baguio eats

My husband's family loves to eat out. That's why on vacations, they usually know good places to eat. Here are some of the places we ate at during our short stay in Baguio.

Bistro by Hill Station
Our first dinner in Baguio. We've eaten here before, and as per previous experiences, arrived earlier than the dinner time crowd since the place gets full easily. No photos, as I am a (somewhat) new blogger and often forget to take a picture of food. I ordered the Herb Roasted Chicken with mountain rice, and the Panda ordered the Pork something. Both our dishes came with a salad served with bagoong, and as neither of us like bagoong, our salads went untouched. Except I ate some of the tomatoes and leaves that didn't have bagoong on them.

Wood Nymph
According to the Panda, this restaurant has been in Baguio for a looooong time. I only started eating Korean food when I traveled with the Panda and his family. It took maybe two or three times before I really liked it. My family is an Italian-Filipino-Spanish cuisine type of family. Some Chinese and Japanese and American, but mostly pizza, pasta, and fine Filipino food.

Back to Wood Nymph. We ordered the Samgyupsal (spelling?) and Beef Spareribs that we grilled at our table. Actually, Kuya Server did. We grilled the last remaining pieces. It was yummy, and it came with mountain rice and those Korean side dishes. I think you're supposed to eat the meats with the fresh lettuce they bring to the table, but being the healthy vegetarians that we are (see the fate of our Hill Station salads above), we scarfed down the meats and ignored the greens.

I believe Korean restaurants now are serving what they call bingsu, or "snowed" milk with fruits. We got the strawberry one, being in Baguio and all, and I prayed to the Lord that I won't die from hypothermia. If it wasn't a new item on the menu, I would have preferred hot chocolate.

The dessert was a very pleasant surprise! I generally like milk, and the texture of the bingsu was so unusual and interesting. The strawberries could have been sweeter, but I really liked the milk snow.

The milk "snow" was icy yet light, like snowflakes

Will be ordering this again, preferably here in Manila where a cool dessert like bingsu will be extra yummy on a hot day.

Green Pepper
We had planned on eating at Canto at the Ketchup Food Community near Wright Park, to see what the fuss and long line was about. But there was still a line when we got there, so we decided to eat at Green Pepper instead. We had wild mushroom soup.

And also this dish. I think this was....barbecued pork? I need more practice blogging.

I really liked what we ordered. I had wanted some of their moist chocolate cake, advertised outside their place (and partly why I wanted to eat there), but unfortunately they were out of slices.

So we had coffee instead.

Lemon & Olives
Another new kid on the block, we tried to have lunch here on our third day, but they were full. So we went at dinnertime instead. It was a Sunday evening, so most Manila-based weekenders already went home. They do not accept reservations during the weekend, so I would suggest getting there early. We arrived just before sunset and snagged a table outside with a great view.

Alapaap

...Gusto niyo bang sumama?

Lemon & Olives is a Greek restaurant, and their menu sounded Greek to us, so we relied on the server's recommendation for what to order. This time, I made notes of what we ate. Actually I just took a photo of their menu. Once you read about it, you'll understand why I would NEVER be able to remember what we ordered.

Poikilia (Greek appetizers) with Greek village sausage, spicy soutzouki sausage, saganaki cheese, tzatziki dip, and pita bread.

Souvlaki plate: Grilled meat with the Chef's secret Greek sauce, served with pita bread and fries, and accompanied with garlic, chili, and tzatziki dips. We ordered the Lamb, Chicken, and Beef mixed plate. (Or was it Lamb, Chicken, and Pork?)

I'm not usually a fan of Greek food, but this one was actually very good. Panda ordered rice so I practically ate all the pita bread pieces by myself. At the end of the meal there were only a couple of pieces left, and as we were heading back to the hotel I regretted not finishing them off.

Since there's only so many meals in a day, we didn't get to sample every restaurant we would have wanted to try. But thanks to the TPLEX, Baguio is getting nearer and nearer to Manila, and there would be plenty of chances next time.

barangay ball in baguio

Our little family trooped to Baguio last weekend for a short getaway. The Panda spent the last six months being a new father and campaigning for our new VP, so this mini vacation was his rest period.

Of course, Audrey the Ball had to go with us. And when Audrey goes with us, the whole barangay goes as well.

Baguio, baby!

She'll be turning six months old this July, so we already wanted to take her somewhere more than two hours away from Manila, to see how she is on vacation.

Looks like she's fine with long drives.

We left Friday around 9:30 AM from Quezon City. We had planned to have lunch at Matutina's in Urdaneta, but we got there past noon and the place was FULL. So we decided to drive on. Panda remembered that there was a Mang Inasal in Pozorrubio, so we first bought some corn to tide us over until we could have lunch. But Mang Inasal was also overflowing with people, so we drove on to Rosario where we finally had lunch at Chowking.

We arrived in Baguio at around 3PM. It was the first time we stayed at The Forest Lodge, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the one-bedroom we booked was very spacious. The sofa in the living area was quite roomy, and made for a good bed for Yaya, who stayed with us in the room. The room was bigger than Manor's one-bedroom suite, we got it cheaper, plus it includes a buffet breakfast. When it comes to hotel deals, the Panda has really got it down.

Living and dining area (from the bedroom)

The biggie sofa that can serve as an extra bed. Say hi to the ball!

Our kalat at the closet area.

Our kalat at the TV area in the bedroom. First time I've seen this room layout in a hotel, with the TV in the center of the room.

Our kalat in the two queen beds. Kalat ko lang pala.

We made sure to pack sweaters and long sleeves and sleepsacks for the Ball. She likes the cold, unlike her mama. Still, we didn't want her to be uncomfortable in the cold Baguio weather. It's a good thing she had a surplus of clothes, because she peed through her pajamas and sleepsack the first night while the Panda was changing her diaper. Sigh.

One of our favorite places to go to whenever we're in Baguio is the Cantinetta cafe by Illy. It's beside Starbucks near Camp John Hay, the one not in Technohub. We like it there because unlike the Starbucks next door, the place is always quiet and cool. People prefer Starbucks so there's almost always no people when we go, which is how we like it. Besides, I like Illy coffee better than Starbucks.

We brought along the Ball with us, while the rest of the barangay stayed at the room to rest for a bit. She liked looking out the open window at the trees and feeling the cool breeze.

Audrey having an Adele moment

Hello, it's me!

When we were babyless, we used to bring our laptops and do some work or some other stuff at Illy (which has free wifi), and stay there for a while. A baby on vacation really does change a lot of your schedule. Right after we finished our pizza and coffee, we decided to head back to the hotel before Audrey got cranky.

Outside Cantinetta

The next day we went to Good Shepherd to buy ube jam and some of their other products. We also took some pictures around the area.

Audrey wondering where we are and why she has a bonnet on.

Mama and Ball

Afterwards, we went around the shops near Mines View. It was 11AM and getting hot, though, and I felt Audrey getting a bit warm. She had on a onesie under her long-sleeved pajamas, and I was wearing her so she had on extra layers. We went home afterwards.

NEXT on the blog: Places we ate at. Sarap!

audrey at the dfa

This morning our family had a little field trip over at the DFA Aseana office in Parañaque to apply for a passport for Audrey. Since I also needed to renew my passport to reflect my married name and updated civil status, I booked a family appointment for us at their online appointment website (www.passport.com.ph) for 7:30am.

We got to DFA before 7 as you are supposed to be there 30 minutes prior to your appointment. Initially we were directed to the Courtesy Lane section, for senior citizens, PWDs, pregnant women, and minors under age 7. However, that service was apparently for the aforementioned people without online appointments. We were told to have our printed online application forms verified by DFA personnel.

Fortunately, not being in the Courtesy Lane did not mean we were not given priority (as applicants with an infant). While we waited for the counters to open at 7:30, my husband photocopied my passport just outside the area. I made the mistake of printing out a scanned copy of just the information page of my passport (I had forgotten my passport when I was photocopying the requirements). If you have the e-Passport, you need both pages—the personal information page, where all your details are written, as well as the adjoining page.

Photocopy BOTH pages.

The kind lady officer directed Audrey and me to sit with the senior citizens. After a few minutes, Audrey woke up, and thank heavens did not make a fuss. At 7:24 (I checked my watch when their boss lady told everyone to open their counters), they started processing the priority applicants, us included. 

After checking our requirements, we then headed to the second floor to pay the fees. They grouped us again with other priority applicants so we were able to finish quickly.

The last step is encoding, where you have your picture taken. Since we were the first batch of appointments for the day, our number was almost immediately called. Most of the counters were open so they were able to serve everyone who was done at the cashier. Audrey had her photo taken first, sitting on top of a box on the chair with me holding her under her arms. This took a lot of arm power on my part since I had to crouch down while holding her up so I won’t be seen by the camera. I also had to grasp her under her shirt so my hands would be hidden. Then, thanks to a combination of the officer’s stapler and Harvey’s “Audrey! Look here! Audrey!”, we were able to snap a pretty good passport picture of our baby. It took several tries, but fortunately Audrey cooperated.

Why yes, I have extra long arms.

If you won’t be availing of the courier service to have your passport delivered, you’re done at this stage. We wanted ours delivered so we spent a few extra minutes paying for the delivery service.

Total time at DFA (including waiting time): 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Total time of the passport renewal and application process for Audrey and me: 40 minutes. Not bad!

P.S. 

Suggestion for DFA:

If you will require a personal appearance of infants for passport application, please have easy access to restrooms with changing tables. Audrey pooped after the first step, and we were told we could change her in the second floor. Once we got there, though, the guard told us the restroom was downstairs and outside. So we had to go back down. Then because there was no changing table, we just laid the baby in between the sinks with a blanket. The space was big enough, but barely. Audrey kept grabbing at the sinks (which were raised) while I changed her.

Our makeshift changing table

On the other hand, thank you for the quick service and clear instructions. Except for the Courtesy Lane/Online Appointment mix up, things went smoothly. All in all a good experience.

Note: Because the taking of video and photo is not allowed inside the DFA, I took the liberty of just sketching our experience. As you can see, I have exceptional skills.

travelling with baby

This is how we travel with Audrey:

Getting ready for the Apocalypse

This is for a 2-night stay at our place in Pampanga. I read somewhere that you can spot first time parents from the amount of stuff they bring when out and about with baby. You just don't want to get caught outside without a clean diaper. Or wipes. Or baby's favorite toy. Or her sleepsack. Or alcohol. Or lampin. Or her rocker seat. You get the picture.

I'm hoping that this will diminish greatly as she gets older. So many things for such a tiny human.