Lando's and Lorie's Banay Banay Eatery

I never had it so good at a local eatery: Kaldereta, Calamares, Bulalo, Barbecue.  There was what looks like grilled tilapia which I didn’t get because it was on the other side of the table. I had line of sight too for some kind of shrimp dish which I refused because the shrimp was small and I had to work a bit to get into the meat.  There are times when the best meal is one which I can just throw in my mouth and chew.

The first four that I mentioned were just right, some even delicious.  I’m not partial to Calamares; some put too much starch; others time it really bad that it becomes rubbery.  I enjoyed this one.  Texture is also a common mistake in beef recipes but no mistake in the Kaldereta, Bulalao, and Barbecure I just ate.

We had a 72 year old woman with us and she finished off that Bulalo which I did not expect, because I had my eyes on it.  Had that thing become a little more on the rubbery side most likely she would have stuck with the fish. Barbecue was heaven.  Kaldereta just right.

I was with a government monitoring team circling about in the province that day.  As one of the newer faces around they gave me the standard assurances: masarap dito (it’s delicious here).  Plus they charge at government rates which was the team leader’s funny way of saying it’s affordable.

Since I was not only the new face stories about Lando and Lorie’s Banay Banay continued.  They started small and now they expanded it, his hands waving towards the back.  It’s a big lot with parking space. I don’t know how big the parking space was but it was full and we had to park on the road.  We came there lunch time, that place was packing.

There was a low point, the team leader said, when Star Toll was constructed.  Perhaps what he meant was the loss of road traffic because every road traveler preferred the bigger highway than the inner towns. But the people returned. They had competition but not anymore.

There’s no better endorsement for a place to eat than the number of people that do eat in it.  I looked around a bit at Google Street View, those people eating Lando and Lorie’s that lunch time with us had to travel.  The eatery is not in the middle of town to generate foot traffic.  People come here for the good food.