Laiya, San Juan, Batangas

The most awaited 2 days - 19-20 April 2008, we went to Laiya San Juan, Batangas, rented 2 cottages at Kimberly Beach Resort. We occupied one cottage and the other for the parents and siblings of Che. We prepared the food at home and cooked them in the resort. One dish that got so much attention is presented below. I call it 'pinaputok na seafoods' - it is composed of a slice of bangus, 3 pcs halaan, 3 pcs tahong, 1/2 alimasag, 2 slices of pusit, 2 pcs hipon suaje. A slice of margarine is placed on top and garnished with a mixture of vegetables such as celery, onions, ginger and garlic, all chopped. The ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves very tightly and wrapped with aluminum foil to steady the banana leaves and grilled in very high heat for 4 to 6 minutes. The sawsawan is toyo with calamansi. We also have big bangus and a big container of chicken BBQ prepared by Jay. We did a lot of eating that we forgot that all of us are on-diet. Hindi bale paminsan-minsan lang ito. We did not eat so much rice to lessen the intake of calories. We deeped (because I do not swim) into the water late before the sun sets to refresh and early in the morning to avoid the heat of the sun. It is amazing that at 9 am it is already very hot so all of us stayed in the cottage and eat the rest of our 'baon'. The chicken-pork adobo of Che's mom is very good when it is 'bahaw' so we brought home some which was eaten the following morning. The outing turned out to be more of 'food trip'. I guess all of us earned extra pounds.