Finding the Hidden Mushroom

One Saturday earlier this year saw yours truly, accompanied by the mystical Stella, driving out towards Tagaytay. We were checking out a place called The Hidden Mushroom (THM), described to me by Stella as a "weekend home converted into a small vegan resto and arts place".

I'm sure you're wondering, "I haven't heard of this place before!" Well, you're not alone. Apparently, THM opened less than a year ago and is admittedly still a work in process, according to owners Oshan and Ria. This is the reason why they haven't been doing much marketing for it yet.

It proved to be quite a charming place, with a built-in homey warmth. Sort of like hanging out in your friend's cozy sala, which just happened to have eclectic art scattered here and there.

Check out the photos below of the dining area. I particularly liked the vibrantly-coloured tie-dyed fabrics hanging overhead, as they really gave a relaxed, almost surfer vibe to the place. [Disclaimer: I don't surf, so this is what a non-surfer thinks what a surfer would think. Keri lang :D]
 

Take a close look at the photo above. The 'sofa' is actually composed of sturdy wooden pallets, with pillows and mattress piled on top. Nice touch, i must say.

Close up photos of the artworks and other details.

There is also an outdoor seating area, which i think would be a great place to hang around at night especially under cool, breezy weather; and hear the birds chirping while imbibing some beers.

Parking inside the compound can be a problem, though. I estimate 5 - 6 cars will be a tight squeeze already.

Now, on to the food! The menu is composed of a fairly limited selection of soup, fries, tofu fries (described as 'extraordinary'), burger, mushroom rolls, salad and various rice meals (i.e. mushroom tapa / tocino / sisig / Shanghai rolls and burger steak). Think of it as simple, home-cooked food that happens to be vegan.

We tried their 5 Leaves Iced Tea (PHP90.00 per pitcher), brewed from their own herb garden. It was light and refreshing, with a slightly pronounced pandan after-taste.

Below is a 'groupie' of all the food we ordered, haha.  The mushroom soup was frankly not quite appealing visually, but it provided great warmth to the stomach, and had this surprise spicy kick. Good deal at PHP60.00 per bowl.

My mushroom burger proved to be a winner! Slightly charred burger patty with good consistency.  At only PHP75.00!!!

Meanwhile, Stella ordered the mushroom tapa rice meal. She found it to be 'tender and tasty', better than other similar dishes she has tried before (she is a practicing vegan). The sauce was not overpowering and not too sweet. Great value at PHP100.00 only.



Dessert was simply hot chocolate "tsokolate eh", i.e. the thick kind (made from tablea sourced from the local area). Photo shows with  milk (mine) and without milk (Stella). Either way, the hot chocolate was smooth and soothing and full of goodness and sweetness and light!!! PHP75.00 per cup.

Here's Stella enjoying her hot chocolate :D

The Hidden Mushroom also makes their own chocolate bar. Right now, it is a 70% Dark Chocolate with coco sugar; and there are 2 - 3 variants in the works. Oshan described it as "having a wine smell".  They warned it doesn't contain cocoa butter; hence, not as smooth texture as the usual commercial chocolate.

And they also make cocoa nibbles. Once you get started, it is hard to stop and you might end up eating the whole pack!

And since they grow their own mushrooms, it follows they sell fresh mushrooms, and frozen marinated mushrooms as well. I bought a pack each of the Mushroom Tapa and Mushroom Tocino for later cooking at home, and both were quite tasty.

According to Oshan, most customers are locals who are looking for a relaxing place to hang around in. They are open until 9:00PM.

As for future plans and directions for THM, the owners are still debating whether to add some animal protein dishes for non-vegans, as being purely vegan can limit the appeal of this place. 

Another possible direction is to offer pottery classes (aka the 1990s move "Ghost" :D), and other types of art and healing workshops. In fact, they are in the process of acquiring their own kiln. They sense an opportunity in this regard; as truth be told, save for 'destination' restaurants and staycationing in hotels and looking at Taal Volcano view, there is a lack of other activities to do in Tagaytay.

It will be interesting to go back in a few months' time and see what these ladies are cooking up!

The Hidden Mushroom is located at Bo. Pulong Saging, Silang, Cavite.

Check out their Facebook Page here or call 0917 823 7389 for reservations and inquiries.

A SECRET GARDEN CALLED LUTONG PUGON

I was scheduled to be at  a sporting event in Caliraya Recreation Center, Bgy. Lumban, Laguna over a recent weekend, and decided to self-declare a 'sandwich' holiday for myself by taking a leisurely Monday off (and availing of the May 1st, Tuesday holiday).

On a whim, i Googled some possible restaurants in the Rizal / Laguna to check out, and came across this post from the Traveling-Up blog. Bingo! This was it! Our destination resto on the way back to Manila.

From Manila East Road, we followed the directions by Waze. Landmark was this intersection with a Jollibee store, and 2 gas stations across each other. We duly turned right; and to my consternation, the distance to Lutong Pugon was another 12 KM yet! Somehow, i had gotten it in my mind that our destination was just a few hundred meters away. Haha.

Since the road was smooth and clear, it took us around 15 minutes (passing by the well-known Bakasyunan resort along the way) to finally see the Lutong Pugon wooden signage, and entered their parking lot.

We were immediately charmed by the place, which is owned by artist Jun Tiongco. There is a small gallery where his and other artists' works are exhibited; as well as painting scattered in various parts of his resto.

Check out the main dining area below:

 

  

Since our group of five was famished from the weekend's exertions, we immediately got down to ordering at the counter. The food items are displayed on chalkboards; and apparently, the specialty here are the gourmet pizzas, baked in their 'pugon' (i.e. kiln or oven). 

It was a bit hard to decide, as all the pizzas seemed quite appetizing. Eventually we went for the Chorizo Iberico (chorizo, mozarella, black olives) and Gambaretto (prawns, olives, pesto, mozarella, basil) - the latter being recommended by the staff as their best-seller.

We also ordered the Chilli Prawns and Shrimp Chorizo pastas.

After a long-ish wait, the food starting arriving. Yeyy! Bon appetito! The Chilli Prawn pasta lived up to our expectations. Noodles were al dente, and while some felt it was a tad too spicy (chili nga diba? :D :D) and a bit oily (some merit in this one), it was definitely flavorful.

Then came the pizzas.

The Gambaretto pizza (below) was simply superb. Lutong Pugon didn't scrim on the ingredients and the mozarella melted just so, and blended with the other ingredients very well. Sarap!!

The Chorizo Iberico pizza was no slouch either. Very tasty.

Last came the Shrimp Chorizo pasta, which was also perfectly cooked; and again, did not scrimp on the chorizo. Opinion on our table was divided on which of the pastas was better - my personal vote was for this one.

For desserts, we had their halo-halo. Very appealing to the eye, no?

Unfortunately, the halo-halo proved rather hard to eat, as the ice was well, as hard as a rock. Sayang. Oh well, maybe they should borrow the ice machine of Razon's of Gua-gua. Hehehe :D

There's another cozy dining area at the back, perfect for cool, overcast days.

 

 

For all the food we ordered (2 pizzas, 2 pastas, side order of potatoes, 2 halo-halos, 2 coffees), the bill came to slightly above PHP2,000.00. Which, for me, is excellent value, given the quality of the food and the relaxing garden setting, amidst a quiet part of the world. 

So, yes, plans are afoot to come back next year. :D 

Sitio Masanting, Sampaloc

Tanay, Rizal 

FB: 'Lutong Pugon - Wood Fired Pizza' (@LutongPugon)

 

Bandar Seri Begawan (Part 3): Good Eats

I forgot to mention that the main reason we were in Brunei was to compete in a sports event. Basically, my teammates took care of the winning (gold and silver in their respective events), whilst i focused on the eating (arrangements, that is) :D  

I'm actually pleased as punch that we got to have some good eats, considering we were just in BSB for 4D3N!

Here's some of the memorable meals we had: 

1. Alter Ego Fusion Cafe
 

We literally stumbled upon this new (just 2 months old), gorgeous-looking cafe, having gotten lost looking for another restaurant (more on this later) and were super famished.

The interiors were pretty interesting. Eclectic. Here below is their piece de resistance. I don't know about you, but in an instant, i felt like i was transported to a cafe in Amsterdam. I love this love this love this.

 Their food was pretty good, too! We ordered some rice bowls, which proved to be quite filling; as well as the Chicken Wings appetizer, full of flavour and nicely presented.

 

 

 2. Sate House

Now, this was the resto we were looking for! Our taxi driver couldn't find it (despite calling the resto 3X), hence we ended up at Alter Ego.

Undaunted, we tried again the next night. And this time, our taxi driver "Uncle" [check his calling card in my previous post] easily found it. 

We ordered the ff: Ayam Bakar (Grilled chicken marinated in homemade sauce), which looked good and was finger-licking good!

  
The Sate Kambing (Lamb Satay) was delicious, too.
 

 But the best dish, IMHO, was the beef ribs (sorry, forgot the local name). Falling off the bone tender!

 3. Kaizen Sushi

Before the trip, i checked out reviews of local restos and Kaizen Sushi tended to be described as the most posh Japanese resto in BSB. Which meant we had to visit it :D 

Location was along along the waterfront of the Brunei River (not that there's a lot to see on the river), and it looked every inch a classy joint. Spiral staircase led to the main dining areas; and upon our request, the staff graciously allowed us to seat at a tatami table. 

We ordered a lot of food (the hungry athletes that we were *cough*).   Salmon sashimi always hits the spot. 

Spider rolls proved to be crunchy. 

Beef with pepper sauce.

Classic Ebi tempura.

 

Beef rolls with vegetables. Extremely good. 

Kamameshi rice. It takes around 20 minutes to cook at the table. 
 

Oh, here's all of us looking famished despite eating all that food. ;-D

Despite its high-end reputation, i felt the prices at Kaizen Sushi can be considered reasonable.

4. Piccolo Cafe

We took a leisurely post-prandial walk along the waterfront, and came upon this cafe. This was amongst the cafes recommended to me by local food/coffee blogger Coffee Girl BN.

Their mascot is so cute, no?  Piccolo is known for its specialty, the Lavender Latte (below). Basically regular cafe latte with some bits of lavender on the top.

The lavender taste is subtle (no, you won't feel as though you were drinking lavender lotion), and it wasn't too sweet. 

Their waffle and New York style cheesecake are good options to go with your coffee as well. 

Sate House Brunei 
IG: satehouse.bn

Kaizen Sushi
FB: Kaizen-Sushi-Japanese-Restaurant-Waterfront-BSB

Piccolo Cafe
IG: piccolocafebn

Alter Ego Fusion 
FB: alteregofoods

Coffee Girl BN 
IG: coffeegirlbn