travel…explore…learn…value

The first time we went here to eat was like 2 years ago. We liked their Kani Mango Sarada salad and immediately finished it. It was just me and Cathy! Poor Norbert. Didn’t even see how the salad looked like. That’s the price you pay for being late. hehe! We were excited to taste how the other food that we ordered taste like. We assumed that it was going to be a tummy-filling evening. Well, we were wrong! Aside from the salad that we ordered, nothing tasted good. Not the Risotto, not the pasta, not even the gratin. Maybe we just made bad choices… but even if! For the price that you have to pay for their dishes, you would think that you will really be served with good food. You might ask why we dined here. Well, their Sanadu chocolate cake is really delicious. We have tasted it before and it is the main reason why we decided to try their food. Good thing that we know what tastes good there because we ended our meal with their chocolate cake.

Flash back to the present. We were at the Mall of Asia yesterday to have dinner. We haven’t decided yet where to eat. Then we thought of UCC’s salad, which we liked, so we checked the restaurant. They offer meals now for 190 pesos. This is cheap and the dishes are new. So we thought, why not? This time, we might be lucky. But this promo can be availed only from 11 am to 2 pm and then from 6 pm onwards. It’s still early because it is just 5 pm. We are already hungry since we didn’t have snacks so we ordered pretzels in Auntie Annes while waiting for the clock to hit 6 pm. Come 6 pm, we excitedly went to UCC. We ordered Beef Curry Rice, Hawaiian Katsu and Kani Mango Sarada Salad. I also had Hawaiian Blue Soda. When the salad was served, I immediately noticed that it’s different from the one that we ate before. I mean the presentation. It is now in a plate and the ingredients of the salad is not mixed or tossed…they are segregated. The dressing is quite saltier now than what I remember it to taste like. I think they put too much mustard. I didn’t like the salad as much as I liked it the first time that I ate it. I even think that I make scrumptious salad even better than it. Then came our rice dishes. They looked weird also. And boy, they tasted weird! Mine was a curry that is sweet and not spicy. The taste overwhemed me that I hardly touched my food. Cathy’s katsu on the other hand was very sweet also. She asked me to taste her food and though hesistant, i tried it. And I can’t describe how it tates like. It’s too “MALASA”…there’s too much of everything. The sauce is really overwhelming in a not so good way. The meat actually is bland. We were forcing ourselves to eat our food because we want to have our money’s worth but we just can’t eat them. You just can’t especially if you have to squirm everytime the spoon touches your mouth. We just had the complimentary coffee served. The coffee is what they call the Morning City Blend. And it surely gives you a kick. It has a very strong coffee flavor that will not be drowned by putting milk. Some people might like it, especially those who like to have strong coffee but I prefer coffee concoctions that are a little sweeter than it. I managed to finish my coffee while Cathy just had a sip of hers. We paid 920 pesos for this dinner and it is so not worth it. Good thing we still had fun despite having bad food…and thanks to Auntie Annes for the good snacks. I love Auntie Annes. It is very dependable….my comfort food when I was in college…my savior until now. My 100 pesos for an original pretzel with caramel dip and iced tea was so worth it than my share of 460 pesos UCC food.

Beef Curry Rice

Kani Mango Sarada Salad

Morning City Blend

 

 

 

I discovered this place maybe 3 years ago through Ms. Cathy. I like pasta and I also like trying new things even with food so this was an instant hit for me. Before Cafe Bola, I liked Cibo pastas. So when Ms. Cathy informed me that Cibo and Cafe Bola has the same owners, I did not have a second thought in trying out what Cafe Bola has to offer. I did not regret it and Cafe Bola even became one of my comfort food restaurants since then. (Along with Almon Marina, Bacolod Chicken Inasal, Thai in a Box and Old Spaghetti House.) I really like their camias shake. My favorite shake is green mango shake (and still is) and this shake doesn’t fail in comparison. There is a little pandan taste to it also.  Well, that’s what I think…or taste. Aside from the camias shake, they have other fruit shakes that is a must try also. These are the ones that I have tasted already- chico, pomelo, star apple, langka and watermelon. Because of this restaurant, I now concoct my own fruitshakes at home. I also make my own langka shake. Too bad, I don’t know anyone who has a camias tree. Maybe I should plant one. Among the pasta dishes, my favorite is the tomato and basil pasta and the penne in cream with italian sausage. Yum! Their pandesal slives with dips is also a must try. I have tried the two dips- spicy bangus and the swamp cabbage with cheese dips- and I really liked them! The price of the food here are also cheaper than Cibo. They also have rice topped with bolas (meat balls) and a couple more dishes for the meat lover. Can’t wait to eat here again! I have eaten in their Greenbelt and Araneta branch.

Chico Shake

 

Star Apple shake

Pandesal slices with spicy bangus dip

I’ve been wanting to eat this ever since I watched Angel Aquino eat this on TV. I forgot what show it was but it might be in F! or Us Girls. I was intrigued by it and wondered how it tastes. I could not recall where in Intramuros it is being served so I searched for it online and found out that it is in Ilustrado Cafe. I and my friends planned on dining there last February 15, when we toured Intramuros, but ended up eating in Barbaras since we were kind of underdressed that time. Anyway, my friend found out that there is an Ilustrado Cafe in SM Makati so when we went to Makati to have dinner with some friends, we went here first and tried the ice cream. My friend had the pinipig ice cream since she is not that adventurous. I urged her to try the ginger flavored ice cream but she really likes to have the pinipig flavor. It tastes okay…like pinipig. Well, of course, I had the sampaguita flavored vanilla ice cream. To tell you honestly, it was like eating the flower at first. It’s kinda weird. But as you go on and have a few more teaspoonfulls of this fragrant ice cream, it kind of grows on you. I finished mine! And I felt like having a fresh flowery breath scent afterwards. haha! Try it yourself.

It has been 10 years since I’ve last visited Baguio. I was still in college then and we just went there for our project in Humanities which is about the silver industry, particularly in Baguio. We were not able to go around much then since we have to do our project, plus it also rained during our stay there. That was December 1998. Zoom to the future…May 3-4, 2008, I and my ever dependable buddy J spent our weekend in Baguio. I am really more of a beach person so it was not really a ‘planned’ vacation or a weekend getaway trip. I mean, we thought of other places to go and visit before considering Baguio. I initially was interested in going to Potipot Island in Zambales. Heard that the small island is really nice and saw beautiful pictures online. But somebody I know went there and said that there are lots of seaweeds on one side of the island and lots of jelly fish on the other side. Bummer! But to make the story short, we chose to go to Baguio because it is cheap and very accessible. And with the little time that we have, we think that we will be able to enjoy the place already. Plus, I want to experience ukay-ukay shopping in Baguio!

            Though it was a spur of the moment thing, we still managed to have a plan. I mean, I was still able to come up with this itinerary. Hehe! J

 

Day 1

 

05:00 am        Leave things at Microtel

Walk around nice streets such as Leonard Wood road and go around Baguio City Market

 

07:00 am        Breakfast (whatever restaurant is open -check 50s bistro)

 

08:00 am        Botanical Garden | The Mansion | Wright Park Riding Circle |

Mines View Park | Good Shepherd

 

12:00 nn         Lunch at Picarre then walk along Session road

 

02:00 pm        Check-in in Microtel (Take a bath)

 

03:00 pm        Camp John Hay | Historical Core | Butterfly Sanctuary | Scout Hill |

EcoTrail

 

05:30 pm        Ukay-ukay shopping

 

07:00 pm        Dinner at Bruno

 

 

Day 2

 

08:00 am Breakfast

 

09:00 am Philippine Military Academy/ Tam-awan Village

 

12:00 pm        Check out

 

01:00 pm        Optional: Strawberry Farm before going back to Manila

 

So, that was the plan. It was perfect. But that didn’t really happen. You see, the rainy season is quite early in Baguio. It rains there almost every afternoon now. During our two days stay there, it rained in the afternoon on both days. The first day, it rained really hard. We have no umbrella so we bought one while walking along session road. The following day, it also rained but not so much. Anyway, here is what really happened.

 

Day 1

 

06:00 am        Arrived in Baguio after taking the 1:15 am Deluxe bus in Victory Liner Cubao. As planned, we left our things at Microtel, which is just beside the Victory bus terminal. There should have been a discount thing in Microtel if you’ll present your Victory bus ticket since they have a discount promo but we were told that it is on hold. So, we did not get our room in a discounted price.  We got the smallest room which is about $63 per night. You can check it online. If it is hard to get reservations online, you can also just call their numbers, which is what we did. By the way, you can also make reservations in getting a ticket at Victory Liner. You can go there or call.

                        After leaving our things at Microtel, we rode a taxi to Leonard Wood Drive as what is planned. We checked if 50s Diner is already open. It is still closed so we walked along Leonard Wood Drive.

                        There, I saw nice Inns and saw Teachers Camp for the first time. I didn’t go inside…besides, there is really nothing to see here. J Then we passed by the Baguio Botanical Garden. We went inside. Then we saw plants, of course. But nothing was really extraordinary. I even said that the Rizal Park in Manila has better gardens. Except that it was really cool here. I mean, the weather.

Microtel baguio

 

07:00 am        We rode a taxi to 50s Diner and had breakfast there.

The place easily gets busy. We were the second group of people to go there but after a while it is already packed with people. We ordered their famous Chicken Sandwich, potato chicken salad, strawberry shake and vanilla milk shake. The sandwich is really thick! You can’t really bite it whole. I sliced mine. The bread is really thick and the chicken strips are chunks of chicken. I liked the taste. As for the potato chicken salad, I did not even taste it because I was too full already. I also liked my vanilla milk shake.

 

08:00 am        We were just right on schedule. These are the planned stops and we did go there. The Mansion | Wright Park Riding Circle |Mines View Park | Good Shepherd

                        We rode a taxi again going to Wright Park. Lots of horses and kids riding horses there. We actually just passed by. Nothing to do here if you do not plan to ride a horse. Then we walk the stairs up going to we don’t know where. To our surprise, that’s the way to The Mansion. We took some pictures there. You can go inside the gate and have a closer look of the mansion. Then we took a cab again going to Minesview Park. There were already lots of people there when we arrived. To think that it was just around 8:30 am. It took me maybe around 15 minutes and I’m done with Minesview. There is really not much to look at here. Plus, I don’t like fighting for space with other tourists. Just had a picture taken riding a white horse with pink hair. J It costs 10 pesos per shot. And also had a picture taken with Douglas. This one costs 20 pesos per shot. I really liked this dog. After that, we walked going to Good Shepherd to buy Ube Jam. I think that this is a good place to buy pasalubong. Lots of choices also. They also have a viewing deck to look at the mines so if you weren’t able to look at it in Minesview, do it here.  Just bring your own binoculars.

 

Minesview

 

 

09:30 am        We’re already done going around the eastern side of Baguio and we want to rest our legs so we went back to our hotel to check if we can check-in early. (Check in time is 2 pm) Fortunately, our room is already available. We rested for a while and then took a bath.

 

12:00 nn         It rained! We took a cab going to Session road because we are going to dine in Picarre. There is a Picarre Café in SM but I want to eat at the original place or the place where Picarre started. We had a hard time looking for it since it was not really along Session road. It is near the Cathedral. The place is really small and all the tables inside were occupied by people who ordered something but are not really drinking or eating them because they are just hanging out or waiting for someone, or for the rain to stop. In short, we ended up occupying the small table just outside the door. I didn’t have any picture taken here because I was really in a bad mood. Lots of reasons…and one is that they don’t have any pasta that is tomato based. And that’s the pasta that I like. I don’t prefer cream based pasta. So I just ordered their lasagna crepe which is okay. The Hungarian sausage and cheese crepe was not that good though according to my buddy. Their ice-blended drinks suck! The whipped cream on top tastes like dishwashing liquid or something like that. The heavy rained poured already and it seems like it will never stop but it did. Actually, we started walking even before it stopped. Since it was raining, we figured that our afternoon itinerary (Camp John Hay | Historical Core | Butterfly Sanctuary | Scout Hill | EcoTrail) is not feasible anymore since these are places quite far from the city proper.

 

02:00 pm        Ukay-ukay shopping! We went inside the Bayanihan Building. I didn’t know that this place has 4 levels! We keep on walking up the stairs and we are surprised by the nooks inside. Quite careful in walking though because of the creaky old wooden floors. I didn’t expect that my ukay hunting will be so tiring and not so fruitful. It really takes a lot of patience in looking for a good find, plus tons of luck and good arm and leg muscles.  In the hours that I spent scavenging through those racks of clothes, I was only able to buy 1 sleeveless top, 1 blouse and 1 skirt. I also think that a lot of the items are overpriced. There are cheaper ukay-ukay places in Manila. The advantage here is only the big number of ukay shops. I really think that it takes skills to get good finds here…which sadly, I don’t have. But I did have a good find! I bought a small sewing machine for 300 pesos and it is working properly. We found it at the third level (I think) of bayanihan where you can find lots of stuffed toys and house appliances.

 

05:30 pm        Walked back to Session Road to eat at Bruno. We originally wanted to have steak for dinner since we did not have a good lunch. But unfortunately, all the steaks are not being served that night. Not available again! Seems like this is how it is in restaurants here in Baguio. Don’t expect that they serve all the items on their menu. So, we just ordered comfort foods which are cheese hamburger with fries, Hungarian sausage, penne al arabiata, and apple pie. Fortunately, everything tastes good. But I liked the apple pie the best. After dinner, we opt to go back to our hotel and rest early.

 

Smoking area

 

They have a non-smoking area inside le chalet. There was a burger here. Promise!

 

 

07:00 pm        Back at Microtel to watch some TV and then sleep.

 

 

Day 2

 

09:00 am Had breakfast at Microtel. The complimentary continental breakfast only consists of fried rice, scrambled and sunny side-up eggs, hotdogs and tasty/sliced bread served buffet style. The drinks are iced tea, brewed coffee and instant coffee. Not really what you expect from a hotel.

 

10:00 am       We took a cab going to the Philippine Military Academy campus. It is quite far and the cab ride costs 80+ pesos from Microtel. You will pass Camp John Hay and PEZA in going there. I enjoyed walking around PMA. There are a lot of nice flowers. I also got to see some PMAers having a jog drill of some sort while we were walking going back to the gate. I don’t recommend trying this. The drop off point by taxi is in front of the museum. From there, you can walk around and look at the headquarters, the grandstand, and the other buildings. You can usually stay there and wait for cabs (the ones that people ride to go there) or tell the guards to help you get a cab. But instead, we walked going back to the front gate which is not really that near. Good thing I was busy looking for fallen pine cones and did not really notice how far it is.  After PMA, we went back to the hotel. We didn’t have the time to go to Camp John Hay because the hotel’s check-out time is 12 nn and it was already 11:30.

 

Museum Pics

 

 

 

Pictures around PMA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:00 nn         Check out from Microtel. Good thing we already packed our bags in the morning and took a bath. We wouldn’t really have anymore time because we arrived just in time to check out.

                        We left our things at Copylandia since my boyfriend used to work in that company and had friends who are still working there.  We had lunch at Zola along Session road. The food was generally salty. Again, not all the items on the menu are available. In fact, my first three choices are all not available. Actually, my first choice which is the pork kebab with pineapples is already phased out as we were told by the food server. The other two items which are the skewered chicken and pork and the grilled chicken are both not available. Whew! They must at least update or change their menu or have a new one printed out. The very least they can do is put a sticker on the items that are not available or inform their costumers beforehand. We also ordered their dessert sampler. Nothing exciting or great also.

 

I ended up eating this pork steak.

Beef Salpicao

 

 

1:00 pm          I wanted to go to Tam-awan Village. Ben Cabrera, the artist, resides there. There are also native huts there and art stuffs. But it was drizzling and we were afraid that it might rain so we just walked around the very crowded Burnham Park. It is crowded with tourists and vendors! Then we walked along the side streets around Burnham Park. We passed by the well-known Café by the Ruins. We did not eat there because I don’t prefer Filipino food when dining out. Simply because I eat those foods everyday and my mom can cook Filipino dishes. I opt for foods that my mom doesn’t know how to cook or prepare.

                        After the walk, we went ukay-ukay shopping again for a while. Found a nice Burberry jacket. It was just too small for me or my friend who was asking me to find a nice jacket for her. We then went to the market to buy pasalubong. Bought 3 walis tambo for 100 pesos. I also bought foot rugs, bonnets, key chains, silver earrings and big wooden spoon and fork.

 

4:00 pm          Got our things from Copylandia.  Took a cab going to Victory Liner.

 

4:40 to 11:00 pm       Bus ride going to Pasay