Do 30 things in Davao
(First of two parts)
As a traveler, Davao City has always struck me as the land of plenty — plenty of land to explore (reputedly the largest city in the world with a total area of 2,443 sq. km,) plenty of sights to behold, plenty of multicultural people to meet, plenty of tribal art to admire, plenty of nice hotels to stay at and plenty of food and fruits to try.
And, like its emblematic fruit, durian, which one either loves or hates, we’ve got a plentiful mouth in our enigmatic Davaoeño president-elect, leaving us on the edge of our seats with plenty to chew on (pun intended) for the next six years.
This adds to my already plentiful list of compelling reasons to revisit this queen city of Mindanao, which I have visited at least five times in the past, and which has never disappointed me since the first trip. This time around, hopefully, it will be from the perspective of the locals: why they so love their long-time mayor and beloved city.
Authentic man
Davao City’s most famous “son,” or rather “father,” has become the city’s number one tourist attraction since declaring his presidential candidacy in late November 2015. So popular, in fact, the Department of Tourism in Southern Mindanao (Region XI) is planning a Dutertour Package, which it will launch sometime next month.
President-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte — a.k.a. Rody, Digong, or just Mayor — has simple ways and culinary tastes that are public knowledge, quite consistent with his campaign pitch of being “authentic.” A “what you see is what you get” kind of man: a little rough around the edges, perhaps, but true to himself (makatotoo.)
Nevertheless, he said he will metamorphose into a butterfly, and promised to behave in a “prim and proper” manner once he is inaugurated as president, to the point, he said, that “almost, I will become holy.”
But then again, contradicting his own off-the-cuff, shoot-from-the-hip one-liners has become a legendary trait. To paraphrase the fictional Forrest Gump’s famous quip: “Duterte is like a box of chocolates (which the President-elect dislikes). You never know what you’re gonna get.”
“Get” we did, though, when it came to his food choices.
“He is a simple man with one viand (ulam) and rice only. It is enough for him. He is not fond of having several dishes served in one meal,” said his chosen personal chef, the Belgian Peter de Cauwer, in an interview by Edith Regalado for this newspaper.
“He has no diet restrictions; he can eat anything. His favorite dishes consist of ginisang munggo (sautéed mung beans), salted dried fish and dried squid, fried galunggong (red tail scad fish), garlic sautéed corned beef and paksiw na isda (fish simmered in vinegar). He snacks on peanut brittle, which is always present in his car,” added the Cebuano-speaking Belgian.
Going by the French lawyer and kitchen philosopher Brillat-Savarin’s famous quote: “Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you who/what you are,” Mayor Duterte is a simple man with simple tastes in food and clothes. A senior man quite set in his ways, yet with the energy of the millennials (note his nocturnal habits). He is a populist (makatao) at heart and has a common man’s (masa) touch, nowadays a rarity amongst our traditional politicians. He’s been one with the people he has sworn to serve, working with them, eating with them, living amongst them (he lives in a modest house in a middle-class neighborhood,) and still patrols the city driving a taxicab past midnight till the wee hours, like a father tucking his children into bed, safe and sound.
The tough, crude, curse-spewing persona he projects is a completely different matter. The dictionary defines a “persona” as not exactly a lie or a falsehood; its meaning implies that it is only part of the truth. And, like all masks, there is a “real” person beneath. Just like the durian mentioned above, while it is quite thorny and menacing on the outside, it is sweet, creamy and soft at its core. It is hellish to those who dislike it, but heavenly to those who love it. That is the duality of our soon-to-be 16th president of the republic.
Close encounters with the Mayor
If variety is the spice of life, Davao’s culinary landscape is quite a spicy one, with its wide spectrum of offerings as colorful as the man that has led them for more than 20 years. Through these years, the Mayor has been known to frequent a variety of joints that cross all social boundaries, from hole-in-the-wall roadside karinderias to fine dining establishments.
There’s one common denominator, though. All of them are homegrown. The Mayor practices the saying “Tangkilikin ang sariling atin.” Patronize one’s own. He buys local. He eats local.
Let’s go take a peek at these joints, the Mayor’s usual picks, hopefully to get a better picture of the man, one dish at a time. We’ll also come across some people whose lives have been touched by the Mayor, from ordinary workers to highly successful entrepreneurs and professionals. Let’s do our own Du30 crawl.
(Author’s note: The actual interviews were conducted mostly in Tagalog. For convenience, I’ve written them in English, with the exemption of some lines for emphasis.)
Exhibit A: First witness to take the stand
Arriving at Davao International Airport on a Monday morning, I had an hour to spare before my wife Mary Ann’s plane arrived. She took a different flight to be with her former colleagues in Cathay Pacific — Graham and Yolly Prosser, now based in Toronto, Canada, and our kabalen Marsha Santos Nepomuceno, also a restaurateur in our hometown Angeles City. They were to join us for our Davao immersion tour.
While waiting for my luggage at the carousel, a porter approached me asking if I needed help. The first thing that grabbed my attention was his nametag: “TAYAG, A.” I was 100 percent certain he was a relative and 100 percent a Kapampangan like me. Here is his story:
“I am Alfredo Tayag. My parents were originally from Sto. Tomas, Pampanga. We moved here when I was very young. Though I’ve forgotten my Kapampangan, I still crave buro (that quintessential Pampango meal of fermented rice with fish or shrimps). My father was a tile installer, which I also did until it became too backbreaking — you know, just like the song Planting Rice, maghapon nakayuko (stooped-bent the whole day). I have been a porter for 15 years now. I’ve had a good life here, sending my five children through school. Alfred works as a screening officer here at the airport, another is in I.T., the third is an aircraft mechanic, and the two girls finished Commerce working in some office. Lahat sila meron trabaho. Dahil kay Mayor, di sila kailangan mag-abroad.” (All of them have work. Because of the Mayor, they don’t need to go abroad.)
“The Dutertes are good people. Every time Inday Sara (the present Davao City mayor, daughter of Mayor Rody) arrives from a trip, she always has some pasalubong for us porters — a box of donuts or some sweets for us to share. She passes through the public exit, not the VIP room. Every Christmas, each of us is given a bag of groceries.”
Exhibit B: Hitting the ground running
Upon checking in at Marco Polo Hotel at around 1:30 p.m., we lost no time proceeding to its Chinese restaurant Lotus Court. Once seated, we asked the waiter what dishes Mayor Duterte usually orders. He excused himself and went to the kitchen to ask the chefs. A couple of minutes later, the hotel’s executive chef Alex Destriza came out himself (I’ve known him from his Manila Peninsula days, but didn’t know he’s with Marco Polo now.) He enumerated the Mayor’s favorites, which we ordered: bamboo pith soup with prawns, salt and pepper pork ribs, scallops with broccoli and two-ways Peking duck (second way is lettuce cups with minced duck). And for good measure, we also ordered hakaw (steamed shrimp dumplings), shao long bao (pork dumplings with built-in soup), and my favorite suckling pig cold cuts combination. The verdict from the three former CX chief pursers and Hong Kong residents: 8 out of 10. They all agree that, though the Peking duck was indeed very good with its super crisp skin, it lacked the flavor and fat of Chinese ducks, which they pined for. Apparently, US ducks have been in use all over the country the past two years due to the ban on Chinese ducks because of the bird flu. Still and all, I’d give the Mayor’s choices and ours a big 10. Magka-taste pala kami (wink, wink).
My most memorable trip to this city was in 2000. I was working through a bucket list with distinguished traveling companions that today’s foodies (the terms “foodie” and “bucket list” weren’t in use yet then) could only dream about and drool over — Doreen G. Fernandez, Larry J. Cruz, Glenda Barretto, Robert Kuan (original founder of Chowking) and son Kevin, Lory Tan (then president of Bookmark publishing,) Fr. Rene Javellana S.J., historian John Silva, and no less than former Miss Universe (1973) Margie Moran Floirendo as our local guide. We chose to stay at the Marco Polo Hotel then, not only for its reputed excellent accommodations, its central location (Aldivinco Shopping Center is just across the street,) but also because of its famous in-house Cantonese restaurant Lotus Court, a culinary destination in itself. Even back then, Davao had struck everybody as a foodie’s haven and staying at the only five-star hotel in the city to boot. Marco Polo hasn’t disappointed in the four times I’ve stayed here. Its 25-meter lapping pool is a big bonus to me, punishing myself ahead for the excesses of the day.
Exhibit C: A credible witness at Bangkerohan Market
The following early morning, my travel mates and I trooped to Bangkerohan Market, just a 10-minute taxi ride away from our hotel. Our main objective was to check out the fruits; I also wanted to photograph the fresh catch in the seafood section.
After seeing the durian choices at Bobong Maloy’s fruit stand, we asked its owner where the painitan (literally “to warm the stomach”) is, to have hot sikwate or native chocolate drink. She personally led us to Dolly’s kiosk (no signage) just around the corner inside the market.
Seating ourselves at the barstools, we ordered a cup each of hot sikwate (P18 with milk) and some puto maya (P10 per one-cup portion); it is usually taken with a choice of white or red tapol of the glutinous rice cake. While Ate Dolly was churning the chocolate drink with a wooden batirol, I asked her if Mayor Duterte has ever taken sikwate in her kiosk. “No, the Mayor doesn’t like chocolate, but Inday Sara does and has been here many times.”
An elderly, neatly dressed woman seated next to me joined in our conversation.
“The Mayor eats at a karinderia inside over there,” pointing to a pasilyo leading further inside the market.
“Doon siya nagpapaluto ng paksiw na bangus, kay Solde (That’s where he has his milkfish stew cooked, at Solde’s),” she added. Hearing these words, I felt I’d just hit the jackpot in a casino. The bells kept on ringing: it’d been the missing puzzle in chef de Cauwer’s interview on paksiw na isda. “Just what kind of fish did Duterte eat?” was the nagging question I was set to find out. And what kind of salted dried fish? Adding to my bonanza, the lady volunteered more info:
“In his early years as Mayor, he would drop by his mother Nanay Soling’s house to eat breakfast at around noontime — two saba bananas and one boiled kamote (sweet potato),” she said.
“He also likes danggit, fried really crisp (Bingo! A double whammy!). Another favorite of his is Saná’s hinalang, a spicy carabeef soup, and its kusayos or tapa, cured carabao meat. During Sunday family gatherings in their old house, they usually just have nilaga (boiled meat and veggies), or the standard sugba-tola-kilaw (a.k.a. su-to-kil, short for grilled, boiled and kinilaw or raw seafood washed in vinegar) of the Cebuanos,” she continued.
“How do you know all this information?” I asked, a bit skeptical.
“I am a retired public school teacher. I was a long-time volunteer at Soledad Duterte Foundation, which Nanay Soling founded and personally oversaw. We were conducting livelihood and skills training to the indigenous people of Marahan,” she said with pride, establishing her credibility.
“And what is your name, po?” I asked.
“Just call me Eva,” she replied humbly with a smile. The witness is dismissed.
Exhibit D: In flagrante delicto or circumstantial evidence?
From Dolly’s kiosk, we trooped to nearby Solde’s Eatery. Of the several karinderias within her row, Solde has the most number of cooked dishes (30-plus), displayed within a glass-encased rack at that. Asking for Até Solde, as she is called, we were told she went out to buy some things. That didn’t stop us, though, from ordering a few dishes to try: squid adobo, gelatinous tuna skin adobo, balbacua or ox trotters stew, longganisa, fall-off-the-bone pata humba or sweet pig’s trotters stew, tuna paksiw and a just-off-the-pan fried chicken thigh that could give Jollibee a run for its money.
All were equally good, measuring up to one’s expectations of a good karinderia, delivering really good food for real people (ordinary folk) at very reasonable prices, sans the ambiance, of course. Like most karinderia owners around the country, they put all their efforts into the food — you get the most of what you pay for. (Solde’s dishes cost between P20 to P35 each, with bulalo or boiled beef shank the most expensive at P70.)
When Ate Solde (Marisol Villaver Datuin) arrived, I asked her how come she doesn’t have the paksiw na bangus the Mayor usually eats. She replied with this story:
“Ah, that’s by order only. It was around past 11 p.m. when the Mayor first came here during one of those nights he was patrolling the city in a taxi. He was looking for paksiw na bangus, but all I had was paksiw buntot ng tuna (tuna tail.) He tried it and didn’t like it. He said it was a bit too sour. He said he liked his paksiw with just a hint of sourness, lightly salted and a tiny bit sweet. Just like the Visayan inun-unan.
“And so, the next evening, he sent one of his men ahead to order one ‘big fat bangus’ for him later that night. When he came, he got only the first two pieces after the head, removed its meat, and ate with his hands only the belly part, with 1/2 cup of rice. He gave the rest of the bangus to his staff, who also ate with some other dishes. The Mayor liked it and orders the same every time he comes here.”
Asking her further if the Mayor takes any dipping sauce with his paksiw, she replied: “I don’t know. I was scared to get near him because there were so many firearms around. But I guess not, since he wanted it low-salt in the first place.”
Anyway, I asked Ate Solde if I came back the following morning, would she cook two “big fat bangus” for me to photograph and try? Long story short, the next day, after shooting and eating only two of the eight pieces cooked, I asked her how much I owed her.
“P80 lang,” she said (P35 apiece for the bangus and P10 for the rice as she wrote down the bill).
I was incredulous, not believing how little she was charging me, and told her so.
“But you only ate two pieces. I will sell the rest anyway,” she reasoned.
Wanting to compensate her more, I bought the rest of the paksiw, paying extra for a hard plastic container bought just around her corner. Again, she charged only for the cooked bangus pieces that fitted in the wok, sans the two tail parts. Honest as honest gets, don’t you agree, dear readers?
I gave the paksiw as pasalubong to Dottie Wügler-Cronin, Marco Polo’s general manager, whom I met many years ago in Cebu. This was her “text” feedback:
“Claude, I just ate the best bangus paksiw since I came to Davao last year. Maraming salamat for your thoughtfulness.” Thank Ate Solde, Dottie, and the Mayor for his instructions.
(Refer to Recipe File for Ate Solde’s Mayor’s paksiw na bangus. The Bangkeronan Market is open 24 hours daily, as well as most of the karinderias. Solde’s Eatery – Bangkerohan Market; Cel: +63-9124688698.)
Exhibit E: Anak ng kalabaw, soulful spice of life
Still following the lead of dear Eva, we went to check out the hinalang at Saná’s. First off, hinalang is a popular spicy soup in Bohol usually served during fiestas. It is cooked with carabao bones and meat, slow-cooked overnight over a charcoal stove, well steeped with lemongrass, red onions (called sibuyas Bombay hereabouts,) red chilies, ginger, salt and black peppercorns. It is one of those soulful soups that could boost you up after a night of heavy drinking, or recuperating from a cold.
Saná’s Original Kabawan (kabawan to mean a place to have carabao meat/kabaw; Tagalog kalabaw) is a karinderia just off a main boulevard. It has been around since the 1980s, specializing in carabao meat (a.k.a. carabeef) dishes, owned by Porferia Sagoso Valles originally from Jagna, Bohol. When she followed her husband from Maribojoc to Davao City seeking greener pastures, she was called Saná, as women from Bohol are called, just as it’s sanó for the males (similar to the Pampango abé, or the Cebuano bay). This joint serves an all-carabao, eight-item menu: hinalang (spicy, P55), linat-an (non-spicy, P55), tapa (cured and shredded, just like canned corned beef, P80), ginamay (cooked like menudo, P25), kilawin kabaw (loin meat, P55), balbacua (feet and knuckles, P65), bulalo (shank, P140) and Soup No. 5 (bull’s testicles and penis, P55).
The Mayor is not just a regular customer, especially during his taxi-roving nights, but is also a personal friend of Saná, standing as ninong at their Davao-born only child Joel’s confirmation in 1989 (Joel’s now a kagawad in their barangay). Every now and then, the Mayor orders cauldrons of hinalang for Red Cross blood donors.
(Saná’s Original Kabawan – No. 8 Juan Luna Extension, Canto Bangoy, Davao City. Cel: +63-9228682459. Open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.)
Exhibit F: Another breakthrough lead
In his interview, Belgian chef de Cauwer also mentioned the Mayor’s fondness for ginisang munggo. I heard from the grapevine he used to go to Yellow Fin for a fill of ginisang munggo, pancit Canton, adobong pusit, buntot ng tuna (tuna tail), and nilagang baka. The joint is owned by Ken Angeles. This is his story, in the words of his lawyer son Juan Carlos “Pao,” who now manages the restaurants:
“My father and the Mayor were former roommates at the YMCA in Manila, with my dad taking engineering and the Mayor Rody taking up aeronautic engineering at FEATI at the time, because he loved flying planes then. They knew each other already before YMCA as they lived in the same village (Juna Subdivision) in Davao and they went to the same school (Ateneo De Davao) for a while, but were not that close since my dad was a year older, and as far as my dad can remember, the Mayor’s close friends were the bodyguards of his father, then the governor of then-undivided Davao.
“They’ve maintained their friendship over the decades. My dad had this biking group since the 1970s, and the Mayor joined their rides in the early ‘90s. He rode with them all the way to Aparri around 1996.
“Early in his career, my dad started a manufacturing business at the present location of Yellow Fin Ecoland (it has three other branches). He did wooden furniture and sash items (i.e. door and window jambs, etc.) used in residential constructions. He built a showroom next to the furniture shop, which over time didn’t seem to warrant its existence. He transformed the space into an upscale steakhouse and called it Jogan West. This was in the early 1990s.
One early evening, my dad said, after they rode their bikes around town, that they were in the vicinity of Yellow Fin Ecoland and decided to have a few beers. But somebody said they couldn’t go to the steakhouse because the beer there was expensive. So my dad said, ‘Okay, let’s just park our bikes outside the furniture shop and I will bring out the beer from Jogan West, and I will charge you at cost only.’” So they drank by the road beside the steakhouse. It was then the Mayor himself suggested to my dad to put up a turo-turo in the vacant lot beside it. The Mayor was actually one of the first persons, if not the first, to give my dad the idea of putting up a karinderia. Over time, the karinderia was making more money than the steakhouse, so he closed the latter and expanded the former. That’s how Yellow Fin was born. Our munggo used to have shrimps and pork, and it was the Mayor who suggested that we change it to dilis (bolinao in Visayan) because he said it is better with dilis. So it was changed to that and people liked it more.”
(Yellow Fin branches: Ecoland +63-82-297-8777; +63-82-298-0299; Torres +63-82-222-0338; Lanang-Jetti +63-82-234-4255; and Lanang-Phoenix +63-82-282-2172.)
Exhibit G: Taxi driver (not the movie, but a testimony from a passenger)
Sometime two years ago, Pao Angeles’ wife, Dra. Rina Baluyut Angeles, an aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon, received an emergency call from Davao Doctors Hospital at 2 a.m. With Pao being out of town that week, and her driver’s license expired, she had to go out to the street and hail a taxi. Walking from her house to the corner of the main road, she flagged down the first taxi that drove by. As she opened the backseat door, the driver turned to her and asked:
“Asa ka man ‘day?” (Where to, sis?)
Before she could reply, she turned ashen white (pale as she is with her porcelain-like complexion), recognizing who the driver was — the Mayor in the flesh! Still in shock, she instinctively moved to the front out of deference to the honorable driver. After having given her destination, there were no other words exchanged during the 10-minute ride.
“Everything was in a daze. It must have been the longest 10 minutes of my life. I literally froze in my seat, not just because of having the Mayor driving for me, but I was so preoccupied by the gravity of the emergency,” the poor doctor recalls.
“As we arrived at the emergency ramp, the guard on duty recognized the Mayor and opened his door, while completely forgetting me (laughs). The ‘taxi driver’ walked me to the emergency door and didn’t charge me at all.” (The Mayor, doubling as taxi driver, is reputed not to charge his passengers if they recognize him. Otherwise, they will have to pay according to the meter. I wonder if he accepts tips (wink, wink). Of the many times we’ve taken the taxi during our six-day stay in the city, all the drivers were consistently very courteous and always gave exact change, unlike in other cities where they round it off to their advantage.
Exhibit H: Another taxi witness
Taps has been around since 1985. It’s a level-up, expanded-menu version (air-conditioned to boot) of the usual roadside joints serving the tap-si-log niche, a cheap rice meal that consists of meat (tapa or cured beef, tocino or sweet cured pork, bacon, hotdog) or fish (marinated bangus, any dried fish), garlic fried rice, and a fried egg. The tap-si-log genre has become a 24-hour breakfast offering in these joints, nationwide. Taps currently has five branches all over the city and is open for franchising. Its original branch at Palma Gil (near People’s Park) is an institution to reckon with, still retaining its old snaking counter tables and barstools.
One evening not so long ago, its OIC Joy Gimeno was on duty at the Bolton branch. Bolting through its door at around 1 a.m. was the Mayor, who was patrolling in his taxicab. He announced to everyone in the store, including the staff, that he would treat them to a meal each. Joy said the Mayor has done this several times at the Tulips Drive branch when it was still in operation, which was very near his house. His favorite order is the Tocilog (with tocino, P65) and ox-feet stew (P125).
(Taps has a Facebook page called “TapsBusogPinoy.” Cel: +63 917-3008007. Bolton and Damosa branches are open 24 hours daily.)
Exhibit I: Make mine medium well
F. Torres Street is perhaps the busiest bustling hub of nightlife and restaurants in the city. One of its pioneers is Harana Restaurant, which moved here in 1979 from two other previous locations, starting as a small operation in the backyard of lawyer Fermin Abella way back in 1966.
Having established itself as a family destination serving local cuisine, it has added a steakhouse at its front called Sarung Banggi. This is where we met its longtime cashier Nila Epanto, who personally attends to the needs of the Mayor when he comes bringing in foreign guests. This is her story:
“I have been with the family for 36 years now. I started working as a dishwasher in Harana when this street was still dangerous to be out, especially at night. I was assigned to the family’s other outlets in different capacities over the years, until I bacame the cashier here at Sarung Banggi. Before the Mayor would come, I would get a call to reserve his favorite corner table, and he would preorder his favorite dishes; the quantity would vary depending on the number of guests he had. He would order our sizzling gambas, sizzling garlic mushrooms, from Harana the grilled tuna belly and sinigang na lapu-lapu which he liked mildly soured only like the Cebuano tola, or sometimes its beef bulalo soup. For himself, he always orders the tenderloin steak, cooked medium well, and pours the gravy on the side a little at a time.”
(Sarung Banggi Steak House – F. Torres Street, Davao City. Tel: +63-82-227-3937; +63-82-221-5615.)
Exhibit J: Regular customer at usual table No. 6
Many times while still the mayor, our man would drop by Café Demitasse, a 260-seat pastry shop and restaurant, popular among students and professionals alike. It was founded by college friends Apples Icasas and Letz Santos in 2009. The mayor would be greeted by his favorite waiter, spritely Jaybert Lobo. Here is his story:
“He would usually come on a Thursday night at around 11:30 p.m., 30 minutes before our closing. As he entered, he would look for me. ‘O Paré (he calls me by that name), the usual,’ and I would seat him to his usual table, No. 6. His ‘usual’ order is café latte with one Splenda, and nothing else. He just enjoys sipping it slowly. But one time he ordered salpicao with two slices of bread, instead of the rice it is served with. He must have been very hungry for he finished it. He said it was the best he’s had in Davao.
“Another time, he asked how I was. ‘Paré, komusta ka na?’
“Alam ko genuine yung concern niya, siguro na-feel niya meron akong dinidibdib na problema (I can tell his concern is genuine. He must have sensed something was bothering me). I told him I was about to be married in a mass wedding ‘Kasalan ng Bayan’ but it had been delayed for several months already. I was starting to get worried it wouldn’t push through.
“Ah, Inday Sara must be tired, I’ll do it myself,” said the Mayor. (Note the timeframe: Inday Sara was then mayor, while dad Rody was vice-mayor, 2010-13.)
“About two weeks later, he had us informed the wedding was to be held at the basketball court of Barangay 21. Us newlyweds were each given a cash gift and a bag of groceries. We have a baby girl who is now three years old and I’m now the head waiter at Café Demitasse,” he announced proudly.
(Café Demitasse – No. 727 F. Torres Street, Davao City. Tel: +63-82-282-282. )
Exhibit K: Pigik/pigok (no, it ain’t one of those expletives)
In the five times I’ve been to Davao City, I’ve never failed to have a meal at Ahfat Seafood Plaza. The dish I keep dreaming about is its steamed pigik/pigok, a pregnant fish cooked to perfection as only the Chinese can. This large-scale grunter (terapon theraps) is simply steamed with light soy sauce and comes at a pricy P1,400/kilo. It is a highly seasonal freshwater fish from Cotabato, and in the Cagayan and Tagoloan Rivers, caught during spawning season when the fishes are pregnant. Its scales are silvery with milky white meat and it has pretty large roe sacs (bihod) about 1/3 its size. Only the pregnant are served, just like the Japanese shishamo or smelt fish popularly served grilled and often full of eggs. Ahfat is perhaps the only restaurant in the country that serves it.
Ahfat Seafood Plaza looks like your typical no-frills Chinese restaurant serving Cantonese dishes. It offers an assortment of choice fresh seafood kept alive in aerated aquariums, and also cooks them excellently. The use of herbs and spices is kept to a bare minimum, giving every seafood dish a clean natural sweetness, using only light sauces.
This time around, aside from the must-have steamed pigik, I asked the waitress if Mayor Duterte frequents the place and what he usually orders. Here are the Mayor’s fave dishes: pancit Canton, fried chicken, beef broccoli, pata tim (with steamed buns), and steamed slipper lobsters if he’s with his sons. Ordering all of the above, Ahfat didn’t fail to deliver. The pancit was a bit too overcooked, though.
(Ahfat Seafood Plaza – three branches within the Victoria Plaza Carpark, J.P. Laurel Ave., Davao City. Tel: +63-82-226-2688; +63-82-224-0002.)
Exhibit L: Tuna, tuna, tuna everywhere
Known locally as tambakol, the yellow fin tuna or big-eyed tuna is the premier class of its kind. At Marina Tuna, a famous landmark not to be missed while in Davao, they offer 10 different ways of preparing the choice parts of the city’s pride.
One evening, we went to take the Original Ten Way Tuna Experience — or should I say, challenge. It started with the freshest, reddest sashimi one can get, followed by lightly soured kinilaw, then a super-crispy tail (almost like having crispy pata without the guilt), followed by a grilled panga or collarbone, then a rich peanut sauce kare-kare (still with tuna, ha), its bihod (roe), bagaybay (sperm sac) esophagus in oyster sauce, its big eyes in sinigang soup, and grilled belly.
Other than tuna, it offers a lot more premium fresh seafood, live fish kept alive in aquariums, and fruits in season like durian and pomelo.
Its founder, Domingo Ang, a CPA with a deep passion for tuna, established Marina Tuna in 2001. Back in 1995 under the term of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, he successfully organized the First International Tuna Transhipment Port in Toril, Davao City. His father, Ricardo Ang Sr., pioneered the first transshipment of Class A tuna to Japan from Davao by chartered plane direct to the Japanese sashimi market, expanding to Italy and the US. Marina Tuna is named after Ang’s only child, Marina whom he considers his lucky charm.
Sharing his blessings, he said what started as a friendly offering of tuna lugaw (porridge) to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during one of his visits is now a joint feeding project (Pagkaon Sa Masa, Para Sa Masa) by Marina Tuna and the city government of Davao for the less fortunate. Sharing the same vision, both Ang and Mayor Duterte believe that “No one should get hungry and become desperate.” Will the president-elect make it into a national program?
(Marina Tuna Main Sasa: Km. 8 Bo. Pampanga, Davao City. Tel: 082-233-2666; 63-917-707-2688.)
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(This special report will be concluded in STAR’s Food and Leisure section on Inauguration Day, Thursday, June 30.)
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The author wishes to thank the following: Sonny and Bol Dominguez; Atty. Salvador Panelo; Sonny Dizon of Davao Crocodile Park; Dir. Robby Alabado III, DOT XI Davao Regional Director; Benjie Lizada, president of Restaurant Owners Association of Davao City (ROADC); Mary Ann “Baby” Montemayor, Davao Region Tourism Council Chair; Pao and Rina Angeles; Olive Puentespina, Larry Miculob of D’Farmers Market; Chef Gene Gonzalez and the countless anonymous Davaoeños who have made our six-day visit a most memorable one, not to mention a most delicious one. Lami gyud kaayo! Daghang salamat sa inyong tanan. Burp! Photos by CLAUDE TAYAG
