Enjoying a Zamboanga treat -- Knickerbocker at Max's

We had Sunday lunch out a couple of weeks ago and decided to eat at Max's. We had not been to a Max's restaurant for a while and we usually ordered chicken from KFC or Kenny Roger's so it was nice to be seated and be able to order and enjoy their fried chicken plus other items of their more diverse menu. Upon dessert time, I was pleasantly surprised they had this classic Zamboanga treat in their menu alongside the typical halu-halo, leche flan and buko pandan.

Max's version of the Knickerbocker

Their Knickerbocker is really good and I thought was better than their halu-halo. I'm looking forward to the next visit to Max's to order this again for dessert.

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El Museo de Zamboanga - Part 4

This is the concluding article to the series on the Zamboanga Museum. This last part is on Zamboanga City after 1946 and Philippine independence.

Diorama showing the Zamboanga City Hall as it looked like right after the American Period. The building is preserved and still in great condition. Some buildings nearby that probably was from the same era have also managed to survive including one hosting a branch of BPI. The building is witness to much of Zamboanga's history including historical figures like the late Mayor Climaco.

Write-up on Zamboanga under the Philippine Republic. Similar to the other write-up in the previous articles in this series, there is a Chavacano version and an English version.

Maps showing the evolution of what was Zamboanga Province in 1946 (note the inclusion of Basilan) into the current Zamboanga Peninsula comprised of 3 provinces (Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay) and Zamboanga City.

Zamboanga's history is very interesting to me and continues to pique my curiosity. I have grown to like the city and its people. I have experienced their hospitality and witnessed how we can live in harmony given the supposed differences among people of different religions and cultures.

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El Museo de Zamboanga - Part 3

This third part on the Zamboanga Museum focuses on the feature on Zamboanga during the American Period.

Write-up on Zamboanga during the American Period

Photo of the American Provincial Governor with various leaders of the region (i.e., Datus).

Photo on the inauguration of the then Municipality of Zamboanga, which included Basilan

Evolution of Mindanao and Zamboanga under the Americans - note that the Zamboanga Peninsula was basically one province from 1921-1945. Zamboanga was part of what was termed as a Moro Province during the early years of this period. The province became a Department before eventually being reformed into several provinces.

The conclusion to this series in Part 4.

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El Museo de Zamboanga - Part 2

This is a continuation of the post on the Zamboanga Museum. I love history and this second part on the museum shows information on Zamboanga during the Spanish Period. There's a nice map at the last part of this article.

Write-up on Zamboanga during the Spanish Period.

A diorama showing Zamboanga City during the Spanish Period shows Fort Pilar on the right. The diorama reminded me of similar ones at the Ayala Museum in Makati City.

Cannonballs on display

A replica of a Spanish Era cannon. I think these were typically mounted on walls or galleons rather than used in the field.

Map of Mindanao circa 1860 showing the large districts - the Zamboanga Peninsula is District I, Northern Mindanao including the Misamis and Bukidnon Provinces are in District II, Surigao and Agusan are in District III, Davao and Sarangani are in District IV, and the Cotabato provinces are in District V.

More on Zamboanga and history in the next article!

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El Museo de Zamboanga - Part 1

Unlike previous visits to Zamboanga City, we had some free time and used it to go around and revisit some places we've been to but have not been able to really check out. One place at Pasonanca Park is the Zamboanga Museum or El Museo de Zamboanga.

At the museum lobby

Artifact at the museum

Write-up on the beliefs and practices of the Badjaos

There's a lot of information on the native peoples of Zamboanga like their art and architecture.

Belief and practices of the Subanen

Map of the homeland of the precolonial inhabitants of Zamboanga

Information on the Subanen

Zamboanga's historical timeline

Exit

Entrance

More on the museum and its features in the next posts!

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Back at Alavar Seafood Restaurant

A must for those visiting Zamboanga City is eating at Alavar. The restaurant, of course, is famous for the sauce that bears its name, which a lot of people say goes well with any food. Sauce aside, Alavar serves excellent local dishes including the curacha - a type of crab indigenous to Zamboanga.

The restaurant front and the familiar sign welcoming diners.

While we ordered the usual bilao set for our dinner, we also ordered two dishes involving raw tuna - sashimi and kinilaw. Here is their presentation of maguro sashimi.

I ordered my usual buko in a shell. This one came from a young, healthy coconut and was harvested at the right time. That means plenty of coconut water and meat to enjoy as dessert.

 

One of my objectives for this trip is to replenish our stock of bottled sardines. Fortunately, the restaurant had a lot of stocks of the Spanish sardines in olive oil variety that I always buy from their store.

More on Zamboanga City and this recent trip in the next posts!

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Another taste of Zamboanga's knickerbocker

One of the things one must try when in Zamboanga is their version of what we commonly refer to as halu-halo - the Knickerbocker. The name is derived from the American knickerbocker glory sundae. We had ours at Palmeras, which is widely credited for popularizing the dessert.

The knickerbocker is basically layers of fruits and jelly topped by a scoop (or more) of strawberry ice cream.

Each one of us had one as dessert during lunch

Another photo of our knickerbocker at Palmeras

Is it the best halu-halo? Probably not considering the so many versions of the popular summer treat or dessert. The knickerbocker though deserves praise for being somewhat unique in its formula. It is a must-eat when in Zamboanga!

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Back in Zamboanga City for our first travel of 2024

I am back at one of my happy places - Zamboanga City. While this is a work trip, we made sure we had some time to revisit some places we have frequented in our travels to the Latin City of the Philippines. That includes the Alavar Seafood Restaurant that's famous for its Alavar sauce. I think I have traveled to Zamboanga at least once a year every year in the past 6 years including during the pandemic years.

Zamboanga City port of entry already

Colorful vintas are featured at the airport

One of our "must go" places to eat at is the Alavar Seafood Restaurant.

Aside from the meetings with our counterparts and a courtesy call to City Hall, we will be doing some field work. We made sure our there's time allocated for eating good lunches and dinners and perhaps a trip to the market at Canelar to buy a few items.

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Vendors along the boulevard in Zamboanga

Today is Araw ng Kalayaan (Independence Day) in the Philippines. I thought to feature here something I wrote in my other blog. There are many ways we can interpret kalayaan or independence. The basic notion, of course, is about independence from a foreign power. But there is also independence (or freedom) from poverty or debt. There is also independence or freedom from unhealthy relationships. I guess you can stretch the definitions according to your preferences.

Our morning walks allowed us to observe some scenes in the city. Along the R.T. Lim Boulevard, there are stretches of what was probably a public beach. We saw these vendors along the shore selling shellfish and clams.

Vendors selling shellfish - I suddenly recalled the tongue twister: "She sells sea shells by the sea shore." I asked their permission before I took the photo. It was still somewhat a candid shot and by the time we were on the return part of our walk, most of their items were already sold. Apparently, they already have 'suki' or regular buyers.

Conchs are basically sea snails and considered a delicacy in the Philippines.

Other sea snails that some people generally call 'kuhol' are in buckets filled with sea water to keep them alive and fresh.

Clams make for good soup. I like the clear soup version that we usually order in restaurants to go with our grilled food or whatever it is we order for lunch or dinner.

These are the scenes you usually miss when you're driving or riding. Walks or jogs bring you closer to these scenes and provide the opportunity to stop and look (even inquire, make small talk or take a few photos). They enhance our walks and allows a glimpse of how life was along the shores when a city like Zamboanga was not as developed as in the present. Manila used to have public beaches before the first reclamation projects eventually wiped them out. The attempt to bring those back in the form of dolomite beaches don't really help considering the water pollution that makes swimming or wading risky for people. Still, you also see many swimming or wading in the waters, and seemingly immune to the bacteria and other threats the waters contain.

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The old acacia trees in Zamboanga City

Before I return to Zamboanga City this week, I would like to share something about the old acacia trees in the city. We've noticed their size and how they looked older and somewhat as large if not larger than the acacias at the UP Diliman campus. Up close while walking around the city, we can confirm they are older and apparently are of a different variety based on their bark.

Plate installed on a tree along Valderosa Street in front of the Banko Sentral compound states that the tree is approximately 155 years old. The declaration was made in 2010 so this means the tree would be approximately 168 years old now. That means trees like this date to the Spanish times (ca. 1855).

The acacia tree whose plate is shown previously

Acacia trees along Rizal Street in front of the Red Cross compound (left)

More trees along Rizal Street

There are others along the Pan Philippine Highway / R.T. Lim Boulevard. These trees are witnesses to the history of Zamboanga City. I hope the plates are a sign that the city intends to take care of these trees; to sustain and maintain them for years, decade, even centuries to come.

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Back at Alavar Seafood Restaurant in Zamboanga City

One of the things we truly miss from the travels prior to the Covid-19 pandemic was the food. We usually tried new places to eat at. And then, of course, there are the old reliables and certain restaurants we definitely try to eat at when were in certain cities. One of those restaurants is the Alavar Seafood Restaurant in Zamboanga City. It gets pretty crowded when you come in even for an early dinner so the timing should be to arrive between 6:00 - 6:30PM. Whole families eat out here even without an occasion to celebrate.

There were already a lot of diners when we arrived at around 6:15PM.

Noticeable for me were the changes in the interior. They actually rerouted the entrance so you proceed to the larger, more spacious dining hall instead of the original air-conditioned restaurant.

There were 6 of us so we decided to order 2 seafood platters.

Here's the second platter. The platter or bilao sets already come with a big bottle of iced tea that can be shared by 3 to 4 people.

The staff informed us that they also serve the popular Knickerbocker. We ordered one each.

Here's a close-up of my Knickerbocker

A sala set near our table. I assume one can have a meeting here where you order some food and drinks like coffee and merienda.

We were not disappointed with our food. I would say that Alavar will always be a "go to" restaurant for us whenever we are in Zamboanga City. The restaurant's main dining hall is spacious and obviously laid out to meet or comply with the health protocols. The staff always wears masks. There's a temperature check at the entrance of the restaurant but they do not ask for proof of vaccination (i.e., vaccination card).

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Guilty pleasures: Spanish style sardines

I was taking stock of our food reserves for the quarantine period. Most of these are bottled or canned goods. Our usual stock (for typical rainy days or emergencies) doubled for the enhanced quarantine period as we wanted to assure our household that we had food to eat just in case markets and supermarkets were closed or had restricted operations. It turned out that these were all open albeit only during the day because of the curfew so we ended up with a significant food cache.

Among the food we have on stock are several bottles of sardines I bought from my last travel to Zamboanga last January 2020. I am usually on the lookout for high quality sardines and Zamboanga definitely has these with fishing as one of the major industries of this city surrounded by the Sulu Sea to the west and the Moro Gulf to the east. The last time I had sardines this good outside of the locally-made bottled sardines in the supermarkets was when my friends gave me top quality sardines from Dipolog, where many if not most of the top quality sardines are canned or bottled. I bought my supply of sardines at the famous Alavar Seafood Restaurant, which had their brand products for sale. These had to be checked in for our flight back to Manila as airlines don't allow them to be hand-carried.

Spanish style sardines from Zamboanga City

I eat what I believe is a healthy serving of sardines, which is once in a while and not often. I used to have my own stash while I was living in Japan in the 1990s. Those were the Victorias spanish sardines that I love. My parents even found a way of sending me cans of sardines through engineers my father sent to Japan for training. In gratitude, I would show them around Tokyo and Yokohama and treat them to nice meals (welcome breaks from the usual meals they had at the training center canteens). More on sardines in future posts!

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