This article was made possible by our German friend Elena who suggested this restaurant to us.

Remnant Health Food and Vegetarian Cuisine is one of the few vegetarian restaurants in Bacolod.  It is a restaurant that doubles as a naturopathic clinic (on the second floor) and it serves Filipino cuisine with vegetarian ingredients.

Remnant Health Food & Vegetarian Cuisine.

Remnant is quite cozy inside albeit a bit dim.  The chairs and tables are clean and sturdy.

Remnant’s beautiful Interior.

They serve vegetables and Filipino dishes with soy meat (veggie meat).  The lighting in the place is a bit dim so we apologize in advance for the crappy pictures.  Veggie meat or soy meat is chewy and actually has a distinct but not unpleasant taste.  It is almost like real meat.  When cooked with a sauce or in Filipino dishes, Veggie meat is quite tasty!

Tinola and brown rice.

This is what they had on sale on the day of our visit.. cauliflower, carrots and veggie meat which looks and tastes almost exactly like beef.  It is quite cheap and filling too!

This is so good!

They also serve a variety of Juices that are delicious!  We had their Melange Juice which is a mixture of peppermint, pineapple and other fruit juices.  Very refreshing!

Melange Juice

Try out Remnant for their healthy vegetarian meals and their awesome juices!

Imbiss has once again changed owners and this time, the NEWEST incarnation of Imbiss looks great!  The new Imbiss has been open for a while now at 10th Lacson street just near the old Topps bowling area.

Imbiss Bacolod’s facade at their new location.

The Interior of Imbiss looks great.  There are paintings done by a famous Bacolod artist and the place is well lit and cheerful.

The Interior of Imbiss

One of the paintings that hang inside Imbiss

The real draw of Imbiss however is their lovely beer garden under some Rambutan trees that are actually laden with fruit.  This outdoor area is really nice and almost looks like a beach bar.  It is really pleasant.

The outdoor area.

The bar. If one wants to eat Rambutan, one can pluck the low hanging fruits at their leisure.

Imbiss serves pizza, sausages and a lot of other things on their menu.  We tried their German dishes and while we didn’t have a bad experience, we thought that they tasted bland and uninspired.

Imbiss’ rosti. Potatoes and ham.

Imbiss’ sausage. Very sad-looking dish.

Wiener Schnitzel. It was covered all over in salty Campbell’s mushroom soup that was made into a sauce. It wasn’t really authentic Weiner Schnitzel but the portion was big and filling.

Imbiss is a great place to go drinking and it has a warm and cosy atmosphere.  You won’t find authentic German food here but the portion sizes are big and quite filling.

Shawarma fans in Bacolod can now rejoice!  My Big Fat Shawarma,  a new shawarma shop has opened in the Bacolod Art District.  They specialize in BIG stuffed Shawarmas.

My Big Fat Shawarma!

We scooted over there to give it a try.   The place is done up in red and green colors and looks quite inviting!

The Outside is designed to look like one of those Moroccan shops/Middle east windows!

A lovely patterned cloth decorates a wall and gives it charm and color.

The shop has just recently opened so all they have on their Menu is shawarma (as of now).  In the future, they promise to be serving more dishes such as the ever popular shawarma rice.

You can chose the size of your shawarma and customize it.

We ordered the biggest shawarma and had everything put on it.   The taste of the Shawarma is just okay.  Nothing special.  The garlic sauce is “Filipinized” which means it is sweetish and not very garlicky.  The meat is soft but isn’t really spiced the middle eastern way.  My Big Fat Shawarma is like the hundreds of Shawarma shops dotting the country.

The really awesome thing that sets my Big Fat Shawarma apart is the huge size and the late operating hours.   We really loved the CRUNCHY ONIONS.  They are a great idea and they add FLAVOR and CRUNCH to the Shawarma.  One of these days I’d like to order an all meat shawarma with just crunchy onions for the taste.

It’s HUGEEEEE!!!

My Big Fat Shawarma is located at the Art District!

We’ve previously written about the fantastic Virgelio’s in Alijis.  We’re proud to announce that they have now opened a branch in Villamonte right beside Munsterific!

Virgelio’s grill serves, seafood, cansi soup, barbecue and so much more!

Virgelio’s is an open air restaurant where people can order seafood or meat out front and then have them grilled right in front of their eyes.  It is simple but it works.  It is especially popular since people can select the cuts of fish or meat that they want.

A waiter takes orders as hungry patrons select the food that they want grilled.

Once you’ve made your order the food is sprinkled with salt and grilled. That’s it! Simple and no frills!

There’s a huge amount of fresh seafood available.  People can have their fish grilled or served sizzling style on a hot plate.  They also serve cansi, crispy pata and other Filipino Favorites.

Squid!

Gingaw fillets.

Bangus!

Crabs!

Tocino.

There’s even a minibar inside Virgilio’s.

Even though it was around eight o’clock in the evening there was a steady stream of customers queuing up to buy dinner!

Customers picking out their dinner..

Lots and Lots of customers.

Virgelio’s also has a function room and in the near future will add an airconditioned section along with a projector that people can rent.  We tried a few of the dishes that Virgelio’s offers and they are fantastic.  We first tried their traditional favorite, the Cansi soup.  It is very popular and they serve approximately 80-100 orders a day.  It is sourish but it doesn’t have any MSG making it pleasant to eat.

Beef Cansi soup complete with bone marrow!

I love squid and we had a delicous grilled squid served up to us.  We had to carefully clean the squid as there were some “bones’ still left over.

Grilled Squid.

Our Sizzling Blue Marlin was also perfect.  The sauce wasn’t salty and Campbell based.  It was cooked just perfectly.

Sizzling blue Marlin

Barbecued Liempo

What I really liked was their skewers of Pork belly.  It was grilled perfectly and the portion was huge enough to satisfy even a voracious carnivore like me.

Grilled Pork Belly

Virgelio’s at Villamonte has a lot more to order and they’re open from 10am -10pm every day.  The restaurant/carinderia is run by the famous Jun Celis and they also offer short orders and lechon!  Give them a try!  They’re located past the Villamonte Barangay Hall, just beside Munsterific Villamonte.

Check out a 360 Degree Panorama of Virgelios here! Click on the Image to visit Dermandar then clink on the play button!

Ading’s Pala-Pala is a new seafood restaurant in Bacolod which just opened this December 20th 2013.  Ading’s is located along San Juan street near the corner of San Juan street and North Capitol road.   It is located beside the many tulahan restaurants.

Ading’s Pala-Pala!

Ading’s is well lit and well ventilated.  This restaurant looks clean, cheerful and quite inviting to everyone.  The Nipa roof and bamboo chairs along the walls give this place a comfortable native look while the cream-colored tables and chairs make it look modern.   Native-modern?  The effect is quite pleasing and relaxing to the eye.

The beautiful interior of Ading’s.

There are also airconditioned function rooms and areas where one can dine in (for an additional 10% bill charge.)

The outside of the function room. It’s beautiful inside!

If one wishes to order, one can simply go to the counter and pick out fish that one wants!

A waiter assists customers in choosing their orders.

Ading’s has a great selection of seafood.  The shrimp really caught my eye.  They are HUGE and fresh.

Beautiful prawn!

Everybody’s favorite SCALLOPS!!

Fishies!

We opted to order their seafood karekare, their kadios baboy, langka and their Surf and Turf platter (shrimp and steak.

The meal got immediately into a rocky start when the KBL came without any langka at all.  The manager came over and apologized because the langka had arrived from the market right after we had ordered.  We told him not to worry about it.  The dish had a generous amount of pork and the soup base was good.

Kadios, Baboy, Langka

We had their seafood Kare kare.  The fish that came with the seafood karekare was cream dory,shrimps and squid.  The peanut butter was a bit watery but it was very tasty all in all.

Seafood KareKare

The most pleasant dish that we had was their Surf and Turf (Shrimp and steak!)   The Shrimp was enormous! (really it was like eating prawn!) and the steak was soft and well seasoned.

Surf and Turf!

The shrimp was HUGE!

HUGEEE!!

And we had the grilled Liempo.

Liempo

We had a pleasant lunch at Ading’s!  The service was great and the place was easy and convenient to go to. Please do give them a try! They just opened so they’re still ironing out the kinks but you’ll have a great time!

Click on the picture to see a 360 degree Panorama of Ading’s.  Press Play once the page loads and rotate the camera!

The dining landscape here in Bacolod is fast becoming a joyous melange of global plates.  The revolving staples of Chinese, Japanese and Italian cuisines that the old families rely on for their nightly outings have evolved and have been supplanted with the tastes of Korea, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Germany, Mexico, and now, Austria.  As Bacolod City grows in size, so does its palate.

Tyrol

Tyrol restaurant is a most welcome addition to the Bacolod family of international cuisine.  This is conveniently tucked at the far end of 12th Street Lacson, near Mayfair Plaza. It opened early January 2014 to a sampling of fantastic dishes and great company. It has an unassuming entrance with the red Austrian seal emblazoned at its gates. Inside, you will find both BACA (Bacolod Academy for Culinary Arts) and adjoining it, Tyrol restaurant. Ample parking space is provided.

The pioneering batch of B.A.C.A students at the opening.

Chef-restaurateurs, Marcel , Gunther and Daniel form the core group that operates BACA and by extension, Tyrol.  With their passion for food, we are excited that they are bringing their home flavors of Germany and Austria. This is how far Bacolod has gone in expanding its culinary palate.

The open kitchen concept is innovative and increases the sense of space of Tyrol

The place is well-appointed. Decorated in subdued hues of wood, palettes of yellow and vermilion, and furnished with locally-made wooden furniture.  Tyrol evokes the atmosphere of a rustic yet modern Austrian countryside. The clean lines, the open kitchen and spacious dining area make it a great place to bring your family or your special someone. They even have an acacia-shaded al fresco area which is perfect for drinking a cold glass of European beer on a warm summer night.

Beer!

The plates are meat-&-potato heavy with rich flavors and balanced sauces.  I tasted a sample of pork knuckle and it was outstanding.  It was cooked perfectly; the meat buttery soft with a right amount of gelatinous fat.  This alone would be enough to go back. Another hit for Tyrol are their cold cuts and their choice of sausages.  Hearty and spicy that each mouthful craves for another slice. Paired with their sweetish mustard, the savoriness of the sausage is doubly accentuated. It was a simple combination but now I realized how delicious and sophisticated the pairing was. It was like reward and punishment all at once that your poor brain does nothing but surrender to such deliciousness.

This is a sliced pork knuckle confit – very tender and succulent, and the brown sauce with the jus rich with pork stock.

The pepper-crusted seared ahi tuna is delicately balanced with the savory taste of the fish and the peppery bite. This is a winning appetizer.

The sausages were porky and melts in your mouth. And the artisanal Dijon mustard mixture was the perfect foil with it sweet-bitter taste

Tyrol, being Austrian and by influence Germanic, is great in baking Eurocentric bread, but what impressed me most are the home-baked pretzels.  A chewy malty knot (Thank you, Maillard Reaction!) studded with a scattering of sea salt tasted far superior than those we find packed in foil. Its saltiness contrasted with the sweetness of the bread. Paired this with their sausages, then you will have a perfect drinking snack!

These pretzels were the best-tasting beer snack. Fresh, hot and chewy, the salty crust providing a delicious counterpoint.

Besides the fare, service has been attentive, brisk and cheery.  The staff were in a good mood during the opening, and were knowledgeable about the food (which I think is very important considering Austrian cuisine is rare in our local gastronomic scene.)  The atmosphere pervading in Tyrol is one that is full of Germanic joie d’vivre (think: raucous Oktoberfests) which would surely strike a similar chord in any Negrense. This zest for life is reflected in their fare- robust flavors, hearty proteins and German beer. Perfect.

Verdict? Highly Recommended.

A plate of cold cuts and canapes

Tyrol is located at BACA 12th Lacson Street,, Mayfair Place
Bacolod City 6100, Philippines
+63 906 335 7564

Guys and gals, what comes to your mind when you hear the words “board game?”  Probably you think of games such as Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders or even Clue.

You’d think it’s a major snoozefest right?  You’d probably roll your eyes and refuse to play whenever someone invites you to play a “board game”. Well, we’ve got news for you. 

Board games have significantly improved and there are so many interesting games available that kids (and adults) would rather play them instead of Ipads or Dota!

The Bacolod Food Hunters purchased a zombie survival board game called “Last night on Earth” in which a town is overrun by zombies.  You play as a group of survivors trying to survive against the zombie horde.  It’s like an awesome mashup of The walking dead, Resident Evil and Every Zombie movie in existence.  It blew everyone’s mind. The rules were fast and easy to learn and everybody had a great time!

Zombies (Red and Yellow tokens) surround the players (Gray tokens) inside a “manor house”. Our friend Charles Go has a tense look on his face because he is the last one left inside!

I brought a board game called “Werewolf” to a party with German NGOs and professionals from Bacolod.  The board game was a HUGE hit.

Our most recent purchase was the board game King Of Tokyo where you control giant kaiju monsters and battle to get the most points.

Board games are fun for the WHOLE family.  Where else can you destroy Tokyo with a Giant Lizard and a Feral Ape?

There’s no doubt about it, boardgames are BACK.  Celebrities are playing them on youtube and these games are giving those high-fangled tech devices a run for their money!

Now, here’s the thing.  We live in the Philippines.  Most retail toystores only stock common games like “Monopoly”.  How on Earth did the Bacolod Food Hunters get games like these? Well, for Last night on Earth and Werewolf, I had purchased them from Amazon and paid a huge amount in shipping fees.

A friend (Chuckie Dreyfus) recommended Gaming Library to me and it is the best board game and collectible card game store in the Philippines! Gaming library has an online store and an APP for IOS and Android.  You can order your board games from them easily, securely and conveniently using Paypal, credit cards, bank deposit or even physical pickup from their store.  They deliver all over the Philippines via local carrier Xend. We bought King of Tokyo from them and the box arrived the very next day!

Our game arrived from Gaming library!

I admit, I am a very demanding/makulit customer and I certainly wore their staff ragged with my demands/quirky personality.   But the staff was polite and gave nothing less than EXCELLENT SERVICE all throughout my transactions. Ordering is a breeze with their app and you are secure and continuously updated as to your package status via email.

Gaming Library on IOS.

We enjoyed their service so much we bought another board game the next week.  We bought Tokaido, a game about exploring Japan.  It came promptly in the mail!

A boardgame about exploring Japan. Fun for all ages!

We highly recommend Gaming Library for their excellent service and for their CHEAP prices.  They are significantly cheaper than ordering from overseas and having it shipped to your house.    They have a wide array of board games that can be enjoyed by your family and friends. 

Give board games a try! Now for those interested here’s how to play the boardgames we played!

Here’s how to play Last night on earth:

Here’s how to play King Of Tokyo:

Here’s how to play Tokaido:

It’s amazing how Bacoleños love Shawarma.  It is simply amazing how this middle eastern sandwich has captured the hearts and bellies of Bacoleños everywhere!    We have the famous Shawarma ni Kulas, and now another new Shawarma place has become extremely popular.  It’s eat all you can Shawarma!  Bacoleños love a good deal and eat all you can shawarma is too good of a deal to pass up!!

For starters, this is a shawarma restaurant run right out of a garage.  The owner converted their house into a shawarma restaurant.

The entrance to the Shawarma restaurant with their take out counter.

This is how the garage area looks.  It’s simple, spartan but clean and comfy.  Click on the picture to view the 360 degree Panorama and see the place in 3D.

The place has only two things on the menu, Shawarma wraps and Shawarma rice.  You can get Shawarma rice with unlimited rice refills for 75 pesos or eat all you can shawarma wraps for 149 pesos!

Shawarma Rice with unlimited rice refills.. No meat refills unfortunately!

Their wraps are great too!  I got the Unlimited Wrap deal.  The owner, a nice middle aged lady was chatting with us and said the most anyone has ever eaten was seven!

I could only finish THREE.  The others were urging me to eat more.. lol.

How does the food taste?  Well.. it’s filipinized shawarma.  You won’t get the authentic middle eastern garlic sauce or the spices but for the legions of customers the food is good enough.   The place fills up pretty quickly and they all want one thing! Shawarma!

Seriously, the shawarma here tastes fresh and better than Shawarma ni Kulas.  You don’t have mystery meat lying about.  You get freshly cooked beef.  The pita wraps are soft  and newly made.  It doesn’t have the stale-dish rag texture of days old pita bread.  Everything is freshly made.  This is what makes this restaurant popular and this is why home-based restaurants are awesome.

The meat is being cooked!

The place fills up remarkably fast.. On some nights you’ll have to settle for take out!  Please give this restaurant a try whenever you have the craving for shawarma!

“Shawarma” is located at Block 3 outside Paglaum street, bangga avocado, Brgy Montevista Homesite.   (034)7076153

“Do we really have to eat six cups of rice?”
“Yes! FOR SCIENCE!!”

Bacolod Fans of Anime rejoice! A new shop dedicated to catering to the inner anime fan or otaku in you has now opened!  It is the first shop in Bacolod to cater soley to Otaku fans.

Welcome to Yuya! IRRASHAIMASE!

Yuya is a shop that specializes in selling Anime goods, posters and cosplay accessories.  They’ve opened on the corner of La Salle Avenue/B.S. Aquino drive near McDonald’s La Salle.

The place is PACKED with students/otaku geeks/giggling fan girls.  Yuya sells all sorts of things that will satisfy any anime fan.

Crowds of Customers!

We were amazed to see such young fans of Anime especially schoolgirls! Anime has such a huge universal appeal!

Happy schoolgirls browsing the merchandise!

We were very interested in their displays of Kimonos and their cosplay accessories.  These ranged from jewelry to wigs and even to geta, Japanese wooden sandals.

Costumes!

Geta!

On the far left are some hair dye for anime characters. Stocks of Toys cover the main wall.

Now for serious collectors, Yuya probably isn’t the thing for you.  Quite honestly these are all cheap goods/imitation/knock offs. There is nothing that would catch a serious collectors eye.  However they have a few good items such as their costumes, kimonos and hair dyes. There is great potential in this tiny little shop and we really want it to succeed.  This is a huge contribution to the local Cosplay and Anime Scene in Bacolod.    Yuya has just opened and it is quite disorganized. Newly arrived merchandise was just piled in boxes when we visited.   Posters were piled up in one area and spilling out of boxes.

Posters!

 For us, it seems that Yuya hasn’t really decided whether to go the cosplay goods route (hair dyes, costumes, etc.) or specialize in toys and posters.  We hope that Yuya arranges its toy displays, posters and goods in a manner that is attractive to customers.  We also hope that they get some really good special anime stuff in (read: GENUINE) to attract the serious collector or the cosplayer.

Stuffed toys

Various Anime Goods

Fancy a boob mousepad?

We wish Yuya the best and we would like to shake the hand of the owner and say:  THANK YOU FOR OPENING THIS SHOP IN BACOLOD!

Pureza is a film directed by the great Jay Abello (Director of Namets!) and it is a documentary about the sugar industry and the state of life of the sacadas and the farm workers who work on the big sugar farms of Negros.

We were finally able to get a DVD of Direk Jay’s film through the Tapulanga Foundation and we settled down to watch it and give it a review.

The Good:

There is a lot of beautiful camera work and rustic scenes.  It is certainly a must watch for people who live in Negros.  You can’t pass up on this film.  This is the history of our island.

Beautiful imagery

Pureza tries hard to cram a lot of information into a hour and a half film.  Some parts drag on while some parts that DID catch our interest were too short or not elaborated on enough.  The first 25 minutes is a somewhat tedious slog through the history of the sugar industry. I expected to see a lot more about the plight of the sugarcane workers which came only during the second half of the film.     When this part came up though, I was glued to the screen.  Pureza really nailed it.

Harsh Facts

Moroy a migrant worker fights off swarms of flies while eating his simple meal that is supposed to last him until tomorrow.

Moroy looks on as his meager wages are calculated.

There are a lot of heart breaking scenes in Pureza.   A never ending cycle of debt and difficulty for the sacadas.  The Agrarian land reform has been ineffectual in elevating these people from poverty.

A mother

Even if the sacadas are a beneficiary of the land reform program, they can barely maintain their land and grow crops.

Simply Heartbreaking.

Pureza is a film that must be on your “Films to watch” list.  For some, it will certainly be an eye opener.

You can order this wonderful film from Tapulanga Foundation.  

WaraWara korean restaurant has been around for some time and we’re reviewing it now because there has been a price drop in their eat/grill all you can buffet!  Previously priced at 450+ php, the buffet is now about 380+ php pesos! (mondays to thursdays) It’s an awesome deal because the good quality of the meat and the buffet totally justifies the price.  The management has also ironed out the kinks in their service and food quality.

Inside WaraWara. It is clean and spacious!

WaraWara’s buffet table is laid out with the meat, salads and vegetables attractively presented.  For those hoping for already prepared dishes, the only dishes that are available are the numerous kinds of bibimbap and salad.  You really have to cook your own food in WaraWara.

WaraWara’s assorted meats

We got a lot of bibimbap dishes to serve as appetizers while we cooked our meat.  It’s advisable not to fill up too much on bibimbap as it’s a rice roll and you’ll get full quickly!

Egg and Spam bibimbap.

Tuna bibimbap

There’s some shrimp tempura too!

We got our meat and we proceeded to grill on their electric grill.  Grilling is fun and not too difficult as long as you don’t get too greedy and try to cook everything at once!  The trick to successful grilling is to spread out the meat evenly.

Our meat!

Nicely spread out to maximize the space.

WaraWara can be found at Robinson’s Bacolod Citywalk.

Check out our 360 degree Panorama of WaraWara!  Click on the picture and let it load!

Here’s a comic to show you guys our experience at WaraWara!  We had a totally great time!  My friends kept getting plates after plates of meat and grilling them.  I was on my last few pieces of meat  paired with a huge bowl of fried rice (WaraWara has excellent tasting fried rice).  Well after a few minutes those bastards became full and I had to eat the excess cooked meat.  Ugh.

Victorias Food Products is the food branch of the Victorias Milling company here in Negros and they manufacture all sorts of products such as canned sardines, canned bangus and even smoked bacon and chorizo.  They wanted people to learn how to incorporate these products into healthy and delicious recipes for their family so Victorias Food Products partnered with the Bacolod Academy of Culinary Arts to develop signature recipes using their fine products that draw from the rich heritage of Victorias and Negros Island.

We were invited to the launch party at B.A.C.A on March 18 2014 to try out these awesome recipes that were developed by the chefs and students of the Bacolod Academy of Culinary Arts.

Victorias Foods Recipe Card. They’ve also opened a branch on Lacson street that stocks their products to make it more convenient for their customers!

The event was held at the Bacolod Academy Of Culinary arts main kitchen.  A lot of famous local people and celebrities were present such as Maricar Dabao of Jovial Media Events as Event Organizer, Pushpa Tan, Pres of NAITAS Bacolod, Dr. Maritel Ledesma, Pres of Negrense Blogging Society, Luci Yunque & Betsy Gazo, Lifestyle Writers of Sunstar, Lyn Marie Mapa, Exec Director of Museo Negrense de La Salle and  Ivy Visitacion, Lifestyle Writer of Visayan Daily Star

Group Picture!

The event began with a short prayer and opening remarks from the Victorias Food COO Jaime Unson and Atty. Anna Paner, CEO of VMC  They spoke about the food culture of Negros and the 30 year history of the Victorias Milling corporation and Victorias Foods.   Attorney Paner also emphasized in her speech about the care and the strict quality control that goes into each product to ensure that their products are something that the Negrense could be proud of.

The event then began.  The students of BACA did cooking demos to show how easy it is to produce gourmet quality food using Victorias products.

The Students of B.A.C.A

The ingredients used were Victorias products such as Luncheon meat, Spanish sardines, and smoked Bacon!

The students worked quickly to produce the dishes.  They even spoke about the procedures and the steps as they made their dishes.  It was wonderful to see how these young men and women worked efficiently in the kitchen under pressure and under the watchful eyes of so many people!

BACA students working fast!

Everyone had their eyes on these budding chefs!  We were impressed at their culinary techniques and their skills.

A captivated audience!

The first dish was quickly done! Victorias Spanish Bangus Salad. (Nicoise)  This is a salad that was made using Victorias Bangus.  The vegetables were fresh and crunchy and the Bangus added a little spicy zing to the refreshing clean taste of the vegetables.  This is a really hearty salad, one that can double as a main meal in itself.

Victorias Spanish Bangus Salad

Recipe!!

The next recipe was a dish using Victorias Bacon and bananas! This dish is perfect for canapes or for breakfast or light snacks.  The bacon went well with the banana and the taste was simply divine!   I’m proud to say that Victorias Bacon isn’t salty at all unlike the bacon of other competitors that tries to over compensate for the poor quality of meat by over seasoning their bacon.

Victorias Style Banana Bacon Wrap

Victorias-style Banana Bacon Wrap!

We all know how picky kids get when it comes to food.  B.A.C.A developed a recipe (Victorias Chorizo spider)  to catch the interest of kids and is simple and easy to make!  Kids are very interested in animals and when you tell them that what they’re eating looks like a spider, you’re sure to have the kids undivided attention!

Victorias Chorizo Spider. The pasta coming out from the Chorizo looks like the legs of a spider!

There’s simply so many things you can do with Victorias Chorizo.  The next dish Victorias Chorizo with Mango Chutney was a crowd pleaser!  It evoked the taste of exotic india via the mango chutney and at the same time had the rich familiar taste of Filipino Chorizo.  The mango chutney went very well with the chorizo patty.  It was a pleasant medley of sweet and salty flavors.  This is a very impressive dish but still easy to make!

Victorias Chorizo Patties with Mango Chutney. This is awesome. This is delicious. OMG.

The final dish was a handmade pasta that the students made from scratch right before our eyes.  It was called Spaghetti Arabiata Victorias and it combined Victorias Sardines with Victorias Smoked Bacon to produce a delicious and filling pasta!

Victorias Spaghetti Arabiata. Absolutely gorgeous.

The food was absolutely delicious and simple to make.  Everybody had fun watching the students prepare these recipes produced and developed by the head chefs at B.A.C.A.    It really felt good to try these nutritious and delicious gourmet quality recipes that can easily be made by people at home without fancy equipment or expensive ingredients!  Thank you for inviting us Victorias Food!

For those interested, you can pick up these recipe cards and the fine Victorias Products featured here at their showroom located at corner 16th and Lacson Street Bacolod City.

Eroreco subdivision is a great place for foodies.  It is home to two popular restaurants.  The wildly popular Pamilya Grill, the Japanese restaurant RinJin and finally Amboy’s – The newest restaurant in Eroreco- located next to Pamilya Grill .

Amboy’s is a house converted into a restaurant.  The owners really did a swell job with this place using natural materials such as bamboo and rattan.  There are two areas in this restaurant, a main dining area and a smaller dining area/function room inside.

The Entrance to Amboy

The interior is somewhat gloomy and dark during the day but at night it is well lit.  The second room/function room area can be seen in this picture.  Each area has a large television screen where one can watch television while waiting for one’s orders to arrive.  Overall the place is quite pleasant, clean and inviting.

Amboy Interior

Our orders arrived.  We started off with an appetizer of sea urchin. (60php).  The Sea Urchin has a naturally strong taste and Amboy served it witha dollop of wasabi and soy sauce.  It tasted okay,it reminded me of Japanese sushi.

Sea Urchin!

Then for our main dish we had some tuna.  The Tuna was marinated with a sweetish sauce and had a few crunchy garlic bits.  It tasted ok.  The portion size was good enough for a meal as it also came with a side dish of rice.

Tuna!

Our next meal was the Cebuchon.  It was priced at 99 Pesos and it looked nothing at all like the picture in the menu. I guess the reason why it looked different was because they had to cut it up.  Serving size is alright.  It even came with a stray bit of string tied in a knot.  Wow.. for dietary fiber perhaps? :-)

Cebuchon.

We then had what is considered to be Negros Island’s National dish: Inasal na Manok. (99 Pesos.)  It was just okay. It tasted like the chicken Inasal found in hundreds of other restaurants in Bacolod.

Amboy’s Chicken Inasal.

Our Final dish that we had was the tuna panga or tuna jaw.  It was well seasoned with salt and it was quite good.  However it took a while to cook and arrived a bit late.

Amboy doesn’t really break new ground in the culinary scene of Bacolod. It serves native food and seafood which is a nice pleasant change from the food of Pamilya Grill next door.  The service is a bit slow.  If you guys ever pass by Eroreco give Amboy’s a try.

We’ve been hearing good things about Com Tam Vietnamese restaurant so we decided to go and take a look and try some of their food.

Com Tam is located at the second floor of Vision Square building, 21st street in front of AMA computer college and San Agustin.

Com Tam is a nice and simple restaurant.  There are no frills about it.  Everything is clean and the decor is simple and utilitarian.

The interior of Com Tam

We took a look at their menu and tried the best sellers.  We were a bit excited because we had seen  Trixie Torralba’s excellent blog post on Com Tam and she had really enjoyed her visit when Com Tam first opened.

First up was the Bun thit Nuong.  Wow.  We were bowled over at how different it was compared to the Bun Thit Nuong served by another Vietnamese restaurant in Bacolod.  The noodles were warm, oily and greasy; the veggies were limp and the meat tasted a bit strange.   Of course we tried to be objective and decided that the Bun thit tasted different because the cook came from another region of Vietnam than the other Vietnamese restaurant but still the taste of this dish was so “startling” that we decided not to continue eating.

The taste is a bit strange. We couldn’t even finish the entire bowl.

We had the weasel coffee.  This was just ok.  It reminded us of canned coffee drinks that you drank late at night out of desperation because all the good coffee shops were closed.  The milk was just a thin layer at the bottom and the coffee was a bit weak.  Still, some people might like the coffee for what it is.  For us it was just ok. At 70php, it’s not too bad.

Com Tam’s Vietnamese coffee.

Another of their best sellers is the Guoi Cuon, Vietnamese spring rolls wrapped in rice paper.  It is one of Con tam’s best sellers at 75 php.  This was pretty decent but far from authentic as it didn’t have any shrimp and the peanut sauce had some mayonnaise in it.  Probably they serve it like that in certain regions of Vietnam.  We actually got two orders because we were hungry and it was the first thing that we actually kinda liked on the menu.

Guoi Cuon. It’s okay but nothing special.

We also got their Vietnamese curry with bread.  It was decent albeit a bit watery.  My friend said he enjoyed it just as it was and he ate it up with relish.  Look at all that oil.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the Exxon Valdez had run aground in your bowl.

Curry

Finally we had the Shrimps.  At 210 php, this comes out roughly to about 40 php per shrimp.  One of my friends who tried this dish liked it saying that it was nice and spicy-sweet although the high price did dampen his enthusiasm a bit.  It came with a lot of onions and sauce.

Com Tam’s shrimp. Nice!

Please do try and visit Com Tam when you have time. :-)

Hungry? How does an eat-all you can buffet sound?  Yaku-moo is one of the restaurants in Bacolod that serve a really good buffet/Yakiniku combo.  This new restaurant is located at 6th street Metro Inn Bacolod and it is a nice new place to have lunch or dinner.

Yaku-moo

When we entered Yaku-moo our eyes were immediately drawn to the colorful and relaxing surroundings.  The place looked comfortable with big couches for people to sit at and it had a Japanese/oriental theme.  The buffet is conveniently located near the seats and is right in front of the entrance so the first thing that you will see in when you enter is the eye-catching buffet!

Click on the picture to see a 360 degree Panorama of Yaku-moo!

The buffet is certainly colorful!  Different kinds of meat arranged temptingly for your eating pleasure.   Feel free to cook as much as you want but be sure to eat them all there is a left over charge.  I find the meat at Yaku-moo to be well seasoned unlike other Yakiniku restaurants where their meat tastes bland.  Here the meat actually has a taste after cooking it.

MEAT!!

Bacon…. Everything is better with bacon.

There are also fish dishes that you can also grill.  We enjoyed grilling the fish as it was sliced thinly.  We didn’t try grilling the bangus as it looked too big for the grill but we were really tempted to try cooking it.

Seafood dishes.

We grilled a lot of this fish. Although it was covered in margarine the excess oil drained away in the grill leaving behind a light salty buttery taste

Now for those who don’t like to cook, there are a few ready to eat dishes that are prepared.  First of all there is some maki.  The quality of the maki is not so good and there’s not much variety.  They’re basically just rice, cucumber, seaweed, crabsticks and mango.  they all taste the same.

Maki!

When we visited the side dishes were Chopsuey, fried chicken and some Pinoy type spaghetti.  It was a nice thing to have these dishes for those who didn’t want to go through the bother of cooking their meals.  The fried chicken was simple and the Pinoy spaghetti was your basic sweetish-filled-with-hotdog-served-at-kiddie-parties type of spaghetti.

The chop suey is great since it has lots of ingredients such as fried tofu squares, veggies and mushrooms!

Fried Chicken. Nothing fancy.

The dessert section of the buffet is REALLY REALLY good with a selection of cakes, sweets and an eat all you can halo halo bar.  Feel free to make halo halo masterpieces or halo halo monstrosities.

We made this ultimate halo halo with EVERYTHING on it topped with leche flan and a butterscotch bar.

We had a great time at Yaku-moo, we really enjoyed our visit so much but here are the negative things we found.  We found out that the place gets really really smoke-filled  because of the customers grilling their food.  When we were there there were only three tables (including ours) and the place filled with smoke really fast.  I think the exhaust must have been broken.

Despite all this we recommended Yaku-moo to a friend visiting from the United states and she had a very different experience.

We literally went as SOON as I asked you the name of it. We were there by 12:45, only 45 minutes after they opened. There were a lot of flies on the meat/fish to be grilled. Salad Bar: The lettuce was browning on the edges, the turnips were stinky-old, and the cucumbers were mushy. The sushi was pretty good, I liked it. But there were flies on it. And the wasabi was oxidized and gross looking. The hot already cooked food was not bad. Some of the best chopsuey Tony and I have ever had, with a great asortment of fresh mushroms. The pancit was good. Some of the cooked chicken was strange tasting, but pretty fresh. The grill meat looked okay but from the moment we walked in, there were flies all over everything, so it made most of the choices look very unappetizing. We picked some bacon strips, crab stick, carrot stick, and shrimp to grill. The bacon stuff was pretty good, nothing special though, i mean… it’s bacon. But the shrimp was DEFINITELY on it’s way out. It was gross. The Dessert Bar had Make your own Halo Halo… I looooove Halo Halo. The shaved ice was kept in the ice cream cooler and it was all stuck together, so a waiter had to go at it with a big spoon while i waited… which would have been fine, except he gave me huge clumps of ice that only filled a quarter of my hallo-halo cup and said, is that enough ma’am? because he couldn’t get any more out. And then the ube paste was absolutely sour and old, so sad. And the white beans were also bordering old. The flan was great, the chocolate cake was pretty good, and the flan cakes were really good. (I love dessert, hehe) But they charge 450 for a very limited, and slightly disappointing buffet. It might have been okay if it was a little cheaper, but over all, the majority of the things seemed to have sat there for ages.

Wow.  We were surprised at what happened.  Maybe some quality control is in order?  Overall we had a good experience but after recommending it to a friend and getting a complaint, we were left feeling a little surprised.  We really loved our Yaku-moo visit.  Maybe when you guys visit, you should check the food and the buffet carefully so as to avoid a bad experience.

Spice’s bite is the only Indian restaurant in Bacolod City.  There used to be another Indian restaurant in Villamonte which was so awesome that even Chef JP Anglo raved about the food when we took him there.   However the Indian restaurant closed down after some years of operation. Some say that it was because of immigration problems or due to Indian 5-6 money lending schemes.

Anyway, back to the topic.  Spice’s bite is located on Lacson street beside Convergys and a car wash station.  It is very noticeable due to the bright banner with all sorts of colors!

Spice’s bite!  Above Spice’s bite is its bar: Spice’s bar.

The interior of Spice’s Bite is simple.  There are no decorations, just tables and chairs.  The store has a big glass window where one can sit and watch all the vehicles passing by.

Click on the picture to see a 360 picture of Spice’s bite.

One big draw of Spice’s bite is the funny and talkative waitress.  An American friend of mine told us that she was very friendly, chatty and she really knew everything on the menu.  On our visit there, this remarkable waitress really made us feel at home by chatting with us on all topics under the sun.  We put her to the test and asked her about the menu items and true enough, she knew each and every one.  Now this is good service.    We never felt bored while waiting for our food!   She even recommended we try out medium spiciness because we had a newbie to Indian food in our group.

We ordered Samosas, pastries stuffed with potato and dipped in tamarind sauce.  At 50 pesos for two pieces and an Iced tea, it is pretty good value.  The potatoes were soft, spicy and really good (if you like potatoes).

Samosas. These flaky potato filled pastries are good with Tamarind sauce and yogurt.

We also had a traditional rice dish, chicken biryani.  The spiciness level was medium yet it was still so spicy we began to sweat buckets.   It was pretty good with the rice firm to the bite and the chicken pieces were soft and tender.

Chicken Biryani.

Dining in an indian restaurant is not complete without the flat Indian bread called Roti.  It went so well with the dishes that we ordered. We would tear of a piece of roti and dip it in the sauces.  Heavenly.

Roti!

The last main dish that we ordered was the vegetable Kheema.  It had generous portions of vegetables and green peas.  It was also set at medium spiciness.  Very good especially if you like spicy food.

Vegetable Kheema

Of course we had to try their Indian dessert too! We had Gulab Jamun, a dish made of milk solids and served with a sweet syrup.  It looks like salted egg or even Chico fruit in this picture but trust me, it is a little like pudding in consistency.

Gulab Jamun

We really enjoyed our visit to Spice’s bite.  The food is authentic Indian food and most of its dishes are vegetarian friendly, a rare thing in the Philippines!  Please drop by and give them a try.

It’s summer and people are heading for the beach or the mountains to escape the oppressive heat!  Bacolod’s version of Baguio/Tagaytay is Don Salvador Benedicto where one can head to the many mountainside resorts and relax.  However if you’re on vacation, one might get tired of the standard picnic fare and wish for something more substantial.  Hilltop Resto is just the place for that.

Hilltop Resto is located in Murcia, a stone’s throw away from Lopue’s Murcia and on the road going to Don Salvador Benedicto.  This location makes it convenient for people to stock up/dine before heading off into your retreat in the mountains!

Hilltop Resto & Bar.

It is located in the middle of some farmland and you have a short distance to drive from the main road.  The pictures make it seem like its very remote but actually it is very near the main highway.

The private road heading to hilltop with the beautiful mountains as your backdrop.

Finally after that short drive you arrive at the main building of Hilltop!  Around the restaurant are some small tables and tents where one can sit and dine while enjoying the cool breeze and the view of the mountains.

Hilltop.

Click on this picture to see a 360 interactive view of the outside of hilltop and their dining area. Sorry for the dark areas though..

The Dining Area inside of Hilltop is small but it is air-conditioned and it has lots of huge windows.  It is clean and quite comfortable and relaxing inside.

The inside of Hilltop.

Lets get to ordering.  This is a picture of Hilltop’s menu. Prices are quite reasonable and they have quite an extensive list of entrees.

We had children dining with us so we opted to order more kid-friendly fare rather than the house specials this time.

We ordered their Carbonara.  It was okay.  It came in an interestingly shaped bowl and it had a piece of bacon with it.

Hilltop’s Carbonara.  It’s not obvious in this picture but the Carbonara came in this cute artsy bowl that had one side bigger than the other.  Very creative.

We also got their Pancit Palabok.   Just your ordinary typical Palabok.

Pancit Palabok

Hilltop’s Sotanghon Guisado is quite good.  There’s a lot of meat and veggies.  It is wonderful!

Sotanghon Guisado

Their sandwiches and Chinese dumplings (zhengjiao) were a huge hit with the kids in our group.   The kids were busy running around and running in and out of the restaurant playing in the wide open field just outside.  They liked that they could have something small to carry around.

Delicious Chinese Dumplings. This comes deep fried and so be careful when you bite into it as there might be hot oil still trapped inside.

Clubhouse sandwich.  This was very popular with the kids.  Be careful with the toothpicks when you serve it to kids as they might swallow it!

Hilltop’s Clubhouse sandwich

Hilltop’s cheeseburger.  I liked that they grilled both sides of the bun but the burger was not beefy and was mostly filled with extenders (e.g. breadcrumbs.)  It was okay I guess.  Nothing special.  It came with a big juicy tomato slice and the vegetables and pickles were very good.

Hilltop’s Hamburger

Hilltop is an awesome restaurant (We still haven’t tried their steak so we’re coming back!) and its location is simply ideal.  Please do drop by and relax with a cold drink!

One of the most common requests that we get in our mail are requests asking us for suggestions on unique and interesting gifts to give to visitors and friends.  Sure, you can always offer piaya, butterscotch, napoleones but those gift suggestions are STALE and old.  Everybody  gives out piaya and napoleones.  It’s so COMMON.   Well today, we’re proud to share with you one of our food finds that will surely distinguish you from the unwashed masses.   Forget about boring old piaya and toss that napoleones into the rubbish heap.  The latest exciting pasalubong are… cakes. But not just ordinary cakes!  They’re cakes in a jar!

Cakes in a jar. Picture courtesy of http://www.shezzles-desserts.com/

Shessley Adelantar is a young entrepreneur who first began selling her dessert creations to family and friends.  She decided to sell cakes in a jar after seeing them on the internet.  Her desserts were very popular and she decided to try selling them on Facebook.   She decided to sell cakes in a jar after seeing them on the internet.  Her popularity grew so much that she launched her own website  http://www.shezzles-desserts.com/ and her online store is now a fixture at various food events in Bacolod.  It’s an amazing success story.

Shessley proudly shows off her products to the Bacolod Food hunters at the first Sabor food festival.

We went through her Facebook page and decided to order two of her cakes!  Ordering is a breeze with her and she is polite, helpful and professional about everything.  We decided to pay via Paypal (although she has COD.) and even when our Paypal acted up due to bank maintenance she handled it professionally.    She delivered our cakes and here they are!

We got our cakes! Lemon butter cake and the Down and Dirty cake. These Jars came with a sturdy wooden spoon. So convenient!

The cakes were interesting!  The Lemon butter cake came with lots of whipped cream and the cake itself was moist and thick.  It was quite filling as well. It was delicious and quite novel.  I can just imagine whipping out a jar of cake and munching away in the movie theatre or quite frankly, anywhere!

Lemon butter cake. So delicious!

The next cake that we got was the interesting Down and dirty cake.  We got this cake because we had fond memories of a friend telling us how his roommate threw a party and when cake time came the guests had to eat out of little pots filled with “dirt” and”worms.”

Well, this is a really fun cake.  It looks like dirt and the gummy worms are a very nice touch.  Perfect for kids!  There is a second bottom layer that is made of crushed shortbread cookies.  It is a welcome change of texture from the chocolate cake.  A second worm was found lurking in this layer.  Really nice!

This is such a cute and fun cake!

These cute cakes are great as gifts!  Don’t forget to drop by  http://www.shezzles-desserts.com/  or https://www.facebook.com/shezzlesdesserts  to see all the different flavors and types of cakes.  You can order from there.

Shessley also creates regular sized cakes and recently for Mother’s day she released this amazing KitKat cake which my cousin ordered.  Have fun and please do consider getting these amazing cakes the next time anybody asks you for pasalubong.

My Aunt with Shezzle’s amazing cake!

Many people have been writing to us to request we do a food review on 365 Modern Cafe.  Finally, it’s here, thanks for all the letters and the support.  Without further ado, here’s our review on 365 Modern Cafe!

365 Modern Cafe is located on B.S. Aquino drive near Doctor’s hospital (behind a gas station). It’s visible from the road and easily accessible.  The close proximity of the cafe to the USLS campus, Doctor’s hospital and medical center makes this cafe a popular hang out for students and professionals.

365 Modern Cafe.

We’ve been to 365 Modern Cafe during their opening and opted NOT to review it since they had a sign saying that their menu was not yet finished or “incomplete.”  They only had their excellent pizza and some cakes up for sale.  Rather than rush, and write about it immediately like other bloggers did, we opted to wait until their menu was complete aka the perfect time for us to revisit them again. Our long wait was not in vain, We were not disappointed, 365 Modern cafe’s food and drinks are EXCELLENT.

It was a hot day and rather than have a hot drink, we opted for their 365 house blend with kiwi.  The drink was cool and refreshing! More importantly it wasn’t super sweet, only mildly sweet which was good because it let the cool citrus and kiwi taste take center stage.  Ah… so refreshing!

So refreshing!

We tried their Spicy Trifecta pizza (php 275) and their Pizza Blanca or “white pizza” too. (php 275.) We love spicy food and the Spicy Trifecta pizza was spicy enough to make us sweat!  The Pizza Blanca was milder tasting but equally as delicious.  The crust was soft yet a bit crunchy and the pizza came with generous amounts of toppings.  So delicious and the low price is absolutely unbelievable!

Spicy Trifecta Pizza!  This came with plenty of fresh herbs and generous amounts of cheese and toppings.

Pizza Blanca. Although the pizza is “white”, the taste is fantastic, with a light “herby” taste and slight saltiness from the cheese.

365 Modern Cafe has lots of other pizzas on their menu but we opted to give other options a try.  After all we were just starting! Two pizzas aren’t enough to satisfy us!  We scanned their menu and saw that they had pasta, (We really wanted to try the smoked chorizo pasta.) but we opted to give that a pass for now and order something more substantial.

We decided to order the Smoked baby back ribs (php 195) since Bacolod people LOVE baby back ribs and we also ordered the Chimichurri Steak (php 220).  Well, the baby back ribs was HUGE and generously sized and the sauce was good too but I couldn’t detect any smoky flavor.  Yep, the woody smoke flavor was absent.  Maybe they used liquid smoke or what?  Anyway the ribs were really good but I couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed.  A very minor issue.

Smoked Baby back ribs!

We tried the Chimichurri steak too! (php 220).  It was great, with a herb sauce and a white garlicky tasting sauce.  We hoped that it would have been bigger but it was still filling enough for one person to eat.  The meat was soft and well cooked.

Chimichurri steak.

For those who are interest in tea or coffee drinking, don’t worry, 365 Modern Cafe has an EXTREMELY huge list of drinks ranging from hot drinks to coolers.  You can also order drinks with a caffeine level suitable to your tastes.  There is also an extensive range of cakes and baked goods to satisfy your sweet tooth.

365 Modern Cafe is located on BS Aquino drive, Bacolod City.  Telephone number is 4352351.

Wow, there’s another new Hamburger/Taco/Burrito place in Bacolod!  If Popeye’s burger-loving friend, Wimpy was in Bacolod, he’d probably declare it a paradise for hamburger loving people!

Perro Borracho which translates to “Drunk Dog” in Spanish is a new restaurant that opened in the Art District.  We went there on May 5, 2014 and we decided to try out their food!

Perro Borracho!

For starters, Perro Borracho has a very nice interior with wall murals and wooden boards decorating the interior.  This design fits in well with the Art district aesthetic.  The restaurant is open-air meaning you can sit and enjoy the night time art district scene.  They’re also open for lunch.

Perro Borracho’s menu. We decided to try only the burgers for today and try the squid and the other burritos for another day.

The restaurant staff is quick and attentive but the only thing we didn’t like is that they didn’t have any service water available and we had to buy bottled water and sodas.  A minor detail, but a little bit of inconvenience for the customers.  Anyway, we ordered the special burgers, the Perros’ Burger (php 185) and the Big Benny’s Burger (php 260.)

Perros’ Burger! I love the french fries!

The Perros’ burger has egg, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes and it comes with an order of julienned French Fries. The caramelized onions were a nice touch but the show stealer was definitely the julienned fries.  They tasted like fried Pik-nik shoestring potatoes!  They were really addicting and really good although they were a bit too oily.  The burger itself tasted okay, with the beef well seasoned and cooked properly .

The Big Benny’s Burger had caramelized onions, lettuce and tomatoes just like the Perros’ burger but it had BACON and a double patty.

It also came with an order of the julienned fries which we couldn’t get enough of.  The burger patties were the same as the patties of the Perros’ burger.

Big Benny’s Burger!

Next time we visit, we are going to try the burritos and tacos!   Please do drop by Perro Borracho.  It’s located in Art district, Mandalagan. Bacolod City.