Sutokil, Boardwalk and Sunsets at Opol, Misamis Oriental

            It’s not shoot to kill. It’s not violence. It’s food.

Opol, Misamis Oriental

            In Opol, Misamis Oriental, sutokil, boardwalks and sunsets are a popular tourist and local attractions. This place in Opol is located just beside the national highway about ten minutes west of Cagayan de Oro City. Commuters from and to Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City never miss the sights and sounds of this coastal town that bustles with activities. The wide expanse of the boulevard offers a competing view of the boardwalk against the horizon, the restaurants, the fishermen and inter-island ships entering Macajalar Bay, the distant trace of Camiguin Island and Misamis Occidental on the north, and the hundreds of swimmers frolicking at the stretch of sand beaches just a stone throw away from the highway.

 Restaurants

            There are three popular restaurants anchored on the seaside. Tabing Dagat restaurant was the original restaurant which soon faced competition with the more popular Panagatan restaurant and the newcomer Seablings restaurant. These restaurants serve authentic Visayan and innovative seafood-based dishes. Tourist and locals are drawn to the unique and satisfying value-for-money dining experience with the comforting ambiance of the sea view and the salty sea breeze. There is an amazing array of dishes to choose from and I especially like sutokil, for its ingenuous nomenclature and for its amazingly satiating appeal to the senses.

Sutukil

            Sutokil is short for sinugba, tinola, kinilaw. These are authentic Visayan seafood-based dishes that comes together perfectly especially when eaten at the bayside with a view of the blue seas. Sinugba is charcoal-grilled fish which is sometimes replaced with tender juicy pork and dipped with vinegar and spices of your choice. Tinola is soup-based dish, much like the sinigang in the south but without the sour taste. Kinilaw is raw fish, (sometimes squid or a choice of sea food) cubed, and marinated with vinegar and spiced up with onions, ginger, garlic and pepper. Each dish can stand perfectly delicious on its own. But bring everything together sinugba, tinola and kinilaw, in one meal with loads of rice, is a yummy dining experience. Sutokil is a popular dish-combination among restaurants in Cagayan de Oro. This is an excellent treat for tourists who want to taste the Visayan seafood dish.

Boardwalk and Sunsets

            The boardwalk started as bamboo stilts for curious bay walkers who wanted to walk above water without wetting their feet. Because the stilts offered a generous experience of a stroll above the seawater at high tide, a clearer and undisturbed view of the sunset, and access to fishing without really stepping on the water and the sands, they added more of the structures. One day, the local government decided to put a more sturdy boardwalk that can carry a larger capacity of people. The new boardwalk now offers some benches for sitting. It is now a favorite destination for families and lovers. Recently, a colorful festivity of colors of a Higaonon wedding was held at the boardwalk.

            At high tide, seawater reaches the boardwalk to an exciting level where fishes can be viewed swimming and leaping at the surface. At low tides you can come down and walk barefoot on the emptied sea, picking your curious choice of sea weeds or sea creature. Some do it to satisfy curiousity, others do it to supplement a meal by picking small crabs, fishes that hid under rocks, which are better prepared as sinugba, and balat, which is, I think it’s a sea worm of sorts which is delicious when prepared as kinilaw.

NightLife and the Boardwalk

            At night the boardwalk becomes a mecca of activity. People come to bask on the electric lights dancing under the star lighted sky and the nightlights of the Macajalar Bay. Night hawkers come selling barbeques and grilled meat and fresh catch of fishes at a bargain. So there will be much walking and strolling and talking and eating and buying and selling activities on the boardwalk at night.

Sands and Sunsets

            The soft sands of Opol is good for playing sandcastles or for just lying down to snooze off. At sundusk, the view is immortal with the ships crossing the deep sea, some fishermen in their bancas, a disappearing hint of sunset and lights starting to glimmer from the houses and establishments around the bay. At night the view is even more spectacular with all the lights competing against each other and fighting its way against the darkness.

            Soft sands, swimming, sutokil, boardwalk and sunsets are the services that the historical town of Opol offers tourists and the local community.