Happy Steps travel blog

Bacolod to Cebu bus trip via Don Salvador Benedicto

During our recent Cebu trip last week of October, we took the Ceres bus going there. The trip started from the Ceres Liner terminal at Shopping, Bacolod City at 7:15 AM. The bus was air-conditioned and the travel time was about 2 hours and 30 minutes as we arrived at the San Carlos City port at 9:45 AM.

For Bacolod to Cebu bus trips, we usually take the Don Salvador Benedicto route because of the scenic views along this municipality. Even though I lack sleep, I didn’t even doze a bit because I enjoyed clicking away with my camera. Here are some of the photos I took behind a closed bus window while we were speeding by. Continue reading… »

Will the recently concluded 1st Chicken Inasal Festival make it to Guinness?

Mmmmm…!!! Something’s cooking at the parking lot!

We were inside the North Wing of SM City-Bacolod last Tuesday and the smoke wafting in as people came through the doors was enough to awaken our curiosity (and appetite) to see what the buzz was all about. It was the highlight of the 1st Chicken Inasal Festival in Bacolod City as almost 4-kilometers length of barbecue grill was set up at the parking lot area. The event was an organized effort by the local government and some private entities to break the current Guinness world record for the longest grill at 3.8 kilometers held by Sto. Tomas in Pangasinan.
Continue reading… »

Aboy’s Restaurant in Goldenfields, Bacolod

We were at Aboy’s Restaurant recently. Considered as one of Bacolod City’s top native restaurants because of its fastfood-style service and tasty cooking, they’re located in GoldenFields Commercial Complex near the old domestic airport.

Aboy’s interiors have a unique homey appeal. Unlike most fastfood restaurants, the furnishings are wooden and not of PVC/steel material, the ceilings provide interesting lighting and the columns are accented with stone finish.

To order for food, you have two options. If you’re really starving, they have about ten or more already cooked dishes lined up at the counter, you just tell the staff your choices and they will scoop it on a plate and deliver to your table. Fast, huh? Native dishes such as kaldereta, laing, chicken liver and gizzard adobo, crab omelet and other fish and noodle dishes are displayed. Having the cooked dishes lining up in front of me surely looked more tempting than seeing them on the menu. There’s the tendency to want to order all of them. LOL.

If you’re not that hungry yet, the other option for ordering is by choosing from their glass counter, where you can see marinated yummy goodies – pork belly, pork cuts, chicken, whole fish (such as Lapu-lapu), or fish slices (e.g. Blue Marlin) and other seafood (e.g. squid) being displayed. You just tell the staff your choices and they’ll have it grilled for you. Actually, this option is still fast when compared to other restaurants serving grilled food. We were surprised to have our grilled Blue Marlin and squid delivered to our table in just few minutes.

Grilled Blue Marlin… yummy!
Continue reading… »

Bacolod-Cebu and Cebu-Bacolod Ceres Bus rates and schedule

Updates on bus schedule and rates are posted on this tag: Ceres bus updates (http://www.happysteps.net/tag/ceres-bus-updates/)

Due to insistent public demand *wink*, here are the rates and schedule for Ceres buses from Bacolod to Cebu and Cebu to Bacolod as of January 17, 2009:

Bacolod to Cebu:

Route 1: Bacolod to Cebu (Toledo port) via Don Salvador Benedicto
Rate: Php350.00
Departure:
6:00 AM
7:00 AM

Route 2: Bacolod to Cebu (Tabuelan port) via Escalante
Rate: Php370.00
Departure:
8:00 AM
11:00 PM

Continue reading… »

Looking forward to the holidays

October is here again, another great month for us to enjoy! After our recent family vacation, I’m looking forward to working full blast and keeping up with some pending projects. My happy steps would probably just be here at home, but who knows, there might be some surprise trip coming up. We might squeeze some time though for an ongoing celebration just nearby – October is an exciting month for Bacolod City which is currently celebrating its 29th Masskara Festival from October 1-19.

I am not usually a big fan of this event though. Last Sunday we were at the public plaza and the crowd was just too much! The streets along the Cathedral and downtown were closed to vehicles and all sorts of vendors are lined up selling food, toys, clothes, footwear, and of course masks! Let’s see if we can visit Bacolod within this week and maybe I can take some photos as well. Anyway, we’re looking forward to my siblings coming home for the holidays. Yey!

Medovnik from Prague and Piaya from Bacolod

Here’s how two famous sweets from the east and west would look like side by side…

Prague’s Medovnik and Bacolod’s Piaya!

Medovnik is a layered honey cake with chopped walnut toppings and is one of Prague’s best-loved and known desserts, while Piaya is Bacolod’s famous delicacy. The above photo shows a slice of Medovnik bought from a mall in Prague, while the two pieces of Piaya were leftovers from a bunch baked by sis during my vacation.

I am not a big fan of the Piaya, but I can eat lots of ‘em only if it’s cooked by sis! *wink* Yup, her version of our native delicacy is the yummiest, since she makes it not too sweet and the crust is crispy and tasty especially when fresh from the oven or heated in the microwave. You can get my sister’s very own piaya recipe here.

I miss yummy seafood

I’m still here in Prague and enjoying my vacation a lot. But that doesn’t mean I am not missing the Philippines, especially the native dishes we have at home such as yummy fresh seafood!

Recently, I cooked Tom Yum which is a Thai spicy sour soup with shrimp (or any seafood), mushrooms, lemongrass and lime. Too bad the fish was not fresh (it was fish fillet bought straight from the frozen food section) and not as tasty as the fresh catch we usually buy from the wet market back home.

Seafood is quite pricey here in Europe so I’ll just content myself with the photos of some of the food we ordered during cutie sis’ birthday celebration at Enteng’s of Sagay in Lacson Street, Bacolod City few months ago:

Crispy Shrimps

Kinilaw (raw Tanguigue or Spanish mackerel in vinegar with chopped onions, ginger, tomato, and red chilies)

Grilled Squid

Great shopping month for travel bugs

It’s the first day of the merry month of May – a great month for fiestas, vacations, out-of-town trips and of course shopping!

To start off the month, SM Bacolod and Robinsons Place are having their Labor Day sale going on right now. So, why am I still here at home? Oh well, yesterday we already went to the city for some important matters and decided to drop by Robinsons. They already displayed some of the items for sale, we found some great discounts on clothes and shopped until closing time. It was an unintentional shopping but we avoided the rush by being there the day before. We also checked out their luggage, backpacks and travel gear on sale.

My sis and I planned to go back today but later decided not to since we’ve more important tasks to finish. Anyway, we already bought some sale items yesterday so it’s really no big deal. How about you, any great shopping finds this summer?

What’s cold, yummy, sweet and refreshing this summer?

None other than one of my favorite summer refreshments – halo-halo! This Filipino native delicacy literally means ‘mix-mix’ in English (halo means mix) and is a concoction of fruits (macapuno, jackfruit or nangka, ube, etc.), sweets (leche flan, kaong, nata de coco, beans and sago), pinipig with crushed ice and milk. It is best topped with ice cream. So cool and yummy!

Note: Photo above shows a bunch of Chowking halo-halos before they ended up in our tummies!

Enteng’s of Sagay, now in Bacolod

We’ve seen it as just one of the new restaurants along Lacson street. We pass it by everytime we head to Bacolod and back. But Uncle F has nothing but praises for Enteng’s native restaurant (originally from the city of Sagay, about 84 kms from Bacolod) so, one time we stopped by for lunch and decided to give it a try. Food was really yummy as what uncle told us, and the prices are affordable. We ordered grilled scallops, buttered vegetables, lechon baka (beef), baby back ribs and sizzling squid. Aside from their native lechon (roasted pork), Enteng’s is famous for kinilaw which we haven’t tried yet so we vowed to be back again.

When Uncle F and Auntie V celebrated their wedding anniversary recently we decided to treat them to Enteng’s. We still ordered grilled scallops (my fave!) again, including grilled squid, grilled tanguigue (Spanish mackerel), fish sinigang (sour fish soup) and mixed seafood platter.

We still haven’t tried their kinilaw since it was evening and it’s not advisable to have raw fish for our tummies. I brought my own baked moist chocolate cake for our dessert and the staff was accommodating enough to provide us with the extra plates and forks. The owner Enteng (whose kinilaw expertise has been featured in magazines and news articles) and his wife were present that time, sitting behind the cashier unassumingly. Mom handed them some cake slices too. It was an evening of good food and family togetherness. Until next time again!

Dinner at Bar 21 on a rainy evening

We had our dinner yesterday at 21 Bar and Restaurant, popularly known to Bacoleños as Bar 21, located at 21st Lacson street in Bacolod City.

If you’re looking for some fine dining with a quiet, homey ambiance – a relaxing family dinner or sweet romantic date – then this is the place. Service is great with very attentive staff and food didn’t take too long to prepare.

Prime Rib (standing roast)

Calamares with marinara sauce

Steamed fish (Lapu-Lapu)

We will definitely be going there again for snacks next time to try their famous special Batchoy.

Bacolod-Cebu trips via buses and barges

Being a native of Negros and having studied in Cebu with my siblings, we regularly traveled with Bacolod-Cebu buses via the San Carlos-Toledo route which goes like this:

1. Get onboard bus at the Ceres terminal in Bacolod (make sure it has the Bacolod-Cebu trip pasted on its front windows, LOL)

2. Bus departs as scheduled (passing through towns and cities such as Talisay, Silay, Victorias, etc.) until it arrives at the San Carlos port in the eastern part of the Negros Island facing Cebu. Estimated travel time: 3 hours

3. The bus is then loaded in an inter-island vessel or barge. Estimated travel time: 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours

4. Bus arrives at the Toledo port (in the western part of Cebu) and is unloaded from the barge and resumes its trip (passing by towns such as Naga, Minglanilla, Pardo, etc.). Estimated travel time: 1 hour

5. Bus arrives at the Cebu City south terminal.

Alternate routes for Bacolod-Cebu:

1. Via Escalante (Negros Occidental) to Tabuelan (northwestern part of Cebu)

2. Via Don Salvador Benedicto to San Carlos which is the fastest route since this is a cross-country trip from Bacolod to San Carlos passing through the mountains of Mt. Kanlandog. Estimated travel time from Bacolod to San Carlos: 1 hour