Food on Wheels; Deep fried bananas on Cebu in the Philippines

Food on Wheels; Deep fried bananas on Cebu in the Philippines

Food on Wheels goes international and has it's first contribution outside of Thailand! During my recent trip to the Philippines, I visited Cebu island, Cebu City and the small island of Malapascua, just north of Cebu.

The deep fried banana vendor at the Sto. Thomas de Villanueva Parish (Danao City Church)

On the way from Malapascua to back to Cebu city we passed the Sto. Thomas de Villanueva Parish (Danao City Church) and that's where I spotted this fried banana vendor. During the travel I had seen more food on wheels qualifying vendors but couldn't get any good pictures from the moving van.

The deep frying process

I'm very glad to have caught this on my camera so I can go international with this series! There's more out there and more to come! My archives are still in good shape and everyday can bring new material!

To my fellow bloggers, if anyone of you is still following my blog and output since I don't have the time lately to follow and check in to your blogs, if you feel that you want to contribute to the Food on Wheels series with a guest post, please contact me and I will have you write a blog post as a guest writer on this blog with at least one link to your blog.

Camille

Salo-Salo Sutukil restaurant, Mactan, Cebu City, Philippines

Salo-Salo Sutukil restaurant, Mactan, Cebu City, Philippines

My last night during my recent visit to the Philippines was spent in Cebu City ad I was taken to a local restaurant in Mactan, a small island in front of Cebu city and famous for the death of Fernando Magellan.

Next to the Magellan and Lapu Lapu shrines are a couple of so called sutukil restaurants, which stands for Sugba, Tuwa and Kilaw. Sugba means to grill, Tuwa means to make into Tinola or soup, and Kilaw means to make Kinilaw or raw style serving of the fish, the fish being 'cooked' in vinegar, as a result you get a kind of Sashimi!

The fish display of Salo-Salo Sutukil restaurant

The fish is all displayed at the entrance of the restaurants and you order and negotiate a price. My Philippine friend who took me here, was accompanied by his Mum and she warned him about being charged premium prices for the drinks, since the menu didn't list any prices for the drinks. It turned out the we weren't over charged for the drinks but there was an add on for 'cooking' the ordered dishes which was a bit heartily when the check came, so be aware of this when visiting this otherwise delicious restaurant.

The entrance to Salo-Salo

The restaurant we visited is one of the three remaining places in Mactan near the Magellan and Lapu Lapu shrine, and whilst Googling this place, it seems that it has been around 'forever'. Another restaurant nearby is 'No problem' but a fellow Cebuan blogger had a warning up for this place. He also warns about over pricing!

Cockle shell na Ginata

The food was excellent though and I enjoyed it a lot. The place reminded me of the Nai Aow restaurant in Kanchanadit, which is also located at a mangrove and serves sea food.

We had lovely company, my friend, his Mum and three Japanese friends invited by my Philippine friend. The company and food were excellent!

Kinilaw Tanigue

This was amongst my fave dishes, the raw tuna 'cooked' in vinegar and as a result you get Kinilaw. An excellent dish and well worth trying out!

Ginisang Alamango

Looks familiar, yes indeed, crab just like in Thailand! The main difference with Thai dishes is that there are no sauces let alone spicy sauces that come with the dishes!

Besides the pictured dishes we also had a seaweed or Lato salad, Inihaw na Isda or grilled fish, Rellenong Pusit or grilled and stuffed fish, pancit bihon or noodles and kanin or rice.

Definitely a place I can recommend when visiting Cebu city!

The sutukil restaurants are located near the Mactan Shrine. It is a 250-peso taxi ride from central Cebu City. Just tell the cab driver you want to go to Mactan Shrine in Punta Engano. It’s on the way to Shangri-la Mactan. If you want to take public transport, you can either ride on a jeepney that goes to Punta Engano (No. 23 jeepneys with Punta Engano signboards in the windshield) or you can choose one of the hundreds of tricycle in Lapu-Lapu City.

The sutukil eateries are to the left of the stage near the Mactan shrine, on the side of the area’s police precinct (now there’s an added security for you.) After you pass a couple of souvenir shops selling trinkets, shell craft and other native products, you then see several stalls with pails and buckets of fresh seafood-just choose one of the several eateries in the place.

Enjoy,

Camille

Cebu island and city, Philippines; impressions

Cebu island and city, Philippines; impressions

Upon leaving Malapascua 10th January, after a 20 minute boat ride, you reach Maya, the most Northern point of Cebu island. From there it's a 3 hour ride to Cebu city.

As already noted on notes and pictures I took on Malapascua, the Philippines are Catholic. I love the kitsch of Latin American Catholicism and some of that kitsch can be found back in the Philippines. Cebu airport on the island of Mactan has even a big picture of Maria with Dutch text on it, near the first security check point inside the domestic departure terminal but having my hands full of luggage in a moving line, I didn't manage to step out of said line and take a picture although I would've loved to have that picture taken! Ah well, next time.

The picture above was taken in a hotel near Mactan airport.

The 10th January is Bodbod festival. On the way down from maya to Cebu city we passed through a couple of villages that were in full Fiesta swing and mode!

The town of Catmon is famous for its tasty "bodbod" and thus is the focus of the festival. The street dancing competition is participated by the different barangays has its dance movements, the movement of making the bodbod with the costumes in bodbod concept.

The picture shows one of the many bands that were participating. Note the two guys in the middle of the picture playing each other drums!

Than we entered Danao and stopped at the local church. Sto. Thomas de Villanueva Parish (Danao City Church) Established in 1595

The church of Danao was constructed in 1755 by Fr. Manuel de Santa Barbara, and was made up of materials from sugar cane and rocks from the sea. The crucero of the church was built in the 1800's. However, it suffered a partial destruction (was burned in 1942) during the World War II. Religious items and other important materials were also burned. From the original construction materials of the church, only the solid stones were spared from the fire. It was reconstructed in 1946. In 1981, the building underwent another renovation, this time almost a complete overhaul (only 30% of the original stands). The renovation was completed in 1985.

Very interesting about this church are the bells, which are named according to saints. The San Alipio bell, cast in 1845 and weighing 45 kilos, is the oldest. Two others, cast in 1917 were added and these were the Villanueva bell (630 kilos) and the Sagrado Corazon bell (249 kilos).

Magellan shrine

After having checked in to our hotel, my local guide took us to the Magellan shrine, at a location where the battle of Mactan was fought 27th April 1521 and where the famous Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan died in battle with Lapu Lapu.

Mangroves around Mactan, where Magellan died

Cebu has a nice fell to itself and in my opinion is well worth a visit. For all divers that read my blog, the diving around this island is stunning and plenty of great locations and dive sites are reachable within short distances.

Cebu gets my thumbs up!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 12th February, 2011

Today's weather;

Back on Samui, yeah! It's partly cloudy with plenty of sunshine and a current temp at 10am of 27.6C

Yesterday was warm and sunny on Samui with a max temp of 29.3C

Jeepney in Cebu city, yesterday

Cebu was nice and sunny and after some shopping and finding the gifts and presents for back home, it was off to Manila and than on to Bangkok for a midnight arrival. A short night in the Silver Gold Garden and early this morning it was back to Samui!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 11 th February. 2011

Today's weather;

Samui is nice and sunny with a current temp at 7am of 25.3C

Yesterday saw also a warm and sunny day with a max temp of 29.8C

Statue of Lapu Lapu in Mactan, Cebu, where explorer and conquistador Fernando Magellan was killed in a battle by Lapu Lapu's men 27th April, 1521.

Cebu is nice and sunny today and I will be on my way back to Bangkok later today, so I can move on to Samui tomorrow morning!

Camille

Cebu Transportation, PI style

Cebu Transportation, PI style

Having lived in Thailand now for 12 years and having visited almost all neighboring countries (Myanmar is still on my 'to visit' list), the Philippines is a first for me.

It's very Asian but also very different compared to Thailand, which I call my home. One of the things that struck as being very different is the means of transportation. The jeepneys are most likely the most famous sample and best known, however, on my trip by taxi from Cebu airport to the North of Cebu island, where I had to take a ferry over to Malapascua, I did notice two different means of transportation, the tricycle and the pedicab!

The tricycle is a motorbike with a rather big sidecar mounted to it in which up to 6 or 7 people can sit, plus their luggage. This is how one looks like from the back of, in the picture above.

This is a tricycle in action! Besides the driver, two people are sitting on the outside next to the driver, a couple of people are sitting inside the covered side mountain and seemingly at least person is hanging outside of the tricycle. Truly an amazing way of getting around for medium sized distances of in my estimate a couple of kilometers max. For longer distances the jeepneys will be a more convenient option, I assume.

A couple of parked tricycles, waiting for business

Than there's the option for even shorter distances, the pedicab, a push bike with a side mountain that holds two passengers There are two seats) and luggage. Amazing PI!

On Malapascua, the island where I'm conducting a PADI IDC, there's hardly any form of transportation besides your feet and an occasional motorbike.

Camille