The best and the best!
For the two nights that we spent in Bacolod, we went extremes.
First night, since it was Jem's birthday, we had dinner at probably the most chi-chi restaurant in Bacolod, 21.
They have great food, at reasonable prices - in relation to Manila dining.
We had the Binakol, the bilong-bilong (which was the best btw), fried isol, and the highlight of the night (for me), the porkchop bicol express!
Oh, not in the group food photo are the chicharon bulaklak!
which was too sinful. you'll feel the oil gushing out in every bite.. It's good, but you can only take so much guilt!
and we also had the soft shell crab, which was really lovely!
The porkchop bicol express, i think, is a must try! Though we were in Bacolod, they gave the Bicol express a twist!
we got surprised with how huge the fried isol was!
and finally, we had the birthday lapu-lapu. which was huge!
now that i'm looking at it, we actually ordered A LOT that night! lol.
and ended it with the birthday dessert cake!
(and look, c-lium fiber! lol.)
If Friday night was chi-chi, Saturday night was the complete opposite!
Pala-pala was said to be one of the best restaurants in Bacolod. They were said to serve good seafood and the freshest scallops. We kept on passing by this restaurant called Pala-Pala on the 18th, but our driver said that this wasn't the original Pala-Pala.
Of course us, not knowing what the original was, wanted to go to the authentic Pala-Pala. The real deal. When the driver took us there, we were in a shock when he parked at a local wet market. Authetic Pala-Pala was indeed the wet market!
Despite the Cartiers, the Tod's and everything in between; there was no turning back. We just dove into the challenge. While Chiqui and Carla went straight to the "karinderya" where you're going to have the fish cooked, Mary, Jem and I braved the wet floors and bought our proteins.
If Friday night was chi-chi, Saturday night was like this:
with Chiqui and Mary, slummin' it.
(priceless photo! evidence!)
and Carla and Jem
(Carla not looking to happy with tonight's festivities)
So we had our proteins cooked, and they all arrived at the same time. It was ovewhelming!
first, of course, the lobsters which were so cheap.
Buttered shrimps.
Calamares!
and the Scallops!
From looking not so happy, to very happy!
For a good 30 minutes, we just forgot where we were and just ate the seafood away!
We actually ordered A LOT. But we finished all of it. lol.
When we finished everything, we hurried and left. Since the night before was just one birthday cake, we decided to eat lots of cakes! (as if the dinner wasn't enough!)
we headed to Calea after Pala-Pala and tried a little bit of EVERYTHING.
They're famous for their cream puffs and their chocolate cake -- which we weren't able to try! They haven't been doing the chocolate cake for 2 months already, because they lack ingredients. And that night, they ran out of the cream puffs!
But that didn't stop us! So we tried..
The lemon thing that looked like brazo.
The apple cheese cake.
Carrot Cake.
I forgot what this was called.
The Chocolate Mousse cake which had reese's peanut butter cups as crust!
and the triple chocolate mousse which was really good!
we actually closed the cake shop down. lol.
looking at all the food that we ate, I can't imagine how we were able to stuff everything into our stomachs. Not that I'm seeing it, it seemed like we were pigs ready to be lechon-ed.