How do you know you have landed in Davao? As soon as the plane door opens, take a deep breath… inhaaaaaaale Ahhhhhhh…… yes! You’ll be able to confirm it! It was a business trip this time. I did a cooking demo and conducted a seminar for a milling company last week. It was the Mindanao Culinary Festival. There were competitions among professionals and students as well as shows and exhibits. It was a three day well attended event. I’ve met a lot of Chefs from Culinary School instructors to Restaurant and Business owners both from Manila and locally.
Day 1: To have Durian was at the top of my list before I even started packing for the trip! Indeed I got my wish! Gigi, The QA manager for the Davao sector of the milling company I was representing, bought me one whole fruit! They have a lot of varieties and the one that I first tasted was the Arancillo. This Durian variety is actually the small kind. It has large seeds, not the usual fleshy, cloudy ones (the Puyat Variety) that I imagined it to be, but the flavor is really strong. Its not for the faint of heart.
Day 2: I judged a culinary competition. Plated durian desserts! Whew! Over 22 different durian plates. That was indeed a lot. Lesson learned??? “Eat in Moderation” (Well in this case, I couldn’t, Its my job to taste everything!) , after the event that day, I went back to the hotel. Felt a little dizzy there. ☺
Day 3
Rice, my old college friend and her husband Mark has a durian farm. They toured me around Davao and even bought me to Paradise Island for brunch! Well, I can say they serve really good calamares!
They tried to bring durian for me, but the resort did not allow for us to have it inside, so we went to their place and had the durian there! It was the fleshier cloudier version!
The one that I was looking for. It was great, though with a really full stomach from lunch, (paella, fresh coconut juice, fish and all), it would not fit in my tiny intestines! Thanks Rice!
I got my wish! Hahahaha! a bit more than what I was expecting but truly a memorable food experience.
