Amungan and Panagbenga 2013

Good Taste is the default choice for the very late lunch. Not that anyone would detest that. When it comes to eating out with a large group, Good Taste is really the first thing that comes to mind. And I'm happy because I missed their food! Oh, and they have a new branch now in Legarda, that's where we ate. (No food porn here, it seems that nobody in this group is used to taking photos before eating.)

Amungan

After the eats, we parted in groups after agreeing to see the Amungan together at 6:30 pm. We are that clingy united. I was with the gypsy/non-Baguio residents group (with Dona, Lian and Mara) because we have nowhere to go. Bangs (who adopted Dona and Lian) had a class and left even without having lunch. We didn't want to just barge in to her house and leave our things, especially that it's only her Dad who's home. We left our stuff in SM instead, then accompanied Mara to Porta Vaga for her hair cut. Went back to SM and had coffee before heading off to CAP Building just across the street for the Amungan.

Amungan is a play staged annually by Pagta, an organization based in UP Baguio which our block or mostly members of our block PIC is a member of. Back in college, this event would keep us busy for a good 3 months or so.

I didn’t understand some parts of the play because they used different Cordillera languages. After the show, we amazed the other older alumni of our presence (yeah yeah our batch is still solid as a rock after all those years, hehe). We didn’t stay long after the show, just snapped some photos and went off.

The four of us went back to SM for our things, leaving the others to decide where we’re having dinner. After some time, they finally vouched for Pizza Volante, the new one located near Wright Park. Again, no food porn here. But I ordered the salad with roast chicken and blue cheese dressing, and everyone mocked me for that. What is a couple of days stuffing myself with highland goods. Everyone else had pancakes, except Bangs who had a rice meal. Them people just love carbs so much. Word, haha! I had to do away with my usual choices when eating in this restaurant, which is either pasta, pancake, or beer, chos. Despite all tose horrid stories they had to tell me about people they knew who ate healthy but eventually got sick, I didn’t really mind because I enjoyed my salad.

We stayed in the restaurant for a while, waited for some people, waited for them to finish eating. Then this band started performing. Perhaps due to lack of things we could talk about, we started focusing on them. We asked for them to play Skinny Love which Joel and Lian had been LSS-ing since lunch. We even gave them a P20 tip (hehe) but they never played any of our requests. It’s alright, they did a very good cover of Angus and Julia Stone’s Big Jet Plane anyway. They played a lot of Coldplay, which I didn’t think fit because it sad music + Baguio weather isn’t a good combination. Dona started dozing off at the table so we decided to leave. It took some time before we decided to just buy some drinks and go to Jom’s place.


Session in Bloom

Another good thing about being in Baguio this time of the year--we got to catch the last day of Session in Bloom, usually the last day of Panagbenga Festival, too. I'm not a fan of Panagbenga, because Baguio during these days is filled with tourists. And by filled, I mean the city becomes too crowded and dirty and hot. But hey, this was first time I experienced Session in Bloom as a tourist!

Last week, while inquiring about the weather in Baguio, I was trying to annoy Bangs by saying I'm gonna do all touristy stuff once I get there. I thought maybe this time, I'm gonna get myself buy something for myself (haha). Because that was something I never got to do when I was a student. Session in Bloom used to just mean shawarma and footlong hotdogs and basura, lots of basura to me. Good thing this year, they have stricter waste disposal measures. The shops don't even use plastic bags for purchases. Session Road was trash-free!

Oh, the irony

I hoarded hats. This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I'd buy stuff for myself. I just wanted to buy bonnets and beanies and scarves, but when I saw the lovely (and cheaper, compared to the ones sold in the malls) hats, I impulse-purchased. I wish my friends had been harsher and just told me those hats didn't look good on me so I didn't take them. But they were supportive because I kept telling I'm gonna be needing them since I will stop colouring my hair and start wearing hats instead. I even bought a hat for the La Union trip. But anyway, it's all done. I thought I could just use the hats to decorate my room, because let's face it, I'm not really gonna wear them, well maybe if I go to the beach or something. And maybe I'll give a couple to my mother.

So after trying off hats and wigs, the crowd started to grow so we turned around and walk up to La Azotea in upper Session. Bangs suggested we check out Azotea Greens Resto & Cafe which is growing popular in the blogosphere. I used to just walk past this restaurant when going to Oh My Gulay, when it's still located in the second floor of the building. It's now in the basement where Marian Platz used to be.

Instant theme for our pictorial :p

We chose the most laid back area in the restaurant. I would've opted for the couch but everyone else ran to that area in the other corner, a Japanese-style diner. All of us were first-timers so we just relied on what Bangs' had read and had been told by friends about what's good in this restaurant. Also, thanks to this really friendly waitress who carefully described every meal we wanted to order, and suggested items we should try. And so began the story of four girls ordering too much food. Mind you it has only been a couple of hours since we had breakfast (rice meal) at Bangs'.

Vegetarian BBQ, pad Thai, and fruit salad

Pad Thai

Fresh lumpia

Cream puff

We ordered Azotea Greens Salad, but the waitress must've forgotten to write it down with our orders or they just thought we didn't really mean to order that much, lol. Upon learning that they haven't prepared the salad yet, we requested for Cream Puff instead. I will skip the review and just go straight to telling that when in Baguio, you must eat at Azotea Greens. They have a cozy place, and they serve really good vegan food! You can read my friend Bangs' review about the restaurant here.