Staying in the sleepy town of Cabangan means you’d have to eat there too. However, most food places in the province aren’t really located there—it’s far from being the food capital of Zambales—still, there are a handful of unique places you can dine in when in Cabangan. And during the past years, as tourism started to bloom in town, the number of places to eat in Cabangan started to grow too. 
   
Here are a few of the most interesting food places in Cabangan. These range from roadside stands and food shacks to swanky cafes and full-blown restaurants. These made the list because they’re somewhat unique, have good food, are institutions in Cabangan, or simply because I’ve personally tried them and found them to be worthy.

For street food aficionados, Zamboanga City is heaven. It has one of the most diverse selection of street foods in the Philippines—some of which, you can only find here. And as is the case with street food all over the globe, they’re extremely tasty and dirt cheap.

On one of my visits to Zamboanga City, I passed by a small eatery with a mee goreng sign. My mouth immediately watered—my favorite Malaysian (or Indonesian) noodle dish, available in Zamboanga City! I was on a media trip with a fixed itinerary at the time, so I was unable to try it out.

“What’s your order?” My wife asked as we sat down on one of the wooden benches at Mami Madz in Cabangan. It was almost evening and we’ve just been to the San Isidro Beach—our clothes still wet from the sea.

“Uhm. I’ll have a bowl of mami and goto each, please.” I replied.

“What?! Are you sure?” My wife incredulously asked.

“Alright, two bowls of mami and one goto, then.”

After having an introductory taste of Moroccan food during our four days in Casablanca, we wanted to advance our taste buds to a few more local dishes. Rabat was our second city for our month-long trip around the country, and its bustling old medina was the perfect grounds for another round of food tasting, Moroccan style.

We eat almost anything. And during our Moroccan four-day Casablanca tour opener, we wolfed down every new thing we see, from McDonald’s burgers we haven’t seen elsewhere but in Morocco, to mystery meats being grilled along the corners of the medina. We really don’t have much money, so we almost exclusively ate along the streets and alleys of Casablanca. No fancy restaurants for us—even if we really wanted to. But okay, no, we don’t like eating on fancy restaurants, lol. We like to eat what the locals eat, and that includes fast food.

There are two things that the Ancient Town of Hoi An are proud of. The first is its inimitable history and heritage, the second is food. Lots of it. Hoi An, being a sort of melting pot after its history of being a trading post during the 16th century has amassed an arsenal of diverse food choices that can make your head spin, and your tummies, absolutely happy.

A TYPICAL SIT DOWN FOOD AFFAIR AT HOI AN

Hoi An is well known for three dishes, cao lau noodles, white rose dumplings, and banh xeo. But more than these, there are still a plethora of things you can eat while in town—be it on fancy riverside restaurants or street vendors from the sidewalk.

The sky fell in buckets. Again. It seemed our two-day trip in Hanoi would be very wet indeed. We took shelter on one of the arcades along the French Quarter, wondering how we could maximize our very limited time in the city with the weather hampering our every move. After a few minutes of watching passing motorbikes zip along the road, my eye wandered to the second floor of the building right across from where we were standing. I heard faint clinks of bottles hitting bottles. A bar.

FRENCH BREAD, A COMMON SIGHT ALONG HANOI’S ROADWAYS

A TYPICAL SIDEWALK COFFEE SHOP

Our Hanoi adventure consisted mostly of non-stop walking, non-stop shopping and non-stop eating. That last one started right after our very early check in at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. Since we really can’t avail of their free breakfast buffet yet, we went off the still gray streets of the city and found a roadside hawker right along a hospital fence selling banh mi and coffee in Ngo Quyen Street [GPS MAP 21.024330, 105.854914].

I was under the impression that Penang holds the seat when it comes to Malaysian cuisine, but I was told otherwise by my friend from Melaka. She may be biased about it, since she comes from Melaka, but this was what she told us; people from Melaka goes to Penang for food trips, while people from Penang goes to Melaka for their own food trip.

During our short two-day Melaka adventure, we got to taste firsthand if this UNESCO city can indeed holds its own against its northern counterpart.

Strips of pork, chicken balls, bean sprouts, liver, peppered with leafy greens, and swimming in piping hot soup flavored with pork blood. We wanted some local noodles and that’s what we had for lunch during our last day in Pai.

CRAZY BACKPACKERS IN PAI

When we asked Kiki, the sweet owner of House of Love Pai, where we can get the most authentic local food in Pai, she not only directed us to one, but she even drove us to the place herself! I told you she’s sweet. Passing by crazy backpackers near the Pai Walking Street en route to the public market, we eventually found our way to Phee-Bon Restaurant.

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Last summer, I visited Chiang Mai for the second time. During my first time here, most of the dishes I’ve sampled were mostly from upscale restaurants and hotels. It was a rare treat (once!) that I got to taste what street food was like in the city. On this latest visit, I vowed to see the other side of the coin. I wanted to explore and brave what Chiang Mai has to offer when it comes to street food.

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CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY NIGHT HAWKERS

ADDRESS: SUTHEP ROAD, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND | OPENING HOURS: EVERY EVENING | GPS MAP: 18.789611, 98.966739

KUAYTIAO LAD NA, LOOKS YUMMY EH?

Even if we were still dizzy and reeling from the three-hour ride from Pai, a town northwest of Chiang Mai, the first thing we looked for upon arriving was food. Cheap, real to goodness street food. B and I, our friends from the city, knows just the right place for our grumbling tummies.

One of the things I really miss about Kuala Lumpur is eating mee goreng (5.00 MYR) along its many side streets—cheap, freshly cooked, stir fried, and thick super spicy noodles paired with a cold, cold glass of kopi ice (2.00 MYR). Heaven.

That dish is actually the first thing we looked for during our last trip to KL. We’ve been dreaming about it through the whole four-hour flight from Manila and when we finally hit the streets of Kuala Lumpur along with our heavy backpacks, we knew exactly where our first stop would be.

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Jalan Alor Food Street is a street along the Bukit Bintang District of Kuala Lumpur and it is where we had the best mee goreng during our several trips to the city.

The area is unassuming during the day—just a strip of sleepy restaurants lining a street. But as the sun sets and evening arrives, it slowly comes to life. Chairs and tables spread into the sidewalks, until eventually, it invades the whole road. Overhead, lamps light up one after another, until the whole strip is sparkling like a cabaret.

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Everything skewered I can think of was probably skewered on a stick at one of the stalls we stopped by at Chinatown Kuala Lumpur. Squids, sausages, prawns, chicken bits, hotdogs, squid balls, shrimp balls, tofu cubes, octopus, corns, mushrooms, heck they even have eggplants and broccolis!

It was such an overwhelming sight that we were unable to pick even one stick to barbecue.

After landing at Kuala Lumpur for a connecting flight to Siem Reap, food was the first order of the day. Once our bags were laid down and we got to freshen up a bit at Ceria Hotel Bukit Bintang, we immediately headed to KL’s Chinatown, which we thought to be a good place as any to check the local street food scene.

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Satay, khao man gai, khao man gai tod, khao, and a variety of dips, sauces and soups filled our tables at a hole-in-the-wall hawker eatery in Chiang Mai. We’ve been eating nothing but fine Thai cuisine on posh restaurants and hotels the past few days—this was actually a refreshing treat for us.

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Well, okay I don’t know about my companions but I love eating on these kinds of places. I love having meals where the locals do. Not only do you get to taste the legit flavor of the place but you also got to save a bit on your travel funds. Food in these places are unbelievably cheap.

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About thirty steps away from Vigan Cathedral is a happy place where you can feed your stomach after feeding your soul. The empanada stands at Plaza Burgos is usually where I have my lunch and merienda after hours of walking whenever I visit Vigan City.

The so-called Vigan empanadahan sits on the eastern edge of the plaza dedicated to Padre Jose P. Burgos, the Filipino priest who was executed garrote-style with fellow Padre Gomez and Zamora for fighting on behalf of ecclesiastical reforms in the country during colonial times.

The plaza is one of the two major squares in the city, the other one being Plaza Salcedo.

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Cheap hotdogs. Pork barbecues. Chicken heads. Betamax. Isaws. Adidas. Everything covered?

Not by a long shot.

After spending the whole afternoon hopping across gigantic boulders to and from President Roxas’ Liktinon Falls, the gang decided that we should reward ourselves with a little bit of street food before retiring for the night at the Maribert Inland Resort.

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Everyone was familiar with the skewered street fares along the dusky streets of President Roxas. The whole sticky shebang were stuck upright on a banana trunk, as is the case with barbecue stands in the provinces. The familiar smell of roasting meat called to us like music from the pied piper.

Like every traveler worth his backpacking salt, we asked for something different. Something local.

I wanted to crack my head against the wall of Rene’s Diner & Pension House at my lack of common sense. I arrived a day ahead of Iligan City’s Waterfalling Adventure 1.0 and I have no idea what to do for the day. I dropped my bag and checked Google Maps. Ozamiz City is just a few hours away from where I was staying.

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Ozamiz City… Ozamiz City... The Cebu to Iligan ferry I boarded anchored at its port just two hours ago. I should’ve just alighted then to explore the city instead of this roundabout trip I was now planning to do. Pffft… Me and my great travel planning capabilities.

I haven’t been eating out on fancy restaurants for a while now. Heck I’ve actually haven’t been planning any travels at all due to financial constraints (which is so not me at all). So when an opportunity knocks to check out a food place that actually serves restaurant-quality dishes at carinderia prices, I am out of the house faster than you can spell carinderia.

We strolled from the far end of One Fullerton, on to the Merlion Park, over the Esplanade Bridge, down the Theatres on the Bay and finally the Helix Bridge. It took a total of two and a half hours to reach our final rendezvous. We were quite happy with the walk but we wanted something more, something the hawker stands near the area wasn’t able to provide; a brain freezing bowl of chendol.

So we walked some more, trying to find an open restaurant at such hour. We were met with nothing but locked doors; it seems most food places in Singapore close at the strike of twelve. Circling back to the hawker’s stall near the Marina Bay Floating Stadium, we asked for directions to the nearest place we can get chendols and they directed us to Newton Food Centre.

We rushed through the streets of Dipolog City, chasing the glow from the western horizon. The sun was on its slow way down and we were hoping to catch its last gasp of breath, its most beautiful one, before it retires and let the cold white glow of the moon take over.

The perfect place to watch the golden lights is at the never ending stretch of Dipolog Sunset Boulevard and we were still some hundred paces from it when oranges lit the sky.