Ang Dabawenyo

When I was in high school, La Suerte Bakeshop was one of the places where we — friends, family members — would pass by on the way to or from school. It was right in front of the Ateneo high school campus, after all. But more than that, they always served delightful pastries. And, boy, in the early mornings the aroma of freshly-baked pan de sal was enough to make your mouth water!

Today, the family that owns La Suerte have renamed — and repackaged — the good old bakeshop to Mam Bebs Bakeshop & Refreshment Parlor. And they’re now located at the ground floor of CVA building on C.M. Recto Street. For your orders, call 227-8131 (look for Lani, Rose or Lilia). Read more »

(For the life of me… my favorite coffee shop and I haven’t even blogged about it yet this whole time! Oh I’ve mentioned it here and there, but I realized just now that I hadn’t given Basti’s Brew its own post here. Shame on me!)

Basti’s Brew Coffee Station has a role in the history of wifi in Davao. It was the first coffee shop that offered wireless Internet connection in the city via Globe Innove — this was back in 2004, if I remember right. For a year the Internet connectivity was offered for free, and so it was Basti’s that “educated” the Dabawenyo to mix coffee and laptops. Then Globe started charging for Internet access (P100/hour!!), and people started going to a new coffee shop that was already offering free wifi. Eventually, Basti’s got its own provider and started broadcasting its wifi signal for free. By then, nearly all coffee shops had installed their own wifi routers to entice Dabawenyos into their establishments. Today, it’s de rigeur in Davao City for coffee shops (and even other kinds of establishments) to have free wifi. Read more »

The past years’ Kadayawan sa Dabaw celebrations, it’s been thought, have veered away from the authentic spirit of this most important of Davao’s festivals. People have started talking about how ‘commercialized’ the Kadayawan has become over the years. And this probably explains the knee-jerk reaction by this year’s organizers — their unexpected move to change the festival’s schedule.

The city officials responsible for Kadayawan 2007 have reasoned that, since this festival is all about the harvest season, then it should be celebrated during the actual time of harvest, which is early August. This was monumentally unwise. But it’s a good thing that the festival highlights (the Indak-Indak and the floral float parade) were kept on the same period as usual (middle of August). Read more »

Lumadnong Kagikan, Mabungahong Kinaiyahan, Gasa sa Kahitas-an
(Ethnic Heritage, Bountiful Environment, Gifts from the Almighty)

The Kadayawan sa Dabaw will be formally opened at the brand-new Centennial Park on 8 August 2007, 5:30 PM. From the 8th to the culmination in mid-August, there will be various activities that will celebrate the Kadayawan festival around the city. Below, following the Kadayawan highlights, is a set of schedule of activities (tentative, as of 11 July).

Kadayawan Highlights

Read more »

I read in Matt Mullenweg’s bio that he loves going around the world sampling barbecued foods and comparing them to his native Texas’ own variety. Well then, he should come to Davao and see how our grilled tuna and other barbecue offerings stand up to “the gold standard of Texas BBQ.”

In fact we did invite Matt (to the uninitiated: he’s only the founder of WordPress) to come to Davao to be part of the Mindanao Bloggers Summit coming up this October. He emailed us back saying he was interested, but unfortunately, he’s scheduled to be at another WordPress event during this time. Too bad…

Anyway, I thought I’d blog about Davao barbecue again after a treat-for-the-palate experience last night. I really had no plans of going out last night, but my friends Rodney and Christian were able to pry me off of the computer and drag me kicking and screaming to a beer-&-barbecue place called Chilli Chills. Read more »

I was just blogging about Karl’s (my previous post), and I realized I hadn’t written about this coffee shop / restaurant where I am now! It’s called Sagay (named after a place on Negros island, near Bacolod), Casa Leticia’s lobby restaurant. The food here is influenced by the owner’s Ilonggo roots. Try their kansi — it’s like sinigang, which is my ultimate favorite Filipino fare. Ilonggo food is decidedly of the maasim (sour) persuasion. Read more »

Last night, Ian (my Pilates guru friend) and I were looking for a place to hang out at — a relaxing place that was still open at 2:30 AM. Almost all coffee shops, clubs, restaurants in Davao close at 2 AM, you see. Good thing Ian thought of Karl’s Koffee Korner, the one in Buhangin. I hadn’t been back there in ages (although years ago it was a favorite getaway among my IT-industry friends). Read more »

I’d been hearing about it, and finally I’ve seen the place: Coffee @ Yellow Hauz. It’s in an as yet secluded part of downtown Davao (the coffee shop is on Mapa St., near TumbleTots on Mabini St.), away from the hustle & bustle of places like F. Torres street. In fact, the area looks decidedly residential — a throw-back to the city’s antiquated zoning.

Yellow Hauz is certainly a looker. From your first glimpse of it from the outside up to your relaxing stint within, you’d be impressed. The architecture, the interior design, the nice little touches — and the huge glass panels on the walls and doors (something I like in a building) — all add up to one delightful package. Read more »

Even before this latest addition to Davao’s coffee culture opened, I’d already heard about Spro Coffee Shop via its very own blog. The owners had been blogging about this café from the time they started conceptualizing it, and the blog was featured for a time at the Davao Blogspace. Read more »

Another testament to Davao’s being barbecue country is Belly’s Grill. I believe they opened sometime last year, but yesterday was only my first time there. The place used to be a pizza-and-beer joint called “Sage” (yeah, a few establishments in Davao do have inexplicably strange names). Now it’s a restaurant that serves mouth-watering grilled and seafood fare.

We had kinilaw (Davao-style sashimi), scallops, deep-fried tuna tail and bangus (milkfish) belly. Sure we had meat dishes too, but it was the seafood that wowed us. The baked scallops — topped with cheese and garlic — were so tasty we had to have another serving! Read more »