Bacolod has more reasons to have a good sleep as Uratex, the country’s best-selling foam, producer opened its showroom to the public last November 9, 2009. A wide range of highly durable foam products such as mattresses, sofabeds, pillows, and Uratex monoblocks such as chairs, tables, and cabinets are available in the showroom located at 60^th Lacson St., San Sebastian, Bacolod City.

“We offer to the Bacoleños more selections of our best-selling foam products that complement their discriminating taste in comfort, quality, and price. We want to give Bacoleños the best quality and comfort they deserve,” Mr. Ryan Magalona, Operations Manager of Uratex Foam Bacolod said.

An interview with Mr. Stephen Brian Lee, Industrial Marketing Manager, revealed that Bacolod City is the 3rd branch outside of Metro Manila after Naga and Cebu. The company plans to expand and open more branches in the Vis-Min area. With the opening of the showroom, customers are assured they will be buying original and high quality products.

Uratex also produces high quality foams for automobiles and in fact one of its big  clients is Vallacar Transit, owner of Ceres Line of buses operating nationwide with corporate office in Bacolod City. There has been a clamor for Uratex to open a branch in Bacolod for a long time but now seems an opportune time with the current developments in Bacolod City.

Congratulations Uratex and welcome to Bacolod!

This video documentary is another excellent work of Leo Vision Multimedia. I have worked once with a project with Leo Vision and I can attest to their dedication to their craft and the quality of their works. Congrats Gary Lake for another job well done!

Rediscover Silay from Gary Lake Liza/Leo Vision on Vimeo.

The Negros Wildlife Month Celebration will with theme “Preserve our home – conserve wildlife – protect their habitats”, this year’s program kicks off on Tuesday, November 10 with an “Animals of Negros” foot parade leaving from the  Bacolod Public Plaza at 1:30pm. Participants will be dressed in masks and costumes of the endemic and threatened species of Negros including the Visayan tarictic hornbill, Visayan spotted deer and the Visayan warty pig.

Activities will run through to November 26 and will include an environmentally-themed art competition; wildlife quizzes; an extemporaneous speech competition focusing on different environmental topics; film showings; tree plantings and a unique research-oriented ‘bat encounter’ experience. Activities will culminate on November 26 with the 3rd Negros Island Wildlife Quiz Bowl to be held this year at Silliman University in Dumaguete City.

Negros Occidental is very fortunate with the signing of the president of a law banning commercial logging in the Northern Negros Natural Park. This law will be a big help in the conservation and protection of Negros wildlife.

Show your support for this endeavor by joining the different activities lined up for the Negros Wildlife Month Celebration. For inquiries, contact the Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation, Inc (NFEFI)on 433 2036.

Image Credit: NFEFI

At first I thought they were only serving cakes and pastries because of the name but they actually have pizza and pasta. The food was really good and we have to thank Chef Ryan Sy and staff for that. We had Caesar salad, Pizza Hungarian, Pasta Arabiatta and Pavlova and Banana Cream Crepe for dessert. Their pizza is unique because they are rectangles instead of the usual circular shape.

I was told their best seller was Pizza Roma which unfortunately we were not able to try. Blame my companion who’s not into veggies. Anyway, if their not-so-best-seller was already good then you might say their best-seller would be better.

Don’t be fooled by the facade of the building. It may not look like a fancy restaurant outside but inside it’s very cozy and suitable for a quiet dinner for two or even a big family dinner. Perhaps due to its location, where it’s not along a busy street, the place is not crowded and you have a little privacy from the prying eyes of bystanders.

I was surprised by the price since I did not expect it to be very affordable. Bacolod City is not short of restaurants with really good food but it’s still nice finding a place where you feel you paid for the food and not for the over-rated ambiance.

Puffs N’ Tarts Cake Factory and Restaurant
#77 San Sebastian St., Bacolod City
Tel. 7088719
Business Hours:  Mon-Sat /10am-10pm

Range:

Pizza: P195
Pasta and Salad: P120-P150
Steak: P250
Cakes: P360-P800/P36-P70 per slice
Desserts: less than P100

How to Get There

When going there for the first time, your landmark would be Virgie’s Pasalubong Center. Puffs N’ Tarts is just a few meters away. Taculing-Central Market jeepneys also pass by the restaurant.

View Bacolod City Dining Places in a larger map

The remaining 16,487 hectares of forest cover at the Northern Negros Natural Park are nor protected from commercial logging with Republic Act 3680 imposing a logging ban in the 3rd District of Negros Occiental which comprise the cities of Silay, Talisay and Victorias and two municipalities, E.B. Magalona and Murcia.

President Arroyo signed into law last November 3 House Bill 3680 known as “An Act Imposing a Logging Ban in the Third District of the Province of Negros Occidental” which was authored by Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson seeks to prohibit the cutting down of trees for commercial purposes.

The Northern Negros Natural Park is Negros Occidental’s major watershed area where rare flora and fauna species can be found such as hornbill, bleeding heart pigeon, Visayan warty pig and Philippine spotted deer. Mambukal Resort in Murcia and Gawahon Eco-Park in Victorias City are located inside the Northern Negros Natural Park.

The active forum members of the Skyscrapercity.com (SSC) Bacolod City and Negros Occidental thread show their concer for the fire victims of Brgy. 19 by donating clothes and noodles.

The fire before dawn of November 2 razed some 60 houses and left 17 people dead. The fire had the most number of deaths in the history of Bacolod. The homeless victims are now temporarily housed at Mabini Elementary School and some took refuge with relatives.

The SSC-Bacolod and Negros Occidental threads is the forum where Negrenses post updates on the developments in Bacolod and Negros Occidental. This is also where tourist attractions in the province are promoted.

This is not the first time that SSC forum members shared their blessings to those in need. Last December in a gift-giving dubbed Christmas with a Smile, the people behind the thread pooled their resources even those outside the country and donated goods to the St. Vincent Home for the Older Persons. Another is being planned this December.

Those who have more in life are encouraged to share their blessings with these people. Now that Christmas is just around the corner, they would feel their loss even more. Let us make them feel that they are not alone. Please donate to the fire victims.

We recently discovered Café 1925 in Silay City, a quaint restaurant near the heritage bakery of El Ideal. The floor area may not be much bigger than your neighborhood carinderia but the ambiance and taste of their food can rival those of fine dining restaurants. And the best thing is, the price will not make a hole in your pocket.

The restaurant can only accommodate 10-15 persons so it’s very appropriate for an intimate gathering. Wall to wall canvas paintings of Silay City scenes set as backdrop so it sort of gives you a feeling that you’re in another place and time.

There’s a different specialty everyday so if you want to know what they’ll be serving that day, better give them a call. They also have regular menu that you can order anytime.

We already tried their osso buco and in another time we tried their pesto and homemade ice cream. I was with a food technologist friend in one occasion and she had praises for their food. She used some technical terms which I choose to forget. I eat with my mouth and not my head so I don’t analyze the  ingredients they use and how they are supposed to be cooked.

If you ask me, I don’t have some technical terms to describe their food other than delicious. Plus the fact that I did not feel held up after paying the bill. A single serving is good enough for foreigners but it’s quite substantial for a Filipina. A serving of the main meals already comes with rice and is already good for two persons. If you eat in a group, you can even save by sharing.

I haven’t tried their smoked fish salad but I was told it was really good. Oh well, there’s always another time to go back to Cafe 1925.

Address:  14 J. Ledesma St., Silay City
Phone: (034) 7147414
Business hours:  Mon-Sat, 9am-10pm       Sun,  9am-8:30pm
Range: P200 or less

How to get there

Café 1925 is hard to miss as it is just around the corner of El Ideal. It is located at J. Pitong Ledesma St. right at the back of BPI.

View Larger Map

I was bitten by the Yanggaw bug. I watched Yanggaw several times over the weekend since it’s Halloween. Yanggaw is Hiligaynon for infected and we usually use it to refer to a newly infected aswang, a mythical creature in Philippine folklore stories who eats the heart and liver of its victims.

Yanggaw is reminiscent of superstitions and mythical stories we hear in our childhood. Do you remember being told to go home before dusk because you might be attacked by an aswang at night? Or being told not to sleep in a stranger’s house lest they’re aswang and you might get yanggaw if their saliva enters your ears while you’re asleep?

Yanggaw revolves around a girl who got infected by an aswang and her family. What I like in Yanggaw is that it focuses less on the gruesome but it gives a human touch to an otherwise macabre story. You would end up feeling sad rather than scared after watching the movie.

The simple life of a family was disrupted when Amor came home sick after working in the city. As expected from a family in a remote baranggay, Amor’s case was consulted to an albularyo for lack of money. However, the infection could no longer be remedied and she eventually became an aswang and started victimizing local folks.

Horrible as it is, the father tried to still protect the daughter from being killed by the Tanods by keeping her chained at home. The pain of seeing his daughter in agony became too much to bear for the father and he eventually let his daughter go, against the will of his own daughter and to the shock of the other members of the family.

This kind of kinship and family centeredness is very typical of Filipinos. We will do anything and everything to protect a family member which is sometimes even to the detriment of the community. The story ended tragically when the father had to kill his daughter after finding her eating her own nephew.

Yanggaw is a good movie and something that we can truly be proud of. From director Richard Somes to the cast, it is predominantly made by Ilonggos. It has received various awards including a Urian Best Actor for Ronnie Lazaro, Best Supporting Actress for Aleera Montalla and best Sound for Joey Santos and Von de Guzman.

You can say language is liberating. Joel Torre is a good actor but he is at his best in his native tongue Hiligaynon. In fairness to Tetchie Agbayani who played the role of Inday (Junior’s wife), though it’s obvious in her accent that she is a non-native Hiligaynon speaker, her acting has more than compensate for it.

Yanggaw is an Ilonggo masterpiece that is bound to become a classic. You can watch Yanggaw at Youtube but please buy an original copy in order to support our local film industry.

Recognizing the potential of the Negrense market, Uratex foam group will be launching a showroom in Bacolod Ciy on November 9 at 60^th Lacson St., San Sebastian.

Uratex is a member of the RCG Foam Group and is one of the leading foam manufacturers in Southeast Asia.  The company has three decades of experience in the industry and it is the largest manufacturer and marketer of full-range automotive commercial polyurethane foam products in the country.

Uratex offers a wide-range of foam from pillows, sofabed to mattress, sponge and even beddings. It has created a mark in the industry when it comes to mattresses and beddings by creating high-quality and fashionable items.

Mattresses such as Blue foam, Permahard foam mattresses, Comfort Plus foam, US Rubber foam and Premium Touch Beds such as Viscoluxe Memory & CozyLatex are soon to be available here in the City of Smiles.

Silay City in Negros Occidental is famous for mansions and good food. El Ideal Bakery is both. Housed in a National Heritage Site, El Ideal is also famous for its heritage recipes which it has served since the 1920s.

El Ideal is more than just a bakery, it’s an institution, a cultural heritage, a story entirely on its own. El Ideal Bakery was established in the 1920’s by the late Cesar Lacson Losin and his sisters.  Some recipes served today were served years ago. In the late 1950’s, he handed down El Ideal to his daughter, Mrs. Alice Locsin-Villanueva. She added a refreshment parlor to the bakery and another brick oven. Currently, El Ideal is managed by Maritess Villanueva-Sanchez and husband Enrique Sanchez.

El Ideal is famous for classic Ilonggo cookies and biscuits such as quinamoncil, sinambag, biscocho principe, broas, favorita, lubid-lubid, quinihad, etc.

More recently, it became famous for guapple pie which has become its trademark product. You haven’t been to El Ideal if you haven’t tried their guapple pie which is even ordered and sent to Manila and as far as the U.S. for pasalubong.

With the opening of the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City, El Ideal has become very accessible to travelers. El Ideal is located at Rizal St. a block away from Silay City Public Plaza.

When you visit El Ideal, take home with you some of the best delicacies you’ll find in Negros. And remember, you are also bringing home a piece of Negrense history.

Photos courtesy of El Ideal