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BAGUIO CITY—Café
by the Ruins is really what its name explicitly says.
The café
was built from the pillars left of the house of Benguet
governor general Phelps Whitmarsh after it was brought
to ruins by the bombs of 1948, when the Americans came
to liberate the Philippines from Japanese rule.
The
property was eventually bought by the Arvisu family and
a daughter of the house, Cristine, and her friends came
up with the whimsical idea of setting up a café, just to
serve the famous cooking of Laida Lim, often relished by
friends at her Yangco Street home kitchen. Lim is known for her innovative ideas and as a
gracious watchdog of the city.
Arvisu,
Lim, writer Baboo Mondenado, anthropologist Dave Baradas
and the late artist Robert Villanueva walled in the
ruins with rough wood and bamboos, and put up a thatched
roof in the summer of 1988. But raindrops went through
the grass roofing and the café was closed when the rainy
season hit.
But it
was so missed by those who had had a taste of the food
and the semioutdoor ambiance of the place, so the café
opened once again, this time with National Artist Ben
Cabrera (Bencab), Boy Yuchengco, and Sue and Louie
Llamado coming in as partners. Twenty long years after,
the café held a special 20th-anniversary celebration
late March, with a collage of activities that
illustrated what it has been through the years, Feeding
Souls and Pleasing Palates.
Even
though the café has grown into a serious business, and
tops the list of must-sees for tourists, it is still run
with the playful and intimate mood as when it opened,
which makes for the vibrancy of the events held here
spurred by the energies of artists, musicians and
kindred spirits. It is a guerrilla cultural center, as
Sue Llamado calls it, an information center and a
gallery for the arts.
And, of
course, there is the food to begin with.
Slow
food
SLOW
Food is at the heading of its main menu. Slow food was a
concept that the café started before it actually became
a movement internationally.
The
whole food concept from the start was “cook fresh,” said
Llamado. That meant not using freezers and microwave
ovens. One person’s job was just to run back and forth
to the nearby market through the day and as the fresh
ingredients were needed. The chefs here reassure that
they use only organic vegetables, as, in fact, an
organic market day is held here every Wednesday morning.
Menus
change with the availability of food in the market and
with the offerings of every season.
Slow
food comes into the whole preparation of food, from
purchasing, slicing by hand, cooking slowly. Most of
all, enjoying it slowly, relishing the taste while
artistically stimulated by framed paintings hanging on
its runo (grass weed) walls.
“Up to
this day, the recipes are tested in my kitchen and if it
works among us, then we put it on the menu,” Lim said.
Recipes start with the familiar, adding a twist to it.
The café’s adobo has green mangoes. Their sinigang uses
rattan fruits for sourness. “Our signature dish is the
fish roe, which I make into bagoong,” she said.
A
guerrilla cultural center
FOR many
people, Café by the Ruins also means experiencing the
arts, especially the creations of local but
world-renowned artists such as the late Santi Bose,
Bencab, the late Robert Villanueva, Kidlat Tahimik and
an endless string of budding artists, who never keep the
Ruins walls and corners empty.
The café
came up just when these artists who made a name in
Europe and the US returned and made their homes in the
city. Over bottles of beers and dinners in each other’s
homes, they brought the Baguio Arts Guild (BAG) to life.
Big international art festivals marked the city then as
an art center, and Bencab and Baradas, as board member
of Café by the Ruins, brought their regular meetings and
exhibits there. “It was inevitable that it became a
strong art center, but in the guerrilla way,” said
Llamado.
Bencab,
scanning the retrospective exhibit at the opening of the
20th-anniversary celebration, said, “I can’t believe
it’s now 20 years,” expressing excitement over meeting
old friends. “But we will miss those who are gone,” he
added. Both Bose and Villanueva had passed on a few
years back and the screening of Showman/Shaman, a
documentary on Villanueva, and another documentary on
Bose was part of the celebrations. Arvisu also passed
away two years ago. “We’ve survived, rain and storm, and
it’s a great occasion for reunions,” Bencab said,
alluding to both the times when the café closed when the
rains came, and the ups and downs of the café’s life.
Café by
the Ruins is also a major information center, as
Mondenado and Lim are the founders of the Cordillera
News Agency, a media organization covering regional
issues. |
