Foot and Fire

Mountain View Cafe is located at Sitio Old Fabrica, La Castellana, Negros Occidental and nested at about 30 minutes away from the town proper  by using the new national road leading to Canlaon City. There is nothing fancy about the place except that from the cafe, one can see the panoramic view of the mountains and the wide skies.  To go with the native ambiance, the cafe serves up native coffee and a variety of "kakanin" or native merienda foods, like "baye-baye," "linupak," and "suman." These kakanin are small amount of sweetened food made from rice flour or cassava rootcrop.  I was happy to try the "tupig" which is a variation of the sticky rice flour with coconut wrapped in bnana leaves and cooked in charcoal fire.    The cafe is perched on top of a hill. The skies along th way. The bahay kubo or small huts are lining the yard of the cafe. n.b. This blogger is yet to be updated because...

I love my hometown. Small-bodied she may be, but the Mangkasanons (A native of La Carlota named after folk hero Mangkas or Mantas) live in her crown a million varied lives from OFWs to public servants to tillers of the land to sugarcane mill laborers to fruit-and-vegetable peddlers and more. From valleys to mountains, their last names may vary but their faces are almost always familiar regardless which part they come from: “Mangkasanon indi bugalon” (A Mangkasanon is not a snob). I love that her small body is landlocked (probably the reason why she has the Bureau of Plant Industry in her bosom) so unlike all other cities of Negros Occidental that stretch beside the seas. I love that her arteries are sugarcane fields plus the fields that produce the staples from rice to cassava to corn and sweet potatoes. For her seafoods – fish, oyster and seaweed – she has the nearby towns of Hinigaran and Valladolid. For her vegetables – cucumber, carrot, and cabbage – she ha...

                                                Canlaon City, Negros Oriental is having their market day every Sunday. Supermarket vegetables are found here from carrots to cabbages, cucumber and cauliflower. Bring sacks and buy in bulk inorder to get big discount. All veges are freshly picked. In the midtown, the city market is slow and laidback but in the upland, everybody is busy packing and repacking vegetables of all kinds. There are gingers and peppers too. We didn't have much time so I think I have to get back to this city and explore its other spots. According to the locals, there is a high place called Juesca (not sure spelling) where there is Vermi-culture (growing of worms) and roses are grown, a kilometer away from the city.  The Kanlaon Mountain Park is quite away but it could be one good nature trek experience next time when I get back....