Traveling over 400 kilometers to eat may seem to be bordering on lunacy. But that's exactly what I and my good friend, ironwulf, did, in part to feed the stomach and in large part, to nourish the soul.While the thought of revisiting caves, waterfalls and nearby mountains sounded good, the tug of just staying put and chilling out in the nippy, invigorating air proved to be more appetizing. Proves to us that Sagada is not just for the physically adventurous but also for those who love to explore the food landscape.
To wit, having breakfast at St. Jo's Cafe becomes a wonderful opportunity to momentarily stop time on its tracks.P artaking of fluffy pancakes smeared with butter and paired off with fresh blackberry jam, later washed down with mountain-grown coffee, we easily spent hours eating, talking, and staring at the mountains fringed by stately pine trees and almost always shrouded in fog.
A Sagada visit is never complete without dropping by Yoghurt house. I've always had a penchant for their vegetable rice. This time, I had the heavenly eggplant with basil pasta in a huge serving that can easily feed two. While waiting for the afternoon rains to peter out, we gladly wolfed down the house special -- extra creamy home-made yoghurt lavished with banana slices, sprinkled with crunchy granola and drenched with home-made strawberry preserve.
One dinner found us in Masferre restaurant where we had a marvelous dish of chicharon with onion and tomatoes, deceivingly simple in name but pleasantly complex in texture and taste. on our bus trip home, we ordered their chunky, vegetable-laden burgers -- nothing like what our fastfood chains serve.
A surprising find was Kimchi restaurant. Yes, you read it right, there's a Korean restaurant in Sagada. We stumbled upon this newly-opened place for a light dinner along the poblacion road, less than a hundred meters from the munisipyo, and got to know its owner, the affable Frank Bugnosan. a cook in Korea for a decade, He came back home to put up this small, promising enterprise. judging from the Korean clientele that streams to this place, it's certainly worth another try on our next visit.
I consider it a blessing to have a travel buddy whose hearty appetite matches my own, hence this post. Our stay was too short to sample more food on offer but patting our contented tummies, we know there's always a next time. Contact info: St. Joseph Inn & Cafe - 0918.5595934 • Kimchi Restaurant - 0919.6364384
