Destinations and Stopovers, Food, Kiosks and Stalls, Markets and Stalls, Shopping, Travel

Road Trip, Food Trip, Part 1 - Bulalo at Mahogany Market

Or, the adventures of Hanzel (gluttonos exploratus).

 

(Please forgive me again for the pictures. I still don’t have a decent digicam to take photos with. I’m still using my caveman age cam phone.)

I know it, I’m slacking off, I’m a bum, I have no work (until February, that is), and editor Betty is nagging me to write some articles since I have free time (lots of it). One reason I’m slacking off right now is because I’ve been so busy rebuilding my car (I blew my engine) and finally got it to run last Wednesday. I was supposed to go to Central BBQ Boy that night but I was too tired and lazy to do it (I know I’m gonna be scolded by the ed boss Betty).

(Hanz makes me sound like a tyrant. I ask nicely, hehehe -ed)

Thursday morning, I was awakened by a ringing cellphone: answering it half awake, I just registered the person on the other line telling me “We’re going on a road trip!!!”, so I thought to myself, what the heck, maybe I could find something new and interesting on this road trip. I love road trips. Never know where to go, let your car and the road take you anywhere. Indeed I was right. I got something to write for Southbound.

Four of us in one car, with a full tank of gas, at 10 in the morning, entered the SLEX. Where to go from here? The decision was Tagaytay. We took the Sta. Rosa exit and just followed the road. The ride uphill to Tagaytay was a bit scary. I never thought going uphill with a tuned car as a passenger could be scary (I’m used to doing the driving). Nevertheless, we blazed uphill, overtaking trucks, buses and jeepneys (and still with no definite place to go). We reached the rotunda, so we thought what the heck, let’s go the Mahogany Market and try their bulalo, so our road trip to Tagaytay won’t go to waste.

 

So here we are at the Mahogany Public Market. Just take the route going to Tagaytay proper (the route going to the famous Mushroom Burger) and when the road splits into a Y (there’s a Petron gas station here), take the right side (this road section is before the Mushroom Burger). Just continue on straight until you find the Hall of Justice building (you won’t miss it and yes, it is really called the Hall of Justice. We were waiting for the Justice League to come out). Behind this building is the Mahogany Public Market. Just go round to the back and you won’t miss the restaurant. (or the rows upon rows of food stalls).

Just pick a table (or sometimes the waitresses or servidoras persuade and entice you to their stall). It desn’t really matter where you eat here, all the bulalo here is great. Bulalo, I’m not really sure what the English term is, is a concoction of beef and beef stock (soup) with a healthy serving of veggies, kinda like nilagang baka, but more flavorful. The main fare (and the unhealthy part!) of bulalo is the ‘utak’ or bone marrow, which is (you got it) bone which you have to suck the bone marrow from. We took a table, ordered a serving of bulalo (with lots of bone marrow and fat), two helpings of rice each (for four persons—we’re voracious eaters).

 

Mind you, the bulalo served here is already good for 5-6 persons. And the price. Ah yes, the price: the bulalo ordered costs 250 bucks. Our total bill came to about 400 bucks (one order of bulalo, 8 servings of rice and one bottle of coke). Not bad, at a hundred bucks per person, you will definitely be happy. Plus you get the ambience of Tagaytay. Nothing beats eating your hot bulalo soup on a cool windy midday. This is the life. Yeah, or at least we thought so. After a few minutes of contemplating a very sinful dish, the rush of cholesterol and high blood kicks in. Ah yes, the light headed feeling. Whatever, as long as we’re happy and eating. Aside from bulalo, there are other dishes to try like liempo, porkchop and stuff. But c’mon, you’re here for the bulalo.

 

Too bad there’s no coffee shop around (or even near) the market, so we headed to Petron and bought some coffee to calm the nerves (works for us anyway) and to rest a bit. After killing time and doing a mini photo shoot of the car, we decided to head back down. On the way back you can make a stopover at Mushroom Burger and buy some burgers, or stop at the sidewalk fruit vendors. The fruits here are all fresh. Going down Tagaytay we were in cruise mode, enjoying the fresh air and the view. The cruise back to Manila was rather peaceful, and along the way we found some more things to do for our next road trip here: boat ride!!! But that’s for another article.

We got back in Parañaque and killed some time looking for car parts. Then we went to Central BBQ Boy to eat (again) in BF Homes (read about this in a previous article). A day of road trip and food trip. Nothing beats these activities if you’re bored to death. Just assemble a group, get a car, fill it with gas and go somewhere. As of this writing, I’m currently talking with my buddies and we’re scheduling another road/food trip this coming week. Wonder where we’ll end up next time. Boat ride? Mushroom Burgers? Pineapple picking? You’ll have to wait for the continuation of the road trip, food trip series: since my car is running perfectly now, more road trips are planned.

Oh, and on a side note, if you don’t want to go that far for bulalo, you can just take the Sta. Rosa exit and go to the Paseo de Sta. Rosa. You won’t miss it, it’s a commercial center with a large sign. Just go to the market in the back (this is also for another article).

My sage advice? Enjoy life. Go on road trips. Even if you’re alone. You might, or rather, definitely will, discover something. Just you and the road, plenty of places to investigate and sometimes you’ll learn something about yourself too. I find road trips an enlightening experience.

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