Food and Art Tripping in Baguio City

Baguio is known to be the Summer Capital of the Philippines. Located at 5000 feet above sea level, the cool weather is a welcome reprise from the heat of Metro Manila. Late afternoons, evenings, and early mornings greet you with a mist that turns my little nose all cold.

I can never get enough of Baguio. Every time I go there, there is always something to discover. A new eating place or a previously undiscovered tourist spot.

My favorite part is Session Road where almost everything can be found. While globalization cannot be avoided, Baguio insists upon itself. Fastfood chains and Manila restos may appear, but you end up in a quaint Baguio eating place anyway. Because the food is just too good!

And the city seems to be one giant campus. Students are all over the place. Restaurants, parks, malls, stores. Everywhere. Thus the youthful, energetic vibe of the town.

One I can never have enough of.

Quick Tips:

Try not to go to the tourist market. Instead go further in until you discover where the locals make their purchases. Prices are considerable lower than the easy access market. Thus when my friend and I went there, we went crazy shopping for vegetables.

Vegetables and fruits are quite cheap in Baguio since they are mostly grown in La Trinidad, which is about an hour away.

Strawberries are the most famous produce, so you can get yourself strawberry wine, jam and candies. Fresh is best, I would say though.

Best Way To Get Around:

I suggest walking around in the city. It's rare in the Philippines to go around a town without breaking a sweat. As a tourist, I never really got familiar with the jeepney routes, and would often ride a cab just to be sure I get to where I want to go. But walking is a great thing to do here.

My friend and I woke up late in the morning so we decided to just have brunch before we went around the rest of Baguio. For me, it has been tradition to eat at least one at Sizzling Plate Baguio.

They already have branches in Manila, but are often found in SM Mall food courts, thus lacked the ambience of the Baguio Branch.

Sizzling Plate Baguio can be found in Session Road, the most famous street of Baguio. The interior and furniture is mostly wooden, mimicking that of a Western Saloon.

The moment you enter the resto, the smell of butter and gravy immediately tickled my nose, encouraging me to have one of their steaks, which is the restaurants specialty.

I ordered a Steak Ala Pobre, while my friend got a Porterhouse steak. All their meals are served with rice, vegetable side-dish and soup. Their serving is enough for one hungry Filipino male, and more than enough for a hungry Filipino female. Steaks cost from P120 to P180. The Angus Beef cost thrice as expensive.

Apart from the steak, my real reason for wanting to eat at Sizzling Plate is their other specialty - sans rival cake. It is a definite must-try. It only costs P25, but the buttery goodness that melts in your mouth in every bite is worth much more! I absolutely love it.

There are other take home goods like Chocolate Flakes (clusters of corn flakes coated in chocolate) which costs about P75 for the large jar and P50 for the small one are available.

I was quite happy with our meal and was ready to go around the rest of Baguio!

After my friends and I had dinner at our friends' restaurant, we decided to go to another place for dessert. We scoured most of Session Road, went to Mile-Hi Stores, made a detour at a sports store with one of us ending up buying a North Face jacket and eventually landed at the Manor Hotel nearby.

We asked the concierge if the restaurant served dessert, to which he affirmed. I wasn't entirely sure if we can afford their desserts since it was a hotel. But we decided to take a look at their dessert display.

And boy were we wowed! They all looked delicious and tempting. The gelatin layer of "Strawberries by the Yard" was glistening in the light. It can be bought by the inch at P25, with a minimum order of 2 inches, so we got three inches of it. It is so good! The crusty dough compliments the sweet-sour strawberries. Simply delicious.

The waitress recommended their Belgian Chocolate Cake so we decided to have a slice of it too. Each bite was rich combination of different kinds of chocolate and it smooth and pleasing to the palate. It costs around P130.

Their blueberry cheesecake is nothing spectacular, as I have tasted better. But it is still worth having if you are craving for one. The crust was good but the cheesecake portion tasted like your regular fast food cake.

We also ordered rum balls, which looked like big Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The inside was a rummy bally of chocolate while the outside had a bit of chocolate-sprinkle covered wafer. It had an interesting, unique taste, that was near good, but could be an acquired taste.

Apart from the desserts, we ordered two café mochas and one Irish coffee. The mocha tasted like it had too much water and too little coffee, while the Irish coffee had to much whisky in it.

So when you are at Le Chef at the Manor, better have their deserts and avoid the coffee. It might be better to have an alcoholic beverage instead.

Session road offers another quaint little Italian restaurant. A good friend actually recommended the place, so when my companions and I were walking on session road looking for snacks, I dragged them to the café.

It’s a cozy place with wooden furniture. Customers can actually see the food being cooked from where they are.

We ordered the 8” quarto formaggi pizza and lemon grass ice tea for each of us. The pizza was delicious! The dough was thin and crusty, much to my liking. The saltiness of the pizza makes me want more. I didn’t even find it necessary to bother with the salt and pepper shaker or the hot sauce. The lemon grass ice tea was soothing to the throat. And I reckon it would be good for those with a cold coming up.

Their solo pizzas cost from P70-P90 (around $1.50 to $1.90), while the family size pizzas would cost around P250-P280 (est $5 to $5.30). Drinks cost between P25-P70 (est 50 cents to $1.50).

This is a place I would definitely go back to when I return to Baguio.

When I'm in Baguio, I have to have my "Chocolate de Batirol." A trip is never complete without it.

The Batirol is actually the clay ewer where the chocolate is cooked. It goes with a wooden whisk used to stir the drink. Stirring is done by rolling the handle between the palms to ensure the emulsification of the oils in the drink.

Late afternoon is the perfect time to have the drink, when Baguio temperature is considerably lower. The hot choca can definitely soothe you inside and out. As you hold the cup, your hands get warmed. Each sip would go down your throat and ward off the coming cold.

Innovation as key as they have begun to serve flavored Batirol by adding flavored liquer. You can have hazelnut, macadamia, almond and other nutty flavor. But I'd like to keep mine original, please!

Each cup costs P70 ($1.25), while the flavored ones are P80 ($1.35). You can also take home a jar of uncooked chocolate for P350 ($6), with a free wooden whisk to help you cook your drink. This jar could probably last you months.

When in Baguio, do, do, do have that Batirol because a City of Pines experience is never complete without it!

Kape Diperensya is actually part of Arko ni Apo Gallery (see related review), owned by renowned artist BenHur Villanueva.

Bumbo, the son of Ben Hur explains the story of the cafe's name. Diperensya in Tagalog means something broken, which is actually the quirk the café was pushing to its patrons. Thus most of the stuff in the café were broken or chipped. Coffee mugs would have no ears, saucers would be chipped, light bulbs would not work, rugs would have tears. Everything has a little problem, except the coffee.

The place is homey. The tables are low, encouraging people to sit on the floor. But there are small chairs for those who don't want too. There are newspapers, magazines and clippings in the rack which feature the members of the family. Most of the decor were made by the members of the family and are actually for sale. Everything that you see is actually a conversation piece.

Even the coffee. The family served us free soya coffee which has no caffeine in it. I had mine with cream and brown sugar. A taste of soya coffee reveals that it has a mild coffee taste minus the coffee kick. For hardcore coffee drinkers, they may choose to have regular brewed coffee.

We weren't able to sample the other stuff on the menu because we were in a hurry. But BenHur did offer their specialty of Pesto Pasta. So if you do go there, do give it a try. I'm sure they wouldn't offer it if it weren't good.

All in all, I enjoyed the establishment the most. When I do get back to Baguio, I'd like to go back and have a taste of their meals.

Tam-Awan village is known for being an artists village, a reputation my friends and I wanted to find out for ourselves.

After asking around, we were told that it was in the general direction of Quezon Hill. A combination of driving instinct and dumb luck led us to the village. Once you find Quezon Hill, it's just a straight ahead through the curvy road leading to one of the higher portions of Baguio City.

The entrance fee for adults is P20 and P10 for kids. A signpost by the entrance will direct you to the different areas of the place.

Most of what you will see are the different types of huts used all over Cordillera. Most of them elevated from the ground. There are fact sheets by the walls to explain their purpose. Some serve as fertility huts, others storage, etc. They are functional as well as they serve as accomodations for people wanting to stay there.

Other forms of installation art can be found in Tam-Awan too,like the scarecrow, dreamcatchers, and totem poles.

The busier portion of the village is where the gallery and restaurant can be found. You can have a portrait sketched in 15 minutes by their resident artists for a voluntary donation. Works of art are also sold to interested customers.

While looking around, I caught a whiff of the Sinigang a group ordered. It looked very delicious and something I would like to try should I have the chance to return.

There are also other souvenirs for sale like T-shirts, mugs, bags, refrigerator magnets, and food. Prices range from P40 up.

Right across Tam-Awan Village (see related review) is Arko ni Apo Gallery (God’s Ark Gallery) owned by world-renowned artist BenHur Villanueva. He happened to be the elementary teacher of our male companions.

After Tam-Awan village, we proceeded to the Arko ni Apo Gallery. The moment we entered the compound, we were greeted by lush plants with beautiful bronze sculptures hanging all around the garden. The signs indicated they were the works of BenHur and his family. The gallery was full of his bronze sculptures, several paintings in various media and forms of installation art. There was even this wooden wall clock that I fell in-love with!

At another corner in the house was a mother feeding two children their lunch. My girlfriend and I proceeded to the stuff for sale, including native coffee, pure sunflower honey, sugar sticks and lumps and muscovado sugar. We both ended up buying the strawberry honey for P180.

We then talked to the lady of the house. The boys explained that her husband was their teacher in elementary. She pointed to the studio where BenHur and one of his sons were blowtorching bits of metal into various shapes for another sculpture.

We were met by a grandfatherly man, happy to see old students again. Though he doesn’t remember the boys (as he taught for thirty years and probably had thousands of students!), he fondly recalled the days during the time our friends were his students.

BenHur showed us around his gallery and explained the sculptures and who commissioned them. He also introduced us to his son Jikko, who took our photo with BenHur. And to his granchildren 7-year-old Nico and 4-year-old Laika who were both budding artists, having already sold some of their sculptures for $20. Talk about genius!

He led us to his coffee shop and served us some soya coffee. There he told us about his brother Roberto Villanueva who was a performing artist in Baguio. He died several years ago of cancer. Baguio artists converged and celebrated Roberto as they gave him a funeral pyre. That was the first and last in the city as the local government banned it afterwards.

Some new guests arrived, so he asked his son Bumbo to continue entertaining us. Bumbo was also very friendly. We asked him why is it that Baguio seems to be teeming artist, and he proved our theory correct. It could be the weather, he said. Especially for them who work with fire, the cool weather helps them stay calm and focused. Interesting, huh?

I could say that this was one of the highlights of this Baguio trip. The creative energy of the Villanueva family seem to come from positive things which through their art they spread around. So when in Baguio do try dropping by Arko ni Apo. You may just be rewarded with great conversation too!