Davao Delicious

Continuing with the adventures of our two vacationing British friends, we brought them to Eden Nature Park last Sunday for sky-riding and fishing.

I’m not a big lover of tilapia, which is all what you can catch at this mountain resort’s man-made lake. However, after gorging myself on what the resort’s grill had prepared for us (with the fish that we’d caught), I’m now officially a tilapia eater!

And we caught a lot! So we asked the kitchen staff — the kitchen is right there beside the lake — to do three kinds of cooking for us: Pinaputok na Tilapia, Grilled Tilapia, and Deep-Fried Tilapia. They were all awesome, I tell you! I’ve never eaten so much fish in one meal before.

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Tags: barbecue, Filipino, tilapia

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Kangaroo Coffee Company launched last Saturday to a group of bloggers their specialty blend, Kape Balos. It’s civet coffee!

How can I put this in a way that won’t make you feel queasy…?

Well, it’s arguably the most expensive coffee in the world. That should tell you something about the quality and taste of this kind of coffee, right? Civet coffee, or Kape Alamid in Tagalog, is brewed from coffee beans that had been ingested by the civet (alamid or musang in Tagalog, balos in the language of the B’laan tribe).

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Tags: civet coffee, Italian, pasta

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  With its cobalt-blue lighting and intriguing name, the Blue Carabao Eatery stands out above the other karinderya joints on Sobrecarey St., Bo. Obrero, Davao City.

I’d heard that they served a mean bulalo, so off I went to Blue Carabao for a spot of dinner. Turns out it’s Pochero (Bisaya style) and Hinalang that they have. For the benefit of those who don’t know, Bisaya-style pochero has no tomato sauce in it (which is how they do it in Luzon). What makes it ‘pochero‘ is the banana. Without the boiled banana (variety: saba), it would simply be nilagang baka.

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Tags: Filipino, pochero

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Café Andessa — a quiet, out-of-the-way little restaurant that’s perfect for sharing a good meal with friends, close business associates, family. It’s pretty far from the Davao downtown area, but the place and the food are worth taking the trip for.

At first glance, the restaurant’s design looks like a mountain cabin, what with all the wood beams and old-style shelves containing bric-a-bracs. But after you’ve settled in, you’ll feel the warmth and homeyness of the place. The setting is very cozy — it’s very easy to relax in Café Andessa’s unperturbed ambience.

With my resto-hopping pals last night, we treated a couple of British vacationers to good Filipino cuisine the other night. Western dishes are also served at Andessa, of course, but they excel in their Filipino offerings. [read on]

Tags: desserts, Filipino

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After a long spell, I’ve finally gotten around to eating at La Toscana again. The last time was last year! Check out my post about this Italian restaurant at my Davao blog, Ang Dabawenyo.

Together with some friends, I had a sumptuous dinner at La Toscana the other day. We had tons of pasta! Check out the photos (sorry for the low quality… still getting used to my new camera).

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Tags: calzone, Italian, pizza

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With a new menu of culinary offerings ready, Banana Leaf Asian Café hosted an intimate dinner for a number of bloggers and journalists last 26 June.

More than a year ago, I’d gone to that branch in Davao with some friends, but we were disappointed with the food and the service. This time, I believe they were able to redeem themselves admirably.

The service seemed much improved — although, that remains to be seen when I go back there as a paying customer. However, they sort of overdid it last Wednesday when they served us 19 dishes and 4 types of dessert!!

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Tags: fusion food, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese

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This restaurant has long been in existence in Davao and in Cebu, and it’s actually one of the first that capitalized on fried chicken as a delicacy among Filipinos.

Sunburst Fried Chicken is practically an institution already; sadly, though, it has not maintained its market dominance. Last night, I convinced my friend Alex to have dinner with me there.

And, I’m happy to report that the fried chicken at Sunburst is still quite satisfying. Alex and I both ordered, upon the recommendation of the waiter, their Quarter Chicken (P70), which comes with "bottomless" rice and a tiny serving of coleslaw. You have a choice of either breast and wing, or leg and thigh.

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Tags: Filipino, fried chicken

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Are you a caterer operating in Davao City (or in any of the surrounding towns)? If you are, I’d like to give your outfit some online exposure by featuring your offerings right here on my food blog.

Just use my contact form to tell me all about your catering business, your cuisine specialities, and contact information. If I decide to feature you, I’ll also ask you to send me some photos.

I’m doing this because I’ve been getting inquiries about catering services in Davao. Who knows, you might just get business from being featured on Davao Delicious? And it’ll be my pleasure should that happen.

Tags: Davao catering

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Last night, we hosted another party for the bloggers of Davao at Casa Leticia. As usual, the people behind it were Ria (the indefatigable coordinator), Migs (always the emcee by default), Andrew (our dependable guy behind the scenes) and myself. Unfortunately, the fifth member of my intrepid team, Winston, was in Cebu and will be there for another five months.

The party was held at the 6th floor, formerly known as Toto’s Bar. It used to be a hip and happening hangout in its time, but is now used by the hotel for functions. (We also used this space for the DigitalFilipino.com Club eyeball last 14 May.) It can comfortably hold around 75 people, seated. The layout and decor of the place is cool and relaxing, and if you have your meeting or reunion there, you get to use their audio-visual facilities (which are packaged with their function packages).

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Tags: bam-e, durian pie, Filipino, pancit

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The first time this blog was nominated to Janette Toral’s Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008, I was rather surprised, because I hadn’t realized that Davao Delicious could gain so much readership in such a short span of time.

Now the blog has been consistently at the top positions in the weekly charts since week #2. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all those who’ve voted for this blog!!!

My heartfelt gratitude to Winston, Jehz, Ria, Migs, Randy, Carm, TinaRyan, JD, Mae, MeAnne, Gina, Cecile, Tonex and Fitz for giving me added inspiration to forge on and continue writing for Davao Delicious. I hope nobody’s missing from this roll — if my blog is on your Top10 list, please let me know so I can reciprocate the link-love.

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