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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The great Italian trip: from coffee to pizza to juniper trees
Have you ever savored the thought of how cosmopolitan we Cebuanos have become? Look at us, enjoying coffee brews in parasol laden terraces where just a few years ago all the coffee we ever knew were instant coffee in sachets that now seem utterly watered down in taste! Coffee is one Italian pastime we have learned to adopt.
And all throughout Cebu, we can see several patches of Italy.
That quaint Italian Restaurant in the hills of Busay called La Tegola Cucina Italiana is one particular favorite. You get to enjoy real Italian meals with a spectacular view of the city. Flowering vines trail across the trellis and birds chirp as you imagine you’re in Italy. The minute you settle onto a table you are served Focacia, brittle and laden with tomato garnishing to whet your appetite; and your appetite has to be huge with their very large servings!
A house favorite is the Gamberoni alla Diavola – shrimps in tangy tomato sauce with pasta. If Busay is too far away for you, La Tegola is also in Banilad.
There it’s like a large Italian living room with lots of Italian mementos. The place has the typical Italian red brick walls and low ceiling, and as you listen to the soothing voice of an Italian tenor in the background you’d think you’re in a special secluded restaurant, which you were lucky enough to discover amidst Italy’s less traveled streets.
Just a few paces away is Guiseppe’s Pizzeria and Sicilian Roast where the dishes are to die for, authentic Italian indeed! If you want the more familiar, there’s the Beef Lasagna, then pair it with Focacia that is served hot from the oven – a real brick oven that you can see from where you sit where nearly all the dishes are cooked, especially the pizza! Fast-moving is the Gregorio – oozing with mozzarella, tomatoes and sausages, salami and smoked ham.
Then you’ve got to be more adventurous and try out other dishes like the Eel Risotti and Porchetta. People can dine indoor or al fresco and skim through the interesting items at the deli corner.
Now for dessert, nothing is more Italian than gelato! You can enjoy this creamy and nutritiously light Italian ice cream right here in Cebu. A prominent brand is Gelato Eliseo, created here in Cebu by entrepreneur Joel Lee who actually learned the craft in Italy.
Especially yummy is the flavor Straciatella and Menthe Choco! This exquisite Gelato is also available in cones.
And to make your Italian trip complete, enjoy your gelato in cone at a beautiful Italian garden. Remember the scenic landscapes in the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”? Prominent are the big, upright trees that stand straight and proud.
They’re called Italian junipers.
Now a little farther up north from Guiseppe’s and La Tegola, is such a landscape! No, it’s not a movie set of another romantic comedy. It’s at the first phase of Golden Haven Memorial Park in Talamban, Cebu City where Italian junipers abound.
Regarded as one of the toughest plants for landscaping, these dense, columnar, narrow and dioecious (like holly the female or fruit bearing flowers are all in one plant, while the pollen bearing the male flowers are on another) Italian junipers are not just paying our beloved island paradise a visit, but are here to stay.
Currently, they adorn the hilly terrains of the memorial park after a sojourn from Italy where they were grown, to Bangkok where they stayed for one complete season for acclimatization, and after which were finally transported to the Philippines.
These Italian junipers were imported at quite a steep price, but Golden Haven management wouldn’t stop at anything so long as the park gets the best.
Golden Haven President Michael G. Regino said, “The main purpose for investing in these trees is that we intend to be true to the character of the park’s Italian theme.
Fast forward 20 years from now, the park will have two storey high Italian junipers pointing to the sky.”
Although these junipers are imports, their ability to withstand hot, poor, and dry soils blends perfectly well with endemic foliage around the park. Their versatile nature – they also make perfect windbreaks, screens, hedges, ground covers, foundation plants and specimens – enhances the memorial parks’ immaculate beauty.
With your gelato in hand and the juniper trees around, you can definitely think Italy! The world sure is getting smaller!
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 19, 2006 issue)
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