Ang Dabawenyo

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 »

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 »