Tracing up a Southern Food Trail

Meg S. Balucanag and Butch L. Ferrer

Trailblazing usually ends with discoveries of hidden treasures a destination can offer – it gives an overwhelming surge of accomplishment if you discover nature’s secrets, all by your lonesome. Finding a sight to behold for the first time and the overwhelming feeling of being there; basking on the glory of your discovery always reinforces your belief that trailblazing is best among what travel brochures promote. It is discovery, yes, and the surge of fulfillment is unmistakably euphoric, for sure!

But how would you feel if the trail you follow is not that destination your feet take you to? What would your feelings be should your nose and stomach lead you somewhere else? Yes, a gastronomic trail! Like discovering a place that offers everything about food and beyond?

From the point of entry to the farthest town in this southern-most part of the country, South Cotabato’s secret treasures include a wide selection of cuisine that would certainly entice your appetite - whether you’re a discriminating diner, an adventurous tourist or just a hungry traveler. Your visit may not be complete and memorable without following the southern gastronomic trail and have a taste of the southerners’ unique table fare.

South Cotabatenos know how to eat and where to find “eat”. As good eaters, they also know how to serve superb edibles and surprisingly, the places where these edibles are found create an exciting trail challenging you to draw your own gastronomic map.

Rule #1. Follow your nose and fill your stomach!

A food trail of the provinces’ culinary specialties begins at the basin (General Santos City, your point of entry) where tuna catch is abundant year-round.  Diners are welcomed with posh al frescos or moderately-priced indoor restos which ambience spells nothing but t-u-n-a. Tuna can be found anywhere and imagining how it will be prepared for you is already mouth watering. A must-try down south is to experience the true tuna happiness, whether it’s export grade or not, a bite or two will tell you that you have set foot in the Tuna capital of the Philippines!

 The best part of the tuna anatomy, unexpectedly, is its collar or mandible and tail. Not much flesh there, but they are the yummiest! The mandible’s fine flesh hiding in the crevices of the bone and the sticky white succulent ligaments of the tail are to die for. Look for the menu and order for crispy panga or buntot, boiled and pickled first, then deep fried till golden brown. It is served with a sinamak dip (coco vinegar spiced with red siling labuyo, turmeric ginger, black pepper corns and garlic) that wakens your spirits to head on to the next gastronomic conquest. Excellent reminder of your southern sojourn, first phase!

If you opt for a fleshier dish, you can request for tuna belly steak-ala-pobre, medium rare. For the “very rare” enthusiasts, the famous kinilaw is tops! You can have a ball in the varied selection of its condiments: cucumber, radish, carrots, sea weeds, salted black beans, salted eggs prepared in simple vinaigrette or kalamansi or coconut milk or mayonnaise….endless innovations to satisfy discriminating tastes. However it is prepared, rest assured, you can forget your sashimi and its Yen-ny price in the mean time!

For the more adventurous trailblazers, there are su-to-kil places around. No, don’t get this wrong…forget about homonyms! Su-to-kil is a coined word for three-in-one preparation of your tuna- sugba or grilled, the tola (or tinola) or soupy version with tomatoes, ginger, spring onions and green jalapenos, and kinilaw. Or savor the bagaybay (tuna roe) sinugba or innards prepared as caldereta (stew) with mushroom buttons or Chinese-style sari-sari .Exotic? That’s for you to judge.

Traversing the 60-kilometre road going north from the Tuna republic towards the Provincial Capitol in the City of Koronadal, you will find a town named Polomolok, (about fifteen minutes riding time) the home of Dole Philippines, famous for its pineapples. But alas! Pineapples no longer hug headlines here but the ice cream. Travel a few kilometers more and you will find Durian Garden which serves, yes, you guessed it right- the heavenly durian ice cream! Indeed, a refreshing treat minus the abhorrent smell that shies away most first-time eaters from trying the king of fruits which “smells like hell but tastes like heaven!”As an added bonus, you can explore Durian Garden’s mini zoo of exotic birds, ostrich, lizards, and yes, crocs.

Further on, twenty five minutes later, you’ll chance upon the municipality of Tupi which is famous for its Nadie’s - “the best thing that ever happened to a chicken” – barbecue. For years, this business serves nothing but the best charcoal- grilled chicken in the province, pa-a or pecho marinated in the family’s secret recipe. Lavatories are found in just about any corner of this chicken house because they believe that you can enjoy the barbecue more by eating with your bare hands. Ignoring the chance will surely give you a pang in conscience. By the way, never forget to ask for the freebie, on-the-house bulalo soup, to cap your gustatory trek with a loud burp.

However, today, competition has been taking a slice of Nadie’s habitués. Located near a secondary school, just along the main highway, is Tanok’s. Gaining rapid popularity is their own version of chicken barbecue which has the same golden brown color when cooked rightly, but with a distinctively different taste. For a freebie, they have bottomless egg soup instead. The two barbecue joints offer limitless rice to customers and when their barbecues stalemate in taste, the rice matters – soft, steamy and aromatic rice paces their competitive edges.

As you enter the outskirts of the City of Koronadal, a few minutes from the chicken house, you will be greeted by mushrooming make-shift stalls of nilagang mais (boiled corn) singkamas (jicama), camote (yam), buko (young coconut) and langgaw tuba (vinegar from fermented coco juice) in Barangay Saravia. Small tables line the road for travelers who want to quench thirst aground by having a sip of iced fresh buko juice straight from the coconut. Soon others ventured in buko-halo, a delightful concoction of crushed ice, milk and sugar, caramelized fruits like banana, camote, jackfruit, kidney beans, sago, gulaman (agar gel) and crested with a scoop of vanilla or ube ice cream and a generous slice of leche flan (milk custard), served on a young coconut halve.  An instant hit among travelers especially during the hot, dry season. For the sweet-toothed tourist, fresh and pocket-friendly buko halo-halo is always up and ready at Apareja’s.

Once afoot in the City of Koronadal, otherwise known as Marbel by the locals, you will be tempted to have a sample of each among varied choices of food the city offers. With the increasing number of giant food franchises found in every corner of the city, the authentic Ilonggo cuisine still outshines others. The original La Paz batchoy has evolved into different tastes and marketing, depending on which batchoyan you may happen to discover. Everyone seems to claim to be “original” but judging on the presentation and the recipe, one is slightly inferior to another. Whatever batchoyan that is, your palate decides the winner! Worth trying are Ted’s, Larry’s or Popoy’s. One batchoyan gaining popularity is Hapit Anay (Drop by) because of its affordable price yet competitive taste.

 Behind the busy streets of the city, Food Harbor along Osmeña Street is one place where you can find thirty or more food at your fingertips. Yes, it’s a “turo-turo” self-service joint where you can dine anytime, from 6:00am to 12:00 midnight! But just a reminder, don’t go there at lunch or dinner time; the place will surely be teeming with diners. If you wish to enjoy eating without queuing for food, then coming earlier or later than the usual eating time is advised. Price range? Fifteen pesos to forty-five pesos per order.

If you have the luxury to be choosy and needed a little classy ambience, then Mang Gorio’s is the place for you. Strategically juxtaposed with Food Harbor, Mang Gorio’s along GenSan Drive, offers home-cooked goodness with its sinigang, adobo, kare-kare and other best-loved Pinoy dishes. However, pork is a no-no as it offers only “halal” food in deference to non-Christian eaters. Right after a sumptuous meal, you can proceed to its next door neighbor, McGregor’s, for a tall or short cup of connoisseur coffee served hot or cold according to your preferences. They also have the best black forest, blueberry cheese cake, sans rival and tiramisu in town although the price is a little inhibiting to some. But then, who’s stopping you from your binge? One more thing, you can drool over the net as it is legitimate WiFi.

  Looking for pork may not be too far away. Just head on to the city’s landmark, the infamous “round ball”, and turn left to Alunan Avenue and stop at the first junction at Abad Santos Street. You will find a building that looks like a Maguindanao turugan with a roof that resembles an upturned boat. It is called Tiana’s. Rather anathema to its concept design, the establishment satisfies your cravings for a pork sisig with a twist. Ordinary looking it may seem but once it gets in your mouth, a mayonnaisey taste balances the crunchy pork skin al dente. Catering mostly to the yuppies, Tiana’s interior walls offer a soothing respite to the working class, and outside, its garden umbrellas simply create a more relaxing mood making your sisig more delicious, best paired with hot steamed rice as sud-an or with bottles of beer as sumsuman.

 Turning left once more to traverse Abad Santos Street, a bahay Pinoy converted into a bistro serves the best pasta in town. Aptly called Sa Balai Bistro, it is home to the cheesiest, creamiest, and meatiest lasagna. Prepared and baked by no other than proprietor Carlo Ebeo himself, the bistro’s lasagna tastes even better with his sensible chit-chat on the side, sharing his culinary expertise and arts management skills graciously when asked. Also to die for is Sa Balai’s originals: chicken tandoori, beef kebabs (very tender) and the very original Pochero/Bulalo Steak with all the vegetables minus the soup - its tomato-based gravy glazing the most tender meat is deliciously unforgettable! Sa Balai Bistro boasts of Pinoy crafts from wood-carved anitos to baskets as its interior decors making it conversation pieces. Unsurprisingly, Sa Balai Bistro has yuppies and artists as clients as the ambience is artistically nurturing, inspired by Mozart, Beethoven and Bach setting the mood for an intellectual repartee.

If by chance you have arrived at night following this trail full and in the mood for a tipsy trip, the bistro has a night bar stocked with the top-grossing San Miguel products and other spirits. Maskara Bar opens to the street of Abad Santos like a hole in the wall that lends a very Remedios Street feel in Manila. No rock and ballad music here…just jazz and world music.

 Moving up towards southwest and moving outside of Koronadal, you will be enthralled by the vast corn and rice fields between municipalities of Banga and Surallah. Surprisingly, before approaching Banga Bridge, you can find Ojie’s, an isolated ice cream parlor along the highway where you can have a selection of home-made ice cream flavors: cheese, ube, chocolate, mango, buko salad, durian. Topping the list is cheese flavor, its best-seller!

As you go along further west, in the midst of the seemingly endless field of rice and corn, you chance upon Fortune Field. As the name suggests, it is indeed a field of fortune but owners do not cash in on crops but has found, well, fortune in pantat  or catfish, more popularly known as hito. That black, slimy, fresh water mud-fish-with- whiskers kind of Taiwanese breed! Imaginable different ways of ‘hito’ dishes are prepared here, but the deep-fried and sinugbang hito are sharing equal limelight as  highly recommended. Of course, you can also try equally delicious ginataang hito, adobong hito, paksiw na hito, etc, etc, until you burp, breathe and smell hito, God forbid! One viand that stands out to rehab you from the ensuing hito “addiction” is nilagpang na manok, an Ilonggo soup dish of grilled native chicken cooked in cream, tomatoes, ginger, spring onions.

In the final leg of your trailblazing, you’ll find yourself zigzagging through the national highway ascending to the paradise of the south called Lake Sebu, a municipality cuddled by majestic mountain ranges that cast mystic spell to first time visitors and leave them enchanted with the blend of nature and culture. Home to different endangered species and eco-adventure activities like boating, ziplining, trekking and mountaineering, it is the bastion of Tbolis – the colorful, most embellished and most sociable cultural community in the country.

The lake, S’bu, as it is called by the natives, supplies them life. It is the same lake where the unmatched tilapias are bred and grown. Tilapias are sold anywhere around town. But they are most available in the numerous lake and mountain resorts, cooked in so many, many ways. Topping the list is the most popular chicharon tilapia followed by kinilaw, pinaputok, inadobo, pinaksiw, ginat-an..in any order! . Not having chicharon clenched between your teeth during one of your visits there won’t be fulfilling and that gives you the feeling of not having been there. Estares, Dolores, Punta Isla Resort are the best choices for dining….once tired and spent following this trail, you can book a room in these resorts by the lake or opt for a mountain retreat in Mountain Log or Monte Cielo, either way, you will not regret your decision. But if you are  thrift-saver, move on a little farther to the Municipal Tourism Lodge and bask on the view of Lake Sebu, the town and S’bu, the lake.

As a pure South Cotabateña and a self-confessed food trailblazer, I have known these places by heart and I can identify every place exactly where they are even if I am blind folded.  Knowing it too much gave me the privilege to familiarize the best places to dine where pleasure and satisfaction is best encountered - because I believed in my instincts to try what they offer and because I followed my nose!