Spice Fusion, Cebu

On my usual sojourn again to the danggit and dried mango island tomorrow. I guess time and distance are helping me out…. In this time of getting miserably fat.

This food post is about one fave restaurant I have in Cebu. I remember on one trip in Singapore, I was wishing I could find a good fusion restaurant back home. But I never thought I’d find one in Cebu. We don’t have the sting ray though. But still, Spice fusion offered to be one of the best Asian fusion I’ve been to in Cebu and (some parts of) Manila. The right amount of spice, a bit of Filipino to suit our taste buds, but still was able to retain the authenticity of other Asian countries’ dish.

Read on to know more. More pictures posted at Multiply account.



Name: Spice Fusion
Where: Banilad Town Center (BTC) Cebu
Contact details: (+63) (32) 344 29 23
Cuisine: Asian fusion
Food rate: 8.5 out of 10
Ambiance: Your usual resto, but food taste compensates for the lack of ambiance

Service: Even on a busy day, I’d still say they give good attention to customers. From ordering, to the arrival of your dish, to billing out, things turn out unusually smooth. A refreshing feat from most restaurants that I’ve been to.

Cost: Cebu is Cebu. You can’t have the same price in Manila, thus food trips are so much inevitable in this place. Crab would cost less than 500 Php (the heaviest weighed), main dishes would range from 150 to 300 Php. And they have a substantial serving amount good for 3-4 people.

Some Recommendations: I’d recommend Roti and pork/ chicken satay for your appetizers; Chili crab, chili prawn, and cashew chicken for your main dish and finally, banana fritters for your dessert.

Overall Assessment: A place worth coming back to. They’ve opened more branches in malls around Cebu, but I’d still recommend their cook in BTC (unless he got transfered).

If you can recommend a good Asian Fusion in Manila, I’d definitely want to try ‘em. Cheers! Happy eating during this Love Month!

More pictures at my Multiply account.

Golden Cowrie, Cebu

Define Filipino in tummy language. I’d say Golden cowrie.
Name: Golden Cowrie, Native Restaurant
Where: Salinas Drive, Lahug, Cebu or Lower Ground Floor, SM City Cebu, North Reclamation Are, Cebu City
Contact details: @ Lahug: (+6332) 233 4243; +63917 627 2551; @ SM: (+6332) 231 8530; +63917 627 2553
Cuisine: Definitely Filipino with a twist of Cebu, Bicol, Batangas and a whole lot more…
Food rate: Definitely 9 out of 10 if you’re a big fan of Filipino Food


Ambiance: Wood. You’d never go wrong with wood. Plus the place is surrounded with paintings for sale. No need for too much décor. But you’d definitely feel the Pinoy style in the place. Upon ordering, they’d give you your plate… a flat rectangular piece of capiz curved upward on two ends, laden with slightly heated banana leaf. One of a kind. Definitely sets the mood for much eating. But if you’re a person who drowns his rice in soup, better use the soup bowl, the capiz plate is just too flat to hold any liquid around.

Service: Everything is almost perfect. Except for the slow paced service. Though at least food usually comes at one go and not in staggered portions. Waiting for your bill may take a while. Never fails. So I suggest you come here with a friend to chat with.

Cost: What’s that word in tagalong? “Sulit.” Again I say “Sulit” (Worth every penny). The price is not just reasonable, its cheap. And the taste? Yuummm yuum yum!


Some Recommendations: If you’re into adding spice into your life? I’d recommend Chicken Halang haling, Bicol express. You can never go wrong with the classics, baked mussels/ clams, kangkong, crispy pata, and of course the sinigangs. The langka (jackfruit in coconut milk) and the laing is also a top choice for the veggies.

Overall Assessment: If you’re less adventurous in the small restaurants around cebu, this is definitely the place to go.

Note: My external harddrive died. So still have 20 restaurant reviews but I have zero pictures (yeah, it sucks really. It took me 3 years to collect those pictures). So for now, I would like to thank the following links for letting me borrow some of their uploaded pics:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/207/524611105_f9d08a669d.jpg?v=0
http://picasaweb.google.com/erwong/AsiaTrip
http://soloflighted.com/foodtrips/

Size

A day in Cebu:

Me at the printers/ computer shop:

Me: Miga, naa ka pa print? (Miss, do you have print services?)

Girl: naa (We have)

Me: tagpila ka print? (how much for printing?)

Girl: size

Me: short bond lang, tagpila ka print? (only for short bond paper size, how much for a print?)

Girl: size

Me: ha? Tagpila nga? (ha? How much again?)

Girl: size nga (with a smirk)

Then I realize, size….

Me: ahhh size… (as in sais (sa-iz), as in uno… dos… tres…kwatro … singko... sais)

Ang tanga ko talaga, size nga naman. (Stupid me, yeah, sais)

Me: sige po paprint (next time, I won’t try to speak Bisaya anymore, it’s a disaster brewing, really)

Some of my colleages make fun of my “Bisaya” accent, it’s actually a mixture of my Batangueno-Manilenyo trying hard to be bisaya accent. So imagine a batangueno sing song accent in a Bisaya dialect. Yikes. As Happy Slip’s dad would term it… DISASTER.

In anycase, I'm in a "nonsense post" mode till I get to be on a real vacation from work. See yah!

Bochok Goes to Cebu

Shhhhh. Bochok is still asleep. hehe. la lang. lakas trip.

From Nueva Ecija, Crime Partner brought Bochok to Cebu so that I could see him again, then we'll go back home to Manila together this Friday. I do envy Bochok, he gets to go on a vacation and gets to ride in the cargo part of the plane. hehe.

I can't wait to go back home. A lot of stuff happened during the past few days. Decisions that will hurt other people and change my life, hopefully for the best. And I'm grateful that

Bochok is back. hehe. Yeah I know, I'm just a bit weird. Shoot me. Prolly got it from drinking too much sikwate (native chocolate). hehe.

In any case, I'd just like to say sorry to some whom I've hurt deeply. I've removed baggages (though made me happy at some time or another) just for me to achieve some goals. I do hope my endeavor is fully understood and supported. Thanks for all.

*hugs bochok*

Half Rice

Blog muna, pero pwamis magwork ako later. Pero since I'm now again in Cebu for an effin week, foodtrip is again a sinful feat that I, unfortunately, cannot escape.

I ordered a Sanduo (Rice and Two Chicken Sunburst meal) this lunch. For the past few weeks, I've been limiting my rice to a half serving, owing to the (positive?) exponential (ed?) growth of my weight.

As what have already been customary, I'd take half of my rice to the corners of my plate (bilog nga pala plate), to mark it as off limits. But just this time, my officemate Nat turned on her mother tone and told me "Ano yan? kainin mpo yan, me crisis tayo".

"Krisis? (hindi po ako nakakabasa ng balita) Anong krisis?"

Nat and Jam, "Rice krisis"

At kinain ko tuloy ang buong serving ng kanin. Bow. Plus half dome shaped ice cream cake. patay na.

Moon Cafe, Cebu

Ok, let's talk about food again. My posts have rather been revolving around work, and on how depressing it is. So let us go back to some restaurants I've found in Cebu.

Name: Moon Cafe
Where: 42 E. Osmeña cor. J. Diaz Street, Guadalupe Cebu City , Cebu
Phone: (032)253-3635
Cuisine: Mexican
Food: 8 out of 10
Ambiance: 9 out of 10 (I like how the walls are painted though all are just merely cement, plus they have other areas wherein you can have your own thing with your friends)
Service: 7.5 out of 10 (hmmm I haven't had that "wow, you're nice" moment" pretty much order and serve, but good thing is they are always just around the corner when you need them)
Costs: A dish would range from 100 to 300. Reasonable and sulit!


Some Recommendations:
Ok so I'm really bad with names, when I get back I'll update this entry to get what dish it was but here's a pathetic description.
dish 1: Choice of chicken, pork or fish baked with sumtuous sauce and rice topped with melted mozzarella cheese served in a round clay plate with handle.
Drink: Tropical pitcher, a mixture of tropical fruits in one pitcher

Over all Assessment: A must try restaurant in Cebu

Baker's Central, Cebu

Name: Baker's Central

Location: Piazza Elisiah, Cebu

Type: Shop

Theme: Baker's materials, ingredients etc.

Review:

Here you'll have a wide variety of stuffs for your kitchen/ baking needs. From Chocolate bars (dark, milk etc.), to molding pans, to sprinkles, to packaging.

you'll have these variety at a very reasonable price.

Plus points:
If you'll be baking for diabetics/ health freaks, they have ingredients for it (sugar substitutes, low cal/ fat ingredients)

For the non-bakers:
I suggest buying the dark/ white chocolate packs best for making fondues. Best date food. Fruits and stuffs dipped into dark chocolate, yum!

Christmas at Marriot Hotel

Children of the SOS Children's Village (a home for abandoned and orphaned kids) in Talamban, Cebu are hoping to get their Christmas wish fulfilled. Marriot hotel in Cebu is now taking the initative to be the kid's bridge to the Santas in each of us.

They're inviting good hearted people to choose an SOS child to give a gift to. How? Photos of the kids are on the Christmas tree located at the hotel lobby. Each Photo would indicate a kid's Christmas wish. Anyone may buy the specified gift or may just donate an amount for the hotel to do the shopping. Simply put, you choose a kid and you'll be his/ her Santa for this season.

The Children will be at the hotel on Dec 21st, 3pm for the gift giving. And the "santas" are very much invited to hand over the gifts personnally.

I'm planning to share some of my blessings in the same manner. Before I was planning to spend my birthday shopping for groceries and giving it randomly to people living in the streets. Somehow that didn't materialize as I was travelling and spent my last birthday alone outside manila. But hopefully I could do something special this Christmas. If you'd want to join, let me know. Before, my girlfriend would put up a personnal drive collecting toys, which she then will give to the Children's ward in PGH. These are small things that makes people feel special, even for just that one small encounter.

Wanna join me in this endeavor?

For the mean time, here's a song from Michael Buble, My Grown Up Christmas List...





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GROWN-UP CHRISTMAS LISTMichael Buble Version
Do you remember me?I sat upon your kneeI wrote to you with childhood fantasiesWell, I’m all grown-up nowCan you still help somehow?I’m not a child, but my heart still can dream
So here’s my lifelong wishMy grown-up Christmas listNot for myself, but for a world in need
No more lives torn apartThat wars would never startAnd time would heal all heartsEvery man would have a friendThat right would always winAnd love would never endThis is my grown-up Christmas list
What is this illusion called the innocence of youth?Maybe only in that blind belief can we ever find the truth
No more lives torn apartThat wars would never startAnd time would heal our heartsEvery man would have a friendThat right would always winAnd love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas listThis is my only lifelong wishThis is my grown-up Christmas list

July 10 - Mah Burdey!

Happy Birthday!

Yes, 'twas my birthday last week. Unfortunately, I spent my birthday working. I had to stay in a hotel, far away from relatives. Good thing, I had one of my colleagues to accompany me on this trip. She was kind enough to inform the hotel crew of my getting older and demanded... yes demanded that something must and should be prepared for me. 'Twas kinda wierd as it seems that the hotel sounded like it wasn't used to greeting its guests (on any occassion unless they reserved a function room for a party or something). But like I said, my friend was very determined and demanded that a cake be sent to my room by 7:00 am. (check out the cake, pure black native chocolate, or at least that's how it tasted... yuuuummmmm!).

We celebrated my birthday, though we were working, by eating... no, make that globbering some food. haha! A day before, we went to Golden Cowrie in Cebu. I wasn't able to take pictures so I'll just borrow some from wordpress.

The restaurant served it with a very unusual plate. It was kind of made of capiz (white sea shell)with a golden cowrie printed on top, but it wasn't cut out like a soup bowl or would have a reservoir for liquid food. It was plain flat which I first mistook for a placemat rather than a plate. Then they would place a newly heated banana leaf on top of the capiz plate. It was a new experience... and it was great! The food was delish! But I did wish we could've ordered more so that i could have tasted more dishes. I guess there could still be next time.

BTW, I'm now 24!!!!!!!!!

Till next ish!