inato

in august of this year, we travelled to the "center of learning in the south", dumaguete city. this city, although progressive and urbanized, still maintains its provincial charm that makes it a calming haven for urbanites like me and my travel buddies. i also noticed that the city is home to a lot of older foreigners who might found that silent bliss in this city of gentle people.

what makes dumaguete attractive, aside from its striking balance between urban dwelling and not-so-hurried way of life, is the food! a good mix of native cuisine, western-inspired sweets and innovative new offerings completed our gastronomic rendezvous.

we had a delectable sampling of chicken inato but i think the one that i had in jo's sibulan (after our trip to balinsasayaw twin lakes) was the better one compared to jo's chicken inato in dumaguete maybe because the sibulan version was not dry and was better marinated.

on our way to apo island, we stopped for a quick lunch at malatapay boat station. there, we had tinolang isda, which was quite surprising for a tagalog like me. you see, i only know of tinolang manok (chicken in ginger soup with chili or malunggay leaves), as we call this dumaguete version of tinola, pangat. we also had their version of pinakbet. at apo island, we got a fresh fish (unfortunately, i can't remember how locals call this fish!) for lunch.

with all these yummy ulam, we naturally went for some sweets! and dumaguete took care of that just as well. we missed the 6 am ferry to siquijor on our second day but this led us to the sans rival cake and pastry house in san jose street. even if we had heavy chowking breakfast, no one could resist that sugar call and we naturally let ourselves order silvanas, sans rival, mango cake, choco decadent and kutsinta among others.

for some sweets, we also tried the coffee house in front of why not disco. we had apple pie a la mode, courtesy of agnes, as well as various walnut breads.

finally, michael tried the famous fried panda ice cream, which he said was also good. i didn't try this one coz i was way too full from our dinner, but i did manage to finish one nangka bar!

what a food trip that was!