Sagada Adventure: Food Trip and Pasalubong

Experiencing the local food and cuisine is one of my favorite things to do when travelling. The same thing goes for my all-around partner, Ruel that's why we get along pretty well. We love to eat! Though he tends to be very picky and sensitive with food, we still try to be as adventurous as we can when it comes to what we put in our mouth.

FOOD TRIP

Based from the research I did prior our Sagada Trip, there were several restaurants and food suggested that we should try as part of this adventure. Unfortunately, given that our accommodation was so far away from where the food establishments are located, we only had limited time to experience the popular delicacies in the Mountain Province area.

Here is a list of the different food we experienced:

1. Buko Shake and Halo Halo at Bomod-Ok Falls

I am not really sure why it's called "Buko Shake" when it looks more like an ice cream. It was homemade, made up of very generous amount of coconut meat. It tasted really good and refreshing in your mouth after that trek going down to the falls, the swim and then the trek back up.

Other than this, they also have the unusual halo halo wherein the unusual sahog consisted of mango and different kinds of gulaman but with the usual crushed ice, condensed milk and a stick of wafer.

Both cold snacks were compatible with the hot weather as you go through your Bomod-Ok journey.

2. Pinikpikan Haus

We decided to have our dinner at Pinikpikan Haus on our 2nd day after our visit to Sagada Weaving since most blogs are raving about the food here and how this is a must visit place. Also, my green-minded boyfriend enjoyed mentioning how he wanted to try "pinikpikan", giving this a whole new meaning to the group!

The place was just in front of Canaway which was the usual meet up spot for us along with the other group that we were usually with.

According to blogs, Sagada tourists should experience their pinikpikan with etag. Pinikpikan is chicken but prepared in a different way (they described it in a way that the chicken was battered before cooked!) while etag is some sort of smoked pork.

Aside from the pinikipikan, Ruel and I also ordered Alibama Rice (P150) since it was also listed as one of their specialties. We like to order two different dishes and just share them to each other so we get to have more variety with our food. It turns out it's just rice, chicken, egg and some veggies. They have another meal in their menu which is just chicken and rice, amounting to P130. We were joking around that the egg costs around P20 since it was the only added element in the Alibama Rice dish.

Unfortunately, the food did not meet the hype (which was caused by my boyfriend who kept mentioning the dish because of the name!) and our expectation. The chicken tasted like chicken tinola and etag did not taste that special. But at least, we got to try one of their delicacies.

Inside the food establishment, there were also various paintings, showing the different and rich culture of Igorot.

The whole experience at that place though was not so bad. I can say it was still a good part of the Sagada experience.

3. Yoghurt House

We arrived at the Yoghurt House around 7:50 PM and we were told that the store was about to close. I got frustrated at this because it would be our last night in Sagada and if we won't get to order one, we will no longer have the chance to try the yogurt unless we go back to this place any time soon.

It was actually my fault that we got there late since I took some time looking for pasalubong. However, I tried to beg to the lady to allow us to order even for take out. Luckily, she agreed to it!

Since they were already closing, they had to literally close the door so as not to let any new customers in. We had to wait outside for our orders. There was another girl there who came in late and wanted to buy but could no longer do so.

Out of a sudden, a lady who requested for 20 orders of yogurt to go decided that she only needed 15 of them. This was good news to us and to the girl who just arrived and still patiently waited there despite knowing that store had closed. This meant that there were 5 extra orders up for grabs!

They only have one yogurt flavor for takeout and that was the banana granola strawberry preserves for P110 each. It tasted okay, maybe a little too sweet for me which was a surprise since I love eating sweet. It was also not cold like the usual yogurt I am accustomed to.

4. Sagada Lemon Pie House

Sagada Lemon Pie House was just very near the place where our companions from the van we rode going to Sagada stayed. We only had the chance to visit it because we had to wait for them to prepare for our departure back to Manila.

When we saw how nice and quaint the place was, we hoped then that we ate there for dinner instead since the price was just the same as the meals at Pinikpikan Haus.

But since we only had limited time left, we just bought 2 orders of a whole of the famous lemon pie as pasalubong. A slice was worth P30 and a whole pie was worth P200. The pie was really good!

PASALUBONG SHOPPING

Aside from our food experience, we got to take home some food as pasalubong to Manila. This was because based from my research, the best take home stuff from Sagada were all edible. I have always been the type who only want to buy those items considered as "something special" from that particular location so I am always very picky with my pasalubong.

1. Sagada Wild Honey

The wild honey was actually a suggested pasalubong from this site. We were able to buy them at the jump off point of Sumaguing Cave. It was a good thing that we already bought from there since it was more expensive when we got the spot with the pasalubong shops.

We got the small bottle for P150 and then the bigger bottle for P300.

We were actually thinking twice then if we should buy because we were about to leave to start our cave connection. Luckily, we did!

2. Sagada Arabica Coffee

The Sagada Arabica coffee was another suggested item for take home to Manila from this site. We bought them from one of the pasalubong shops for P180 each. Most shops sell them for the same price.

However, we also found a shop selling Kalinga Arabica coffee which was a bit cheaper. According to the vendor, there wasn't much difference but I decided to stick to the Sagada kind since this was the one recommended.

3. Oat Cookies

We ended up buying oat cookies because Ruel loves them. It costs around P135 per container from the store we bought but we got to ask around in other stores for the price and it may cost at around P130. We ended up buying 2 jars for our own consumption and for my family. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture of it anymore but it was very sulit!

4. Chunky Peanut Butter

Buying the chunky peanut butter was Ruel's idea again. He actually thought of buying one for P180 so we can have a dip for the oat cookies.

The peanut butter was really good; it was not to sweet. There were also other kinds of peanut butter to choose from depending on your preference.

We also had the peanut butter as our spread for a quick breakfast. So buying this was a really smart move for us. :)

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