Random Ideas for the Road Food Trip Lover

A big thanks to all those who submitted their entries to the Blog Carnival with the theme “Your Most Awesome Road Food Trip”!

To give you ideas for your next Road Food Trip,  here is a compilation of my favorite entries:

1. Quezon Province, the Next Frontier of Road Food Trip Adventure

Photo by: FoodStyling-Manila.Com

The province of Quezon is starting to be appreciated as a road food trip destination. Now, people find there’s more to it than the usual Pahiyas celebration in Lucban. Three of my favorite restaurants are located in Quezon: Ugu Bigyan in Tiaong, Quezon; Jay’s Kubli Springs in Dolores, Quezon, and the Crispy Pata Place in Candelaria.

Giannina of FoodStyling-Manila has a great blog series on her Quezon Road Food Adventure — from Real Quezon’s Beach Side Seafood Market to Fresh Seafood BBQ at Jualian Resort in Real to Biliran Island for Picnic and to the Malunok Falls via the Real-Mauban “Coastal Highway”.  She certainly covered more ground beyond the traditional Lucban visit and stopover at Kamayan sa Palaisdaan. She even featured Dahilican Port, which is the jump-off point for the other remote islands in Quezon, like Polillo Island.

Quezon will be my next Road Food Trip destination in 2012, specifically because of the relaunch of Balesin (which is south of Polillo Island), the beautiful and laidback beaches of Cagbalete Islands (via Mauban Quezon) and BonPen, the new destination in the 3rd district of Quezon.

2. Discovering Baler!

Photo by Terrible Angel’s.

I fell in love with Baler the first time I saw it. I wrote a 3-part blog series on it:

OAP | Baler, Aurora, Quezon Series: 

• The Allure of Baler (1 of 3)
• Top 10 Food in Baler (2 of 3)
• Cemento’s Cobra Reef, Baler! (3 of 3)

Through Terrible Angel’s blog post entitled, “Enchanting Baler”, Theresa convinced me to go back to explore Baler’s Ditumabo Falls and the undeveloped Dicasalarin private beach.

I really miss Baler. Besides its wonderful eco-tourism sites, I also miss the simple but yummy food!

3. Tagaytay Food Trip

Photo by Paolo Mandingiado

Tagaytay is our favorite road food trip destination because it is just an hour or so away from Manila. Plus, it is home to the best garden restaurants in the country.

If you are just starting to explore Tagaytay, Maricar Rillera of What Maricar Ate Blog has a good suggestion: go to Tootsie’s for a lunch of home-cooked recipes, then relax in Sonya’s garden, enjoy Mushroom Burger, have coffee in Bag of Beans, and then end your trip with Greek food at Manos Greek Taverna.

On your next visit, Paolo Mandingiado suggests this itinerary: Dulang Restaurant, Nurture Spa Village, Tagaytay,  Antonio’s Breakfast, and Buon Giorno for their dessert and Leslie’s Bulalo combination.

4. Bohol Escape!

Photo by Annelle Street

I love Bohol because the place is blessed with Chocolate Hills, tarsiers and good weather all year round.

When it comes to the food scene, things are starting to develop. Most people probably associate Bohol’s food with the famous Loboc River Cruise (see Chova N Chorvalyn’s post on: A River Cruise That Fills Your Stomach) and the food at Bohol Bee Farm. But Annelle Lansangan’s trip to the Land of the Chocolate Hills gave us a glimpse of the secret behind Bohol’s yummy food — fresh seafood! Here is her account of their food trip experience:

“When I was a child, I was led to believe that the famous Chocolate Hills were made of real chocolate and that God created them as a prize for children who behaved well.  Things changed when I entered grade one and my teacher introduced us to the world of  alamats (legends). I then resorted to thinking that these chocolate hills came about when 2000 years ago, two giants were having a ‘mud fight’ and these so called hills were formed out of their game. These hills have always been a mystery to me and it was only until summer of this year that I was finally able to visit and investigate for myself whether or not these hills were made of chocolate!”

“On our first night, I remember eating at the Heritage Crab House Seafood Restaurant. If you’re my friend then you would most probably know that I am not a fan of crabs. Crab sticks (even if I know that they’re made from fish) mixed in rice or as makki filling would be the nearest thing I’d have to real crabs. But on this night, I had no choice. We were at a Crab House and what else would be their specialty? So I gave into my anti crabs hiatus.At first it was difficult trying to break into the shell of the crabs but once I got to taste the meat, oh my was it worth it!! The meat tasted so milky and it had that melt in your mouth kind of feel. All these years this was what I was missing out on! Aside from the crabs, we also ordered vegetables such as this 3 kind mushroom platter.And lastly we had some crispy pata to go with our meal.”

 “On the second day, we spent our eating adventure on The Loboc River Boat. It was a lunch tour around the river with a buffet meal while enjoying the scenery. On the boat we had variety of sea food such as steamed shrimps, grilled squid, fried bangus, pancit and some beef and pork dishes to counter all the seafood intake. I tried everything and it was a good decision despite the fact that we were going swimming afterwards.”

 “On the third day, we rode a boat to visit the so called virgin islands wherein the sandbar was also located. On the boat ride, the men on board offered us these sea urchins.  Before we could even say NO THANK YOU, the man selling them cut one up and scooped the meat out!! I was surprised to know that it was really eaten that way. Raw and fresh from the ocean. ”

 “I wasn’t feeling that adventurous that day and the smell of the sea urchin did not appeal to me. So instead, our driver Bobby took on the challenge of eating it! He said that it tasted like the ocean. So much for something exotic.”

 “When we landed on the beach, we treated ourselves to our ‘last lunch’ in the islands of Bohol. My tita picked out some seafood for us and had them cooked . I was surprised when the orders were placed on the table. There were only 5 of us and what my tita ordered was good for around 10 people!!Shrimps galore. I ended eating approximately 25 pieces of this buttered heaven.My newfound love, crabs. .Grilled squid with stuffings.We had some tuna grilled. It was best eaten with toyomansi sauce.”

 “So that ends my Bohol adventure. It was one of the most memorable three days of my summer this year and I got to spend it with family, and the entire experience of trying new food and indulging on food while bumming around the beach was awesome. I arrived back in Manila with a tummy similar to that of the Chocolate Hills but the experience was worth the food baby.”

5. Pangasinan Food Trip

Photo by Agham Sphere.

Darwin Cayetano of Agham Sphere gave a very good checklist on the must-try food in Pangasinan. Included are:

• “White Gold” of Calasiao Puto,
• Boneless Bangus of Dagupan (Plato Wraps),
  
• Seafoods of Matutina’s Restaurant,
  
• Pigar-pigar at Galvan Street,
• Alaminos Longganisa,
• Binungey (kakanin) of Bolinao, and 
• Tummy Teasers in Bolinao.

See Agham Sphere’s Blog Post on the Most Awesome Road Food Trip.

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Giannina of FoodStyling-Manila wins the most awesome blog post in the [Blog Carnival] Your Most Awesome Road Food Trip. Enjoy your iPod Touch 2 with a Soundfreaq Sound Step on your next road food trip, courtesy of Beyond the Box!

ALL the bloggers mentioned and linked in this blog post get a Half Scholarship to Maven Secrets 6.0 (worth P25,000), which is a 90-day internet business coaching and mentoring program that can help you take your blog to the next level!

Maven Secrets 6.0 starts with an introduction class on September 14, Wednesday. See you there!

Please coordinate with Rache (0917-5318949 or rache@diaz.ph) on how to claim your prize and Maven Secrets Half-Scholarships. 🙂 Prizes are non-transferable.

Live an Awesome Life,

 
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Call or Text Me: +63917 5683-627 (LOVE-OAP)
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Full Disclosure: Beyond the Box is an official sponsor partner of Our Awesome Planet.

P.S. Here are some more road food trip ideas worth mentioning:

Bagasbas Beach, Daet

Photo by Paolo Mandingiado.

See: Paolo Mandingiado Blog | Calaguas, Camarines Norte,
Day 1: Of waves, a coño menu and sinantol (Bagasbas Beach, Daet)

Villa Socorro in Pagsanjan

Photo by ilovemienne03.

See: Dyza Portugal’s You and I Collide | Pagsanjan Road Food Trip: A Celebration of Love for 1460 Days 🙂

Pitstop Pizza Haus in Guimaras

Photo by Aiza Garnica.