Bigg's Diner (Pili, Camarines Sur)

picture grabbed from Iris

It was (I think) around 8am when we left Caramoan, and because of its distance and the road repairs, it was past lunch time when we reached the town of Pili. At first, the vans parked in front of Jollibee - which was a little cute thinking that our first meal in Bicol was at this Jollibee branch and that our last meal in the region would be there as well, but because our companions thought that they will eat Jollibee the day they come back to work, they decided to find somewhere else to eat. We didn't really wanted to eat at a very high end restaurant, eating at road side eateries (carinderia) would be okay for us because it would allow us to save money and have a taste of what the town has to offer.

We were only given an hour to eat lunch because traveling back home would sure take a lot of time and we were still going to do one more side trip to CWC, so when the carinderia hunting didn't give us results within 15 minutes, I suggested we go to Bigg's Diner instead. It would eat a lot of our time walking there, but from what I knew of, Bigg's Diner is proudly Bicolano... I am not sure if it branched out of the region, but when one say Bicolano restaurant, Bigg's Diner will be one of the very first ones to mention.

Eating in Caramoan

* picture heavy post *

While we were traveling back to Manila from Baler (Aurora) last June, my companions were already talking about our next weekend getaway, saying that there will be another long weekend come August. At that time, we all agreed that Sagada would be our next destination, but early August, we received the invitation for a weekend getaway to Caramoan. It was first scheduled August 20 - 23, but our companions had work-related responsibilities, so they decided to cancel and re-schedule. Thankfully, the next weekend was another long weekend here in the Philippines, so we pushed through last August 29 - 31.

Caramoan is located in the province of Camarines Sur in Bicol region. I first heard of this place in 2009, but the willingness to travel there intensified when it became the location of choice for the hit US reality television show, Survivor, which shot back-to-back seasons in Caramoan (Survivor Philippines - season 25 and Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites - season 26).




Traveling to Caramoan took us 14 hours. It was a long and tiring ride (as there were a lot of road repairs), but when we got there, it was like all our wearies were washed out. We spent most of our time island hopping, and because this place is not highly commercialized yet, there weren't a lot of restaurants in the area, so most of our meals were eaten at the dining area of the resort where we stayed at.

Food Trip Flashback | Chocolat Deep Dark Chocolate Cakes

2012 to 2014 weren't good years for me as far as blogging is concerned, and checking the archives of this blog, I realized there were food trips dating back to 2011 that I still haven't shared. I know, these food trips were already outdated, but more than "reviewing" the food and the dining experience, these food trips were about memories and history, and despite the time gap, I still would like to document them, so I have something to look back on when I am wrinkly and old.

Once, online friends and I together with my sister met up for a food trip. After eating a very heavy and hearty dinner at Pino Restobar, we still thought it wasn't enough to wrap up the food trip, so after chit-chats, it was decided that we would go for cakes at Chocolat in Sgt. Esguerra.

There were eight of us for this food trip, Andrew didn't order his share of desserts and two of us ordered the same cake, so here are the six cakes we ordered:


Kahlua
Chocolate cake laced with Kahlua liqueur, topped with mini chocolate kisses. My choice of cake, just to add more variety to the cakes for that night. It was moist, not too dense and not too soft, but it was just too sweet for my liking.

Bailey's
Classic chocolate cake soaked in Bailey's liquor, topped with chocolate sprinkles. My sister ordered this one and I liked it better than my cake, because this had more body - both in texture and taste.


Chocolate Caramel
Chocolate Cake with rich caramel swirls. Probably my second favorite cake; I loved the contrast between chocolate and caramel. Sweet, yes, but not too much.

Choco Hazelnut
Classic chocolate cake with hazelnut filling topped with hazelnut chocolate cube. It didn't really taste like Nutella, but it was good.


Death by Tablea
Chocolate cake with bittersweet icing made of native cacao and condensed milk. The best of all the cakes we tried. I guess there's something about the condensed milk and the tablea that added a different dimension to the cake. It was chocolatey and milky, something that reminded you of home and Christmastime.

NY Cheesecake
Melt-in-your-mouth baked cheesecake with graham cracker crust. After trying all the chocolate cakes while slowly consuming my sweet cake, my friend Halie suggested I try her cake, just to wash off the chocolate flavor in my mouth. I am not a fan of cheesecakes and I don't know what makes a good cheesecake, but I appreciated the change of flavor this cake brought.


Chocolate Drink
All of us had a mug of this rich chocolate drink to go with our cakes. Normally, I prefer coffee with my cakes, but it was a pleasure sipping a warm chocolate drink in between bites of chocolate cake.

It was a good way to cap off a wonderful night.