Uniquely Sipalay

If not for its beaches and afternoon sunsets, Sipalay will just be your usual (read: lonely) fourth class city devoid of excitement and charm.  Well, for me, personally.

Rare table napkins and Sugar Beach

Don’t get that title wrong.  I know what you’re thinking.  I don’t mean rare napkins in gold and silver trimmings or rare table napkin finds.  Literally, paper table napkins are hard to find in restaurants at the city proper as these are not staple table features of Sipalay cafeterias and eateries. 

Wondering why this standard practice of big or small cafeterias or restaurants elsewhere is almost never done in Sipalay. I only remember using a paper table napkin once at an eatery and that was when I demanded for it and the owner had to ask one of the servers to go and buy a pack at the store nearby. 

No complaints. This is what is unique about eating out and having coffee in Sipalay.  I’ll bring my own next time.  Well, I presume you get paper napkins automatically in island resorts and tourist inn restos.  My table was paper napkin-happy while I was gorging on my spicy fish sinigang (fish in sour broth) at Driftwood, a resort in one of Sipalay’s islands called Langub popularly known as Sugar Beach Island.  

Habal-habal , Tinagong Dagat

Tricycles, bicycles cum sidecar and habal-habal  (motorcycle ride with more than 2 passengers)are the city’s mode of public transportation.  Habal-habal is Sipalay’s interesting scene on its own.  The place takes pride in skillful habal habal drivers doing their balancing act carrying 2 to 3 passengers and on rare instances, 4 to 6!  And that’s an uphill drive to where you’ll find the city’s Tinagong Dagat plus other unexplored islands of the town and further down,  the Punta Ballo Beach.

Habal-habal is a means of livelihood for a number of tumandoks (people/natives of Sipalay).  It is, for me, a dangerous means of transportation but what the heck, these folks are used to this type of ride, oblivious of the danger it poses.  I wish I have photos to share but was not fortunate to get some good shots of this one of a kind ride.

Forsaken port, soothing sight

That’s Campomanes.  It was a bumpy motorcycle ride going there.  We had very little time to completely explore the place.  What met us was a lonely port with an amazing view of quiet sea water and a little souvenir shop offering inexpensive finds.  The place, so I heard, is great for fishing.  If you need to stay overnight, bring along a good tent or you can stay at the little inn nearby.

Chasing Sunsets and Clouds

Sipalay Part 1

In Sipalay, sunsets are an everyday must-watch.  Taking photos of different sunsets almost every day made me realize that sunsets are more striking and impressive when it’s about to rain, that sunsets look different each day and that sunsets don't make you sad (my apologies to The Little Prince).

Tagged as  “The Jewel of the Sugar Island,” Sipalay resembles the beauty of sunsets captured in the photos shown.  It’s easy to get there by public transport.  From Bacolod City (the capital city of Negros Occidental, Philippines), simply catch a bus at the Ceres South terminal.  Air conditioned buses leave everyday at 12 NN, 1 PM and 2 PM.  For regular buses and trips to and from Sipalay, contact Ceres Bus Liner on 034- 433-4993; 034-434-2386 or 034-434-2387.

It approximately takes 5 hours to get to Sipalay City from Bacolod City by Ceres bus and approximately 4 hours by private car. 

A little bit of trivia and history

      Sipalay was once a town of nearby Cauayan until the 1920’s when influential society leaders (Don  Severo Alejano,  Mariano Mueda, Sr., Maximino Salveron, Inocencio Debuyan, Sr., Amando Zaragoza, Basilo Debuyan, and Alfonso Custioso) formed a movement  that justified and successfully separated Sipalay from Cauayan.

     “Tumandoks”  -- that’s what the natives of Sipalay are called taking their roots from Malays and Borneans.  The name Sipalay means  “there is rice” from the native phrase “si paray”.  It was probably the Chinese traders (not able to pronounce the letter “r” in Paray) who helped popularize the name Sipalay because of the abundance and free trade of this crop in the area.

There’s more to these sunsets in Sipalay.  More of its charm and spell soon! 

Another Tofulogy

Finally, I got to make my first tofu balls!

I received an email from my long-time friend, Grace Dee Consumido, telling me to try her hubby's Tofu Balls recipe.  I've known the couple for decades and both make good non-MSG dishes. I can't forget one of my random visits at their previous residence in Paco-- I  almost finished more than half a kilo of a no-fuss dish of thinly sliced pork belly crispy fried to perfection and it only had salt and pepper for seasoning! 

Grace is my "adoptive mom" in Manila.  She knows my life story and, of course my tummy (read: my passion for food). So our meetings and catching up with the latest gossips in town would always be over good food, either in newly-discovered restos in the city or in her modest kitchen where she would whip up delicious meals in a jiffy.

Before I end up writing a novel of our escapades for the last 3 decades, let me copy paste her tofu  balls recipe, quick!

Ingredients:

• 2 blocks tofu
• 1 can tuna in water ( this is only salted with no other seasoning)
• ground/or powdered pepper
• 1 large onion- minced very finely
• around 5 pesos worth of kinchay - also minced very finely
• a few tsp of cornstarch just to bind
• salt

1. Drain the tofu very well so that the mixture will not be too liquidy.
2. Once drained, shred and finely churn it into a paste (as in best using your fingers).
3. Do the same things with the tuna (such that it will be difficult to identify the tuna when they are mixed)
4. Mix everything else into the paste.
5. Form into balls and fry.  The size will depend upon your own taste.
6. You can use any kind of sauce for it. (Try sweet and sour, mayo, mayo-mustard-honey, kechup, etc. )

 There!  Happy testing!

P.S.
I did experiment on my own tofu balls.  Instead of kinchay, I used parsely and added cheese to the mixture. The tofuballs went well with mayo-based dressing.



Grace and hubby Henry (back row) with our good friend Gerry (left) in one of our  bonding moments.

The Secret is In the Sauce

My love for dips and sauces takes its inspiration from gourmet-chef Conrad Calalang, the man behind the popularity of all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue and Pasta Festival in my country. I have known the seasoned chef for years having worked with him and his family promoting and drumbeating  their restaurants. 

Conrad's Mongolian barbecue created a craze in the city.  I remember the extra tables he had to set up outside the restaurant in the once burgeoning Mile Long strip in Makati and, 3 weeks after, had added another outlet in the same buiding just to accommodate the ever growing set of Mongolian lovers.

The secret, indeed, was in the sauce.  Conrad had a knack for whipping up sauces that resembled like a symphony in the mouth, i.e., you can use 5 different kinds of sauces in one dish and you come up with a dish that's 5 times tastier the dish that came with the basic sauce!   Now that's hard to duplicate.  For his Mongolian barbecue, he was kitchen-genius enough to premix the sauces so diners can choose from either of these formula-- sweet, sweet and sour, regular and spicy-- without having to worry about the taste afterwards.

And so my love for sauces continues and, the sauce that I will be sharing with you today is my signature recipe-- this is the same sauce that sent call center agents craving for my siomai (honestly I don't make tasty siomai but what the heck-- they bought it just for the sauce!)

So here it is:   SauceChinoy (best with dimsums, fried fish, steamed prwans or just anything to your delight!)

Note:  You can play around with the ingredients and its quantity depending on your taste. : )

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 tbsp dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tbsp water (approx. 3/4 cup mixture)
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 large bulbs of garlic or approx. 36 cloves finely chopped
• 1 Red cayenne thinly sliced (depending on how spicy you'd like your sauce to be)
• 4 tbsp oil
• achuette seeds
• 1 tsp onion finely chopped (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ginger finely chopped (optional)

1. Heat oil and achuete seeds in a pan (use low heat or you end up the achuette seeds in your eyes-lol).  Remove achette seeds once oil turns reddish-yellow.
2. Toss in thinly sliced cayenne. Fry for a few seconds (careful not to burn it!) and remove from oil once done.  Set aside.
3. On the same oil (add more oil if needed), brown (but not too brown) finely chopped garlic. Add in onion and ginger.
4. Add remaining ingredients including the red cayenne. Bring to a boil.

Happy saucing!  

I don't know why I'm here on this page but I do know I want to write about tofu discoveries. 

I began appreciating this veggie food when Patis Tesoro, my then boss at Katutubong Filipino Foundation, treated us to a small Chinese restaurant in San Juan years years back (don't ask me about the name because honestly,  I only remembered the moment but not the name of the  place). That was my first taste of steamed tofu and boy!, my tongue had a blast of its sauce!  From then on, I experimented on how best I can eat and play around with tofu (recipes of which I am going to collate--I hope I can remember!-- and share later on.

Today, I received a text message from a dear high school friend, J, telling me she'll drop by for lunch.  Oh no!   What's on the table? -- all leftovers from yesterday. But thanks to my sister Gigi who gifted me last Sunday with -- what else-- tofu!

Today's spur-of-the-moment dish:  fried tofu squares seasoned with salt and spices with my signature siomai sauce for dip.

More of the signature sauce in my future posts.  Bon appetit!

This is my good friend J.  Food and music bond us together.