We watched from the shade of a craggy white rock as a makeshift bamboo raft effortlessly glided across the calm, coffee brown waters of Peñaranda River. We were at a the limestone gorge in the town of Gen. Tinio in Nueva Ecija and we missed the sparkling green waters of the Minalungao National Park by a single day.

NO GREEN WATERS AT MINALUNGAO FOR US

It rained the previous night, a sentry along the road told our van driver as we shelled out a few hundred pesos to enter the road leading to Nueva Ecija’s only Natural Park. We pushed on despite the warning. After almost an hour of driving, we were almost at Minalungao, it seemed such a waste to turn back now.

One after another, plates and bowls of hot steaming dishes clinked on the glass surface of our table. Soft music piped in across Rosenda’s Cabanatuan’s spacious dining hall. And the only patrons that night, us. Despite what our tummies were saying, we looked on with watering mouths.

ROSENDA’S DYNAMIC FACADE IN CABANATUAN CITY

We absolutely have not recovered from our supposed snack at NYOrK, and less than half an hour later, we were facing another dining table once again. That huge round table, reminiscent of my grandma’s—complete with a spinning lazy susan tray in the middle.

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What the heck is NYOrk?! In hushed tones, I asked my seatmate as our van rocketed across the highway from Gapan back to Cabanatuan City. We were on the last leg of our Microtel Cabanatuan Nueva Ecija tour and we’re gonna eat again, this time at NYOrK. NYOrK?

INSIDE NYORK CAFE IN CABANATUAN

This was becoming more of a food trip by the minute than a provincial tour, but my friends don’t mind. Cabanatuan City has been surprising us with one excellent restaurant after another, so, I really don’t mind too.

And before dinner, we finally parked at The Podium, a two-storey modern building set in the quiet neighborhood of Kapitan Pepe. Hello NYOrK, we finally meet (and where’s Bjork, by the way?).

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Like little kids left to our own devices, we roamed around Gapan’s Delos Reyes Street snapping away with our cameras and posing against ancestral houses to our hearts content. I never knew that Gapan, a town we usually pass by en route to my mom’s hometown in Cabanatuan City, held such architectural gems from bygone eras. Like most locals, I usually dismiss Nueva Ecija as quite wanting when it comes to tourist attractions. I was proven wrong that afternoon.

GAPAN’S VIRGEN LA DIVINA PASTORA CHURCH FACADE WITH ITS CENTRAL BELFRY

Still catching my breath from a very Filipino lunch at Hapag Vicenticos, we again boarded Microtel Cabanatuan’s van and headed to the oldest town in the province—and one of the oldest in the Philippines—Gapan. The sun was hitting the stately edifice of the National Shrine of Virgen La Divina Pastora just the right way when we arrived.

Absolutely no one was paying attention to the four trays of karioka set on our food-cramped table at Cabanatuan City’s Hapag Vicentico’s. We were already starving, but it was our job to take photos of the food first before wolfing it all down. And the restaurant’s chicharon bulaklak was the first casualty of the day—everyone was taking potshots at it while we took pictures of the other dishes.

HAPAG VICENTICO'S BEAUTIFUL COMPOUND IN CABANATUAN

We just came from the Aquino-Diokno Memorial at Fort Magsaysay via Microtel Cabanatuan’s van. It was almost an hour drive and it was past noon when we arrived at this quaint restaurant fronting the city’s Freedom Park. I don’t easily use the word quaint, but once you stepped inside Hapag Vicentico's compound, you’d find yourself blurting out the words, how quaint!

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From a barbed compound surrounded by sawali walls, we literally entered one of the dark chapters in Philippine history. A couple of cells located inside this nondescript bungalow once held two of the country’s brightest mind in total solitary confinement; their windows shut to sunlight, their rooms bare. For thirty days, Senators Ninoy Aquino and Jose W. Diokno were imprisoned here on charges of subversion—Diokno, however, wasn’t charged with anything—by the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

FORT MAGSAYSAY’S MAN-MADE LAKE, APTLY DUBBED AS PAHINGAHAN

I used to frequent Nueva Ecija when I was still a kid as my mom hails from Cabanatuan City—which we fondly call ‘Tuan. During summer breaks, we’d visit our grandparents and spend two months doing nothing but eat mangos.

But besides the farm fields and the brook at the back of our grandpa’s house, we hardly ever ventured out. It was only decades later, after Microtel Cabanatuan invited me on a tour that I got to see that there’s quite a lot of history behind our dear province.

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It wasn’t long after our impromptu sunset shoot at the grounds of Microtel Cabanatuan that we went out to town again—not to drink and party, mind you (but that would’ve been swell as well)—but to have dinner. After a few minutes of driving around, we parked in front of Bistro 360, another homegrown food place frequented by Novo Ecijanos in Cabanatuan City.

BISTRO 360’S BAR IN CABANATUAN CITY

The first thing I noticed as we entered their dim and cozy interiors was their bar. Tan-tan-tan! Open the red curtain, my friends, they have Red Horse beer! But oh, we were so here for the food. Yes, the food.

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Aren’t we gonna drink yet? That was the quintessential question that’s been buzzing around our heads as we lounged around Microtel Cabanatuan’s Liquid Bar. We were at the al fresco area, basically just shooting the breeze, waiting for our friends to arrive, when the seemingly innocuous sunset we were ignoring suddenly bloomed into one of the fieriest afterglow we have ever witnessed.

SUNSET AT MICROTEL CABANATUAN

The sun has lowered itself beneath the horizon but its colors blazed across the open sky, painting the heavens in blistering embers. Thoughts about beer were quickly forgotten as we grabbed our cameras and rushed towards the nearest open field.

We were being warmly welcomed by Cabanatuan City. We certainly knew it.

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I cannot believe how good this lechon kawali was. I sat there, totally engrossed on what I was chewing, oblivious to what was going on around me. I was, with all my heart, savoring with total abandon this Filipino favorite at Rustica in Cabanatuan City.

Coming from a two-month backpacking trip across South East Asia, we terribly missed the comfort of Filipino food. And this restaurant, I believe, was the answer to our fervent prayers.

RUSTICA RESTAURANT IN CABANATUAN CITY

It was a late lunch. From a three-hour bus ride from Manila, we alighted at Cabanatuan’s central bus terminal. From there, we were picked up by Microtel Cabanatuan’s service van. And after quickly dropping our bags off at our designated rooms, we again went out, braving the smoldering summer heat of the city for some grub.

The restaurant of choice was Rustica.

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