Indulging in Bohol: The Buzzz Café of the Bohol Bee Farm

Coming home to Bohol is a welcome respite from the demands of highly urbanized cities like Cebu. That and despite of the fact that Tagbilaran is becoming like a suffocated city and criminality abound with no solutions in sight.

But coming to a place I call home exudes another dimension, a sense of belonging I would not or could not solicit from someone or somewhere else.

The Buzzz Café (Upper Ground Floor of the Island City Mall; telephone 63.38.501.7818) was my first destination. I missed the food here and the company of familiar servers who would give you something of an extra of just about anything.

Honestly, I came here just for their famous Organic Salad which I truly missed since no restaurant would dare serve them. Famous because people are almost always amused at the sight of its ingredients: lettuce, pineapple bits, strips of vegetables and flowers. Yes, flowers. As what the owner and a good friend Ms Vicky Wallace told us long time ago, whatever the bees visit, is mostly edible. But I think what made their organic salad palatable is the syrup that comes with it: a combination of honey, cheese, vinaigrette and mustard. Yummy!

In spite of my insistence that I would only have the organic salad, Ms Ynday, my former head of office insisted that we also try their spicy seafood pasta which came in a huge plate. The pasta was served with another organic salad on the side (one bowl is already enough, please) and an herb bread with pesto and mango-cheese spread. Now this is truly an achievement I should be proud of since I don’t eat this much.

The pasta was perfect, firm and not soggy, the texture quite notable as the aroma from the seafood and herbs made it a drowning experience. Although I was wondering why there were five big heads of prawns on it with only 3 bodies we accounted. I should file a missing report, I joked.

As if the carbo load was not enough, we order another dish we could not resist- Bread Pizza. Now this sure is unique of The Buzzz Café. A thick slice of herb bread is doused with a special sauce combined with tomatoes, peppers, cheese and other herbs. The smell is heaven enough and the taste equally filling.

A glass of fresh buko shake and corn coffee completes our meal.

Burp! Excuse me, but that meal deserves a good siesta.

Larang sa Pasil

Are you going to eat that?

It was purely a coincidence that I was reading a book by Robb Walsh titled Are You Really Going To Eat That? Reflections of a Culinary Thrill Seeker when we made a stopover in Naga, Cebu for lunch today. A part of the plaza was used by the enterprising local government unit as entertainment and dining area where several seafood restaurants were offering some fare. 

Coincidence because the book was talking about the author's esoteric and peculiar culinary expeditions all over the world and there we were at the plaza in Naga City deciding among the display what to eat for lunch. Some were peculiar indeed and were not-so-familiar type. Some I didn't even know could be eaten.

I decided to eat the kinilaw nga bat (sea cucumber salad, I think and I don't want to think of any other species), nilabog nga iho (shark in coconut milk), and a plate of milled corn.  I asked the tindera if it was really shark meat and commented that they sure were illegal since they were an endangered species, to which she replied- I don't know. I was not sure though which shark was endangered. My companions chose tinolang isda, a salad out of the innards of the sea cucumber, nilabog nga pagi (manta ray, endangered too?), and some pork servings.

My choices were actually good. The sea cucumber salad was crunchy and sweet perhaps enhanced by the use of sukang tuba. The commercialized version of the nilabog shark meat was so-so, I could not even distinguish if it was chicken or real shark, although it was my first time to eat shark meat. But one thing I was sure of I could not taste the coconut milk, the ingredient that makes all nilabog desirable. A hefty sili solved that.

But in general, I felt wonderfully full.

This reminds me to visit that restaurant in Tagbilaran that offers an array of exotica in their menu including python meat (oh my!), deer meat, frogs, etc. I hope I could answer back when Robb Walsh will ask me- are you really going to eat that?

Nilabog nga iho (Shark meat cooked in coconut milk)

Kinilaw nga bat (Sea cucumber salad)

Nilabog nga pagi (Manta ray meat cooked in coco milk)