The Best Liempo in Cebu City

Doctors are always on the lookout for great tasting food and that includes grilled pork belly or "liempo". (Just don't eat these types of food on a daily basis.)

Different kinds of "liempohan" stalls selling grilled pork belly have been sprouting everywhere in Cebu City in recent times.

There's franchise A, K, M and the local grilled chicken "lechon manok" stalls which also sell grilled pork belly. But nothing compares to "Balamban Liempo" with branches in Talamban and the nearest that I know of -- near Capitol and NBI.

Before, the best for me was the pork belly grilled by stall K but once I tasted Balamban Liempo, I immediately concluded that the latter was the best in town.

"Tastier than Lechon" is the stores slogan and what makes it indeed tasty is its blend of spices including "tanglad" which is visble in its meat.

From the smell alone, you can be sure it's tasty. Let me repeat though, don't eat this on a daily basis.

Compared to its competitors, it does not appear as very oily and fatty. The meat is soft. The skin, just enough crunch.

The price is much expensive than the other brands. One order is currently P175 compared to the others' P140-P150. But the serving is bigger and worth the price.

The branch particularly located between the Provincial Capitol Building and NBI office does not serve only "liempo" as seen from the menu below.

We tried their "pochero" and considering the price, it is okay.

I therefore recommend this. Just make sure you have your cholesterol in check.

Transport-related Problem? NMEDA can help

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NMEDA. All opinions are 100% mine.

In the usual cars or transport vehicles, traveling is difficult for persons with disabilities. The wheelchair may not fit in the car and transferring from a wheelchair to a car seat and vice versa provides difficulties. It can be tough for both the caregiver and the handicapped person.


With NMEDA, a solution to these types of problems is not far behind.

See the car in the picture? NMEDA can help you get the right transport or driving solution that will fit your specific needs. But what is NMEDA?

NMEDA stands for National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association. It is a non-profit trade association of mobility equipment dealers, driver rehabilitation specialists, and other professionals dedicated to broadening the opportunities for people with disabilities to drive or be transported in vehicles modified with mobility equipment. In other words, they educate consumers on buying products from a NMEDA qualified dealer.

NMEDA does not sell anything.

It is the NMEDA dealers (members) who are the ones who sell handicap vans and vehicle modifications for disabled people. And safety of the vehicle is assured because their members are required to adhere to the safety standards of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In fact, NMEDA is the only association that promotes safe driving and equipment for disabled people.

Safety is not the only one assured by NMEDA. Quality, too. Because NMEDA has Dealers AND Quality Assurance Program (QAP) dealers through its Quality Assurance Program (QAP), the only program of this nature developed for the mobility equipment industry.

Yes, it is the only nationally recognized accreditation program for the Adaptive Mobility Equipment Industry. It is based on the principle that in order to satisfy customers consistently, companies must have a systematic and documented approach to quality.

So in summary, what can a NMEDA dealer offer? A NMEDA dealer can help the elderly or disabled get back onto the road of independence.

So what are you waiting for? Go to the NMEDA website and find the dealer nearest you. Just enter your ZipCode and Search by State and Province. In California for example, there are several dealers and from the website. you can get directions.

With NMEDA, No Man should Experience transport and mobility problems because of their DisAbility.

A Review of Panglao Tropical Villa, Bohol

Doctors take vacations too and one favorite place often visited by doctors in Cebu is Bohol. This blog post gets to review one particular destination in Bohol which is Panglao Tropical Villa.

Panglao Tropical Villa is located in Panglao Island, Bohol. Panglao Island is known for each beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, the beaches in Panglao Tropical Villa is not its strong selling point. However, the location is, as advertised, a good place for guests to feel at home. It is probably a good taking point for those who will tour Bohol and go for dolphin watching, diving and other adventures. The villas themselves have themes. The Villa Angelus (where we stayed) for example has a Filipino theme with its nipa materials and bahay kubo appearance.

The villa provides a temporary home complete with amenities such as cable TV, some cooking utensils, a cooking grill, gas stove, refrigerator, water dispenser (hot and warm only, not cold) and comfortable rooms that give a "home-y" atmosphere. You can do the cooking yourself with your own raw ingredients or have the cooking done by in-house staff using the villa's own stock of ingredients of course with a fee. The price for the stay is reasonable. (Refer to their website at http://www.panglaotropicalvillas.com/ for their rates). But prices of goods such as softdrinks or sodas are double the regular price and 1 gallon water refill is much higher at P100.00 per gallon.

The villa also has vehicles for rent like a motorcycle which you yourself can use for travelling to the market for instance. They also have a van for hire with driver for your travel needs like touring Bohol.

The villa is good for families who prefer a private vacation spot. It has 2 pools. A swimming pool for kids and a swimming pool for adults which may go as deep as 8 feet perhaps equipped with a diving board. They appear to be well-maintained and clean. There are no lifeguards so dive at your own risk and make sure children really are accompanied by adults when swimming.

There are other ways for recreation in the villa. There is a beach volleyball "court", a billiards table and pingpong table with net. You can borrow the respective balls from the restaurant.

Speaking of restaurant, the villa does have a restaurant although we haven't tried dining there but it seems nice. We once had "sinugbang" milkfish and "molmol" done by their personnel and they tasted good.

It might be boring though to just stay in the villa the whole time without exploring Bohol. The villa have people who offer dolphin watching at around P2000. There are several small boats or "bancas" standing by in the resort for this.

They also offer tour packages to the Chocolate Hills, Loboc River Cruise, Hanging Bridge, Tarsier site, Bilar man-made forest, and many more.

But when it comes to the beach, do not expect a very nice beach for swimming. Most of the time when we were there, it was low tide and the beaches are not as crystal clear as other beaches such as those found in Camotes in Cebu. The view is not also as nice. I did not appreciate the sunrise as well as the sunset. Perhaps there was a better location in Panglao or Alona Beach where sunsets are better appreciated.

Dog lover that I am, I noted there are few friendly dogs which I encountered there. One of them I even named Scooby Doo. The white dog with brown spots is the friendliest of them all. She is called Maggie. All of their dogs are "chubby".

Overall, Villa Angelus is still okay as a place to stay in Bohol especially considering the price as compared to a hotel. During our stay, the villa always has guests coming in replacing those who checked out. Thus it seemed to be always booked. Bring your mosquito-repellants though, for at night when you are outside your airconditioned room, mosquitoes are plenty.

This is not a sponsored review so I hope I have objectively provided a useful review for this place.

Diarrhea equals Bathroom Dance (Bad Romance Spoof)

Let's take a break from serious medical stuff. I just find this video circulating in YouTube made by famous Philippine comedian Michael V for the GMA7 TV program "Bubble Gang" entertaining. Michael V is really good at what he does including making spoofs of famous music videos and TV commercials or advertisements.

The music video is a spoof of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" entitled "Bathroom Dance" (Restroom Dance) to make it sound like Bad Romance. It is in Tagalog or Filipino but when you listen to it, it sounds similar to the original song.




For non-Filipino readers, the first part of the song translates to: "Ooooh! Makes Me Wanna Do the Bathroom Dance". (2x) Some parts of the song are translated as follows...

There it is! It's coming out! Idiot! It's getting worse...I'm like an old man.
Something happened that's frustrating. I think I ate spoiled food. I'm experiencing cramping pain...


Part of the Chorus: Biting my lips, curling in pain...that it makes me wanna do the bathroom dance...

Actually, translating Filipino to English is difficult as there are no exact English equivalents for some Tagalog or Filipino words. But from the video, one can tell what Michael V is talking about.

Seriously, one has to make sure food is freshly-cooked and freshly-prepared to avoid the "Bathroom Dance"or worse, end up in a hospital.

Food left in the open for hours even if re-heated may still result to food poisoning by multiplication of harmful organisms or by production by bacteria of toxins which are left in the food even if the organisms are eventually killed.

For now, just enjoy the video and maybe do the Bathroom Dance.

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

Taking off from the previous Iron Man movie, the world now knows that billionaire Tony Stark is Iron Man. He is pressured by the government to share the secrets of the Iron man suit to the military which Tony refuses to do. Meanwhile, new enemies emerge which rival Iron man's capabilities.

Returning to reprise his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark is Robert Downey Jr. who as always is effective in portraying his character's "cool" personality. The movie actually has an all-star cast with Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Samuel Jackson as SHIELD's Nick Fury, Mickey Rourke as Whiplash,  Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman (Stark's new assistant) and Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard as Stark's good pal James "Rhodey" Rhodes.

Regarding the new actors joining the movie, personally, I would have preferred Terrence Howard over Don Cheadle (may be because Don is too small for the War Machine character and Terrence appears to be more beleivable as Stark's good friend). Although Scarlett is always nice to look at, her character would have required someone with a Russian look and accent to be more believable.

Good news though! Considering a lot of sequels do poorly than their predecessors, the movie actually is very good. It offers a visual feast. The movie is full of action and special effects especially towards the end. (More than the 1st movie). I think it even defeats Transformers in the "metal against metal" fighting aspect. There is more use of firepower and weaponry and not just "hand to hand" combat.

And if you are a Marvel comics fan, you will recognize some references to the other superheroes of the group Avengers as in the other Marvel movies like the Incredible Hulk. There are 2 objects related to 2 Avenger superheroes that make an appearance in this movie. One appears in a very important scene prior to the final fight sequences and the other comes at the very end, after the final credits have been flashed in the screen. So do not go out of the movie theater until the very end.

One should realize that this movie is believed to be a prelude to a series of movies on the different members of the Avengers (like Thor, Captain America, etc.) which will culminate in a movie that unites all of them with the common denominator being SHIELD led by Nick Fury (played by Samuel Jackson as in the Ultimate Marvel comics series).


This movie is definitely worth seeing in the big screen itself.


And by the way, as in other Marvel movies, look for Stan Lee...Enjoy the movie!