Weekend Wanderers

A couple of days ago Joan asked me over the phone if I would like to join her, Cat and Father Dane to a road trip to Quezon. She said that we are going to Ugu Bigyan's.... I muttered to myelf ...hmmmm.... that place sounds familiar.... then I realized I just read about it in Sunday Inquirer Magazine... it is one of the "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines." So without hesitation I signed up for the road trip :-)

Joan suggested that we should sleep at her place the night before our trip because we need to hit the road very early in the morning. So we met in Shangri-la around 4pm and Cathy requested that we go to Greenhills because she would like to buy a bogus bag that she will bring to France.... along with the bag all the three of us ended buying Pashminas as well.. I bought two for my mom so she can have something to wrap around with when she feels chilly inside the church ;-) Jong bought some as her pasalubong for her friends in the US when she goes to Illinois and NY on the third week of this month. After more than three hours of shopping... we decided to dine at Via Mare Cafe... as if the dinner was not enough we dropped by at a Supermarket on our way to Joan's place and bought aligue and white wine. As soon as we reached Joan's place she immediately whipped up a pasta with aligue sauce.....uncorked the wine ... then we watched Cathy's wedding video.

Joan warned us that we need to hit the road before 6am but we only managed to sleep around 2am. Nevertheless, Cat and I saw no problem with it as we both intend to sleep inside the car during the whole journey :-) We were like zombies when we woke up a little past 5am however we quickly dashed to the bathroom for a quick shower. A little past 6am we were already at Father Dane's seminary to pick him up. Father Dane was considerate enough to give as a huge bar of chocolate knowing fully well that we haven't had breakfast yet.... hahahahaha. SLEX was a mess... the on going construction renders the super highway almost useless. Surprisingly we were able to reach Ugu’s Pottery Garden Restaurant in Tiaong, Quezon a little past 8am despite the SLEX traffic.

This place is really nice.... there are so many huts where you can just lay back and read a book... or sit back relax and just let the time pass by.... or you can also place a reservation and have lunch at one of the huts for dining. We went to this place primarily to buy potteries... well Joan actually... she bought I think almost 7 thousand pesos worth.... Cat also had a few thousands worth.. and I a few hundreds worth :-) I think Father Dane knew that they're having a very rare 30% discount sale hence we went to this place. He is the one who frequents the place. There is a wide variety to choose from.... all shapes and sizes... ornamental... kitchenware... etc.

When we noticed that it was already almost 10am, we informed the Ugu people that we wished to place a reservation for lunch. Unfortunately they have to decline our reservation because they can't accomodate us anymore! So if ever you decide to come to this place I strongly advise that you place a reservation at least one day in advance. According to Father Dane..... Ugu Bigyan is the one personally cooking the food.... and probably the reason why they were quite unflexible with last minute reservations. We just waited for Joan to finish her business with her loads of purchase then we headed towards San Pablo, Laguna which is just a few kilometers away.

Joan and Father Dane suggested Kusina Salud and to my delight is also included in my venerable :-) Sunday Inquirer Magazine 's "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines" The place has an aviary and pretty decent garden... we opted to have their buffet which cost only 399++ per person ... drinks not included. We really had more than our money's worth... with the variety and quantity of food at the buffet table... there's a pinoy salad bar with paco, itlog na pula, tomato, eggplant, .... etc. There's also a wide array of very Pinoy salad dressing to choose from... bagoong alamang, bagoong balayan, kalamansi, vinegar...etc.

There's a wide variety of food to choose from..... after gobbling my salad I immediately headed to the place where they were grilling pork barbecue and tilapia... being a legitimate jologs that I am.. and the smell of grilled pork is like an enchanting aroma that reverberates sinful sensation from my nostrils to hypothalamus .... I immediately picked 3 skewers of pork barbecue... I also had "laing" which had a very unique creamy texture and slivers of gabi. I also noticed the adobong kalabaw.... but opted not to have it.. I couldn't bear the thought of eating our national beast of burden... It's just me really... Joan said it was pretty good though. There were a lot more food on the buffet table but the 3 skewers of barbecue really made me full to my stomach's brim. I did not even bother to have a taste of their purple ginataang bilo bilo for dessert....

We decided to stretch our legs a little after the heavy lunch.... and Kusina Salud has pretty wide stretch of garden that will allow you to walk and enjoy the flora... After a couple of minutes we decided to head back to the metropolis... Upon reaching Manila we made a detour to the video enclave that sells foreign flicks... I reached home around 8pm and found 8 humongous crabs on our dinner table.... yummy :-)