Finally, to cap the food trip off, the pièce de résistance, we headed off to Mario’s along Session Road for dinner. I read here that this particular branch has been in existence for already 37 years! Talk about history!
What greeted us upon entering was the desserts display. Not even seated yet, already, I was eyeing the Chocolate Truffles for dessert. There wasn’t a lot of people that Sunday evening and so we didn’t have to wait to be seated. It was most unfortunate that we failed to notice the fireplace, otherwise we would have asked to be seated near there to complete our Baguio experience.
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My boyfriend decided to include Oh My Gulay into our food trip itinerary because he thought I’d be interested in how the place looked, not necessarily for the food. Our meal from lunch at Cafe by the Ruins still not yet fully digested, I also told him that we shouldn’t eat much, maybe just order a round of drinks for us both, considering that we still have Mario’s to go to for dinner.
Oh my Gulay is on the 5th floor of the La Azotea building along Session Road. So those who haven’t had exercise, this will be a serious climb for you. There was no elevator in the building so my bf and I were both panting when we reached the 5th floor.
The Rooster (what looks like a rooster to me) is representative of the place. Made from scratch materials (I don’t know if always), it has a paintbrush for its head and beak, wine bottle for its body, pieces of broken plates for its tail and feathers, inverted bottles and spoon for legs. We arrived at the place at around five in the afternoon and so the sun was still out. I could see dust covering the place. It looked like bits and pieces of scrap materials put together to make something new, not rather sturdily (at least to me) so I was worrying the whole time that the floor beneath us would give out (we were seated on the “2nd floor”). If you’re into shabby chic, I guess, mixed with art, then Oh My Gulay is the place for you.
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After that hearty meal at Cafe by the Ruins, we immediately hailed a taxi to get to Tam-awan Village. Tam-awan means vantage point and named so because one can view the China Sea sunset from the village on a clear day. However, in our case, such didn’t happen because the sky was overcast with clouds and I even had a hard time taking a picture of some of the huts since I still don’t know how to limit the light entering into the lens (I know I need to either read the manual or take basic photography lessons). Still it is interesting that the word tam-awan which means vantage point is so similar to the Cebuano word tan-aw which means “to see” or “look”. I wonder who influenced who. Don’t you?
Tam-awan Village was initially started by the Chanum Foundation with the objective of providing people with a view and feel of the Cordillera Village. Knocked-down huts from Banga-an, Ifugao are transported and reconstructed here.
Above is an upper class Kalinga hut.
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The next day Sunday, we decided to have lunch at Cafe by the Ruins. This was the only restaurant that I requested that we eat at. I read that it is a great place offering great food ran by Baguio’s artist and art-loving community. I wondered whether it’d live up to its reputation.
It was already past two in the afternoon when we reached the restaurant. We figured the place should be winding down by then but as it turned out, there was still a line of people waiting to be seated and we were third in line. I busied myself by taking pictures of the place while waiting for our turn. I wondered where that wall was, the wall that originally belonged to the house of the last civil governor when I realized it was right in front of me covered with bougainvilleas.
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So Saturday night, we headed off to PNKY Cafe along Leonard Wood Road for dinner. It was already past eight in the evening and we were starving. To get there, we took a taxi which dropped us by the road and we had to walk uphill around ten meters or so to get to the cafe.
I expected PNKY Cafe to have a bigger space but when I got there, I saw that the place is quite small. I’m estimating there couldn’t be more than ten tables in that space. The height of the ceiling is only about 7-8 feet or so, cozy, and I think that that is its charm. There was only one couple there aside from us so waiting for our dishes to be served didn’t take that long. We decided on Salad Balsamico, my bf had the Beef Fever, and I, the Chicken Elenaise.
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