Known as Little Baguio of Western Visayas, Brgy Bucari in Leon Iloilo, is an open secret to many - cool temperature, pine trees everywhere, terraced hillsides, feel of the highlands and breathtaking view among others. A favorite summer destination of the Ilonggos escaping the sweltering heat of the season. It's also the salad bowl of the Iloilo as it grows fruits and vegetables that supply much of city and province's needs. And very soon, Bucari can now live up to its "Little Baguio" tag as a private farm now has begun planting strawberries. Soon Ilonggos will be picking these luscious fruits with their own hands at Iloilo's very first Strawberry Farm! Will keep you posted on this ...
It was just an impromptu food trip in and around Lapaz market a few months ago when I discovered this ube brazo de mercedes from the Lapaz Bakeshop. I got to taste and take home this ube dessert that later on became a staple at home. Lapaz Bakeshop sits on the corner of Tinda Lapaz right across Grand Dame Hotel. A restaurant named Lapaz Kitchenette was the previous locator of the space and it was famous for it's PhP59 buffet . The bakeshop is among the bigger "small town" bakeshops in the city with it's wide range of breads, pastries and cakes plus shorts snack items. It even has branches in some towns in Iloilo including one in my hometown, Sta. Barbara. It was a quick side trip made by Sir Eugene that time that introduced me to this ube variant of brazos. He bought a few slices of this dessert and brought it inside Madge Cafe inside the market. It was perfect with the cafe's native coffee and the filling is somewhat like ube halaya. The meringue is jus...
