DAVAO BLEISURE GUIDE – Page 6

HOBO CODES | Plantation Life at Hijo Resorts Davao

A vast playground every hardworking Yuppie deserves for rest, active lifestyle and leisure.

If you have been really working hard, I am certain that by now, in this coexistent life of the online and offline You, you already have acquired that skill of gleaning unique, instagrammable yet reasonably priced getaway to achieve a work-life harmony.

Have you tried spending the weekend at a plantation? How is it living inside the breathing banana plantation of Hijo Resorts Davao?

An hour shuttle ride from Davao City, Hijo Resorts Davao is a tourism estate in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. Besides the robustly functioning 177-hectare banana plantation, the expanse also stretches through a 92-hectare coconut plantation, 60-hectare forest and 4.5-kilometer river.

Indeed, such a vast playground every hardworking Yuppie deserves for rest, active lifestyle and leisure.

YOGA AT THE HEART OF DAVAO GULF

This is the most relaxing thing I tried here. Tuned up my soul, enjoying the resort just light and slow. Taking in, breathing out as naturally rhythmic as it should be. You can either take a refreshing cold tea after or a short dip at the infinity pool. Absolute relaxation on the first morning.

BANANA PLANTATION TO BANANA DESSERTS

The guided tour inside the banana packing house is one of the “only in Hijo” memories. Bananas are picked and transported manually to the packing house. Then, are checked for export quality, packed and loaded directly to the refrigerated trucks waiting at the tail of the packing cascade. All, in less than four hours.

Hijo is the first Philippine-based grower to export Cavendish banana in Japan. Impressively, you too are assured that every banana served while staying here is of same universal quality. Try some of the banana and coco sugar made desserts served at the Banana Beach restaurant after the plantation tour.

MORNINGS AT THE PLANTATION HOUSE

You may choose either the breezy ecstasy of the Banana Beach Casitas or the American colonial embrace of the Tuason Family’s ancestral house – the Plantation House. Every morning is just serene here. You are woke up with the chirping of the birds. Grab a book. Get a cup of coffee and ask some coco sugar. The poolside is the spot.

The interiors from the lanai to the rooms are adorned with paintings from the famous artist Kublai Milan. These are pieces depicting the merry living of Mindanao tribes like Maranao and Bagobo.

The complementary toiletries are all organic, fresh from Hijo’s farm. You are asked to choose which bath soap you would love to use during your stay, choices derived from the various parts of a coconut.

FOREST TOUR WITH “DUYDUY” AND FRIENDS

Such a paradise for ecologic coalescence, Hijo actually preserves an endemic family of monkeys. Along with local wild boars, these natural inhabitants inside Hijo estate are considered part of the hospitality team. Stop over at the Monkey avenue and take a photo with “Duy-duy” and friends. He snubbed me at first try.

TRIBAL CUISINES AFTER THE RIVER CRUISE

You appreciate topography on a different angle when you behold it from a body of water. This is what this experience taught me. After several tours through wheels, I only had the whole virtual map of the resort clearly displayed on my spatial memory during the river cruise. You have to experience that too.

Just after the peaceful cruise through the Madaum river, break the day to halves with a Halal lunch spread at The Spot. I have always been an evangelist for Pinoy local food and Tribal cuisines. The spectrum of palate memories from the Kalagan and Mandaya cuisines is actually the most memorable for me. The Ipasagan Pagkalagan na Manok has a taste that lingers.

We have all been tired from work. But not all have truly rested from that exhaustion. How rested are you?

The plantation life is easy yet fun. It is light yet satiates.

Book a life here https://www.hijoresortsdavao.com/

4 Fun Reasons to be Messy at Blue Posts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps

There is an only-of-its-kind shrimp diner in town serving exceptional bags of sauteed, sauced shrimp you love to get mess with. Devour. Mess up responsibly!

Davao locals and tourists agree that there is no other seafood restaurant in Davao best gratifies those episodes of cephalic and gastronomic shrimp cravings yet but the homegrown, Blue Posts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps. If you have not tried it yet, let me share to you how I mess and agree to such claim.

Blue Posts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps Branches:

Bajada, Davao City
Lanang Business Park, Davao City
SM Ecoland, Davao City
The Block-SM North Edsa, Metro Manila
SM Mall of Asia, Metro Manila
O Square Green Hills, Metro Manila
Seascape Village, Pasay City

There is That Bite!

One does not need to be a Michelin Chef to qualify a best textured shrimp. What I know is, one keeps on being messy with shrimps at Blue Posts when he knows how shrimp should be sautéed. There is always that one familiar satisfying bite which your teeth, tongue and jaw unanimously enjoy! When there is an adjective as “fork tender” for steak, let it be coined that there is a “teeth tender” experience for shrimps. It is at Blue Posts.

2. The Sambal Sauce

I stop asking for the vinegar dip when they start offering this. I have always been a lover of Asian flavors. When I had my Singapore-Penang trip last 2016, I went home as a certified Sambal lover. That sweet, salty yet spicy sauce slather on an al dente bag of sauteed shrimps? Ahhh Salivating! When the crew goes to the table and asks: Refill Sir? “Ano po, Garlic Lemon Butter, Sambal or the Blue Posts Boiled?” You know my answer!

3. The Nautical Interiors

The ambiance engulfs you that every edible portion you try as you dine with your bare hands, is all fresh and prepared thoughtfully. I smell the sea inside. Perhaps it is because of the fishing nets, paddles and life rings which your sensation associates to a dining table set just in front of the briny atmosphere of the sea shore waiting for the fresh catch. It feels composed inside. Not until the bag is finally open for partaking with that shrimp-infused redolence. Attack! Mess up!

4. The “Messing Costume”

One of the crew approached me and offered to don my bib. I felt like a master. There is just this satisfaction boost when you feel like you are being served with things you know you can manage to do but someone offered it sincerely and you do not have a choice but to give in. I remember that as intense as I salivate whenever I think of the shrimps. When the food-grade wax paper is rolled out. When our gloves snugly fit between fingers. The drama just makes the whole experience more gastronomically memorable! These actually appear to be more of ritual than function for me since my appetite knows seemly that I would still choose to be messy despite all the donning. These are Instagram props as well!

Indeed, there is a lot of fish in the ocean of seafood restaurants. But, there is an only-of-its-kind shrimp diner in town serving exceptional bags of sautéed, sauced shrimp you love to get mess with. Devour.

Mess up responsibly.

Blue Posts offers 911 Shrimp Fever. An unlimited shrimp for 2 at P911 only until December 8, 2017. Call for reservations now!

Dod’s Ihaw Ihaw: A World Street Food Master in Davao

“The “Bawug” part of the jowl where layers of gelatinous fat melt and slather into the layers of meat once grilled.”

Processed with VSCO with b1 preset — Just before strutting towards Kowloon City, YING KEE, a Michelin recognized street food for Wonton Noodles in San Po Kong, HK.

I was then ambling along the streets of Kowloon city, hunting for a famous Nasi-Satay when I prognosticated “Someday, Filipino street food will have its own taste of fame in the global dining table. Food evangelists from other countries will also visit and search for our street food like what I am doing here in Hong Kong.”.

A year and five months from that random prophecy, a list which recognizes the world’s best street food made me one of the proudest Filipino street food disciples. Another yardstick for calibre street food apart from the Michelin Guide, the World Street Food Congress included 5 Philippine Street food stalls in their list of 50 World Street Food Masters for 2017. One of these five, is in Davao.

After the pandemic, the store transferred to Lapu-Lapu St, Agdao, Davao City.

Igniting more flame to every tourist’s gastronomic adventure in Davao city, Dood’s Ihaw-Ihaw (Now Dod’s), a humble carinderia/ barbeque stall near the rotunda (traffic circle) on the vertex of Roxas and Ponciano streets, fronting the City’s Postal Building, made it to the 46th spot as a World Street Food Master for their “Sinugbang Panga” (wood fire grilled Tuna Jowl).

Depending on the cut’s size, price ranges from 120PhP to 450PhP. May be ordered dine-in (with a 10PhP cup of rice, ice cold cola at 10PhP) or a foil-wrapped takeout. Mr and Mrs Dod’s passion for 12 years deserves the world recognition. #relationshipgoals

The 12-year-old tandem of the marinade sauce and the basting oil according to Mrs. Dod’s, is the secret why their grilled tuna is peerless amongst the other versions you have tried. Apart from that, the couple’s choice of serving only the “Bigeye” tuna species also gives a distinct quality to their award-winning dish.

“This species is really the one that is made for grilling. Especially the “Bawug” part of the jowl where layers of gelatinous fat melt and slather into the layers of meat once grilled.” Mrs. Dod’s explained. I agree. Every spoon of freshly cooked steamed rice deserves to be slathered with those melts from the grilled tuna. Drizzle it with “sawsawan” (Yakitori sauce-like dip) before finally dunking it! Lami!

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Hop into any jeepney that passes by Ponciano St. and ask one of the ever helpful Davao jeepney drivers to drop you at the Davao Light Building. Right across the street, the redolence of an andante-grilled fish meat would smoothly guide your way. Be there by 9am to get the “Bawug” cut. When you want some real Davao street food dining immersion, lunch and dinner until 10PM is such a touristy jostle. Wander along Roxas Street Market, it is just a block away, after.

WORLD STREET FOOD MASTERS 2017 : PHILIPPINES

4th
Aling Lucing Sisig
Pampanga, Philippines
Corner G. Valdez and Agipito del Rosario Streets, Angeles City, Luzon, Philippines
Monday to Sunday, 6:00am to 3:00am I +63 45 888 2317
“SISIG” chopped hog head salad with soy, lime and chilli

7th
General’s Lechon
Manila, Philippines
Second Floor, Petron Gas Station, EDSA Corner Arnaiz Avenue, Dasmariñas Village, Makati City, Manila, Philippines
Monday to Sunday, 9:30am to 9:00pm I +63 2664 1700, +63 2509 4122, +63 91 7853 2466,
Negros style, masala risotto “Lechon”

22nd
Zeny’s Pinangat (TAKE OUT ONLY)
Bicol, Philippines
PNR Rd, Gapo, Camalig, 4502 Albay, in Bicol, Philippines I +63 916 288 5491
“Pinangat” – simmered wrap of pork in dry taro leaves

32nd
Sharyn’s Kansi Beef Soup
Bacolod, Philippines
C58, Narra Ave, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines,
7:30AM-9PM I 034 433 1374
“Kansi” Beef Soup

46th
Doods Ihaw-Ihaw
Davao City, Philippines,
Roxas Extension (Rotunda), 9AM-10PM I 0909190 9146
“SINUGBANG PANGA” – wood fired grilled tuna jowl

*Also on the list are (14) hawkers from Singapore with the Michelin starred Hill Street Tai Hwa at the 1st rank for their Bak Chor Mee, (7) from Indonesia, (6) from Malaysia, (5) from Thailand, (4) from China, (3) from Vietnam (2) from USA, (2) from Mexico and (1) each from Taiwan and India.

The inclusion of five Masters from the Philippines for the list’s first edition is such an uplifting accolade to Pinoys, especially to a Filipino street food advocate like me. The Philippines has still a lot of award-worthy dishes which are expected to sizzle every worldwide food award-giving body. I am excited.

In the meantime, when you visit Davao, trot like a hobo in this city which is not just known for its civil calmness but also now known as home of a World Master in grilled tuna jowls according to the World Street Food Congress Council.

Who made the list:

*Anthony Bourdain, world renowned television personality, author and avid street food advocate *KF Seetoh, Makansutra’s Founder/CEO *James Oseland, Author of one of 2007’s Time Asia and the New York Times best books, Cradle of Flavor *Johnny Chan, Top China TV food host and winemaker (http://wsfcongress.com/world-street-food-congress/)