Lunching at #Hugot Cafe

-
I was invited by students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines' (PUP) BSc Food Technology seminar course as a resource person. Because I arrived early at the Hasmin Hostel, the venue of the seminar, I thought it would be a good time to eat lunch. The students who welcomed me brought me to this restaurant, run by Hotel and Restaurant Management students, called #Hugot Cafe.


How mainstream and trendy, I thought. The students probably were banking on the popularity  of the plethora of films addressing the pain and the feeling of hopelessness caused by break-ups and unrequited love. Very interesting. Once seated at my table, I was pleasantly surprised by the options in the menu. I opted to try PORksteakEBER (pork chop stewed in soy sauce and calamansi, paired with rice and buttered vegetables) as my main dish and chocOPTION LANG (brownie ala mode with ube ice cream instead of vanilla) as my dessert. I also got Third Party (iced tea... Took some time to get the play on the pronunciation) as my beverage.


While waiting for the food to arrive, I noticed the notes decorating my table. Their messages were akin to Instagram photos of quotes on moving on from the pain. Also witty. And then there's was the playlist. Nothing but songs for the broken-hearted. Not exactly appetising music fare but still in tune with the restaurant's concept.


The food, I have to say, is good! For PHP 95, I had a relatively good meal! I'd prefer a bigger serving of vegetables, of course. And the service was good. The student servers were all very professional (they're almost as good as the ones I've encountered in fine dining restaurants). I look forward to seeing them make guests feel at home in whatever lodging facility or restaurant they find themselves working in. 

"Where Do Broken Hearts Go?", asked Tita Whitney (Houston). Now I know where (for PUP students, at least): at the #Hugot Cafe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more