Jetsetting Foodistas | Baguio: The Comforting and Familiar

Joey's Wanderings in the Summer Capital
Jetsetting Foodistas: A Travelogue by Joey
Part 1 of 2: Dencio's & Hamada

My latest Baguio trip was more food-centric than a good soak in culture, so unlike with my Thailand travelogue, I'll skimp on the general trip narrative and dive straight on to the food. And other than thoroughly enjoying all the good food, this visit made me remember and miss being a little kid again.

There are three things I look forward to most when going to Baguio: horseback riding, relaxing to the cool weather and the great food to be had. And there is one place where we always have our first Baguio meal whenever we go on a trip to the Philippines' Summer Capital: Star Café.

Star Café is a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant along Session Road (on your right side, if you're facing downhill) that serves really good and really cheap food. It may be a relatively small place, but it's familiar interiors and the scent of all that lovely, savoury Chinese food trigger a warming "Welcome to Baguio, Joey!" in my mind every time.

Unfortunately, our quasi-family tradition was thwarted by horrible Session Road traffic, so, at my uncle's suggestion, we headed for Mile Hi at Camp John Hay for our first Baguio Trip 2008 meal.

While my adventurous rank sinks from heading for the familiar instead of venturing out and trying something new, I'd have to say that you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't come out completely satisfied (and feeling a little guilty) after dining in Dencio's.

If there's one dish you cannot miss out on when eating Dencio's, I would have to say it's their sisig. The thing I love most about their sisig is the texture. Most sisig I've had in the past wasn't all that interesting, texture-wise, since most of it is soft. Dencio's sisig has a crunch and a crisp to it, which makes all the difference to me. It also seems to taste better than most sisig I've had, but that could be just me.

Since we were a relatively big group, we ordered their Set C, which consists of Barbeque Chicken (good, but nothing to go crazy over), Sizzling Tiyan ng Bangus (Sizzling Milkfish Belly; delicious :9), Chop suey, Kare-kare (Philippine peanut sauce-based stew; my brother's favourite), rice, iced tea, and, of course, their sisig.

After that incredibly satisfying, not so heart-friendly lunch and resting for a bit, we spent the rest of the afternoon horseback riding, wandering around the Butterfly Garden in Camp John Hay (worth a visit, if only to talk to Mang Loloy, who mans the place), a few rounds of bumper cars, revisiting our childhood at the playground, then heading back to our cottage for a few rounds of Pictionary whilst snacking on a bag of Cheetos.

And like how we always have our first Baguio meal at Star Café (except just this once), we always have to have dinner at Baguio Country Club's Hamada — teppanyaki table, of course.

Hamada was named one of the Philippine Tatler's Best Restaurants of 2007. It's easily one of my favourite Japanese restaurants, if only because having a teppanyaki chef prepare our food in front of me tickles me. There's just something rather fascinating and fun about teppanyaki tables that makes me feel like a little girl again.

[ Funny little side note though: Hamada now has a dress code. That wasn't there the last time we dined there; granted, it's been so long since our last visit. They're particular about no slippers (I'm guessing it's because of that Havaianas fad that I never understood) and no 'hip hop' clothes (this made me giggle and go "YES!" at the same time). ]

We started our meal with a few plates of California maki and shake (salmon) sashimi. I'm actually not fond of California maki, since it's, more often than not, full of mayo (which I am not very fond of either). I enjoyed these ones served by Hamada, however, since they went light on the mayo and you can tell that they used fresh, quality ingredients (I've had my fair share of not that great sushi, yes). As for the sashimi, I think "I adore salmon." pretty much sums up what I thought about it, haha.

Our teppanyaki chef came about the same time as our orders of tempura. He introduced himself as Joel and proceeded to do a few fancy tricks with his cooking utensils. After cleaning his "workspace", he proceeded to crack open and fry more than a few eggs for our fried rice.

I don't think I can ever get tired of teppanyaki table dining. Not only do you see how your food is prepared, but there's just something a bit fascinating with the way they cook it. Along with our yummy fried rice, we had some mixed vegetables and beef tenderloin and chicken teppanyaki. Everything, of course, was perfectly cooked: the meat very tender and the vegetables crisp and flavourful.

The last time we were at Hamada, my cousins and I were able to try their teppanyaki ice cream. So this time, we decided to order a plate of their tempura ice cream. It was essentially vanilla ice cream covered with tempura batter and fried, drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped with a maraschino cherry. It was a bit much for me, but my cousin liked it, saying that it reminded her of the Wicked Oreos (Oreos covered in batter and fried, served with ice cream and chocolate syrup).

We left Hamada very much happy, as always, and very much full. After a few rounds of mahjong, we head back to our cottage and got a good night's rest: A good end to a good day. :)

The next part of the Baguio series will include a number of Baguio must-dos and must-go-tos: Café by the Ruins, the Lourdes Grotto, Forest House, Easter Weaving Room, and, my favourite, Choco-laté de Batirol. For now, I leave you with more photos from my first day of my first Baguio 2008 day. ♥

See many more photos of my Baguio trip on my flickr.