I rarely blog about the foods I gorge on during my travels, but this time I made an effort in writing these fine places in Cebu where one can enjoy a laid back environment and one finds additional joy in eating not only these sumptuous but otherwise can cause high blood-so please eat in moderation, foods but also find a suitable place to mix both hanging out with friends and pleasing one's appetite to the fullest.
First is Larsian in Cebu - it is located just a few steps from Fuente Osmena Circle. My friend Toni took me here during my first night in Cebu when I went there to attend the 2011 Sinulog Festival. It is set-up like a food court with various BBQ stalls that opens up at 2:00 PM and goes on till the early hours of the next morning.
Eating bare hand on a meal consisting of "puso", pork and chicken meat bbq, chorizo, liver, chicken gizzard, skin, leg and feet, pusit (squid) and an ice cold softdrink or San Miguel Beer while hanging out with your Cebu-based friends. This is really a must try when you find yourself in Cebu as the atmosphere could not be any more laid back.
The smokes emanating from the BBQ stalls coupled with the reddish lights and the ongoing conversations of strangers makes up a Wong Kar Wai - like movie setting, it definitely beats any fine dining experiences at a much lesser cost. Talk about easy on the pocket the BBQ prices ranges from 5.00 PHP (pork bbq) to 12.00 PHP (chicken liver) to the bigger sizes chicken breast (40.00 PHP), a hotdog is at 10.00 PHP while a chorizo is pegged at 15.00 PHP to name a few and eat it bare handed or with a plastic glove with a puso rice that sells only 3.00 PHP each.
Since it was a few nights before the grand Sinulog parade, the atmosphere in the place was near "fiesta mode" but during ordinary nights - Larsian still provides a willful energy vibe as a lot of people goes here and remains as one of the favorite places to eat out in Cebu.
Pigging out on lechon in Carcar.
A day after the Sinulog Festival - we proceeded to the diving location of Moalboal and along the way we stopped by at the heritage town or Carcar where we visited St. Catherine's Church and passed by a number of old heritage houses dating back from the Spanish era and of course, I tried out the famous Carcar's lechon which you can do by just visiting the market which is a few steps from the Rotunda near the town's center.
"Eat in moderation" I kept reminding myself but just the look of these lechons makes me wanna eat more than I could, but good thing though, my resolved to moderation succeeded but I still enjoyed every bit of it chugging down my throat after it scratched its way through my tongue's taste buds.
It will definitely take a strong urge to resist eating more than one is allowed as just by looking at the lechon stall owner chopping the lechon to pieces while its juice flies in the air and the sound of its crunchy skin and the whiteness of its meat is revealed. Screw moderation eating for once and just let yourself pig out for just this time. It's a cruel thought for hard core vegetarians and animal activists which I could understand. However, in my self indulgence and 'carnivore' upbringing these 'Lechons' comes highly recommended for others.
Siomai sa Tisa
I was able to experience eating here during a separate trip back to Cebu in April on a trip to Malapascua Island. After spending the weekend at the island, I went back for another night at Cebu and made the most of it by hanging out with my fellow Pinoy Travel Bloggers' from Cebu Doi, Edcel and Jason and along with Upper who was also at Cebu that time (she came from a trip to Bantayan Island) and her friend Krissy, we had our late dinner at another popular food trip location in Cebu which is the "Siomai-yan sa Tisa" in brgy. Labangon.
Cheap siomais (around 6.00 pesos each) shouldn't taste this good - as you don't know I'm a fond siomai-eater and I've eaten my fair share of crappy tasting siomai - the ones you'd think was made of paper from an old PLDT phone directory. But the ones at Tisa was notches higher in taste quality. Consumed with hot sauce an ice cold 7-Up and again with the company of friends in yet another laid back atmosphere, almost nothing beats this one.
Then afterward during that same night we capped it off by having "brownie cup" at La Marea at IT Park where we were joined by another travel blogger Carla.
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| photo from: The Traveling Feet Website |
