A small banca signifying our culinary journey of Cavite, a rich food haven located an hour or so away at the outskirts, south of Manila.
I think I've been here, perhaps when I was a kid. Though I couldn't remember specifically when so in a nutshell this is a trip down south that I've been raring to go to because I've been hearing a lot about Island Cove Hotel and Leisure Park the past few months. Photos alone had me wondering, why haven't I gone there when it looked so good on photos, and people I know who go there actually had so much fun. The place is picturesque, have stunning views of the Cavite coastline. It's situated along Covelandia Road in Kawit, Cavite and can be accessed through the new line along the Cavite Expressway (CavitEx). You can drive and get there in an hour or so from Manila, perhaps ride to SM Bacoor and ride another van to Island Cove if you want to commute there. All along, I thought Island Cove was a membership only resort as it had some similarities to Fontana in Pampanga. I was wrong, because they're very much open to the public.
Anyway, we were there for good reason. It's about the FOOD. The people at Island Cove find it a little unnerving why they haven't really featured much of the community to the people going there. They've got a mix of locals, foreigners, balik bayans and just about everyone who enjoys food go to their spot called the Fishing Village to have a meal with family and friends, but never solely to showcase what Cavite cooking is all about. Well, they've done the legwork for you and researched the dishes, even had recipes exhumed from long gone restaurants and use it to demystify what Cavite cooking is all about. Chef Vill Purificacion had us sample dishes of this place he calls home, let's just say I didn't know Cavite ever tasted this good!
Lawlaw is a crispy, deep fried local fish dredged in flour/light batter mostly found in Cavite City.
Tahong Chips is originally from Bacoor. It's now one of the city's best exports. They also served it with local spiced vinegar, perfect for groups or beer pairing.
This is the Mutya ng Cavite Soup by Sabater. A thick creamy soup with a huge serving of local sea mollusks, crabs, shrimp, clams caught locally. The original restaurant closed down but they were able to get the recipe from the family. This was a hit among the crowd.
They call this Calandracas. It's got the ingredients of summer, a bit refreshing, but has chorizo so you get those bits of smoky pork flavor in each slice.
This is Bacalao, but they use Labahita fish as the former is a little too expensive. It's salted fish, and is perhaps a good thing to have with just hot, steamed white rice.
This is Adobong Imus which hails from the town of the same name. It's made of the usual, but use annatto oil in lieu of soy sauce. Surprisingly, it was good!
This one's called Valenciana. This version is from General Trias and uses coconut milk as base so it's quite different from the one I'm used to at home (the Bacolod version). It's different, I like how it's become a bit Asian rather than Spanish inspired. I was staying away from rice but this one got me skip a day for that rule.
This is their Pansit Pusit. It reminds me of Black Ink Pasta dishes but they use local rice noodles, seasonal vegetables, seafood and strips of green mangoes, scallions and garlic. I thought it wouldn't work but it did. It tastes like the sea, in a good way. Something totally off beat from the usual Pansit, but would be really good for seafood lovers.
Hot weather calls for Fresh Buco! It was sweet and refreshing!
This one is Afritadang Gulay na may Baboy. Which I think is the usual afritada ingredients but uses pork for the meat. It's soft, would be good for hot white rice. I love anything with tomato sauce on it!
This is the Pansit with Puso ng Saging. It's a little tangy, much like that banana heart dish Mom used to make but made into a rice noodle dish. Don't laugh but I could imagine people eating this with rice too, with this as a viand.
This is their Pansit Malabon. For those who don't know, parts of Cavite was actually called Malabon in Spanish times even before the actual Malabon in Metro Manila was established. This wreaks of shrimp goodness as it probably was made of shrimp head sauce, quite lovely with those bits of pork crackling, egg, spring onions, squid, and more pork.
For dessert, we had Kutsinta from nearby towns. They actually buy these rice cakes from locals the morning before they serve it.
This is the Kalamay, similar to the ones I get from Bacolod but this is flattened and served in individual plastic sheets. A bit modernized I think! This tastes like coconut spread, with coconut strips on it.
This is their Sapin Sapin which literally means layers in English. With different rice cakes, mixed with coconut milk, purple yam, it was totally something to look forward to in a trip to Cavite! Oh wait there's more!
My personal favorite among the things served that day was this! This is called Tamales. Made of corn meal, rice, pork fat, pork meat, paprika (I think because it was a bit smoky) and chili powder (as it felt a little spicy). I could have this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's a bit heavy, as it was designed to be a one dish meal that farmers would usually have after tolling the fields back in the days. I would totally go back for this!
If you haven't had enough of your cheese dreams come true, they've got a platter of Kesong Puti probably from cow's milk. I would love to have this with bread or on top of pizza. Or just about anything during breakfast.
To get you a little excited about what to expect at Island Cove Hotel and Leisure Park, I made a short video of our trip that afternoon and uploaded it on Youtube. If you haven't seen it yet, please subscribe to my channel or just check this one below. Check out our interview with the Chef and Gilbert Remulla who handles the property.
TIP: You can get a spot overlooking the shore for Php 4,500 consumable (3 hours, like a private cottage) which I think is good for 30 persons (although if you invite that much people chances are you're gonna need to spend a bit more for your birthdays/occasions). You may call them at 8107878 or 8105351 or email them at inquiry@islandcovephil.com if you want to have it arranged, if you expect guests coming to the Philippines or just about any reason to go there. They also have fishing areas, perfect for Father and Son bonding moments, aside from the good food of course!
The “Taste Cavite” menu featured on this article is now available at the Fishing Village on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday. starting November 18 and will be served daily starting December 22, 2016. I hope to get to see you there when I come and visit!
Having been able to watch the show quite consistently for 10 months get me a little excited about how this happy story ends. Loving Erich Gonzales is not a chore, but more of a joy to do because I'm telling you, among the stars that ABSCBN has on their roster, she's the most down to earth. I couldn't say that to other stars I know personally.
Anyway, I'm also excited about what will happen with Phil and Pinang's story now that their wedding is already happening. This chemistry between Erich and Daniel is just undeniable and even after being tried a couple of times by other networks, they remain on top because of good reason, they remained to be that feel good family-concentric program they started with in the beginning. Erich quirps "I'm grateful and blessed to be part of a show that brings families together and that exactly is why we're trying to do even better to tell the story of the Crisostomos even at trying times."
Here's the EXCLUSIVE video they showed us during the event. This is the Finale trailer. Bring tissues if you're about to cry!
The series will also be shown in Kazakhstan, Myanmar and Africa in 2017 and it'll surely touch more lives in the coming months. We hope they'll get positive feedback from those regions too. This finale week will still get viewers hooked as some anticipated trials will still haunt the newly weds. Will this make them? Or break them? Make sure you watch Be My Lady on their finale week 11:30AM right before SHOWTIME and afternoon primetime shows
Here's some snippets of the FUN press conference held earlier. Hope you like this!
She's funny, incredibly talented and a LOT to actually devour in a few hours. She's Ethel Booba and consequently called the Queen Of Twitter in the Philippines because of her fantastic antics on the social media channel when the occasion calls for it. Whether it's an election, an earthquake, traffic in Manila, friendships or relationships, she seems to have A LOT to say when it happens. She was actually once bewildered doing it and was afraid nobody was going to listen to her but when she started to try and talk to herself, that's where the fun begins.
She's been egged to do this since 2012 and with a few arrangements done by her editors, it now has materialized into a book. She also was able to talk to us about her relationships, her family, her ex boyfriends, and now a French guy who's she's currently involved with. They met in Qatar if I'm not mistaken after a show and they met again a few months after. It was endearing to see her tell us about it, but what I mostly liked in that conversation was how genuine she was telling us about it. She was like a long lost friend, the most funny one you would miss. Much like what I already anticipated her to be.
Her book is as crazy as she is, so if you don't have it yet, maybe it's time to hoard and get more copies so you can give it as gifts this Christmas. You'll laugh non stop like I did in the last two days while I was finishing to read it.
It's available at all leading bookstores nationwide! Get it at Powerbooks, National Bookstore and everywhere they sell books in the Philippines. I'm sure they have that on the shelf, otherwise, they'd be losers. Not funny at all!
Thank you Ethel for signing my copy! Wish I could spend time with you sometime you're one fun person!
It was a festive afternoon that welcomed me and a couple of blogger friends and celebrities at SM Manila a few weeks ago during the MINISO launch. MINISO has been a trusted brand from Tokyo and has been expanding rapidly all throughout the world with 1,400 stores at it's helm. With products that are simple, natural and quality, they've been impressing the most meticulous consumers with their own branded products. It was super cool to see them all in one place, still affordable and could pass off as those cute Japan products you see on TV even without going to the land of the rising sun. The company's executives, SM leadership and influencers were among the attendees. I saw these two lovebirds shopping and preparing for the opening ceremonies.
Ruru Madrid and Gabbi Garcia still star on the show Encantadia. They also appear on several shows in the Kapuso Network and have been regarded as one of the love teams to beat, though I feel it's REAL just like all the GabRu fans no? :)
Miniso people were already prepared for the throng of customers that were excited to buy stuff from their store. Trinkets of Japanese products not found in the Philippines can now be bought at SM Manila and SM San Lazaro!
A Japanese ceremony was also done to scare away evil spirits from the store, so you're sure you're going to be lucky when you purchase things here!
They also had performers entertain guests after the ribbon cutting. It was fun!
You are now looking at the MINISO store at SM Manila :)
There are some really good pens, pencils, school supplies inside the store.
Gabbi and Ruru were also there to give away gold coins, real coins and buy stuff off the shelf!
In just a few minutes, the lines became this long!
There are super nice organizers and sewing kits, perfect for gifts eh?
Some stuff toys were also selling for 200+ only, super cute!
They also had these elegant fragrance pots which you can put in rooms if you want to set your mood.
These ottoman boxes were selling like hotcakes, they're really good storage solutions for small rooms and they sell it very cheap!
They also have colorful headphones that sell for less than 1K. It was one of the things I wanted to buy but I already have so much stuff at home I had to stop my self LOL!
Still have problems on the nose area? You can remove blackheads with these stickers that only cost 99 I think.
These pots and pans for individual egg or pancake servings is so cute. They have cute anime characters on them.
Kids tell mom and dad you want these cute solar powered cars. Makes a good environmentally conscious gift for your small boys and girls.
Elegant earrings, necklaces and bracelets are also sold for cheap. They have promos with these too.
Snacks from Japan, they've got it here.
I got some of these almonds. So good!
For those who love gadgets, they've got these wireless keyboards and mice.
They also have power bank units, Miniso brand :)
For those who need cases for their phones, they've got a lot of them especially the new models.
They also have personal stuff, so clean up, personal effects, they've got it!
Soon they're going to open more stores in SM City East Ortigas, SM City Fairview, SM City Sucat and SM Southmall.This is just the beginning, they're going to have more branches in a mall near you. I'm going back there this weekend because I forgot to hoard some stuff so see you!
