Down south Cebu

We went to Oslob for the waterfalls, but it was the nearby grove of bamboo that fascinated me more. Besides, it had just rained and there was a chill in the air. Therese insisted, declaring the view better from the pool — all three feet of it. So what if we had traveled more than 100 kilometers to get there? Skirting the water, I went up a small hill to a clearing under the leafy canopy.

Yes, Tumalog Falls was magnificent. More so in my mind, where I pictured it during less arid times (or more precisely, not in the immediate aftermath of one). The vaunted curtains of water were more like ribbons, and some sections of the cliff face lay exposed. Like Tinuy-an Falls in Surigao del Sur, this piece of paradise is worth revisiting after a prolonged wet spell. On a January, perhaps.

Oh, I may yet go back to southern Cebu sooner than that, but it won’t be for the scenery. I’m talking about a roadside eatery somewhere in Argao. We chose it at random (it was simply one among many lined up along the breakwater), and I now regret not having taken down its name or exact location, because it served the most wonderful ginabot (deep-fried pork entrails — not to be confused with mesentery, which is empilya). We started out with one serving and ended up ordering two (or was it three?) more. I’ve never really appreciated this delicacy (cholesterol alert!), but now I see what people are on to when they rave about it. In the hands of a cook who knows, it isn’t at all funky, chewy, greasy, or cloying. As the Tagalogs say, panalo (a winner).

The native chicken soup was also good (unlike the one at Islands Seafood in Butuan City), the meat tender, and the soup well-seasoned and full of kalamunggay leaves. Their tortang tawong (eggplant omelette) was so-so. Meanwhile, perverse curiosity led me to order the fried pork chop — the less said about that, the better.

Our total bill: ₱350, or roughly ₱90 per person.

On the way home, we dropped by Carmen’s Carinderia for torta. After all, Argao is known for this dense, crumbly cake traditionally leavened with tubâ (coconut wine) instead of yeast, and enriched with pork lard in lieu of butter or margarine. It was good, but let me just say that I prefer my torta bready. There is one I really like, only it’s three hours away from my place in Leyte.

Did I mention bamboo earlier? Indeed. They grew in wild profusion around Tumalog, and through their branches we caught tantalizing glimpses of the falls when we reached the bottom of the steep mountain road that marked the entrance.

Like I said, I was fascinated, took a lot of pictures. If you need a reference to properly frame an appreciation of the subject, just remind yourself that bamboo is a grass.

Next up, back to our regular programming. As my mother put it, “You’re on vacation and we’re subsisting on egg.” It’s not as bad as that, I assure you, but I was gone five days and the refrigerator can stave off spoilage only for so long. Time to hit the kitchen.