A visit to Tigbauan

Although we have an Oton address it is a toss up which town is closer to our house – Oton or Tigbauan.   Been living in this house 6 months and never been to Tigbauan.  Drove through it a bunch of times but never stopped.  So today we decided to make a special trip out to see the town.  Apparently Sunday is market day so it should be a good time to check it out.   Tigbauan made a good first impression.  Quite a few nice looking houses along the highway (2 lane road… highway… whatever).  The town center is quite nice, I like it better than the downtown Oton area.  The highway through Oton makes a lazy “S” and they seem content to build all their shops along it.  Giving it kind of a long narrow downtown.  While Tigbauan seems to use the side streets a bit more and has a more centralized, congested, downtown.  Why would I like the more congested feel?  I don’t know, I just do.

We went to the market and bought some rambutan for a refreshing snack.  Good stuff 🙂  So, yeah, we went to a new town just to buy rambutan!  We spent some time checking out the plaza and took a few pics in the gazebo.  Everyone loves gazebo’s, right?   But I must say I like the plaza in Oton a lot more.  Less cement, more shade.  Tigbauan however has some very nice, new looking, exercise equipment in their plaza.  So if Oton could just move their plaza to Tigbauan for me that would great. 

We did not look around town as much as i would like but it is still the rainy season – you can’t waste too much clear day.  But overall Tigbauan made a great first impression.  The town center felt more like the center of town, while in Oton the town center feels like somewhere you shop and go home.  They also have some nice looking beach resorts here so we will have to come back and look around some more.

But the highlight of the trip was definitely lunch!  Nahm Thai Kitchen.

I read about this restaurant on another blog (http://myphilippinelife.com).   He writes much more than I do and has a much better blog… oh I shouldn’t chase you away… forget I said that!  Anyway… I was really looking forward to this lunch.  So much so that I knew I would be disappointed.  I was not!  The food was outstanding.  And the prices were quite reasonable.  We ordered chicken satay, Thai fried rice (for 3), and green curry chicken.  With drinks the total was only p365 (about $8.50),  Not too shabby for feeding 3 people.  It is just barely more than Jollibees or Mang inasal and WAY better.  I was a bit concerned about Melane eating here because she does not like spicy food as much as I do.  And you know Thai food tends to be pretty spicy.  But I was thinking this would be a Filipino version of Thai and I was right.  It was wonderfully flavored but no heat. 

Green Curry Chicken, Thai Fried Rice, Chicken Satay w/Peanut Sauce, Thai Iced Tea. (not pictured 4 Cokes)

It was pretty early in the day so we were the only customers.  Service was fine.  Food came out pretty quick – and the order was almost right.  Apparently the waiter did not hear the girls order seafood pancit canton because it never came out and we were not charged for it.  But when I offered to ask about it they both said they were getting full and did not want it.  So maybe the waiter knew best?    Well I can easily say this was the best meal I have had in 7 months living over here!  And probably better than a lot of meals in the US before leaving too.  But I can’t believe we forgot to order spring rolls!  How can that happen?  So we will have to go back for sure.

They are open from 10am to 8:30pm everyday, according to their sign.  does that mean Christmas too?  Who knows.  They are located right on the Antique-Iloilo Road, right near the Seamen’s Village.  (housing community?  Single house? I don’t know but there is a visible sign – can’t miss it ha ha).  I want to say it is around km marker 22, but I am not positive.  Don’t quote me on that. Next door to a Petron gas station.

  So to sum up – great joint and only about 5k from the house!  Sounds like good bicycling distance to me. 

In case you were wondering about the menu I took a pic of it for you.  I am just that nice a guy….