Del Monte Clubhouse

In the land of Pineapples -- Bukidnon!

It's our last day of our Mindanao getaway and what great way to spend it but to go on a zipline adventure in Bukidnon. Famished from all the adventure, we headed to Del Monte Clubhouse for lunch in Manolo Fortrich. This place is famous for its steak and of course, that is what we had..

Salad on the side..


Fresh fruit salad for dessert..


And let's not forget the famous pineapple juice of Del Monte!


Weeee!

Missy Bonbon Bakeshop

The aroma of freshly baked bread, caramelized sugar, cinnamon, bacon, and assortments of jam is what Missy Bonbon is all about. But since we were a hunt for our dinner, their bread and pastries have to wait for the next morning.

What I ordered: the Missy Fish Teriyaki with kangkong on the side. The sweet teriyaki sauce glazed on the fish topped with sesame seeds pairs well with the salty taste of the adobong kangkong.


What my friends ordered: the Chicken Firenze with potatoes, string beans on the sides.


This is the mushroom soup with garlic bread.


Missy Bonbon's Waldorf salad. I must say, they don't scrimp on the meat.


On to pastas, one of us ordered the Carbonara.


And their Bolognese.


Missy Bon bon also offers a wide variety of gelato! The blueberry cheesecake was awesome but since my friend ordered the last one, I settled with their cheese gelato which is not that good, though.


I also took home a box of their best-selling ube ensaymada. This is best eaten hot or if you want cold with a cup of coffee. The ube part is halaya made as a filling inside the ensaymada. Best ensaymada I've ever tasted! We also tried some of their pastries and bread for our breakfast on our last day at Cagayan de Oro. I love their bread such as the sweet potato bread, blueberry cheesecake danish, and they even have siomai wrapped in bread! It was truly awesome. =)

I Want Candy's!

As we left Camiguin with a hearty late lunch in J&A fishpen, a 2-hour ferry ride awaits us in Benoni port to take us back to Cagayan de Oro. Then after dropping our things at the hotel, we headed to Candy's at Limketkai for dinner. The funny thing was, before our trip, I was asking if there are any good restos in Cagayan de Oro or Camiguin and the people I asked said there weren't any but because we love to eat we researched and we've got a long list of restos! Now our dilemma now is how to squeeze all the food tripping in our 4-day stay there! So on our first night in CDO, we decided to dine in Candy's for some pizza and pasta.


First off, the classic appetizer of fish and chips. What I like about this is it's not too oily.


For our drinks, we had the Four Seasons shake. I think this is the welcome drink that we had in Paras beach resort back in Camiguin but only they turned it into a shake.


We also had the Chicken and pesto for pasta and ordered the Puttanesca pizza and the Spinach Quattro Formaggi pizza. I so love their pizza! Especially the spinach quattro formaggi, it's a real winner. It's a must-order at Candy's. Now the pasta is also yummy but I'd choose Green Tomato's pesto over Candy's. I must also say, they've got great interiors and Limketkai almost looks like the metro with its restaurant strip. Plus great food!

During the course of the meal, some of us noticed an oddly-shaped dessert on the other table. We all turned to look and laughed at ourselves for looking like it's the first time we've seen a dessert like that. Anyway, we asked the waiter and he said it was Tartufo, an ice cream cake. 'Ooohh!' we exclaimed. And it would go well with the red wine we just ordered. Sweeet!


The outer shell of the Tartufo was a rich chocolate cake which was not too sweet and was also layered with a ganache drizzled with white chocolate. Inside was the vanilla ice cream with walnuts as its core. The sweetness of this dessert was a nice contrast with the bitter taste of red wine.


Looking forward to a fun-filled white water rafting the next day, we all went to dreamland sound asleep. Good thing we had a glass of wine to keep those Zzz's coming from night til dawn.

Jellyfish este J&A Fishpen

After spending two days in Camiguin, it's time to eat crabs! But first we had so much fun touring the island. There are lots of places to visit and I think we didn't even covered half of it. The places we visited were the Katibawasan Falls, the Hot spring, cold spring, sunken cemetery, the White island and the church ruins. Famished and running out of time, we patiently waited for our food to be served at J&A Fishpen. At first, we thought the driver was telling us that we're going to a jellyfish something, a farm probably. Then we realized it was the J&A Fishpen! Duh! LOL!

And of course, what we were looking forward to this meal is the crabs! Gotta order the crab (obsessed much? hehe). Chili crab was how they cooked it and I enjoyed every bit of it especially the sipit which is my favorite part of this shelled creature. We also had shrimp which was a bit tiny. @_@

The sweet and sour Lapu lapu was great, crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside.

There was also the grilled squid with its cute onion flower. Wonder how to make one of those. I know how to make roses out of tomatoes but that was it (will search for the onion flower thing on the net hehe).

We also had the clam soup. Very tasty and I was happy that it had no gritty sand in it the way clams are cooked at our home (I suspect it wasn't just cleaned properly).

I think this would be my favorite in J&A, their kilawin. Since everything is fresh, this dish is really a winner. I was able to taste the sweetness and freshness of the fish. I think I can finish this whole plate of kilawin but of course I didn't.

All of those were eaten with what else but garlic rice!

I almost forgot, among the seafoods that we had, the chicken was out of place but this chicken was also yummy! I wonder if they also have live chickens so we can also have fresh chicken.. Hmmm..

Customers can dine in one of the huts out on the water for an additional hundred bucks to get a great view while eating and relaxing in Camiguin.

Like I said, everything is fresh and the all are caught from their fishpen upon ordering. This what makes the Camiguin food tripping complete!

The Famous Vjandep

Vjandep, infamous for its pastel, came from Camiguin. I've read so many great reviews on the Vjandep restaurant so we decided to also try it out. Apparently, Vjandep is pronounced with a silent 'j' and it actually stands for the names of its owners (I can't recall the names, however).

Kan-anan sa parola, their sign says. Beside the restaurant stands what looks like a historic parola or lighthouse with a great view of the sea. Too bad, the steps of the parola is already rusty and broken. It would nice to see the view from the top since it was a nice clear but windy day.

What we've ordered: Pinakbet, Garlic shrimp, Liempo and Sinigang (forgot what kind of fish was in it). The verdict: the food was delicious but nothing spectacular, in a word, it was just so-so. Maybe because we have high expectations because of the great reviews it was getting or maybe their original cook was on a day-off. In fairness to the owners, the reviews we've read were from the Vjandep restaurant branch in CDO. On a brighter note, I love it that I get to have a great shot of the view on the 2nd floor of the restaurant.

I also like it that they were environment friendly and I also noticed that they hold Bible study groups since they have their lessons written on a whiteboard. It's nice to know that the word of God reaches the island of Camiguin. Praise be to God.

I captured the names after all! It says here in their reusable place mats, "Vjandep (pronounced with silent "J", stands for VIRGILIO JOSE AND ELEANOR POPERA used to be VJ's military code)". Customers can read all about the history of Vjandep and how it came about while waiting for orders. And as we were reading, this line caught our attention and we couldn't stop laughing. "Though its shelf life is short, it is microwavable naman." The taglish ruined the perfectly written history of Vjandep but it was quite a charming mistake. =D It still was a memorable meal at Vjandep restaurant naman pala. ;)

Breakfast Buffet at Sunburst CDO

The famous Sunburst Fried Chicken of Cebu is now also in Cagayan de Oro, the city of friendship! We barely had any sleep when we arrived in Cagayan de Oro due to our 4AM flight and breakfast was in our mind as Sir Glenn (Elvie's super hospitable boss in BPI) drove us to the port. Since we still had time before the ferry leaves, Sir Glenn dropped us off at Sunburst found in Limketkai for a breakfast buffet which he told us was at a very affordable price of Php 180 (that's what I heard but it turned out that he meant Php 118 and guess what, the actual price was Php 119!).

The resto just opened (for the day) when we arrived so there weren't finished setting up the buffet table yet but that didn't stop us, we dove in anyway. Haha!

Not much to choose from. But they have the best garlic rice in CDO, though! In addition to this, they also have the traditional pandesal with strawberry jam or butter, corn flakes, fresh fruits, scrambled eggs, instant coffee, milo, orange juice, mango juice etc etc.

This is their omelette which I didn't like too much. It was much too loaded with undercooked veggies and too oily for my taste.

We finished our meal on time and headed to the port. Next destination, Camiguin island!

A (California) Berry Hot Afternoon

Since the Old Chinatown Kopitiam was closed for the holiday afternoon, my sis and I headed to the recently opened California Berry. Only a few chairs are set up inside the store but more people can be seated outside. My sis was feeling chocoholic for the day so her toppings for the days were Crunch, Oreo and Butterfinger (actually I was the who chose her toppings! hehe). My toppings, on the other hand, are granola, almonds and Twix. I love Twix but it didn't mix well with the yogurt. I don't know if it's the weather but somehow their yogurt melts too fast. =( Their yogurt flavor at that time was green apple. I've tasted their blueberry yogurt and it was yummy!

Chillax at Capreal Ristorante

One hot holiday afternoon, we were headed to Old Chinatown Kopitiam for some kaya toast and kopi but they were closed and will open by 6pm. So we headed to the recently opened California Berry to cool us down (will post a separate entry). After a healthy yogurt fix, my sis was still hungry so we decided to try Capreal. The owner of the restaurant is an HRM graduate from my alma mater (UST) as I discovered in a Manila Bulletin article written some 8 years ago that was posted on the resto's wall. That was cool so I was eager to try their food.

First up, we ordered the Onion soup. It was topped with a slice of bread that has melted mozzarella cheese. The bread with the cheese was yummy and it complements the soup. The onions in the soup were underdone. My sis and I prefer it be caramelized so we can taste the onion. But I couldn't taste the onion in this dish too well although they used butter which is a plus for me. My sis couldn't help regretting that we should've ordered the pumpkin soup instead (oh well, there's always next time).


We also ordered the Curry Seafood Pasta as our main merienda dish. I simply love it! Although it's on the oily side but they really have a generous amount of seafood in their pasta. Great value for the price, really.


They even have free iced tea or coffee with their pasta (from 2pm to 6pm).


And my most favorite part, dessert! Their Fudge Brownie ala mode is the best dessert I've had in weeks! The brownie was fresh from the oven and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (they use Big Scoop which is my absolute fave!) and drizzled with chocoloate syrup. The brownie was not too sweet which makes is not subject to umay. I can't believe that it has walnuts in the brownie and this is only for 70 bucks! Too sweet a deal! =D


Definitely, I need to go back and try other items or I wouldn't mind going back for their fudge brownie ala mode. ;)