EVERYONE should begin a visit to Davao with a glass
of fresh pineapple juice, just off the fields, thick with
foam, shot with sweetness. It is a symbol and harbinger
of the city--said to be the largest in the world area-wise--fruit
capital of Mindanao, source of some of the best yellowfin tuna
(inihaw na panga, barilis, etc.) around, filled with orchids and
other cutflowers, and now rich with hotels.
The Marco Polo Davao, related to those of Hong Kong,
Singapore and Xiamen in China, is a partnership between Marco
Polo Hotels Hong Kong and Halifax Davao Hotel Inc. It stands
high (18 floors) in the heart of town, on C.M. Recto Street,
across the street from the Ateneo de Davao University and the
Aldevinco Shopping Center.
Our exploration started right after we got in from the airport:
lunch at the Cafe Marco, with its international buffet. It was the
best way to try a large buffet, to have the food-loving brothers,
Bien and Lory Tan, sampling each at his own pace and whim,
and reporting on everything good. Try the smoked malasugui
(sailfish), said Bien; it is made only for the Marco Polo. And the
salad of green mango, pepper and Davao pomelo. Lory
especially liked the steamboat, with its generous assortment of
soup-making meats, fish and vegetables, and yes, the
malasugui sashimi.
I liked the bam-i with its two noodles, crisp vegetables, and
especially prime fishballs handmade by the chef. Because this
was Davao, one of the desserts consisted of durian
fritters--mild, a good introduction to the timid. It led Lory to
remember durian shakes, suman, ice cream, and to propose the
creation of a durian buchi, since he had sampled one built
around a giant strawberry. Why not around a luscious section
of durian?
Successful touch
We scattered to wander, promising to meet at dinner, but Lory
and I, in the name of research, ventured down the street to Patio
Valencia--for merienda. Trying to taste the extensive menu in
one try, we had adobong balut (16-day-old balut cooked in
vinegar), another bam-i, more moist than the first, and a real
winner: Kinilaw 2000 of tuna with ginger, calamansi, onions
and ''mango in vino.'' This was the unique, successful
touch--green mangoes tasting faintly of dayok, the bagoong
made from fish innards.
Dinner at the Lotus Court Restaurant was by its Hong Kong
chef. (The hotel manager, Charles So, is also an old Hong Kong
hand). This started with a barbecued meat/cold cut platter: roast
pork, roast duck, suckling pig, roast chicken and sausage--to
tuck into butterfly-shaped steamed bread (pao) with or without
hot or Hoisin sauces.
Soup came in silver swing-top cups, of braised shredded duck
meat (with tiny curls of skin) with compoy (dried scallops). A
steamed seafood bun came next--in crab coral (aligue) sauce.
Next, perfectly tender stir-fried small spiny lobsters (crayfish
actually, Bien said) that came off their shells with alacrity.
Chicken roasted was served with Hoisin and fermented bean
curd sauce; eel was fried with salt and pepper. Fish maws and
pork sinews (litid) were braised with large tender black
mushrooms. Crab was sauteed with chili sauce Singapore style
(with aligue).
Dinner jewel
Jewel for the dinner was the famous, elusive fish found only in
Mindanao waters called pigek (grunt), steamed to absolute
tenderness with black beans. It was luscious, and we picked
gently at the roe and the stomach, and all the flesh off the
bones, the fins, the head. When in Mindanao, insist on your
right to have it--probably at a Chinese restaurant. You won't
find it on any other island, I am told.
Crisp toffee bananas, sweet cassava dumplings, and more of the
chrysanthemum tea that had gentled the dishes, ended the meal,
and we went off to dream sweetly in the comfortable rooms.
Breakfast was at the coffee shop, and I must confess that
among all the breads, cereals, eggs (cooked to order), waffles,
etc., I fastened on the bacon, which was perfectly crisp and
greaseless as I hadn't seen bacon in the last decade or so. It was
so good it felt guilt-free.
At lunch we were back at the Lotus Court, this time for some of
the 35 varieties of dim sum available (the chef promises a total of
50 in a few months).
There is a little checklist in Chinese and English, including such
old favorites as hakao (shrimp), Chiu Chow and Shanghai
dumplings; steamed pork spare ribs with garlic, deep-fried
seafood taro puff, radish cake with Chinese sausage, steamed
rice flour roll with scallops, and what Bien called his ''true love,''
baked barbecued pork pies, some of which he carried back on
the plane.
We visited the crocodile farm, and the weaving at the Davao
Insular, and of course shopped for batik and malongs at
Aldevinco. But the focus of this trip was the lovely assignment
to try out all the Marco Polo outlets. And of course stay in one
of the rooms, with the 17th floor picture window opening up all
of Davao including, on clear days, Mt. Apo. And yet I could
have been happy just with the spray of waling-waling in my
bathroom. Lush life, indeed.
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