FOOD & CUISINE
This one was similar in appearance with Biñan, Laguna’ s puto which is individually formed and steamed in banana leaves. Made of ground rice, it was far more filling than the puto that is made of flour. I think not all puto are better with a Dinuguan dish, a perfect combination is one that is made of rice- it’ s more traditional, more Filipino. Another traditional Filipino snack is the Suman and Hot Tsokolate. Suman is made from glutinous rice and coconut cream while a good hot chocolate drink is unforgettable when made with the use of chocolate tablea and dissolved in a tsokolatera with a batirol. The tsokolatera is like a kettle container where you pour the water and milk and drop in the chocolate tablet and dissolved using a wooden stirrer, that of a batirol. It was an afternoon worth remembering. It’ s even better if it had drizzled, the moment would have been picture perfect – a hot chocolate drink with a pair of suman. Life’ s simple pleasures were captured in every nibble.
Golden Cowrie is not at all about merienda dishes which you can snack on in midafternoon. Their best-sellers are Crispy Pata, Adobong Kangkong, Adobong Talong, Bicol Express, Baked Scallops, Calamares, Sizzling Bangus in Coco Cream and much more. You can see that people really enjoy their dishes as diners come in at any time of the day.
Cebu Grand Hotel’ s Lorenzo
Half-day of going to a number of Cebu’ s landmarks like the Fort San Pedro in the Pier Area and the Magellan’ s Cross in the Downtown Area plus two restaurants enjoying good Filipino food, I found myself exhausted and headed back to the hotel my beau and I were staying. We freshened up and relaxed a bit while surfing the TV. Whenever I am in Cebu during events or shoots, the only way I could enjoy the area is by watching their local channels. Once again I found myself doing this. There were quite a number of TV
Lorenzo’ s mouthwatering fish with sundried tomatoes.
stations where I can watch a variety of things that’ s all purely about Cebu- from a featured restaurant, hotels, a new spa and even their famous personalities. All these channel surfing made me hungry again. But since we felt it was too late to go out, unless you want to party in a club or lounge, we decided to dine at the hotel’ s restaurant.
Lorenzo is Cebu Grand Hotel’ s restaurant. In February 2009, I went to Cebu for
a boxing event and the restaurant and its lobby area were still being renovated. But today, it exudes chic and elegant designs with clean lines and warm lighting. Instead of having the food taken into our room, we decided to dine at the restaurant to enjoy its new interiors. We did not order rice since we didn’ t want to overstuff ourselves. But I found myself ordering the Pesto Pasta. Even though its pasta, with all the starch and carbohydrates that goes with it, pesto sauce is still a good choice when eating pasta at night since its made of healthy ingredients – minced basil leaves and olive oil. There were two main dishes we could not resist, Chicken Cordon Bleu and Fish with Sundried Tomatoes. Chicken’ s white meat, ham and cheese were rolled and wrapped in a coating of flour, eggs and breadcrumbs then fried to a golden brown. The presentation was quite simple but definitely very appetizing. Sliced about half an inch thick, the dish was placed on a white ceramic plate and drizzled with a cheese and mustard sauce and sprinkled with minced fresh parsley. You can also nibble on the steamed carrots and baguio beans that doubles as garnishing together with the tomato-flower and the styled cucumber akin
Interior of Lorenzo
28 7107 ISLAND TRAVEL