Kanamit Gid!
A hearty food trip around the City of Smiles
A hearty food trip around the City of Smiles
We got on a plane upon the invitation of several Bacolod friends who have savored the highly rated Napa and Sonoma Corte Riva wines of our tripmates Nieves and Lawrence Cortez. Our early morning arrival brought us to our first stop that completely fascinated our senses. We went to have coffee at this twin restaurant that started as EastBite Restaurant and eventually expanded to another outlet called Daily Skillet that serves all-day breakfast meals.
We were just on a short stop for coffee (which was of very good quality, as the restaurant’s owner, Chef BJ, sources the beans from Cebu), but we were convinced to make this a sampling stopover instead. My son Gino and I were impressed by the freshness and the delicious selection from the bakery kitchen that churns out fresh Danish pastries, ube bread, gigantic pandesals, and rustic country breads.
Anyway, we were invited to this beautiful events area in Bacolod city called Upper Ground, which served a spread of excellent local specialties like the garlicky fresh lumpia, batchoy, and aromatic Bacolod lechon, to name a few. This trip was organized by Marissa Montalvo, the gracious wife of our host Tuts Corral. I haven’t seen her in 40 years after my stint in Kundirana Music Ministry.
Our gracious host and hostess served such a delightful spread in the cool breeze of the Bacolod highlands. To give a little warmth to the chill, Anya Gamboa Montelibano and her husband Jj brought a selection of wines, which they personally approved and sampled, from their newly opened wine trading business.
Since we are sort of nightowls, we would saunter around town in the evenings. During the first night, we went to Manokan Country for a taste of authentic Negrense inasal, with its rice yellow-tinted from the chicken oil and annatto marinade drippings. Should you desire to have this topped on your rice, there is a bottle of chicken oil on every table for a more decadent experience.
We also went to a hotel called Business Inn. Popular among the city dwellers, it is a haven for good comfort cooking. We decided to have sizzling kansi or beef shank that was tender and flavorful. We paired this with an order of lumpiang Shanghai that was a classic take, up to its homemade sweet and sour sauce. We also had a soup called laswa, which punctuated the green flavors of local vegetables with a touch of earthiness. What impressed us was our waiter, a well-experienced man with the moves of a true professional, who graciously oversaw our very late meal. We ended the evening with a valued apple crumble dessert, served with ice cream on top.
Jj and Anya Montelibano brought us back to Daily Skillet and we had a home-cured salmon on brioche toast that was drizzled with hollandaise sauce. Reuben panini (filled with homemade corned beef) with a side of thick cottage fries was also served, along with grilled octopus. The latter was tasty, the tentacles served with orange and pomelo slices with vinaigrette.
We barely finished our breakfast when Tuts took us to Sharyn’s Cansi House (the Kansi Beef Soup was included in the top 50 street food by the World Street Food Congress in 2017), where we braved the queue and had a sampling of the long-simmered beef shank. It was a slightly soured, full-bodied broth with batuan purée. A couple of plates of Crispi Kansi also arrived, and we relished the shredded shank fried to a crisp and topped with fresh onions.
Our next stop was Coffee Culture Roastery in the fringes of the city. There, Thomas and Bombi Sproten run a serious coffee shop that roasts and blends coffee, drawing several customers from all over the country. Thomas is a known guru among coffee shop roasters and proprietors. Aside from sampling the house blend espresso that had a tasty balance with