One of the activities Sago and this food blogger won’t miss in this trip to Cebu is the food adventure. I’ve always preferred to eat the local dishes of the place I visit and shun away from the usual fast food chains that can also be found in the metro.
Cebu City
It begun in the lunch of the first day right after I left the baggage at the hotel in Cebu City. The spirit of adventurism kicked in and I asked the receptionist for her suggestion on a good, reasonably-priced place to have my lunch. She recommended Pete’s Kitchen located at 6-1 Pelaez St, a few steps away from the hotel across the street.
It was à la carte style and there was a variety of food choices.I ordered kalderetang baka (goat-meat stew) and string beans.
One particular thing that caught my attention was their bottled water labelled 2BIG (read as ‘tubig‘, the Filipino term for ‘water‘). =)
There are hundreds of restaurants more all over the city, not to mention those within major malls such as the Ayala Center and SM Cebu.
I also came across the Cebuanong Biko (sticky rice) with red beans and fresh lumpia. The Biko was authentic (pure sticky rice) and I love the lumpia which is sized just right.
Bantayan Island
Aside from the Filipino breakfasts of scrambled eggs, tapa, corned beef, and coffee, lunch had the ‘inihaw‘ theme. It was a smorgasboard of grilled seafood dishes. From grilled fish, grilled squid, crab, tahong (clam) soup, and fresh seaweeds. Only 2 persons in the group appreciated the ‘green’ seaweeds. =)
Came dinner time, the group scouted around for a dining spot and ended up in Tickety Boo Beach Resort Restaurant. It is highly advisable though to give your order 1 hour in advance from the time you want to actually eat. =)
Malapascua Island
Day 4 in Malaspcua proved that happy eaters can be very loyal customers. So happy we had lunch, dinner, the next day breakfast and the next day’s lunch as well all in one place. I think we have ordered every single item in the menu by the next day’s dinner. It’s Malapascua’s one and only Ging-Ging’s Flower Garden & Restaurant. No, we did not eat ‘flowers’. It’s just that Ging-ging seems to be so entrepreneurial that she also has a flower garden business adjacent to the restaurant and a sari-sari store to the next. =)
The place is always packed, be it lunch or dinner time. And there were more foreigners than locals dining at any giiven time. Price wise, the menu is not cheap, but neither is it too expensive. It’s comparable to an average Metro Manila resto with their spaghetti priced at about Php80 ($1.75) per serving. Pizza varieties include Al Tonno (tuna), Pancetta (bacon),and Del Paolo (onion,tomatoes,pepper,& cheeze), all at Php120 each ($2.25). Imagine, they have an ‘eggplant’ pizza called Rica Mae!
Last Day
We are not leaving Cebu without taking a bite of its famous lechon. Our van passed by a street lined with a number of lechon retailers. The group bought some to take home back to Manila while a kilo was allocated for sharing later.
As a last stop before we proceeded to the airport, our group of 8 had 4 whole pizzas at Da Vinci’s Pizza in Mactan. Their specialty are their white sauce pizzas at Php198. Bottomless iced tea at Php45($1). This was also where we partook of the kilo of lechon bought earlier. =)
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Seeing Cebu Travelogue Series:
Part I – Historical City of the South – Nov1
Part II – Reaching Bantayan Island – Nov 8
Part III – Cebu On A Plate – Nov 15
Part IV – Malaspascua, Cebu’s Boracay – Nov 22
Part V – ‘Adtonako’ Cebu – Nov 29
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i had fallen in love with Da Vinci’s pizza after a Cebu-based friend took me there sometime in 2006. 🙂
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Whhha Food! Cebu travelogue won’t be complete without tasting their yummy delights! Gutom ako 😆 Whha, I wanna taste them all. I wish I can go to Cebu.
nakakatakam! my mouth waters just by looking at the pictures! =)
i love da vinci’s pizza… their masterpiece pizza is the best… i have yet to try their shawarma pizza which was also raved about by my friends.
Ako rin, I associate places with food. Hindi ako masyado mahilig magpasyal-pasyal unless super pambihira talaga (hard to please, hehe) or maybe historical. Pero kapag pagkain, they’re usually unique. I grew up knowing pochero as meat and vegetables in tomato sauce, tapos bulalo pala yun sa Cebu. Weird. I still have a lot of places to try and eat at. Like Red Ribbon. 😉
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Nice blog truly!!! Hope u can share more… Do you know http://www.yummy-cebu.com the food platform in Cebu? My friend recommended it – it’s kinda cool!!!
tried da vinci’s a few times. kakaiba yung white sauce nila for the pizza.