“Food Porn, Food Porn, Food Porn, baby” the common words that come into my mind wherever we plan to travel. Aside from sceneries and cultures of the place, one of the most precious things about travelling is the love of food. Tasting the foods in a certain place makes my soul alive and complete because I literally love eating. This will be the last part of my Sagada Escapade journey and it brings me to the place where I really want to go back. It’s you Sagada, I am really missing you big time. In this part, I compiled the restos we tried in Sagada and wanted to share the kind of foods we had along the travel. It might be common or unique in your eyes but still, it gives the aroma of peace and healing.

The must try Restos in Sagada:

Yoghurt House

It is quite fascinating that you could see a house that offers with variety of yoghurt delicacies. What is yoghurt? I know, we all knew yoghurt but how this food helps our body? Yogurt is basically fermented milk—milk that's heated and mixed with two types of live bacteria, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. These are good bacteria, by the way, the probiotic kind that keeps our gut healthy. Yes, you read it right. Yoghurt is composed of live bacteria or also known as probiotics that keeps the gut or intestines healthy. We also encountered those good bacteria in Yakult, Delight and other probiotics drinks. In this house, we tried different orders: I ordered yoghurt with oats fillings and Kate ordered yoghurt with banana (I absolutely do not remember what were the exact names of this but I can still ought the food fillings). Each order cost 150 and above and it is literally worth the price because we both cannot consumed it in a full of glass. The taste was, of course, sour and had a bit of sweet’s aftertaste.

The Lemon Pie House

The name of this house literally gives the main ingredient for every food you may order---lemon. It serves various with unique servings of foods consisting primarily the lemon. The ambiance of this place was sooooooo cozy, relaxing and you will just close your eyes and enjoy their classic music that binds the cold breeze of Sagada. The Lemon Pie House is mostly built-in bamboos and the style is much influenced by their cultures. We both ordered a lemon pie with different teas to sip in. I slightly remembered the teas that they were based on the different roots of trees found in Sagada. As we sit like the Koreans, we really enjoyed the rest.

Sagada Brew

This is the resto where I considered the most unique one because they offered delicacies with special ingredient. The food is named as Etag. Etag” is pork meat preserved through salting, smoking over a low fire, or sun-drying, and is an important part of the life of Sagada people especially in rituals for different occasions. Due to exposure, sometimes etag has 'uod'and became dried, and with lots of processes, it can be cooked and eaten. (luto na yung etag bago siya ihalo o gawing side dishes sa mga pagkain). If you cook your etag before eating like most Cordilleran’s do like mixing them with pinikpikan, it could be safe because cooking would kill the microbes, parasites and bacteria present on the meat. These foods we ordered are consisted of etag and the taste was so really good like the normal food we eat in cities. That was really amazing! I fell on the thought that there are so many cultures and traditions that Filipinos have and still practiced even in today’s generation.

Sagada Hub

This place is a commonly a resto that offers brown rice as part of the major meal for every order. Sagada hub offers various foods that will suit in your tummy needs and tiredness. We had lunch in this resto and we enjoyed the scenery as it gives the real beauty of Sagada. Moreover, this resto is managed by our tour guide, Kuya Satur that’s why we tried to taste and specially to show support and respect to him.

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Since this was last day of our Sagada trip, there are many restos to must try on. But the time and day were approaching to take off. After a day of full of restos, we went on the house we stayed in to pack and fix our things because we were about leaving (huhu that’s the hardest thing to do when you travel in a certain place). After a short talk to Kuya Satur, he called his one of his boys to convey us in the terminal from Sagada to Baguio. So, so we were leaving the Sagada and it felt really sad. The bus was starting to leave when I forgot to give the 50peso bill to Kuya Satur for the tourist fee. I texted him:

Me: “Kuya Satur, sorry po nakalimutan ko po iabot yung 50 pesos para sa tourist fee, iload ko nalang po sainyo para magamit niyo po sa pag-contact pa ng ibang guests?”

Kuya Satur: "Okay na yun, ibigay mo nalang sa susunod niyong pagbalik dito. Kailang kasama niyo na mga asawa at anak niyo nun ha."

Kuya Satur's reply saddened Kate and Kate I because he was expecting to come over gain to his birthplace. At the same time, we laughed because we did not even know if we were able to come back there with married life (haha just kidding).

According to some people in the bus, the travel is slower because the road is steep and much dangerous especially downwards so it needs enough and extra discipline to the driver. The travel went well and it almost took 7 and half hours before we reached Baguio. We contacted one of our high school classmates who worked in Baguio, Ella to fetch us. Ella together with her mother and younger sister lived in Baguio for a while. They are caretakers on a certain apartment and they offered one room for us. We stayed one night in Baguio to rest. The next day, we grabbed the opportunity to have another glimpse how beautiful this place is. Kate wanted to see the strawberry farm in La Trinidad, Benguet and we traveled almost 30minutes to reach the place.

(side tripping...)

The Strawberry Farm in La, Trinidad Benguet

Even if this was my 5th time in Baguio, it was actually my first time in a strawberry farm. That day, the Strawberry Farm was not at its peak so the farm is much greeny and there were no strawberries. To enjoy the time, we explore the place, eat and Kate bought lettuce for his mother.

We tried the famous strawberry taho of La Trinidad Benguet. It was really good and felt teary eyed as I remembered my childhood days in waking up too early just to buy a taho for breakfast. Haaay, what a feeling!

The Bell Church

We also did a side trip in Bell Church. It was like a chinese temple church and some of the tourists spot there were colsed that time. So we did explore the vicinity of the Bell Church.

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After the long walk in Strawberry Farm, we went to the market to buy pasalubong. I bought just a little because I have no enough space in my baggage. (dala ko yata ang buong bahay namin sa dami ng dala ko hahaha and it is okay because it was my first time to travel in a place with cold environment). The moment we had finished in the market, was the time we talked to a certain driver to convey us in the terminal from Baguio to Cabanatuan. We packed the things on the compartment and started waving goodbyes to Ella’s family and especially to the places (Sagada and Baguio) where my heart and mind left.

If there are times that I could possibly come back, I always will. They're the places that brings truthfulness in you and realize how life still amazing is. Due to pandemic, I know everyone is still wishing to travel around the places we wanted and do not lose hope because it will happen in the nearest future. That's the end of our Sagada Escapade 2019 and I hope I could come back to see the sea of clouds in Sagada.

Kapit lang! 🤗

You can also see and read my previous article about the first and second part of my Sagada Escapade. Just see my feed, click, and open. 😉