Bacolod: The land of sugar, sweetness and smiles
Never having been to Bacolod before, I was glued to my window seat, eager to get my first glimpse of the city. Only there was no city to see as we were descending, and it felt like we were landing amid vast fields of green.
You are, in fact, almost always surrounded by verdant acres of sugarcane in Bacolod, the capital city of Negros Occidental.
The plantation lifestyle of the hacienderos is apparent in its laidback pace and the glorious mansions of a bygone era. Such was my first impressions of Bacolod, a genteel place with an even gentler pace and a refreshing absence of what people from Manila would consider traffic. Yet the city is poised to take off in exciting new ways.
Just after landing, we drove through the new access road that links the city to the airport. Megaworld’s Harold Geronimo, vice president and head of PR and media affairs, pointed out the township of Northill Gateway on the boundary of Silay and Bacolod City. It is one of three Megaworld townships in Bacolod.
Harold hails from Bacolod and this makes him an even more valuable tour guide of his beloved city. He has a passion for his hometown and is happy to see it progress, even encouraging homegrown brands to add the word “Bacolod” to their branding to give them more prestige.
Since Harold wanted us to have a taste of authentic Negrense fare, our first stop in what turned out to be a three-day food crawl was Bob’s on Northdrive. This heritage Bacolod restaurant reminded me of Aristocrat on Roxas Boulevard, a down-to-earth institution beloved by generations.
The delicious Pancit Molo was a perfect example of the slow-simmered flavors of Negros, and the grilled blue marlin was impeccably fresh. The ruby red fruit punch was packed with fresh watermelon, big chunks of buko meat, bits of ubod (heart of palm) and pineapple. But despite their tempting spread of sweets, we headed to another restaurant for dessert.
I don’t know why I should be surprised that the sugar industry’s prominence would manifest itself through a myriad bakeshops, cake shops, cafes and the dessert offerings of every restaurant. Our first taste of Bacolod’s homegrown cake culture was at Sucre by Liz and Mom, located at a rebuilt heritage house, now known as The Upper East House. This is located at The Upper East, Megaworld’s second township development in Bacolod, situated on what used to be the Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company (BMMC) on the eastern side of the city. Elements of its storied past have been embraced, linking the history of the sugar industry to the present time. Aside from the heritage structure that lets you feel like you’ve stepped into a haciendero’s stately home, the train that was used to transport the cane from field to mill has been retained and even re-purposed as a McCafe. The iconic McDonald’s branch nearby sports a beautiful mask, the emblem of the city’s Masskara Festival, on one exterior wall.
“Thanks to the vision of our chairman and founder, Dr. Andrew L. Tan, Megaworld will continue to transform the landscape of The Upper East into a vibrant community that will further boost Bacolod’s tourism industry,” Harold tells me over slices of delicious cheesecake.
He points out how the old trees have been incorporated into their developments. “A lot of century-old trees were preserved, such as acacia trees and other endemic trees. The trees are part of the character of the township. It’s seldom that you can see a central business district (CBD) full of century-old trees.”
At Sucre, Liz Primacio has created some of the most sophisticated of Bacolod desserts. Every street in Bacolod seems to house a bakeshop but at Sucre, desserts are an innovative take on the traditional favorites which include, but are not limited to, Napoleones, the panna cotta-like Black Sambo, cakes with dulce de leche or yema. The standouts created by Liz are the moistest of cookies tasting of muscovado and studded with chocolate coins, macadamia nuts and cranberries. The dark chocolate cheesecake comes with a rich pistachio sauce and the Basque cheesecake is served with a sauce of batwan jam.
The batwan is a tart green fruit, very popular for providing the sourness in sinigang and the beef shank soup known as kansi. It is an ingredient loved by Negrense chefs like Gaita Fores, and the acidity is less sharp than that provided by tamarind. We encounter it again and again in jams and sauces that provide a slight tanginess to counter all the sugary sweetness in desserts.
A quick stop at the City Hall before dinner kept us abreast of Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez’s ongoing projects and initiatives to continually upgrade Bacolod. Together with developers like Megaworld, he envisions Bacolod as a global city. The Upper East township, which can even be viewed from the city hall’s balcony, is Bacolod’s first master-planned, mixed-use community that will host the newest and most modern central business district.
The township will be the city’s own version of an upscale lifestyle hub where residential condominiums, lifestyle malls, commercial centers, BPO office towers, tourism and leisure facilities, a transport hub, recreational parks, and open spaces are integrated.
Inspired by the affluent Upper East Side in New York, the goal is to create an exciting live-work-play township, which Megaworld pioneered in the Philippines. As Bacolod continues to progress, bringing in a bigger population and its accompanying traffic, the concept of a township, where the need to commute is minimized, makes perfect sense.
In the meantime, Bacolod is a charming Southern belle with a gracious and unhurried lifestyle. Even the old rich haciendero families will come to dine at its no-frills, unpretentious spots that can never be replaced in the hearts of Bacolodnons by fancy imports from Manila. This is why our first dinner was at Chicken House where we had a taste of true inasal and a lesson on how to best appreciate it.
Harold tells us that the biggest secret is to use fresh, native free-range chicken that has never been frozen. Next, the chicken pieces are cooked over wood, with stalks of lemongrass used to brush a marinade of calamansi, ginger and vinegar. He then demonstrates how inasal is best eaten with your hands, with a dipping sauce of sinamak and soy sauce (which they call patis), calamansi and sili. You need garlic rice for this, over which you pour a “chicken oil,” which I think was vegetable oil enhanced by the smokey flavor of achuete. Even if I don’t drink soda, the drink of choice is a glass of Mountain Dew.
Dessert followed at Cafe Bob’s, the more contemporary version of the original branch we visited earlier. Here, we had even more cheesecake, a chiffon cake covered with grated cheese and yema (a yummy egg yolk and condensed milk concoction). But I was happy with my coconut gelato, just one of the many flavors offered.
The next day, Harold took us to the Negros Trade Showroom located beside the provincial capitol building to take a look at some of Bacolod’s best products, like Don Papa rum. There are apparel, beauty products, woven bags and accessories, much like what you see at the annual Negros Trade Fair in Manila. I made sure to get arabica beans grown on the slopes of restive Kanlaon, and powdered batwan with which I plan to practice kansi when I get home to Manila.
Then we went off to a scenic drive where fields of green sugarcane stretched as far as your eyes could see to the mountains, to a municipality named Don Salvador Benedicto.
Kanlaon, by the way, is located in Negros but as its crater faces away from Bacolod, we never got to see it spewing ash, as it has been doing of late. A short zigzag road takes you past pine trees and fog-covered corners to the restaurant Kusinata perched on the side of the mountain facing a waterfall. The short distance and chilly weather make this the Baguio of this island. Nature trekking here is offered for hiking enthusiasts.
Kusinata is run by Mary Lucille Grey and her son Jay, who is the chef. Jay is a Psychology major who trained with Tonyboy Escalante (another Negrense) of Antonio’s to help his mom with her mission to help the indigenous atas (Aetas). They are employed by the restaurant which also makes use of the items they can forage around the place, such as pako (a wild fern), pineapple grown right on the mountain and wild honey. Kusinata tells its story and accomplishes its mission through the wonderfully prepared food.
Using those foraged ingredients, the cuisine was delicious, indeed, beginning with the pako salad served with a vinaigrette of pineapple and wild honey. The local kakanin budbud, suman to us from Manila, was the siding of a chicken and vegetable curry. The extra crispy fried chicken came with a sauce of salted egg and it was our first time to try KBL, the kadios (black bean), baboy and unripe langka soup. With the cold breeze and the fog, it was a perfect way to warm up.
We didn’t have dessert here but drove back to the city to Quan Delicacies, run by the charming Chole Cuenca Chua and her family on La Salle Avenue. By this time, we could only manage a tasting of the pancit palabok, dinuguan, palitaw, ukoy and fresh lumpia. Instead, we had takeaway bags packed with their baked pastillas (which I could not stop eating), mango tarts, toasted polvoron and piaya.
Before attending the gala night of Euro Xtreme Circus, which was being held in a tent set up on the grounds of The Upper East, we were able to visit the famous Ruins. You will see this mansion, which was burnt by guerillas, on the social media feed of anyone who visits Bacolod.
It is quite spectacular to see in person, and the ideal time is sunset. But any time is a good time to wander around the grounds and interiors of this mansion that was built by Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson in 1920 as a testimony of his love for his wife, Maria Braga Lacson, who died while giving birth to their eighth child. While you explore the grounds, look for the fresh sugarcane juice being sold, which tastes like apple juice to me and is, surprisingly, not sweet.
We only had time for “speed tasting” at Maria Kusina Familia, which was a pity, because we had some of the best dishes of the trip here. Our host, Marili Bascon Gonzaga, is of an old foodie clan and you will see Bascon cafes in many parts of Bacolod.
She served us a number of Spanish-inspired pika pikas, the best of which, for me, were the imported black chorizos, the gambas and the croquetas while my husband enjoyed the chicharon bulaklak. The refreshing salads that followed had one with hot prawns and another with blue cheese. Then the mains started arriving, which included thin beef slices, something like a cooked carpaccio; three ways with exemplary blue marlin, and a crispy pata cooked with chorizo. Desserts were equally a standout with the meringue-based canonigo floating on a bed of custard, a frozen brazo mallows which incorporated their homemade marshmallow base and the Black Sambo.
We made it just in time for the gala opening night of the Eurovision Xtreme Circus, which was very well-attended. The trapeze acts, clown antics, dances, daredevil bike and motorcycle stunts kept us entertained and the children in attendance, shrieking with laughter. This circus runs until March 2 and on weekends, there are two showing times. It was Megaworld that made the world-class circus available for the people of Negros and nearby islands.
What else is there to do in Bacolod apart from eating all their delicious food? Apart from shopping for Negrense specialties and hiking in the mountains, there is Bacolod’s Art District, literally a stone’s throw away from Lacson, the road that runs through the whole city. Definitely, arts and culture thrive in Bacolod.
If you can imagine a sprawling version of Cubao’s Expo, this large space has galleries, outdoor installations, murals and plenty of trendy-looking cafes and bars. Some of the country’s most prestigious galleries, like Orange Project, are located here.
Another place to visit any time of year is Campuestohan Highland Resort, a family-oriented theme resort nestled in the mountains, this time with a feel of Tagaytay. Its rooster-shaped hotel has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records and, apart from that, there are dinosaurs, gigantic sea creatures, characters from video games, all kinds of water rides and picnic facilities. The entrance fee is only P200 and you can bring your own food or order from their log cabin-style restaurant, for yummy kansi, crispy pata, ukoy, gising-gising and java rice. We provided our own dessert, a moist tres leches cake courtesy of Bob’s.
Our visit was short but sweet, and we learned from Harold the story behind Bacolod’s popular Masskara Festival held every fourth Sunday of October.
Created in 1980 to lift the spirits of the people when the price of sugar was at an all-time low, compounded by the tragic sinking of the MV Don Juan, where thousands lost their lives, the festival is a testament to the resiliency of the people of Bacolod who can smile through their hardships. Like their sweet-sounding Ilonggo dialect, the smiles are sincere, as fresh as the fields of sugar that surround the city. Even as Bacolod progresses to global city status, it will surely retain that genteel spirit of bygone days.
