Palawan Road Food

As far as Donna is concerned, the best part of any road trip is the snacks. Munching makes miles move. Especially on Palawan buses, if my taste buds and tummy are happy, my twisted spine doesn’t complain so much from sitting crammed sideways on too-close-together seats. Discovery is the fun part. What can I get to eat here, at this stop? Well, if you were traveling with us on the road heading down the eastern coast of our island, one of our stops would be the tiny town of Abo-Abo. This is where the bus turns from the main north-south highway, and starts heading across the island to the other coast. And the people are waiting for you.This guy has a whole tub of goodies. We like the garlic peanuts. They contain all the best ingredients – peanuts (that’s protein, right?), garlic (lots), salt (lots) and grease (again lots). Yum. He also has some boiled peanuts, cashews, banana chips and hard-boiled eggs.

And what road trip wouldn’t be complete without fresh crabs? Pick some up here, and carry them the rest of the way home. Just caught this morning, and still wiggling.

Your seatmate on the bus won’t mind. Go ahead, get a few. I passed up the crabs.

When it was time for our return trip, the bus was scheduled to leave at 5 am, so the afternoon before, I headed out to scout for some kind of bread product to pack for our breakfast. I went from little store to little store in the little town of Sikud. I have to tell you, Sikud is not the Consumer Capital of the World. In other words, they ain’t got much there. But then I finally found it.

How could I pass it up? This bread was machine sliced.

But I think my favorite spot on this particular road trip was the gas station in the town of Narra. And I didn’t even buy food there. I just made a run to their CR, or Comfort Room, the nice Philippine euphemism for bathroom. And I saw a cat or two. Then I saw another one. When I stopped to pet them, the proprietors of the gas station saw me enjoying their cats, so they gave a call, and a whole bunch more cats came running. They told me they had thirteen cats! By the food and water dishes in evidence, they were obviously loved and cared for. And the cats were tame and friendly, which is unusual in this country where a lot of people have cats for their utility (catching mice and rats) but don’t really like them, or treat them as pets, the way Westerners do. This gas station wins the Cat Lovers Award for Palawan.