Legazpi City's Oriental Hotel for Ensaymada

This is my fifth post on ensaymadas. For a background on this pastry, click here. For what to me is a good ensaymada, click here.

Oriental Hotel's ensaymada is as hefty as Marco Polo Davao's ensayamda, but hews more closely to the Diamond Hotel variant. Indeed, this is one sinful ensayamda: high quality bread, well-balanced, not overly sweet, with the surprise texture of pili bits, and swimming in melted butter. This is one of the better ensaymadas I had.

The Oriental Legazpi 

Taysan Hill, Sto. Niño Village 

Legazpi City

(+63) 052 480

Legazpi City's DJC Halo-Halo

Just a few days ago we've experienced one of the hottest summers in recent memory. One popular way to beat the heat is eating halo-halo. Halo-halo is made up of fresh and preserved fruits, evaporated milk, and shaved ice, topped with ube jam/ice cream or leche flan (custard). I remember some pouring in red food coloring to make it look more palatable, otherwise you'd end up with the usual purplish mix. The fruits may range from boiled sweetened plantains, boiled sweet potatoes, beans, to jackfruit.

What makes DJC Halo Halo distinct is they top theirs with cheese. Yes, it's that mysterious blend of salty and sweet that comes off just right. Personally I prefer to mix them all (halo halo, literally)before diving in.

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Top Picks at Legazpi City's First Colonial Grill

Perhaps by now you might have noticed that I love eating out at Legazpi City. You can read my earlier posts here and here.

Today I'm featuring dishes we enjoyed at First Colonial Grill's branch at Pacific Mall, near the bus terminal. We were lucky that what we ordered complemented each other. Of course, advance research helped--these dishes were highly recommended online.

First is the tinapa (smoked fish) rice. For me anything with salted eggs and tinapa is worth waking up early for. This was complete on its own, but why limit your tummy happiness?

Next we had the pinangat, a heavenly mix of gabi (taro), coconut milk and pork, and five-spice grilled chicken. I thought the chicken would clash with the other dishes, but it blended beautifully, subtle and flavorful.

To counteract the spicy dishes, we had creamy pili nut ice cream.

I'll post more soon.

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Legazpi City's Espada

I was about to translate espada into dried eel and wax nostalgic about growing up eating fried fresh eel, when a little online research yielded the fact that what i'm featuring today is actually dried cutlassfishes. Cutlassfishes are found in seas worldwide, are silver and scaleless, with large angry teeth, and since they are long and slender, with no pelvic or caudal fins, they resemble eel. But enough of this.

This is what I had for breakfast. It wasn't too salty, tasted like danggit (dried rabbitfish), and perfect with tomatoes. Because it was crunchy, I ate everything, including the head, which looks harder than it really is.

I first saw espada (from the Spanish "sword") at the breakfast buffet when I was assigned for work in Legazpi City. I thought they would make an alternative takeaway to the usual.

After a few inquiries from the waiters and other locals, we set out the next day for the dried goods section of the public market. Bingo! At the second floor were stalls of dried fish, including espada. Between the ordinary and boneless espada, we opted for the latter, setting us back at P60 for a fourth of a kilo.

Here's another look at fried espada.

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Legazpi City's La Piazza Hotel for Bicol Express

Consistency is a good thing, especially when you had it good the last time. When I learned that we were booked at La Piazza Hotel in Legazpi City, the capital city of the region of Bicol, located at the southeastern corner of the main island of Luzon, I have one thing in mind: order Bicol Express.

As I mentioned here, Bicol is known for its spicy cuisine, with Bicol Express among the more popular of its dishes. Bicol Express is pork stewed in coconut milk and flavored with shrimp paste and siling mahaba (long chili, finger chili).

When I was in the hotel last year (see top photo), I fell in love with its Bicol Expres. It was salty, not the usual sweetish ones of Manila (they say it might be because of the sweetened shrimp paste used, which to me, is an abomination) and spicy, tempered by the coconut milk and pork fat. Tonight was no different--it was straight forward, simple, and well-balanced (see bottom photo).

Highly recommended.

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Legazpi City’s First Colonial Grill for Bird's Eye Chili / Sili Ice cream

I love food, and I’m quite adventurous when it comes to sampling anything new—as I always say: I’ll try anything once. So when I heard about First Colonial Grill’s siling labuyo (bird’s eye chili) ice cream, I knew I have to add it to my bucket list.

Last year, work found me in Legazpi City, the capital city of the region of Bicol, located at the southeastern corner of the main island of Luzon. When I freed up a few hours of alone time in the afternoon, I immediately boarded a jeep to the restaurant, located along Rizal Avenue, beside Bicol University in the Old Albay District.

The waiter handed me my order: three scoops of pink ice cream garnished with green and red siling labuyo. I first tasted coconut, and a few seconds later a small wave of tiny chili bombs exploded in my mouth. Eating chili ice cream is quite the experience, but for comfort I’d rather have good ole cookies and cream.

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