Food — in technicolor
Published Aug 16, 2025 12:05 am
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Updated Aug 15, 2025 05:49 pm
MEDIUM RARE
Why is it, I ask myself, that when I’m in Baguio, I’m more mindful of the food I eat than when I’m down in the lowlands?
Something in the air, the weather? Or the green grass and trees that surround me?
Even something as mundane as “taho” attains a veneer of glamour when it’s served before 10 a.m. at the famous Veranda of Baguio Country Club. In a milky white, the soybean dessert — which is my breakfast, thank you — is grounded in a dark brown syrup at the bottom of the cup, which is large enough to be a bowl. I’m probably the only one eating taho at this time of the day, because everybody else seems to be ordering eggs — omelet, sunny-side up, eggs Benedict, etc. After all, as the chef tells me, he cracks 500 eggs every breakfast, no eggsageration.
Later, at the pastry shop, when I order a strawberry drink, it arrives in a tall, slim glass, a sight so pretty it seems almost a crime to disturb it, to drink something so red, so precious-looking. I look around, no one else is drinking or eating strawberries; then I remember what the order-taker said, “Strawberries are not in season.” And yet here they are, lovingly squeezed into a drink that’s as photogenic as it’s sure to be full of vitamin C!
Time for a late lunch later at Amare, where a change of the color palette occurs as soon as cousin Ann asks for cucumber and lemon juice. Still, we cannot entirely escape strawberries, as the salad comes with what we presume is a “secret” strawberry dressing. When the pizza arrives, it’s so daintily displayed in pale yellow I almost don’t have the heart to slice it.
It’s almost sunset when we order soup — for merienda! — at Army Navy, a soup that I associate with the flaming colors of sunset. In a couple of hours, dinner will be waiting at Hamada, Baguio’s famous Japanese restaurant. Chef Rey, who’s been with BCC for 25 years, will be putting on a show with his knives and cleavers, his fresh, multicolored ingredients, including thinly sliced beef, plump prawns, green veggies, fried rice, all of them lightly seasoned with the minty scent of pine.