After a day at Samal Island and before I go back to the hustle and bustle of Manila, I always cap my visit with lunch at a restaurant on Kilometer 10, Sasa, Davao City. Marina as a restaurant can be full of surprises, aside from being known as a Tuna specialty restaurant, it will feature whatever catch is plentiful.

Of the numerous times I have dined there, the standard and seasonal choices always surprises me. As one of the standards, aside from the Tuna, the swordfish, which has a creamy aftertaste and a rather firm bite, can be had as a simple grilled dish, adobo, kaldereta, or as an Asian inspired dish, in chili sauce. In fact for P 100, one can have a budget meal of swordfish, tuna kinilaw, grilled tuna, or fish tinola with rice. On certain occasions, lobsters that are recently frozen and well textured can be had for P 350 per order, which in seafood parlance, is a whale of a deal.

Certain dishes that are quite enjoyable are their crabs with coconut cream which I order with extra chilies. Their crispy tuna buntot, done crispy pata-style, gives you the tail end of the tuna with its crisp, fried skin, gelatinous cartilage, and smoking hot, moist flesh dipped in the customary sauce of fiery labuyo chilies, vinegar, soy sauce, and a spritz of calamansi for an extra fragrant and acidic dimension to cut the richness of the tuna.

Another day I tried this with a swordfish tail which was even creamier but is a “when available item” just like the swordfish or marlin fin called “silik” with its creamy meat in between. Served grilled, I like to refer to this as the baby back ribs of large fish. If one likes strong tasting fish flesh, then black tip shark with its fine texture tossed in chili sauce is a regular item.

Another visit got me ordering a coconut crab. With its very rich fat, it somehow tasted of its diet – coconuts. The flesh was as fine and comparable to kani sticks. This was quite a surprise, because they don’t usually have this, just like the slipper lobster which is also good eating especially if cooked steamed, grilled, or in butter garlic sauce.

I did meet the owner, Domingo Ang, the last time I was there. It turns out that he is the biggest exporter of tuna and seafood in Davao and Marina is his showroom. He claims his tuna is even better and fresher than eating it in Japan, because there is a 48-hour travel time the Japanese have to bear with.

Ang introduced us to a new concept of presenting one large tuna to a group of 20 people and butchering the tuna on the premises. Afterwards, it is prepared in 12 different ways using all the important body parts. Having had the other dishes, I tried some of the preparations that the Davaoeños can be proud of. Here’s a list:

• Tuna Sashimi – The tuna was chosen personally by Mr. Ang, and we can see the oil secreting from the flesh, which is quite rich and clean tasting on the plate. Beautiful translucency!

• Tuna Eye Soup – Not really for the squeamish, but the minerals and nutrients, according to the Japanese and Taiwanese, are good brain food. It is softly gelatinous and great with a fiery chili accented dip.

• Tuna Tendon Sizzling – The dish using the ubol-ubol or the cartilaginous area near the esophagus has a crunchy calamares-like texture. It is served sizzling with a hint of peppers and oyster sauce.

• Tuna Kinilaw – The kinilaw is served traditionally with cooking cucumber and contrasting with the warm fragrance of ginger, radish, onions, and vinegar.

• Tuna Kare Kare – This one is “peanutty” with an annatto sauté and vegetables.

• Tuna Eye Paksiw – The simmer of vinegar, fish sauce, ginger, and pepper of this dish foils the strong, oily flavors of the tuna eye.

• Tuna Jaw – Once the food of poor stevedores and pier hands, this grilled dish has been elevated to the height by gourmet drinkers with its creamy moist but strong flavors.

• Crispy Tuna Tail – as in crispy pata.

• Tuna Roe Sizzling – Called bihod, this is the eggs of the female tuna served with peppers and oyster sauce.
• Tuna “Bagaybay” Sizzling – This part is often mislabeled as the spermatozoa. The actual term should be milt, because these are actually the storehouse or the male gonads or testicles. (I’ve seen many females relish this until I give them the definition of what they are eating and suddenly the observance of a slowdown.)

• Tuna Belly Grilled – This dish shows a good contrast of texture and flavor with theother parts that come out of the grill because of its creamy flavor.

• Fried Tuna Buntot Paksiw – This dish is a delicious interplay of textures between the crunchy skin, moist flesh, chewy cartilage, and connective tissue bathed with a tart, tangy fish-based vinegar broth fragranced with pepper.

As an ender, Ang introduced me to his fruit salad, which I found quite interesting. Cubes of indigenous tropical Davao fruit such as mango, pomelo, banana, papaya, avocado, pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe are topped with one seed of creamy durian. The durian acts as a subtle creamer and binder to the fruits. It makes sense, as the durian does not overpower nor show itself. Its diacetyl properties enhances and increases the ripe flavors of the fruits bringing out very candy flavors in this dessert fruit cocktail concoction of his.

Somehow, I still don’t buy what they tell me about the aphrodisiac qualities of tuna ubol ubol, bihod, bagaybay, and of course, the durian. But, whatever I felt after the meal made want to come back for more. I just don’t know why gourmets of old call it “wellbeing”.