Ang Dabawenyo

A Japanese client invited me and a friend to a Christmas party last night, at Zakoya. I’ve never been to Japan, but I think I have enough Japanese friends to know that last night was a very Japanese get-together. My friend, Alex of Global Wings Travel, remarked that the party-goers didn’t behave in the ‘usual Japanese manner.’

The Japanese character is commonly known to be reserved and disciplined — some even term it Vulcan-like (from Star Trek). At work, yes, they’re pretty much like that. But when they’re relaxing and having a good time, they can be the total opposite. Read more »

Coffee Beans

“A coffee bean is the seed of the coffee plant (the pit inside the red or purple fruit). The fruits, coffee cherries or coffee berries, most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm that contains 0.8 - 2.5 % caffeine, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated.”

Hops

“One of the four principal ingredients of beer, hops are flower cones added to beer as a bittering agent, a preservative, and an aromatic.”

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Swiss Deli, that chic European restaurant in Lanang, has recently completed renovations and now features extended dining space in a new wing. The al fresco area is also now much cooler, even during hot afternoons. Most importantly, Signor Romano Venuti has added a charming wine cellar at the basement of the new wing.

Last Wednesday night saw Rochelle Venuti, Ahbet, Miguel and me at The Cellar for a bottle of their house red. The Ventisquero Cabernet-Sauvignon Clásico is another product of Chile that I now enjoy — but I’m still holding on to the Sta Rita cabsav as my favorite red. The Ventisquero (2005) sells for Php361 per bottle. With its deep woody texture, it was perfect with the sausages and cold cuts that we had. 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 »

Whenever one of my Japanese friends invites me for a drink, he always asks to meet at one of the bars in Taboan, MTS. But the other night, he ‘discovered’ Kanto Bar, also at MTS. So last night, he asked that we meet there. I was pleasantly surprised at the major facelift that Kanto has undergone — actually they renovated more than a year ago already, but I hardly ever go to that part of MTS.

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