Lantaka by the Sea

We got caught in the rain while joyriding through the streets of Zamboanga. We were about to drop by Paseo del Mar, but it was full of Sunday folks. So we decided on Lantaka by the Sea instead, even though the rates were considerably higher, the solitude and quiet would be well worth it.

And a good decision, too, since mere minutes after settling in our cozy little hut, the rain started pouring by the buckets.

We ordered Pasta Marisco (seafood pasta) to share, Choros de Chocolate (bread with chocolate) for dessert, a Cookies and Cream frappe for me, and two San Miguel Lights for him.

Spent the evening just taking photos, eating good and having fun, until the rain let up and we were able to head home.

Getting caught in the rain always leads to fun times when I’m with Gimmi.

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These days, when I think of Astoria Regency in Zamboanga City, I think of swimming. With my going back and forth Manila-Zamboanga, it’s been awhile since I was able to take a nice long dip in a swimming pool.

I miss those days. I am at a crossroad. Tomorrow I am supposed to return to Manila. (I just came back home for four days, to attend my boyfriend Gim’s graduation. He’s a doctor now! Photos of that soon.)

However, all I want to do is stay here, with him. Because he really makes me happy. Wish I could steal him away for a long long cruise, where we can forget all our troubles, drink and eat and be merry, and smile all the time. I want to just keep him and be with him for always.

But, the rainy days always come. And I have to give up being with him, again. I’m not sure for how long this time. I am at a crossroad.

I will just have to keep looking at photos of summer and happier times. And hope the rains pass quickly.

Easter Sunday, the day before I came back to Manila, Gim and I decided to visit Golf Beach, on a whim. Not to bathe; I don’t think I can ever bathe in less than white sand beaches (Dakak spoiled me). But rather just to enjoy the last few tendrils of sun. I don’t even have photos: it was much too dark.

After ten minutes of standing around near the water, we mounted Bastian (the bike) and left. But not before touring the entire beach, so we headed deeper into Golf.

At the end of the road, we saw this:

A new restaurant! What a surprise! And so pretty! Instantly I was saddened we hadn’t gone there earlier. It would have been a spectacular sunset.

Gim and I decided to have dinner there. It was very peaceful, we had the place to ourselves, as you can see in the photos below. I didn’t have a tripod so I had to set my camera on the table to get the photos (thus the awkward angles).

There wasn’t much beach, but there was a small park, and an exquisite tree parked on top of a hill, filled with sparkling lights. That was really the one thing that made the park beautiful, that tree.

Random aside: did you know that apricots came from Apricot trees? I thought they came from bushes! (It’s like how some people think pineapples come from trees, but don’t.)

I will return there, soon, to take more photos in better lighting. And in sunset! Oh I am so excited to return there on a sunset! These photos of mine do not do the tree justice.

Having the place to ourselves, Gim and I photowhored away. Much of it is blurry since we had to hold our breaths for ten seconds at least per photo. And one time, the waitress was coming with our food so I left my post midfreeze (that’s the one where I turned into a ghost).

The food was great! We ordered beef tapa with onions, it was so good, I loved it! We also ordered camaron rebosao (sugar roasted shrimp) but it was not available so we had to do with crispy shrimp, which was okay, not terrific. And of course, the requisite garlic rice (which was yum).

I apologize if the photos are a bit unfocused. We were too hungry to wait for the perfect take.

All in all, it was a very fun day. Gim and I had some heavy stuff to sort out so it was a good thing the place was clear of guests. We’re good now, though.

Here’s a bonus photo of the pretty tree. I tried my best to hold my breath while taking the photo, but it came out blurred anyway. Still you can see the potential.

Gim and I had a spectacular lunch today. Curacha cooked in coconut milk and Alavar sauce. Divine!

Curacha is a type of crab commonly found in the waters of Zamboanga. As such it’s available in the city markets round the clock. I would love to eat it as regularly as I eat lechon (roasted pork, goes very well with a Sunday) but unfortunately my cook is a bit allergic to crustaceans. He gets hives all over, and hyperacidic, when he eats too much crab or shrimp. So I have to wait several weeks in between curacha fests.

Today happened to be my lucky day. I slept in the whole morning and when I woke up, Chef Gim had already gone to the market, bought three large curachas and whipped up my favorite Guinataang Curacha in Alavar sauce! Yummy! So good it deserves to be on the menu of a five-star New York City hotel.

Alavar is a famous seafood restaurant in Zamboanga City, and they sell Alavar sauce, which is a secret concoction of aligue and spices. Whatever they put it in it, it’s sinfully delicious and makes every seafood dish doubly tasty.

In Chavacano, Curacha means “cockroach”, but the similarity between the two creatures ends in their furry-looking legs. Curacha is a wonderfully tasty crustacean. It is meatier and much cleaner than the mud crab, though ironically with a slightly earthier taste, and it’s meat a little less smooth but just as juicy. However the difference in taste is very subtle and I am sure most people would not be able to differentiate the two without checking their shells. I’m not yet sure which I favor more, the mud crab or the curacha, so I prefer to have them both in one dish!

Jump inside to see more photos of today’s lunch, and Chef Gim’s simple Guinataang Curacha in Alavar Sauce recipe below.

How to Make Guinataang Curacha (or Crab) in Alavar Sauce

Ingredients:
1 kilo curacha or crab
1/2 kilo grated coconut
1/2 kilo Alavar sauce
 1 bulb of garlic
1/2 thumb of ginger
4 pinches of salt
4 pinches of monosodium glutamate (Ajinomoto)
1 1/2 cup of water

Wash curacha or crab. Place in cooking pot. Set aside.

Place grated coconut in a mixing bowl. Pour water and mix. With your hands, squeeze all milk from the coconut. Set aside.

Mince garlic and ginger into tiny pieces. Set aside.

Sprinkle the salt, Ajinomoto, garlic and ginger all over the curacha or crab.

Pour coconut milk all over the curacha or crab.

Turn stove on high heat until the coconut milk comes to a boil. Then drop the alavar sauce into the pot and lower the knob to medium heat. When the coconut oil starts to surface (happens after around 20-30 minutes), turn off the stove.

Serve.

P.S. If you don’t have Alavar sauce, go right ahead and do the recipe without it. It will just be Guinataang Curacha, then.

I don’t remember uploading these photos of the last time I was in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte. That was about three months ago. Although I do not miss my very poor living quarters there, I do miss the beautiful, relaxing sights of Dapitan.

Nature never let you forget her majesty in Dapitan. It was easy to just let the romantic days wrap themselves all over you… ’til you forgot that there was more to living than the here and now.

So… enjoy these photos.

The first solar eclipse of 2009 fell on January 26 (coincidentally, the Chinese New Year) and I was there to see it firsthand. Lucky for me I live on the edge of the Philippines, in Zamboanga City, Mindanao. At 4pm Monday, I parked on one of the benches along the coast, armed with my Canon S5 IS and some old floppy disks, then started shooting.

None of the photos below have been altered save for some resizing (the original pics are too high-res), bordering and watermarking. Take a look!

The Red Series

I don’t have a high class IR filter for my camera, or anything like that. All I did to be able to capture the solar eclipse in photo was to dig out one of my dad’s old floppy disks, take out the black film thingy from inside it and then manually hod the film in front of the lens of my camera. How very old-school, huh?

All photos below are arranged in the order of when they were taken (mostly).

The Black and White Series

The Mixed Series

I find I like this series best. Using the floppy film brought out the solar eclipse but it also blacked out everything else. I liked just covering part of my lens with the filter so my camera could capture the ocean in full color.

This woman had no idea there was a solar eclipse behind her. In fact, very few people knew. There was this one guy who seemed frustrated that his DSLR + zoom lens + very long hood could not capture the eclipse. He kept stomping around in vain. There was a family of three who were trying to see the sun without so much as a pair of sunglasses to block the sun’s rays, so I have no idea if they were actually able to see the eclipse. Most people were just enjoying the sunset, like any normal day. Very surreal.

The Non-Series

No filters were used for the non-series. As you can(not) see, it was next to impossible to see the solar eclipse with bare eyes. But I liked the way that my camera somehow captured the reflection of the partial eclipse. Very pretty. The eclipse was only visible during the last few seconds of the sunset. Unfortunately, the sun petered out before it reached total eclipse.

A Nice Day at The Beach

The Props and Photog

Yup, that’s me in the second and third pics. People were passing by, looking at me with a funny look. I must have seemed quite strange, hahaha. And… that’s Zamboanga City’s busy coastline in the last pic.

Click the pictures for bigger resolutions!

It was a fun day! I love solar eclipses! Do you have photos of the solar eclipse? Leave a link!

If you liked this post, please digg! Thank you!

I meant to upload these much sooner, but I was waiting for my next chance to photograph the lights of Zamboanga City, as I had not taken any of the beautifully lighted Christmas tree in the center of the city nor of the townhall lights in the surrounding barangays like Pasonanca or Sta. Maria.

Unfortunately the holiday season is ending soon and by the time I finish my shoots New Year may well be over, so without further ado, here are my twilight shots of Zamboanga City Hall. Enjoy!

The people of Zamboanga City speak the Chavacano language, the base language of which is Spanish. Thus, on Christmas, we greet each other “Felices Pascuas” (Merry Christmas) and in the dawn of the New Year, we say “Prospero Año Nuevo” (A Prosperous New Year).

Frontal view of Zamboanga City Hall. The lights are truly more impressive this year than last. And I thought we were in recession?

That’s me posing in front of the Belen, also known as a nativity scene.

My boyfriend Gim pretending to offer something to a shepherd. (I think…) You can see a Jollibee franchise right behind us. It started out as only a small business opportunity but now it’s the Philippines’ version of McDonalds.

Plaza Pershing lighted up. And Gim smack dab in the middle of it all.

A tree filled with lights. I love to see trees filled with Christmas decorations. I couldn’t quite capture the beauty of this one, though. The light was dying…

My boyfriend wishing he were as tall as the camel. Ahh, me too. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!! Wishing you all a Prospero Año Nuevo!

My favorite pastime is traveling rural roads and marveling at how beautiful nature is. It’s a pleasure that costs absolutely nothing. The best things are free, and all of that.

The Philippines is primarily an agricultural country. Rice fields are everywhere. All of them are uniquely different. Some are very organized, proportionally segregated and individually labeled. Some are random, a bit of terraces here, a scarecrow there.

But all of them look beautiful, especially at sundown. I love to see the sun’s fading rays peeking through the trees. Or the glint of gold bouncing off the rice paddies.

I love the wisps of clouds that float serenely across the sky. And the myriad of colors that burst when the sun starts to say good night.

He says I’m a country girl at heart. Maybe it’s true.

It’s Grandma’s Best, hands down.

In fact, I think it’s the best restaurant in Zamboanga del Norte, and after tasting their Squid Aligue Spaghetti, I’m tempted to say it’s the best restaurant in all of Philippines. Except that I haven’t visited all of Philippines yet.

Grandma’s Best is hidden in a residential part of Dipolog, which makes it a bit hard to find, as coming from Dapitan, Gim and I had to navigate through many roads just to find the elusive little canteen of a restaurant.

There is nothing to boast about the facade of Grandma’s Best, as it looks like an ordinary carenderia. The tables are simple rectangular plastic tables covered with cheaplooking cloth, the chairs are uncomfortable monoblock plastic white chairs, the walls are unadorned except for a few paintings here and there.

Service is nothing special. The waitresses look like that spinster aunt of yours who’s looking after your house while you’re gone (in her pink shirt and jeans). Water is available, but you have to get it yourself in the water dispenser at the back of the room.

But I’m not dissing this wonderful little restaurant. I’m simply amazed that a restaurant that looks so ordinary that it can easily be mistaken for a canteen (unless you happen to glance at the fridge that contains all of their rich-looking desserts) can serve such wonderfully fantastically delicious and divine dishes.

Grandma’s Best dishes I’ve tried and I swear are to die for:

Squid Aligue Spaghetti (Php80)

This scrumptious dish is soooo rich you’ll want to come back everyday to Grandma’s Best for a retaste. It’s filled with squid rings and pasta mixed in a rich and creamy sauce of sinful aligue (crab fat), topped with loads of cheese and freshly cut spring onion. It’s a disservice to call this dish “spaghetti” because it resembles nothing like spaghetti, but more like pasta for the gods, it is that rich.

Lengua (Php120)

I have always loved lengua (literally means tongue, but as a dish it means tongue of cow), and when I saw this dish in the menu, I ordered it right away. The dish I was served did not disappoint me in any way (except that it was served in a rectangular plastic container, but ah who cares if the food tastes great, huh?). The lengua was very soft, and swimming in a bowl of richly creamy mushroom sauce, and bursting with the dark, deep taste of beef. It’s definitely one of my favorites.

Beef Stroganoff (Php100)

You can take this with rice, or with pasta. Gim ordered this dish, and he chose pasta. I had only a few bites of this but I can say with all my heart I wish we had ordered two of these so I could have eaten a whole dish on my own! It may look like squid aligue spaghetti, but tastes nothing like it. It’s soft, tender beef mixed with creamy pasta topped with spring onions.

Apple Pie (Php60)

This dessert is definitely one of the best I have ever experienced. My mom bakes the best apple pies I’ve ever tasted, and I was shocked to find out this pie we had just bought was even better! The best part about this pie is the delightfully crumbly upper crust, which tastes faintly of cinammon and confectionary sugar, and the underside covered with lovely apple sauce. Inside of the cake are apple slices which taste heavenly. The normally strong taste of apple is subdued and the apple slices are soft and tender, just the way I like it. The whole minipie is topped with cheese, and the serving is good for two. This dessert is a must-try if you’re ever going to eat at Grandma’s Best.

Lastly, I also recommend their Roast Beef (Php110), however I don’t have pictures of that since I ate it the first time around, when I wasn’t bringing a camera. (It tastes a lot like lengua.)

More pictures of the above dishes:

Grandma’s Best dishes I’m looking forward to sampling in the very very near future:

Cheese Lumpia (Php55)
Chili con Carne (Php75)
Garlic Mushroom (Php65)
Seafood BBQ (Php120)
Seafood Supreme (Php125)
Thai Fried Rice (Php100)
Pistachio Cake Slice (Php55)
Trouffle Supreme Whole (Php380)

To travel Dapitan, Zamboanga (Philippines) and vice versa, you can go three ways: by air, land and sea.

Via Air

The safest option is, of course, via air. But as there’s no available direct flight from Zamboanga to Dipolog (but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), you would have to fly from Zamboanga to Cebu, then Cebu to Dipolog via Cebu Pacific. From Dipolog airport (do a little bit of shopping in Dipolog if you need to, you won’t be able to do it in Dapitan), you can take a tricycle straight to your destination in Dapitan for an exorbitant fee of Php150. Alternatively, you can walk to the street right outside of the airport, flag down a passing (not waiting) tricycle and get a ride to the bus terminal for only Php7. Then get on an Evergood bus and it will take you to Dapitan for Php20.

Via Sea

If you choose to go via sea, make sure it’s not the rainy season (August – December) because boats tend to capsize around this time of the year. If you have to, bring a vest and a snorkel. (I’m not kidding.) A little ferry from GP Lines travels from Zamboanga to Dapitan and vice versa, and costs less than Php1000 per passenger. The length of the trip is usually around 24 hours. From the port of Dapitan, you can take a tricycle to your destination for some exorbitant fee like Php200 (make sure to haggle heavily to lower the price!).

Via Land

The most common option for people traveling from Zamboanga to Dapitan is to take the bus. A one-way trip from Zamboanga to Dipolog on an airconditioned bus costs about Php400, while a non-AC bus costs Php300. From the Dipolog bus terminal, switch to the Evergood bus which will take you to Dapitan.

Via Stupid

The crazy and lifethreatening way to travel from Zamboanga to Dapitan is by motorcycle. It’s a four hour trip to the “nearby” city of Ipil, then another five hours to Dapitan. And that’s if you don’t stop periodically along the way because your butt is hurting so bad you want to kill your boyfriend for ever suggesting the trip as a “joyride”.

However, there are some nice spots along the way that you just have to stop and take a picture of, because. Like, for example, a rainbow over the ocean. Sometimes, a rainbow is just a rainbow. But when you have travelled for over two hours in the pouring rain on a motorcycle wearing a bright pink plastic trashbag that you bought for twenty pesos from a fisherman, got mud splattered all over your favorite green cottonskinned backpack and staining your pretty blue rubber shoes, and are carrying a large duffel bag about 10 kilos worth of rainsoaked garments on one side, your laptop and your backpack hanging from your aching back that hasn’t rested for seven hours running, plus your camera on the other side…. Sometimes a rainbow is not just a rainbow. Sometimes a rainbow is a calm capresso from God telling you that murder is not the answer, and that this too shall pass.

Not that I ever endured those things because my mother specifically told me that I should be taking the bus to Dipolog, and she even mandated earlier I should take an airplane even if she had to pay my fare but I lipbitingly declined because I really shouldn’t be taking her money and instead should be responsible for my own expenses. So… I was. Via… erm… bus. Not via my newly bought refurbished Honda XL named Bastian (because I sold Pao a long time ago, and he wouldn’t have survived the trip anyways) that my boyfriend drove to Dapitan in both hours under the pouring rain and hours under the burning sun that scalded my skin and soaked all my clothes. Nope, ohno she didn’t.

P.S. The waves were wonderful.