I’ve been listening to the Comedy radio station on Spotify recently and I think it was Louis C.K. who said that vacations are just you eating somewhere else.

So true. Case in point: we spent more time eating than sleeping, watching television, swimming or anything else, actually, when we were in Talipanan a few weekends ago.
We hit the ground running by having an extremely late lunch in the restaurant of the resort we were checked in, Luca’s Cucina Italiana Restaurant and Pizzeria.  We had no idea that the place was famous for its pizza so of course we all ordered something else.

I had the Chicken Cacciatore and their vanilla shake.  I liked the cacciatore because it was well seasoned and the plate, as you can see, was overflowing with potatoes.  The vanilla shake was refreshing and light and helped a lot in beating the heat.

 

I forgot what C had but it was their dish of beef with mushrooms and cheese.  A and N had a plate each of the Marinara pasta, which, while abundant with seafood, was waaaay too big a serving for one person.  This was another demerit that the Luca’s staff for me because 1) there were no indications on the menu that the serving size was good for two people (at least) and 2) the lady who waited on us didn’t even give us the head’s up.  The food, while tasty and sulit for the price, did not make up for the lackluster service.

Finishing the humongous meal took longer that we anticipated so it was dark already when we started to explore the surrounding areas.  Also, we were in search for something sweet and after checking about eight restaurant menus, we ended up eating in the restaurant of our next door neighbor, the Bamboo House.

 

Personally I liked everything about the Bamboo House better – service was quick and snappy, the ambience was peaceful and homey (they even make you take off your sandy slippers before you step inside) and the food servings were more reasonable.

I had the potato soup (it’s a theme) and their banana milk shake, while C and N shared a mango crepe, and A had pancake.  The experience of dining there for a desert was so positive that we went back the following day for breakfast, after a pre-dawn swim in the beach.

I ordered the weirdest thing I saw on the menu, the Swiss breakfast, which included a cup of coffee and a ‘rosti’.  I asked the guy who was taking our orders what a ‘rosti’ was and he explained that it was a version of the hash brown topped with bacon and an egg.  Oh, but he had me at potato.  The rosti was surprisingly filling but I wish that the Bamboo House kitchen had something other than UFC ketchup to go with it, because the tartness of a tomato based ketchup would’ve really worked well with saltiness of the dish.

For desert I finally got to try their mango crepe, which had a drizzling of chocolate syrup and a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.  Yumm.

My friends would probably kill me for writing about all of the crap that we ate during our very short stay in Talipanan beach, LOL, but that’s just my version of a vacation.