Ang Dabawenyo

The culminating dinner of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour, on 16 March 2008, was at Bryan’s Grill & Café. At this al fresco poolside restaurant, my good friend Bryan Bajado served the bloggers samplers of his fine cuisine.

For appetizer, we had three samplers: grilled pepper-crusted sashimi (my absolute fave here!), shrimp in white wine and pesto, and a refreshing preparation of sausage and corn. And then there were two kinds of salads: shrimp cocktail and Caesar’s. The inspired presentation of the dishes wowed our group, and the variety of flavors impressed us even more. It was truly a fitting concluding event to DavaoFAT. Read more »

Yesterday — the 3rd and final day of DavaoFAT — found the adventurous bloggers at Eden Nature Park for buffet lunch and some well-deserved fun. There were 14 of us, including Aileen (Google Country Consultant) and Jay of TitikPilipino.com, as well as Avel and Mars of General Santos City.

Eden Nature Park is Davao’s pride. A mountain resort only 45 minutes away from downtown, it’s not merely a breath-taking tourist spot, but an ecological sanctuary and a cultural bedrock as well. The family behind Eden Nature Park has clearly endeavored to preserve a piece of nature as faithfully as possible, thereby providing both Dabawenyos and visitors to the city a healthy and refreshing respite from city life. Read more »

The second day of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour was a whirlwind romance between bloggers and food. From breakfast to dinner and beyond, the group was all in a mindset of palate-pleasing activities. From Taps for breakfast to The Marco Polo for dinner, we not only sampled but heartily partook of Davao’s gastronomic offerings.

After a fine-dining spread and much conversation at the Polo Bistro, some of us proceeded to my family’s ancestral home for…… Can you guess? …… Yes! more food!! This time, it was from Sugar Munch, whose owners gave us several boxes of mini-cakes and a few rolls of silvana (hint: it’s like sans rival). We took our time enjoying the various cakes, and played poker while we were at it. Read more »

As a blogger, no matter how long you’ve been blogging, it’s always a rush knowing you get more and more readers as you go along. And it’s particularly inspiring when someone actually appreciates your blog.

This I-love-Davao blog of mine just got blogged!

Sinag of sinagshine.blogspot.com chose Ang Dabawenyo in her entry in the ongoing You Got Blogged! review-a-blog competition. Her review is really heart-warming, and certainly adds to the motivation for me to write even more about my hometown. Thanks, Sinag!! Read more »

As some of my readers might already know, I’ve created a new blog for my food escapades: Davao Delicious. From now on, that’s now where I will write about eating, cuisine, restaurants, coffee shops, what have you…. It’s my newest blog, and probably not my last.

It wasn’t planned, though, this baby blog. You see, I’m doing a website for my friends, Rochelle and Romano Venuti (owners of Swiss Deli, Picobello Ristorante Italiano and Prego Café). In search of a domain name late at night several days ago, I came across a catchy and available name, davaodeli.com. Without delay, I purchased the domain, and told the husband-and-wife team about it the following day. However, they weren’t too keen on it. They still preferred to have their real company name in the upcoming website’s URL. (They eventually settled for dbutcherdbaker.com — coming soon!) Read more »

Recently, a reader left a comment on one of my posts regarding the importance of blogging as a means of getting a message across. Curious, I clicked on her name’s link, and it brought me to an advocacy blog called In Defense of our Safety. The way I see it, the blog is (1) an effort to document the blog owners’ activities concerning an issue they feel strongly about; and, (2) a way to let the community know about what’s going on.

What is going on? Well, apparently, there is a growing concern for the safety of the residents of Trinidad Greenhills in Ma-a. New housing developments, in their drive to complete more residential projects, are reportedly neglecting the safety of existing homeowners and their properties. Read more »

I’m so happy to announce that — finally! — I’ve gotten around to completing my Japanese-language WordPress blog: (ManMaru Kükan or “Maru’s Space”). I’ve had my maruo.blogspot.com blog forever (and it’s actually doing very well, SEO-wise), but I’d always wanted to port it to WordPress — I just never had that push I needed to do it.

But last week I got a Japanese client who’s asked me to include their website as part of my deliverables. And one of my closest friends, Ichido Miyake, has also decided to start blogging already. He’s begun writing in English for Bob Martin’s Live in the Philippines Web magazine, and will soon publish his Japanese articles on his own blog. Read more »

The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit was satisfyingly successful. We could’ve gotten more participants from more areas of Mindanao, but for a first-time effort for a unique event, I was happy with the turnout. The important thing is, my colleagues and I have gotten the ball rolling. I’m counting on the viral nature of blogs: each blogger has his or her own set of readers, so when he or she writes about the Summit and its objectives, the word gets around pretty quickly. Read more »

Not that I’m naïve, but it was a shock when I saw what results come out on Google when you do an image search for “Filipina”. I’ve been encouraging my friends to join Janette Toral’s “Filipina” Writing Project, and one of them showed me the current Google image search results. To put it very lightly, I was utterly dismayed. I don’t even want to describe it here, for fear of adding to the already negative connotation of the keyword.

The “Filipina” Writing Project aims to debunk the current search results associated with the keyword “Filipina” coming out of major Internet search engines. By generating more positive content related to this keyword, and via the pervasive effects of good SEO techniques, the Project hopes to spread an improved — and true — image of the Filipino woman. Read more »

[UPDATED: 28 May 2007]

It has always tickled my fancy to write about food. While I have attempted this a few times in the past, I don’t think I’ve really gotten into the thing yet. For one, I have very limited cooking experience, and I sure know close to nothing when it comes to recipes and such. But, I love good food!

In the meantime, why not a photography tilt that has food in focus? Specifically, photos of gastronomical experiences in Davao!

Read more »