Bacolod, Always on My Mind

There are places you want to go back. The people, the culture, their food, are more than enough reasons to return. Bacolod is one of them and has been on my places-to-visit-before-I-die-list for so long and one visit made me long to go back even if the plane has not departed yet. 

Bacolod City is located in the northern part of the Negros island in the Visayas part of the Philippines, and very near Cebu, the hub of central Philippines. I have always known Bacolod as the sugar capital of the Philippines because books from the elementary years taught me that Bacolod has vast plains of sugar plantations, so vast you can see sugarcane to no end.

But when I went there I could hardly see plantations of sugarcane. 

Bacolod means a hilly place, a stonehill or as the Boholanos called it, bakilid. But far from its original meaning, it has become a modern city in a wide and sprawling space. The City of Smiles, as the city is fondly called, is known for its Masskara Festival and would not only offer smiles and a masked hospitality but a real down-to-earth joviality never found elsewhere. 

FIRST TIME KO 

My first taste of Bacolod was at Aboy’s (Liroville Subd., Singcang, Bacolod City; Phone: +63 34 435 0760; Resto Hours: Mondays to Saturdays, 9:00 am–11:00 pm), an impressive restaurant with a lot of my favorite decorative pieces- masks. I felt at home right away at Aboy’s. 

From the tales of our guide, Aboy’s used to be a small eatery but with good food and good service, the eatery became a full restaurant equipped with function rooms. A bigger place for bigger groups of hungry patrons means their business is doing well. 

They offer an authentic array of Negrense cuisine combined with the fierce Ilocano recipe giving way to a new and different Aboy’s experience. 

Having a hard time choosing our food at Aboy's

We feasted on squid fat adobo (a must at Aboy’s), ginataang pague (stingray in coconut milk), grilled manumbok (blue marlin), mushrooms, Bicol express and grilled squid. We capped our lunch with a complimentary tarragon tea and a little chitchat with the owner, yes, the guy called Aboy, who used to be a medical representative. 

The man himself, Aboy

After our lunch has settled in a more comfortable position, my host, Lee Santiago, brought us to the old capitol building to visit a non-government organization he has been helping to promote their products, a real NGO that needed assistance, that has likewise been helping SMEs in the province. We actually bought some coffee and other goodies from them. 

We then walked around Bacolod’s mini zoo ending at Bacolod’s Organic Market and the Museum Café nearby. 

Organic halo-halo at Bacolod's Organic Market

GOING ITALIAN 

Somewhere in B.S. Aquino Drive, if I remembered it right, there is this little restaurant called Carmine Cucina that is owned by an Italian chef, Carmine Pece. 

Chef Carmine Pece

Not minding the tacky décor for an Italian resto, the food at the Cucina was my first taste of an authentic Italian cuisine, as the owner claimed, and they were actually good! My firsts- Gnocchi, Trippa, Salsiccia Padella, Linguini Pescatora, Pizza Caprecciosa, Zuppa Inglese. Godetevi il vostro cibo! Buon appetito!

Pizza Caprecciosa

(Update: Carmine Cucina is now closed and I felt sad.)

TASTE OF NEGROS 

You can never really claim you have been to Bacolod if you have not tasted cansi. Cansi is actually a soup made from bony parts of beef slowly cooked with batuan (Garcinia binucao) and other spices. The prized part is the bone where the marrow is invitingly tucked inside making the cansi not just a heart warmer but also a heart stopper, literally. 

Waiting for cansi to be served

We went to Sharyn’s (Capitol Shopping Center, Bacolod City, Phone: +63 34 433 1374), a no-nonsense restaurant that reminded me of downtown Cebu. Only this one was cleaner. The staff might have wondered who we were because we arrived late, rowdy and curiously taking pictures of the bone marrow and nobody dared smile to us. 

I cansi clearly now

Sharyn’s cansi and all other cansi around town is a sour bulalo version, the hours of cooking and heating the beef bones made the meat and tendons soft and easy to chew. The batuan may have made a difference of this stew. They seemed to have an abundant supply of cansi soup. 

Then we made it to the Manokan Country in Rizal Street for our dinner. 

At Manokan was where the famous Aida’s Chicken is located. Aida’s owner may have been a fan of Miss Bacolod since I saw pictures of the candidates in one of the walls. Intricate masks fit for beauty pageants also were displayed at their stall. 

Pass Aida please. Yes, the chicken.

We ordered different parts of the chicken and have them grilled. I did not find them extra-ordinary though. But I admire the enthusiasm and the vivacity of the place. It was like a big market place of grilled-something waiting for guests to bite on. Manokan Country is a must-visit. 

CAPPING THE EXPERIENCE

A day tour around Bacolod and the nearby towns made me feel like I have visited the whole of Negros Occidental. Tasting food on our way to Mambukal Springs was an experience I could not have done anywhere else in the country. 

But on our last night, a royal experience in the house of Millie Kilayko set my travel to Bacolod beyond imagination and at par with the show of Anthony Bourdain. 

Millie Kilayko, the lady in red

Millie Kilayko is one of the most gracious hosts in the whole of Bacolod. She welcomed us to her lanai and let us have a tropical fruit punch with Negros rhum while we witness how a good binacol should be cooked. Binacol is one way of cooking soup inside young bamboo tubes that were surrounded by a generous amount of fiery charcoal. She let us opened the bamboo tubes and we were engulfed in the aromatic stew of lemon grass, spices, mushrooms, slices of chicken and smoke. 

In the table upstairs, a different setting awaited for us. The fare included Bangus Spanish Style, Mamaita's Crackling Noodles, Adobong Pitaw, Lola Sayong's Mechado and Brown Rice. Pitaw, which were actually ricefield birds, was my favorite in the menu. That, besides the binacol. 

Getting the binacol out of the bamboo tube

Millie explaining her menu of the night

Beautiful setting at Millie's table

 Good coffee after the meal and some Casa Carmela piayitos smeared with Dulce Gatas sang Silay made me thought I have died and gone to heaven. It was an exhausting, filling and remarkable trip I would surely be coming back. 

HULING HIRIT

As my ride waited for me, I rushed to Calea, perhaps Bacolod's most famous coffee and cake house, to taste their cakes before leaving the city. At the last minute. It was a cool morning and drizzling and the best time to gorge on sugar and coffee. I sinfully ordered their bestsellers, Blueberry Cheesecake and the specialty Chocolate Cake and a mugful of coffee.

It was like saving the best for last!

To die for- Calea's Blueberry Cheesecake

HELPFUL HINTS

There are a lot of affordable accommodations in Bacolod. For this travel, I stayed at Saltimboca Tourist Inn along 15th-Lacson Sts.; Tel.No. (034) 432-3617, 433-3179. The place is clean and offers free WiFi connections. Your room accommodation has a free breakfast of your choice. Saltimboca is located in the center of Bacolod where a lot of restos and cafes are just a walking distance away. 

We hire an air-conditioned van to get us to places. A van usually costs 2,500 pesos per day. You can have your travel agency contact and reserve one for you. Or if you have friends in Bacolod, ask them to do it for you. 

The Bacolod airport is actually in Silay City, a good 30-min ride by private car. So if you are taking the public bus or jeep, be sure to estimate your travel time. 

A nice combo: Piayitos and Dulce Gatas

Bacolod’s piaya (or piyaya) is actually very good when eaten fresh. There are home-baked versions in Silay as compared to heavily commercialized versions in souvenir stalls in Bacolod and at Silay airport. The Casa Carmela piayitos, small and crispy version of the piaya, is recommended. They are really good, especially the ones with mangoes in them.

Cebu Pacific flies to Bacolod from Cebu three times daily and six times from Manila.

FIRST TIME TO VISIT: SILAY AND ITS SECRETS

Negros Occidental is like an enchanted place. So near yet so far. I heard so many stories about the place. Some tall tales. Some, grandpa promised, real and true. Grandpa would tell us of sugarcane views as far as one can see and haciendas and hacienderos and the joke, I would like to believe, about uncut men of Negros. These childhood stories made me long to visit that place and kept a promised to myself to kiss the ground when I go there like it’s the holiest of places.

That dream was realized just recently.

First stop- Silay

Everything has a story in Silay. Stories of lovelorn couples. Stories of forbidden love because of social disparity. Stories of why that house was built, or that cafe. Some were whispered, some were whispered loudly and some remained an open secret. From the decrepit house in a corner to the dulce gatas being stirred in the kitchen, Silay never ran out of stories.

My story will become a part of the huge library Silay already has.

Silay City is like an old, quaint town in Negros Occidental. Despite the addition of a new airport (the old one is located in Bacolod, Negros Occidental’s capital), the city’s aura of progressive development was drowned by the old houses and buildings. The heritage houses were actually a contrast to a new city life.

Unlike most cities, Silay has kept its culture (including her heritage) intact.

Kapehan sa Silay

Our tour organizers-cum-hosts Lee Santiago and Lynell Gaston brought us to this old building to have coffee and some breakfast goodies, my first taste of Negros. The Kapehan sa Silay was a good example of well-kept heritage site and reminded me of Cuban movies where folks while the time away, drinking dark coffee, talking about cockfights. The old musty smell of the place combined with good coffee wanted me to linger and know the place more. Personally.

But there were so many things to discover in Silay that lounging in the Kapehan is not a good start.

photo by Lynell Gaston

Next stop- 1925 Cafe

Mayor Montelibano of Silay

The smell at 1925 was intoxicating! Whatever the kitchen was cooking wafted back inside with a delicious guess of what the next plate would be when it comes in. No! I was not in the year 1925! The aroma of food was never this old but I believed all that has been cooked here stayed in the tiniest crevices of the walls of 1925, the café.

The smallness of the place made dining there really intimate and personalized. We chanced on the mayor of Silay, Mayor Montelibano, eating there and we were introduced like we used to be friends with him.

The Locsin ancestral home

The Locsin house was a home, that I am very sure. Despite its antiquity, the Locsin Home was still functional and without doubt being lived upon. The special edition literature pieces written in Spanish were intact. So were the gynaecology books, still in Spanish, in good condition. The old-style toilet, the handed-down china, kitchen paraphernalia, the lamps, the well-polished floors, the luggage bags in the attic, everything in the Lacson household were well-preserved and well-kept.

This was where I tasted my first Dulce Gatas sang Silay.

photo by Lynell Gaston

Emma Lacson’s

Emma Lacson’s house was like a fortress to those who were not familiar with Silay. But if you were privileged enough to get in the premises early in the morning, a gustatory wealth awaited for every welcomed visitor upstairs. Lacson makes the best of Silay’s delicacies involving pili nuts, the rest being lumpia and hopia.

It was here I saw a real pili individually pounded by hand just to get the nut. Sure it was nuts cracking them like that.

Mambag-id, Silay

One of the most exciting part of my Silay travel was the trip to Mambag-id. This place used to be a big sugarcane plantation with special railroads for transporting harvested sugarcane to waiting ships at the Mambag-id dock. Nowadays, with the decline of the sugar industry in the country and the imposition of the Agrarian Reform Law, the railroads have become obsolete.

But some enterprising residents made innovative ways of transportation to make use of the tracks. It was then that the Bagoneta came (some called it Karito), an improvised version of a kariton, pedal-powered ride using train wheels and slabs of wood formed like a platform where commuters 10 persons up hopped in and ride towards the now non-existent docks.

photo by Lynell Gaston

At the end of the ride where a community lived there, we were treated to a confusing array of Silay’s favorite kakanin: baye-baye, puto lanson, ibos mais, lumpia, siomai, and fresh piaya of Silay.

I dozed off in an airy nipa hut beside the river.

Balaring, Silay

As if the gustatory offering in Mambag-id were not enough, our hosts brought us to barangay Balaring and stuffed us again with fresh seafood the city can offer. It was at Ken’s, a cozy nipa hut close to the sea where the lapping waves would remind you that you were in the territory of the things you were eating. 

Being a person born in the hinterlands of Bohol, I am ignorant of the names of the seafood species. But my host said we were eating: tinola nga lison, fried tilapia, grilled pork chops, grilled squid, alimusan with gata, kinilaw nga tangigue, talaba, with ripe mango slices as dessert.

THE Charlie Co

My stay in Silay was made complete when we were invited by Ann Legaspi-Co to taste her frozen brazos and sans rival in their residence. The brazos and sans rival were honestly without rival until we met Ann’s husband, my idol artist from Negros - Charlie Co!

photo by Lee Santiago

The Negrense’s way of saying goodbye

Each moment of my stay in Silay was worth the trip. Our goodbyes were made more memorable when one of our hosts, Lynell Gaston, made a sendoff lunch for all of us.

Maybe this was the Negrense way of saying goodbye - stuffing guests until they could no longer move with ecstatic joy.

How about coffee to top it off?

photo by Lynell Gaston

 Addendum

We were actually the guinea pigs of Lee Santiago when he thought of a Negros Food Tour. With the help of Lynell Gaston, they cooked up an interesting combo of food tasting and having a beautiful experience in Silay, Bacolod and nearby towns of Negros Occidental.

There are no specific rates to the tour. Wherever we go, we share the van rentals. Whatever we decide to eat, we share them with the group and divide the payments per person. We pay our own accommodation.

Since Lee is outside of the country as of this time, I could not be sure if this kind of trip is still going on.

I fly in and out of Silay City with free tickets courtesy of my sister who works for Cebu Pacific. Cebu Pacific flies from Cebu to Silay City/Bacolod twice a day.

Going to Negros without the shades but with a ready palate

The City of Smiles is waiting. Photo grabbed from paraisophilippines.com

In a few days time, I will be going to Bacolod, Negros Occidental's capital city, for the first time, to join with foodies/gourmands from all over the Philippines for a once in a lifetime experience- to go on a food trip. The thought of sampling food from Sugarlandia makes my mouth water.

Did I just mentioned it would be my first time in Bacolod? And I am more than excited at the prospect of seeing the city I have heard so much praise given.

Our host, Lee Santiago, a fellow blogger who has an exceptional photoblog Give Me Travel Funds, after several coaxing, finally agreed to accommodate us in his busy schedules and act like a host. So far he has done more than mere hosting. We have not arrive yet.

My official airline: Cebu Pacific. Photo grabbed from airports-worlwide.com

Thus, despite the fact that I have very limited resources and the busiest schedule of the year, I signed up for the trip. That's aside from another fact that I already have a free round-trip airfare from Cebu Pacific courtesy of my sis who works in that company. The ticket and the will to visit that city forced me to pack up and be ready for the weekend visit. (Shhh, I fought with my supervisor with this "unwanted vacation" and we are not telling our manager.)

To make my visit miserable and complicated for me, Lee made up an itinerary that requires the assistance of Robert Langdon. The itinerary is heavily tainted with mysterious clues I have yet to decipher. But what's going to happen to me, a Bacolod-virgin, will be in the hands of Lee. Even if Langdon has not responded to my request. Yet. So I will be going there with a puzzled mind and will just sink and sync (or swim) with the group.

Our proposed itinerary includes:

DAY 1:

* Skyflakes and Water Buffet

* The "Mon" is Rising

* Avoid Lunch

* Scout for Provisions

* The Cow's Sound Wraps the Foot

* Dessert para wala na clue-clue!
DAY 2:

* Northern Exposure

* Lunch

* SugART industry

* KILLER TRILOGY
DAY 3:
* South to East: Eat Cheap... Forage... Beg... Ask to be Fed...

* A Negrense Dinner that will turn a saint to a sinner: (Must! We eat cheap at daytime for this.)

With that mind-boggling itinerary I am very sure my trip to the City of Smiles will be something worth smiling about. The sinful but exciting thought of food would surely be THE reason, the only one, why I will be bloating more from this trip. I won't be bringing with me my shades.

CEBU PACIFIC IS SO COOL THEY ARE HOT!

And because of this video, they got noticed by The Huffington Post! And as of this posting 75% of the readers who joined the poll said they should keep performing this stunt.

Rude Cebu Pacific

A person who is nice to you but is rude

to others is not a nice person.

I hate to be called an ingrate for the fact that I am enjoying free airfare to all destinations of Cebu Pacific courtesy of my sis who works in that company. But I hate rude people. Moreso when they "attack" the special children on their flights.

"Attack" may sound harsh but that was what the flight purser did to a special child (children to be exact because there were 2 onboard) on their Hongkong-Manila flight. According to Inquirer reports, the said crew allegedly told the Alcantaras in a rude and arrogant manner to deplane because of the policy that prohibits more than one mentally ill person in the same flight. As further alleged, even the pilot coerced with the purser. But they did not know that an addendum to that policy stated that special children are not considered a mental case.

Cebu Pacific apologized to the families involved and reprimanded their crew but the passengers did not take the rudeness lightly. They wanted to file a case against the airline.

I don't know if I were in the case of the purser would I-

• impose the government regulations over acts of charity?
  
• rudely ask guests (as they claim their passengers are) to deplane (get out of here) or explain to the concerned parties why they are told to do so?
  

More of the case can be read through these links-

Couple to file suit vs airline despite apology

Airline firm apologizes to couple over treatment of special child

Pilot misinformed on policy for special kids- airline exec

Picture from wikimedia.org

Traveling to Zamboanga for the cash-strapped

You might say this is crazy but I really did went to Zamboanga with only 2,000 pesos in my pocket! It was a suicidal attempt. But I survived!


Robert informed me he was bringing me to Zamboanga because his friend could not make it. I agreed without analyzing my financial capacities. I could not believe I only had that much during my travel.

The return plane tickets were given by my sis, thanks to Cebu Pacific. This practice of CebPac management to give free round trip tickets to parents and siblings of their employees is a worthy cause. It saved me. But the terminal fee at Mactan International Airport (at P200) did not.

My habit of eating once or twice a day also saved me. I mostly relied on coffee and lots of coffee. It was a blessing because Zamboanga has lots of donuts shops you can rely on. Almost every block there is a Dunkin Donuts or a Mister Donuts.

But going to where the real flavor is (and much cheaper than going to McDonald’s or KFC), we went to carenderias near malls (more safe and clean) so we could taste what the regular guys were eating (prices for a complete meal with drinks ranges from P40 to P80). We even searched for halal restos but seeing the food is not inviting for me. Tintin from UniSpa suggested we try the tiulah itum (pronounced chu’lah), a beef stew topped with burnt coconut shreds. I did not take her suggestion.

We walked around Zamboanga not due to the fact that I was really on a very very tight budget, but we loved feeling and immersing the place. When you walk, you see the real essence of the place. And it was a good exercise, too. (Tricycle fare from airport to hotel is P50 to P60. To Café Sacco at Pasonanca Park is P60 during evenings. Pasonanca Park during the day is P50. Fare to the Yakan village is P10 using the Ayala jeep route.)

A good massage at UniSpa during our last night was heaven. It took a good chunk of my budget plus tip but it was worth it. (Full body massage is P280. Tip is P100 since the masseur was good.)

Robert shouldered our accommodation at Hermosa Hotel along Jaldon Street. (Overnight stay for 2 is from P700 to P750, that’s a room with T&B, A/C and cable TV.)

The terminal fee at Zamboanga International Airport is only at P40. I could not agree more since the airport, despite the fancy name, is not really that good. Just like any government infrastructure.

I arrived in Cebu with only P200 left for the taxi. The driver was kind enough to return P10 for emergency cases.

My only regret on that trip? I haven't seen any vinta in Zamboanga as they advertised. The only semblance of a vinta I saw was strapped in the lamp posts around the city and at the trees in Pasonanca Park.

The Plight of the Bumble Bee

Looking at endangered animal species in the Philippines, Tim Tayag claims that if the human race doesn't do more to protect wildlife in the coming years, then we might as well pick our own graves at the nearest cemetery.



Einstein once said that if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no pollination, no plants, no animals, no more man, hence no magazine and no readers. If we don't do anything to protect our wildlife from poachers, exotic animal eaters and illegal circus trainers, the we might as well pick our graves at the nearest friendly cemetery. In the Philippines, the following species are in danger of being (if not already) extinct:

The Green Politician

This political species is uncommon but has the most promise to proliferate and save the other endangered animals. All it needs is our vote, our petitions, and our voice. Given the right incentive, such as election or re-election, the green politician can grow and create a sustainable environment for the tarsier, the calesa, and maybe even the kapre. Saving this creature will have the most impact on our country.

The Calesa

The only animal that is part-living/part-machine, the calesa roamed plentiful and free during Spanish rule. Today, this small horse-drawn carriage has been replaced by the smoke-belching tricycle. But it still thrives in some areas and particularly in Intramuros, in Manila. In a world that has an incurable addiction to oil, calesas could turn out to be the poor man's hydrogen car, as they run on the cheapest alternative - grass. And as a bonus, the manure emissions can be sold as fertilizer.

The Kapre

The cutting down of Balete (Banyan) trees has caused the demise of the kapre, a magical creature that lived in the said trees. The kapre, which shares the same height as as Yao Ming but with less hair, smokes tobacco that is so aromatic, only a smelly goat can outmatch it. Back in the days when forests were full of gigantic Balete trees, kapres lived in every trunk and wooed every maiden that passes by. Today, there are only fuzzy photos and videos of these giants on YouTube. If we could only propagate the Balete, then maybe the kapres will come back, together with our basketball glory days.

The Tarsier

This bug-eyed monkey-lik creature is the adorable mascot of Bohol. It lives in trees and is nocturnal. Probably the smallest primates in the world, sadly, tarsiers are being smuggled inside sticky rice cakes to become pets by Noah's Ark wannabes. But they don't live or breed well in captivity. Some have been known to kill themselves by banging their heads against cages or drowning themselves in drinking bowls after leaving a suicide note about loneliness. Leave them in their habitats and visit only at recommended places.



Copied without permission from Smile Magazine of Cebu Pacific Air June/July 08 Issue.