sinful sweets like these easier to access.

French Macarons, Red Velvet cupcakes and other temptations at your reach.

We ended the night with enough insulin surge to make us wide awake at night. The sweet stuff we literally stuffed ourselves with were enough to put happy faces to sleep. Our next pit stop was to savor 21 Restaurant's Super Batchoy before we head home to Manila. 

Now I understand why Bacolod is called the "City of Smiles" --- with all the sugary, sweet and everything nice we can find there, I would have to agree that life is indeed sweeter in Negros.

Thank you, Steve Jobs!

" Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"

( Steve Jobs to John Sculley, luring him to be Apple's CEO)

Steve Jobs
1955-2011

In the beginning, there was Light.
Then, came Apple. And the rest, they say, is history.


On the streets, people are walking with the iconic white earphones stuck somewhere at the side of their heads. The ubiquitous claim to the newest iPhone model would always mean a never-ending line at your local telecom provider. And some people I know even have to wait for months even if they are already listed just to have their hands on the latest "it" gadget. The iPhone is a much celebrated brand, that to some extent --- pirated versions are already up for grabs in your local tech bazaars.


But for the most part, the biggest Apple innovation of all is the iPad. It literally CHANGED the WORLD.

The revolution of technology is in our hands, thanks to this man.

I cannot say much for the iPhone. I am a self-confessed Blackberry user in terms of handset devices, but what I really loved most among all the Apple products is the iPad.
Lucky me that I was given a free iPad to use in my line of work. Its simple, sleek and friendly interface is a sure win. I can do Facebook, send reports, bid on Ebay and cry over You Tube because of the iPad -- all of these as I drive from one point to another, talking to friends via Viber and closing a client call using an App loaded in the tablet.
The iPad changed the way I looked at a computer. Gone were the days that I had to sign in at Netopia or any netcafes to send a deadly report needed by the deadly boss on that deadly time (how deadly, harhar!) Or spend a hundred or so bucks at a coffee shop just to use their Wifi service... not to mention that the biggest use of it all is the Angry Birds app that keeps my lil munchkin kid to stay in one seat whenever I have to tag him along with me to attend to important "adult" matters. (And how he talks about Angry Birds like, all.the.time.)

I have to give the piece to Steve Jobs for that.


For being an innovator, an agent of change, an inspiration --- we owe whatever technological convenience we enjoy today to Steve Jobs and the people behind Apple.

The boys in the neighborhood of Silicon Valley

Browsing through the Internet earlier this morning, I felt a wave of sadness as the world lost a great man and one of the brightest CEOs the industry has seen. Steve Jobs changed the world's perspective in media, and he opened possibilities and more opportunities for us to move forward and evolve as a society. His legacy will forever remain and will pave the path to future generations of movers and shakers. Thank you, Steve Jobs.


Thank you, Steve Jobs. For opening a lifetime of options through digital and media, you have reached us "regular" guys with your infinite genius --- Apple is well connected at home and makes life easier online.


Thank you, Steve Jobs. My iPod Nano lets me record my running time and PR while I dance away to Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO and stretch to Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5.


Thank you, Steve Jobs. Your kick ass presentation style inspired me to rock my business presentations, too. As a corporate work horse, I have learned a lot from you --- that i's okay to prank call Starbucks and ask for 4,000 cups of lattes and say it's a wrong number during product launches.

This dude over here does the most kick ass presentation ever.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. Just when I wanted to quit my job as a corporate slave and settle for mediocre, your words of wisdom touched me. When you said to "Follow your heart. Don't settle" I mulled over it long enough to realize that if everybody thinks I am a nobody and I do not reason and think according to standards doesn't mean I am worthless. It just means I am with people who do not share the same vision I have --- The same people who didn't believe in you when you proposed the idea of the iPhone. And look where you are today. 6 feet under, yes... but made a whole lot of difference. 


Thank you, Steve Jobs. Your speech at the Stanford University Commencement Exercise last 2005 struck a chord in me when you said to "Follow your intuition..." Now I decided to follow it and realized what I really wanted to do in life than be a work horse for (insert Company name here): shave sheep wool or squeeze some fat cow's boobs for milk and pick apples in New Zealand.


Thank you, Steve Jobs. My son is officially addicted to the Angry Birds app we downloaded for $4.99 from iTunes App Store in my iPad. Now, he is doing great in school especially in his Kindergarten Science class. He can name all the birds and thinks that all pigs are green, evil and eat golden eggs. I think he's going to be great in Physics someday. He can catapult the birds right on spot with serious mathematical equations calculating trajectory positions ...this, from a 6-year old kid. All because of that sheer material of ingenuity we call the iPad.


Thank you, Steve Jobs. Really.
Words are not enough to express my gratitude to the man who has changed my perspective in life.

The old Apple logo.
"Think different".

The only itsy bitsy unquestionable dissatisfaction I have with Apple is the autocorrect. Why does it have to "automatically type" words from prediction? Such embarrassment when it substitutes words like "pussy" for "position", "dick" for "direct" etc. and it makes its way to emails sent to the boss. 


For that, damn you auto correct! :)


Stay Foolish. Stay Hungry.
- The Whole World Catalogue

Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

A donde el corazon se inclina, el pie camina.


As they say in Spanish, "Home is where the heart is".


And I found it in a 3-hour drive away from Manila, tucked somewhere in the town of Bagac, in the quaint lil (but really a girth on the map) province of Bataan.


Hola, amigas. Bienvenida a Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar! 


I stumbled upon this perfect picturesque hideaway when my team and I were browsing (more of brainstorming) for the next summer outing destination for our department. The ambience promised a lot of culture and relaxation and we were immediately sold. So we got our bags ready and hied away to NLEX via the Gapan-Olongapo road and rallied to Bataan.


We were not disappointed.


The attendants were dressed like Katipuneros and Katipuneras (really, it was a nice touch... kind of completed the look AND feel of the place). We were booked for a day tour complete with full board meals. Our group had so much fun taking photos and walking the Heritage Tour to know more about the houses (thus, the term casas) and the rich history that pervades each structure. 


Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar is actually a private collection of the owner, each house almost a reconstructed 60 percent of its original form. The houses were ACTUAL old houses found almost everywhere in Luzon that the owner fancied and bought off, transported and recreated in this hectares and hectares of  land space in Bagac. What's good also about the resort is that its houses can actually be lived in. There are also hotel rooms available to spend the night with. Really really special. (ironically, the toilet and bath of the rooms are so 21st century so no worries about squatting on the floor for your thingamajigs!)


Note though: not recommended to spend more than 2 days in the resort. The ambience makes you sleepy. Kind of boring for adventure-seekers. Though the beach fronting the area is quite wild --- it's South China Sea, baby! --- it might not be a good choice to frolic in with kids in tow. If you plan to hit this beach area, it's perfect for skim boarding. The food in the resort can be quite expensive, it's best to book a day tour coz it's more cheaper with the package.


Bataan is one province that is rich in history and culture. After all, the infamous Death March during the Japanese Occupation can be accounted for here. There is still much to explore, but we found our weekend getaway a perfect cap in Las Casas.

El sol en un tardes hermoso
The perfect sun and sky facing the South China Sea

Silhouettes and shadows.
Windows such as this is a Filipino home trademark.

Mezzanine of Casa Quiapo

I fell in love with these hard wood floors.
Would put any floor wax commercial to shame.

Paintings on deck

What better way to dine in style! 

Casa Cagayan is also known as "poor man's house"
So... this is where los pobres lived in those times.

Frames in motion.

A gazebo in the plaza fronting Plaza Escolta

La Plaza
A place where townsfolk convene and have socials

Oh, those houses!

An alley in Plaza Escolta that offers retro photography.
Lomo, anyone??

Plaza Escolta

Old World Charm 

Bridge over the river making its way out to the sea.

Next time I get back, I'll set up camp. Maybe in one of those houses and dilly dally all day.


Ahhh. The classic Juan Tamad life. I love.


XoXo.

Fly High, Shanghai!

"I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps... and find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap..."

- Frank Sinatra, New York New York

Frank Sinatra obviously hasn't been to Shanghai when he sang that New York is the "city that never sleeps".

And literally, this Chinese centre does NOT sleep.

Nope.

Never.

I was not too keen on hopping onto the next plane bound for Shanghai. Nothing really special, except for the Xiao Long Pao at Yuan Yu Gardens and the (mis)adventures we went through just to find that Neverfull Louis Vuitton bag.

The only thing I liked are the bright lights which are delightfully epicurean to a cam whore like me. 

Gasp! A boutique designed with LV Monogrammed Wallpaper and... it's an actual Louis Vuitton Store.
But nope, the Neverfull and the Alma Vernis patent bags are not found here.

I forgot which mall is this... because of the lots and lots of malls that peppered the city.
But I was struck most with the architecture and design.
So Art Noveau.

Eggs.
Have it your way.
I like mine HARD boiled.
These trays and trays of eggs are actually the wall design of some bar in Xin Tian Di.

Ghost town at day.
Xin Tian Di is the nocturnal hot spot in Shanghai.
This is where the "old" meets the "new" as is used to be the French resettlement area in the district.
It actually reminds me of Manila's Intramuros.

The three kings. errr... Emperors :-)

No, I don't read Chinese. I forgot which building this was, but at night you are transported to a magical realm of lights.

The Shanghai River.
Across, you can see the Orient Pearl Tower. It is actually a TV Station and transmitter which was opened to the public for tourism purposes.
Today, the Tower is an icon of Shanghai. Much like Jeepneys are to Manila.
The river is the part I HATED the MOST because right next to it is The Bund.
The Bund can actually give you an idea as to why China holds the record of having the world's largest population.

Shanghai is still up until the wee hours of the morning. This is the street right across our hotel in Nanjing Road.

The "Europe" in East Asia is actually Shanghai.

Even though we can't read it, we at Nestle know it very well.
It's Nestle's Pure Water.

No, it's not a condom statue. It's the official mascot for the  Shanghai World Expo 2010.

We are lost in translation. I had to text my husband in Manila to translate certain Chinese phrases for me.
Shanghai is the Central Business Capital of Mainland China. Most foreigners are settled here for business and professional reasons, the influx of western travelers are higher compared to other regions, but ironically, the locals can't understand English that well.

Proven: Chinese Magnets!

Goofing around like some celebrities in Xin Tian Di

Shanghai has so much to offer, but it is one city that I may not go back to in another lifetime unless extremely necessary. The culture, however, is more westernized than most parts of China. I was so dazed with the throngs and throngs of people marching and flooding the streets like army ants, at any given time of the day.

We braved the jungle of the streets, the nightmare of the markets and the unfamiliar cuisine to experience what it was like to fly high in Shanghai.

And boy, did we.