Dive-Monster Rhoody

I went to Zanzibar – Lounge & Restaurant in Dumaguete a week ago when it had soft-opening and my first impression was that this will be a cool hangout for me in the future.  Zanzibar – Lounge & Restaurant is a small place just across the famous Sans Rival very close to the Boulevard in Dumaguete.

I wrote about the soft-opening a little report on Dumaguete Info (click here: Zanzibar Dumaguete on DI), so for this post I wanna stick to the Grand Opening of Zanzibar Lounge and Restaurant in Dumaguete which was yesterday at 7:30pm. Well that was a very bad time for me as it also was the Kick-Off of the German Team at the Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Zanzibar has a nice big TV at the bar, so I was able to watch it there.

I always trust the philippino time and was pretty sure that I won’t miss a lot of the program. When I arrived there at 7:25pm the stage was not eve build and therefore I could watch the match which began in “real” time. Well, Germany lost but that didn’t really bother me a lot  as the mood in the bar was great and I had so many smiling faces and lovely woman around me to enjoy the evening.

After the game I went outside to find out that there was still nothing going on, but Mike of the Dauin Beach Resort arrived with his family plus Angela and Freddy, two friends of mine from Taiwan which had the last evening here before heading back.

Around 10:30pm (which is not too bad for philippino time) a band started playing and they were pretty good. They played 10 songs, which was definitely not enough and sadly in the middle of their set it started to rain a little bit. After their set a “fashion-show” started, well, I am almost 9 years here in the PI and if you seen one single provincial fashion-show, you have seen them all. (I hope you can wait for my “Fashionshows in the Philippines”-article, that’s gonna be a blast)

That’s why I skipped that part and my lovely Rechel took some pictures. I preferred to get inside Zanzibar and what can I say, the place was rocking. Everybody was in a party mood and the spirit was great.

Well as I am a bit older and had not that much sleep the last few nights, I decided to leave the party-zone around midnight.

Anyway, the Zanzibar Lounge and Restaurant – Dumaguete goes straight into my top3 hangouts in Dumaguete.

cheers

Rhoody

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The sad part of the story is that I got pretty pissed off by a friend or better the business of a friend and his mangers/staff, therefore I won’t name the place. Well here is how it went…

Last Sunday Rhoody decided to go out for dinner with his little family as it was the last day before school starts for his little pictures-monster. Being so generous, Rhoody gave her the choice where to go and Daisy decided to go to, hmmmm … let’s call it “The Great”. Well fine with me, as I like “The Great” for its food and cute waitresses. So we four jumped into the trike for the 10 minute ride to the Restaurant.

Upon arrival were two other tables occupied and food served. Having heard some complaints of friends about the waiting time at “The Great” in the recent past, I thought that it can’t be that bad as we are the only guests the kitchen has to take care.

A girl without uniform appeared and brought us four people exactly one menu. Well I guess she thought that I am the only one who can read.

Darling, please do not compare your English and/or waitress skills with the skills of my family, they are very well able to read AND understand a menu in a restaurant.

I ordered water and before anybody else was able to order anything she disappeared to get me my order. My company was again not able to order as the waitress disappeared again. Exactly at 7:07 pm (I got a SMS at that time) another waiter showed up where we ordered our two dishes. He apologized that he can’t explain anything as he was never working before in “The Great” and has just been “borrowed” from another Restaurant for a few hours.

Here we go, a magically disappearing no English speaking waitress and a borrowed waiter without any clue. Our order was pretty simple, so I still hoped that not that much more can go wrong. A simple Pizza and homemade Pasta should be done in about 15-20 minutes … if you take a nap in between.

… Wishful Thinking, Rhoody !

After 30 minutes our “borrowed” waiter came to announce that the order will take 10 more minutes. Hmmm, seems the kitchen takes some extra effort and cuts the Pasta with a nail-cutter for us.  After another 10 minutes the borrowed waiter “Clueless” came again to announce that he is going home now. .???

What the fuck… It seemed it was too embarrassing for him letting us wait for almost an hour now and just deliver stupid excuses. But guess what, the little un-uniformed girl appeared magically and whispered something like:

“Sohry Sirr, glybbediglyp, buksana, bolera ako, walang ulam…  “… and run away again. I am actually not sure what she said, but it was not English and appeared also for my girlfriend who speaks Bisayan, Tagalog, Waray and English more like a magic evil spell from a long forgotten fairy tale.

An hour waiting time passed by and I went outside to have a cigarette. Here I recognized that it was outside actually cooler than inside the restaurant, despite the fact that there is a huge Aircon Unit in “The Great”, the sweat was running between my two backside-cheeks.

The Waitress magic spell seems to work as my little picture – monster came outside to tell me that the food arrived. At least parts of it. After glorious 1 hour and 7 minutes waiting time the home-made pasta appeared. Did I mention that homemade Pasta takes about 4 Minutes to cook.  Ok, a quick look, that was not the homemade pasta for that we went to “The Great” this was simply cheap Lee Plaza crap.

Nevertheless, the waitress ran away again. So we needed to search around in the guestroom where to find some pepper, salt and hot sauce. Being a little explorer, my little picture monster finally found it and … wow, give me a fuc@%ing break…

In the salt-shaker was a worm happily relaxing on white grounds, stretching its belly to the top like Rhoody on a Sunday afternoon at the Beach in Dauin.

As a matter of fact, that little thingy was too big to get into there through one of the tiny holes of the salt-shaker. Conclusion, it must have gotten inside there when refilled in the kitchen of “The Great”.

Of course I told my family immediately to stop eating anything there. I don’t even wanna know how disgusting it is in the kitchen if those things are even presented in the dining-room.

Oooh, after 1 hour and 20 minutes the Pizza (about 5 to 6 minutes baking time in a brick-oven) arrived. I will never find out how many baked/cooked/fried/raw animals were on there as I just reject to eat that. Yes I know there are many countries and tribes where people eat insects and worms, but the average Rhoody is none of them. At least it should be mentioned on the menu of “The Great”.

Here my suggestion how the special dishes can be included into “The Greats” Menu:

Todays Special:

Pizza Bombyx Mori – Asian Style Pizza w/ Mozzarella, Asparagus and fresh Silkworm pupas.

I will send a mail to recommend “The Great” for Andrew Zimmerman’s Travel Channel program Bizarre Foods.

For all that, I “only” had to pay the drinks. Maybe I am a bit picky, but if it would not be a friends place I would have told them: Fuck you man, you try to food-poison me. This hygienically conditions here are utterly disgusting… basically enough to close each foreigner-run restaurant on the spot and you still charge me for anything??? … that is ridiculous.

Well, will I visit “The Great” again? I don’t know yet, the regular, (English speaking) waitresses are still sweet and nice to talk to, but if, I will only have something to drink and will demand to clean and open the can/bottle by myself.

cheers

Rhoody

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Well I stumbled over some personality test and as they wrote it only takes 2 minutes, I was wondering how they can figure out Rhoodys personality in a couple of minutes. Well I just post the result in here, it seems to be not too far from the reality, where the Agreeableness is my favorite answer:

Openness

Reflective question: How important are your emotions in determining how you behave?

This trait refers to the extent to which you prefer novelty versus convention. Approximately 73% of respondents have a lower openness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is intellectually curious and appreciative of what you consider beautiful, no matter what others think. You might say that your imagination is vivid and makes you more creative than many others.

Conscientiousness

Reflective question: How do you feel when you are working with someone who is disorganised?

This trait refers to the extent to which you prefer an organised, or a flexible, approach in life. Approximately 66% of respondents have a lower conscientiousness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who avoids foreseeable trouble through purposefully planning, and achieves success through persistence. From your responses it appears that you are reliable and prepared for life’s challenges.

Extraversion

Reflective question: What role do you tend to play in a team? (at work or in social activities)

This trait refers to the extent to which you enjoy company, and seek excitement and stimulation. Approximately 50% of respondents have a lower extraversion raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who enjoys and actively seeks out social occasions, but would say that they’re not everything. You might say that sometimes it is nice to step back for a while and have a quiet night in.

Agreeableness

Reflective question: When others are experiencing problems, what do you do?

This trait refers to the way you express your opinions and manage relationships. Approximately 0.4% of respondents have a lower agreeableness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is willing to make difficult decisions when necessary, and will point out when something is wrong no matter what other people might feel. Your responses suggest that you would say that you can be tough and uncompromising.

Neuroticism (Emotional stability)

Reflective question: When do your emotions (or lack of emotions) get in the way of good decision making?

This trait refers to the way you cope with, and respond to, life’s demands. Approximately 16% of respondents have a lower neuroticism raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is calm and emotionally stable. Based on your responses, you come across as someone who is rarely bothered by things, and when they do get you down the feeling does not persist for very long.

cheers

Rhoody

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hmmm… not much to say to this Picture.

It might work if his Girlfriend tells him “You really look good and your tattoo is awesome! ”

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Doesn’t it always happen if you wanna explain something and get interrupted, you tell your wife to wait for a minute and not touch things until you return.

Maybe it is just me, but I can bet a case of San Miguel Pilsen that 3.28 seconds after I turned my back to my love, her hands are on the object I asked her NOT to touch.  Upon return I usually find the computer showing weird behavior, or something is broken on the ground, or my snapshot camera shows 29th of September 2039, or or or … And all happens just with the pure mental power of my sweetheart as (of course !!!) she never touched anything.

I found this funny clip what to do in a case like that … get a gun, and …

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The Chocolate Hills of Negros ???

Well, now Rhoody is completely nuts, hey wait a second of course it is the first of April and he wanna fool us.

No, Rhoody does not fool you guys. Not many people know that Negros has its very own Chocolate Hills. They are not as many as the world famous chocolate Hills in Bohol. As a matter of fact it took me quite a while to discover them and even longer to write about them.

I saw the Chocolate Hills of Negros a long time ago on a trip to Bacolod and as I never heard about Chocolate Hills as a tourist attraction in Negros AND was a bit hang-overed, it could have been a bit of daydreaming. Well, I took my camera and took a quick snapshot of the Chocolate Hills. Falling asleep again I just downloaded some hundred pictures when back in Dumaguete and completely forgot about them.

By the way you can find the Chocolate Hills of Negros on a wonderful trip from San Carlos to Bacolod.

Now it is up to you to find out if Rhoody was to hang-overed, try to fool you or knows Negros better than most others.

Cheers and good luck in finding the truth

Rhoody

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Just as I roamed yesterday through the streets of Dumaguete I came across La Piccolo (The Small) which happened to soft-open yesterday. Of course I needed to stop there and  had a test – bite to eat.

La Piccolo is located in Noblefranca Street just next to Garahe (or however that famous hang-out is called) and has a tradition in “another lost chance” Italian Restaurant at or close to the Boulevard.

As it was soft opening I was told upon entry that there is only Pizza available but to special opening price of 150 Peso only.

The menu promotes that all Pizza are good for 2 Person. That was exactly what I was looking for as I had nothing to eat the whole day and can eat and look like 2 Person anyway. The Restaurant underwent a little bit a remodeling and has a very warm atmosphere.

My only critic point are some very strange painted stars on some red plywood under the ceiling. I wanted to order an “Angry Italian Pizza” (what I guess is a kind of sneaky side-punch to the two former Italian owners) but they did not have all ingredients, so I went for the “Death by formaggi” (4 kinds of cheese).

While waiting I studied the menu of La Piccolo and was surprised about the (in my honest opinion) low price. I was expecting a higher price as I also expect quality and not that crappy stuff like in some “faked Italian Restaurants” in Dumaguete. There is a big variety of Pizza for 249 Peso and 5 gourmet Pizza for 295 Peso. All different Pasta Dishes are between 149 and 175 Peso and Il Piccolo claims that the Pasta is  daily fresh homemade.  The soups and Antipasti are between 110 and 160 Peso. All together La Piccolo seems to me very reasonable priced, at least for what dishes promise on the menu.

My Pizza came after 10 Minutes and it was huge. The small problem was that it is just not possible to make pictures from that cheese-monster, well I tried but with all that melted cheese it just looks a bit like the “Death by Formaggi” was hit by a bomb. Anyway, the “live-view” was promising and it also tasted very good. I finished all and was pretty much stuffed. I think there is just a little work needed on the dough, which was actually very thin like I love my Pizza, also taste wise ok, just not he best I had in Dumaguete, that price goes to Italia. All the toppings were of high quality and not the cheap Quickmelt-Crap what you get in a famous place in the same price-range.

All in all a very pleasing experience and I will be back soon to taste more of the big menu. I will have no problem to pay 295 Peso for that huge Pizza and it is already one step above the Hayahay Pizza for me. Well if they would go back to quality-cheese it would be a closer race, as Hayahay scores of course with the location.

Anyway, I cross my fingers that La Piccolo will be successful and can only recommend La Piccolo as a nice Italian Restaurant in Dumaguete.

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