Carcar Chicharon: A Cebuano’s favorite

Carcar Chicharon: A Cebuano’s favorite

You know you have reached the humble city of Carcar as you are welcomed right at its borderline by the familiar, local tone “’Charon, ampao, ‘charon special” – ampao, a variation of sweetened rice crispies and ‘charon’ being short for the much craved Carcar chicharon.

What makes it more special than many of its counterparts? It’s that real pork meat, fat, and skin, deep fried into perfect golden crisp and right salty flavour.

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The Only Grilled Burgers in Cebu Flame It! Burgers

I should say I am a food lover, Burger to be specific with. One day it came to me that the typical fast food burgers were not that satisfying anymore. I began to search for another type of burger, something that could satisfy my hunger as well as my taste buds. When I heard about grilled burgers I thought there’s no such place in Cebu to get one of those, Luckily, I was wrong. One of my friends pointed me to Flame It! Burgers, as soon as I tasted their grilled burger, man I almost forgot my name. The grilled burger patty was topped with mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, tomatoes, and all the famous leafy ones, made up a delicious burger that I have not tasted before.

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Da Vinci’s Pizza, Cebu’s first White Sauce Pizza

There are many Pizza lovers in Cebu. With that in mind, the Lee brothers found their way into a great idea of putting up a Pizza shop in January 2003. The brainchild is Da Vinci’s Pizza and the idea is not just serving the typical pizza, but something new to the taste. They came up with the first white sauce pizza in Cebu and took a very good response from their customers. Since then, Da Vinci’s Pizza has become very popular to customers who were looking for a great treat. It was also able to bag awards as the most outstanding Pizza parlor in Cebu in two consecutive years (2005-2006).

After 5 years in the business it has been able to put many branches around Cebu due to the growing demands of the customers. Aside from Pizza, it is also evident that the design and interior of the Pizza Parlor took some planning in which the result was an exceptional Italian inspired ambiance.

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Affordable Giant Pizzas at Calda Pizza

The Calda Pizza is one of the popular pizza chains in Cebu . It is located at Salinas Drive , Lahug Cebu City (just beside the University of Southern Philippines or USP campus) with a branch in Talamban as well.

Calda’s is best known for their thin crust giant pizza which usually surprises its customers. In their menu are the Regular 10-inch, Family 15-inch, XL 20-inch, and the Super 30-inch.

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Puto and Sikwate: Traditional Bisaya Breakfast

Before bread, pancakes, and even cereal invaded the Cebu and Visayan breakfast tables, there was puto and sikwate.

Puto in Cebu is steamed sticky rice which is gradually mixed with coconut milk while being cooked. To taste, sugar, small amounts of salt, and ginger are added. Sikwate, on the other hand, is hot choco drink from chocolate tablets called tabliya made of dried and pulverized cacao seeds. Sometimes, the puto was occasionally paired with ripe mango which is also a very abundant fruit in Cebu (one of the popular local delicacies are dried mangoes).

*image sourced from georgeparilla of flickr

Now don’t be confused, puto may also be referred as puto maya wrapped in banana leaves because in some other parts in the Philippines, puto can be steamed ground rice or puto mamon which does not include rice.

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Cebu’s Rocky Road Ice Cream

I have always loved ice cream ever since I was young. I remember this one “odd” picture of me eating ice cream, “odd” because I was messily eating it on a cone by myself and my face had ice cream over my mouth and my chubby cheeks, my hands messy with the ice cream that has already melted. I also remember being able to finish one whole pint to myself, I was probably six or seven at that time, and my mom would always tell me that I am just like my father, and my father’s father. During high school, there would always be this Manoy, whom we called “Manoy Ice Cream”, selling his ice cream (which sometimes called a dirty ice cream but does not necessarily mean “dirty”, it’s just a term used to describe street ice cream, the ones sold by the manoys by the streets, usually outside schools) right outside the school gate waiting for people, most especially kids to rush out and buy up to at least P20.00 worth of ice cream. continue reading » »

Sweet Ampao

Sweet Ampao

Carcar, Cebu is known for a lot of things from having the most gifted artists in the nation, along with having the best delicacies ever to reach your taste buds. You may know it for its amazing chicarons (pork rines) but it is also known for its sweet, sweet ampao. Of course, I bet Rachael Ray  would choke into guessing as to  how  this delicacy is made. continue reading » »