Ang Dabawenyo

BioEssence Spa, a pioneer in the skin-care and spa business (and a Dabawenyo company!), has opened a new service to their already rich suite of offerings: Suay Thai. We’re talking about the ancient art of traditional Thai massage and healing therapy.

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Last night I was invited to a press conference that was certainly not run of the mill. When Jojie (who’s actually my colleague of sorts as we both contribute to Sun•Star Davao as columnists) told me about it, she didn’t tell me what it was going to be all about. She just said there’d be food and alcohol, and that was enough for me to want to go!

Jojie was retained by this group of poker tournament organizers to handle their PR, but she probably didn’t know I played poker. I do, since 2005 in fact. And I used to be crazy over Texas Hold’em. I had a Japanese-language translation project that involved card games, and I started playing poker because I had to get into the groove so that I could understand better, ergo do my work better. ••• Read on »

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 on »

(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 on »

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 on »

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

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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 on »