Kablog2’s Weblog

Today is my wife’s 33rd birthday. We started celebrating when we spent the night in some-star hotel in the metro a few days prior. It was good if only for the extended hot water bath (lublob) we had but we missed Panda so much it felt a bit incomplete. There was even one time before dawn Pom looked under the sheets to check if Panda was there. That cracked me up.

For Pom’s actual birthday we drove exactly 100kms south of the metro to this little hideaway called Kinabuhayan Café near the Dolores (Quezon) Central Elementary School. This backyard affair has two dusty, cobwebby and termite-infested bamboo and nipa huts and three lean-tos in an overgrown garden of eclectic indigenous endemic and exotic plants. It also features a small tree house and a main house that looks and feels like a small museum cum sports bar. Each lean-to has a mosquito net and a mattress. The small property is also called home by three dogs and a pot-bellied pig called “Onion”. The owner tried to go native but there seems to be no such rhyme or reason to things we now see around here. The huts had Roman blinds for minimal privacy and Japanese paper lanterns for lighting. The bathroom features a huge boulder naturally shaped like a loveseat. No concrete pavement here, just slates as stepping stones, rocks as ladders, and gravel as bathroom flooring. You can smoke without guilt while seated on the throne. And the bowl flushes so well. Being situated at the foot of Mt Banahaw I surmise that is spring water flushing my babies away. And, dig this, while doing the number two there’s a loud chirping from inside the bathroom, as if cheering me on. I don’t know if it’s a wild bird but it sure sounded like it. All the while fruits rain from the green canopy above. Sweet!

As I’m typing this Panda is fast asleep on my legs while I am parked on a hammock.

This crib’s proprietor is Jay Alcala Herrera, reportedly a cousin to the town mayor. Jay is long-haired, tattooed, with spectacles and likes to speak in English. He seems cool, and so are his staffs. Jay is a chef. His meal presentation is better than the exclusive club I had lunch in last Wednesday on the top floor of a Makati skyscraper called the Tower Club. The club served me too many courses to count with my stubby fingers. Kinabuhayan on the other hand served us a single-course lunch of pork grilled back ribs and mushroom risotto served with pancit-pancitan, stringed carrot and chayote and tomato salad drenched with vinaigrette. There were garnishes like edible wildflowers and ferns which were picked right where we were. The plates were served on a rickety bamboo table while we were seated on a bamboo bench on the middle of a burbling river. Our feet were massaged by a lively current while we dug in with our claws. All the while Jay was chatting us while chain smoking Marlboros and scolding his two Daschunds. The brook was about two kms away from Kinabuhayan but the property is still owned by Jay. Back at the café we were served sweetened cassava cubes topped with cream that went very well with Jay’s famous coffee.  Masarap lahat!

We leave Kinabuhayan tomorrow. We still have dinner and breakfast to look forward to but it already feels that the PhP1800/day/pax is already worth it (PhP600/meal/pax). Call or text 09162215791.