The Island Explorer

Now, let's get to business. 2009 was not a highlight year for dining. No new restaurant shook me. It's a good thing I was always in Cebu, so I had a lot of new places to experience. Here is my list for 2009: 1. Maya (The Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu) I have seen new Mexican establishments sprout about in Manila, such as Jalapeno in Ortigas Home Depot. And with the growing popularity of Zapata's in Clark (which I also visited this year only), Mexican was on the up trend. Though among all the new Mexican hotspots, only one caught me on fire. That was Maya in Crossroads, Cebu. Probably the only high-end Mexican establishment in the country, it has been the place to be when it opened. The interiors will transform your mood instantly - exotic and modern. Owned by the Abaca proprietors, their food was top notch as well. And drinking here was an experience as well. I highly recommend a night out in Maya when in Cebu. 2. NY Buffalo Wings (The Food Strip, Ortigas Home Depot) My co...

It's the end of the year, and it's time again for me to present my BEST LISTS for the year. This time, I am adding my best music for the year. As some of you may know, I am also addicted to all types of music, from trip-hop, opera, pop rock and metal. As long as the tune is unique and what I call musically superior, they would be repeating in my iPod for a month or more. Here are my best and noteworthy tunes for 2009 in no particular order: 1. Make You Feel My Love by Adele (Album: 19) If last year was Chasing Pavements, this year, I've discovered that Make You Feel My Love is even better. Beautiful and moving lyrics that stir the soul to love without condition. 2. Use Somebody by Kings of Leon (Album: Only by the Night) My rock song of the year. the same way that some electronic beats put me into a trance, Use Somebody mesmerized me with a soothing rock melody if that's even possible. Reminds me of U2. 3. Eet by Regina Spektor (Album: Far) Her new album Far is n...

Since we were technically in Aurora for work, we only spent a night here. So the most I could savor was the beach of Baler. We arrived on a strip by the coast that had very few resorts/hotels. One of them was a new one, called Bahia de Baler. It didn't have a beach front though. We were brought to Bay's Inn. I thought the name of the place was Basin when it was mentioned to me. It was the most popular resort here. I was told there was a resort on top of a cliff at the edge of the bay. Bay's Inn was a quaint beach resort, something you would expect in Aurora. The rooms were old but decent. There were better, newer rooms at the building where the reception area is. We opted to stay nearest to the beach. It had a pleasant terrace where I spent some hours working while hearing the loud yet soothing crashes of waves on the shore. Baler Bay was actually a long stretch, so long I was so tempted to walk or jog back and forth. But since I had no time, I just walked on the beach in f...

Ondoy destroyed some of our work in the office, and some of them were tapes brought by some of our colleagues. It was footage on an interview conducted in Aurora Province. After Ondoy, we had no choice but to reshoot. I took the lead to go to Aurora just after Pepeng struck for the first time (he went back remember). The road was relatively easy. We took the NLEX and SLEX, until we reached Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija. There we took the road to Aurora. We had to pass by Pangtabangan Dam to reach the once isolated province. I knew we we're supposed to take pictures, but I just couldn't resist. The water being released looked so magnificent, yet this was the cause of flooding in the plains of Luzon. I witnessed the release of water with awe, knowing that there was another dam like this that contributed tot he destruction of our Provident Village home. Well, moving on, the roads were unpaved already as we hit the mountains. Some parts of the road was unpassable by normal cars (sedans...

I have so many backlog reports on Cebu, and am gonna try to start writing with this restaurant. Tucked in a corner of a small road in Mactan, Cebu, you really wouldn't notice the place, even though the outside has a lot of lights. You would think that MB's Tavern Restaurant and European Deli Shop is more of a beer joint, than a place that serves some nice comfort food. MB's Tavern has a simple menu, some of which include German dishes (I am assuming the owner is German). But people go here for the pizza...worth P230 only for 14 inches and good by the way (I was worried it would taste like Greenwich, but they were so generous with mozzarella cheese). But the highlight was this...something they call Pizza Sketti. Pizza Sketti is not pizza at all, but spaghetti baked on huge flat claypot. The claypot resembles the crust of a pizza as you can see. This dish was P245, big enough for 6 to 8 people. We were four that night, and we couldn't even finish half of the dish. And it ...

I have to admit, when Dakak gave us free tickets to Fantasyland located in the Dapitan town proper, I thought it was one of those "peryas" found in most provincial capitals. I thought it would be something like Boom na Boom. But since the tickets were free, and we wanted to do something else, we rode on a shuttle to Fantasyland in Gloria de Dapitan after a hearty buffet dinner. We were already amazed entering the gates of Gloria De Dapitan, as shown in my previous post. We were dropped off in front of the entrance of Fantasyland. This was the facade that greeted us. To our surprise, Fantasyland wasn't any come-and-go and carnival. It was more like Enchanted Kingdom. The tickets sold for P250 I think, for unlimited rides, which was a steal I thought. There was a promenade at the entrance that had several shops, even a Mac Store! There was a haunted house near the entrance that was still undergoing construction. It looked so good, I wanted to go inside. There was a stage an...