Eating my way through Zamboanga City in under 24 hours

MANILA, Philippines – We landed in Zamboanga City at 11 a.m. to attend the launching of the “Savores” food festival, which was to start at 5 p.m.

With time to spare, our host, DOT regional director Mary June Bugante, wasted no time in making the best use of the few hours we had to get a taste of what Zamboanga hospitality and flavorful cuisine is all about.

Our first stop was the famous Alavar Seafood Restaurant.

The restaurant is known to serve curacha (a crab found in the deep seas of Zamboanga) served in its world-famous Alavar sauce. The other seafood items on the menu for the day were clams and grilled tuna, or langa langa in Chavacano.

Being the vegetarian that I am, I was served fresh ampalaya (bitter melon) salad and lato (seaweed) salad with steaming hot rice. Simply yummy.

My companions were raving about the freshness of their meal, which we washed down with the sweetest pineapple shake.

 “There is more to Zamboanga cuisine than its fresh seafood,” said Bugante. “There are lots of kakanin and sweets, too.”

Lunch over, we were off to our next stop. It was a street stall selling “The Best Saging Rebosao and Saging Prito.”

Street food rules: Rebosao stall

When it comes to street food, the rule of thumb, at least for me, is never to judge the food by the look of the stall where it is sold. And right I was because the saging rebosao was so flavorful, I ate over 30 little pieces of these sliced bananas that tasted like they were fried in heaven.

Saging rebosao is sliced, twice-fried bananas. The first time, the bananas are fried raw. After the first frying, they are re-fried and then sprinkled with brown sugar. With this cooking style the brown sugar does not become caramelized (like the brown sugar in banana cue) but stays close to its original, brown-sugar state.

And, because the bananas are sliced (like French fries) it is so easy to eat them — not only because the sweet is really yummy, but also because one little slice is never enough. I ate so many of these little sweet bananas I thought I would burst. But, since the objective of the day was to discover Zambaonga through its kakanin, I left room to try a piece of cassava suman and sweetened camote, too.

“Ready for more?” asked Bugante.

“Sure! Why not?” came my quick reply.

Our best stop was ABC Bakeshop, which has a wickedly yummy Pan mongo. The pandesal is more like small monay bread and the monggo filling much like the one loaded in what we know as Japanese hopia.

If all sweets in Zambaoanga are made like this, I know I can live a whole week on these treats alone. I gobbled down two pieces of the monggo bread.

Good thing it was getting late, and if we were to make it to the launching of Savores, we only had time for one last stop — the well-known Zamboanga Barter.

The Barter had its fill of South Sea pearls, coffee, chocolates and sotanghon noodles from Malaysia and Indonesia and lots of malongs.

After about 30 minutes at the Barter, we were shuttled back to our hotel to get ready for a night of eating — at Savores.