4 besties and 3 cups of gelato

An embarrassment of creamy richness!

At first the idea of having an ice cream parlor or a gelato shop in Baguio seemed as silly as carrying coals to Newcastle. And opening in February when the temperature in the city hovers between 11 to 14 degrees C in the evening and at certain times in the morning while people are bundled up like it's spring or fall in another country?

Yet people are streaming in at the newly opened Monte Gelati inside the Albergo Hotel on Villamor Drive And not just because the tables at Amare la cucina are already full and the owner/s just had to open another room for the spillover crowd.

Each time our small family of four eats out, we consult the youngest member, Kai, who pipes up heartily, "Amare!" Like the restaurant's name, she loves its pesto pasta and pizza Margherita. When budget allows and appetites are not appeased, we have the fall-off-the-bones ribs, too. The mint gelato is always an order for one with a request for four teaspoons.

With a mural of a snow-covered part of..well, I'm guessing it's the Alpine region. The caricature of the mustachioed gentleman offering a cone of gelati of different flavor is that of the Amare and Monte Gelati owner

But when we saw that Monte Gelati was open, we decided on feasting our eyes on the colors of the frozen desserts first, accepting free tastings before choosing what we'd each have. Our daughter Kimi and her Kai shared a cup of cookie butter. I went for something safe like the mango. Rolly Fernandez had his fave rum raisin, the flavor he goes for when we're in Pasig and hanging out at Poco Deli.

According to the waiting staff who served us, Amare's adventurous owner is initially introducing 16 (!!!) flavors to include biscotti, Red Horse, mango, rum raisin, cookie butter, mint, Amarena, matcha, strawberry, chocolate, dark chocolate, nutella, guyabano, dragonfruit, pistachio and Cabernet, the last to mean Cabernet Sauvignon with strong hints of red wine?

It seemed to me a perfect way to get tipsy after a hearty Eye-talian meal. Thank you, Amare, for giving us good reason to return.

Date night for two old fogies in a clean, well-lighted place

Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Chicharon on my pasta

So as not to suffer from holiday fatigue, I've made it a point to see my friends in batches of two, three, four, not more than a dozen. That way we could listen to whoever was talking about how the year went for her or him.

Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño and Karen Lee Hizola make up my extended family in Baguio although the latter is originally from Cebu. Jenny is my confirmation hijada, designer of my third book of poems Big Mama Sez: Poems Old and New and my forthcoming fourth, Moon Hanging Low Over My Window. Karen is illustrating the fourth baby. We have the first half of 2019 to complete the project.

The blogger, Jenny and Karen

Together Jenny and Karen have also done assorted collaterals for the Cultural Arts Events Organizer and Guacamole Productions whenever concerts are mounted in the city.

But our four-hour lunch yesterday wasn't a business meeting. It was catch-up time and an occasion to exhale. As we nibbled our pasta (mine came with a generous sprinkling of chicharon on top apart from the basil leaves and olive oil), chicken sandwich, bacon quesadillas and spicy shrimp burrito, I had time to admire our surroundings.

It felt like eating inside an aquarium or terrarium for Cafe de Angelo in Chapiz Village off Marcos Highway is walled with glass. The cafe looks out to a well-tended garden.

One persistent black butterfly flitted in as we were discussing a recently deceased person. The butterfly even hovered over me before flying to parts elsewhere. It certainly caught our attention, and I mumbled a silent prayer for the person who had passed on.

The cafe is my most recent discovery although it has been around, serving mostly Korean students of English and their Filipino teachers.

We ate slowly until the noontime temperature dropped, and we felt it was time to go to our halfway points before finally heading home. Thanks for a lovely afternoon, dear Jenny and Karen. It wasn't a coincidence that the three of us wore varying shades of blue.