Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

I was invited recently to “discover the secrets of the south.” I got curious as to what secrets these were and what they meant by “South,” so I said yes and filed a day off from work since the trip was on a Friday. I found out later on that we were gonna visit Community Innovations, Inc.’s Ayala Verdana Homes Mamplasan¹.

So that was it? That’s the secret of the south? Apparently not. It was a food tour of sorts, hosted by Our Awesome Planet’s Anton Diaz. Onboard a big tourist bus, bloggers and members of the media were treated to a delightful and gastronomic adventure!

Our Awesome Planet’s Anton Diaz with son Aidan

We started with breakfast and a tour of Verdana Homes, which is being marketed as Ayala’s Gateway to the Fine Southern Lifestyle. The gated community reminded me so much of Agrestic (Weeds) and Wysteria Lane (Desperate Housewives). The village is so posh and fabulous! It is a walkable, intimate community that has lots with an average size of 200 sqm. When I looked around, the houses were so beautiful that I immediately thought of purchasing a lot and build my own house there. Then again, I don’t have that much money and by the time I save up enough for down payment, the prices would have already soared through the roof. I heard that now is the best time to invest there since the prices are still low. In three to four year’s time, when Nuvali (a rising metropolitan community in Laguna) is built, the rates at Verdana Homes would also go up.

I would so love to live in a community like that with all the amenities that I can only dream of having easy access to — a grand clubhouse (for partying with gay old friends!), adult and kiddie swimming pools, baskteball court (to ogle at hot neighbors), covered badminton courts (for playing with my chica friends), biking and jogging trails, and a multi-purpose skating rink (for my kids to learn at, then move on to become world-class figure skaters!). The place actually offers a lot more but I will not bore you with those details. Let’s move on with the tour.

We actually went on what was dubbed as “The Verdana Gateway Tour,” which revealed to us destinations that make living the South both stimulating and soothing. From Verdana, we headed to our first stop, Ilog Maria Honey Bee Farm in Silang Cavite.

After tasting vintage honey, learning about bees (and the birds too), and buying products made of honey, we then headed off to our next stop, a food stop!

We had lunch at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant called Bawai’s (by authentic I mean REALLY AUTHENTIC since the chef is Vietnamese). Bawai’s serves a healthy mix of traditional and fusion Vietnamese cooking suited to the Filipino palate.

After feasting on Pho Bo, Fresh Shrimp Spring Rolls, Shrimp on Sugar Cane, other Vietnamese delights, we walked a few meters from Bawai’s to get our desserts from another well-kept secret of the south: Chateau Hestia.

Chataeu Hestia is a Bed & Breakfast owned and operated by Austrian Johannes Zehethofer. He served us desserts which were so heavenly: Panna Cotta, Homemade Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream, Chocolate Mousse with Red Wine. We also got a taste of their own wines — Limocello! and Vin d’ Orange.

With our tummies full and some of our heads buzzing from the kick of Limoncello (I downed three shots), we all headed back to our bus and departed for Mendez, Tagaytay to discover yet another secret: Yoki’s Farm.

Yoki’s Farm was an unexpected surprise. Who would think that inside a Lettuce Hydroponics Farm is a collection of antique treasures from all over the world? Seeing a hydroponics farm of lettuces was great, alright. But seeing the humongous Buddha statue was just too awesome! The collection of antiques was so magnificent! I wonder how much all of those cost…

Even if we were still full from what we ate at the previous secret spot, we were treated to a Saging Con Lanka Con Hielo Merienda onsite.

We then headed to the T-House (short for Tranquility House) to get a taste of the famous Mang Rudy’s Puto. We also got a tour of the whole Bed & Breakfast cum Boutique Hotel cum Spa Center cum restaurant.

We were then off to our last stop: dinner at Paseo de Sta. Rosa. Yes, another food stop. I was still and knew that my tummy could no longer take more food, but when we got to Kanin Club and saw what they had to offer, I used mind over matter so I would get that Kanin Club experience that Anton was talking about.

Kanin Club served us a lot of food! Different variants of rice (aligue rice, tinapa rice, and others), Crispy Dinuguan (yes!), Crispy Liempo, Sinigang na Tadyang ng Baka, Seafood Kare-kare, and other high-blood-inducing-yet-so-worth-eating dishes! I gave up in the middle of the meal, stopped eating, and went out for a smoke. When I went back in, they were already serving dessert. I knew I was gonna turn it down but when I saw what it was, I called on the dessert gods to help me regain my composure and provide me with enough energy to eat Turon a la Mode. No, their turon was no ordinary turon. It had ingredients like macapuno, monggo, langka, ube and bananas. Now, who would turn that down, right?

I’ve joined a lot of food tours before and I can say that this one is the best ever! Thank you to Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet for sharing his secrets in the South, and thank you to Ayala Verdana Homes Mamplasan for making us discover that the south is indeed a great place to experience a fine lifestyle!

More photos at my Flickr Set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajkenji/sets/72157604995876865/

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