Food Porn!

I've just had a lovely sem break and I'd just like to share some of the places I've discovered up north.

• Olives Restaurant
• Matutina's Seafood Restaurant
• Sea and Sky Restaurant
• Kubong Sawali
• Cafe Isabela

Olives Restaurant is part of the Thunderbirds Resort in Poro Point, La Union. It is really pretty over there! While the hotel is really expensive, you can always content yourself with merienda in their inhouse restaurant and taking pictures while waiting for your meal (like I did). I was able to take a picture of two of the cakes we ordered below. Each cake came with iced tea (I think it costed around P200 on a promo thing).

Blueberry Cheesecake (Olives Restaurant)

Tiramisu Cake (Olives Restaurant)

 The cakes were  yummy and nicely decorated, but the iced tea was the one to seal the deal (my picture is too ugly to be posted so I won't). According to our server, it was a mix of powdered and brewed tea, orange juice, cinnamon and vanilla. The pizza we ordered was also delicious, and was pounced on before I was able to take my camera out, but it was nothing to really write about.

The servers were really attentive and it was a nice hot day, so we sat indoors. The only snag to the entire meal for me was that there were no desert forks for the dessert; dinner forks are fine for me normally but given the location and the fact that their forks were on the heavy side, I'd have appreciated one nonetheless.

On the less expensive end of the spectrum, Matutina's Seafood Restaurant serves good food at great prices. While I was able to take a picture of their sizzling chicken, it's their Crispy Pata that was the real treat (picture unavailable due to hungry people). It was easily big enough for 4 people and costed less than P400, I think. You get a lot more pata then you'd ever get back in Manila. Also, while we didn't order their sinigang, we had some free soup and it was excellent (they also won some sort of best sinigang award). If only we weren't full, we would have ordered some. Matutina has several branches, but we ate at the Tarlac branch. The only con of the meal, the looooonnggg waiting time due to the large number of customers.

Sizzling Chicken (Matutina's)

If however, you want somewhere more intimate, try the Sea and Sky Restaurant in La Union. It's also a hotel restaurant, but not a fancy one! Rooms in the hotel are cheap for those who are budget conscious. But then I'd go to a resort if I went all the way here. The Crispy Pata costed around P200, good for two people and is delicious on the right side of crispy. Like Olives Restaurant, you're actually paying for a great view; while Olives is all landscaped beauty, you can actually hear the waves lapping at you from your table from Sea and Sky.

Crispy Pata (Sea and Sky Restaurant)

 Also in La Union, with a few more branches elsewhere including Baguio is Kubong Sawali. It has excellent sea food, especially with this Tahong Soup Thing (IDK it's real name). The two were bought as a platter for aroung P600 and feeds 4-5 people. Except for the soup, which should feed 2 hungry sillysloths. For smaller parties, you can get 2 starters for P185 which could feed 2-3 people.

Seafood Platter Thing (Kubong Sawali)

Tahong Soup Thing (Kubong Sawali)

Finally, Cafe Isabela in the Bencab Museum is another must see. Mostly for the museum itself! The cafe has a nice view of the surrounding grounds and mountains in Baguio, and rewarding yourself by chilling with a treat after touring the place. The pancake costed P160 with the ice cream at P150. The food is decent, but their vegetables are what make this place appealing (not pictured but eaten - if food comes while I'm eating, it's probably not going to get pictured). My only regret is  that I couldn't try any of their drinks.

Cinnamon Pancake with Banana (Cafe Isabela)

Volcano Ice Cream with Strawberries (Cafe Isabela)

One of the best things about the provinces: good food at good prices.

How was your break?