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.

Read the rest of this entry…

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.

Read the rest of this entry…

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.
Read the rest of this entry…