A Festive Lunch

Chicken Ati-Atihan
Gomez cor. Burgos Streets
Tanjay City, Negros Oriental
+63 (35)415-8392
24 February 2009

Author's Note:
I was browsing through my old files and realized I wasn't able to post some travel stories in this blog, so for a few days, please allow me to wind of time a bit and share these stories.

After visiting the Gawad Kalinga Mapahiusa Village in Tanjay City, tito Bingbong told us we would just eat out because there was no available food in their house. We didn't see any problem with that - truth be told, tito Bingbong and his family have been really great to us, that we were kinda guilty for the hospitality they have been showering us. They really treated us like royalty, and for that, we will be forever grateful.


Anyway, he took us to this food place - the Chicken Ati-Atihan. Hmmm... as the name suggested, I felt kinda excited about how their chicken would taste like. Ati-Atihan is a festival known for its life and graciousness, I am already imagining a festive flavors in my mouth upon eating the chicken.


The place looked like a typical karinderia, with gravel floors. I didn't see any problem with that - it was really nice to eat at a place that was very homey.

Unfortunately, they've already ran out of the chicken ati-atihan, as well as the other grilled pork dishes. They were still preparing the next batch of meat to be grilled, so we decided to just choose other dishes on the menu. We had:




Pancit Guisado (P70). Typical pancit, but I loved that they used pancit canton... I rarely eat this kind of pancit.


Calamares (P75). Too much breading, but the squid was tender inside. I prefer to dip my calamares in vinegar, but the mayo/ketchup dip was okay, too.


Chopseuy Guisado (P75). The sauce was a little runny, but it was really delicious. The veggies are still crispy, and I really ate a lot of this. :)


Sizzling Sisig with Egg (P80). They mixed in the raw egg while the plate was still sizzling, so I wasn't able to get some. I did taste this, and it was good... however I am prefer my sisig without the egg, so I just had a spoonful. Brother and Gerard really loved this.


Fresh Buko (P25 each). Most of us had the fresh buko, which really gave the feeling that we were eating at the countryside. The best part about this one was scooping out the coconut meat after we have sipped all the juice!

There were eight of us who shared all these foods, and it was a great feast. We didn't get to taste their signature dish, but we still enjoyed lunch. As always, tito Bingbong shouldered this one, and we were all just thankful.

I had no plans yet of coming back to Tanjay City, but seeing that they had a branch in Iloilo made me happy a bit - I hope to see that branch in Iloilo come November, so I could really get to taste their Chicken Ati-Atihan.

*** Jenn ***