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The Mieles and the Martins

Expats, Family, Travel / by

This weekend was a great LiP get together!  One of our popular LiP writers, John Miele, and his family came to Davao for the weekend.  John was accompanied by his wife, Rebecca and their son Juanito.

John came to Davao to sort of enjoy a get-away from the city, and all that is associated with it.  John and Rebecca chose a great time to visit Davao, because this past weekend was the climax of the famous Davao Kadayawan Festival!  John and Rebecca, along with Juanito were able to watch the Kadayawan Street Dancing festivities right from their hotel, and from everything John said, I think they enjoyed it!  I am not going to get into details of other things they did in Davao, as I believe that John is also planning to write an article about their trip down south, so I will let him share those details.  I will try to stick with our meeting between the two families.

A couple of days before flying down, John asked me if I could arrange for Rebecca to get some Durian, as she had told him that she wanted to sample the Durian from Davao.  One of the things that Davao is very famous for is that it is the Durian place of the Philippines.  No problem on that, I was happy to make arrangements, as Durian is also something that I really love.

We went to the hotel at 5pm and picked up John, Rebecca and Juanito.  My first plan was to take them to the Waterfront Insular Hotel, because it is right on the Davao Gulf, and the grounds there are beautiful.  I thought that Insular would give John and Rebecca a nice taste of what Davao was all about.  Unfortunately, because of the Kadayawan Festival, as we tried to head to Insular, the traffic was terrible.  What is normally a 30 minute trip could have taken hours, so I decided to cancel that.  Instead, we headed to “D’ Farmer’s Market”  just off of F. Torres.  D’ Farmer’s Market is one of the places in town that features many different varieties of Durian, so I thought it would be a good place to visit.

There are many varieties of Durian available, and I have my favorites.  My three favorite varieties are 101, Puyat and Arancillo.  Of the three, I will go for 101 any chance that I can find it.  101 is a relatively new variety, and it is very hard to find.  I find it to be a rather smooth flavor experience, and I like the texture a lot too, it is a bit more firm than some other varieties.  So, choosing D’ Farmer’s Market was kind of a natural, because they always seem to have a pretty wide selection of Durian Varieties available.

When we arrived at D’ Farmers’ Market, you could really smell the aroma of Durian in the air!  I was loving it, as I really love the fragrance of Durian.  John, though, was almost gagging!  For those of you who don’t know about Durian, a common saying is that it “smells like hell but tastes like heaven”.  Well, I personally love the fragrance of a good durian!  Rebecca seemed to be OK, though! 😆  I immediately went to one of the workers and started asking him about which varieties were available.  I was surprised, as some of the varieties that he named were new to me – I had never heard of them.  I asked if they had 101, though, and sure enough, they had it!  So, we bought one piece of 101, since only Rebecca and I were planning to eat.

We chose a table and sat down, and in no time the waiter brought our Durian to us, already cut up and ready to enjoy!  Rebecca and I dug in and started eating.  John and Feyma were just watching, though!  Soon, John said that he wanted to see if Juanito would eat Durian, so we got a little piece and put it in his mouth.  Suddenly his face got kind of sour looking and he spit it out!  Oh well… it left more for Rebecca and I to enjoy!

After having Durian, we all went to the Martin household for time to sit down and talk for a while.  It also gave Juanito a chance to meet our kids (and a niece and nephew who are visiting right now).  Our kids love little kids, so they enjoyed playing with Juanito and entertaining him a bit.  Chris, in particular seemed to form a nice friendship with Juanito.

After a short time at our house, we all went to the Lotus Court Chinese Restaurant at Marco Polo Hotel for our dinner.  John had generously offered to take us out for dinner, and I thank him for his kindness.  Lotus Court has always been a favorite restaurant of mine.  Recently, they closed it down for a full renovation, and it had been a while since Feyma and I had been there.  The newly renovated restaurant was beautiful, a real show place.  Unfortunately, both the service and the food, though, were not up to par.  It seems that most of the food that we ordered was “OK” at it’s best, and several of the dishes were downright poor.  One thing that disappointed all of us in particular was the soup.  We ordered a “Pumpkin and Crab soup” which seemed to have neither pumpkin nor crab in it.  It did have the “fake” crab sticks in it, which were flavorless.  We all came to the conclusion that this was nothing more than a packaged instant soup with water added – that’s how it tasted.  This being at a 5 Star Hotel, and one of the best restaurants there.  Sorry, Marco Polo, but I doubt that I’ll ever go back to Lotus Court again.  Not only did the food taste bad, they tried to charge John for food that we ordered, but was never served to us.  Very poor service and food.  But, the important thing was the people that we shared our dinner with, and that more than made up for the food problems.

Feyma and I really enjoyed meeting John, Rebecca and Juanito!  We hope that we’ll have the opportunity to spend more time with them in the future too, because they are very nice people.  My only problem was that the evening just went by too quickly, I wish that we had more time to share together!

Thank you again, John!  Your generosity was greatly appreciated!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Hi Bob;
    To-date I’ve met with a few people from the LiP Family, and each time it was a most pleasant experience. So I would assume that yours and John meeting would be the same way. Getting to know people on line is fun, but it will never beat eye to eye contact. Sounds like it was a good time, I’m waiting for John’s article, as I enjoy his writing style immensely along with his subjects.

    • Hi Paul – Out of all of the current LiP writers, I have personally met six of you guys, and each and every one of them are interesting people that I have enjoyed spending time with in one way or another. I have literally met hundreds of LiP readers over the years, as whenever most readers happen to be in Davao, they arrange a meeting with me. In all but just a few occasions, it has been great to meet the people, and they have been wonderful! I am looking forward to adding your name to the list of the people I’ve been able to meet in person too!

  3. Hi Bob – I’m glad you all had a great time. Juanito has that wonderful look of curiosity, doesn’t he? I hope to meet with John and Rebecca again upon my next trip. If you get the chance, ask for Rebecca’s rice recipe. It’s the best I ever had!

  5. Bob: Your article appeared before I was able to get off a thank you note to you and Feyma! Thank you both, and your family, for showing us a wonderful evening! We really enjoyed it, and it was really nice to meet after nearly three years of email! Juanito adores your kids… He was out completely after about 5 minutes of returning to our room. I’ll have an article soon about Davao and the festival: We really had a good time and thoroughly enjoyed our trip, albeit a far too short one.

    Take care to the entire Martin clan, and thank you, once again. You are always welcome up in our neck of the woods!

    • Hi John – We had a great time with you and Rebecca. Only downside, as you pointed out, was that the visit was too short! We have already discussed the possibility of making a trip up north! That’s rare for us to even think about such a thing! 😆

  6. Hi Bob,
    I have tried Durian on 2 different occasions and both were terrible. I’m not sure what variety they were as it was not listed and really I did not know there were more than one. My Asawa loves Durian, but I will leave it all for her. The restaurants here are very inconsistent, even the franchises. There is a small restaurant here in Tagum that has the best fried chicken wings I think I have ever had, very meaty and crispy fried for 75 piso, but they have very slow service. I have to drink about 4 beers waiting on my food. The restaurants name is Calle Cinco.

    • Hi Richard – Indeed, Durian is an acquired taste, without a doubt. Before I ever tried eating durian I had to build up my courage, and get over the smell. After eating it, though, I learned to enjoy the fragrance!

      You can indeed find some good chicken wings in the Philippines. There is a Buffalo Wings place near my house… although the wings they serve are nothing like any buffalo wings I’ve ever eaten.. they are still good, though.

  7. Hi Bob,
    Nice article, looking forward to John’s!

    Bob, have you ever tried the smaller size native Durian? If so, how did you like it?

      • Hi, Bob:

        I am embarassed to admit that I have never tasted a durian while growing up in Zambales. I keep hearing from you guys that it smells bad, but that doesn’t tell me anything. What does it smell like, for example, does it smell like rotten cabbage or something?

        • Hi John – You have never heard from me that durian smells bad. I love the smell of durian!

          What does it smell like? Well, honestly the only answer I can give is that it smells like durian. There is nothing else I can compare it to.

  8. Hi Bob,
    Susan and I hope that our next visit to Davao allows us time to have a longer meetup with you and Feyma too. Our brief meet for coffee in June ’09 (time really does fly!) was too short.

    I stopped in tonight looking for an appropriate place to post this URL. I came across this multiply.com site a while back and found several Filipinos posting photos. I don’t know these people, but their pictures are interesting, and should have even more meaning for Dabawenyas!

    –James

    http://vanityofvanities.multiply.com/photos/album/86/My_Davao_Trip

    • Hi James – Thanks for sharing the link to the pictures, maybe some readers will enjoy viewing the sites of Davao!

      Yes, I hope we can see you again on your next trip! When do you expect to be coming again?

  9. I wonder if the expression on Juanitos face was similar to mine when his taste buds rejected the Durain LOL ! On my next visit I will take the advice of some of the readers here and try a softer approach to Durian by trying some Durian flavored cake and candy. Next visit however ti’s going to be Jackfruit for me to try.

  10. We have had a couple bad experiences at the Chinese in Marco polo. Years ago it was really good but last several trips our experience was the same as yours.

  11. Bob- I’ve always gone to Ahfat, and never to lotus court. Can you compare the two? [ assuming you have tried both] Altho after your “glowing” review I doubt I will try lotus court lol

    • Hi ian – I would consider Ahfat to be “OK”. I like the ambiance at Lotus a lot better… but they did not do well by themselves last weekend! 😆

  12. Kamusta ka Bob,

    Very nice you got to spend some time with John and his family. Also that you all had the chance for some Durian also, which is funny when I texted Rose yesterday. She was outside at the picnic tables next to her house eating Durian. Which doesn’t happen often in Leyte, but occasionally you can find it there at the market. She likes it now, she didn’t as a child though…”too stinky” as she put it kindly..haha.
    Looks like a great visit..glad you all had fun..
    Danny 😉

    • PS… I loved the Jack Fruit, boiled bananas and especially the mango’s…..Mmmmmmmmmmmm LAMI !!! 🙂

    • Hi Danny – Ha ha… Glad that Rose enjoyed some durian. I bet it is a lot more expensive in Leyte than Davao! When I took the Miele’s out for durian, it was P30/Kg.

  13. I am glad to see that I am not the only one that likes to drink Coke Light. Getting hard to find here in Tagum. Need to find time to meet you Bob. I have been here too long not doing so.

    Cheers,
    Gary

    • Hi Gary – Years ago, when I first moved to the Philippines, there would be times when Coke Light, or any diet drinks would go into short supply in Davao or in GenSan where I was living at that time. At that time, the diet drinks were made only in Manila. The time came, or so I was told, that they started making the diet drinks locally too, and the supply became regular then. Lately, though, for the first time in years, the diet drinks have gone back into short supply, and I’m not sure why. I would hate to think that it is back for “waiting for a shipment from Manila” because there were times that it took 3 or 4 months before stocks were replenished. Then, a few months later we would be back to “no stock” again. It is quite frustrating.

      Let’s try to get together soon! Do you get to the City at all?

  14. Hi Bob,
    Nice to know you had a good outing.
    I have tried durin twice. The first time was in Davao and I had a very difficult time eating it as the smell was making me gag. The smell reminded me of the rotten fruit under the peach tree when I was young. My Dad would make me pick up the rotten peaches and I would gag from the smell.
    The 2nd time was here in SoCal. My wife bought a frozen one at the asian market. The smell wasn’t quite as pungent as a fresh durian. (I’m assuming so because it had been frozen, and maybe lost some of its smell) It tasted like a sweet avocado (kinda oily) to me but with a still noticible rotten peach taste/smell.

  15. Bob,
    Glad to hear you had a good visit with John and his Family. I wish I could have had the opportunity to meet both of you on my last trip but I just could not get it in. Planning on being back in Cauayan in late December. Anyone want to come for a visit let me know!