Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Travel Tuesday: Baguio Food Trip after the Climb

Baguio
May 2014

What to do after a tiring yet a successful and fulfilling climb?? FOOD TRIP!! Our Baguio food trip was not really part of our itinerary. For boss ano and me, it was a spontaneous one.


1st stop: Hill Station, Casa Vallejo

We were back in Baguio at around 4pm. We booked our hotel for an overnight stay. Imagine us so excited to finally take our much-needed shower after being shower-deprived for two days. Shower was a luxury. We rested for a little while. We needed something heavy to fill our tummies and so based on online recommendations and my ever trusty TripAdvisor, we headed to Hill Station at Casa Vallejo for our dinner.
It was a fancy place. A place I imagine to be romantic as well. A good place for intimate get-together's. They offer American and European cuisine. We ordered for ourselves Slow Roast Beef (Php490), Lechon Kawali (Php350), Baby Backribs (Php395) and Cambodian Chicken(Php380). The only photo I have is of the one below, which is my order. They all tasted good but our tight pockets say that the menu was a pricey one. For desserts, we had Death by Choco (Php115) and Salted Caramel Ice Cream (Php120).

2nd stop: Burnham Park

We had a long day ahead of us as we woke up the day following our successful summit climb. our minds were preoccupied of one big question: "Where are we gonna eat, and eat, and eat and eat??" E syempre food trip nga diba. Anyway...

Who doesn't drop by Burnham Park when in Baguio? Obviously not us. There is no particular food place here but we ate apple-mango (not sure if this is really is it haha but it's a cross breed of mango and some other fruit), ice cream (yes ice cream in Baguio's cool weather). And since we had a buffet breakfast back in our hotel before we went out and about, these were just filler foods. This simple but I enjoyed them a lot! Mangga pa!
Of course strolled around the vicinity, people watching, photo-taking. Aba papatalo ba kami sa mga couple na nakapag-boating na?? Syempre hindi! Hahaha! Now that I look back at it, it's indeed kind of cliche and cheesy hahaha but we had fun paddling around. Tamang exercise lang sa umaga.

3rd stop: PNKY Cafe

As of this writing, I had the chance to go back to Baguio and upon my return with my girlfriends, this cafe no longer exists! It was so saddening I was really eager to go back! But good thing we were able to freeze memories in photos below.

This was a good choice for our in-between full meals relax eating and drinking. Whatever it's called. It was a quiet place actually good for lone times. they have both indoor and al fresco dining. I like how the place was decorated inside and out. Simply good vibes. Somehow it gave me the impression of the theme "travel and take photos".
And for our sumptuous dessert orders from their "Guilty Pleasure" menu (yes they do have a guilty pleasure menu), we had fruits in chocolate fondue and brownie ala mode. I don't think there's really use for sharing how much these costs and their real menu names because... whyyyyyyy do they have to close it down?? However, we saw a new restaurant being built in replacement of this one. Hopefully it's much better than what already existed. Anyway, we also ordered different drinks for ourselves which has its own trait and uniqueness.
And since it was a good place to take photos, excuse our prenup shoot hahaha! I kid, of course the LuRie love team won't get away without having their photo op.
We stayed long at this place you know just chillin' (literal, hello Baguio temperature) and talked about different matters under the sun. I really appreciated Kimy and Tin's company. 

4th stop: Laperal White House

Not really a food stop, but something to feed the horror-seeking hormones or cells or whatever part of the body that is giddied up by a horror house. Laperal White House is known for being a "horror house" hahaha. It has an entrance fee of Php50. The ground floor showcased well-carved and intricately designed bamboos! Ang galing ng mga Ifugao! But the rest of the floors were bare and I find creepy. We just had a quick tour around as in super quick haha! No horror bones in us I guess.

5th stop: The Mansion

Just took photos feeling turista mode.

6th stop: Wright Park

It was a good stroll around this park. Except for the stinky horse smell, masarap mag-hhww dito haha! We had our strawberry taho here!! I was a strawberry taho virgin, actually all of us were, so it was mandatory to have it. 

7th stop: Ketchup Food Community

We didn't get the chance to eat here because a) not all food houses were open b) the open ones were crowded c) it's quite close to the horse area of Wright Park so the smell's not that friendly. But maybe next time since I have actually read good reviews for some. It was just notable that we have dropped by this food place. :)

8th stop: Forest House

I must say my favourite stop among all. I have nothing negative to say because I am biased in favour of this place! From food to the ambiance to the service it was all worth it. 

As you enter the restaurant area, you will be greeted by a welcoming fireplace nook. And behind it is a warm interior having an inviting aura. Their setup lives up to its name, sosyal na forest medyo ganon. Haha!
Now on to the food... We ordered 3-dip Forest House Special Salad (Php 420, first two photos below), Forest House Wine Sauced Chicken (Php 295, third top photo from left and second from top), Binagoongan Bagnet (Php 275) and of course I tried their Fettuccine Carbonara (Php 280, bottom photos). Nothing dismayed our taste! They were all a good first time! We enjoyed every bit of our eating in forest house. We were also well attended to during the course of our dining in.
Because the place is warmly beautiful, we took photos. By the way we were at al fresco dining, yes they do have one, but it started raining so we got the chance to dine inside and take more photos!
It happened to be that the owner was at the area and the manager talked to us having an instruction from the owner to tour us around their Bed and Breakfast place. It was also beautiful!!! It felt like we were taken to another dimension (medyo OA but it was how I initially felt haha!). It was clean, cozy, warm again living up to its label. It felt like you were in the woods even by the smell of it. The manager told us that the owner was hands-on on designing up to every corner of the place getting ideas from where she's been to abroad. 

There were four rooms each named to the sons and daughter of the owner. Every room is uniquely designed. What I felt that time was I want to experience each room -- it has its own bathroom, television, bed/s, sofa/s, crafty cabinets and displays and even an own wifi router. It was nice of them touring us around this place. Actually, when I went back to Baguio just last July with my girlfriends, we booked a room and I am yet to blog about our sweet stay.
And of course make room for LuRie's photo op hahaha!

Sadly Luke and I have to go back to Manila earlier than Kimy and Tin (they had a couple more food stops) because we have to be back to our jobs the next day. It was worth the spontaneity that day after the climb. We were just strolling, chit-chatting, and eating the minutes away. I don't think we've wasted any time and money. Every centavo and second was worth it, after all we deserve this after a successful climb.

4 comments:

Keilah Mabel Micah Lacap said...

Aaaah! Food trip! I want I want! Pero bakit wala ng PNKY cafe? :(

Merie Clarete said...

Tara haha dami pa kailangan icross-out sa checklist ko! Hahaha! Sayang nga e :( Let's just hope na much better yung papalit.

Keilah Mabel Micah Lacap said...

Sige tara!!! haha! Game ako dyan. :)

Merie Clarete said...

Dami gastos haha pero pwede namn to over the weekend lang hahaha!