Food Tour, A Taste of Negros, July 24-26, 2015

[The text below is in the process of being updated, and the photos will be posted soon; please visit CHOP's Facebook group page for the posts on the tour. Many thanks for your patience.]

"A TASTE OF NEGROS"  -  This is the first time that CHOP will venture as far as a plane ride away to the land of smiles:  BACOLOD. We will be hosted and led by CHOP's husband-and-wife team, Tom and Mitch Bascon, who will bring us through Bacolod, Silay, and Talisay in two full days on Saturday and Sunday. The tour will include a market tour, food demonstrations, meals at several establishments, and shopping for pasalubongs. Airfare and accommodations will be to the individual’s account, and only the internal tour-related costs will be covered by the fee to be charged. Additional details will be sent to the membership as soon as they are confirmed. 

P R O G R A M

[The Program below is still subject to change.]

FRIDAY, JULY 24

                        Arrive in Bacolod (Own arrangements)

      7:00pm      Dinner - Enjoy a typical Ilonggo meal that will feature among other things:

                              -     KBL (kadios, baboy, langka with batuan)

                              -     Laswa (vegetable soup)

                              -     Alimusan paksiw

                              -     Pitaw (if available)

SATURDAY, JULY 25

      7:00am      Pick-up from hotel and drive to Silay City

      SILAY

      7:20am-     Visit Silay Market   

        7:45am       -     See how “Manug-libuds” (roaming food vendors) purchase home-

                                   made delicacies for their food baskets as practiced in the old days.

-     Buy local ingredients such as:  batuan (local berry, a souring agent for soups; kalkag (dried, tiny shrimps); pinakas or lamayo (sun-dried fish); ginamos (local bagoong); fresh sugar cane juice (if in season).

                                

7:55am-       Mid-morning snacks in El Ideal bakery, a restaurant serving baked goods

  8:40am      since the 1920’s.  

                         -      Taste their unique guapple pie.

                         -      Buy old fashioned snacks (lubid lubid, broas, biscocho, sinambag,

                                quinihad, bañadas, butong-butong, chewy meringues, etc.)

     8:50am-       Visit the Ancestral House of Jose B. Gamboa  

       9:20am      -     Be welcomed by the Silaynon hosts to their ancestral home.

                         -     Enjoy a mid-morning fare of special home-made delicacies such as 

                               fresh lumpia, old-fashioned empanada, puto lanson or puto taktak

                               (cassava cake dessert), and salab (coconut pancake).

      9:30am-     Walking Tour  

         12 noon     -     Visit the San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral Church

-        Silay Museum

o   Ancestral homes

o   Between stops, taste native snacks from a “manug libud’s” food basket

     12:15pm-    Lunch in a “punong” or fishpond with food demo of Ilonggo dishes

        2:45pm       -     Watch a cooking demo of special dishes

-        Feast on local favorites and delectable desserts such as fresh seafood, mazapan de pili, and dulce gatas

       TALISAY

       3:00pm-      Ancestral House of Tana Dicang

  4:30pm          -     Enjoy a merienda of homemade specialties.

BACOLOD

4:50pm-     Pendy’s – shop for native food pasalubong

  5:20pm

      TALISAY

      5:40pm-     Watch the sunset at The Ruins

        6:20pm

      BACOLOD

      7:00pm-      Dinner at Manokan Country for tasty Inasal and Laswa

        8:00pm

      8:15pm        Return to Hotel

SUNDAY, JULY 26

      BACOLOD

      7:45am       Pick-up at Hotel

      8:00am-      Ilonggo Breakfast at Bascon Cafe

        9:00am       -     Calo-calo (sinangag with small dried shrimps or “kalkag”)

-        Adobo flakes

-        Native chorizo

-        Uga nga lamayo (sun-dried fish)

      9:30am-     Bailon Piaya – watch how Piaya is made the old-fashioned way, and 

        9:45am            taste it hot off the press!

      10:00am-   Sugarlandia – buy native specialty snacks such as barquillos, pinasugbo or

         10:30am          consilva (sliced bananas coated in dark, chewy caramel), and

                                 old-fashioned gullets.

      10:45am-   Shop in Showroom for items made in Negros (Optional)

        11:30am

      11:45am-   Lunch at 21 Restaurant

        1:00pm

      1:15pm-     Pendy’s – to pick up orders

        1:45pm

      SILAY

      2:00pm-     Balay 1925 – for snacks (30 minutes allocated; Optional)

        2:30pm

      2:30pm-     Drive to Bacolod Silay Airport for flight to Manila

        2:50pm

HOTEL OPTIONS:  For easy access, below are two hotels centrally located along Lacson Street:

1.   L’Fisher Hotel – Chalet Rooms (P2,800 – average price per night/room)

      http://www.lfisherhotelbacolod.com/chalet-rooms

2.   Avenue Suites Hotel (P2,050 – average price per night/room)

            Address:  12^th St., Lacson St., Bacolod;  Phone:  +63 34 435 777

PHOTOS FROM THE TOUR

(Narratives and captions will be added later.)

1.   The priceless pleasure of a warm welcome!
     

We were pleasantly surprised by this welcome banner just outside
the airport doors; this augured well for what awaited the group!

The Program professionally prepared by Tom & Michelle; it included a succinct but
informative history of Negros. And, an eco-bag too!

2.   Ana's Garden Grill & Seafood Restaurant

      First Night Dinner