Roadside Resto In Sibulan

Yesterday, I went with a group of fellow Americans to have lunch at the Roadside Resto in Sibulan. Today, I feel it is appropriate to review the restaurant.

I had been at Roadside Resto many times, and I thought I had reviewed their mango shakes for this blog, but I was mistaken in that. This post will serve as a review of both the mango shakes and the food.

I don't believe there is much - if any - fresh fruit in the shakes served there, but the taste and texture is very nice and I won't give the shake a bad rating because of this lack of fresh mango.

One of the favorites among my fellow Americans is the Roadside Burger. On this particular burger you get lettuce, cucumber, beef patty and cheese with pulled bbq pork, coleslaw and onion rings stacked on top. This incredible burger comes with a generous portion of fries and iced tea for 159 pesos (about $3.04 USD at current rate of exchange).

Yesterday, I decided to try the Chili-burger. This burger has the same lettuce and cucumber with the beef patty, topped with bacon, cheese-fries and, of course, chili. A word of warning - this chill is not for the faint of heart. The chili is very hot, and I doubt that I could eat a bowl of this chili, but atop the burger it is, for me, a manageable heat. The bun, burger and cheese fries help make the heat of the chili tolerable. This burger also comes with iced tea and a generous side of fries for the same 159 pesos.

All in all, I highly recommend this restaurant.

Octagon Sports Bar

Today being Thursday, I met with a group of Americans for a brunch of sorts. Me being the cheap bastard that I am, I always eat at home before going to these get-togethers. Not only is it a lot cheaper, but I can cook as good, or better than the folks here.

Today we met at the Octagon Sports Bar in Bacong. In keeping with my usual habit, I decided on a mango shake. It's been quite some time since I've last reviewed a shake from a local eatery.

As can be seen in these photos, the shake was thick and creamy. This one was actually made with mango - you can't say that about all the mango shakes in Dumaguete. This tastes as good as it looks. It's price was only slightly above average. 80 pesos. It was certainly better than some I've had costing 90 and above. I'd recommend the mango shake although the restaurant is really too far from my place to go just for the shake.

Cafe Mamia

Like every Thursday for ages, I met with a small group of American Expats for brunch at a local cafe today. At one time, we would find a suitable meeting place and return to the same place for weeks or even months at a time. Recently, however, we've taken to meeting at a different spot each Thursday.

Today, we decided on Cafe Mamia at the corner of San Jose Street and Sta. Catalina Street not far from Rizal Blvd. in Dumaguete. There were six Americans meeting this morning - one is a newbie -. Three of us had met at Cafe Mamia once before. We seemed to be in agreement that it had been two years since we were last there, but a check of photos that I had posted to Google Maps at the time show that we last visited the cafe in September 2018.

Today, we all agreed that the food was top notch. I had a bread pudding à la mode, which was absolutely delicious. With lots of creamer and brown sugar added, my coffee was not bad.

I had planned on trying a mango shake in order to add to my reviews. The menu listed mango smoothies rather than shakes, but no matter. Two of my companions ordered mango smoothies with their regular order, but I didn't want mine to come out with my coffee and bread pudding. I'd order my smoothie after the food arrived. Unfortunately, when I ordered my smoothie, I learned that my companions received had the last mango smoothies available. When it came to me, the cafe was "out of stock, sir".  One of the guys with me - who is also a regular reader of this blog wanted me to point out that he thought his smoothie was very good. We're planning on returning next Thursday, so perhaps I can have one then.

Something odd happened while I was paying for my food. The menu gives the price of brewed coffee as 55 peso, and the bread pudding à la mode as 105 pesos. The cashier had my bill and told me the total was 90 pesos. That's less than the price of the bread pudding - not to mention the brewed coffee. I pointed out to the cashier that the price was incorrect. She said the coffee was 55 and the bread pudding was 35. I was confused. When I told her that the price on the menu was 105 she looked confused as well, and said something to the waiter in Visayan. I'm hardly fluent, but I believe he must have explained to her that the à la mode increased the price.

If that's the case, then I'd hardly think that the addition of cream should raise the price by 70 pesos. I have no complaint because the menu clearly had 105 and the dish was delicious. I'm still finding it hard to believe that I could have had the bread pudding sans ice cream for only 35 pesos.

In addition to posting the photographs I took this morning, I'm including maps from Google showing the location. There will be two maps below. Google has two entries for the same location.....one given as Cafe Mamia and another as Mamia's Bar and Restaurant. There was a time when I would notify Google Maps of the duplication, but after seeing nothing being done to correct this in the past, I'm reluctant to point out the error now.

A Tale of Two Barangay

In Philippines, cities and municipalities are subdivided into areas called barangays. For example, our house is located in the town of Sibulan - in Brgy. Magatas.

According to Wikipedia, there are 42,045 barangays in the country. As far as I know, each Barangay has a barangay Hall.

I would have thought that the barangay hall would actually be located within the particular barangay it represents. I know of at least one case where that isn't so.

As can be seen in these photos, the barangay halls for Brgy. Taclobo and Brgy.Poblacion 7 in Dumaguete are next door to one another. According to Google Maps, both are located within Brgy.Poblacion 7.

Filipino Chinese Volunteer Fire Brigade

Not far from the Chinese Cemetery in Brgy. Daro in Dumaguete, we have the Filipino Chinese Volunteer Fire Brigade fire station.

Dumaguete Chinese Cemetery

Back in April of 2017, I published, on another blog, a post on the Chinese Bell Church in Dumaguete. Now, 3 years later, I've come upon a Chinese Cemetery located on the opposite side of the city in Barangay Daro.

I stopped by the cemetery early this morning to take photos. Of course, not only am I posting those photos here, but I uploaded the photos to Google Maps as well.

The Chinese Bell Church

I've been residing outside Dumaguete since 2014, and before moving here, I had traveled here - off and on - for nearly 17 years. I was certain that I knew all there was to know about the city and its sights. However, I was very surprised, recently to learn of the Chinese Bell Church.

The church is located in an area where I hadn't roamed until a few weeks ago, and I probably would never had discovered the church had it not been for the repair work being done on one of the bridges that crosses the Banica River. It was while taking this detour that I first spotted the Chinese Bell Church.

This afternoon, I drove out to the church for photos - I took more than 75 photos. Of course, I won't be posting all of those here.

Naturally, I wanted to post a few of these onto the Google Maps website. In addition to these sample photos, I'm also including a map to the church which can be found following the photos below.