Dumaguete Food Trip

Our culinary tour in Dumaguete started with a new breakfast experience at the east side of public market. Its called “budbud kabog tsokolate”, consisting of cooked millet seeds unwrapped from banana leaves (lower left item, locally called also as "suman"), cooked red glutinous rice (top item), and thick chocolate syrup from local cacao fruit.

The cooked rice and millet seeds are usually dipped into the chocolate syrup. The "suman" or "budbud" are available in 3 options – plain, with chocolate, or with jackfruit.

If you need protein with these carbo-rich foods, cooked eggs or ham are available from the same carinderia-type stalls that sell this unique Negrense food. Aside from the 3 food items above, we also ordered cooked ground corn and hot chocolate drink, for a total bill of only Php 95 to break our fasting.

Going back from Manjuyod sandbar to Dumaguete, we stopped for late lunch at Jo’s Chicken Inato by the Sea at Sibulan town. Its an open air restaurant above the beach, providing nice sea views and allows fresh sea breeze to flow on the restaurant.

On its right side is a family resort with aviary, while across the street is the Lourdes grotto on a hill. My son enjoyed looking at the 3 fishes on the clean aquarium at the main dining area.

The seats and tables on the restaurant grounds are fashioned from small fishing boats. Statues of a few sea creatures are also on the church grounds to complete the seaside ambience. The chicken inato (grilled) dish is not something to write home about, but its portion size at Php 85 per meal set is a good value for money.

On top of 2 chicken inato we ordered, we also added camaron rebosado (like shrimp tempura), a veggie dish, and a fresh mango shake for a total bill of only Php 350. Unfortunately, I was either too hungry or too tired to think about taking a photo of our lunch and other succeeding meals.

Before ordering Sans Rival’s famous sylvannas for pasalubong on next day, we tried it first along with baked lasagna and sans rival. As expected, they are all good at very reasonable prices, prompting us to order 6 boxes of sylvannas, frozen packed to last 4-6 hours of travel from Dumaguete to Manila the following day.

I would have tried the tempura and balut stalls along the Rizal Blvd. but I changed my mind when I found out that they don’t serve beer on their stalls. Well, I guess its fine as long as it keeps the peace and security on the area.

Dinner was held at Lab-as seafood restaurant along the bay. Their tanguigue soup dish was good, but the chili crab was a disappointment, inspite of waiting for more than 40 minutes for our food. They used a malnourished mudcrab and the dish lacks flavor except for the chili. However, our total bill was only Php 435 including steamed rice, ice cream on buko shell, mango shake, and a beer, so I would still recommend the place for its reasonable prices.

Next day’s lunch prior to our departure is at Don Roberto’s restaurant, this time with our gracious hosts Pearl and Willy. Unlike most restaurants in the city, it is airconditioned, attracts mostly the decent crowd, and famous for its freshly baked goodies from noontime onwards.

Our meal was a feast with fish fillet, beef dish, pancit canton, and grilled squid at generous servings, so we have to take home some of the excess food. At our total food bill of only Php 760, its no surprise that many foreigners and local immigrants choose to stay on this nice city due to its low cost of living.

Dumaguete proves to be a food trip haven for a budget traveler like me.