Kalami Cebu! - A Gastronomic Guide to Cebu

 Call me old-fashioned but when it comes to food that I crave for when I live away from Cebu, Dim Sum from Harbour City is on my personal Top Ten list.  I just consider steamed rice with some spring rolls and siomai as the best lunch option on some days.  This love goes back to over 25 years  ago when I discovered this type of food in the old Ding Qua Qua near STC in Mango Avenue.  Even up to now, I always associate this type of food to good times with family and friends.

I recently partnered with  +Emjae Argallon  of  Emjae Fotos  to produce video content for this blog.  One of our first collaborations was during Foodpanda Orange Awards held at Mandarin Plaza Hotel. Foodpanda is the country's No.1 food delivery app and recently, they feted their 50 best restaurant partners.  Nineteen of the fifty top restaurants came from Cebu.  Check out our video: Top 50 Restaurant Partners of Foodpanda in the Philippines

I am a "rice" guy when it comes to breakfast.  I have been that since I was a kid.  Given a choice between a Tapsilog and a McMuffin, I would choose the Tapsilog 99% of the time (save for the McDonald's National Breakfast Day). In my recent trip to Bohol, I had breakfast at Estrella Bakery and it made me realize that delicious bread and pastries can replace any rice meal on some days.

If you love pizza, pasta, and other American-Italian favorites you should check out the recently opened A Veneto Pizzeria Ristorante at the lower ground floor of SM City Cebu.  The newly opened restaurant specializes in New York-style pizza, pasta, salad, calzone, and sandwiches.  The SM City Cebu branch is A Veneto's 7th branch in the country and the first one in Cebu.

It has been a scorching summer so far.  On most days, I just want to eat something cold.  I was perfectly happy with the halo-halo at Chowking and the Snow Ice Halo-Halo of Majestic, until I discovered Dimsum Break's Xie Ping.  The popular Cebuano Dimsum joint is marketing this new dessert as Chinese shaved ice dessert. For me, it is really just halo-halo with ube-flavored ice (well, some halo-halo places put ube on the classic Filipino dessert anyway).  I actually liked it a lot and for that I am giving this dessert the Kalami Cebu seal of approval.

I have been to Tagbilaran several times in my life but I never really explored the food options in the only city in the island of Bohol. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Tagbilaran with some of my friends from the Cebu Blogging Community. We tried this new All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant place called Abi’s Seafood and Grill. I have eaten in a lot of buffets and this Tagbilaran restaurant ranks well among buffets under 300 pesos.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by fellow blogger Lyza Ares to join the "Seas the Day Bohol Tour". Lyza is the lovely blogger behind  Coffee, Tea or Death .  Just like me, she has lots of relatives in Bohol. Lyza invited 8 other bloggers to check the different places to stay, eat, and relax in the island of Bohol.  The bloggers from the Cebu Blogging Community were hosted by Hannah Datoy-Dumaluan.