Albay Province. The Quest for Sili Ice Cream

My cousin and I have been doing some travelling for the past few days. My cousin just went home from the US and she missed a lot of things here in the Philippines, from foods, the beaches, friends, et cetera. She wanted to eat a lot of Pinoy foods, yung mga foods na madalas nyang kainin dito sa Pilipinas and she wants to visit those places na madalas nyang puntuhan nung nasa Pilipinas pa sya nakatira. So one lazy morning, we decided to hit the road at nagjoyride papuntang Albay. One of our plans for the day is to try the Sili Ice Cream at 1^st Colonial Grill in Daraga and to swim at Busay Falls.

So off we go to Albay. We are using our uncle’s old car and we are hoping that it can go for a long distance drive. We are crossing our fingers. Mahirap kasi magtulak ng sasakyan.heheh! We left our house at around 10 in the morning and we did a running tour or should I call it a moving tour of some of the towns that we were passing by. Our first stop was in Guinobatan. This town is famous for putong bigas with macapuno fillings. Masarap sya and we bought several puto and ate it. We plan to buy several more but we decided that we will buy later na lang na paguwi namin para medyo mainit pa at bagong luto.

Guinobatan's specialty, the putong bigas with macapuno

the rice puto with macapuno fillings

After eating several puto, we then continued our trip. Our next stop was Camalig. We visited the old church of Camalig and took some pictures, nagpictorial muna kami ng konti lang, mga adik kasi kami sa pagpapapicture.hehehe! So after doing some photoshoot, we then hit the road again. Palitan kami ng pinsan ko sa pagdrive ng kotse kya hindi naman masyado nakakapagod sa pagdadrive.

St. John the Baptist Church, Camalig, Albay

Our next stop is in the town of Daraga. We visited the Cagsawa ruins and of course, we also have our photoshoot. Malas namin natabunan ng ulap ang Mt. Mayon so we weren’t able to admire its beauty and we don’t have a shot with the Mt. Mayon and the Cagsawa Ruins as a backdrop. After doing some photoshoot, my cousin did some shopping for souvenirs. I think she spent around more than an hour just doing some shopping for shirts and other items. At ng nasatisfy na ang pinsan ko sa pagbili ng mga souvenirs, we then left the place and proceeded to 1^st Colonial Grill in Daraga to have a taste of the Sili Ice Cream and also to take our lunch. Upon arrival at the restaurant, we immediately ordered the Sili Ice Cream but according to the waiter, tunaw pa daw ang Sili Ice Cream nila and not yet available. We travelled for several kilometers for that ice cream tapos wala palang available. So we just ordered the Malunggay Ice Cream and the Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream (roasted rice flavoured ice cream) and informed the waiter that we will be drop by later in the evening to check kung matigas na yung Sili Ice Cream at pwede ng maiserve.

Cagsawa Ruins, Daraga, Albay

1st Colonial Grill, Daraga City Branch, Rizal St. 

We ordered our lunch, and since we were craving for the dessert and not for the main meal, we just ordered simple lunch, and after eating our main meal, we informed the waiter to serve the ice cream. They brought the Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream and the Malunggay Ice Cream at siempre, before eating those ice cream, nagkaroon ulit kami ng pictorial, at ang bida sa pictorial na yun ay ang ice cream. Inabot din siguro ng 10 minutes yung pictorial namin, buti na lang hindi pa naman natunaw agad yung ice cream at hindi pa naman naging soup.hahaha! The Malunggay Ice Cream tasted like an avocado ice cream and I think it was something leafy in taste. I really don’t like the taste of it. The Tinutong na Bigas ice cream tasted better. It tasted like a coffee or a coffee mocha ice cream. It has a tinutong na bigas toppings but I would suggest na huwag nyo ng kainin yung toppings kasi mapait yun.

Grilled Liempo and Tinapa Rice

the colonial ice cream

Tinutong na Bigas Ice Cream

After na masatisfy na ang curiosity naming sa mga kakaibang flavour, we then left the restaurant and travelled to Malilipot town of Albay. This town is famous for the multi-tiered waterfalls called the Busay Falls. Malilipot town is about 20 to 30 minutes travel from Daraga City, that is via a private car. But if you will be using the public transport, it could take you about 45 minutes to an hour travel.

We arrived at Busay Falls at around 5 in the afternoon, and since it was already late in the afternoon, we then agreed that we will just spend an hour swimming in the waterfalls. It was my second time to be at Busay Falls and I’ve been to several of its other falls too. Gusto ko sana ipagmalaki sa pinsan ko kung gaano kadami ang falls sa Busay pero kulang na ang oras namin para mapuntahan pa ang ibang mga falls kya sa main waterfalls na lang kami nagenjoy sa paglangoy. We enjoyed the cool water of Busay and even though we still want to stay much longer at that place, kailangan na din namin magbyahe na papunta ng Legazpi City. So by around 6pm, we then left Busay Falls and went to Legazpi City.

Busay Falls, Malilipot, Albay

I have been to Legazpi City for several times but I’ve never been to one of its new attraction, which is the Embarcadero. Actually hindi na nga sya new attraction kasi medjo matagal na din sya nageexist. Mga more than a year na din ata but I’ve never been there so icoconsider ko na lang sya as new.hehehe! So we arrived at Embarcadero a few minutes before 7pm. Nawala kasi kami because I don’t know the street going to that place. Nagtanong tanong na lang kami para makarating sa Embarcadero.

When we arrived at Embarcadero, we toured the area, naglakad lakad at siempre, nagpictorial ulet. Buti na lang digital na ang mga camera dahil kung kailangan pa ng film ng camera namin, malamang ilang roll ng film na ang naubos namin.hehehe! After we toured the mall, we then travelled back again to 1^st Colonial Grill to check if the Sili Ice Cream is now available. Binalikan talaga namin yung restaurant kasi yun naman talaga ang gusto namin na matry. Buti na lang sa pagbalik namin medjo matigas na ng konti yung ice cream so we were able to ordered one. We also ordered a meal for our dinner and since our main reason for going back to that restaurant is the Sili ice cream, konti lang yung kinain namin for dinner. After namin makain yung main meal, pinaserve na namin yung sili ice cream plus we also ordered the pili nut ice cream. At dahil first time namin kakain ng kakaibang food, hindi mawawala ang picture taking. We again spent about several minutes taking pictures of the ice cream and of course kasama na din ang mga mukha namin sa pagpicture taking. When we tasted the sili ice cream, my cousin was somewhat disappointed because she was expecting that the ice cream has that kind of taste where you will have the chili effect in your throat. Hindi namin nalasahan ang anghang ng sili, or maybe because we were Bicolanos and Bicolanas at sanay na ang mga dila namin sa anghang kaya parang walang wala lang yung sili flavour. But the sili ice cream still has that sili effect but just a so very much slight anghang effect.  Anyway, it still fulfilled our curiosity and we were still a happy traveller. Mas maisusuggest ko pa din na tikman nyo na lang yung tinutong na bigas ice cream because it tasted much better.

Sili Ice Cream of 1st Colonial Grill

And because it’s getting late in the evening already, we then decided to start driving back home because it would be difficult if masiraan ang kotse na gamit namin. We weren’t able to buy the putong bigas in Guinobatan on our way back because the putong bigas stalls are already closed when we passed by the Guinobatan town. We arrived at our house at around past 11 in the evening. It was such an awesome travel. Both I and my cousin had so much fun doing the joy ride and dropping by on the same restaurant twice on a single day just to taste the Sili Ice cream. We did a lot for a day. Ang layo ng natravel namin. But we didn’t spend that much kasi minimal lang naman yung gastos namin sa mga lugar na pinuntahan namin. I hope you would also travel sa probinsya nyo or sa ibang katabing probinsya para naman madiscover nyo ang mga ganda at mga kakaibang bagay sa lugar nyo. Happy travelling! Woooot!