Usapang Fried Chicken #19: PRITO KINGS!

SM Food Court @ SM City General Santos

I'm a bit more forgiving when I talk about the food offered outside Metro Manila. Like for example the Prito Kings' fried chicken (SM Gensan food court). They were cold (it was so soggy), really oily, and the gravy runny. Very runny. And if you look close enough, you'll notice that the drumstick is darker than the breast part. Normally, if a restaurant in Manila serves me fried chicken like that, I would ask the servers to take it back to the kitchen or demand that they take it out of the bill. But not this time. Maybe I get a bit too excited every time I'm in a new place to sweat the small stuff. Naka-reserve yan sa Manila. Last thing... do you know that fried chicken here cost almost half Andok's Dokito Frito?! 

So, what happened to the Prito Kings's chicken? Finished it! 

Breast Meal P40
Drumstick Meal P36
SM Distilled Water P20

 

GenSan City: Mandarin Tea Garden!

Mandarin Tea Garden @ SM General Santos City

Honestly, I don't have any idea  if we have Mandarin Tea Garden in Manila. I don't think so. Of course, I may be wrong. From what I read, (managing owner) Uptown Plaza Corporation's home city is Davao City and for the last nine or so years has been expanding in Southern Mindanao and they started with Cagayan de Oro and General Santos Cities. 

Our group saw this restaurant while malling in SM General Santos deciding where to have our lunch. Maraming tao and you would know immediately na kilalang-kilala siya.  Mann Hann ang dating niya. Uncomplicated, very affordable chinese. It's a relief from the onslaught of visually striking restaurants from Singapore serving Asian Cuisine. One can only take so much.

Mandarin Spareribs Rice  P81
Sweet and Sour Shrimps Rice  P81
Taosi Spareribs Rice  P86
Japanese Siomai  P61

Tapsilog, GenSan Style!

Taps & Mix @ General Santos City

The South Cotabato chapter of our Mindanao vacation really exhausted us. On our way home to the Fish Port in General Santos, we're running on empty already that's why we decided to re-fuel.  

One of our "tour guides" suggested this popular Tapsilogan called "Taps n Mix." The 24/7 place doesn't look like any tasilogan in Manila I know of.  Its dark, quiet and customers (with earphones) were busy on their laptops in-between bites. Parang nasa-Starbuck's ako with dim lights with ginisa smell. Barkadas stay outside al-fresco where they can smoke, laugh and sing happy birthday.

Anyway, we ordered for Tapsilog (I prefer my eggs, over hard) and Lechon sa Kawali (Ribsilog).  I wasn't really expecting much from their Tapsilog. Kase for me, Tapsilog is Tapsilog. Mali. 

Just by looking at the plate being served, I immediately noticed that their Tapa is sauteed. I tasted it. Tama ako. 

Our "tour guide" confirmed that they saute their Tapa here. So, did I like it? Hmmm... I'll stick to my classic fried (un-satueed) Tapa. And how about the Lechon sa Kawali?  I liked it. Their Lechon sa Kawali was how it should be... tustado, maalat-alat at maraming taba! 

Combo Meals @ P75
(served with rice + egg or hotdog)
Beef Tapa 
Lechon sa Kawali

Lake Sebu, South Cotabato: Tilapia Capital!

Lake Sebu @ South Cotabato

When one of my best friends (Tok) booked a flight to General Santos City last June (flight scheduled five months after), we didn’t expect anything great to happen. We didn’t know anything about GenSan except that it is the Tuna Capital of the Philippines. Period. But we still booked a flight anyway! Bahala na.  We landed on my birthday in GenSan and like any other local tourists, we headed to a SM City branch. There, we met Butch. A gay supervisor of a food booth (Chona’s) at the Food Court, who promised to take our group South Cotabato… particularly, Lake Sebu.

The following day, we had lunch at SM General Santos City where we took the tricycle to the bus terminal. We met our new friend (together with his friend, Archie) and we rode the Yellow Bus together. From there, we took a less than two hour trip to Suralla Integrated Public Terminal in South Cotabato where we transferred to a yellow jeepney to take us to Lake Sebu! It was packed! Aside from the sweaty passengers, the vehicle was overloaded with mishmash of everyday things (plastic gallons of water, fruits, school bags, and on the roof, sacks and sacks of rice etc). My pitiable ass was unable to find a comfortable position on the seat for the first 30 minutes. That trip cost P40 pero discounted daw ako dahil PWDs only pays P35. Thanks! Buti pa sa probinsiya, may kunsensya ang tao.

 
Anyway, the ride took us almost an hour to Lake Sebu. Matagtag, masikip at yes, medyo hindi maganda ang smell. But, I always say... It's part of the adventure! We went down the jeepney (finally!) right in front of Nadine Lake Resort where rooms can be rented for P400 a night (only resort with available rooms that time). 

 
We learned a lot about South Cotabato from talking with the locals. I didn’t know that South Cotabato is a Tilapia Capital, well, of Mindanao at least! Natives depend so much on the freshwater fish. In effect, they have quite a list of Tilapia recipes and two of them we had for dinner: Chicharong Tilapia and Paksiw na Tilapia together with Lomi and Garlic Chicken. The deep-fried, bite-sized Chicharong Tilapia with banana catsup, I love! 

I was forewarned of the Cotabato version of Garlic Chicken. I was mildly surprised by the fact that their version looked like Adobo of Manila. It’s really salty and the sauce tasted like uncooked soy sauce (it was uncooked soy sauce!). After tasting it, pass muna ako.  Then, there was the Paksiw ng Tilapia. First time I saw a black Paksiw. There were a lot a not-so-nice images playing on my mind that after two bites, pass ulit ako. By the way, just like the Garlic Chicken, this one was also salty. 

We slept soundly that night considering that the inn didn’t have neither airconditioners nor electric fans. Like what I would always say again and again, its all part of the adventure! True! True!
   

 Tricycle Ride

from SM General Santos City to the GenSan Terminal 

 

Bus Ride 

to Suralla Integrated Public Terminal

  Jeepney Ride

to Lake Sebu, at last!

 

GenSan: Birthday Dinner at Grab a Crab!

Grab a Crab & Coffee Club 101 @ SM General Santos City

They say that Grab a Crab is one of the very few fine dining restaurants in GenSan City. The effort was there… from the service to the food presentation. Sige na. I guess they can’t afford to have a true-blue fine dining restaurant here… the overhead would be just too big. 

Our dinner was passable. Like what I said, the effort was there. The Beef Tenderloin was served on a sizzling plate and tasted catsup-y. The Crispy Shrimp (very cheap!) was sweet and spicy while the Garlic Fried Chicken was a bit dry (though I liked the very light taste of burnt garlic). Like what I've mentioned before, I’m partial to fried chicken with thin breading. The breading protects the meat from getting too dry (eating dry white meat is like eating cotton balls).
   
After the restaurant staff gave me their upbeat rendition of the birthday song (thank you!), we transferred to the connecting coffee shop, the Coffee Club 101 (same owners). Coffee was good, freshly-brewed. 

That was our first day at GenSan (not much activity, no?). Second and third days were spent in South Cotabato... And I must say that South Cotabato was the highlight of our one-week vacation. 

Crispy Shrimps P240
Beef Tenderloin P220
Garlic Fried Chicken (half) P150  
Crabmeat Fried Rice (for four pax) P130
Mango Shake P60  

GenSan: Fish Port, Tuna Paksiw, Balbacua, Fried Chicken!

Fish Port & SM Mall @ General Santos City

October 21, 2012. My 45th birthday. 

It’s not the first time I spent my birthday outside Manila (the first time was in Bacolod a few years back). I guess, when you get older you kinda get bored with the usual stuff. When my good friend broached the idea of visiting GenSan five months ago, I immediately asked him to book a flight on my birthday. He did. It was a long wait but worth it. It was one-helluva-vacation. 

Anyway, we landed in GenSan very early Sunday morning. We were picked up and brought to the “The General Santos Fish Port Complex” (GSFPC) guest house in  Barangay Tambler where we stayed for three days. We didn’t lose time in exploring the place (it covers 11 hectares). We went to the complex’ food court which caters mostly to the “tuna workers” and settled for “Fel & Jay and Atel Eateries” primarily because they serve Balbacua, a Cebuano specialty popular in the southern part of the country (it was my first time to eat this Balbacua, a soupy dish with green leafy veggies). Of course, I had to order for Fried Chicken which came chopped with a small bowl of banana catsup. Yum. I also ordered for a serving of Tortang Talong and Meatballs which, I think, was undercooked.   

It was a P300-taxi-ride from the Fish Port to the new SM Mall (it opened last August) where we had our lunch of Tuna Paksiw at Chona's and a slice of what we think was their version of Sans Rival with condensed milk. Not bad.  

And so... it was the start of a week of eating, eating and still more eating.