A dinner at Avenida

Posted by andie under Uncategorized

Let me begin with an extremely long prologue.

Saturday, February 9th, was the start of a series of stressful days. It’s only a week before Awitenista 2008, so go figure! Anyway, I had Systems Engineering to attend to, and, of course, the legendary Awitenista. For Systems, I barely managed to e-mail Anton the queuing data I took for the days I went to McDo alone on time. Then I was able to arrive in school just minutes shy of my professor leaving. Oh well. Me and my good luck. And don’t even get me started with Awit.

Upon reaching the office (Kalasag), Kuya Winston was sprawled on one of our couches like a dead man. If I did not know any better, I would have thought he was overdosed on drugs or something (imagine this: He was lying so still, and his eyes were half open, and I honestly believed it wasn’t going to be long before he would start having seizures). Again, IF I didn’t know any better. Just so everyone knows, Awitenista brings with it a series of symptoms all of the parties involved in making it a great show could never escape from: symptoms such as eye bags, asal adik (aka Am I Drugs? Syndrome), failed quizzes, and missed exams, among others. Anyway, there were so many things happening in between (between Kuya Winston’s death sleep and the next thing I can remember happening), but I can barely remember them (clearly, another symptom brought about by Awitenista). Before I knew it, we were on our way to SM to retrieve my new pairs of glasses (with a grade of -4.25, I cannot posible consider anybody wrong if they assumed that I was near blind), and consequently, on our way to Lispher Inn.

Lispher Inn is located at 13 Juna Avenue, Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City. Quite a convenient place to be located, seeing as how near it is from SM, NCCC Mall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a lot of other service establishments. It’s a really clean place. Semi-quaint in terms of its charm. I haven’t been able to try out the rooms yet, though. But that’s not what this entry is written for. It’s about Avenida.

Avenida, Lispher Inn’s restaurant located on the first floor of the establishment, agreed to host the 8th leg of the Davao Food Trip. The funny thing about this is that although I’ve lived the past 20 years of my life (which means all of it) here in Davao City, plus the fact that our house is a 5-minute ride from Lispher Inn, I have never stepped one foot on its premises, all the more eaten it’s food, until last Saturday.

Generally, the ambiance of the place is not unlike that of Lishper Inn’s (or what I’ve seen of it, which isn’t much, really). Chairs with delicate curves, and tables with much more delicate ones, are neatly arranged around the place which is quite spacious in comparison to other small restaurants. Avenida is actually a good enough place to have a nice and quiet dinner with your family.

Avenida served us three courses for this leg of the trip, namely: Beef Misono, Tuna Belly, and Sizzling Squid. Very simple names, actually. Which doesn’t surprise me the moment they touch my tongue: the simplicity in taste is quite a refreshing break from all the overwhelming flavors that exist out there.

First off: the Beef Misono.

I had no idea what Beef Misono was. But considering the fact that I didn’t know what watercress was (kangkong gud, bet you didn’t know!) until five minutes ago, I guess that isn’t too bad. The thing with their Beef Misono is that simple as it’s presentation might be, the taste is quite exquisite. The same goes for the sauce that comes with it. Perhaps that is the reason why they say it is Avenida’s specialty. Anyway, seeing as it’s my first, I guess the next Beef Misonos I get to taste will have quite a benchmark to overcome.

Next in line is their Tuna Belly.

The name is quite simple for this delectable dish, so in the spirit of IE4’s habit of renaming dishes (take this: Butter-Sugar Grilled Banana on skewers = Ginanggang, nyahahaha!!!), I decided to rename it Tuna Belly with Watercress (apply apply!!!). It was really good. I really like tuna belly and kangkong, I mean, watercress, and the lightness of these two combined was really good for my tongue and for my waist (as if I had one!).

And last but not the least: Sizzling Squid!!!

The best thing about the squid was the way it was cut. The trouble with squid is that it is so difficult to eat in public without any danger of rendering yourself damak in other’s eyes. The way the squid was cut made it easier to chew, and made it easier to combine flavors with the other ingredients of the dish. Like the other courses we have had for the night, it was equally simple without compromising the taste.

The thing about the food they serve is that Avenida seems to specialize in Ilonggo and International dishes. But if the rest of their menu would leave the same kind of impression on me, it would take just a few moments shy of a second for me to claim their type of cooking as Dabawenyo style. Haha! BB!*

The 8th leg of Davao Food Trip was actually good enough to make me relax despite the fact that Awitenista is literally licking at my heels. And considering the stress levels I am actually trying to crawl my way out of right now, that can mean anything but bad.

Again, Lispher Inn is located at 13 Juna Avenue, Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City. You could contact them through phone (082 299 2610) or by e-mail (info@lispher.ph).

*BB = Buot-buot (^-^)