Wednesday, December 11, 2024

7:00 PM | Casa Paquita

I’ve been wanting to share the photos below for a few months now, but Jaime Ponce de Leon asked me to wait. You see, I’ve loved this old, old house along Pinili Street for many years, and I have always been concerned that the owners were neglecting it and was not seeing its full potential. Then one day, passing by its old location, it was just ... gone. That really made me despondent, and I thought about how many heritage houses in Dumaguete were disappearing, because some owners consider them useless, or their possible restoration would take so much work [and finances]. For the Arrieta family who owned the heritage house, it must have been prohibitive to do the upkeep of an old house, even though they might not have wanted to part with it. Anna May Cruz would later tell me: “My aunt’s family didn’t want to part with it but no one could afford its upkeep. The neglect was not intentional.”

Labels: cafes, dumaguete, gallries, heritage, negros, old houses, restaurants

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Saturday, October 08, 2016

11:24 PM | Food Roundup Dumaguete 2016: Kiyosuke

I am an accidental foodie: I used to write a food column for a local paper and have written extensively about the Dumaguete food scene for national magazines and newspapers -- until I decided to discontinue the enterprise about four years ago. Still, people I know who visit Dumaguete keep asking me about the best places to go to eat, and I've found I no longer quite know the scene. A lot can change in half a decade. So I've decided to try a new approach this year and go about sampling the local food culture once more and document everything online in the course of twelve months. The city has grown and expanded enough in the years since 2011, and a significant part of what's happening food-wise has become unfamiliar to me. Consider this a personal adventure.



We swung by Kiyosuke a few weeks ago because we heard from some friends about it: how it was small and intimate and how they have traditional Japanese clothes you could put on for photo ops and such. “Yeah, but do they have ramen?” I asked. It turns out they did not, but I was immediately taken by the place nonetheless. It’s not your typical restaurant: it’s just a small two-room thing, an apartment really, its living room fitted out for a three-table affair, with a small adjoining room done up with tatami and low tables. On the walls of both rooms, the proprietors have painted cherry trees in bloom. The effect is, well, kawaii. The menu does not exactly offer a wide variety of choices, but I liked what I ordered: teriyaki and sushi for dinner and korumitsu for dessert, all delicious, all lovingly prepared. The place is a bit off the beaten path, along West Aldecoa Drive right after the highway, and it could be tough to spot, given that it’s situated behind a garage. Its lived-in/DIY feel might not be for some people, but it does grow on you. I am certainly going back for more. We ordered at 7 PM. Order received at 7:20 PM.

#FoodRoundupDumaguete2016

Labels: dumaguete, food, restaurants, review

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Sunday, January 24, 2016

8:41 PM | Food Roundup Dumaguete 2016: Mamita's Diner

I am an accidental foodie: I used to write a food column for a local paper and have written extensively about the Dumaguete food scene for national magazines and newspapers -- until I decided to discontinue the enterprise about four years ago. Still, people I know who visit Dumaguete keep asking me about the best places to go to eat, and I've found I no longer quite know the scene. A lot can change in half a decade. So I've decided to try a new approach this year and go about sampling the local food culture once more and document everything online in the course of twelve months. The city has grown and expanded enough in the years since 2011, and a significant part of what's happening food-wise has become unfamiliar to me. Consider this a personal adventure.



There has been, for some reason, an explosion of meat-loving eating places around Dumaguete in very recent years -- although ironically not a single one of them is a steakhouse of some reckoning. (Don't even mention Don Atilano, please.) For the most part, the explosion has centered on everybody's pork passion, which is not always a healthy thing -- and above all these, a hankering for all manner of lechon. Mamita's Diner, only a stone's throw away from the city police station along Cervantes Street, is perhaps one of the first to cash in on this food trend in Dumaguete, billing itself to be the place to go if one wanted the finest of Cebu's boneless lechon. I know people who swear by the delicacy of Mamita's lechon -- and not too long ago, I've sampled the spicy variety that seems to be the favorite, and found it much to my liking. There was a spicy earthiness to the bite of supple meat I had then -- but none of that, unfortunately, was to be had in my latest visit a few days ago. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the meat we got might have sat on the counter for much too long and had grown exceedingly cold, enough to lose the vibrancy we love in freshly made lechon. Still I consider this an anomaly; the diner has always been a lovely place to go. In itself, the place charms me with its intimacy (there are only four tables) and its curious eye for detail. Consider, for example, the tables and chairs -- just your ordinary carinderia prototype, but designed with an eye for an exquisite finish. That assures me very much of the proprietor's keeness to make this place work: it mixes no frills down-to-earthness with pleasant, well-designed air. The staff, too, is a gregarious and friendly bunch, which is always a plus. It has been a while since Manang Siony's, the city's legendary meat central, disappeared. Others have quickly taken its place, and I'd guess Mamita's is one of the more successful torchbearers for our continued meat madness. A quarter of the lechon priced at around P120. Placed my order at 7:00 PM. Order received at 7:15 PM.

#FoodRoundupDumaguete2016

Labels: dumaguete, food, lechon, restaurants, review

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Friday, July 24, 2015

11:25 PM | The Details of La Bella

I had no plans today to go to La Bella, the new Italian pasta and pizza joint that just soft-opened a few weeks ago across Bethel Guest House along Avenida de Rizal. I was waiting for its grand opening in August. But I was following my feet today, and my feet decided I had to try out -- even for a bit --- what La Bella was promising Dumaguete City, culinary-wise. Turns out, the new restaurant is the brain child of a member of the Lhuillier family, and it is quite ravishing in its tasteful use of interior design -- a mix of Balinese, Italian, Greek, and Chinese -- which perhaps gives a nod to its menu's eclectic feel. It is still decidedly Italian, of course -- but I have a feeling this is going to be more of a fusion establishment in the days to come. In the meantime, I was the quirkiness of its decor, which struck me at once to be quite sumptuous and yet personal. It is a far-cry from the often lazy design restaurants in Dumaguete are plagued with...

































I haven't tried out the rest of the menu yet, but for this brief visit, I had the Greek coffee, the gnocchi, and the smores pizza. A review is most definitely forthcoming...

Labels: cebu, design, dumaguete, food, italian cuisine, negros, restaurants

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Monday, July 06, 2015

8:06 PM | Food for Thought

There are reasons why I prefer cafes as places to go to for work. Yes, I'm one of those people -- and our tribe is increasing. There's coffee readily available, for one thing, and there's reliable wifi. And sometimes, you just want to avoid certain people to keep yourself productive.

But I keep changing my "offices" as a matter of changing taste and circumstances. And right now, the best places for me are these two I've been wanting to keep to myself for sometime now -- but I think it's time to share.

I love the ease of THE ROLLIN' PIN along Katada Street beside Opeñas. It's not fancy but I like the quiet. The pastries are good, but most of all, I'm constantly craving for their Mediterranean Chicken, a concoction with pesto with the chicken meat somehow tenderised and fried with knowledge of culinary alchemy.

Then there's THE VENUE in Tubod, ostensibly a place for grilled inasal chicken, but really a place where you get the best wraps this side of town made by a bunch of Persians. (My favourite to go with my order of Pecho Pak is the Belliso Barbecue Wrap. It also comes in sisig.) I go there for quiet afternoons where I can truly find myself focused on writing.

People used to drop by certain places in Dumaguete to make sure they can see me. I've since eluded the usual places, but now I guess you know where to find me.

Labels: cafes, dumaguete, food, life, restaurants, work

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