Davao-Gensan Trip Part 13: Blugre Coffee

Brewing since 1998, Blugre Coffee is a coffee shop chain based in Davao which is known for exotic durian coffee blends. 

Why Blugre Coffee has made its way in Gensan is no surprise as one of the major franchisees is the power couple, Manny and Jinky Pacquiao. 

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Walking into the coffee shop, I was caught off guard by a strong whiff of durian aroma lingering in the air. To be blunt, the scent was a little bit off-putting because I am not particularly fond of durian… However, it was bearable. 

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While Blugre Coffee specializes coffee, they serve pastries, desserts and other hot and cold beverages as well.

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Too full for anything else, we just had some iced latte for a little afternoon pick-me-up.

And although I was never a fan of durian, I braved myself for one of their durian coffee blends: Durian Arctic Blast… Which I painfully regretted.

Well, at least I tried. Let’s face it, it’s not for everyone. I read awesome reviews about it though and is certainly a hit with all the durian lovers out there.

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Blugre Coffee is a great place for study, work, hangouts, or meetups. You don’t have to be a durian connoisseur to be here. When in Gensan, visit them at Robinsons Place or at JMP Building

Davao-Gensan Trip Part 5: Nonki Japanese Restaurant

We started Day Two by munching on a popular Thai snack by Tao Kae Noi.

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It’s crispy, fried seaweed that comes in different flavors. My boyfriend and I prefer the wasabi-flavored one above all else. Yup, that was pretty much our breakfast for that day. No complains here at all. 

We spent much of our morning just rolling on the bed and watching TV in our hotel room. Getting ready for lunch was actually just an afterthought. 

Since we enjoyed our Japanese dinner so much, we decided to have some more Japanese food for lunch because… Why not?

Here’s a little sneaky “outfit of the day” by the way…

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I know I could do better… Should I do a better one next time? What do you readers think? Let. Me. Know.

MOVING ON… Nonki Japanese Restaurant serves authentic Japanese cuisine and is located along F. Torres Street, right beside Davao Trade and Convention Center.

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Upon entering, we were warmly welcomed and greeted with the phrase “Irasshaimase” by ladies in their matching kimono uniforms. 

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We came in a little bit too late for lunch… But normally, this place would be full of people (particularly Japanese nationals) and buzzing with activity.

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The awesome sushi bar. I’m still haunted as to why we didn’t eat our lunch here.

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Or here. More reasons to come back I suppose?

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Aside from the fact that the wait staff are very courteous… Service here is very prompt and efficient! 

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Also, I would like to point out that they gave me a cold mug for my beer! Also, do you see that white tube thing next to my mug? That’s a wet towel for wiping hands. AMAZING! Little things like these make such a huge impact. At least to me that is. All restaurants should follow their example.

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Itadakimasu!

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Doesn’t it look like some piece of art? But it’s not just some piece of art, it’s edible too! This is a platter of mixed sashimi with shredded radish, sea grapes (locally called “lato”) and sliced cucumber for garnish. 

Definitely top quality seafood! So fresh like it was just plucked right out from the ocean! Really, really delicious! It went down very well with my ice-cold beer.

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This one is called okonomiyaki. It’s a savory pancake filled with shredded cabbage and green onion and then topped with okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). Just think of it as Japanese pizza. 

Their okonomiyaki left a lot to be desired… But it was something that I’ve always wanted to try and I’m glad that I finally did. 

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Lastly, because we love uni (sea urchin) so much… We ordered a hefty serving of it! The uni was really fresh and creamy… Melts-in-your-mouth kind of creamy. And I love how the cucumber added that sort of “fresh flavor” which I found really refreshing. I miss it so much already it hurts.

I can’t stress enough just how much I enjoyed eating at Nonki. My dining experience there is definitely a memorable one; I felt like I was transported to Japan (even for just a little while)!

Food here is really pricey, I won’t lie. Price range between 300~500 pesos. But 
I still recommend this restaurant to all sushi and sashimi aficionados because it’s absolutely worth it.

Nonki Japanese Restaurant is open at all days of the week from 11:30AM to 2:00PM and from 5:30PM to 11:00PM.

Davao-Gensan Trip Part 2: Breakfast at Sinangag Republik

As soon as we arrived in Davao, we dropped our bags at my boyfriend’s stepmom’s place, we had a little chit chat with her and shortly after that, we traipsed around the city in search of a place to stay (Yes, we didn’t go prepared. We’re such awful travelers, I know). 

But as we were walking around, I was starting to get really cranky because I was so famished and heavy-eyed at this point already... And unless my boyfriend was going to carry me on his back or drag me along the pavement, I had no intention of budging at all.

For those who don’t know yet, it is imperative that hungry Leia must be fed immediately. Because nobody likes me when I’m hangry (hungry + angry)!

It was still around 8 o’clock in the morning and most of the restaurants within our range were closed save for…

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Sinangag Republik which is open 24/7. Very convenient. Can you see the iconic jeepney protruding through the window? 🙂

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Sinangag Republik, formerly known as Sinangag Express (SEx for short and I’m not making that up), is located at Metrolifestyle Complex, E. Jacinto Extension. 

By the way, “sinangag” is Filipino for fried rice. 

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The interior is cozy and quite fascinating. Apparently, the jeepney extends all the way inside! Really cool! I don’t know what kind of sorcery they conjured in order to pull this off considering the size of the place… But *finger snap* they worked it! 

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Plastered against the bright blue walls are colorful road signs and license plates which create a striking visual contrast. The colors blue, red and yellow mirror the colors of the Philippine national flag.

Sinangag Republik obviously serves Filipino food. But they mainly serve “silog” (breakfast with fried rice and egg). In average, price ranges from 70 to 90 pesos per meal.

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Pictured above were what we had. Left, my boyfriend’s order. Right, mine.

Hmm… How should I start?

Let’s talk about my order first. I had Beef Tapa and it is pretty different from what I’m used to. I think it was coated with flour and that’s a very unorthodox method of preparing beef tapa. It’s nothing amazing really. In fact, I was just eating it because I had to. I didn’t enjoy it but it didn’t find it revolting either…

However, my boyfriend’s order is another story. I had a taste of it and boy was I shaking my head in disgust. It was barely edible. Thank God we didn’t get sick by food poisoning or diarrhea because the meat was really bad. And by bad, I mean, SPOILED. We racked our brains for days but we couldn’t recall what he ordered at all. I think it was just too horrible for us to remember.

The place may have its charm but we don’t recommend that you eat here; unless you wanna call in sick for work, then by all means go ahead.

Some of my friends told me that their Frozen Taho is a must-try. I don’t know if we just got unlucky that day but we don’t have plans to eat here again. EVER.

But hey, on the bright side, at least I have an Instagram-worthy photo to make up for the bad experience. *smile*

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Davao-Gensan Trip Part 1: The Laguindingan International Airport Experience

WARNING: May take forever to read.

For those who don’t know yet, Lumbia Airport will eventually cease to operate for commercial flights and has transferred all of their day flights to the spanking new Laguindingan International Airport (LIA) since June 15.

Now, since our departure date and location was moved from June 18, Lumbia to June 17, LIA… One of our major challenges for this trip was how to get to the new airport without getting left behind our 6:45 AM flight (check-in time is 1 hour prior departure time).

I know what you’re thinking…

“Iligan-CDO bus trips are available 24/7. So that shouldn’t be a problem if you wake up early!” Yes that’s true. But once we make our stop at Laguindingan, then what?

“Airports always have shuttles and taxis. DUH.” Sure there are smart ass… But what if there aren’t? It doesn’t hurt to be extra cautious you know.

My boyfriend and I originally planned to take a taxi from Iligan all the way to the LIA and shell out about 1300 bucks (OUCH). But I am lucky enough to have a friend who was going to drive his way there because he also had an early morning flight to catch on the same day as ours. And so we hitched and donated 200+ for gas (imagine how much we saved!) and got to the LIA much earlier than expected. 

And thank God for woman intuition because I was right. Although there were a lot of “habal-habal” queuing along the highway, there were no taxis nor shuttles in sight. Taxis and shuttles aren’t available until when the sun’s up. So if you’re catching an early morning flight and have a huge luggage, I don’t recommend that you take the bus. Hire a taxi. That’s the only way to go if you’re commuting from Iligan. At least for now.

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This is how the airport looks like at 4AM from the parking lot. Don’t be fooled. While it looks huge from here, it’s really a lot smaller than it looks like. 

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Going in. The airport is very clean and looks aesthetically pleasing. It is a huge improvement of the Lumbia Airport. I do hope they keep this up.

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Despite arriving early, the queue was already very long. Notice how the line ends outside of the building.

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Look how SUPER CROWDED and CRAMPED it is inside! Superimposed with the troll meme face is my friend “he-who-should-not-be-named” by the way. 

Imagine, all the people in the photo above, including us, are just the early morning domestic flight passengers. I can’t imagine how more crammed it will be once the LIA accommodates international flights. But I’m pretty sure they will expand by then as there is soooo much free space around the airport (unless the funds for expansion are “pocketed” if you know what I mean).

And because it must be said, I find that the 200-peso terminal fee is quite unjustifiable since LIA has horrible service. Chaotic queues, grumpy customer service assistants, clueless airport personnel, poor air-conditioning, no ATMs, cash only transactions (I prefer to just swipe my debit card for a faster transaction thank you very much) and the list goes on… Just be ready to get upset in short. I seriously doubt if anyone working there was ready for LIA’s soft-opening. Although, I do commend them for their baggage handling service. My Mickey Mouse suitcase was properly cared for. I’ve been very particular about this especially after what NAIA did to it (read story here).

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After all that chaos and a few security checks later, we just had to sit down, relax and have our morning beverage at Seattle’s Best Coffee.

Beside Seattle’s Best Coffee is Kenny Rogers which I didn’t bother taking a photo of since it was still closed.

Also, what I didn’t bother taking a photo of was the passengers’ lounge area since all I wanted to do at that point was to find a seat for the three of us and just rest. It was a challenge to do because not only were the seats insufficient, there were a lot of inconsiderate asswipes taking the entire bench space for themselves to sleep on. JUST WOW. As if they were the only ones who didn’t manage to get a blink of sleep. LIA security personnel should tell these selfish people off! I know I should’ve complained but if I leave my seat, someone else will take it. Lucky for them I just let that slide that day but next time I definitely won’t.

Another thing I don’t like about LIA was the smoking area. Badly thought-out. Every time a smoker comes in or out of the smoking area, the lounge area just reeks of cigarette smoke. Like what’s the point then? Somebody better do something to fix that!

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Boarding for Davao (“he-who-must-not-be-named” friend not included). Surprised to see a small plane.

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Touchdown from Davao. Surprised to see a big plane.

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I still stand by my opinion about their great baggage handling service. My suitcase is still in a good condition thus makes a happy me.

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When it was time to look for a shuttle… I spotted LAX. LAX is short for Laguindingan Airport Express. Their pick-up and drop-off point is located outside Seda HotelFare is 249 per head. For contact numbers and more details read here. For people bound to CDO from the LIA, you’ll find that link very useful as it includes a list of transport services and other helpful information. 

But then we’re not bound for CDO, so we took a different shuttle (which I wasn’t able to take a photo off since we were super busy tugging our things). And to drop us off along the highway, together with other people, we were charged 25 pesos each.

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And voila, this was our stop! THANK YOU LIA for your pre-mature opening and lack of preparedness! No waiting shed, chairs, whatsoever. I DEMAND a shuttle terminal/bus stop here with an air-conditioned lounge area plus free WiFi access; and no, that is not too much to ask!

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More than an hour has passed since and we were STILL standing and waiting here for a bus to ride. Buses that passed by were either already full or there just wasn’t enough room for the both of us anymore. No luck. Obviously, my patience was running thin at this point.

But thank heavens a van driver (who did not intend to go to Iligan) drove us home along with some other people bound for Iligan. We were only charged 85 pesos each. Real good bargain that one.

If you’re bound for CDO, you barely have anything to worry about since shuttles like LAX are readily available. But if you’re bound for Iligan, it is HIGHLY recommended that to have a “sundo”, lest you want to suffer like we did.

I know this vitriolic post is getting very long already and so I have to abruptly end it as writing this has drained all of my energy. 

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With all that said, I’m just glad we came home in one piece and survived LIA!

Let Sprockets Cafe Color Your World

In two separate occasions, I invited my friends and family to a restaurant that my friend Rachel owns…

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Introducing Sprockets Cafea colorful restaurant that exudes fun, creativity and positive vibes in Cebu City!
I can’t think of a better place to just chill and camwhore all day.
 

Seriously, no Sprockets trip is ever complete without an obligatory photo op with the rainbow lomo wall, camera cardboard menus and pillows!

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L to R: Ferocious Brent, Bombshell Erica, Quirky me, Drop-dead gorgeous Rachel

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Oh hello there, Gluttony. Nice to see you again.

By the way, I accidentally spilled my wintermelon tea so… Let’s just rave about their food, shall we?

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Moby Fish and Chips. Don’t belittle this seemingly simple dish. I enjoyed it very much! And yes, the dips do go very well with both the fish and fries.

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Crispy, crunchy nachos topped with savory salsa. I swear I could finish a bucket of this deliciousness. Yum yum yum! 

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Fettupasta in Pesto Cream. One word: NOMS. Pesto cream sauce is, well, creamy and the pasta is al dente. *finger kiss*

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Oreo Crepe on the house! Crepe topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and then drizzled with caramel and crushed Oreo cookies. There is nothing else I can say except that this is, by far, the best dessert I’ve put in my mouth! ‘Twas gone in a flash! 

I am a self-proclaimed certified Sprocketeer and I highly recommend that you try any of the dishes I mentioned above. I promise you’ll thank me! 

*My boyfriend took the first photo
**Not all photos here are taken on the same date

Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant

I never realized how much I missed blogging till now. Please excuse my month-long absence. It’s been the holidays. A belated Merry Christmas by the way to you my dear readers (if you don’t celebrate it, Happy Holidays) and have a Wonderful and Prosperous New Year ahead of you!

Anyway, I have been to Cebu twice this year actually but I never really got around to blog about it. Why? I really don’t know. 

Now, since I haven’t been posting a lot of food stuff lately (in fact, I haven’t even blogged about some of the food that we had in Manila)… I think it’s about time to share to you again some of my food adventures.

Without further ado, as the title of this post suggests, I’ll be talking about Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant

This Cebu-based restaurant serves you the freshest selection of seafood. And when I say fresh I mean swimming-in-front-of-your-face kind of fresh. 

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You can just point at what you want to have for dinner and they’ll prepare it for you. That easy.

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Normally when I look at any live creature I don’t think of them as food but these crabs… HO HO HO *tents fingers*

Kids will love it here! My two nieces were gawking, smiling ear-to-ear as they were pointing at all the food, urm, fishes…

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This is one of my two nieces, ‘Lienne. This was her first encounter with eels. You can definitely sense the amazement in her eyes.

Also, you can feed sharks. Pretty amazing right? 

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That’s my cousin Gen on the left and my sister Anna on the right by the way.

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Feeding is free of charge. Without even asking, we were given a bowl full of fish to feed the sharks with. 

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Look at me! I’m feeding! Those two tiny “shadows” you see in the water are the sharks. Oh, I’m sorry. Were you expecting this

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Dinner time with family, relatives and the boyfriend! Click here if you want to find out what’s on their menu.

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We had two servings of nicely seasoned steamed oysters served with a slice of lemon and topped with a sprig of parsley. The texture of the oysters were very soft and almost creamy. I could never have had enough of it. Really, really good! 

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Here’s is a small tray of crunchy Chicharon Bulaklak. Basically, it’s pork rind that has been cleaned, salted, dried and then fried. I don’t think it was the best chicharon bulaklak that I had but it was also good nonetheless.

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This is a dish of fried soft-shelled crabs. Both delicate and crunchy. I enjoyed it very much. From the photo above, you can tell that at this point the table was getting crowded (you can see a piece of cutlery peeking at the left hand corner). And since everybody was getting hungry (me included), getting “artistic” food shots was the least of our concerns. 

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Delectably fluffy crab omelette. I was never a fan of omelettes but this has made me a convert.

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And finally, “Kinilaw na Tangigue”. That’s Mackerel Ceviche in English (I think). I love how it had a refreshing twist on the traditional kinilaw. The freshness of the fish, sweet notes of the vinegar and citrus flavor of the calamansi blended perfectly together with the other ingredients. I’ve never had kinilaw like this before and I think, by far, this has got to be my favorite! 

Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant isn’t only a great place to enjoy a great meal but it’s also a perfect place to just hang out and chill.

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Três Marias reunited once again.

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Please don’t mind the photobomber behind me.

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Same spot. And yes, that is sand.

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I invite everybody to come and try the food here at Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant! Located at Bridges Townsquare, Plaridel St., Alang-alang, Mandaue City, Cebu. Great dining experience is definitely guaranteed!

The Niagara Falls of Mindanao: Santa Cruz Falls

After the Cathedral Falls trip with my boyfriend, my father was talking about the mysterious Santa Cruz Falls incessantly.

And so last weekend, we embarked on a family (mis)adventure to Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte. Yes, my boyfriend and I was back to Kapatagan much sooner than we originally expected.

Totally unprepared for what we were about to get ourselves into, we braved practically into the middle of nowhere (Santa Cruz cannot be found on Google maps mind you) with nothing but ourselves.

And when I say nothing, I mean no water, nosh nor sunscreen. And that’s because our house helpers and “habal-habal” drivers (who served as our guides) said that the falls was just “near”.

On that day I learned that the meaning of the word “near” is only relative to the speaker. And so if you come from the city, please don’t trust anybody coming from a rural area telling you that this certain place is “near” because…

To get to the mysterious waterfalls, we had to climb up and down a series of boondocks…

We had to take off our footwear and walk barefoot to cross river bends…

Okay, we had a quick break here from hopping from one fiery hot stone to the other…

Carrying on, we had to trek “for days” through very dense native flora until…

Finally! The mysterious Santa Cruz Falls is a mystery no more! It was an adventure definitely worth my severe t-shirt patterned tan line.

And to cap off this post is a closer view of this beauty dubbed as the Niagara Falls of Mindanao. Be at awe with another marvelous God-made creation!