Sabina Restaurant at Leisure Coast

Pinaputok na Bonuan Bangus

The beaches that abound in Pangasinan are vey much accessible to everybody - not a lot of resorts have been put up to appropriate any length of shore, so that most of the sandy areas defining the Lingayen Gulf remain free to the public.

So investors/business people didn't think resorts that rely on the "artificial" waters of a swimming pool as attraction would sell. Which is why there is a dearth of choices of this kind of destination in the province. After all, who can argue about the benefits of chlorinated water?

Most pool resorts are small-scale, the bigger ones best function as party venues. The biggest one I know, Leisure Coast, has existed in the past decade or so, but somehow we never thought of trying it out.

For one, I am a beach-bum. And I always hear other people say the entrance fee is expensive - of course, when kilometer upon kilometer of beach is yours for the taking anytime, any fee to gain entrance to someplace else is expensive.

But I did get to try Leisure Coast at last - my elder daughter celebrated her fifth birthday and my gift to her was a family outing there. I had planned on holding the birthday party at the resort, but it was wearisome coordinating with the staff about the details - they didn't seem used to arranging a party via the internet despite a published website, so in the end I cancelled it, held the party at home, and went to enjoy the water park the next day.

As our wont, we spent the entire day at the resort, but we couldn't bring in food due to resort policy. All resort goers have to eat at the open-air pavilion where a turo-turo (pre-cooked food sold cafeteria-style) counter sells snacks and lunch, or order at the air-conditioned but smaller Sabina Restaurant (though I saw an enterprising group eating their baon by their vehicle at the parking area).

The kids enjoyed the kiddie pool so much that when we were able to herd them off to the pavilion most of the food was gone, while the remaining dishes had solidified fat sitting on top, so we walked the few hundred meters to Sabina Restaurant, which is near the entrance gate.

The restaurant tries to be a bit sophisticated compared to the other seafood restaurants in Dagupan City, though the menu contains the requisite inihaw (grilled) and sinigang (in soured broth).

Some of the dishes we ordered:

Sauteed ampalaya with shrimps and button mushrooms

Ginisang Puso (banana heart sauteed with pork)

Pinapaitan

"Seafood Bouillabaise"

Most of these were good (except for the bouillabaise), served piping hot. However, I was so disappointed with the pinaputok na bangus (topmost photo) as I expected that, since the resort sits right amidst the home of the famous Bonuan bangus, it would easily eclipse most of the dishes on offer. But what we were served that day was, incomprehensively, not Bonuan bangus. And the milkfish was supposed to be boneless, but I couldn't understand why they had to serve bangus full of tiny but sharp spines when expert deboners flourish in the city.

The verdict? Maybe next time I'll take a cue from the group eating at the parking area.

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Sabina Restaurant
Leisure Coast Resort
Bonuan Binloc
Dagupan City, Pangasinan

Website
Email: info@leisurecoast.com or leisurecoast@hotmail.com
Phone: (63-75) 653-9361/7098/9363
Cellphone: 639189455272, 639209181343, 639178681000, 639285073900

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Silverio's Restaurant
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Silverio's

Seafood Kilawin with Itlog Maalat

Out on the beach with no baon and not exactly in the mood for grilling? Order inkalot a bangus (grilled milkfish) from the many houses by the roadside parallel to the shore. But if one prefers an entire spread of Pangasinan dishes at minimal effort, there are actually restaurants along Bonuan beach.

The most famous is Matutina's restaurant, which grew exponentially upon its reputation (the favorite of the incumbent President). From a single nipa hut it expanded to five outlets and a non-beach branch along McArthur Highway in Urdaneta City on the way to Baguio. Beside the original hut a fancy concrete affair rose just across the regional office of the Central Bank.

I've eaten there about twice, first when the nipa hut just opened, and second inside the fancy castle more than two years ago. The food is Pangasinan cuisine at its best. I wasn't running a blog yet the first time, and the second time I neglected to bring a camera. Most likely I won't go back there soon, so unfortunately I cannot feature the restaurant.

As I said the food is representatively Pangasinan cuisine done well. But I won't be eating there again in the near future for two reasons. First, I cook at home, and all my relatives and in-laws and friends cook. And we do the marketing ourselves, so we know the actual cost of preparing food. Which brings me to the second reason - economy. When you cook, the prices of food prepared in a restaurant that you can cook yourself at home becomes horrifyingly expensive.

Pangasinan cuisine is simple and everyday ordinary. The representative dishes are mostly seafood cooked briefly, the ideal way to taste the sweetness of creatures from the surrounding marine waters, and vegetables boiled in bagoong. The festive dishes are ones that are shared with the rest of the country, mostly with Spanish and/or American influences, so there is no need to sample them here.

That being said, it is understandable that we don't eat out a lot if we want local food. Since Pangasinan food requires no fancy cooking technique or any elaborate presentation, we just cook and eat at home. The best way to really sample food from the province is to force oneself on the hospitality of a local, who is more than willing to cook for visitors, anyway.

What's more, there's nothing more satisfying than indulging in a feast amidst the conviviality of your dining companions while lingering at the table without the sometimes wearisome presence of waiters, and not worrying about imposing on the hosts about the cost of the meal when you see a dish on the menu that you like but is prohibitively priced.

So the seafood restaurants, which do not exactly abound in Dagupan City and other towns, are for out-of-town visitors, and serve as a place for marketing officers to entertain their customers.

Such is Silverio's, a good alternative to Matutina's, and which actually has an edge with its nightly live band performers. The ambience is entirely different, though. The joint, made with local materials, is shaped like a pointed hat, with bamboo posts instead of walls along the hat's "brim" so air circulates freely. It is also a few kilometers from the beach, so instead of a seaview the restaurant is surrounded by fishponds. The diner can opt to eat al fresco on a patio down a few steps from the main dining area.

I actually like the vibe better at Silverio's. At Matutina's castle the ceiling is quite low, and the small rooms can be a bit stifling. These contribute to the unpleasant noise level, which sometimes can be intolerable, especially when you happen to dine there along with those marketing officers out to impress clients.

Apart from the grilled bangus, here are some dishes we sampled at Silverio's. My meals here, same with my meals at Matutina's, were all courtesy of friends and relatives. As I said, I cook at home. And I'd be glad to cook these same dishes for anyone visiting Pangasinan.


The pakbet, or what is called pinakbet in Tagalog, at Silverio's is not done the way it is done in Pangasinan homes - steamed with bagoong isda or alamang, but more like a Manila version - sauteed, and with cubes of squash.


Steamed shrimps. Dipped in spiced vinegar, this is as good as it gets. The steamed oysters, served unshucked, are phenomenal, too. And don't forget to order a plate of ar-arosip and tomatoes to go along with the grilled bangus, these shrimps and the oysters.


Any meal in Pangasinan would be sorely incomplete without inselar a malaga tan orang (siganus and shrimps in soured broth), boiled briefly with ginger, soured with tomatoes and sweetened with a sprig of celery. One of the ultimate ways of tasting what the province has to offer.

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Silverio's Dawel Restaurant
Arelleno Bani
Dagupan City
Tel No : (075) 515-4481, 5223752

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Beach-Bumming

Beach-Bumming

I am a beach bum. I grew up to be one. My kids are growing up to be beach bums. Pangasinenses are raised to become beach-bums.

Gifted with an extensive coastline that wraps the northern, northwestern and western portions of the province, Pangasinan is beach country. So Pangasinenses' all-time favorite pastime is going to the beach. Entire barangays, school classes, clans, barkadas arrive at the beaches by the truckload, or by the busload or jeepload, or trikeload, or even by a kuliglig, to spend the day immersed in the salty waters.

It is the coolest thing to do in Pangasinan, literally and figuratively speaking, even for teenagers. Even for those on a date. I’ve even spent nights at the beach with some of my high school and college barkada, singing to the strums on a guitar by a bonfire, sometimes spending the night at the many nipa cottages lining the shores of Lingayen Gulf.

Beach-bumming is a beloved local activity that's done year-round, whatever the season. Because the beaches are mostly defined by the Lingayen Gulf, waters are calm and generally warm even during the cold season. Even in stormy weather, which Pangasinan gets a lot of and usually in an elevated level of fierceness because the region is normally the exit point for tropical storms, it is not uncommon for people to be hitting the beach.

Storms, and full moons, actually provide more excitement and variety, what with higher and more forceful waves to crash into and a stronger undertow that doubles the fun.

Not everybody who goes to the beach likes being brined, though. Those who mind a suntan, lounging in the nipa cottages to drink and sing karaoke, and of course to breathe in the sea breeze and relax, is a worthwhile way to spend the day.

Spending an entire day at the beach involves several meals. As anyone who has battled waves could attest – beach-bumming is as sure to induce hunger as a two-hour run. So any trip to the beach involves food. Lots of it.

It is common practice among beach-bummers to bring baon – packed meals cooked at dawn – to the beach. Nothing too fancy or it might spoil – usually pancit (sautéed stick noodles), adobo (meats stewed in vinegar and soy sauce), and prepared barbecues ready for grilling.

Sometimes, if the markets along the way have good seafood early in the morning, fresh fish, squid, shrimps would be purchased for grilling at the beach. But even if food planning is haphazard, nobody at the beach goes hungry, as ambulant seafood vendors make rounds carrying crabs and shrimps and squid and pinindar a bangus (butterflied and sun-dried milkfish), while charcoal for grilling is sold everywhere.


Those who rent out the beach cottages at the beaches in Bonuan and San Fabian, where we frequently go to beach-bum, can grill Bonuan bangus perfectly (scales charred but the flesh, and especially the fat, still moist) for a fee. This is served accompanied by the default dipping sauce of inasin, commonly known elsewhere as bagoong isda, squeezed with kalamansi juice and spiked with sili (chile peppers) left whole for the diner to mash according to his heat preference.

Inkalot a bangus is eaten with rice and kamatis tan agamang (fresh tomatoes, preferably native, and salted fermented krill or bagoong alamang), and likely with freshly gathered ar-arosip (sea grapes) on the side. It is also good with beer, particularly with thinly pared green mangoes dipped lightly in the same dipping sauce, or gin, even brandy or rum.

However one likes it, it is a very economical way to get high on something that is abundant in the province. That's why it is much loved. Like the beaches. And beach-bumming.

Bangus Festival ongoing til May 1

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Vizco's

Paella Pasta

From one mountain getaway to another, we go to the country's summer destination, equally, if not more, popular than its Southern Tagalog counterpart even though it is way up in the northwestern portion of Luzon and a good six hours away by land (air trips have been cancelled years before). But it's quite summer there, last I heard, the temperature hovering around 30 degrees, the normal year-round level in Metro Manila.

I got acquainted with Vizco’s via that fantastic strawberry cake which we had during a picnic by the Burnham Park lagoon in Baguio City more than a year ago. We crossed paths two more times, as the restaurant catered the reunion lunches of my husband’s class for two consecutive years.

Our first catered lunch was so memorable with some penne in a magnificent tomato sauce, an excellent roasted chicken, and the best cream puff I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately, the next function catered by Vizco’s that I attended overturned that outstanding first impression of a meal. It was a study in what could go wrong in cooking for a large crowd. The roast pork, though very tasty, would have been great if it had been melt-in-the-mouth soft, but the fat layer was still as solid as a pale sapin-sapin. The chicken barbecue was undercooked, as well, and the crispy noodles was just satisfactory. Not even the buko-pandan salad was good enough.

It was only recently that I got to eat in the restaurant itself, a small affair along Session Road with only about six tables or so, beside the original Don Henrico’s. I still tried the restaurant reasoning out that maybe the restaurant experience would approximate that first catered meal. I like to eat at local food shops, upturning my nose over SM's offerings. But sometimes I like to snob my favorite Baguio restaurants, in search of something new.

Well, I was wrong, and I was disappointed. First thing, that excellent roasted chicken and the cream puffs are not sold in the restaurant. Our order for lunch for a small family consisted of a mix of good (one), forgettable (some) and downright forget-about-it dishes. A friend went there after me, and reported back an unsatisfactory experience, and that even the strawberry cake fell short of expectation (“dry”).

Oh well, time to sample other Baguio restaurants. Or maybe just stick to the fresh vegetables at the market and cook.


This salad could have used a little more imagination. Just a bed of lettuce, some sliced boiled eggs, strips of sweet ham, tomato wedges, with barbecue sauce. It’s the house salad. Nothing to tickle the senses with. Just give me caesar.


Four-cheese solo-serve pizza, as big as a small plate. The four cheeses used - mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, kesong puti (fresh white cheese made from goat's milk).

Forget the pizzas. It’s like eating 3M. Don Henrico's still reigns, especially with that loaded carbonara pizza.

About the pastas, the house specialty and supposedly bestseller, paella pasta (topmost photo), was very greasy and didn’t really taste like paella. More like spaghetti coated with orange-dyed vegetable oil.


This beef stew was above average delicious. If only for this, I’m willing to eat again at Vizco’s. That fly probably thinks so, too.


The salmon was okay, but I think that lemon-butter sauce it is swimming in is totally unnecessary.


Now this hot sauce was something else. It was fiery but full of body, so delicious by itself that the husband drenched everything with it, and we even bought a bottle to take home (Php150).

So if I’m back at Vizco’s it would be to buy another bottle, and maybe for the Italian beef stew. And for the strawberry cake, the baking of which I hope the pastry chef monitors so the quality is consistent. And maybe with the hope that they serve that chicken and that cream puff.

For a different dining experience at Vizco's, read another blogger's review here.

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Anonas

Guyabano Shake

It is the height of travel season in the Philippines. Schools have just closed, there had been two consecutive long weekends plus three more to come, and summer is in full swing. It is the ideal time to hit the beach, which is the most abundant of all tourist destinations, because at this time the waters are warm, the waves gentle, the shallows devoid of jellyfish. And rains will not ruin a trek, or some sightseeing, or a picnic.

And so for the next few weeks I will be devoting the blog to some of the food encountered in my favorite travel destinations. My own travels for this summer have mostly been done with, as I like to schedule my trips during off-peak season, when airfare is light, crowds are non-existent, and tour and transport fees are negotiable.

But I say mostly, for one never knows, truly, what the travel gods have in store. In fact, I'm in the process of planning a few other trips scheduled towards the end of the season.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I’ll start with the most accessible weekend destination from Manila – Tagaytay City, which is less than an hour away from where I currently live, and about an hour away from the greater metropolis.

On a Saturday trip we took the kids to Picnic Grove for the zipline. It was our concession to them – they had been wanting to go back to Danao town in the island of Bohol for the awesome - really awesome - zipline (called suislide) that they had previously experienced. But a trip to Bohol takes careful planning and full command of one's resources – I haven’t yet recovered from the trip financially, mainly because we missed our flight going there and I had to purchase, on horrifyingly bloated prices, seats - for five - on the next available flight.

So Tagaytay was the compromise for peace to reign in the house, and for my pockets to have enough time to be filled again. It wasn't the same - the view wasn't as fantastic, safety procedures were not as strictly observed, but it staved off some whining. At least for a day. Sigh.

On the way home, as it had been a day trip, we dropped by the Mahogany Market and purchased the usual Tagaytay must-haves - fresh beef cuts, pineapples, highland vegetables.


Guyabanos (Annona muricata Linnaeus), known as soursop, guanabana or graviola somewhere else, were selling for Php100.00 per heaping basket, with more or less four kilos of fruit. These are hefty, though, with roughly two pieces per kilo.


Guyabanos are not abundant in the commercial sense, but I grew up eating them because my grandparents had a tree growing by the side of their house. The fruit is milky-sweet with a certain tang to it, sometimes so pronounced that it tastes sour, that it's not exactly likeable. It is also fibrous and full of large seeds. Its skin is the default example for elementary school discussion of rough, distorted-heart-shaped and bristled as it is.


Lately this email message has been going around celebrating the purported powerful capability of the guyabano to suppress the growth of cancer cells. I'm not sure about the scientific basis of this claim, but the considerable amounts of vitamins and minerals found in the fruit is enough to make me buy it whenever it's available.

Like myself when I was still a kid, it's difficult to make my own children eat guyabano as is, so I've resorted to blending it into thick iced shakes, which are the perfect fix for the summer heat.


The curious find that day, though, were these anonas (Annona reticulata Linn.), heard of but uncommon and unseen by me in Pangasinan. It is known as custard apple in the English language, which is also the term used for atis (Annona squamosa, also called sugar apple).

The term anonas is actually somewhat generic, as it is the scientific family name in which the guyabano, the anonas and the atis belong. Probably getting tired of thinking of another creative term for another fruit which tastes the same anyway, the name-bestower gave up and just settled on the pronounceable form of its genus.

Unlike the prickly guyabano or the knobby but smooth-skinned atis, the anonas looks like a cross between an avocado and a chiesa in a thickly-veined skin.


The guyabano, the anonas and the atis all share the same thick skin with a milky custard-like pulp beneath, fibrous segments and large, ovoid black seeds. They also the taste the same, in varying degrees of sweetness and tartness.


Had the chance to drop by Rowena's once more and bought the correct tarts (fruit, not cheese) this time. I bought the assorted box which had mini tarts filled with ube, pineapple, buko (young coconut), mango and apple.

I say, that crust was incredible. Buttery, crumbly but structured enough, not too sweet, it was delicious, sometimes to the point of subduing the taste of the fruit filling.

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Poncia

Kilawing Talaba

What better way to end the Lenten season than to hold a poncia?

Poncia is the general term for a party in Pangasinan, but one that is centered around food. It is a party on a grand scale, and as I mention in this blog time and again, it is an undertaking by an entire barrio or barangay – people come to help in the preparation and cooking of the handa, or the dishes to be served, down to the plating and serving, and of course everybody comes during the poncia to partake of the food.

The Tagalog equivalent of the term poncia is handaan, which generally means a preparation, but has evolved to mean a preparation of food to be served, and eventually has come to mean the serving of food during a party, much the same way as what poncia denotes.

A poncia and a handaan both refer to big celebrations usually associated with the sacraments and the practice of one’s faith – wedding, baptism, fiesta, birthday, anniversary of all sorts, commemorations after a death (pasiyam, 40 days, babang-luksa).

There may be a short ritual during the party, maybe some speeches, but the main event is the food and the eating. Because the poncia is traditionally held at the house of the host, tables are usually short so that one has to leave immediately after eating to give way to those still waiting to be seated.

The preparation for the poncia usually starts more than 24 hours before the event.

In Situ

At sundown the pig – the normal beast of choice for the handa, utilized from snout to tail – is slaughtered, dressed and cut up. Big wooden fires are built, first to boil water for cleaning the animal, then to cook the dinner of the volunteers, and eventually, of course, to cook the handa for the poncia.


Here after the pig had been cut, a smaller but more preferred animal, a goat, is being prepared for cooking. In smaller parties a goat may be served, but for parties of a grand scale it would be too costly because it is not as meaty as a pig. The dishes that were cooked from the goat meat were served as pulutan (food that accompanies hard drinks) for the inevitable drinking session that follows each poncia.

I love goat meat, while I abhor pork, so I had the goat dishes after the party, which I ate with rice.


Around midnight the cutting of the meat begins. The constant hammering of heavy knives on large planks of wood is heard for miles around the entire dawn, and this sound is like the tolling of bells that counts down the hours until the feast is served. It is part and parcel of every poncia that I attended in my childhood, so that any hammering I hear makes my stomach anticipate an epicurean adventure.

The cooking continues throughout the entire morning, the different parts of the pig going into appropriate dishes.


Here the pata – hocks – were being boiled prior to being deep fried to a crisp. However, the host deemed the four pieces of front and hind hocks too few to be served, so it became the “prize” of the volunteer male cooks to take home.

A stew being ladled into a container to be taken to the party venue. The shovel-like size of the ladle and the long wooden handle enabled the cook to skillfully stir the large quantity of meat without being warmed too much by the wood fire.


Female volunteers are relegated to the prep work only, and do not participate in the actual cooking.


Rice is normally cooked in a kaldero – a thick, steel, cylindrical casserole – but the quantity needed for a huge number of people means employing a kawa – made of the same material but pan-shaped. And huge.


Rice cooked in a kaldero is left to cook by itself. Here the rice is stirred to ensure even cooking.


As the rice absorbs the water, it is covered with banana leaves to make it fragrant, then weighted down so the wind doesn’t lift the cover. The fire is dispersed around and banked to embers to prevent water from evaporating, which circumstance would undercook the rice.


The handa. A dish of igado, a stew of the offals and some meat in vinegar. In this case some tomato sauce was added.


The bony parts, also stewed in tomato sauce, with chickpeas added. There are other dishes like this, which look and taste the same, to me at least.


Embutido, a roll of ground pork, onions, carrots, minced pickles and chorizo steamed in aluminum foil.


Lechon kawali, pan-fried pork belly strips. In other poncia this is further chopped into cubes for economic reasons.


Kilawing bangus (raw milkfish fillets in vinegar, onions and ginger) with mashed boiled eggs. This has been steeping in the vinegar mixture for almost a day, so that the fish has been “cooked.” Nevertheless it (plus the oysters lightly cooked in vinegar, jalapeno peppers, onions and ginger, topmost photo) is a refreshing respite from all the fatty meat dishes. The boiled eggs is not a usual addition to kilawin, but it made the dish “friendly” to those who are not used to eating raw seafood, especially the female part of the population.


Stuffed eggs. This is not traditional poncia fare, but speaks of the experience of the punong abala or the one in charge of the over-all preparation and cooking, who has spent time in the kitchens of a hotel in Dubai. With all the meat and pork fat, I think it is a brilliant addition to the party spread, particularly since a lot of the guests were senior citizens (the poncia was for a golden wedding anniversary). I’ve read somewhere that an egg contains an element that helps in preventing the absorption of fat that you eat it with in the bloodstream.


The indispensable side in all poncia - atsara, pickled grated papaya, to cut through all the sawa (taste fatigue) from all the pork dishes.

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