Kinabuhayan Cafe Deux
After a huge lunch, followed by a delicious dessert, it took us some time to work up appetites for dinner at Kinabuhayan Café. But dinner had to be served and we had no choice but to seat ourselves for another feast.
It was curry risotto with steamed chicken this time, sprinkled and topped with curry and alagao leaves. An artfully sliced tomato filled with horse radish (malunggay) pesto decorated the plate. Plus there were more chayote and carrot strings with sliced tomatoes on the side to cool down our tongues from the delightful assaults of the spicy rice.
I am no big fan of food wastage but here was one serving that totally defeated me. I finished off the chicken to the bone and cleaned off the vegetables but I failed, despite best efforts, to chow down all the rice. I wish I had Cris Balleta or Aya Santos’ legendary appetites for this kind of meal. Too much; too good.
Jay was genuinely surprised when I told him earlier our trip was to celebrate Pom’s 33rd birthday. But he wasn’t too surprised to hurriedly bake a “pineapple upside down cake” for her. If the cake was only half-decent I would still be touched for my wife. But the cake was superlative. So can I say I was doubly-touched?
While wolfing down generous slices of the cake and washing them down with this bed & breakfast’s legendary coffee, Jay re-entered the dining area bearing a gift for Pom. It was inside a small Pandan box tied with abaca string. The gift was an original Ugu Bigyan clay sculpture with his signature leaf design and relief. (Bigyan’s workshop is 30 minutes away from here [by appointment] which is another good side trip to Kinabuhayan aside from the delights of Banahaw, San Pablo City’s seven lakes, and Casa San Pablo.)
Wait! There’s more! After dinner and retreating to our hut Jay gave us a white bignay wine with appropriate glasses. Our favourite fruit wine! And Jay wasn’t even told about this.
And just before calling it a night Jay allowed us to copy his classical guitar collection of traditional Filipino love songs from different regions in the country. (These were the background music during our candle-lit dinner and we were the only guests.)
Little touches like these are making this trip memorable already.
