Okay, that wasn’t really funny, was it? Haha! But you have to agree with me that you can pig out without the pig, and there are three options for you this Easter.
"granfather's old house" feel in Verbena
Restaurant Verbena at Country Suites Discovery Tagaytay (300 Calamba Road, San Jose, Tagaytay City/tel. no. 413-4567). This 80-seater restaurant serves fresh country cuisine created by executive chef David Pardo de Ayala from Columbia, who is also the corporate chef for Discovery Suites in Ortigas, Pasig City. The place has a “granfather’s house” ambiance to it, which means you can feel at home.
Drop the appetizer and proceed to taste its Sweet Corn Veloute soup with seared foie gras. It’s the right starter for their generous serving of Grilled U.S. Angus Rib Eye Steak. Finish your meal with Moist Orange and Chocolate Cake, which you can enjoy with a scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream or with Raspberry Coulis and Whipped Cream, which I chose—and enjoyed.
simple and smooth: Sweet Corn Veloute soup
two for two: angus rib eye steak
sinful delight: moist orange and chocolate cake
If you want to be organic with your meal you can drive up to the popular Sonya’s Garden (Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite/ mobile no. 09175329097 or 09175335140).
no aircon needed in Sonya's Garden
going organic green
Start your meal with its Green Salad, which is freshly harvested from (where else?) Sonya’s organic garden. Interesting about this salad is the inclusion of edible red rose petals.
create your own salad
have it all
create your own pasta
have it all again
The pasta comes with generous servings of two sauces: sun dried tomato and chicken cream with mango. You can also choose the toppings from black olives to salmon belly. For dessert, try their Glazed Sweet Potato or their Banana Rolls with sesame and jackfruit, which I liked so much.
potato never tasted this good
turon with a twist
If you feel a little adventurous with your meal, drive up north to San Fernando, Pampanga and head directly to Everybody’s Cafe (Mac Arthur Highway, San Fernando/ tel. no 045-8601121 or 045-9617121). It’s a carinderia-style restaurant for authentic Kapampangan cuisine, including ‘exotic’ dishes such as adobong tugak (yup, frog adobo) and camaro (yup, mole crickets), which I’m starting to miss.
everyone's welcome in everybody's cafe
Carinderia-style with a lot of character
frog that tastes like chicken
goodbye, Jiminy Cricket
After a heavy meal, head to Susie’s Cuisine (045-8612480 or 9639302), which is also along Mac Arthur Highway not far from Everybody’s Cafe.
kakanin galore at Susie's
more than just kakanin at Susie's
Must-try in Susie’s Cuisine is her tibok-tibok or sweet carabao milk pudding, the Kapampangan’s version of maja blanca. Between the two, I love tibok-tibok more because it does melt in your mouth. Yummy!
tibok-tibok: move over maja blanca
Cap your food trip in San Fernando with Kabigting’s Halo-Halo the pride of Arayat, Pampanga. It might sound a strange suggestion, specially because when we talk of Pampanga halo-halo, the top-of-mind is Razon’s. But we can try Razon’s almost everywhere now, including one at Metrowalk in Ortigas. Indeed, Kabigting’s is the new choice for halo-halo in Pampanga.
Kabigting's halo-halo: less is more
Kabigting’s Halo-Halo is my kind of treat because it satisfies the sweet tooth in me without the overwhelming taste from an overwhelming number of ingredients typical of a halo-halo. Kabigting’s Halo-Halo only has milk, corn, beans, and homemade pastillas de leche. Interesting mix, isn’t it? Head to the food court of Robinsons Starmills in San Fernando for a serving (the only other branch is in Arayat, Pampanga, near the Arayat Church).
so good even nuns love it!
Hungry now? Go and feast over good food this Easter. You earned your license back to eat. 
Thanks for those “yummy” addresses… everythink looks yummy but I guess I will skip the frogs and the crickets…
sidney: i was like that when the idea was brought up, but i enjoyed both meals, specially the mole crickets (i’d prefer them crunchy though)
oh so FOOD was what your road trip (disguised as a free medical check-up charity) was all about?
i hate you right now. i was stuck in the city with century tuna.
mussolini: the charity was a different engagement. and i didn’t do all this in one day; i wouldn’t be able to afford it even if i wanted to.
and century tuna? i just told my mom a few days back not to serve century tuna to me anymore. sawang sawa na talaga ako
“But I want to be moronic about this by being literal and technical with the term and mean it to say: eating all you can without the pork—all in, pig out.”
it sounds more like an oxymoron (a figure of speech)… wala lang…
wow, you had some kind of culinary tour
Love that organic garden man. I would love the idea of tossing salad with such fresh ingridents. On the exotic side of things the frog and the crickets look really scrumptious hehe 
jeff: i like talking in distorted figures of speech. it makes me sane
bw: ‘fresh’ is difficult to spot these days; all the more with ‘organic.’ and i’m not even sure if what marketers sell as organic is really organic. and man, the prices are prohibitive!