Craving for a home-cooked pork binagoongan and a plateful of pancit malabon? How about a classic afternoon merienda of lugaw and lumpia? If you happen to pass by Quezon City, I have just the place for you. Neatly tucked in a quiet street, an eatery called Lola Idang’s Bahay Pancitan.

The place is not that big, with only about ten tables set on a 35-square meter eating space. The restaurant is so unassuming that you’ll hardly take a second look at it; plain white tiles flooring, simple decors, plastic Orocan chairs, and tables laid with generic plaid table clothes. What distinguishes this small diner from the throngs of eating places in Quezon City though is their food.

Staying in the town of Cabangan in Zambales means you’d have to eat there too. Most food places in the province really isn’t located there—it’s far from being the food capital of Zambales—still, there are a handful of unique places you can dine in when in Cabangan. And during the past years, as tourism started to bloom in town, the number of places to eat in Cabangan started to grow too.
   
Here are a few of the most interesting food places in Cabangan. These range from roadside stands and food shacks, to swanky cafes and full blown restaurants. These made the list because they’re somewhat unique, have good food, are institutions in Cabangan, or simply because I’ve personally tried them and found them to be worthy, naks.

“What’s your order?” My wife asked as we sat down on one of the wooden benches at Mami Madz in Cabangan. It was almost evening and we’ve just been to the San Isidro Beach—our clothes still wet from the sea.

“Uhm. I’ll have a bowl of mami and goto each, please.” I replied.

“What?! Are you sure?” My wife incredulously asked.

“Alright, two bowls of mami and one goto, then.”

I’ve always thought that the best bulalo in Tagaytay is located at one of the many fancy restaurants fronting the Taal Volcano. Boy, was I ever wrong! I’ve heard about the best bulalo being sold at one of Tagaytay’s many markets, but have no idea where it was. Little did I know that I’ve been passing through it countless of times, it was just at the Mahogany Market all along.

CARINDERIA STALLS AT TAGAYTAY'S MAHOGANY MARKET BULALOHAN

Half a day of walking around the drizzly pathways of Caleruega made some dents on our tummies, immediately turning our mini tour into a Tagaytay food trip. We immediately headed towards the bulalohan area along the Nasugbu Highway to replenish our batteries but were immediately turned off by their prices (PHP380.00 per bowl).

We packed up and boarded another jeepney, this time to Mahogany Market, there’s also a bulalohan strip there that’s much cheaper, although sans the view, my friend says to me.

If there’s one thing Bacolod City is well known for, it’s the multitude of food places that line its avenues. There are expensive cafés and posh restaurants of every kind out there, but there are also sidewalk carinderia eateries that shouldn’t be ignored. The most popular of these are the stalls that line Manokan Country, here the famous chicken inasal is king.

MASSKARA MASKS AT MANOKAN COUNTRY

Still groggy from our almost ‘til morning infinity pool drinking session at Melba’s Farm, we headed to Bacolod City’s Manokan Country for our breakfast grub. The plan for the day was to check out Mambukal’s seven waterfalls, we reckon we’ll need all the calories we could get for the trek ahead.

It was raining in Baguio City and we wanted a bowl of piping hot bulalo (beef shank soup). We know there are a lot of eateries hawking bulalo in the city so there really was no challenge in finding one. And staying at the Paragon Hotel & Suites near Burnham Park, we easily found one such eatery, what surprised us though, was that besides bulalo, they also have pigar-pigar, a Pangasinan dish, on their menu!

The name of the restaurant is St. Martin Breadhouse Bulaluhan. Alright, there’s really no bread in sight, but that was alright—we wanted our bulalo with a steaming cup of white rice. Apparently, their original branch is located at Umingan in Pangasinan, and they do have a bakery in that particular eatery. That explains the mystery name, and the pigar-pigar.

It has always been our custom to ride the midnight trip from the Victory Liner station in Caloocan City to the City of Pines. We’d sleep off the five-hour journey and arrive at Baguio City right before dawn. We’d take a quick CR break at the station, then walk along the city’s dark and empty streets with our jackets on, enjoying the pre-dawn chill, en route to our favorite first stop in Baguio, Goto BP.

OUR FAVORITE LUGAW IN BAGUIO

Located right below SM Baguio, at the city’s old bus terminal (which is still functioning, by the way), Goto BP has always been our go to place for our first breakfast in Baguio. It’s a simple open-aired lugawan right along the sidewalk of the terminal, complete with a white Formica bar and fixed wooden stools.

Without complimentary breakfast from Plaza Maria Luisa Suites Inn, the hotel we’re staying at in Dumaguete, we headed straight to the public market for one of the city’s traditional breakfast fare, budbud. The locals call the place painitan, which, I guess, literally means a place to warm up in.

A TYPICAL STALL AT THE PAINITAN IN DUMAGUETE

As we walked along the open-aired stalls along Dumaguete Market’s painitan area, we were immediately overwhelmed by vendors calling out to us to try their budbud. I have tried this unique delicacy before when I visited Dumaguete the previous years, but I have yet to sample it as a breakfast fare.

Indeed, this is a popular place, it was packed with locals having their early morning grub, luckily, we quickly found an empty seat right by the road. We joined the fray.

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