CAGAYAN de Oro has not been dubbed as the City of Golden Friendship for nothing.
The Kagay-anons are very fond of enjoying every moment with family and friends that includes feasting. The city has expanded its league of restaurants good for eating together and has taken the tradition in its literal form supported by Boodlelicious Grill. The grill where your main concern of great food at affordable prices are solved while adapting boodle – the military take of eating.
With the compliments Karen Bass hears from her friends in Manila regarding Mindanao’s rich water resources, she finally decided to give marketing heavy meals in CdeO a try, with the help of her aunt Grace Monsanto.
She decided to focus on grilling and seafood.
Ever since she started working in the kitchen of big restaurants, she had always been assigned to grilling. “Seafood will surely become popular to the locals since we have been developing a culture of staying fit and healthy,” Karen said.
Boodlelicious Grill opened at the night café in September 2014 the first to offer boodle meals there.
u201dWhy not showcase what’s best in Mindanao which is boodle?” Karen told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
The main concept behind Boodlelicious Grill is adapt to the initial approach of a boodle fight which is the military way of eating viands and rice arranged on banana leaves to be eaten using hands. She made sure that her whole business will be fully-Mindanaoan, with all her ingredients and supplies coming fresh only from Mindanao.
The venue is very relaxing and welcoming, with an open space in the theme of a military academy. “If the place is too fancy and you serve this kind of food, the tendency will be [that] people will feel uncomfortable to enter [the place],” Karen said.
u201dWe made sure that since they’re eating by hand, they can come in and [feel] relaxed and they enjoy the food,” she said.
Their boodle meals first started with three combos: Baby Boodle (for 2-3 persons), Bang Bang (for 4-6 persons) and Boom Boom (for 6-8 persons) all consisting of assorted fresh fruits and grilled vegetables, pork and various seafoods such as panga, tuna belly, shrimps, and grilled squid.
As the business flourished, they added the Mini Submarine (for 4-5 persons) and Giant Submarine (for 6-8 persons) for those who would love for their meals to be composed only of the seafoods from the first three meals plus an order of their tuna kinilaw.
The place also has ala carte meals, favorable for groups that prefer to make their own combinations.
As patrons come in to dine and enjoy each other’s company, the taste of the food becomes the highlight of their eating affair. Karen often receives praise and questions about their alleged secret sauce in their recipe which makes the food really appetizing.
But truth be told according to Karen, they don’t add any secret sauce! What makes their food stand out is their perfected technique of grilling and handling of food, which makes the barbecued and savory taste distinguished well with every bite.
For the safety concerns of the people, they need not worry about food poisoning because the manager herself is very conscious and particular with food safety.
She makes it a point that the food is handled properly and that the food cleaning area complies with the government sanitary standards.
Karen makes sure they can serve as many customers as they can, even at 4 a.m.! “If kaya pa namo, i-entertain jud namo (If we can still do it, we will entertain the customers. I will always know how it feels to be hungry.” (Patricia Ysabel D. Tabian, AdMU intern)