I’ve heard one of these before. I just didn’t think it’s already available in the market.
Just recently, I came to purchase a product called Fresh Malunggay Juice. I bought it out of curiosity since malunggay, though a very popular vegetable in the Philippines, isn’t commonly processed for beverage manufacturing.
If you get to visit the City of Naga in Cebu province, don’t you dare leave without tasting the city’s most celebrated foodstuff: siomai.
Siomai is actually the localized version of a Chinese food known in Japan as shūmai. The city of Naga, on the other hand, is not the first place to promote siomai on a large scale. Tisa, a village in Cebu City wherein a famous siomai entrepreneur once lived, was considered as the place where the siomai craze initially kicked off.
To indulge yourself in this meaty dumpling, just go to the Naga’s seaside plaza and look for stores offering it. Two of the most renowned siomai stores there are JB Siomai and Flor’s Siomai which, are adjacently situated just at the entrance of the plaza.
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Date Taken: October 23, 2011
Location: JB Siomai, town plaza of the City of Naga, Philippines
Siomai with Hot Sauce
Siomai is best dipped in its special hot sauce. The hot sauce is made of certain spices, which I’m still about to find out (LOL!). This is then mixed with soy sauce and calamansi extract to further enhance the flavor.
The seawall at the town plaza of Naga (not to be mistaken with Naga City in Camarines Sur) is perhaps the most familiar feature of the city. Fronting Cebu Strait, the place is mistakenly called the “baywalk”, probably due to its resemblance with the more famous Manila Baywalk in Luzon.
The seawall is popular among locals who seek some time to unwind in an inexpensive way. Most of the visitors come during late afternoon when the sun is at its low. After each mass at the nearby Saint Francis of Assisi Church, mass goers also flock the place usually after a hearty meal featuring Naga’s popular food: siomai.
Above all, the seawall is a chief nighttime destination for families, friends, lovers and the lonely. :D
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Date Taken: October 23, 2011
Location: Seawall at the town plaza of the City of Naga, Philippines
Seaside Scene
This is how the walled seaside of Naga looks like during nighttime. Aside from the beautiful by-the-sea scenery of moored ships and streetlights of adjacent towns, colorful lamp posts along the seawall are also fun to watch.
Found at the southern tip of Negros Island, Dumaguete City serves as the provincial capital of Negros Oriental as well as one of the chief port cities in the Visayas, being linked by sea routes to nearby provinces like Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Zamboanga del Norte.
Last week, I went there, but not according to plan. I was actually going to Siquijor from Cebu City, but the fast craft that I was supposed to ride in cancelled its trip due to heavy waves. And with that, there I found myself in Dumaguete, taking the only chance I had to reach my destination.
Unfortunately, the last boat bound for Siquijor that day had already departed by the time I arrived in Dumaguete. And so, I had no choice but to stop off and spend the night in the city, and wait for tomorrow for the next earliest trip.
Though it was evening when I came, I somehow managed to find time to roam around the city and look at some interesting sights. The first that I checked out was the city’s wall-protected seaside.
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Date Taken: February 9, 2011
Location: Seaside of Dumaguete City, Philippines
The Moon, the Sea and the Seaport
It was a moonlit night then, and this was the scene from the sea wall near Dumaguete’s main seaport. The weather slowly shifted from fair to so-so as dark clouds started to drift by and waves forcefully hit the embankment.
