A Trip to Saging Repablik, Davao City

I have mentioned in my previous post about our food tripping in the land of the bananas, the Saging Repablik in Davao City.

Instead of taking a cab from Casa Leticia, Sir Jay (our colleague in Davao City) offered to take us to our next adventure, to the land of the bananas, a unique diner featuring saging (bananas) in their menu.

Located at Tionko Ave. corner V. Mapa St., Saging Repablik is very easy to find considering the black greasy unique looking building and the big signage in color green, just like those found in highways.

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Davao City: My First Travel Destination for 2016

My first work related travel destination for the 2016 is to the “Durian Capital” of the Philippines. My colleague and I were tasked to attend a meeting with our partners in the industry. Though with injured right leg due to the calf muscle tear, limping, walking one step at a time, I still agreed to travel, after all the pain was less compared to the first few days after the incident.

On board the Cebgo ATR 72-500, we left Laguindingan Airport at 4:30PM short flights are usually on time (unlike flights to Manila) so we landed in Davao at 5:30PM, then took a cab to Seda our booked hotel for this work related travel. I had to ask my colleague to buy our dinner, because going out was already too much for me. My leg needed a good and comfortable rest.

Injured leg... rested! 😆😊 Thank You Lord for keeping us safe. #sedahotel #abreeza #davaocity

The next day, before the eat all you can breakfast buffet, Riz and I went for some photo ops at the pool side of the hotel. I’ve stayed in this hotel for a couple of times already, but this was the first time I actually took photos in the area, the perk of having a travel companion. Cool!

I looked slimmer in this photo. Liked! :-)

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First Trip to Land of the Vikings

The highlight of our 3-day travel in Davao City aside from the work related meeting we attended was the trip to the land of the Vikings, the Luxury Buffet Restaurant.

It all started, when the head of the group asked us where the best place to have our dinner when we arrive in Davao City. Of course, our response was VIKINGS! I have always wished to visit the place, but I don’t have a P799 to spend on one dinner yet. Kuripot pa eh, kulang pa nang push…Then the opportunity came, our Chief will be treating us for dinner. Yippee!

After we checked-in at the Park Inn Hotel located at the back of SM Lanang, we proceeded to Vikings, 10 minutes too early before they opened.

The first to be entertained are those guests who have reservations, while the walk-ins were given priority number and were asked to wait for our turn for the registration.

A few minutes later, our number was called and was assisted to our assigned table, but before that we had a pictorial at the huge signage for remembrance after all it was our first time in Vikings.

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4 Short Stops Along Bukidnon - Davao City Road

I can’t remember the last time I travelled to Davao City using one of our service vehicles. Every time I am tasked to attend a meeting in Davao City, I always take the fastest means of transportation, the airplane.

But because my supervisor doesn’t want to take the ATR 72-500 Cebu Pacific aircraft, we requested for an available service vehicle to take us to Davao City on October 7, 2015. A Nissan pick-up was given to us, just enough for 3 passengers.

Some parts of the Bukidnon highway are undergoing repair, that means the traffic in the area is very unpredictable. Hence, we decided to start our journey from the home base Cagayan de Oro City to the “Durian Capital” of the Philippines as early as 7 in the morning.

Fortunately, the vehicle flow along the areas of Mangima, Bukidnon was very smooth, that is why by 10:30AM we already had our early lunch at Jollibee Valencia.

Since we were ahead of schedule, we have so much time for some side trips along the way. Our first stop was...

The Overview Park

Located at Kipolot, Palapacao, Quezon, Bukidnon. As the name of the park implied, it is the best area overlooking the beautiful landscape of Bukidnon. Enhanced with big statues of indigenous people plus the cool fresh air, the park indeed is a best place to relax and unwind.

The Over View Park is located along the national highway, thus if you are travelling from Cagayan de Oro - Quezon, Bukidnon to Davao City route, pulling-over and taking a few minutes in the area is very convenient.

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I Heart OC (Orange Claw)

It was already noon time when I finished my regular appointment with the dentist in Iligan City, three weeks ago. Hubby and I were already hungry and still trying to figure out which of the so many food venues to try, thank goodness he bought something at Poprock while waiting for me.

I remembered, our Ninang posted a new restaurant to try in the city. The concept was the same as the Red Tail here in Cagayan de Oro City. Seafoods were served in plastic transparent bags and you eat with your hands with disposable gloves.

Hubby and I decided to try and went to search the place, thanks to my officemate for the impromptu SMS for the direction/location. 

The place is pretty much noticeable because of the “I Heart OC” in front (OC stands for Orange Claw). We can see from the outside that there were only a few diners inside. Thank goodness! Because I heard that they were jam-packed on their soft opening.

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My 24-Hour Visit in Davao City

My boss was invited to a meeting in Davao City on July 29, 2015, and since the agenda was something about our section’s tasks, he let me tag along.

On July 29, 2015 we flew to Davao City from Laguindingan Airport on an early morning flight, since the meeting is scheduled at 10AM we still have ample time to get there on time. It was a beautiful morning,  clear sky, the great weather. I can actually see what’s below, considering ATR-72-500 turboprop plane on flies at a maximum altitude of 7200m considerably lower than an airbus. 

We arrived, according to schedule, went directly to Seda Hotel, our booked hotel for this trip. Had a 30 minutes rest,then proceeded to the meeting venue at Café Tavera located along Pardo de Tavera corner Avancena Street.

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Exploring Philippines: Visiting the Island Province of Guimaras

The main purpose of visiting the Province of Guimaras is the site visit of the newly installed Wind Farm.

We started off, by taking a pumpboat from Iloilo to Jordan Ferry Terminal. Since, we’re a group of 11 and with no time to wait for other passengers to fill-in the ferry, the bosses (because there were 5 managers with us) decided to pay the single trip with only the 11 of us on board at P500.00. 

Ten to Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Guimaras Island.

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Exploring Philippines: Eight Things I Did in Iloilo

On June 15, 2015 on board Cebu Pacific 16:40 flight, my boss and I flew to Iloilo City from Laguindingan Airport to attend a work related meeting. We arrived at the Iloilo Airport 30 minutes ahead of schedule, but had to stay about an hour waiting for the service vehicle assigned to fetch us who unfortunately was stuck in the traffic. We arrived at the booked hotel at 7:30PM, had our dinner and called it a day.

The following day, it was all about work. One whole day of meeting and discussions,after all, that’s the very reason why we are in the city. But the good part was, we still had a chance to explore places and eat interesting foods while in the city.

So here’s the summary of what I did (sometimes with companions) in the city;

1. Stayed at Diversion 21 Hotel

We were booked in one of the best hotels in town located at the Diversion Road, Mandurriao Iloilo City just a walking distance from SM City. The hotel offers the best amenities so far, I occupied an air-conditioned matrimonial room with 40” LCD Cable TV, free internet (which I haven’t used because of my mobile data), hot & shower, private phone, fridge and a safety deposit box. Because it was an all-expenses paid by the company, I did not bother about the price. You can check it out at their FB page, if you want to.

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Loving Sky Ranch, Tagaytay in Less Than 3-Hours

Remember our one week official travel in Laguna? Well, one beautiful afternoon after our activity, our group went out for a short trip to Sky Ranch, Tagaytay. At first, I thought that Tagaytay is too far from Biñan, Laguna but turned out to be less than an hour trip, considering the less traffic on a Wednesday, afternoon. We arrived in Tagaytay, almost 6PM, the sky was already dusk after the sun has set. Too bad we can’t see Taal Lake from the Ranch.

Group Picture at the Highway

Visiting the place on weekdays is a very good choice, because you get to enjoy the place minus the bunch of people unlike on weekends.

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Dinner at Rosario’s Seafood Restaurant and Chinese Cuisine in Butuan City

One of the usual things we do when traveling with the boss on business trips is checking out and dining in one of the known local restaurants in the city. Last week, together with my boss and 3 other colleagues went to Butuan City to attend the quarterly coordination meeting with our partners in the power industry. The meeting went smoothly as we finished all the tasks and discussions ahead of time, and had more time to relax since our trip back home was still on the following day. 

On the rainy evening of January 7, 2015 five of us on board our service vehicle, went to restaurant hunting until realizing that I have internet connection with me. I googled for the nearest and best seafood restaurant in town and found two listed on the net the “Island Seafood Restaurant” and “Rosario’s Seafood Restaurant” none of us have tried to dine in either of the two. So we decided, whichever is the nearest from our location based on the GPS and landed at the Rosario’s Seafood Restaurant.

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Coffee + Cakes at Margie's Kitchen, Butuan + First Time Meet Up

While in Butuan, I got a chance to meet a fellow blogger, an online friend in person. She is the lady behind the blog The Unstressed. She fetched me at the hotel and off we went to Margies Bakeshop one of the best in the city, when in terms of sweet indulgence. 

The first thing I ordered when we arrived there was a cup of hot cappuccino. It was a rainy afternoon and something hot, especially coffee will boost me up. 

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Once Upon a Time in Nanjing Road, Shanghai

A day tour was allocated after our training. Since our exit is in Shanghai we made arrangement that instead of having the tour in Nanjing, we’ll have it in Shanghai, and fortunately our sponsor agreed.

Together with the tour guide that our sponsor hired, off we went to Shanghai after our breakfast on Friday April 4, 2014. 

After a 4-hour drive, we arrived at Shanghai just in time for lunch. Mr. Chen, our tour guide took us to a restaurant that serves Chinese dishes;

Have I asked our tour guide to read the characters written? I think so, but I completely forgot what he said. 

We had about 14 dishes served in front of us + rice, house tea, Minute Maid orange juice and a bottle of Tsingtao Beer.

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4 Things I Did in General Santos City

One of the perks of being a corporate employee is getting to go places for free. Though the main purpose is work related, like attending meetings, seminars, or field work, etc. at the end of the day, even an hour or two there will always be free time to explore places. Like last week, together with my boss and some colleagues, we attended a meeting at the General Santos City.

Skipping the work related activities because the issues and concerns discussed there were highly confidential, here are the other things that I did in General Santos City;

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The Dinner + Few Shopping Finds in Nanjing

We’re done with breakfast and lunch, now let’s hurry back to the hotel for the dinner…

Because we were so curious with the kind of food that the hotel will serve for dinner, we stayed until it’s over on the first day before heading out to explore the malls and stores nearby. These are the dishes served, still no exotic foods in sight;

Like before I did not bother asking the name of the dishes, nor read the menu because I’m quite sure there were no English translation.

Some smelled different, some tasted different, and some were also delicious… Overall the food experience was quite extraordinary,

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Food Trip in Nanjing, China: The Lunch in the Employee Cafeteria

Those are the breakfast meals we had, next stop is the lunch meals at the company’s cafeteria.

Like the rest of the employees of the engineering technology center in Jiangning District, we had our lunch at one of the level of their three-storey cafeteria between 12NN to 1PM. Yep! You read it right, the company has a 3-storey self-service restaurant that caters their thousands of employees.

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Food Trip in Nanjing: The Breakfast at the Hotel

Like I’ve said in one of my previous post, I was really hoping to try any exotic Chinese cuisines, like, the turtles, snakes, frogs, etc. Sadly, our one week stay never allowed us to have any unless, if paid using our own pocket money, we could have tried, but thinking it will be expensive made us backed off. Nevertheless, trying their local foods that are a little different in terms of taste, appearance and the method of cooking compare to Filipino cuisine, was a one worth of experience.

I already shared the first meal we had in Nanjing. In this post were the food served at Phoenix Hotel.

Day 1

The breakfast at the hotel is served starting 7AM, but since we have to leave the hotel at 7AM to catch the company bus going to Jiangning District, Nanjing, we asked the hotel to open the breakfast area for use by 6AM and have whatever is available.  

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First Meal in Nanjing, China + Some Scenes

After a long 4hours+ following the national highway from Shanghai, we arrived at the Nanjing, Jiangsu at 1:30PM. The guide brought us to the hotel to check-in, left our things and went out to take our lunch. A super late lunch at a local restaurant about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

The boys walking ahead of us, they sure were very hungry.

The Local Restuarant. I do not how to read the characters.

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Satti de Zamboanga

After I received my "travel order" to Zamboanga City, my birthplace, my hometown (thanks for the free trip), I immediately called up my older brother and told him that I am coming over and asked him to take me to a “Satti House”. The last time I had this spicy spirit kicking dish was years ago. I can’t really remember the exact figure, and I almost forgot that this delicious dish has ever existed. 

Spicy Satti @ P50.00 per serve

 

Satti is a local dish that is served with puśo (wrapped rice), sticks of roasted beef or chicken meat + overflowing with thick hot and spicy curry chilli sauce that is usually served early in the morning. You can rarely find satti available by lunch time. 

Anyway, we (my boss + 1 colleague) arrived on Tuesday July 30, 2013, 8AM on board Cebu Pacific from Cagayan de Oro City. My brother was supposed to picked me up at the hotel around 9AM and go directly to “Satti House”, unfortunately our schedule had changed, my boss asked me to stay for a while because were meeting one of our applicants and later had our lunch at Alavar Seafood Restaurant were we had the famous curacha.

The satti feast was slashed off that day. I thought I won’t be able to eat what I’m craving for during the trip because the only opportunity we had was on the first day, the 2^nd day will be devoted to main purpose why we went to Zamboanga, a whole-day business meeting and then fly back to CDO on the 3^rd. 

But guessed what? Good luck was on our side, because our business meeting host fetched us at the hotel early morning before the meeting and brought us to Andy’s Satti in Tetuan, Zamboanga City. All smile for me! Lol I thought I had a no-satti trip but I was wrong! Woot hooo!

Satti is really a famous dish to locals and tourists. From Christians to Muslims, students, workers to those who had hangover, satti is the most satisfying and energizing breakfast.  So if  you are in Zamboanga City don’t forget to try the spicy satti and I’m sure it will really perk up your day!

Food Trip Friday

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Zamboanga's Best: Curacha

Two weeks ago, I, together with my boss + 1 colleague went to Zamboanga City (which is also my hometown) for a business trip. Even before the scheduled trip the two of them had always talked about trying out the well-known Curacha in Zamboanga. Of course, as one of the locale in the only Latin City of Asia suggested for a lunch at Alavar Restaurant. 

   

from my instagram

Curacha (not the babaeng walang pahinga) is actually a local Chavacano name of a crustacean with cross breed of large sea crab and lobster characteristics.  Also known as the spanner crabs or red frog crabs, and are only found in the deep waters of Jolo. The Tausugs of Jolo call these sea creatures as “Kagang Pamah”, it has red-orange color which stays the same even when cooked. 

There are different ways to cook Curacha but the best one I tried is the "curacha with alavar sauce". Just like what we devoured at Alavar Seafood Restuarant in Tetuan, Zambonga City, at P700-P1000 per serving (defending of size) and is already goof for 2-3 persons.

I also remember my big brothers made the same dish when we visited them years back in Zamboanga City, we just bought the crab at the flea market and cooked it with the alavar sauce. Yep! Frozen “alavar sauce” are also sold per kilogram, so you can enjoy the same dish at your very home.

Food Trip  Friday

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