TRAVEL/CUISINE | Food trip

BY JD VELEZ

One can never guess where following one’s taste buds may lead. I’m often like a blind man led only by my nose and tongue as I follow the enticing aroma and delightful taste of food.

I stop being rational and analytical as my senses guide me, my defenses down while I succumb to the yearnings of my taste buds. The swell sensation of food takes over as I seek to savor its fulfilling, satisfying and delightful taste.

In Pasil for instance, I’ve waited with other nocturnal people from all walks of life at makeshift stalls beside the fish market at unholy time of 2:30 in the morning, fighting drowsiness just to eat. But come to think of it, it’s not just eating actually. It’s like being in communion with people from all walks of life – tourists, kargador, yuppies, DIs, newspapermen, ambulant vendors, GROs as we take a taste of linarang as only Pasil knows how to cook it. Exotic fish - with names I never heard before like tagutungan, pakul and rompi - swim in a bowl of soup filled with various spices.

In La Paz, Iloilo, I fought drunkenness with my friend Rey as we sought La Paz batchoy at 1:00 in the morning after a night of drinking at a military theme bar. It was worth the walk as La Paz batchoy made us sober down. I felt I just woke up from sleep after finishing my bowl, which was full to the brim with hot, spicy, steamy liver, chicharon, sliced hard-boiled egg, pancit and pork cuts. I’ve eaten batchoy after that one in Iloilo but they all pale in comparison except the one my friend Felix used to make near the Fuente rotunda.

I often remember a place not so much for the sights that I see which are often easy to forget and changes through time as well. Eating food is different as it is "interactive."

In Pangasinan, I went out of my way on foot as I sought for the famed Bunoan bangus. I wasn’t minding what dangers may lurk. Everybody understands great tasting food, I thought. I found what I was looking for and had one delightful breakfast eating the big, tasteful inun-unan or paksiw na Bangus as they call it. Their bangus is distinctive as it has a small pointed head and wide body and a peculiar rich taste compared to the bland Bangus we in the Visayas are used to.

Climbing Baguio City, I feasted on lettuce, corn cubs, carrots, cauliflower and other fresh vegetables and fruit preserves and ate at a place called Café by the Ruins which was an artists’ hang out. It’s a gastronomic delight being in Baguio, a real treat for herbivores. I love eating veggies so I had a real feast there.



Down south in Davao, I dared eat durian despite its strong, enthralling scent and what they say about it as an aphrodisiac. True enough, eating fresh, newly opened durian (not the preserves) fires up the senses and stirs the loins. Who wouldn’t want to eat looking at people seemingly consumed, intoxicated by the fruit’s magical scent as they gorge on the fruit by the roadside, laughing, enjoying the night away.

In Zamboanga City, I got more intoxicated with crustaceans’ fiesta of lobster, shrimps and mud crab in rich coconut milk and eaten inside a hut in the middle of a swamp, which is also a bird sanctuary for migratory birds. Getting there one has to drive thru winding, dusty dirt road. But it was worth the trip. Great tasting food is always worth the trip.

One doesn’t have to travel very far for some distinctive taste and a little adventure. In nearby Olango island, in the middle of the sea, a few meters from the coast, stands a restaurant on stilts where one can order fresh seafood held in captivity inside fishnets submerged under the restaurant. It’s an adventure getting there by pump boat from Lapulapu city near Hilton hotel.

Only through one’s senses, we savor life’s delightful tastes. I don’t mind giving in to food’s enticing pleasures. I can get so taken over. One time, I took a bite of sinfully, delicious rich black chocolate cake I ended up courting the woman who baked it and gaining a ticket to the greatest journey of all time: marriage.