Barangay Balaring is a tiny little place in Silay city. It is surrounded by sugar cane fields and the sea.  It is a plain unassuming barangay, except for the fact that during lunch time, Hordes of people swarm to Balaring for lunch at their restaurants by the sea!

Balaring restaurants have one thing in common.  They are bamboo edifices that extend over the beach and above part of the ocean.  The resulting combination is a structure that is cooled by the breeze that flows over the ocean.

Martin and his parents headed to Tama Plaza, one of the largest restaurants in Balaring to have lunch.

Tata Plaza is interesting because the way up to the restaurant is lined by bamboo huts.  These huts serve as eating places to hungry customers when the main restaurant inside is full.

The inside of Tama Plaza is clean and a Mural decorates one of the walls.  The bamboo floor was a bit rickety and Martin was hoping that the floor wouldn’t give way underneath his fat ass. (Martin is the heaviest of the Bacolod Food Hunters.)

Seating consists of plastic chairs and the tables are covered with table linoleum.  However the windows are large and let the cool breeze in.  Entire families could be seated at one table.  All together, it is a very simple affair.

The ordered food took quite a while to arrive.  However a big bowlful of oysters was there to take the edge of Martin’s hunger. However, before they could eat, Martin’ s paranoid Mother demanded to know where to oysters were farmed. The waiter managed to mutter “From the punong Ma’am” before wilting under Martin’s Mother’s steely gaze.

Eating oysters is a bit of an art that everybody should master.  The first step that any oyster eater should do is to make the sinamak or the dipping sauce.  This miraculous sauce/dip has reputed anti-bacterial properties that kills any bacteria remaining in the oyster.

Step 1: squeeze a Calamansi into a small dish.

Step 2: Crush a chili into the Calamansi juice.  Be sure to really get the seeds out and about.

Step 3: Pour vinegar and soy sauce in and your sinamak is done!

Step 4: Marinate your oysters a bit before eating them!  Yum Yum Yum.

Anyway, back to the main topic at hand.

The food began arriving.  Martin was so hungry that he couldn’t wait to start.

Blue Marlin fried in Butter.  It was a bit poorly marinated but it was still good.  Martin just used his sinamak to make up for the lack of flavour.

Tuna Kinilaw.  It was ok.  It pales in comparison to 26th street Pala Pala’s restaurant’s Kinilaw.  It was lacking a bit in the spiciness and the coconut milk seemed to be watered down. Plus they used RED onion instead of WHITE onion.  a very awkward kind of dish.  I don’t like Red onion in kinilaw. It tastes too strong.

The seafood sinigang soup was served and Martin really enjoyed it.  The soup was perfect, sour but not salty and with plenty of fish panga and vegetables.  Martin loves seafood sinigang but he doesn’t like eating the fish thats in it.  Weird.

The last dish arrived and it was grilled stuffed squid.  It was an ok dish.  The squid rings were not tough and they were easy to chew.  The sinamak that was made earlier came in handy here, as squid itself is a bit flavorless.

The place was packed full by hungry customers the time Martin and his parents finished eating.  Martin’s Dad was especially pleased as he considered the prices to be cheap.   Martin didn’t think they were THAT cheap.

A funny experience occurred to the Bacolod Food Hunters when they went to the restaurant last year.  Due to the high prices, all they were able to order were two bowls of oysters and…

pork chops.

A whole LOT of porkchops.

everybody wanted to eat just porkchops.

in a seafood restaurant by the sea.