Zamboanga: Pasalubong

I only found out that most of the sardine brands can their products in Zamboanga. I don't remember the exact number (was it 11 or 17), but most of the popular brands according to Mayor Celso Lobregat work with the local canning factories. Wow!

And I was mighty surprised to see Spanish sardines being sold at the airport and hotel shop. Here's one I bought for my husband who I noticed loves Spanish sardines (I also got one for my Dad who loves it too):

Aside from the usual durian candy etc. I noticed a unique pasalubong find at the airport -- the Lokot-Lokot. I tried to ask more info about it from the store, but the clerk just said, "Lokot-lokot". Okay, so it's made of rice, flour, oil, sugar and water. Juned and I tried one stick at the airport and after one bite he said, "Bagay `to for ice cream!". It's true. When I got home, the boys and I tried it out, and it's as perfect as eating ice cream with barquillos.

Zamboanga: Paseo del Mar

I had very limited time to go around during my first visit to Zamboanga, but I'm happy to share that I managed to get around by backriding on Arnel's motorcyle! It was a short ride, but I got to see Plaza Rizal, the City Hall and  the perimeter of Fort Pilar.

Paseo de Mar is Zamboanga's newest park -- a really huge park by the Zamboanga Peninsula and you can see Basilan and Santa Cruz from there. Aside from the cool clean breeze I loved the fact that Paseo del Mar had a lot of restos. I was famished when we arrived so I got some pizza. It was very affordable at PhP35 and was as big as a paper plate. This is the pizza I had before it orbed to my stomach.

I was unable to try the yummy looking halo-halo with strawberry ice cream that my friends had, so I just ordered more food at Distrito. I was amazed at the humorous menu of Distrito. Here take a look -

I got some bistek tagalog, kilawin, squid balls and ube quezo shake. Blogie and I ravished our main meal in seconds, but we had to wait awhile for the rest of our order. The kilawin burned my tongue, but was fresh. Good thing the ube quezo shake was delivered a few minutes later and that helped ease the pain (haha!). I loved the shake though. Here's a photo of the kilawin that would surely make you cry.

How to get there (assuming you're just visiting Zamboanga):
1. Take one of the many flights of either Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air or Airphil Express.
2. After you check-in a hotel hop on a tricycle (it's the main mode of transport in the city). It will just cost you PhP30.

How much to bring: PhP200 in Paseo del Mar will bring you a long way.