Dipolog City's Umami Room for Japanese Cuisine

I wrote in an earlier post that I only learned to appreciate Japanese food recently. Having been used to flavorful Filipino cuisine, I initially found Japanese food as too subtle for my taste. But with age I learned to appreciate the clean and pure flavors of the latter. When I find myself yearning for respite from the bombast of local cuisine, I go Japanese.

While in Dipolog City, we treated ourselves to dinner at Umami Room located at D'Hotel, ranked 1 of 5 hotels in the city. Standouts for me are the ebi furai (fried prawns) and the sashimi platter, the latter beautifully presented in a wooden boat-shaped serving plate.

I'm not a fan of ebi furai, since most of those I've sampled were more batter than prawn, but Umami's version was different. The batter was light and exquisite, allowing me to appreciate the prawns. I love sashimi, and the fresher the seafood, the better. I love the squid sashimi--so soft, not gummy, and the sprinkling of fish roe made it more delicious.


Umami Room
5/F, D'Hotel and Suites
Rizal Ave. cor. Osmena Street
Dipolog City

Chocolate Treats from Dipolog City's Tablea Chocolate Cafe

I'm not really crazy about chocolate, but I won't turn down a chance to sample good chocolate. We were in Dipolog City, located in the southern island of Mindanao, scouting for new seminar venues. In one of the newer hotels, Ariana, located minutes away from the airport, is a branch of Cebu-based Tablea Chocolate Cafe, specializing in tablea-based food and drinks. The Dipolog branch appears to be the first outside the Visayas. Tablea is a tablet made from pure cocoa and is traditionally used in the country for hot chocolate. The company claim to source their cocoa locally. This is our picks from the menu, and they're all excellent.

The choco silvana. I love its toothy goodness. It was nutty, with a crunchy outer layer, and creamy inside. As you can see, it's pretty and lethal. Silvana is described as a frozen cookie made up of a layer of buttercream sandwiched between two cashew-meringue wafers.

Dark choco goes well with mango and churros. Churros are fried-dough pastry-based snack of Spanish origin.

Pictured above is the puto maya. The mango provides a welcome acidity.

Lastly, the pure, dark, and thick choco.

Tablea Chocolate Cafe
Ariana Hotel
Airport Road, Minaog, Dipolog

Dakak's Curious Coco Cake and Quattro Formaggi

A curious thing happened during my stay in Dakak Park and Beach Resort. I chanced upon this coco pie and cake hybrid.

The top was crusty and quite heavy, like buco pie and cassava cake, but underneath it was all chiffon. But it was delicious and new, and again I'm sorry I didn't take down its name. I hope I can visit the place again and make a better acquaintance. 

Help! What is this cake?

I was wary of the restaurants inside the resort. The place is quite isolated, and they discourage bringing in food. The breakfast was unremarkable, but the Italian Restaurant, Il Ristorante was quite good and good value for money. It made me rethink my aversion to Meatballs Spaghetti.

We fell in love with the Quattro Formaggi Pizza., which we paired  with Pizza Margherita.
The Four-Cheese Pizza was a home run--straightforward and delicious