Luca Cucina Italiana and Lodge

Located in Talipanan Beach, the final stretch of sand connected to White Beach, Luca has been popular to both local and foreign tourists in Puerto Galera for its authentic Italian taste. The restaurant is nothing fancy, just a simple structure with wooden tables and bamboo chairs.

View of Talipanan beach from Luca

From Tamaraw Beach Resort, we headed to Luca to have our late lunch. We decided to walk along the shore to save money and to discover the stretch. But when we arrived in front of the luxurious Sunset at Aninuan, it was high tide and we were apprehensive of the water's depth, so we decided to take the tricycle going to Luca.

Tricycles are found at the main road, just opposite to TBR's entrance. The regular rate from Tamaraw Beach Resort to Luca is 150 Php but you can always TRY haggling. In our case, we paid 120 bucks for the bumpy road ride. Travel time is about 7-10 minutes, the catch is the tricycle will not really stop in front of Luca, it will stop after the uphill rough road just before the downhill path which we walked to reach Luca. For this reason, I think the tricycle rate is both reasonable thinking of the fuel consumed during the ride and quite unreasonable because it did not really drove us to where we were really going. From the downhill path, we passed by Bamboo Beach House (we're coming from the back) then walked our way to Luca.

The steep downhill path

The rough uphill road

Skimboards for rent

Fresh Pasta and Brick Oven Pizza at Bistro Ravioli, MOA

After a day of errands in Manila, we dropped by MOA for dinner before taking the bus home. Because Doc K was very supportive of my blogging craze, she said we need to dine at a place where we haven't gone before so we have something new to taste and blog about. Driven by our curiosity to know what ravioli is, we settled at Bistro Ravioli. And indeed, we made a wise decision.

Bistro Ravioli is at the Ground Floor, North Arcade of SM Mall of Asia. Taking it from their website, Bistro Ravioli started out as a small kiosk in the food court of a bustling mall in the Ortigas Business District. Simply called “Ravioli”, the kiosk put the spotlight on this traditional Italian dish of stuffed, savory pasta pillows, inviting hungry mall-goers to try “the goodness of fresh pasta”. The kiosk rapidly gained widespread acclaim for its delicious and refreshing take on specialty pasta, and less than a year after it served its first ravioli to the public, a bistro was born.

We were so intrigued with what they offer in Bistro Ravioli that we ordered their must-try foods for their ravioli, chicken and barbecue, pasta and pizza choices.

We ordered Spinach and Feta Cheese Ravioli in Pesto Sauce. So what is ravioli to begin with? They are small, square pasta cases stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables then cooked in a pan of boiling water and served with tomato or other flavored sauces and often grated cheese (Source: BBC). The one they serve at Bistro Ravioli contains spinach and feta cheese enveloped in pasta pillows and sautéed in their traditional pondoro sauce topped with pesto (Source).

Spinach and Feta Cheese Ravioli in Pesto Sauce