Taho Story, Gyud Food Hub, UP Diliman

There's a new stall at the food hub at UP Diliman. Taho Story sells taho with a nice sweet twist - actually, different kinds of twists. I took a photo of their poster showing some of the items on their menu. They looked like the popular halu-halo but instead of ice as the base, they had taho.

Taho or halu-halo?

Ube de leche

Avocado loco

We thought that their concoctions will taste funny or unusual but they turned out quite well and we surely enjoyed  our dessert for lunch that day. We'll surely try the other items in the future whether as dessert or for merienda. But next time I think I will try their cold taho, which probably would go better with the ice cream.

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Lechon at the Carcar Public Market

We had our lunch at the Carcar Public Market where they have lechon, of course. There were many stalls selling roasted pig and you can purchase lechon along with puso rice (rice cooked in coconut leaves). There are tables located at the second level where you can also purchase other food and drinks.

Upon entering the market, one is greeted by stalls selling lechon.

You may purchase to eat there or to take home.

The market is clean and absent is the smell you usually expect from a wet market.

We purchased 2 kilos from this vendor.

What looks like special sauce is vinegar. The coloring is probably from the chili mixed to it. The taste to me is somewhat like sinamak and goes well with the lechon.

Puso rice is sold at nearby stalls.

Other stalls sell achara (pickled papaya), lumpia and a variety of pansit (noodles).

Instead of measuring your rice by the cup, you can probably use the puso as a unit.

The lechon is terrific and can easily derail a diet.

We joked that perhaps the local government in Carcar should be monitoring the average life span of people there considering two of their main products are lechon and chicharon. While these are definitely delicious and tempting, one should exercise self control and avoid indulging in too much of either. As they say jokingly, these are "nakakabata" meaning you probably won't reach an old age if you ate too much lechon and/or chicharon.

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Chocolate review: Belgian Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel

Among the chocolates we got last year from our trip to Singapore is this Belgian chocolate. I remember buying a couple of bars and we still have one in our cache of chocolates at home.

Belgian Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel claims to be organic. There is also the fair trade logo at the bottom right of the package.

Detailed information on the chocolate at the back of the package

Ingredients stating a minimum of 72.6% cacao for this chocolate.

Nutrition information on the chocolate

Some information on the maker

We thought that this chocolate was good though it is on the sweet side of dark chocolates. I would probably buy this again but only if there were not so many other choices. Airports like Changi and Hong Kong would usually have many choices including Valrhona, Godiva and Leonidas that would be preferred. What more if we were traveling in the US, Europe and Japan. Also, there may be locally made chocolates in other countries like those in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia that would be worth trying.

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Chicharon delight from Carcar, Cebu

Perhaps among the preferred or popular pasalubong (souvenir) from Cebu is chicharon. The town of Carcar has many stores lined up along the National Road selling chicharon. It helps of course that Carcar is also well known for its lechon. Our driver/guide tells us we can actually visit a chicharon "factory". The mention of "factory" brough back memories of field trips when I was a child when we visited several actual factories that produced stuff like ice cream and soft drinks. Later when I was in college, the field trips were of construction sites, treatment plants and hydro power plants. Back to chicharon, which is basically deep fried and popped pork skin, here are a few photos taken in Carcar when we bought pasalubong.

Chicaron stores along the national road in Carcar, Cebu

Among the bestsellers are regular chicharon (right) and spicy chicharon (left). There are also variants of the regular chicharon depending on whether you like some meat to go with the pork skin.

The spicy chicharon looks like cheetos. It is more sinful, or perhaps unhealthy.

We ended up buying a few bags of chicharon each to bring home and to our office as pasalubong. The pasalubong were received well and didn't take long for people to enjoy and consume.

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10,000 roses, Cordova, Cebu

Before I start posting about the recent trip to Panglao, Bohol, I wanted to finish writing and posting some articles about our trips to Cebu last May. Among those I started writing was on this 'manufactured' tourist attraction located in the town of Cordova in Mactan Island.

Sign in front of the attraction

The roses are actually plastic and powered by LED bulbs (literally rose shaped LED bulbs). They are an impressive sight from a certain angle and when lighted.

The lights for the stems change in color - here are the stems in blue.

Here they are in red.

Stems in purple/violet.

Stems in pink

Stems in orange

Here they are in green again

Transition from red to violet

Pinkish white

The view from the deck level of the cafe.

We were there during the night when the roses were lit. I can only imagine how ordinary these look like during the day. The man-made attraction requires much maintenance work as we saw at least 3 or 4 of their staff working to replace or repair busted bulbs. So it is inevitable to have dark patches in the sea of plastic roses. While I found this place amusing, I thought once is enough for places like this. Nothing really special about it. We weren't able to eat at the cafe so I can't give an assessment of the food and drinks there. They do have a souvenir shop for those who probably want something to state they've been there.

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Back in Panglao to recharge

We're back at one of our happy places. We've been to Bohol 4 times before including twice with our daughter. This is the fifth time and third straight at our favorite place in Panglao. I have been in Bohol five times before including the first time when I went to Bohol to promote a graduate scholarship sponsored by the Japanese. That was in 1996 when The Bohol Beach Club was its original size and when the cottages were still quite basic. The place was so rural including Balicasag Island, which at the time was already a snorkeling and diving attraction.

Panorama of the beach in Panglao

It's always a good getaway and change in environment when we come here. We make the most of these short vacations and end up re-energized or recharged for the challenges ahead.

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Chocolate review: Valrhona Tulakalum

The trip to Bangkok yielded several Valrhona's from the duty free shop at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Those included this 75% cacao bar. It was the first time we encountered Tulakalum, which at 75% we thought could be a little too strong to be a standalone eat. Perhaps it could go well with some ice cream?

Tulakalum is a 75% cacao dark chocolate

Details on the chocolate are at the back of the packaging as well as on the inside of it (as shown later).

Ingredients including a minimum of 75% cacao that was sourced from Belize.

Nutrition information on the chocolate

Storage temperature tip (keep it in a dry place at 16-18 C).

The chocolate is wrapped in gold-colored foil.

More details on the chocolate including tips on how to enjoy it. The cacao is sourced from Belize and is supposed to have that nutty taste mixing it up with the cocoa nibs that gives some crunch to the chocolate.

We decided to try it out first to determine how strong this 75% dark chocolate was. It turned out to be one of the smoothest dark chocolates we've had above 70%. The nutty taste was there and it blended well with the bar and the cacao nibs. This is a must buy the next time we see this chocolate in a shop.

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Hakata Ikkousha, Cebu City

In a recent trip to Cebu, I found this Japanese restaurant at one of the major malls located in the North reclamation area. I extended my stay in Cebu for a couple of nights in order to catch up on work as well as to serve as a panel member in a webinar organized by our center.

Menu cover

Restaurant interior including visuals for the food they serve

They seem to have a bar for individual customers though it also looks like something for a salad bar.

I ordered tonkotsu ramen and gyoza. These are items I thought restaurants should not be wrong on if they included these in their menu.

Close up of the ramen, which I thought was good considering I had no expectations.

The gyoza was also good and on the crunchy side.

I thought the food was okay quality and quantity-wise and the prices translated to good value for money. Will I eat there again? Certainly, if I was craving for Japanese food and depending on the preference of company. When in Cebu, of course, there are many options and Japanese food is not a default.

 

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Chocolate review: another taste of Valrhona Jivara

Here is another exceptional milk chocolate, again from Valrhona. Jivara is light and not too sweet like the typical mass produced milk chocolates available on supermarket shelves. One can easily finish a bar in a few minutes but that would be atrocious as far as a chocolate of this quality is concerned. It is best to have small bites and some self control to preserve this chocolate to eat in more than one sitting.

Jivara with the new packaging of Valrhona chocolates

The milk chocolate claims a minimum of 40% cacao content.

Nutrition information

Storage info on the chocolate suggests a dry place with temps betweem 16 to 18 degrees C. That's way lower than the average room temps here. We recently had a heat wave when chocolates like this would probably have melted.

The updated packaging includes much information the chocolate and how to enjoy (immerse is the term used in the packaging) the chocolate. Note also the certification that "the company meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact."

The chocolate is wrapped in foil.

Would I get this chocolate outside of the pack or box it came with? I think so and probably will, but not in the same quantities as the other Valrhona chocolates (dark chocolates) we prefer like Manjari and Caruibe. Any chocolate lover will definitely like Jivara like Dulcey, which I wrote about earlier, and enjoy this chocolate.

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