I love hotdog sandwiches. You won’t ever hear me complaining on plain ones, with a simple zag of mayo on top and a sprinkle of cheese. Heck, even a fried Tender Juicy in between a soft pandesal is good enough for me. On this last visit to Dumaguete, you can just imagine how my eyes popped when Massive Munchies prepared a hotdog for me—with pickles, spicy jalapeños, crispy fries, and lots and lots of cheese.

COOL GRAFFITI ON THE WALLS

Coming from our Siquijor trip, we saw Massive Munchies on our first night in Dumaguete. Their store design was quite intriguing so we took a peek right after having our fill of BellyChon from Qu4dros Grill, it sits just right across the street. We promised we’d be back the next day.

And indeed, after trying out Dumaguete’s painitan the next morning, we trooped over to Locsin Street with our backpacks on (again) for our final meal in the city before flying back to Manila.

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Without complimentary breakfast from Plaza Maria Luisa Suites Inn, the hotel we’re staying at in Dumaguete, we headed straight to the public market for one of the city’s traditional breakfast fare, budbud. The locals call the place painitan, which, I guess, literally means a place to warm up in.

A TYPICAL STALL AT THE PAINITAN IN DUMAGUETE

As we walked along the open-aired stalls along Dumaguete Market’s painitan area, we were immediately overwhelmed by vendors calling out to us to try their budbud. I have tried this unique delicacy before when I visited Dumaguete the previous years, but I have yet to sample it as a breakfast fare.

Indeed, this is a popular place, it was packed with locals having their early morning grub, luckily, we quickly found an empty seat right by the road. We joined the fray.

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With amused grin, we walked towards our twin room at the Plaza Maria Luisa Suites Inn. The corridors were very colorful—like rainbow colorful—and it totally wasn’t what we were expecting when we saw the façade of the hotel. I asked my buddy, do you think Jolina Magdangal owns this hotel? Lol.

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THE HOTEL’S COLORFUL HALLWAY

Finally, after literally knocking around several hotels in Dumaguete, including the one I stayed at before, Hotel Nicanor, we finally found a vacant room at Plaza Maria. Apparently, there’s an ongoing event at Silliman University and almost all of the lodging places in the city is fully booked. We were lucky we found a hotel at all. Remind us to book ahead next time we tour Siquijor again.

Coming straight from a one-hour ferry from Siquijor, the first thing we looked for in Dumaguete City was dinner. Having had nothing but beer for lunch, we were absolutely famished. It was early evening when we arrived in the city and still without accommodations, we roamed its street with our backpacks on for something to satiate our hunger.

While walking, we were also checking out local hotels in the area where we can sleep the night off before our midday flight the next day. It was absolutely by chance that we passed by Qu4dros Grill (which, I guess, is pronounced as quadro) on Locsin Street and was arrested by the sight of a gargantuan piece of skewered meat—lechon belly!

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