Start:	Aug 18, '08
End:	Aug 24, '08
Location:	Davao City, Philippines

7 August • Sunday

* EVENING
o MODA MINDANAW: Designers’ Cut (Gaisano Mall)



18 August • Monday

* MORNING
o Festival Press Launching
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN: Indigenous Peoples Visual Arts Exhibit Opening (Museo Dabawenyo)

* AFTERNOON
o DAYAW: Kadayawan Festival Grand Opening (Peoples’ Park)

* EVENING
o LUMADNONG KASAULOGAN: Indigenous Peoples Festival Opening
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Tagabawa (Rizal Park)



19 August • Tuesday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until evening)
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Sama
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Matigsalog (Rizal Park)
o Tribal Mass Wedding

* EVENING
o HIYAS SA KADAYAWAN: Search for Festival Symbol (CAP Auditorium)



20 August • Wednesday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until evening)
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Ata Manuvu
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Tausug

* EVENING
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Maranao (Rizal Park)
o TUNOG MINDANAW: World Music Competition (NCCC Mall)



21 August • Thursday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until evening)
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong K’lata
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o LUMADNONG BANTAWAN — Tribong Ubo-Manobo

* EVENING
o LUMADNONG BATANWAN — Tribong Kalagan
o SAYAW MINDANAW: The Mindanao Dance Competition (SM City Davao)



22 August • Friday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until evening)
o TUGTOGAN: Indigenous Music Festival (Victoria Plaza Mall)
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o TUGTOGAN (Rizal Park and Peoples’ Park)
o DAWOW: TUBOD SA SINUGDAN (Davao River Festival)

* EVENING
o TUGTOGAN (Rizal Park and Peoples’ Park)
o MODA MINDANAW: Fashion Night (The Venue)



23 August • Saturday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until evening)
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o INDAK-INDAK SA KADALANAN: Street Dancing and Festival
Showcases [STREET PERFORMANCE]

* EVENING
o INDAK-INDAK SA KADALANAN: Street Dancing and Festival Showcases [SHOWDOWN PERFORMANCE]



24 August Sunday

* MORNING
o KAAN MINDANAO & LUMADNONG GAMA (Rizal Park, until afternoon)
o PAMULAK KADAYAWAN: Floral Float Parade and Competition
o HULAGWAY SA KALIWATAN

* AFTERNOON
o KALASIKAS: Music and Dance Concerts (Rizal Park and Peoples’ Park)

* EVENING
o PAHALIPAY NI MAYOR SA KADAYAWAN (Rizal Park)
o PASALAMAT: Dinner and Fellowship of Kadayawan 2008 Team (The Venue)

The first stop for our Davao Food Appreciation Tour was Lachi's Sans Rival Atbp. And it was muy delicioso to say the least.


Now while mostly everyone here in Davao know Lachi's for their mouth-watering cake desserts, only a tad few know or even mention about their rice meals. Not that they taste bad because on the contrary, their lunch/dinner meals were as good too. These and the cakes actually give you this homely feel you get after eating your lutong-bahay (home-cooked) kind of meals. This may beget the non-extravagant presentation. But with the taste, you wouldn't even care.

Now, the first viand I was able to taste out of the delectable bunch was the Pork Adobo. Smelled like your home-style adobo actually. And the strings of Pork which playfully swirled with my tongue gave just the right amount of umami (yes, that's one of the five basic tastes. google it, hehe.) It wasn't chunky or hard to bite. Really, really tasted good for Adobo. Not bad for introduction at all.




From this moment on, I was actually grabbing whatever there was to grab on the table because I was excited to find out what the tastes of the other meals were. If the Adobo was good, how much more with the rest? And true enough, I was not to be disappointed.

The PorkChop chunks were easy to chew and again, tasted like your home-cooked Porkchop. Not overly salty, not overly chunky. Just the way you would like it.










Beef Caramel may not be your usual Filipino dish but once you tasted it, you might beg to differ. The savoury flavor of the meat went well with the sweetness of the caramel.











And this! Haha, what memories this meal brought. Let this guy explain for me. In the meantime let me just say this Fish Fillet is yummy yummy yummy. Dammit! I'm running out of descriptive words here. But Doms got it right: lightly fried, not too oily, without the extenders and breadcrumbs trying to overwhelm the taste of the fish itself.












No, we're not yet done with the main meals.


This kind of Roast Pork had just the right amount of, yes, say it with me...
 
Umami...

(If I'm sounding like I'm a total ignoy/ignorant with the word, just let me be :P)

Anyway, the savoury broth the meat was sitting in tasted very right. I was expecting this to be a little salty, but not at all.

I was expecting this one, the Braised Beef, to taste salty too. But lo and behold, it was not. Not tough, easy to bite, tasted just right with the sauce. The sauce didn't embellish the whole thing at all. Complemented just right.

You really should know where I'm going with this.






This, now this! A must-eat! Breaded Tofu with Sauce. Exquisite! I was expecting the sauce, breadcrumbs and tofu to be a horror escapade to my tastebuds. But,no, it was far from it!









Now this Pork with Gata may have been a little watery for me. But other than that, no qualms. It actually still tasted good. No overpowering flavors. Meat. Gata. Rice. Perfect.










And this one, dammit! Perfection! If I wasn't with any company that night, I would've finished this bowl of Pork Marinara. This is made with strips of breaded pork along with pasta. Whatever I praises I gave about their meat cooked with breadcrumbs still apply here. Pasta plays very well here too as it is cooked just right. Not pale nor overlycooked.





And seriously, do I really have to go about with the cakes?

Have to comment by the way though. I love their Sans Rival compared to others. While others seem aerated, theirs are intact. Thus you won't feel cheated with what you paid for.

But heck, who are we to whine about the prices when the prices of these meals and cakes are seriously cheap. Seriously.

Located at Door 1-H VAL Learning Village, Ruby Street, Marfori Heights, Davao City with Tel No. (82)224-5552.

Lachi's. Only the finest ingredients.

Before anything else, to all my Davao FAT mates who have been keeping their keen eye on this blog, sorry for being a tad late with this entry *insert innocent grin*. It has been a long time since I've blogged a real lengthy one and I'm trying my best to get my blogging groove back. So if I make a misstep or two, hope you'll be the forgiving kind and just agonizingly read through the whole piece anyway, hehe.

I know there should be no justification to the delay of this post but I really wanted to make sure that I gave justice to the wonderful experience my palate went through for three (3) days. My tongue never felt so much bliss in such quick time intervals.

So for a quick briefer: 


The Davao Food Appreciation Tour (or Davao FAT as an apt acronym) is an offshoot of the Davao Bloggers Food Trip which was organized by The Usual Suspects, a group notorious for blogging anything and everything that is Davao. They started going around town and through some delectable Davao dishes in December 2007. And they never looked back since...

Wait that didn't sound right...

... And they have always came back since.

At least to those good food anyway.

So without further ado (hopefully *insert grin again*) let's hop off to the entry for Day 1 of the Tour.