18th Street Pala Pala

Around 5 years ago we used to eat at one of the restaurants at the Bacolod City Market. The restaurants there were just simple copycats of the popular Dampa restaurant in Manila. We would usually look at the food, mostly shrimps, crabs and other seafoods and ask the owners to cook it for us. The sea shell soup was also a thing of beauty specially when served really hot and spicy.

That time we had teen stars Dino Guevarra and Chubi Del Rosario in consecutive years join us in eating at the market side. The Scallops and chili shrimps were really best sellers and people would usually stare at us, most specially the star we are with and would marvel at the sight of a Television personality eating at their market place.

I was told that the Old Pala pala was torn down after the place got into a big fire. After that a new Pala pala opened at 18th STreet thus the name 18th Street Pala Pala. It is a far cry fromt he preivous one, the food and the price. Yes their barbecues are okay but there is a certain mystique in the way food at the market place is prepared. Must be all the dust that makes the food delicious. After going through the same route from the former pala pala, i saw that the old pala pala was resurrected. Too bad we were already slated to eat at the more expensive one. Probably next year we will try to go back to basics and eat where the dirt is.