Balaw Balaw: Art and Food in One

It was last Saturday, a day after the whole of Manila was submerged in flood waters by Tropical Storm Falcon, Ninya and I met up in SM Taytay to have coffee. But I was not yet in the mood to go home just yet, so I told her we could go to the art capital of Rizal: ANGONO.

I've been in the town of Angono once before when I was still a writer for our travel magazine, Travel Plus. We had a CALABARZON road trip, and the province of Rizal was first on our list. We visited a lot of museums that time, but one that really stuck to me was BALAW BALAW RESTAURANT.

Balaw Balaw is found inside a middle-class subdivision, and serves both as a museum and restaurant. Ninya and I first went around the museum. It was a trip down memory lane for me as I walked down the familiar corridors of the museum. It's cool that you have a new perspective of things when you re-visit a specific place, you get to see things you didn't pay particular attention to before. Although I would have to say that they really need to spruce up the place. It's dark, dusty, and is in bad need of a makeover. Maybe the artist's family should consider this to entice more people to come.

The museum showcases works done by Pedrigon Navarro Vocalan (photo above). You'd see hundreds of his paintings and sculptures on display. I'm not artsy person, so I just look at the paintings and the sculptures with an amateur eye.




As for his sculptures here are some that really caught my eye. This is found at the dining area, and it's a lady washing her hair in the river.

This is a life-size image of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, complete with all of His 12 Disciples.

Amihan or the Northeast Monsoon

And if there's Amihan, there's Habagat or the Southwest Monsoon

And in the center of the second floor, is a collection of mini sculptures

One more thing that caught my attention is their antique collection of statues that clearly depict our deep Roman Catholic faith.


After all the walking around the museum, it can really work up an appetite. So on the first floor, is the dining area of Balaw Balaw Restaurant.


Balaw Balaw, for folks who may not know what it is, is actually an appetizer. As written in the front page of their menu: "A delectable appetizer or sauce the Tagalogs serve together with Sinigang. It is made of small shrimps mixed with gruel and "angkak" a herb that gives reddish coloring. This mixture is preserved and fermented in an earthen jar for three days. After 3 days, the BALAW BALAW is ready to eat or sauteed with young bamboo shoots."

Would really, love to give this a try. Although am not really a huge fan of fermented stuff ever since I had a really bad tummy ache after eating a couple of spoonfuls of Pampanga's BURO! :(

But what made Balaw Balaw famous are their EXOTIC FOODS. Some of their exotic dishes include, Uok (beetle larva), Nilasing na Palaka (frogs marinated in wine), Kamaro (crickets), Soup No. 5 (butt and balls of COW), Sizzling Butt and Balls, Sinabawang Balot (fertilized duck eggs cooked like bulalo), Sizzling Balot, and Bibingkang Abnoy (duck eggs cooked in banana leaves). CAN YOU GUYS HANDLE THIS?! HAHAHA! Although I remember the first time I was at Balaw Balaw some 2 years ago, I ate something with FLOWERS. I think it was their salad, but it had actual flowers in them.

No Ninya and I didn't eat any of these, although it would've been cool for me to eat another round of exotic dishes much like when the BFFs and I went to Everybody's Cafe in Pampanga. Ninya and I settled for a safe and much-loved Filipino dish: ADOBONG MANOK AND BABOY (Chicken and Pork Adobo).


It was really good! The sauce was perfect with the rice, and the chicken and pork meat were all tender. We inhaled it in minutes (plus we were really hungry, too)! We even ate the pork fat (yes, it was that good or we were just THAT hungry hehe). And the serving size is really good for 2.

So why not visit Balaw Balaw Restaurant when in Rizal? You guys could get some Filipino culture and art appreciation. The museums of some of Rizal's famous artists are all close together, so it's not really that hard to find. And then after your visual arts trip, you and your family or barkada SHOULD make that detour to Balaw Balaw Restaurant! :)

Balaw Balaw Specialty Restuarant and Art Cafe
#16 Don Justo St., Doña Justa Village
Angono, Rizal
Telefax: 651-0110

Can Y'all Handle An EPIC MEAL TIME?

I'm watching the Dallas-Miami game as I write this so I'm a bit distracted hahaha GO MAVS!! LOVE YOU DIRK AND TYSON CHANDLER!!! :)

Anyway, my officemates David and Josh have been talking about this non-stop. They kept quoting lines from this Youtube sensation. I remember David let us watch our first episode, and I remember it was a bunch of girls eating mac and cheese with burgers inside. Inasmuch as it was disgusting, it was actually fun to watch them mix these RIDICULOUS ingredients all-together to make one hell of an EPIC MEAL TIME!!

Every Tuesday, the guys of Epic Meal Time upload a video on Youtube. Harley Morenstein, co-creator, acts as host. He co-created the show together with Sterling Toth who acts as their cameraman. Also popular is Alex Perrault, a personal trainer, who is known in the show as "Muscles Glasses".


As of now I've watched only a handful of shows, it's a joy to watch because it's bordering on disgusting but at the same time it's something I'd like to try. I actually want to get on a food trip with these guys!

So far, I've watched the EPIC EGGROLL which has Chicken Fried Rice, Cantonese Style Chow Mein, General Tao Chicken, Chicken Fried Rice, and Hunan Dumplings all packed inside a custom eggroll mix. It packs on a whopping 6,378 calories. This is by far my favorite episode, and something I'd most likely eat hehehe!


I also got to watch PROTEIN BAR, where they featured a Seahorse Protein Sandwich (9,763 kcal), 2 Happy Meal Bacon Protein Smoothies (10,500 kcal) and Protein Bar (29,173 kcal) dripping in chocolate.



They also have THE BLACK LEGEND, where they mixed in EVERYTHING SWEET (candies, McFlurry, Chips Ahoy) inside a chocolate wrap. And they asked GIRLS to eat it. The total calorie count was at 19,177.


Oh and these guy LOVE JACK DANIELS AND BACON!!!! Josh and David said these guys took a shot of Jack Daniels mixed with bacon fat. Haven't gotten to watching it, but I think it's fun.

Watch these guys on Youtube, just look for Epic Meal Time, and you're good to go. They have a lot more episodes, so maybe you guys can get around to watching everything. It's actually fun to watch. The mixing of the ingredients is the best part. Plus Harley's narration IS THE BEST!!

So...can you foodies handle this or not? :p

Here are the links:
Epic Meal Time Official Website
Epic Meal Time - Youtube
Epic Meal Time - Twitter

P.S. Oh and to all DALLAS MAVERICKS fans out there. It's OUR TIME!!!!!! :)) GO MAVS!!! :D

Exotic Foodie Finds at Everybody's Cafe

Exotic is the word to describe our dinner over at Everybody's Cafe at San Fernando, Pampanga last Saturday. We were choosing between eating in Baliuag Chicken that made Baliuag in Bulacan famous and some other unknown restaurant to try along that long stretch. But Amanda and Mike suggested we go over to San Fernando because their friend has already eaten at Everybody's Cafe..and a lot of people were "raving" about it.

We were all starved after that more than 2-hour walk along the Candaba Wetlands Bird Sanctuary, so we were psyched to eat. Trency had started research on the restaurant and told us about the exotic food finds...it made us more excited.

We were all expecting a real restaurant set-up, but it looked more like a home than an actual food joint. It had a nice garden outside and nice little gate, it made you feel very welcome. And it was turo-turo (literally translated to point-point), there's this huge food display and you just point at the food you want to the ordertaker. Plain and simple, no frills at all.

But as usual, since I'm with the BFFs, we ordered a huge feast! If you guys are frequent readers of my blog, you'd know how we could over-order and over-eat!

Here's a breakdown of that huge meal on that long table. We had to transfer to a longer table because we couldn't fit the food in a table meant for 4 people! Oh and what's sweet is that they give you piping hot Bulalo soup. Oh memories of Tagaytay! This was really good since we were so hungry and we slurped on it to warm our growling tummies.

First on the list is Pako Salad.

Trency ordered this because she wanted some greens to get something healthy on our carnivorous meal. It had pako leaves, salted, onions and a light dressing.

Next is Camaron.

Seriously I had no idea what this was. Mike ordered this, but it was really good. It reminds me of an embotido, a dish my family prepares every Christmas. I liked this one! Yummy! :)

I ordered something "safe" and something my taste buds actually KNOW: Kalderetang Baka.

This was SO GOOD! Amanda and I had a good time eating this one. It was spicy (I've been craving for something spicy lately), the meat was tender and juicy and has absorbed the sauce making it really tasty! One of the best kalderetas I have tasted OUTSIDE of my home! Recommended! :)

Another safe order: Pusit (Squid).

Just like the kaldereta, this was really good! The squid was soft and they were able to make it tasty by stuffing the squid with tomatoes. Although it would've bee better if it were a bit spicy.

A major flop in our meal: TAPA

One bite of this thing, I had to spit it out. I know tapa is supposed to be a bit sweet, but this is way-over-the-top sweet. *gag sound*

So now I let you guys in on our "safe" foods. Let's move on to the exotic ones. I wasn't able to take a picture of it, but Mike and Trency ordered FROG STUFFED WITH GROUND MEAT! Mike was the only one who had the guts (and the stomach) to eat that thing. He said it was good, prolly was cos he finished the entire frog. *eeewww*

Since we're talking about frogs already, we also ordered frog legs.

I've eaten this before when I was in college. Our ROTC officers and I went to Binondo (our Chinatown) and our head that time was Chinese. So he ordered this for us. And it's actually pretty good. Tastes like CHICKEN...even better!


Last but not the least on "gross fest" CRICKETS!

Sorry Amanda and I weren't able to eat this. We chickened out (haha). Here's how problematic one can get when about to pop this thing in your mouth.

It's Trency who was so psyched in ordering this when we were still on our way. But now that it was right in front of her, she had huge problems with it. But still, she was able to pop a couple in her mouth. Mike and Trency said it was crunchy and juicy. Not trying this one!!

Our overall review of the place: Well with all the good things we heard about it, it just seemed so blah. Nothing great. Although I'd have to say that their kalderata was REALLY good, but besides that, I'm not really gonna travel all the way to San Fernando just to eat here. The prices are also a bit on the expensive side, take a look at our bill.

But this restaurant is one for the adventurous eaters out there. The frogs and crickets, come on! You gotta have guts made of steel to actual down this! It was fun to watch Mike and Trency though! :)

Directions on how to get to Everybody's Cafe:
1. From NLEX exit at San Fernando. You won't get lost, when you see Robinson's on the right that's the sign that the exit is NEAR!
2. Turn right towards SUBIC. Just go straight until you see a huge flyover.
3. Go UNDER the flyover and turn left (that's McArthur Highway) and just go straight until you see a rotunda.
4. Go around the rotunda so you can make a LEFT. And within a few meters from the rotunda is the restaurant.

Everybody's Cafe
Brgy. del Pilar, McArthur Highway
San Fernando, Pampanga
Tel. Nos. (045) 860-1121 and (045) 9617121