Exploring Silay |

One look at the signage alone will instantly draw you to come closer and see what’s that little quaint cafe doing hidden behind tall neighboring walls and away from the glances of the passers by of the main highway.

*** Picture of this Signage was borrowed from www.experiencenegros.com

We passed by Cafe 1925 when we went to Emma Lacson’s for the fresh lumpia but I decided to wait for the nighttime when everything’s velvet dark and the signage would be the only one casting a glow of light before taking a picture. But the signage wasn’t lit when we got there around 7pm and it was rather disappointing. But the rest of the place looks absolutely gorgeous from outside. Stained colorful glasses on their sliding doors, the yellow warmth of their lights from inside and the rustic iron grills and wooden chairs were all so becoming. I could almost hear myself sigh in whimsical adoration and already, the issue about the signage was fast forgotten.

For someone who’s got an affinity with chandeliers and lamps, theirs definitely captured me. What’s not to love about broken golden lights raining down on you?

Their walls were plastered with paintings huge and small. It excited me to see a big painting of the ruined old port that we planned to visit hung on their wall. Next to it were small but rather hopeful paintings of other old buildings in Silay. There was one that looked like an effort to copy Van Gogh’s style.

We were all still very full when we got there which was probably why we took so long to order our food. By that time, food was rather unappealing to me but for the sake of sampling out new food, I gave in to my sister who said we’ll just split the churros con chocolate order. I looked at the menu and saw it was 140. I had to blink twice but what the hey, we’re splitting it up anyway so I conceded again. I though it was rather too expensive especially since my sister makes delicious churros con chocolate and we sell them for a very low price considering the ingredients aren’t that expensive to begin with. But other than that, we also ordered risotto balls, their red velvet cupcake, cappuccino and spicy cheese wraps.

Goofs will always be goofs, dontcha think? We especially struck those two ridiculous poses for our friend Isabelle who wanted to come along but couldn’t. And by couldn’t, I mean she somehow fell off from the face of the earth and couldn’t be located or contacted by the time we started assembling. She’s safe, though so don’t you worry your pretty little head. She resurfaced again today.

The risotto balls were good and the dip was yummy so we’ve no complaints there. Same goes for their spicy cheese wraps — they were delectable! (Pardon me for this but I just can’t seem to get over this because of my recent churros con chocolate addiction that started when we went to Ilo-ilo last month.) It took some time for them to serve the churros and it was not a good premise for something badly done. Usually, when you make people wait for something, you have to make sure that the wait’s all worth it. And the churros weren’t.

Spineless, they were. They break in half and topple down when you hold them from one end and try to dip it in chocolate. They were hallow inside, they had white sugar crystals sprinkled over the churros (like some cheap donuts they sell in public markets) and they were still soggy and raw inside! For 7 small poorly done churros sticks (that’s 20 per stick!!!), we thought 140 was too much a price for them.

Red Velvet (sand) Cupcake

Yes, sand. It tasted THAT bad. It was so poorly done, the six of us were not able to finish eating this small cupcake. My sister took the first bite and her face was instantly destroyed. I thought she was over-reacting. I took the cake and took a small bite myself and my mouth and throat turned into ashes. We all took turns sampling this little deceiver of a cake and none of us fierce devourers could endure that poison.

Their cakes were very pricey but that’s not a problem if they’re all worth it. I saw a kalamansi cupcake that was rather small priced at 60 and I thought it was too much. They also had leche flan and it was for 90. Whuuu–t?!!

So back to the red velvet cake. It was not velvety at all. The texture was sandy and there was no moisture, whatsoever. In fact, it was so dry that the cream topping didn’t stick to the cake. Notice how “foamy” the cream is in that picture? It’s because when I tilted the cake a bit, the cream (ALAS – - Rowena literally shrieked!) fell off and landed on my brother’s mug of cappuccino! Vince said the cupcake was probably baked in 1925. I had to agree.

Now, I’ve read some online reviews about this place and all of them were praises. I honestly don’t want to give bad reviews, but I just can’t help it with this place. Yes, the ambiance was good and the place was nothing short of lovely and charming. But what about the food? Given that we didn’t order and sample everything they have on their menu but still, to suck up on churros con chocolate and red velvet cupcake is pretty unforgiving. Especially with the rates they’re charging for these blasphemies they call food!

I may not be all that and I know I’m not a picky eater so I can appreciate the potential good in a myriad of bad in food but I can tell if something’s really bad. So bad it should be labelled poison. So maybe they have other good things to offer. But after that trauma, I won’t take the chance of finding out some more anytime soon.

I’d give it ★★☆ ✰☆ .

Yesterday’s trip started a little wet. We assembled ourselves in my sister’s tiny room and around15 minutes before we’re about to leave, it started raining. Hard. We also got ourselves two new people joining our group. We’re not sure if they’ll continue to join with us in the next future exploring but they’re welcome to tag along anytime they want to. When it stopped raining for a brief moment, we all hurried up and went to the terminal. The rain started pouring again when the bus was pulling out from the terminal and all our eyes were glued to the sky and we were making predictions of our own.

“Look. The sky is bright over Silay. It’s probably sunny there now!”

Well, it wasn’t sunny but it wasn’t raining either. So we were all half right. As per our agreement, we headed straight to Emma Lacson’s for their really tasty fresh lumpia and panyo-panyo . I know that most people and even food magazines have quoted El Ideal’s fresh lumpia to be the best in Silay but we beg to differ. El Ideal’s lumpia is good but Emma Lacson’s is even better. You know, just like how people seem to think that Bong-Bong’s piyaya is “the best” and how tourists and most locals alike are raving about them like mad. But clearly, they haven’t tasted Bailon’s piyaya. But that’s for another post featuring Bacolod. We’ll stick to Silay for the moment.

At Emma Lacson’s. We all struck a pose in their lovely “old world” kitchen while waiting for our Fresh Lumpia orders.

Vince was complaining that he’s hungry. These three didn’t eat lunch so they were pretty famished by around 3:30. But I’m such a persistent shooter (for pictures, that is) that they’ve been given no choice to but bear with me. But hey, they all sure look convincingly happy.

That’s the fresh lumpia at the bottom and the “panyo-panyo” at the top. Panyo means handkerchief and these were named such because they look like folded handkerchiefs. Both were delicious.

Emma Lacson’s quite near El Ideal, by the way. If you’ve located El Ideal, you’d know that beside it is the Bank of The Philippine Island building. Then there’s a street you have to cross and the old house at the corner is Emma Lacson’s. There’s all doorbell by the gate and all you have to do is ring it and push the tall gate open. They’re friendly enough to bid you come in.

So after we’ve got our first taste of the many more food to be had that day, we set about to going to Balaring. It’s a small coastal baranggay north of Silay. We took the motor cab and told the driver we’d like to go the ecopark with the bamboo foot bridge over a 5 hectare mangrove plantation. We paid the driver 10 pesos each.

On our way to Balaring. I have missed this. When we were little, we owned a motor cab and every now and then, we’d go to Balaring to frolic in the beach, dig for clams and grill them right there and then.

And then we finally got there! Vince monkeying around. =)

Ever since we first heard about this eco-park, we instantly wanted to get there. So we convinced our dad to drive us there and we even brought lunch with us so we could eat and enjoy the peaceful ambiance there. But somehow, I think we took the wrong turn and we ended up getting to the very last part and end of the coastal road and we had to turn back home, dismayed, needless to say.

We found the place very calming and enchanting at the same time.

The foot bridge is yet incomplete and some parts they’ve closed. They have several cottages every which way and you can eat with your family and friends there if you like. Entrance to the eco-park is 20 by the way and 10 if you’re a student or a senior citizen.

The quietness of this place is akin to that of Lothlorien (Galadriel’s kingdom – Galadriel of The Lord Of The Rings).

My sister and I both agree that this would be a lovely place to have an engagement photography session on. I for one would like to have my engagement photos shot here.

When we first entered the mangrove “forest”, it felt like it went on for much longer than it actually did.

There were several kids who were not supposed to be there, in my opinion. They look like they were in highschool still and that in itself is not wrong. However, they had a few bottles of whiskey with them and it seemed like they were a little bit off already when we got there. Tsk-tsk-tsk!

We wanted to linger but we were running out of time. We planned to go to the old ruined port so we left after about 30 minutes or so. The motor cab fare on the way back to the city was only 8 pesos. When we got to the city, it started raining so we decided to go back to the old coffee place we went to last week, The New New City Cafe and had coffee and bitso-bitso (the highlight of our day).

The New (new) City Cafe.

We also had chicken skin inasal (barbecue) — hello cholesterol (haha)! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take pictures of the said bitso-bitso. Most were long gone by the time I got back inside from ordering our inasal. But they saved one for me and it was DELICIOUS! We wanted to buy some more to take home with us but turned out the ones we ordered the were the last. But we’ll be sure to come back again next week!

Mmm…the chicken skin barbecue is so sooo deicious!

Then we went to Hestia Restaurant. It was a very short walk..about 5 minutes the most. And onto the next food stop we went. It was getting pretty dark by the time we went there so we decided to push the trip to the old port ruins for next week.

We ordered their batchoy, club sandwich, spaghetti and their bihon guisado. We wanted to sample their pork barbecue because we’ve heard that’s their specialty. Unfortunately, they didn’t have their pork barbecue so we had to be content with the rest of our orders. Their bihon guisado wasn’t that great – - I’d still prefer El Ideal’s. However, their Batchoy was yummy and I’d recommend it, even. Their spaghetti wasn’t spectacular, though. But at least, should I find myself craving for batchoy while in Silay next time, I’ll know where to go.

Next and last stop for the day was Cafe 1925. We passed by it last Saturday and we were intrigued with it’s charming and very cozy lovely spot and decided we had to try what they have to offer. So we did.

And we won’t come back for more. Why? Stay tuned and I’ll post another entry telling you why.

Tag Archives: Exploring Silay

Cafe 1925

Exploring Silay: DEUX