CHOP's Outing to Villa Escudero

Last Saturday, we joined about 39 other CHOP members for a special tour and lunch at Villa Escudero, a former sugar plantation but now a working coconut plantation and resort in Tiaong, Quezon Province, just south of San Pablo city in Laguna Province.  The next day we flew back home.

We were greeted at the Visitors' Hall by our host for the day, Chef Cocoy Ventura, Executive Chef for Villa Escudero, who had formerly worked at the renowned French Laundry in Napa. From left in the photo above, you can see Sir Johnny, Ige Ramos, Chef Cocoy and Regee who is taking selfies of the group!

After libations at the Visitors' Hall, the CHOPPERS climbed onto two carabao-drawn cartileras and traveled in great comfort to the Indigo Cafe where more goodies awaited them.  This is "Sexy," the lead carabao in our cavalcade.  She was sweet and moved at a stately pace as though she was pulling a royal carriage.  Villa Escudero really loves its working carabao and they positively glowed with good health.  On the ride home, the carabao was called Maganda (Beautiful) and she really was!

Regee and Ige, past and current Presidents of CHOP, enjoy the river view on the way to Cafe Indigo, the first building in the background.

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Cafe Indigo overlooks the river and has an extensive deck outside where we were to watch four cooking demos by Chef Cocoy.  But after that delightful carabao ride, we first had to have our  morning merienda.

Chef Cocoy had prepared his signature local coconut/rice dessert sinukmani.  This dish can take up to five hours to prepare if you follow the traditional method and needs constant stirring.  Food prepared with such love and respect for tradition lives on at Villa Escudero and in many Filipino homes.   The sinukmani was laid out on a huge circular bamboo tray (bilao) and was large enough to feed an army!  This was served with local coffee, local hot chocolate (divine) and cold drinks like apple water, buko and calamansi juice. 

Chef Cocoy introduced us to all his chefs and kitchen staff; and throughout the day we were going to be ever mindful of their prowess in the kitchen.  

We all had a lovely surprise when Don Conrado "Ado" Escudero, the owner of Villa Escudero, joined us for merienda.  We had met him during our last visit with Gracita, and he had very kindly given us a tour of his own home, the magnificent Plantation House, built by his mother and father in 1929.  It was a museum, art gallery and ancestral home all rolled into one.

Chef Cocoy gives his first of four cooking demos on the deck at Cafe Indigo.  What a setting!

This is pinais na hipon sa kulis (seasoned minced shrimp and coconut, wrapped in large pepper leaves and then simmered in seasoned coconut milk).  It was served in a traditional clay pot (palayok)  and induced mind and taste-bud heaven.

Another of the dishes demonstrated was kulawo--egg plant and banana hearts cooked in burnt coconut meat.  Yum!

This might be one of the few places on earth where you can eat your lunch in a river.  This is al fresco on steroids and one of Villa Escudero's most delightful features. The restaurant is well shaded by the trees and vegetation located at the foot of the spillway of the dam which created the beautiful Lake Labasin.  Cafe Indigo overlooks this lake.  The river is also fed by natural spring water flowing from Mount Banahaw which you can see in the distance from Villa Escudero.  Can it get any better than this?

The answer is "YES". Chef Cocoy had lovingly prepared row upon row of astounding local dishes and fruits especially for CHOP.  We are blessed to have many local chefs who are CHOP members (including Chef Cocoy), not to mention many gifted home cooks who can also cook up a storm at will.  

Chef Cocoy's signature dish is pancit buko, with the noodles being delicate strands of fresh coconut meat.  All the coconuts come from their own plantation so if you love anything related to coconuts, this is definitely the place to be.  I think Regee might go there to live one day!

It is really difficult to choose one dish as your "favorite" but in terms of exotic flavors and radically fresh ingredients, the kulawong talong at puso ng saging (which Chef Cocoy had demonstrated earlier) was way up there, and a dish that Culinary Historians of the Philippines would die for!

CHOPPERS enjoying their lunch in the river, including Susan Fries who was mentioned in my earlier blog about Regee's cooking demo at SHOM.

Here you can see that it really is a river where you eat lunch.  Such a pity I could not go of a swim after lunch--but probably just as well I didn't try because I would have sunk to the bottom after all that delicious food.

Our day ended with a superb cultural show (some 20 dances complete with beautiful costumes and heritage musical instruments) by the Villa Escudero Folkloric Troupe.  And we ate yet again--this time halo halo with cold juices and, a little later, a small bowl of sinigang, presumably to ward off starvation.  I am not joking when I say that I ate about 7 times during the day.  And just when I thought I was safe from any more food, our mini bus stopped at Jollibee on the way home for some fried chicken.  Culinary Historians??

Can you believe that all the singers and dancers are drawn from the workers at Villa Escudero?  You could have been watching a professional show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.  They are trained by the internationally acclaimed Ramon Obusan, dancer, choreographer, stage designer and artistic director.

At the end of the show, some of the kids from the dance troupe (which comprises three generations) came down to pose with Ada, Regee, Mama, her friend Heidi and other CHOP members.

A million thanks to Chef Cocoy, Executive Chef Extraordinare, for completely outdoing himself and providing his fellow CHOPPERS with such a special and memorable day at Villa Escudero; and to Ige for arranging and coordinating the whole event on the CHOP side.  What a dynamic duo.

An amateur blog like this cannot do justice to Chef Cocoy's amazingly wide range of mouthwatering local fare, nor properly describe all the culinary wizardry that goes into each dish.  I can only advise you to visit Villa Escudero and to experience it all for yourselves.  The dishes which he served were touched not only by magic but by his deep love and respect for the rich culinary heritage of the Philippines.  He will keep CHOP researchers busy for a long time to come.

BRAVO, CHEF!