Sweet Tooth

Have you ever tasted sweet delicacies from “The city of Smile”? If not, go and try it because you’re missing half of your life. The capital of Negros Occidental which is the Sugarbowl of the Philippines, serves as the entrance of the sugar-rich cities and towns of the province, and because of that Bacolod is known for its sweet delicacies. Here are some of the delicacies that can be mostly found in Bacolod which is hard or too expensive to find at other places.

PIAYA

Piaya, this is one of the famous delicacies in Bacolod, it is a flat unleavened bread with muscovado (raw) sugar. The bread is flaky just like the Chinese hopia, and the filling ofcourse is sweet. It actually has different kind of flavors to pick for like Calamansi, Mango, Dalandan, Espresso, Ube and Rum. It is good to be paired with a cup of coffee. The shape of piaya is usually round and flat. Enriched flour, sugar, salt, butter and sesame seeds make up this mouth-watering dessert that everybody would love. This is a most requested pasalubong for the family and I’m 99.9 percent sure that no one leaves Bacolod without bringing home one or more pack of piaya.

KWAKOY

Kwakoy, one of the oldest native delicacies of Bacolod. Whenever my Grandmother visit in Bacolod we always ask her to bring us sweet delicacies including this, me and my cousins usually call this “tiles” because of its shape and texture. This is made of native rice, washed sugar, malagkit, and milk powder. This is not that sweet, and it’s kind of unflavored. But this is one of the most noticeable delicacy of Bacolod.

PASTILLAS DE MANGA

 Pastillas de Manga, who could have thought that Pastillas Mango flavor exist in this city? The dough that is filled with sweet blend ripe mango inside that gives the best taste to everyone.  This is also one of my favorite sweet delicacy from Bacolod, this one is really addicting because it’s not that sweet and it’s fully loaded inside, like every bite is heaven here on earth.

Obviously, that is the reason why it is called “City of smile”. Sweet people, sweet delicacies, who wouldn’t smile?

Only in Bacolod

Why do we keep hearing that Bacolod's chicken inasal is one of the best tasting chicken ever? Well I can say that it's because of it's authenticity, I've tasted other chicken inasal here in Manila but I can never replace Bacolod's original inasal. This is one unique thing I know from Bacolod. They use a different kind of vinegar in Bacolod, they get it straight from the coconut tree, its produced  by first fermenting coconut wine and then turning it into vinegar. Bacolod vinegar has a wine-sweet taste that permeates into the chicken marinade.

I had to try all the chicken inasal here in Manila just to prove that Bacolod's inasal is really the best and original. I've proven it to myself and I can really recommend it to everybody. 

So why don’t you try a chicken inasal for yourself today? Don’t be fooled by some outlets that use the name “Bacolod” to brand their chicken barbecue. It’s not just the name. And you already know the secret.

And the secret for good food is you should sprinkle l-o-v-e into it, just like what Ilonggos do :)

The city of smiles (descriptive essay)

This isn’t the place I was born nor the place I grew up in, but this is one place I left my heart with, the one I considered as my hometown – Bacolod.. Bacolod city is the capital city of Negros Occidental. Known as the city of Smiles because of their festivals like Joei de Vivre and Mardi Gras; the MassKara festival which is famous because of its vivid mix of dance, color and music. This is also known as the Land of Sweet people and it’s also known as the culinary heritage.

My Dad was born in Bacolod City that’s why we’re kind of influenced of its culture and lifestyle. He had always been a laid back person who prefers having a simple life, just like what he had when he was young. We never stop listening to his precious and interesting stories about his childhood memories in his hometown.  The first time we went to Bacolod, we were like tracing back footsteps and digging up memories. We went to all the places where my Dad used to play, the place where he used to hang out and the places he used to have good memories.

I love Bacolod not because it’s my Father’s hometown, not because it’s one place I used to visit but because I love every simple thing it has. I remember walking on the sidewalks of Bacolod, the sun lingering upon my fair skin, we saw street children playing and having fun under the sunny sun and their parents all laughing and just smiling. I can see from their faces that problems doesn’t really matter when you’re happy, I can’t see hunger from their faces, even those who doesn’t have a perfect teeth could give you the biggest smile ever – that’s one thing I’m so proud about my so-called hometown. Our crumbling stomachs bother us while walking but it’s not a problem in Bacolod, you can always see different selections of food stalls, but for me they must try their  finger licking good Bacolod Inasal, don’t expect to use spoon and fork while eating because they actually encourage costumers to use their hands. After eating those tasty Chicken Inasal, it’s a must to try those mouth watering Piyaya, it's like a super thin bread with different kinds of flavor like ube, chocolate, and a lot more, it's one of the most famous sweet delicacy of Bacolod, it’s flavored with melted muscovado sugar inside. If you want to try different things I recommend you guys to try and discover the wonders of Bacolod!