Looking for restos in west Cebu
After checking out at bai Hotel on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, the fam and I decided to go on a spontaneous road trip to the north of Cebu.
I live for road trips, and the best ones are always those that are unplanned. After a quick look on the net, I didn’t find any interesting stops going north, so we decided to go west.
Go west – an idiom which means to die (likened to a sunset, because the sun sets in the west)
We didn’t decide to die, but to really go to the western part of Cebu via the Transcentral Highway.
We passed popular stops like Anzani and Bellini, Mr A’s, Sampaloque, Chateau de Busay, Mountainview and Lantaw Busay, Top of Cebu, Green Canopy and the Sirao Gardens.
There were lots of roadside vendors selling lush plants and farm animals peacefully grazing or resting on the verdant pasture.
Such bucolic scenes alternated with views of mountains and valleys, thick wooded areas and the occasional payag (hut).
It was noon, but the air was cool as we drove through the mountains of Balamban on a pine-lined winding road.
Finding a Balamban eatery
After about an hour, we finally reached Balamban.
Balamban is actually known for its liempo, a piece of marinated/seasoned pork belly spit-roasted over hot charcoal. Its superb taste comes from herbs like scallions and lemongrass inserted into the meat.
It is one of the must-try Cebuano specialties, but we have lots of Balamban Liempo outlets all over the city, so we weren’t really craving for it on this trip.
We reached the town of Gaas and stopped over to take pictures at the edge of this mist-filled ravine.
Breakfast had been hours ago and it was past normal lunch hours, so we decided to walk a few meters back to this local eatery we passed called Belen’s Inato.
Pretty quaint, huh? It was everything I had hoped to find in a pit stop – local, cheap and open air.
Belen’s Inato menu
The pochero was very tasty and the vegetables were crisp and fresh, but the meat wasn’t melts-in-your-mouth tender. Maybe because the place was understaffed (there was just one flustered waitress and possibly one overwhelmed cook) and too many customers. Bet they didn’t think people would dream of leaving their homes on Christmas Day with all that leftover food from the noche buena…
Of course, we had to have the pochero and some manok Bisaya, which is just your native free-range chicken. No fat, just all lean meat. A lot of people agree it is so much tastier than your average commercial chicken from the grocery.
The native chicken must be ordered whole at around PHP500 (USD52), but you can have it cooked any way you like – tinola (soup), deep fry (deep-fried), adobo (marinated in soy sauce and vinegar) and adubaw (braised in sauce; spelled “adobao” on the menu).
Again, there isn’t much meat in manok Bisaya. If you’re the type who goes for flavor anyway, you’d love it. I like a lot of meat (and skin) in my chicken, but I have to admit the adubaw was really tasty!
I thought it would be your typical saucy chicken adobo with soy sauce, vinegar and garlic because adubaw is just coined from adobo+sabaw (sabaw means “soup”, but here it means “sauce”). The adubaw at Belen’s Inato had pineapple, red pepper, green finger chili, lots of onion and garlic and a sesame taste in its soy sauce.
You simply have to try it if you ever find yourself on this side of Cebu.
The rice was also one of the healthiest options you could find: red rice
Local red rice is healthier than your garden-variety white rice because, like brown rice, it is rich in fiber, calcium, B vitamins, zinc, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, magnesium and many more nutrients. Its reddish/purplish color indicates the presence of anthocyanins, the powerful antioxidants that give berries their red and purple hues and can help fight free radicals that damage the body – making red rice even healthier than brown rice.
A lot of people, especially short ones with little experience in the world, don’t like any colored rice, which does have a slightly different taste from white rice.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), Belen’s Inato does not offer white rice, so you – and the kids – will have to eat red rice.
If you ever find yourself road-tripping west, don’t forget to stop by Belen’s Inato in Gaas, Balamban. Bring a sticker and stick it on their front window as a way of saying “I was here!”
Total damage: PHP 2,700
Breakdown
- 1 Adubaw – PHP 550
- 1 Tinola – PHP 550
- 2 Pochero (PHP200) – PHP 400
- 1 Deep fry – PHP 500
- 11 Rice (PHP 20) – PHP 220
- 5 Nature’s Spring mineral water (PHP20) – PHP 100
- 2 Chuckie (PHP 25) – PHP 50
- 1 Fudgee Bar – PHP 10
- 5 Coke 8oz (PHP 15) – PHP 75
- 1 Coke litro – PHP 40
- 1 Sparkle – PHP 15
- 1 Tropicana – PHP 35
- 2 C500 (PHP 52.50) – PHP 105
- 1 Mountain Dew in can – PHP 45
- 1 Official cash ticket (see below) – PH P5
Tips
Belen’s Inato is located in Gaas, Balamban.
It is on the right side of the Transcentral Highway if you’re coming from Cebu City or Busay.
The eatery has a single small unisex bathroom with little to no running water. Maybe it was just that time we were there, though.
Bring plenty of wet tissue in any case.
You will pass by natural and semi-natural surroundings, so turn off your vehicle’s air conditioning and take in the fresh mountain air. It truly is cool and refreshing.
finds and food 