Filipino food

I couldn’t put my finger on what Filipino food is all about but I know it’s a fusion of Chinese, Spanish and other Southeast Asian influences. I deduced there was a lot of fish in their diet and they are partial to drying and preserving their meats.

Deep-fried dried salted fish with fried rice and a preserved vegetable salad.

The kangaroo had the same except that he had stir-fried pork doused in a sweet marinade.

On our last night, we booked ourselves into the Opus Restaurant, Pulchra’s fine dining outlet. It still had a casual ambience despite instructions not to wear shorts and slippers. I braced myself to indulge in a seven-course fusion meal — every dish tasted great but I felt I overate.

As an aside: I’m back on the South Beach Diet until my waistline gets under control…or rather under the waistband of my jeans. It’s like “Hello, Late Twenties, Muffin Girl.”

The kangaroo is drooling over the menu…

This is one of my favourites in our course — big prawns with asparagus on top of a drizzle of hearty prawn head gravy.

For the main course, I had fish with a barley risotto. I wasn’t overly impressed and stole a gnaw of the kangaroo’s steak.

Dessert was a mango pudding of sorts but it came off as a light cheesecake with a pastry tart base.

How can I sum up this Cebu holiday? Well, we ate, slept, breathed in lots of fresh air and swam in gorgeous bluish green sea. We chatted and laughed at silly things.

A kangaroo holiday also includes getting drunk as a fish every night. We even got the barman to make a new cocktail for us — a banana pina colada, several of which I slurped up happily. I don’t think this is so innovative as I’m sure many a resort in Southeast Asia dunk any combination of tropical fruit into rum and coconut milk in a blender. We also discovered a sinful banana chocolate cocktail which was more like a dessert than an alcoholic drink.

I came home with a tan and a big smile on my face.

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