A Tuscan afternoon

The invitation to lunch was irresistible--the hostess was going to prepare American roast ribs (the better to lick our fingers with) and was going to give my husband Rolly a bag of tulip bulbs for planting when the temperature drops lower in December or January next year.

When we got to Mother's Garden in Barangay Fairview, Quezon Hill, Baguio, our hearty appetites were there to flatter the cook and hostess, Therese Jison. The salad plates were brought out, followed by the star of the afternoon, the ribs. Words fail to describe the crisp top and juicy middle. I had two heaping servings and was rubbing my belly for the rest of the day.

Straight from the oven

Perfect pairing of salad and roast

Therese called ours a Tuscan lunch because in Tuscany, Sunday lunches go on and on until dusk. Which was what happened on this particular Sunday as talk ran the gamut of raising children, raising pets, the life of endurance that Baguio exacts of its residents, the culture of impunity that is keeping the country's progress at a standstill.

But then dessert came: peach melba and whatever negative pronouncements vanished in the clear air! Therese's partner, retired hotel executive Heiner Maulbecker, told of the dessert's history. How a restaurant owner paid tribute to a then famed opera singer, Nellie Melba. He named the dish after her. Heiner said, "Who remembers the opera singer? But we know peach melba." Forthwith, he dug into his bowl con gusto!

If this dessert could only sing, what would it say?

Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Baguio garden-resto reopens with homegrown dishes

Therese Jison Photo by EV Espiritu

Baguio garden-resto reopens with homegrown dishes

Tulips on Easter

By this time, this beauty must have faded and died a temporary death. Temporary because God's faithful gardener, my husband Rolly Fernandez, makes sure the seed/bulb is stored in a cool place. Tulips in Baguio? Yes, thanks to the efforts of Marie Therese Jison of Mother's Garden up in Fairview, Quezon Hill, who shares the bulbs with friends who garden. She painstakingly instructs them on the care and growing of these beauties associated with The Netherlands. A glorious Easter indeed! Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Sunflower's pretty cousin

Our friend from Mother's Garden gifted my spouse a pot of this tall flower on Father's Day. I asked him today for its name. He said it's a relative of the sunflower. I found the filial relationship appealing so I didn't bother to go down and to go out anymore to check on the scientific name taped on the pot. Thank you, Therese Jison, for the horticultural beauty, and thanks, Rolly, for taking good care of it so it can stay as pink and white as it has for the past two weeks. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

A city of big hearts

There were no second thoughts about where we would spend Fathers' Day yesterday--in the company of other fathers, mothers, their children and, in our case, our grandchild. Kai was the most visibly excited to renew acquaintances with the penned rabbits at Mother's Garden Cafe and Restaurant on upper Fairview Road, Quezon Hill, Baguio. The place is no longer hard to find although the road going up is quite steep and full of hairpin turns, but Baguio cabbies know where it is and expertly get us there.

Today is JJ's birthday. He's the 44-year-old son of Therese Jison, the chef patron of Mother's Garden. JJ and I first me for art lessons with Norman Chow at Toottee Chanco-Pacis's Happy Homes greenhouse, also in Baguio. Well, our city is that way; it has streets and subdivisions with lovely names: Fairview, Happy Homes, Green Valley.

Therese and her staff prepared a spread fit for a prince which is what JJ is to me. A noble one. After the guests had their slices of triple-layered, moist chocolate cake (with thick caramel in between layers) with cherries and chocolates on top and a dollop each of homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries, JJ continued cutting his birthday cake so he could serve the staff. He's that kind of man with fine manners, a big-hearted person. I hope my apo will become that way, too.

The view from the terrace of the garden restaurant

Huggable JJ with his Tita Auring Bautista

There was seafood pasta with squid rings, chunks of halibut, salmon and scallops...

...boneless chicken teriyaki...

...lechon, also roasted in the garden's all-brick oven...

...the pretty-pink roast beef...

For dessert, vanilla ice cream churned from the restaurant's own ice cream maker, the strawberries plucked from the garden...

...and JJ's chocolate cake where everything could be eaten and savored, except for the candles. There were pieces of dairy chocolates spread atop the cake, all made by Le Chef's Billy King and staff of Camp John Hay's The Manor.

Of course, a grownup party like this is one isn't one unless the guests and co-host, Heiner Maulbecker, talk more about their dreams for the city, mainly re-greening it further. In the picture are Herr, Leonie and Des Bautista.

And then the fog rolled in, and it was time to go...

...to say farewell to these lovely ladies in deep pink that look like ballerinas en pointe.


Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Víspera del cumpleaños

I really don't know if I'm correct in my elementary translation, or transliteration, of the phrase "eve of birthday." When you are turning 57, it's best to let the persons closest to and younger than you to make certain decisions like should we have cake or not? Of course, we should--kailangan pa ba pag-usapan 'yan?

Having tasted Jayjay's chocolate cake at his 42nd birthday party at Mother's Garden, there was no doubt where we would source the cake. I asked Chiqui Torres, Ph.D., one of the party organizers and good friend of Jayjay's mom, Therese Jison, where the cake came from. She directed me to Marie whose bakery/cafe, Cottage Gi, is near the Caltex gas station on Legarda road and City Camp with telephone number 442-4864.

My resourceful daughter did the calls and requested for extra flowers. Those flowers are not shaped icing that taste like sugar cubes. These particular cake flowers taste like genuine pastillas de leche. I kid you not.

When the cake was ready for pick-up, my daughter was surprised at how colorful the whole thing was. We were supposed to wake up at midnight to finally try it, but we just let the cake cool in the fridge for less than hour, then unanimously decided, "Okay, let's have it!" which is Lolarga code for "Let's eat." 

Even Butones, from whose "trust funds" the money for the cake came from, couldn't resist touching and tasting and having spoonful after another until she was sticky all over. I call her by the flavor "ChocoKai."

What truly sold me to this cake with no preservatives is the receipt handwritten by the baker itself. After she had written out the amount paid to her, she scribbled in "Thanks!" Now, will you ever read that in other pastry shops? I doubt it, but it made the eve of my 57th spin extra special.  To Chiqui, Therese and, indirectly, Jayjay, thank you for leading us chocoholics to Marie.

Photos by Kimi Fernandez

Where the view is fair

Getting to Mother's Garden on Upper Fairview Road in Quezon Hill is a bit of a challenge for my partner, a longtime resident of Baguio who is still not used to maneuvering the city's slanting roads and steep inclines. Just mention a trip to Mother's Garden, and his terse instruction is: "Mag taxi na lang kayo."

And taxi we did one late morning last week for a scheduled interview with Therese Jison who runs the garden with a light touch. We lingered over what she called fusion tea concocted from the herbs in the garden. This was followed by a very continental lunch of grilled veal bratwurst with a flavorful gravy of caramelized onions and mushroom with French bread and a sunny side up fried egg on the side.

Our little Butones loved the bread. Her mom, our designated photographer Kimi, loved the salad that had an edible flower on top, all freshly harvested from the garden. We enjoyed all this at the panoramic open-air Panorama Cafe that looks out to the neighbor's tree of African tulips and farther on to Aurora Hill and Busol watershed.

While waiting for the ride home, I enjoyed feeding an insatiable pig that lives in harmony in a pen with a family of rabbits.

Therese said while carrying Butones around, "These are my two loves: babies and animals." And gardens, of course.