Casa San Pablo
It's hard to think of a more pleasant sojourn for this art and culture trip than Casa San Pablo, a homey 11-room inn of mix-and-match furnishings teeming with local color and family history. The strange mesh of disparate things - including wood and roofing from Quezon's pre-war homes - gives Casa San Pablo a quaintness that works: capiz windows, earthen colors, turn-of-the-century railroad's wooden sleepers cut onto slabs of floors, tribal fabrics, antique charcoal-fired flat iron-turned stairway handles, birdcages, famous potter Ugu Bigyan's signature clay fish and leaves on the floor, indutrial lamps, and a framed Matchboz collection. All these plus contemporary Filipino paintings including works by National Artist BenCab and his Saturday Group of painters as well as realist renditions of everyday objects by Eliezer John Cabangon Paradise Philippines.
Casa San Pablo's mini-buffet spreads of mouth-watering Laguna home cooking include a local favorite - native salad of onion and tomato, adobo sa gata, crispy fried dilis fish, and prawns in a ginger and 7-Up soda broth. Under the cool shade of lanzones and pine trees, lie on a mat of native rice cakes. On certain evenings, owner Boots Alcantara brings in live acoustic bands from Manila Paradise Philippines to play soothing tunes as you dine.
Casa San Pablo, Gomez Compound, Barangay San Roque, San Pablo City, Laguna (www.casasan-pablo.com)
Source: Mabuhay Philippines September 2006